Locating Migrating Media

Edited by Greg Elmer, Charles H. Davis, Janine Marchessault, and John McCullough (Lexington Books, 2010)

“The media are on the move, in every conceivable way. As ‘new’ media arrive at our doorsteps and bedsides, this compelling volume asks us to think about mobile media in a different way, to consider the who, what, when, and where of how the media go about their business. In an era of footloose cultural production, Locating Migrating Media is an invaluable guide.”
—Toby Miller, author of Global Hollywood 2

Locating Migrating Media details the extent to which media productions, both televisual and cinematic, have sought out new and cheaper shot locations, creative staff, and financing around the world. The book contributes to debates about media globalization, focusing on the local impact of new sites of media production. The book's chapters also question the role that film and television industries and local and regional governments play in broader economic develop and tax incentive schemes.

While metaphors of transportation, mobility, fluidity and change continue to serve as key concepts and frames for understanding contemporary media industries, products and processes, the essays in this book look to local spaces, neighborhoods, cultural workers and stories to ground the global—that is, to interrogate the effect of media globalization before, during and after film and television shooting and onsite production.

By locating migrating media, these chapters seek to determine the political, economic and cultural conditions that produce contemporary forms of televisual and cinematic storytelling, and how these processes affect the inhabitants, the “look” and the very geopolitical future of local communities, neighborhoods, cities and regions. The focus on relocated screen production highlights the act of film- and television-making, both aesthetically and economically. To locate migrating media is therefore to determine the political and cultural economies of globalized sets and stages, be they in new studios or on city streets or, perhaps most importantly, in our imaginations.

List of Contributors Charles H. Davis; Tamara L. Falicov; Ben Goldsmith; Janice Kaye; Barry King; Janine Marchessault; John McCullough; Albert Moran; Tom O'Regan; Jennifer VanderBurgh; Susan Ward

About the Editors Dr. Greg Elmer is an associate professor of Radio and TV Arts at Ryerson University, and the director of Infoscape new Media Lab. He also co-authored Contracting Out Hollywood: Runaway Production and Foreign Location Shooting.