*CFP* "MAKING A MURDERER: TRUE CRIME IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE", SPECIAL ISSUE, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS CRIME FICTION STUDIES JOURNAL

“Everybody’s fascinated with the notion that there is a cause and effect,” claims notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, quoted in the Netflix original, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019) – that we can “put our finger on it,” and reassuringly rationalise the genesis of the uniquely modern phenomenon of the American serial killer. But when there is “absolutely nothing” in the background of a serial murderer that would lead one to believe they were “capable of committing murder,” how do we begin to acclimatise ourselves to this violent defect of contemporary history? More challengingly, how do we bring depth to our collective portrait of what constitutes a murderer, so that we may then self-exempt our compulsion to look more closely at these perversely familiar figures? 

Over the last 50 years, a plethora of books, magazines, film and television adaptations on the subject of true crime has captured – and held – the public imagination in a vice-like grip, ultimately achieving cult status in postwar-American society while furthermore granting the white male serial killer the kind of cultural capital usually awarded only to celebrities. With the enormous popularity of such series as Making a Murderer (2015) and Mindhunter (2017), however, it seems like now, more than ever, the uneasy question of why we continue to glorify killers by inserting them into mainstream media – and what exactly the appeal of this enduring genre and its mythologization of ultraviolent masculinities tells us about ‘who we are’ and the nature of American society itself – has acquired a new level of urgency, which, in turn, requires new depths of understanding. Likewise, with the growing Netflixisation of true crime, and the narrativization of true crime more broadly, now is the time to establish a study that evaluates the politics of the ever-increasing fine line between actual crime documentaries versus fictional shows that reference true crime.

*CFP* "ITALIAN VOICES, ENGLISH TEXTS: DUBBING, SUBTITLES, AND CROSS-CULTURAL (MIS)COMMUNICATIONS", SPECIAL ISSUE, JOURNAL OF SCREEN TRANSLATION STUDIES

In Italy, as in a number of other European countries, American films and television programs undergo the process of dubbing. In the United States, however, Italian films and television programs are almost exclusively subtitled, and very rarely dubbed. Although American products have historically been much more successful in Italy than their Italian counterparts in the United States, things are slowly starting to change. In the 21st century, the success of Italian-made films and television programs in the Anglophone world has certainly benefited from the popularity of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, whose platforms host a multitude of international releases. In both contexts, the intervention of professionals in the field of audio-visual translation is instrumental in facilitating the cross-cultural needs of these commercial and artistic exchanges. The processes of audiovisual or “screen” translation present distinctive linguistic and socio-cultural challenges that require creative and innovative solutions.

The Editors of the Journal of Screen Translation Studies (a peer-reviewed, web-based, open-access publication housed at the University of Connecticut) are soliciting contributions for their inaugural issue. We are seeking scholarly articles that examine the numerous challenges (technical, formal, linguistic, cultural, etc.) that audio-visual translators take on in preparing feature films and TV shows for international distribution, with a specific focus on products imported to or exported from Italy. Perspective authors are also encouraged to consider the political and commercial implications of this process. Furthermore, for the purpose of this volume, the Editors will consider contributions offering a comparative study of how foreign (non-Italophone and non-Anglophone) filmic products have been both dubbed in Italian and subtitled in English for international audiences.

*CFP* "WORLD CINEMA IN THE AGE OF NETFLIX", SPECIAL ISSUE, STUDIES IN WORLD CINEMA JOURNAL

Over the course of less than a decade, the streaming phenomenon – that is, the online distribution of audiovisual content (mainly films and series) through pay-per-view or subscription services – has radically changed cinema’s ecosystem. This issue of Studies in World Cinema sets out to explore the specific effects of streaming on the production, distribution and consumption of primarily non-Western cinema. The focus is not on the American streaming giant Netflix as such – Netflix is rather used as a generic nomer or shorthand for international streaming services at large. Yet, there is no denying that Netflix is indeed of particular interest for its blurring of boundaries within the usual local/global dialectics, as pointed out by Ramon Lobato in his book Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution (2019).

Netflix is currently available in practically all countries around the globe (China being the most notable exception), and although the bulk of its films are mainstream US entertainment fare, Netflix is also keenly aware that when it comes to programming for an international audience, one size does not fit all. Across the world, the company is therefore supplementing its catalogue of American programmes with both licensed local content and original local films that are either commissioned by Netflix or, in one way or the other, produced or funded by the streaming giant.

*CFP* "NETFLIX CULTURE: GERMAN CONTENT ON THE GLOBAL SCENE", ONLINE WORKSHOP AND SPECIAL ISSUE, THE GERMANIC REVIEW

Netflix Culture: German Content on the Global Scene

September 17th, 2021

Online Workshop

 

The streaming service Netflix has come to play a dominant role in the creation and distribution of popular film and television content. In recent years, the success of internationally acclaimed productions such as Dark, Babylon Berlin, and Unorthodox has signaled a renewed interest in German history and culture. Some were produced by Netflix and most of them were available worldwide through streaming services. The Germanic Review invites papers that analyze these and other series that show the increased presence of German “content” on the global scene.

• Have these recent productions changed, modified, or reimagined the narratives of German history that have dominated post-war cinema?
• Has the international online platform and film market more generally changed German images and stereotypes?

*CFP* "SERIALITY AND STREAMING", SPECIAL ISSUE, GLOBAL STORYTELLING JOURNAL

This special issue of Global Storytelling will investigate how streaming media has impacted the production, distribution, and reception of serial narratives. Television research, beginning with Herta Herzog’s landmark study of radio listeners “On Borrowed Experience”, privileged the soap opera as an object of research due to the special problems posed by seriality and melodrama and the construction of gender within the text and within the audience. When prime-time serials Dallas and Dynasty achieved sensational success both domestically and internationally, and the fear of “Wall-to-Wall Dallas” swept Europe, important foundational works in television studies by Robert C. Allen, Ien Ang, Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes, Jostein Gripsrud, Jane Feuer, Dorothy Hobson, Tania Modleski, Charlotte Brunsdon and others used television serials to consider questions of reception, cross-cultural readings, and the problematics of genre and ideology. Today, seriality is less the exception than the rule for the offerings of subscription streaming platforms in all genres and is a core industrial strategy for courting audiences in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

The development of streaming platforms and new distribution strategies in which entire seasons of new television shows are “dropped” online on one day have only complicated contemporary theorizations of the production and consumption of serialized narratives. Netflix routinely releases its first-run television serials as entire seasons, while other platforms premiere a handful of episodes simultaneously to entice viewers, then switch to a more conventional schedule of weekly single episodes. Web series such as Skam (in its various transnational incarnations) craft soap opera narratives at the intersection of fictive social media posts and videos that play in real storyworld time, weaving serial narratives into the everyday lives of audiences through their phones, tablets and laptops.

*CFP* "AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION IN THE AGE OF STREAMING", SPECIAL ISSUE, TARGET JOURNAL

This special issue of Target will investigate the role of translation in the rapidly changing and developing environment of global media streaming. While there have been calls to ‘recenter globalization’ since the early 2000s (e.g. Iwabuchi 2002), since the late 2000s the development of streaming media has effectively disrupted older linear flow patterns of film and media distribution and consumption. There is now globally more access in translation to what had been marginalised cultures in the global media ecology, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Nigeria. 

In turn, these so-called marginalised cultures in the global media ecology, which had been previously largely dominated by Hollywood, now enjoy wider access in translation to media cultures which had been much less explored or ignored in their home cultures: Korean audiences having a greater access to Danish, German, and Spanish media, for instance. Streaming service platforms turned content creators such as Amazon, Netflix and Rakuten Viki are in the process of overturning previous understandings of the global mediasphere and accelerating the dynamics of the media landscape, enabling contraflow of media content and de/recentering understandings of global media production. Increasingly invested in international services, streaming companies’ practices fragment, deconstruct and reconfigure media space.

*CFP* "MAKING A MURDERER: TRUE CRIME IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE", SPECIAL ISSUE, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS CRIME FICTION STUDIES JOURNAL

“Everybody’s fascinated with the notion that there is a cause and effect,” claims notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, quoted in the Netflix original, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019) – that we can “put our finger on it,” and reassuringly rationalise the genesis of the uniquely modern phenomenon of the American serial killer. But when there is “absolutely nothing” in the background of a serial murderer that would lead one to believe they were “capable of committing murder,” how do we begin to acclimatise ourselves to this violent defect of contemporary history? More challengingly, how do we bring depth to our collective portrait of what constitutes a murderer, so that we may then self-exempt our compulsion to look more closely at these perversely familiar figures? 

Over the last 50 years, a plethora of books, magazines, film and television adaptations on the subject of true crime has captured – and held – the public imagination in a vice-like grip, ultimately achieving cult status in postwar-American society while furthermore granting the white male serial killer the kind of cultural capital usually awarded only to celebrities. 

*CFP* "ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS IN THE QUARANTIMES", CHAPTER BOOK

When the arts, culture, and entertainment industries of the world came to a screeching halt in late winter 2020, many commentators claimed this was the end of art as we know it. Theatre managers and museum directors grasped at straws, trying to stoke excitement via social media and running archival footage in hopes of generating revenue while their seats and halls remained empty. Artists’ opportunities to show or create non-digital work ran dry. Film and television sets were vacated and production put on hold. At the same time, gaming platforms and streaming services thrived. Animal Crossing on Nintendo’s Switch became a worldwide phenomenon; Netflix traffic hit all-time highs. DJs streamed to Instagram live, garnering record viewerships. Meanwhile, friends and colleagues got creative with distanced sociality and shared cocktails on Zoom, at least until the fatigue set in.

As we enter, from a North American standpoint, months 10 and beyond of “quarantine,” the question of how we have learned - as creators or consumers - to play, is far from settled. This proposed collection addresses the question of play in broad terms: how have the arts, culture, and entertainment industries adapted to a majority virtual world? How has our understanding of togetherness and play changed with public health guidelines in effect? Might new forms of art and play developed in quarantine outlive the pandemic and perhaps supplant earlier forms? What do these forms offer in terms of accessibility, equity, or exclusion?

*CFP* "PERHAPS YOU MAY BE ABLE TO HELP SOLVE A MYSTERY", CRITICAL ESSAYS COLLECTION

Created by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, Unsolved Mysteries is an iconic American true-crime documentary series that has—since its initial broadcast as seven standalone specials in 1987—aired in more than thirty-five countries. For nine seasons on NBC (1988-1997), two seasons on CBS (1997-1999), and an additional stint on Lifetime (2001-2002), the show included a variety of segments, such as “Lost Loves” (in which individuals sought to reunite with someone from their past), “Murder” (usually committed by an unknown perpetrator), “Wanted” (known individuals responsible for a crime), “Missing,” and “Legend” (paranormal activity). Following the show’s cancellation, more than one hundred and fifty old episodes were repackaged, edited, and broadcast on Spike TV (2008-2010). 

As a result, Unsolved Mysteries is one of the longest-running programs in television history. Utilizing interviews and reenactments, the show was the first to encourage viewers to help solve a mystery by submitting credible information through a telecenter hotline and, once production of new episodes ceased, a post office box. Owing to the persistence of its creators and the fascination and passion exhibited by its fans,the show’s YouTube page began featuring cases submitted by the public in 2017. Throughout its run, the show has featured more than 1,000 cases; hundreds of these have been cracked at least partially based on viewer tips.

*CFP* "THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN NEW EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE", THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON VISUAL LITERACY AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

The International Conference on Visual Literacy and Communication (VILDIC’20)

The Role of Media in New Educational Practice

18-Dec-2020 - 19-Dec-2020 

Madrid, Spain (Virtual venue)

 

The International Conference on Visual Literacy and Communication (VILDIC’20) welcomes expert researchers and scholars from across the world to meet for a premier online conference experience. Scholars and educators will engage in professional development and explore a wide range of topics relevant to audio-visual culture and language teaching.

VILDIC’20 aims at providing a forum for researchers, teachers and educational representatives to share their knowledge and promote creativity and innovation in the area of visual literacy and digital communication. VILDIC’20 topics include (but are not limited to):

*CFP* "NETFLIX Y LA TRANSNACIONALIZACIÓN DE LA INDUSTRIA AUDIOVISUAL", PRÓXIMO NÚMERO, REVISTA COMUNICACIÓN Y SOCIEDAD

Durante los últimos quince años las industrias audiovisuales de todo el mundo han registrado profundas transformaciones (Birkinbine, et al. 2017; Hesmondhalgh, 2018; Miège, 2016). Más específicamente, en el ámbito digital hemos asistido a la aparición y expansión internacional de servicios audiovisuales de compañías de matriz estadounidense, cuyas pulsiones de conquista mundial las han llevado a desarrollar estrategias transnacionales de penetración de mercados, aprovechándose de la arquitectura global de la red de redes. A excepción de China, que prohíbe su entrada y ha desarrollado sus propios servicios, el resto del mundo ha visto cómo operadores estadounidenses han comenzado a actuar en sus mercados y a captar clientes.

Los servicios audiovisuales que se ofrecen bajo demanda, mediados por suscripción (SVoD), lideran este proceso en la actualidad. Según la consultora Strategy Analytics, en 2019 había 805.87 millones de suscripciones a esta clase de servicios, y se espera que se sobrepasen los mil millones de clientes para finales de 2021.

*CFP* "UNSEEN TELEVISION: PRIVILEGE, POWER, AND THE ARCHIVES", CHAPTER BOOKS

With Disney+, Apple TV+, and NBC's Peacock joining Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, Hulu, Crunchyroll, ESPN+, and CBS All Access, industry observers and tech writers have declared that we now live in an era of “peak streaming TV.” Yet, even as this surfeit of services promises easy access to immense archives of video content - both past and present - it is worth asking what gaps, fissures, and fractures might exist within these collections; for it is in examining what is purposely left out, left incomplete, or rendered inaccessible – in other words, what is “unseen” – that gives us insight into the institutional power dynamics and political-economic decision making that constitutes these archives as repositories of owned or licensed content, as bundles of commercial assets, and as systems of thought. As television continues to evolve from a mass medium to a personalized, highly mobile media form, and as streaming services promote their platforms as founts of endless content, issues of access, profit, representation, and curation become particularly salient.

Economically, Netflix’s novel cost-plus business model has upended the traditional deficit financing model favored by studios. This model allows Netflix to produce a more diverse library, yet a shallower depth for its more cost-prohibitive original series. Additionally, the unique production model has contributed to a recent wave of vertical (AT&T-Time Warner in 2018) and horizonal (Disney-Fox in 2019) integration, resulting in bundling, vaulting, or selective windowing. Furthermore, such integration typically results in a narrowing of creative diversity.

*CFP* "NETFLIX' SPAIN", BOOK CHAPTERS

In the midst of a pandemic, Netflix has become an even more prominent household member. According to IHS Markit Technology, between December 2018 and September 2019, Netflix increased its Spanish-language content by nearly 30,000 hours. Worldwide, as of today April 3rd 2020, many are eagerly anticipating the release of global phenomenon series La Casa de Papel 4.

Netflix has undoubtedly changed the way we consume visual narratives, ranging from TV shows, and series to documentary and full-length films projected and tailored to global audiences, contributing thus, as a powerful tool for (mis)representation with a massive reach. Moreover, the export of productions aiming for and conquering that global extent, which once pertained exclusively to Hollywood, threatens the film metropolis par excellence. As a hybrid site of enunciation in theory, which, according to its president of Original Series, aims to produce “local stories with a global appeal,” we propose to survey Netflix in Spain as a vernacular case study, within the frame of the so called glocal visual scene, pivoting as we speak.

*CFP* "SVOD PLATFORMS AND THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION", CHAPTER BOOK

Τelevision content has expanded to different and new ways of distribution and screening enabled by the evolution of technology and the advent of new media. The diversity of production and distribution models can be divided into three general categories: broadcast networks (such as ABC, NBC, CBS etc.), cable networks (such as HBO, Showtime, AMC etc.), and online subscription services that provide their content via streaming (such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max etc.)

Subscription video on demand (SVOD) platforms are similar to traditional TV packages that allow users to consume as much content as they desire at a flat fee per month. Unlike the economic model of conventional broadcast networks that is primarily dependent on revenue provided by advertisers in exchange for a network’s inclusion of advertisements within their programming broadcasts, the subscription model is based on a direct economic relationship between the institution and its subscribers who pay a fee in exchange for access to programming. Netflix is a pioneer in this field, but currently, a lot of production companies, like Disney, Apple, and WarnerMedia, have created their SVOD platforms to host their content.

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, JOURNAL OF DRACULA STUDIES

We invite manuscripts of scholarly articles (4000-6000 words) on any of the following: Bram Stoker, the novel Dracula, the historical Dracula, the vampire in folklore, fiction, film, popular culture, and related topics.

Submissions should be sent electronically (as an e-mail attachment in .doc or .rtf). Please indicate the title of your submission in the subject line of your e-mail.

Please follow MLA style.

Contributors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions and ensuring observance of copyright.

Manuscripts will be peer-reviewed independently by at least two scholars in the field.

*CFP* "MURDER AND TRUE CRIME IN THE MEDIA", INTERDISCIPLINARY ONE-DAY CONFERENCE

Murder and True Crime in the Media

Interdisciplinary one-day conference at St Mary’s University, Twickenham

Friday 29th May 2020.

Confirmed Keynote Speaker: Dr Sarah Moore, author of Crime and the Media (2014, Palgrave Macmillan)

Modern audiences demonstrate an appetite for true crime, and particularly stories that involve murder. Whilst public fascination for true crime is not new, the genre has long dominated our entertainment industries, from biopics, whodunnits, to gangster films; interest in true crime is certainly renewed. One reason for the resurgence of popularity for true crime is Industrial. There is a recent influx of new content available. Making a Murderer can be viewed through the lens of Netflix and binge-watching, Sarah Koenig’s Serial is closely linked to an increase in podcast listeners. Extremely Wicked, Shocking Evil, and Vile and Mindhunter both demonstrate the draw for well-known stars (such as Zac Efron) and personnel (David Fincher) to this genre.

*CFP* “NETFLIX ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING AND REPRESENTATIONS OF MENTAL HEALTH”, EDITED COLLECTION

Research across a swath of scholarly disciplines and methodologies over the past several decades has pointed to the primacy of popular culture in shaping people’s attitudes toward mental health and illness (Chouinard; Eisenhauer; Gans-Boriskin and Wardle; Heath; Johnson; Packer; Rayborn and Keyes; Wahl; Whitley, Adeponle, and Miller; and Whitley and Berry; Wilson et al., for some examples, all of whom also cite extensive research from diverse fields). For members of the mental health field, in whatever stripe, this can be disheartening at worst and confusing at best. 

But at the same time as scholars across the academy (and beyond) have expanded and continued their research, the world of popular culture and media has expanded, as well. With the Internet’s integration into our lives and the rise of streaming and mail services, there’s been a shift in how we engage with entertainment media. 

"PLATAFORMAS Y DIVERSIDAD: NETFLIX A DEBATE", SEMINARIO INTERNACIONAL UC3M

Plataformas y diversidad: Netflix a debate

Platforms and diversity: Netflix under debate

7-8/11/2019

Facultad de Humanidades, Comunicación y Documentación

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M)

Programa provisional / Provisional programme

El seminario internacional Plataformas y diversidad: Netflix a debate tendrá lugar los días 7 y 8 de noviembre de 2019 en la Facultad de Humanidades, Comunicación y Documentación (campus de Getafe), de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M).

El objetivo de este evento es reflexionar sobre el papel que juegan las plataformas en línea para la diversidad de la industria audiovisual, otorgando un protagonismo especial a discutir el caso de la empresa Netflix. Se trata de contribuir a la comprensión de la actuación e impacto de las plataformas trasnacionales en línea que comercializan contenidos audiovisuales, atendiendo a su perfil socioeconómico y a la reacción política-regulatoria que su irrupción está propiciado. Se hará hincapié en dicho impacto en mercado español, y en clave de promoción y/o protección de la diversidad de las industrias audiovisuales.

*CFP* "AFRICAN SCREEN WORLDS", INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP

African Screen Worlds: An International Workshop

SOAS, University of London, UK

September 2020

“A way of apprehending the world based on my experience, my education, my culture and my environment. /Mantisme /is a system of thought that we virtually assimilate to a language that is unique to each individual. A language that I permanently “negotiate” with the language of the “other” with whom I would share an experience, education, culture and a similar environment.”

(Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Africa for the Future: sortir un nouveau monde du cinema [2009], cited and translated by P. Julie Papaioannou, “‘Qu’elle aille explorer le possible!’ Or African Cinema according to Jean-Pierre Bekolo, in Harrow and Garritano, eds, A Companion to African Cinema, Wiley Blackwell, 2018, p.405)

*CFP* "REAPPRAISING STEPHEN KING", ISSUE, HORROR STUDIES JOURNAL

Stephen King is indisputably a major figure in horror. Not only has he been a prolific best-selling author since the 1970s, his name is also associated with a number of television and film texts, including a number of recent high-profile releases, such as It and The Dark Tower, as well as Stranger Things, a series not authored by King but openly nostalgic for his work. King’s influence moreover extends beyond horror, crossing into other genres and outside of the world of fiction, including social commentary (Guns, as well as numerous public appearances), genre history and criticism (Danse Macabre), and reading and writing practice (On Writing).

Testimony to King’s significance is the constant popular appetite for reflections on his life and work, from Douglas Winter’s The Art of Darkness: Stephen King (1986) to Chad Clark’s Tracing the Trails (2018), and a number of similar publications in between. Academic work is not hard to find either, though it is sometimes constrained by the critical ambivalence surrounding King’s name, and has tended to privilege specific topics, such as King’s relationship with Hollywood.