https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9429-3240
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ABSTRACT
This article analyzes the significant events that led to the emergence and growth of the online Indian audio-visual sector. The principal argument that drives this narrative is the co-evolution of Indian formal and informal media economies that led to the media industries’ digital transformation. Drawing on historical analysis of the Indian film and television industries, we argue that just as the informal means of finance, social relations, illegal cable and satellite distribution had a formative influence on how these industries formalized, the Indian online audio-visual sector is driven by distinctive formalization processes, led by creators who are engaging with both local and global UGC-led platforms as well as PGC-led portals. Using a critical media industries framework, with data gathered from semi-structured interviews with ‘above-the-line’ Indian online media practitioners together with trade press literature, we propose an analytical framework that incorporates both platforms and portals as industrial objects for mapping digital production cultures that originate as inherently informal.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Smith Mehta
Smith Mehta is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Industries (2021) from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia and specialises in media industries studies, creator cultures and production cultures. He has previously published in Media, Culture and Society, International Journal of Cultural Studies, and other journals. Smith has previously worked in Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd as a content producer and was selected as a UNESCO Asia Pacific creative specialist in 2018–2019.
Stuart Cunningham
Stuart Cunningham AM is Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Queensland University of Technology. In 2021, he was also Distinguished Fellow, University of Canberra. His most recent books are Media Economics (with Terry Flew and Adam Swift, 2015), Social Media Entertainment: The new intersection of Hollywood and Silicon Valley (with David Craig, 2019) and A Research Agenda for Creative Industries (edited, with Terry Flew, 2019), Creator Culture: an Introduction to Global Social Media Entertainment (edited, with David Craig, 2021) and Wanghong as Social Media Entertainment in China (with David Craig and Jian Lin, 2021).