DIGISCREENS: Identities and Democratic values on European digital screens: Distribution, reception and representation

At a time when streaming platforms provide access to film and television from all over the world, DIGISCREENS focuses on how these platforms contribute to transform social and cultural dynamics in Europe. The project asks how the increased possibilities for audiences to watch audio-visual content from a great geographical diversity affect our construction of identity and understanding of the other, as well as our negotiation of democratic values such as equality, inclusion and solidarity.

DIGISCREENS is a transdisciplinary project that studies film and TV distribution, reception and representation in the light of the last decades’ policies for increased diversity and inclusivity on screen. In particular, we problematize how European distribution policies and individualised algorithms govern public and commercial platforms, creating both “filter bubbles” and a promise of common democratic values and models of identity.

By investigating digital film and TV distribution, representation, and reception in Norway, Sweden, France, Spain and Lithuania, this project discusses how transnational distribution and consumption of audio-visual content may create social encounters and a sense of global integration. By combining methodologies from media studies, anthropology, literature, cultural and political analysis, we compare how members of different social and cultural groups perceive their roles, rights and democratic participation in contemporary Europe.

KEYWORDS:

fiction film and tv series, digital platforms, european audiovisual market, audience studies, svod, socio-cultural identities, democratic values, equality and inclusion.

CONSORTIUM

  • Project Leader: Maud Ceuterick, University of Bergen, Department of Information Science and Media Studies, Norway, e-mail
  • Lina Kaminskaitė Jančorienė, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Art History and Theory, Lithuania
  • Maria Jansson, Orebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Sweden, e-mail
  • Adelina Sanchez, University of Granada, Instituto Universitario de Estudios de las Mujeres y de Género, Spain

COOPERATION PARTERS

  • Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRI),
  • Norsk Filminstitutt (NFI),
  • Université Paris XIII (known as Université Sorbonne Paris Nord),
  • ICAA – Spanish Film Institute,
  • La Pantalla Digital (public- funded guide to digital platforms distributing cinema, series and other VOD contents in Spain),
  • EWA- European Women’s Audiovisual Network,
  • WIFTI – Women in Film and Television International and WIFT Sweden,
  • Swedish Film Institute,
  • Dones Visuals (Catalonian organisation of women in cinema and the audiovisual industry),
  • Lithuanian Film Center (LKC),
  • Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT)

ACHIEVEMENTS

Publications:

Jansson, M., & Belle, J. V. (2024), Markets as free speech providers and political resignation: Swedish (non) regulation of streaming platforms, Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 15(2), 279-295. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00148_1

Ceuterick, M., Malet, M. The (in)visibility of diversity on streaming platforms in France and Norway: A quantitative and qualitative visual analysis of thumbnails, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol.30 issue 4, 2024,  https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565241270712

Sanchez, A., Calderón Sandoval, O., Rivera Izquierdo, Á., Race -ing Masculinity: An Intersectional Analysis of Representations of Latinidad in the Spanish Public Platform Series Riders, Feminist Media Histories (2024) 10 (4): 109–131. https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2024.10.4.109

Malet, M., La dimension collective et sociale des séries dystopiques à l’épreuve du streaming ? Enquête sur les pratiques de visionnage et les réceptions des séries dystopiques en contexte numérique, In: V. Bullich & L. Schmitt (eds.), Services de vidéos à la demande et “plateformisation” de l’audiovisuel et du cinéma : Netflix, YouTube et au-delà, Editions des archives contemporaines, (2025 fc, accepted for publication)

 Start date

1 November 2022

Project duration

36 months

 Project budget

€ 1 495 518

Funding organisations