Media Industries in Crisis

This edited volume offers a global overview of the immediate impacts the COVID pandemic had on local and national film, television, streaming, and social media industries-examining in compelling detail how these industries managed the crisis. With accounts from the frontlines, Media Industries in Crisis provides readers with a stakeholder framework, management lessons, and urgent commentaries to unpack the nature of crisis management and communications. The authors show how these industries have not only survived, but often thrive amidst a backdrop of critical national and regional emergencies, wars, financial meltdowns, and climate disasters. This international collection-featuring case studies from 16 countries-examines how media industries managed all of these crises, successfully rebranding themselves as "essential" while making power plays in politics, economics, and culture. The chapters reveal key lessons for the meltdowns, tectonic shifts, and struggles ahead. This collection will be of interest to media and communication students, particularly those focused on media industries, crisis communications, and management, as well as to practitioners working in media industries.

Vicki Mayer is Professor of Communication at Tulane University. She is author or editor of several books about media and communication, especially cultures of production. Her edited/authored books include Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries (2009), Below the Line: Producers and Production Studies in the New Television Economy (2011) and Almost Hollywood, Nearly New Orleans: The Lure of the Local Film Economy (2017). Noa Lavie is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Communication and Media Unit at Academic College of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Her work on the sociology of culture, media industries and television studies has led to prestigious grants (ISF 2017, BSF 2021) and publications in Ethnicities, Media Culture and Society, Sociology, Television and New Media, and Poetics. Miranda Banks is Associate Professor and Chair of Film, Television, and Media Studies at Loyola Marymount University. She is author of The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild (2015) and coeditor of Production Studies (2009) and Production Studies, The Sequel! (2016).

Introduction: COVID Strikes: The Makings of Crisis within a Crisis Industry Vicki Mayer PART I: Defining Stakes and Stakeholders in Media Crises 1. Insider Stakeholders: Hollywood in Crisis Miranda Banks 2. Essential Stakeholders: Is Kirsten's Dunst's Nanny an "Essential" Worker? Dispatches from Studio New Zealand Bridget Conor 3. Policy Stakeholders: Political Pivots and Precarity in Colombia's Orange Economy Enrique Uribe Jongbloed and César Mora-Moreo 4. Cultural Stakeholders: Solidarity in Finland for Creative Justice Anne Soronen 5. External Stakeholders: How Hollywood's U.S. Boosters Normalized Risk Kate Fortmueller 6. Stakeholders in Troubled Times: Understanding the Scene of Egyptian Media Production in Two Timeframes Mariz Kelada and Chihab El Khachab PART II: From the Headlines: Crisis Management and Communications 7. Polish Perspectives on Netflix COVID-19 Relief Funds Michal Pabis-Orzeszyna 8. Studio Construction in Ireland-Boom, Bubble-or Both? Bill Grantham 9. Indian Pandemic Entertainment Aesthetics and Infrastructure Darshana Sreedhar Mini 10. "Not Essential": The Controversial Status of Turkish Dizis Zeynep Sertbulut 11. COVID Variants and Colonial Remnants in South African Media Industries Jessica Dickson 12. Shooting with a Long Lens: Three Interviews with a Feminist Filmmaker in the Age of US Racial Reckonings Angela Tucker and Vicki Mayer 13. Work Contracts and Creative Justice for Turkey Ergin Bulut 14. Working From Home for Abroad: (Re)configurations of the Brazilian Animation Industry Elena Altheman 15. Fraught Gathering: Studio-Exhibitor Reckoning at CinemaCon 2021 Charlotte Orzel 16. Collaborative Networks for Streaming Film Festivals as Crisis Responses in Germany Skadi Loist 17. Multi-Cinemas and the Moment of Meme Capitalism Toby Miller PART III: Lessons Learned about Crises 18. Combat Lessons on the Decline of Democracy in/on Israeli Television News Noa Lavie 19. Taking a Cue from the COVID Lobby: Lessons for Greening Dutch Film Production Judith Keilbach 20. COVID Choreography in the U.K.: Redefining Intimacy on Set Tanya Horeck and Susan Berridge 21. Lessons from Mumbai: Managing the Lockdowns in Two Media Industries Tejaswini Ganti 22. Riding the Roller Coaster: Scenes from the Chinese Film Industry Ying Zhu 23. Epilogue: Learning from One Particular Crisis Miranda Banks, Vicki Mayer, and Noa Lavie