*CFP* "MEDIA-ENTERPRISE. DISCOURSES AND PRACTICES OF CINEMA AND THE MEDIA IN CORPORATE CULTURE", ISSUE 1, THE CINEMA E STORIA JOURNAL

The reconstruction of the Italian social fabric in the aftermath of WWII did not involve only the re-establishment of a democratic political framework after a twenty year-long Fascist dictatorship; it also implied a painstaking restoration of national industry, which had been seriously affected by the global conflict. As part of this process, increasingly wide portions of Italian territory were converted from agricultural to industrial use, new ways to improve the efficiency of mass production were introduced, and the ‘Marshall Plan’ helped with its substantial funding programme. The latter also updated generally the modes of communication at work within public companies and private enterprises, renewing the ways that both workers and consumers were informed, persuaded, and recruited.

This special issue, Media-Enterprise Discourses and Practices of Cinema and the Media in Corporate Culture, will focus on the complex set of relations between corporate culture and media discourses and practices. In taking the well-acknowledged governmental instrumentalisation of the medium of film and the increasing attention devoted to “sponsored” and “industrial” cinema as points of departure, we aim to expand these reflections to different media domains. As well as assessing industrial enterprises and corporations as subjects or commissioners of audiovisual representations, we intend to account for the role played by media-technologies within business, from the end of WWII to the present day. Case studies may include educational and training films shown to employees, photographs and pictures published on and circulated through “house organs” and business magazines, fair and trade show installations, all of which hint at the existence of ‘media circuits’ which run in parallel to those of mass communication. In fact, in the industrial context, media-technologies may be used for different purposes: to optimize work productivity and efficiency, to outline and consolidate a “business culture”, to constitute ‘laboratories’ of scientific and technological innovation.

By favouring the internal sources of enterprises and corporations, the issue seeks to pay particular attention to the intersections between business and intellectual or artistic life in Italy, as exemplified by key-personalities such as “poet/engineer” Leonardo Sinisgalli (director of several corporate magazines and techno-humanist thinker), and by editorial projects (such as “Rivista Pirelli”, “Civiltà delle macchine”, “Ferrania”, “Il Gatto Selvatico”, “Notizie IBM”, “Illustrato Fiat”, “Notizie Olivetti”, to name just the best known and the most enduring cases). 

Article proposals (of about 200 words each) with a short biographical note, should be sent to rivistacinemaestoria@gmail.com by February 28th, 2021.

Accepted articles will be submitted to the double blind peer review process, and will be completed and delivered by July 31st 2021.

No processing charges will be applied on the authors.