ICS Seminar Series - Professor Rainer Winter

Date: Thursday 3 April, 2014
Time: 11.30am - 1pm
Venue: EB.2.21, UWS Parramatta South campus

Professor Rainer Winter

The Formation of Transnational Serial Cultures. Research on Complex Television in the Digital Age of Global Culture Industries. 

Abstract  

This presentation divides my research approach in two parts. In the first part The Sopranos as an example of complex TV will be analysed. Based on different methods a case study that connects different perspectives of this transnationally circulating serial is presented. The production, narrative structure, the ambivalence of figures etc. are taken into consideration. In the second part I will debate this research field further.  Research strategies that can document and investigate the social life of serial material in the context of the digital age will be examined. Besides, I will discuss the role of culture industries today.

Biography

Rainer Winter is Professor of Media and Cultural Theory and Head of the Institute of Media and Communications at Alpen Adria-Universitaet Klagenfurt in Austria. He is Chair of the Section 'Sociology of Media and Communications' of the German Society of Sociology. In 2010 he taught as a Visiting Professor at Capital Normal University in Beijing and at Shanghai International Studies University. Since 2012 he is Adjunct Professor at Charles Sturt University in Sydney. Rainer Winter is the (co-)author of 8 and (co-)editor of more than 20 books, including Die Kunst des Eigensinns. Cultural Studies als Kritik der Macht (2001), Global America? The Cultural Consequences of Globalization (2003; German Translation 2003; Chinese Translation 2012), Widerstand im Netz (2010) and Die Zukunft der Cultural Studies (2011, Chinese Translation 2014). He is the (co-)editor of four book series, f.e. Cultural Studies (Bielefeld: transcript) with more than 40 books since 2001. His current research projects are: 'HipHop Music, Social Crisis and Democracy in Mali and Senegal' (cp. on YouTube: “HipHop au Mali: Movement de Démocratie”), 'Performigrations: People Are the Territory' (opens in a new window) and “CROSMOS” (opens in a new window).