Sheffield Doc/Fest’s “DigiDocs 360”

DigiDocs 360 is a new strand of programming at Doc/Fest, dedicated to exploring the digital revolution in broadcasting and the impact that convergence, digitisation and interactivity will have on documentary production and delivery.

DigiDocs 360 is a unique opportunity to hear about the national and international opportunites available for producers looking to embrace multi-platform production.

Speakers include:

Frank Boyd, Unexpected Media
Adam Gee, Channel 4
Marc Goodchild, BBC
Cassian Harrison, Smokefall
Morgan Holt, 3
Chris Joyner, Katalyst
Fleur Knopperts, IDFA, The Forum
Stefan Lechere, Google
Annie Valva, WGBH
Peter Wintonick, Necessary Illusions

Check it out: https://sheffdocfest.com/view/digidocs

National Film Board of Canada’s “Cross Media Challenge”

crossmediachallenge

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Sheffield International Documentary Festival are pleased to issue a call for proposals for a new cross-media competition called the CROSS-MEDIA CHALLENGE.

The CROSS-MEDIA CHALLENGE is a co-production competition for innovative, interactive, socially engaged content with applications for mobile and broadband. It will award one producer a $10,500CAD/£5,000 co-production development deal with the NFB.

ABOUT THE CHALLENGE
Inspired by the NFB’s legendary Challenge for Change program of community filmmaking, today’s NFB is adapting the adage “think globally, act locally” to develop socially engaged media projects relating to issues such as the protection of the environment, health care, human rights, poverty and violence against women.

How can we inspire an exchange of story-telling practices among diverse communities? How can we use media creatively to foster an international dialogue on issues that have local roots? How can we unleash the creative talents of marginal voices and communities and make them heard?

We are interested in projects that use the versatility, mobility and borderless nature of new platforms to enable communities to talk to each other. Projects must be documentary based.

Eligible projects must be cross-platform and multi-platform involving the best features of each medium to ensure maximum audience participation. Projects should take full advantage of the range of new platforms, with particular emphasis on interactive, mobile and on-line. Projects must demonstrate direct contact and interaction with communities as part of the development plan.

More info at: http://www.nfb.ca/about/news.php?id=1554

Mark Deuze’s book on integrationist approaches in advertising, journalism, film/TV production, and digital games: “Media Work”

MediaWork CoverMark Deuze (Indiana University’s Department of Telecommunications in Bloomington, United States, and Professor of Journalism and New Media at Leiden University, The Netherlands) has a new book out: Media Work. The book is described in an interview with Deuze at influx:

As a former journalist, I have always taken a special interest in the management of creativity within media organizations: how can media workers truly be creatively autonomous? How can an individual culture creator really do what he or she wants to do? Under what conditions will media deliver the best entertaining and informing experiences for producers as well as consumers? My research, which is largely based on interviews with media professionals, tries to come up with answers to those kinds of questions. […]

The book deals with the working lives of professionals in the four key media industries: advertising, journalism, film/TV production, and digital games. Collaborating with colleagues and students in South Africa, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States I interviewed hundreds of media workers over the last couple of years, basically asking them only one question: “so what is it like to do what you do?” The book serves three purposes: first, it allows me to tell our students – who all want to work in “the” media – exactly what that means. Second, understanding media work contributes to critical debates about and within the media professions, for example about the impact of new technologies, the globalization of production networks (for example through outsourcing), and the management of creativity and innovation. Third, I assume that citizens of wired countries all over the world are increasingly behaving like media producers – uploading pictures to Flickr, videos to YouTube, and everything else to MySpace or Facebook. This makes the lessons learned by media professionals also increasingly relevant to everyone else using media. […]

What I’ve found my research is, that under the banner of Integrated Marketing/Brand Communications and the shift towards full-service agencies a lot of work within holding firms has been overhauled, reorganized, and disrupted. To some, this meant increasing centralized control and monitoring of work, less attention to unique interests of the cultivation of specialized talent in favor of unified management strategies.

Other companies, while using the same terms and concepts, used this trend to increase the autonomy of multi-functional teams, and started programs to facilitate knowledge sharing throughout the many agencies within larger firms. The problem is, that media workers are a special breed of people – they tend to be more interested in getting their own creative voice across and receiving peer acknowledgement than securing benefits or a steady paycheck. That makes them more vulnerable to exploitation (of labor), and the consolidation of agencies certainly can be understood in this context. However, as most media work takes place and gets organized through informal and personal networks, individual professionals can have some tactical impact on company strategy beyond the often hollow rhetoric of “integration”, “convergence”, and “synergy”.