Franchise Era - Managing Media in the Digital Economy

The Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy
Edited by James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim and Stephen Mamber

A collection of essays that examine the management strategies of franchises across multiple media

As Hollywood shifts towards the digital era, the role of the media franchise has become more prominent. This edited collection, from a range of international scholars, argues that the franchise is now an integral element of American media culture. As such, the collection explores the production, distribution and marketing of franchises as a historical form of media-making - analysing the complex industrial practice of managing franchises across interconnected online platforms.

Examining how traditional media incumbents like studios and networks have responded to the rise of new entrants from the technology sector (such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google), the authors take a critical look at the way new and old industrial logics collide in an increasingly fragmented and consolidated mediascape.

James Fleury is a PhD candidate in Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA.
Bryan Hikari Hartzheim is Assistant Professor in the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, Japan.
Stephen Mamber is a Research Professor in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at UCLA.

Cover image: The Avengers (2012) Directed by Joss Whedon © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Photofest

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ISBN 978-1-4744-1922-2
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List of contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Foreword
Derek Johnson

Introduction: The Franchise Era
James Fleury, Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, and Stephen Mamber

PART I THE FRANCHISE: DEFINING AND HISTORICIZING

The (Im)Perfect Organism: Dissecting the Alien Media Franchise
James Fleury and Stephen Mamber

Evil Spawn or Good Business? New Line Cinema, Critters, and Film Franchising at the Margins
Daniel Herbert

PART II VIDEO GAMES: SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, AND SPACE

The Happiest Plays on Earth: Theme Park Franchising in Disneyland Video Games
Heather Lea Birdsall

'Now They're Playing with Power!': Nintendo's Classics and Franchise Legacy Management
Matthew Thomas Payne

From Cineludic Form to Mise-en-Game: The Ludification of Cinematic Storyworlds in the Star Wars Video Games
Andreas Rauscher

PART III: ANIMATION: ADAPTATION ACROSS NATIONS, INDUSTRIES, AND PLATFORMS

Ghostly Boundaries: Transnational Tensions and Adapting Animation in the Ghost in the Shell Franchise
Brian Ruh

How to Animate Your Franchise: DreamWorks Animation and the Franchising of How to Train Your Dragon
Rayna Denison

PART IV: TELEVISION: NEW DIRECTIONS FOR A LEGACY MEDIUM

TV Brand-casting, SVOD, and OTT at Comcast and Disney
Jennifer Gillan

Network Streaming: TV Broadcasters in the Digital Space
Monica Sandler

PART V: EMERGENT PLATFORMS: POSSIBLE FUTURES FOR THE MEDIA FRANCHISE

Transmedia-to-Go: Licensed Mobile Gaming in Japan
Bryan Hikari Hartzheim

Locating Esports Spectatorship - Studio Audience(ing) and Sites of Speculation
Alexander Champlin

Hollywood's VR Vision: New Frontier or Virtually the Same Thing?
James Fleury

Index

About the author

James Fleury teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. His work has appeared in Mediascape: UCLA's Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (2012, 2015), James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy (McFarland, 2014), the South Atlantic Review (2015), and Content Wars: Tech Empires vs. Media Empires (Rutgers University Press, forthcoming). His dissertation analyzes the history of video games at Warner Bros.Bryan Hikari Hartzheim is Assistant Professor in the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, where he teaches courses on digital media, games, and animation, with a focus on the Japanese media industries. His work has appeared in The Journal of Popular Culture, Mediascape, and the edited anthology Video Games in East Asia (Palgrave, 2017). He is currently working on a book on the game design of Hideo Kojima.Stephen Mamber is Professor of Film and Media Studies at UCLA. He is a former film critic for Pacifica Radio, and was a founding member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. He was a Research Fellow at the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies, and has been an IBM Consulting Scholar and Research Scientist. He has had a special interest in digital media as it relates to film studies, and in recent years has created a number of iPad apps, both tools for media study and examinations of great films.

Summary

Examining how traditional media incumbents like studios and networks have responded to the rise of new entrants from the technology sector (such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google), the authors take a critical look at the way new and old industrial logics collide in an increasingly fragmented and consolidated mediascape.

Product details

• Authors: James Hartzheim Fleury, FLEURY JAMES
• Assisted by: James Fleury (Editor), Bryan Hikari Hartzheim (Editor), Mamber (Editor), Stephen Mamber (Editor)
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781474477741
• ISBN: 978-1-4744-7774-1
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: Traditions in American Cinema
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication > General, dictionaries