Media Industries and Cultural Production

The purpose of the ECREA Media Industries and Cultural Production Section is to provide a professional forum for the presentation, dissemination, analysis and discussion of all aspects of research related to media, creative and cultural industries, and to questions of media and cultural production.

Such research can be contemporary or historical. It can examine a range of industry-related concerns and processes, including production, distribution, infrastructure, policy, regulation, exhibition, retailing, marketing, audience management and/or the co-evolving relations between these.

The definition of ‘media industries’ and ‘cultural production’ adopted by the Section is highly inclusive, embracing film, television, internet, radio, music, publishing, gaming, advertising, mobile media, social media, and software. Research on non-media forms of cultural production involving performance (such as theatre, dance and music) or exhibition (such as museums and galleries) is included, and all elements commonly found in widely accepted definitions of ‘creative industries’. Digital media production, distribution and various forms of digital industries, services, infrastructures, and content are included.

Research relevant to the Section draws on any of a wide range of quantitative, qualitative methods or mixed methods, or may be theoretical or synthetic in nature, aiming to conceptualise important problems and issues. The Section also welcomes a range of theoretical approaches including, but not restricted to, critical political economy, media economics, media management, production cultures, policy studies, labour studies, and media historiography. It is particularly interested in advancing critical, rather than instrumental, approaches to the media industries. Consideration of social and cultural theory in relation to media industries and cultural production is welcomed, as is consideration of geographical, political, national and gender/ethnic difference in addressing media industries and cultural production.