Principal Investigator William Uricchio
Project Website http://www.convergenceculture.org/
The Futures of Entertainment is an annual event which explores the current state and future of media properties, brands, and audiences and the way these groups interact and intersect with one another. By combining a mix of leading media studies scholars and cutting-edge media and marketing practitioners from a diverse range of locations and sectors -- in conjunction with fans, activists, journalists, analysts, and other voices -- in lengthy discussion, this two-day conference explores how the media industries are evolving, how storytelling is changing and the shifting dynamics in how people relate to media properties and brands.
In addition to this cornerstone event, the core researchers and practitioners that comprise the Futures of Entertainment community collaborate throughout the year and provide a steady stream of individual and collaborative work aimed at addressing many of the issues tackled at the conference. The Futures of Entertainment website provides a home for updates on the research and publications of FoE Fellows, the Futures of Entertainment conference, and its sister event, Transmedia Hollywood, which is a collaboration between the University of Southern California and the University of California-Los Angeles.
Origins of FoE: The Convergence Culture Consortium
The Futures of Entertainment community was launched from the Convergence Culture Consortium project through the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, a five-year initiative that produced original research and provided high-level consulting on the changing dynamics of the media industries/brands and their audiences.
This project was built around the launch of principal investigator Henry Jenkins' 2006 book Convergence Culture. It worked in conjunction with corporate partners Turner Broadcasting, MTV Networks, GSD&M Idea City, Petrobras, iG, Fidelity Investments, Yahoo!, NagraVision, and The Alchemists to explore the nature of fan communities, piracy, alternative forms of television distribution, media consumption patterns, gaming, branding, advertising, the nature of social connectivity and sharing online and various other issues.
The project produced a wide range of white papers, research memos, and other publications, aimed at examining these changes in the media industries, as well as a blog which has provided news, analysis, and thinking from Consortium researchers. This research is archived and remains publicly available through the FoE site.
The C3 project also invested its energy in coining the terms "transmedia storytelling" and "spreadable media" and deepening the discussion surrounding these issues. In the process of that five-year project, the Consortium launched the Futures of Entertainment event and built a network of consulting academics, interested practitioners and alumni around this core work who today act as FoE fellows.