Managing the cross-industry networks of the audiovisual sector : a perspective from the independent screen productions in the UK and Taiwan

• Main Author: Chung, Hsiao-Ling
• Published: University of Warwick 2009
• Subjects: 306; PN1990 Broadcasting : PN1993 Motion Pictures
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.504970

The thesis is a qualitative account of the much neglected issues of the bottom-up, and interconnected organization of the Cross-Industry Network (CIN) phenomena within the Audiovisual Sector (AVS). The aims are achieved by exploring the why and how of the independent screen content producers in developing CIN during the production process. By conceptualizing the CIN phenomenon as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS), I used its theories as analogies to analyze the multi-case and multi-level studies conducted at two scenarios of independent TV production sector in the UK/ the developed, and the independent film production sector in Taiwan/the developing. My research produced the following four conclusions. 1. From Top-Down Industry Disintegration to Bottom-up Production Reconfiguration The industrial disintegration of the media industry has resulted in the reconfiguration of content production networks and intense self-adaptation of creative producers who are facing multi-directional connections within the CIN during their production process. Such adaptation reveals tensions between the producers’ self-perception as ‘independent’ and ‘creative’ producers and their networking decisions and actions. 2. From Managing the Creative Project to Managing the Creative and Commercial Venture The evolution of the CIN in the creative and media production is not entirely top-down/linear/serial, but more accurately, bottom-up/ non-linear/parallel. These internal self-organizing dynamics enable the production network to radiate outwardly, which induces trade-offs between and beyond commercial and creative priorities. 3. From Distribution-led Value System to Production-led Microcosm The production process has evolved its own diverse CIN, involving different types of relationships, a higher degree of complexity and structural tensions inherent in the value-creating system. Such production-led networking functions are the most fundamental source for developing broader CIN and the economic return for creative producers. 4. From Network Adaptation to Complex Adaptive System The networking activities of independent and creative producers radiate and interact outwards to connect and affect all levels of the network, resulting in unexpected directions and complex collaborations. In particular, the elements of multi-directional adaptation and tensions of the involved network actors have an important impact on the emergence and organization of the network. The main contributions of the research are firstly to have taken a bottom-up analysis by integrating the micro-level organizational complexity of the independent production into the theorizing about the AVS; and secondly, to have placed the intangible values and real practice of creative producers at the centre of the network study.