Political Ideas, Industrial Strategies, Textual Features and Audience Practices.

Since the 1980s, media convergence has become a buzzword for media studies, a crucial site for academic debate and research and especially a major topic of interest for politics, media industries, technics, and audiences. The complex process of media convergence combines technical issues linked to digitization, political ideas of deregulation, corporate strategies of merging, and grassroots’ cultural practices.

TV studies have been discussing the topic of media convergence from many different angles and perspectives: political, institutional, technological, industrial, textual, and cultural issues of convergence have been put to the forefront. The theme of the Fall 2014 issue of VIEW seeks to shine a light on past and on-going processes of convergent television in different national and historical contexts. We welcome contributions that face the topic of convergence from different disciplinary and historical points of view.
Proposals are invited on (but not limited to):

• Archaeology of TV Convergence: convergence before digitization;
• Historical cases of successful and/or failed convergence in broadcasting;
• National or international policies (especially at European level) that are specifically addressed to favour TV and broadcasting convergence;
• Strategies of convergence (and effects of divergence): how different national broadcasters are confronting the challenges of media convergence and digitisation in an innovative (or regressive) way;
• Historical case studies in terms of convergent business strategies: how TV companies combined with other media or even other than media companies;
• Players of TV convergence: national or multinational production companies committed to original content production;
• Technical devices and affordances: how technology has affected the way of producing, distributing and use TV content in a more and more convergent manner;
• The textual features of Convergent TV: how media convergence affects traditional TV genres, styles and aesthetics
• Convergent TV formats, transmedia narratives and forms of branded content entertainment;
• Changing audience habits and practices.

Paper proposals (max. 500 words) are due on April 15th. Submissions should be sent to the managing editor of the journal, Dana Mustata (journal@euscreen.eu). Articles (2-4,000 words) will be due on July 1st.

For further information or questions about the issue, please contact the co-editors: Gabriele Balbi (gabriele.balbi@usi.ch) and Massimo Scaglioni (massimo.scaglioni@unicatt.it).