CMAf19 Media Industries, Labour and Production

Filozofická fakulta
jaro 2026
Rozsah
2/0. 5 kr. Ukončení: zk.
Vyučující
Dr. Anna Zoellner (přednášející)
MgA. Jan Štohanzl (pomocník)
Garance
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Ústav filmu a audiovizuální kultury – Filozofická fakulta
Kontaktní osoba: doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D.
Dodavatelské pracoviště: Ústav filmu a audiovizuální kultury – Filozofická fakulta
Rozvrh
Po 27. 4. 12:00–13:40 C34, 14:00–15:40 C34, Út 28. 4. 12:00–13:40 C34, 14:00–15:40 C34, St 29. 4. 10:00–11:40 C34, 12:00–13:40 C34
Omezení zápisu do předmětu
Předmět je určen pouze studentům mateřských oborů.
Mateřské obory/plány
Anotace

This lecture series introduces students to the key characteristics and developments in the media industries and media work. It aims to enhance students’ knowledge and understanding of the ways and conditions under which media texts are produced and enable them to evaluate contemporary developments in the media industries. The lectures will address socio-economic, technological and political developments on a macro level as well as the organisation and management of media production on a micro level. The aim is to introduce students to a variety of relevant concepts, theories and scholars that aim to capture and explain the actions and attitudes of media producers and organisations. The main focus will be on scholarship and developments concerning media industries and media production in the Western World, especially Europe and the USA.

Výstupy z učení

Upon completion students should be able to:

·        Recall and explain key debates and theoretical approaches relevant to an understanding of the media industries

·        Analyse and construct arguments about (1) the role of the media industries and media production in societies and (2) the organisation and experience of creative work in the media industries, with appropriate and critical use of concepts, theories and evidence.

·        Interpret and critically assess evidence and explanations of media work and production processes.

·        Examine media forms and industrial structures critically with appropriate reference to socio-cultural contexts.

Klíčová témata

Lecture 1: Why study Media Industries and Media Production? 

This lecture introduces media industries and discusses why studying them matters. It considers related scholarship in its contemporary socio-economic and political context and addresses the importance of researching production and work for understanding the media industries.

Lecture 2: Media Industries - Features and Developments

This lecture discusses primary characteristics of the media industries based on the particular challenges for and responses of media organisations in a modern, industrialised, capitalist context. It explores key conditions and developments that shape them, including the role of policy, technology and culture.

Lecture 3: Media Labour and Production - Part 1

This lecture discusses how the features of the media industries affect the experience of media work. It introduces key concepts and theories in current critical media labour research including precarity and exploitation as a result of flexible employment, addresses structural inequality and raises questions about the impact of AI on media production.

Lecture 4: Media Labour and Production - Part 2

This lecture continues the focus on the experience of work in the media industries and related scholarship with an emphasis on worker agency. It considers the value of concepts such as alienation, autonomy and explores the characteristics of online media production.

Lecture 5: Researching Media Production - Methods

This lecture discusses methodological approaches to studying media production. Alongside quantitative and digital data, the session focuses the methodological challenges and opportunities of ethnography and semi-structured interviews as central methods of production studies.

Lecture 6: Researching Media Production - Production Studies as a Field

This lecture focuses on the empirical application of concepts and methods in media production research. It explores Media Production Studies as a disciplinary field and discusses example projects of production studies, highlighting how such research contributes to our understanding of the media industries. The session further offers students the opportunity to develop and discuss their own ideas for research projects in media production and work.

Readings

Lecture 1

Required Reading

Haven, T., Lotz, A.D. and Tinic, S. (2009) Critical Media Industry Studies: A Research Approach. Communication, Culture and Critique, 2(2): 234-253.

Recommended Reading

Hesmondhalgh, D. (2019) The Cultural Industries. 4th edition. London: Sage – Chapter 3, pp: 47-73. (5th edition forthcoming 2026)

Holt, J. and Perren, A. (2009) Introduction: Does the world really need another field of study? In: J. Holt and A. Perren (eds) Media Industries: History, Theory and Method. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.1-16. (for a short update, see: Holt, J. and Perren, A. (2019) Media Industries: A Decade in Review, in Deuze, M. and Prenger, M. (eds) Making Media: Production, practices, and professions. Amsterdam University Press, pp.31-43.)

Peterson, R., and Anand, N (2002) The Production of Culture Perspective. Annual Review of Sociology 30: 311-344

Lecture 2

Required Reading

Caves, Richard E. (2002) Creative Industries: Contracts between Art and Commerce. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. – Introduction: economic properties of creative activities, pp.1-17. (esp. p.1-10).

Recommended Reading

Herbert, D., Lotz, A. and A. Punathambekar (2020) Media Industry Studies. Cambridge: Polity. – Introduction, pp. 1-11.

Hesmondhalgh, D. (2019) The Cultural Industries. 4th edition. London: Sage – Chapter 4, pp: 4-24. (5th edition forthcoming 2026)

Keat, R. (1999) Market boundaries and the commodfication of culture. In: L. Ray and S. Sayers (eds) Culture and economy: after the cultural turn. London: Sage, pp.92-111.

Lecture 3

Required Reading

Hesmondhalgh, D. and Baker, S. (2010). ‘A very complicated version of freedom’: conditions and experiences of creative labour in three cultural industries. Poetics, 38: 4-20.

Recommended Reading

Eikhof, Doris Ruth and Chris Warhurst, Chris (2013) The promised land? Why social inequalities are systemic in the creative industries, Employee Relations. 35(5): 495-508.

Lee, D. (2024) Backlash, white privilege and anger: Resistance to the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda in the British television industry. European Journal of Cultural Studies. 28(3): 661-679.

Wreyford, N. (2015) Birds of a feather: Informal recruitment practices and gendered outcomes for screenwriting work in the UK film industry. The Sociological Review. 63(S1): 84-96.

Zoellner, A. and D. Lee (2020) Labour and risk in the media industries: Individual and organisational perspectives, in M.B. von Rimscha (ed.) Management and Economics of Communication. Series: Handbooks in Communication Science, pp. 241-259.

 

Lecture 4

Required Reading

Duffy, B. (2015). Amateur, autonomous, and collaborative: Myths of aspiring female cultural producers in Web 2.0. Critical Studies in Media Communication. 32(1): 48-64.

Recommended Reading

Banks, M. (2010) Autonomy guaranteed? Cultural work and the “art-commerce relation”. Journal for Cultural Research. 14(3): 251-269.

Bishop, S. (2023) Influencer creep: How artists strategically navigate the platformisation of art worlds. New Media & Society, 27(4): 2109-2126.

Hesmondhalgh, D. and A. Zoellner (2012) Is Media Work Good Work? A Case Study of Television Documentary, in: A. N. Valdivia (ed.) The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 557- 581.

Ozimek, A.M. (2019) Outsourcing Digital Game Production: The Case of Polish Testers. Television & new media. 20(8), pp. 824–835.

Lecture 5

Required Reading

Bruun, H. (2016) The Qualitative Interview in Media Production Studies, in C. Paterson, D. Lee, A. Saha and A. Zoellner (eds) Advancing Media Production Research: Shifting Sites, Methods, and Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 131-146.

Recommended Reading

Grindstaff, L. (2002) The Money Shot: Trash, class and the making of TV Talk Shows. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press – Epilogue, pp. 275-288.

Novrup Redvall, E. And I.E. Sorensen (2021) Structured Industry Workshops as Methodology: Researching national screen agencies and policies. Media Industries 8(1): 47-66

Warren, C.A.B. (2001) Qualitative Interviewing, in Gubrium, J. and Holstein, J. (eds) Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method. London: Sage, pp.83-102.

Zoellner, A. (2022) ‘Backstage Observations: Studying media producers’ in P. McDonald (ed) Routledge Companion to Media Industries. London: Routledge: 468-477.

Lecture 6

Required Reading

Paterson, C., Lee, D., Saha, A and Zoellner, A. (2016) Production Research - Continuity and Transformation, in C. Paterson, D. Lee, A. Saha and A. Zoellner (eds) Advancing Media Production Research: Shifting Sites, Methods, and Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 3-19.

Recommended Reading

Ng, J., & Gamble, S. (2024). Hip-hop music producers’ labour in the digital music economy: Self-promotion, social media and platform gatekeeping. New Media & Society. OnlineFirst, November 16, 2024 https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241295304.

Zeng, W. and C. Sparks (2019) Production and politics in Chinese television. Media, Culture and Society. 41(1): 54-69.

Zoellner A. (2022) Commissioning and independent television production: Power, risk and creativity. International Journal of Communication. 16: 585-603.

Přístupy, postupy a metody používané ve výuce
Lectures (lectures will include some student participation).  The course is taught in a one-week block forma.

Lesson schedule: Mo 27. 4.  12.00-13.40; 14.00-15.40 C34, Tu 28. 4.  12.00-13.40; 14.00-15.40 C34, Wed 29. 4.  10.00-11.40; 12:00-13.40 C34

Způsob ověření výstupů z učení a požadavky na ukončení
Please note that student attendance is obligatory on all lectures and will be regularly checked. Once the enrolment number reaches 74 or more, some students will have to take the classes online, through MS Teams. Further instructions regarding the capacities will be specified at the end of March, once the enrolment is closed.

Knowledge of the assigned text for each lecture will be verified using a simple questionnaire (ROPOT). 

Final test: An open-book "test" consisting of three questions, each trio attached to a different deadline and a homework vault. Each answer should be between 300 - 500 words, so the final word count should be between 900 and 1500 words. You must include a methodological framework in each answer. You can write your answers in Czech, Slovak or English. In order to get an A grade, you must: - Stay within the range with each answer - Consult at least one piece of scholarship in each answer, preferably those from the reading list (but not limited to) - Demonstrate a considerable depth of understanding the topic as well as the ability to apply the key concepts when analysing a film or films we will be screening throughout the course - Use sophisticated and precise vocabulary and clearly structure your answers (please no bulletpoints!) - Have a near faultless typography and layout, plus exemplary citation and bibliography.

The course will take place in the screening room C34. 

Vyučovací jazyk
Angličtina
Odkaz a informace vyučujících
Dr. Anna Zoellner joined the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds as Lecturer in Media Industries in 2011. She also has a professional background in film and television production and worked as researcher, assistant producer and production manager in independent documentary production in Germany and the UK for several years. Her research interests lie at the intersection of cultural/media industries, media production research, television studies, and critical cultural labour studies. In 2010 she completed her PhD thesis at the University of Leeds, which focuses on the development process of documentary programmes for television. Through ethnographic media production research applying participant observation and semi-structured interviews in the UK and Germany, the research explores the way in which production structures and their economic imperatives impact on the conditions experienced in independent production and the creation of new documentary texts. Recent research projects include an international comparative study that examined the conditions and responses of local radio and television in a digital environment in the UK, US and Germany. 
Další komentáře
Studijní materiály
Předmět je zařazen také v obdobích jaro 2027.
  • Statistika zápisu (nejnovější)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/predmet/phil/jaro2026/CMAf19