Lectures and meetings

Researching transnational media and online streaming: Lecture by Prof. John T. Caldwell

30 October 2023

Transnational media and online streaming are a complex network of creative labor, capital flows, and institutional complexities that pose many challenges for researchers. Join us for an open lecture titled “Premium Screen Content in the Streaming Era? Disruptive Industrial Change and Creative Collateral Damage”, delivered by Professor John T. Caldwell, M.F.A., Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor of Cinema and Media Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who will shed some light on this matter.

October 30, 2023

12:00–13:30 CET (UTC+1

Warsaw/online

Close analysis of large system – new approach to researching transnational media

SWPS University’s Faculty of Humanities and the Department of Cultural and Media Studies are delighted to welcome a guest lecturer Professor John T. Caldwell from UCLA, who will discuss challenges of researching transnational media.

How can scholars best research large complex industrial systems as vast and volatile as transnational media and online streaming? How do they study media art apart from the creative labor pains, the disruptive movement of new capital, and institutional complexities that pose as rationally managing the whole enterprise?

Traditional research methods in the discipline of social sciences provide a broad overview but may lack depth, while the "big data" and "distant analysis" methods of the digital humanities struggle to capture the finer details of these dynamic industries. In this talk, Professor John T. Caldwell presents an alternative approach called "close analysis of large systems", which involves conducting in-depth fieldwork to identify and trace specific critical connections within the industry that he calls "stressed networks". These networks emerge during periods of significant industry change and provide an unfiltered view of what really matters in this sector. Professor Caldwell aims to uncover hidden narratives that are often missed by quantitative data and big data analysis.

Reimagining Routine in Media and Streaming

John T. Caldwell's approach does not intend to replace traditional case studies, but to complement them. He encourages asking new questions about how individual cases fit into the broader, ever-changing system of media and streaming.

The day-to-day routines of the television and streaming industries are often overshadowed by groundbreaking developments and headline-worthy news. Yet these routines are the backbone of the industry, shaping its evolution and sustainability. Therefore, John T. Caldwell advocates a closer examination of these routines to gain a deeper understanding of the industry.

Guest Speaker

John T. Caldwell

M.F.A. / Ph.D.

is a distinguished Research Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA. His awards include the career Outstanding Pedagogy Award from SCMS in 2018; NEA Fellowship (1979, 1985); Bauhaus University/Weimar Fellow (2012), and Annenberg Senior Fellow (2012). His books include: Specworld: Folds, Faults, and Fractures in Embedded Creator Industries (Univ. of California Press, 2023); Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television (Duke, 2008), Televisuality: Style, Crisis and Authority in American Television (Rutgers, 1995), Electronic Media and Technoculture (ed., Rutgers, 2000), New Media: Digitextual Theories and Practices (co-edited, Routledge, 2003), and Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries (co-edited with Vicki Mayer and Miranda Banks, 2009). He is also the producer/director of the award winning feature documentaries: Land Hacks: Masculine Media Anxiety Disorder (2020), winner of Best Experimental Documentary Prize at "2020 DocLA Film Festival"; Freak Street to Goa: Immigrants on the Rajpath (1989), which premiered at the Margaret Mead Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, and Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam, and was broadcast on SBS-TV/Australia; and Rancho California (por favor), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002, and was featured at dozens of international film festivals 2002-2004.