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 Web site 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.
C3 White Papers and Research Memos
2010 - 2012 C3 Research Memo and White Paper Series
edited by Prof. Henry Jenkins, Prof. William Uricchio and Daniel Pereira
How to Ride a Lion: A Call for a Higher Transmedia Criticism
By: Geoffrey Long
Assumption Hunters: A New Profession for the Corporation in the Throes of Structural Change
By: Grant McCracken
Watching with the World - Television Audiences and Online Social Networks
By: Alex Leavitt
Aging and the Future of Fandom
By: C. Lee Harrington
You and OurSpace
By: Shenja van der Graaf
Learning to Share: The Relational Logistics of Media Franchising
By: Derek Johnson
Tune On, Tune In, Cash Out: Maximizing the Value of Television Audiences
By: Sheila Seles
Embracing the Flow
By: Nancy Baym
Piracy Is the Future of Television
By: Abigail De Kosnik
Online Advertising: The New Magic
By: Ravi Inukonda, with Daniel Pereira
2009 White Papers
edited by Prof. Henry Jenkins, Dr. Joshua Green and Daniel Pereira
It's (Not) the End of TV as We Know It: Understanding Online Television and Its Audience
By: Sheila Seles
More Than Money Can Buy: Locating Value in Spreadable Media
By: Xiaochang Li
Tacky and Proud: Exploring Technobrega's Value Network
By: Ana Domb
2008 White Papers
edited by Prof. Henry Jenkins and Dr. Joshua Green
If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead: Creating Value in a Spreadable Marketplace
By: Henry Jenkins, Xiaochang Li, and Ana Domb, with Joshua Green
YouTube: Online Video and Co-Created Value
By: Joshua Green, with Jean Burgess
2005- 2007 White Papers
edited by Prof. Henry Jenkins and Dr. Joshua Green
Fandemonium: A Tag Team Approach to Enabling and Mobilizing Fans
By: Sam Ford, with Henry Jenkins and Joshua Green
Playing in Other Worlds: Modeling Player Motivations
By: Alec Austin, with Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, and Ivan Askwith
Selling Creatively: Product Placement in the New Media Landscape
By: Alec Austin, with Henry Jenkins, Tim Crosby, David Edery, Geoffrey Long, Raymond Pettit, Parmesh Shahani, and Stacy Wood
Vision Report 2010: In-Game Advertising
By: Ilya Vedrashko, with Henry Jenkins, Alec Austin, David Edery, Geoffrey Long, and Parmesh Shahani
Fanning the Audience's Flames: Ten Ways to Embrace and Cultivate Fan Communities
By: Sam Ford, with Henry Jenkins, Grant McCracken, Parmesh Shahani, Ivan Askwith, Geoffrey Long, and Ilya Vedrashko
How to Turn Pirates into Loyalists: The Moral Economy and an Alternative Response to File Sharing
By: Alec Austin, with Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, Ivan Askwith, and Sam Ford
No Room for Pack Rats: Media Consumption and the College Dorm
By: Sam Ford, with Rachel Shearer, Parmesh Shahani, Joshua Green, and Henry Jenkins
This Is Not (Just) An Advertisement: Understanding Alternate Reality Games
By: Ivan Askwith, with Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, and Tim Crosby
Moving Stories: Aesthetics and Production in Mobile Media
By: Geoffrey Long, with Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, and William Uricchio
