Call for Chapters: Survival Strategies and Transformations of the Global Media Industry: Mitigating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted all human businesses including the entertainment and media industries. In the global cinema and audiovisual media industry in particular, this impact has since the year 2020, been very much palpable at all levels: production, distribution and consumption. This impact has actually ranged from the interruption of new film productions through the delayed release of movies to the closure of movie-theatres (which particularly led to a global decline in film attendance) and the adoption of streaming as an approach par excellence to film release and distribution. Thanks to the new normal – which was enabled by the COVID-19 pandemic – a good number of films initially made for cinemas were, rather released through streaming platforms such as Disney+ and Netflix among others. Meanwhile, studios, networks, production companies and businesses making television and film productions possible were forced to rethink their modus operanda and labour practices in guise of survival strategies. Issues such as the remote-work protocols became in vogue. And although the gradual amelioration of the global health situation has implied a relative return to old traditional production approaches, the impact of the pandemic has remained visible in the global audiovisual media industry (Shah, Yaqoub & Wu, 2020; Johnson, 2021). In other words, the COVID pandemic has enabled the birth, naturalisation and popularisation of various new cultures in the production, distribution and consumption of cinema and audiovisual media products. Some of these cultures include the streaming video on demand (SVOD) paradigm, remote-work-protocols and the popularity of plague narrative or COVID plot among others. The various cultures mentioned above have for the most part remained understudied or unstudied.

Actually, only few authors have given a modicum of scholarly attention to the impact of the COVID pandemic on global cinema and television production (Li, Wilson and Guan 2023; Nulman 2021). The bulk of the available literature that addresses the impact of the pandemic on audiovisual media production mainly explore the American or European experiences leaving other parts of the world visibly untouched (Fortmueller 2021; Blazquez et al 2020). Furthermore, interesting issues such the screening of the pandemic, the representation of the COVID-19 pandemic in television and audio-visual media productions and the impact the pandemic on narrative/storytelling approaches are grossly overlooked in recent scholarly works devoted to the COVID-19 pandemic and audiovisual media production. There therefore arises the need to fill the gap in knowledge mentioned above through a global perspective on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the audiovisual media industry.

Objective

In line with the observation made above, this book seeks to attain three principal objectives: 1) analyse the ongoing COVID-enabled transformations in the global audiovisual media and cinema industries at the levels of production, distribution and exhibition, 2) examine the various survival strategies deployed by global audiovisual media practitioners and cineastes during all the stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 3) explore audiovisual media representations of the pandemic using a global, national and/or comparative perspectives.

Target Audience

University students, media and cinema scholars, media policy makers, filmmakers, media practitioners, global audiovisual media outlets, international relation experts and politicians.
 

Recommended Topics

  • The COVID-19 pandemic, media production and survival strategies
  • Cinematic and television representations of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and film studios
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and the streaming video on demand (SVOD)
  • Gender, COVID-19 pandemic and TV/Cinema production
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and film festivals
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and global music
  • The COVID-19 and trans-media
  • Social media and COVID themed videos
  • The COVID-19 pandemic, film production and the law
  • The COVID-19, audiovisual media and nation branding
  • The COVID-19 pandemic, diplomacy and TV production
  • The COVID-19 pandemic and film budgeting
  • The COVID-19 pandemic, cinema and fandom
  • The COVID-19 pandemic, television advertising and social representations

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before June 19, 2023, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by June 25, 2023 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by August 13, 2023, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at https://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Survival Strategies and Transformations of the Global Media Industry: Mitigating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process.

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery® online submission manager at: https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/6566

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), an international academic publisher of the "Information Science Reference" (formerly Idea Group Reference), "Medical Information Science Reference," "Business Science Reference," and "Engineering Science Reference" imprints. IGI Global specializes in publishing reference books, scholarly journals, and electronic databases featuring academic research on a variety of innovative topic areas including, but not limited to, education, social science, medicine and healthcare, business and management, information science and technology, engineering, public administration, library and information science, media and communication studies, and environmental science. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit https://www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2024.

Important Dates

June 19, 2023: Proposal Submission Deadline
June 25, 2023: Notification of Acceptance
August 13, 2023: Full Chapter Submission
September 25, 2023: Review Results Returned
November 6, 2023: Final Acceptance Notification
November 19, 2023: Final Chapter Submission

Contact Info: 

Floribert Patrick C. Endong PhD, University of Dschang, Cameroon

URL: https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/6566