The conference “Locating media industries: Cities, space, places” was held at King´s College in London in the summer. Four researchers from Geomedia attended.
Georgia Aitaki, senior lecturer in media and communication studies, took part in the conference in London together with colleagues Linda Ryan Bengtsson, Jessica Edlom and Jenny Karlsson – all from Karlstad University.
What was the purpose of attending the conference?
- To meet people and learn from them - but also to present our own ideas and research findings and get feedback, says Georgia Aitaki. The conference “Locating media industries: Cities, space, places” truly lived up to these expectations. It was a fairly small conference but very intense. The participants focused on studies on the media industries – that is, studies that go behind the scenes of the media industry. It is really fascinating to get a picture of how media and different types of platforms and organisations function – or don’t function. The interesting thing about this field of research is that you don’t just study the final product, but also the work that leads to the product.
Did you gain any special insights by attending the conference?
- The conference focused specifically on space and places. All of us from Karlstad University run projects that focus on that, but it is always interesting to see how other researchers conceptualise their projects. I also listened to presentations and panel discussions that were not necessarily related to my own field of research and I learned a lot about the Hollywood industry and new professions in television productions. For example, there are now intimacy coordinator as a result of the MeToo movement. It is an occupational category has been added so that everyone feels safe during, for example, a sex scene.
What feedback did you get on the work you presented?
- I feel that our work was well received. I knew the other participants in the panel I attended. It was about internationalising Greek television productions and that Netflix has picked up a Greek production for the first time – the series “Maestro in blue”. The panel focused on the flows between national and international productions from a historical perspective and different formats, which ties in with to my previous research on Greek productions.
