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Communication & Creativity Research Flagship - Projects

Informal Media Economies

ARC Discovery Project

The Swinburne Institute for Social Research (Swinburne), ARC Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation (QUT), New York Law School 2011-2014

Full title: Informal economies and audiovisual industries: Histories, dynamics, legal and policy responses (DP110101455)

This project focuses on the interactions between the formal and informal audiovisual economies (film, TV, video and online video). We aim to track the movement of innovation and adaptation between the formal and informal sectors, and to develop analytical frameworks to better understand the dynamics of media networks operating in “infra-legal” environments where conventional law and regulation is incomplete or unclear. By locating media markets in specific technological and cultural contexts, we also seek to investigate the idea that informal media economies may be considered historical norms of mediated communication, evolving alongside and in mutually constitutive relationships with organised and legally-sanctioned media businesses.

The project will make a significant contribution to the field of media studies and to public policy debates in the following ways:

• By conducting comparative research to identify structural characteristics, economic logics and cultural implications of otherwise disparate informal media economies,
• By contributing to an emerging scholarly interest in informal media economies which is currently generating innovative new approaches to media research across Asia, the US, Latin America, and Europe (Sundaram 2001; Ginbsurg et al 2002; Liang 2005; Himpele 2007), and by placing Australian media studies research at the forefront of this movement,
• By generating new industry-relevant data about informal media economies which can contribute to media, cultural and internet policy discussions in Australia in the lead-up to the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout, which is likely to increase the rate and quantity of informal media exchange in Australia.

Research Team

Chief Investigators: Prof Julian Thomas, Prof Stuart Cunningham (CCI, QUT), Prof Dan Hunter (New York Law School), and Dr Ramon Lobato (ARC Postdoctoral Fellow)

Publications and Other Research Outputs

Context

This project will investigate a vast but rarely studied field of media circulation. Around the world, billions of viewers regularly access film, television and other audiovisual media through distribution channels that are partly or wholly informal. From street-side DVD vendors to peer-to-peer networks, these networks play a central role in the global media economy. For example, entertainment industry groups claim that DVD piracy rates in parts of Asia and Eastern Europe are as high as 90% and illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing makes up somewhere between 48% and 80% of internet traffic.

Yet despite its magnitude, the informal media sector is poorly understood. Following the anthropological and sociological literature on informal economies (notably Keith Hart's work from the early 1970s, and that of Castells, Portes and others in the 1980s), we define informal media circulation and consumption as that which is largely or wholly outside the purview of state policy, regulation, taxation and measurement. The informal economy therefore encompasses a diverse range of activities in addition to organised piracy, including trade in putatively legal goods such as second-hand and parallel-imported items, as well as emerging network markets, such as those based on the commercial exploitation of online user-generated content. By its very nature informal economic activity presents a challenge to empirical research, and academic interest in the topic has been sporadic. We know little about how informal networks operate, who uses them, and what kinds of content they carry. Nevertheless, in an age of volatile change in both mainstream media industries and their informal alternatives, understanding these “grey” markets is likely to be key to developing effective media policy.

Research Programme

Through historical research, targeted case studies, and policy analysis, we will address the following questions:

• How and why has the concept of “illegality” in media production and distribution shifted over time, in the context of changes in industry structure, technology, copyright law, and market development?
• How and to what extent does innovation occur in the space between the formal and informal media economies, what is its extent, and how should policy makers respond?
• What are the implications for media policy, cultural policy and intellectual property?

Project Outcomes

Outputs from the project will will include an edited collection, a monograph, a series of journal articles, two international workshops, and a series of policy briefings.