Society for the Social Study of Mobile Communications


The Society for the Social Study of Mobile Communication (SSSMC) is intended to facilitate the international advancement of cross-disciplinary mobile communication studies. It is intended to serve as a resource and to support a network of scholarly research as to the social consequences of mobile communication.




Thursday, February 5, 2015

CFP: Screen Policies: Geographies, Economics, Technologies

Call for Chapters: Screen Policies: Geographies, Economics, Technologies
Editors: Nolwenn Mingant (Université de Nantes, France), David Newman (Simon Fraser University, Canada), Cecilia Tirtaine (Université Sorbonne nouvelle-Paris 3, France)

In 1996, Albert Moran published a seminal overview of film policy in different parts of the world. Since then, the screen media environment has significantly changed. Globalization has made the screen media environment less constrained geographically by impacting the production and distribution of screen media contents. Technologies have also revolutionized the media environment. Distribution platforms have evolved: film is now frequently digital; television content is streamed over the Internet to a variety of different screens; digital games have become a much larger and more ubiquitous medium played on a variety of devices, including cellphones. Growing synergies have appeared between different media, leading to the idea of ‘transmedia content’ and ‘media convergence.’

Government and industry policies have adapted to this changed environment. Film policies have been the first to adapt. Incentive wars have intensified between different regions across the world seeking to attract internationally mobile productions. Most States have continued to worry over suitability of some content for their local audiences, as reflected through censorship and
ratings schemes. The layering of policies over the intranational, national and supranational policy regimes has led to more complex situations. Measures to protect culture and to nurture local screen industries have been increasingly challenged under international trade regimes. Whereas previously film was at the centre of cultural policies globally, those policies are now starting to
incorporate other forms of screen media, notably video games.

Following the success of the CinEcoSA research cycle on Screen Policies (see www.cinecosa.com), we are now calling for chapter proposals for a peer-reviewed edited volume to be entitled Screen Policies: Geographies, Economics and Technologies. This volume will explore and interrogate the shifts and changes in both government and industry-based screen policies over the past 30 years.

The volume will cover different types of screens: movie theatres, television (notably video and videogames), computers (Internet), smartphones. It will include chapters that cover a diverse range of screen industries from different parts of the world, along with the interrelationship between different localities, policy regimes and technologies/media.

Particular areas we are seeking chapters on include:
  • Nature of Screen Policies
  • Theoretical chapters and /or review of literature on screen policies around the world
  • Case studies of screen industry policy in specific regions, particularly those outside of Europe and North America (though contributions from those regions are welcome as well)
  • Emerging policies in developing markets
  • Motivations of public powers for creating/updating/abandoning screen policies
  • Criteria for aid and impact on screen media policies on media content
  • State policies vs. industry-led policy (such as voluntary rating systems), partnerships between public and private spheres
  • Protective policies: censorship, quotas, licensing, copyright


International Relations
  • Interrelationships of policy and regulation between local, national and supra-national institutions
  • Influences and impact of international trade regimes on screen policies
  • Competition between regions via incentive schemes
  • Co-production treaties
  • Support for exports
  • Role of screen policies in diplomatic relations


New technologies
  • Adaptation of screen policies to the new technological context: adaptation of older models or creation of innovative models?
  • Regulation of access to new technologies such as streaming TV, mobile content, video games
  • Support for trans-media initiatives


Please send you proposal (title, 400-word abstract, 4 bibliographical references, brief biography) to David Newman (dbnewman@sfu.ca) and Nolwenn Mingant
(nolwenn.mingant@univ-nantes.fr) by March 1st, 2015.

Notification of acceptance: April 30th, 2015.

Completed chapters due August 25th, 2015. Chapter length: 6,000 words maximum (footnotes and bibliographical references included)