Who's Running the Show? Negotiating Authority in Post-Fin-Syn           Writer-Producer Deals

Heuman, Josh

doi:10.7560/vlt8004

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…We examine the conceptualization of the showrunner, and their competencies (Landau, 2014;Newcomb & Alley, 1983;Wild, 1999), the contributions to the audiovisual production phases (De Valle, 2008;Kellison, 2009), and the references to the structure of the television industry, and its agents (Collie, 2007;Levine, 2001). Additionally, it is essential to take several books (Mittell, 2015;Newman & Levine, 2012) and scientific papers (Blakey, 2017;Heuman, 2017) into account, which theorize the authorial figure of the showrunner.…”

Section: Objectives and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding creative responsibilities, the figure of the showrunner implies a review of media television authorship, giving visibility to several studies which value the consideration of the showrunner-author (Heuman, 2017). Some of the professionals interviewed, such as Michael Brandt 22 -co-showrunner of Chicago's saga-, thinks that "if the showrunner created the show, he is the author of the show."…”

Section: Television Authorship Connected With Showrunners Their Abilities and Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The showrunner’s skills and responsibilities in the creation and production process of fiction series in the contemporary North American television industry

Ruiz

Pérez

Pascual

2021

Communication & Society

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Contemporary fiction TV series production in North America is characterized by the showrunner figure’s importance. This paper aims to study the concept of “showrunner” as executive-creative producer, analyze the competencies and responsibilities carried out by them during the production process of TV shows according to personal and professional factors, and examine their position within the current television market. For this purpose, a literature review on fiction TV series production and television authorship has been conducted. After this, adopting the focus of media production studies, a qualitative methodology based on in-depth personal interviews has been used, which was carried out with a selection of thirty-six significant executive producers and writers of contemporary American TV series. The findings indicate the relevance of this profile from a historical perspective, and particularly in recent years. Although there is a basic scheme of tasks developed by the showrunner in each phase of the production process, we find differences in this actuation due to personal –sex and nationality– and professional –format/gender and channel– characteristics in this industrial context. The showrunner develops an executive-creative dual profile to maintain the project’s coherence according to the established vision. Their influence over the TV series’ creative features contributes to reflection on television authorship and its attribution to this figure.

show abstract

Section: Objectives and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Television Authorship Connected With Showrunners Their Abilities and Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The showrunner’s skills and responsibilities in the creation and production process of fiction series in the contemporary North American television industry

Ruiz

Pérez

Pascual

2021

Communication & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hill (2016), for example, writes that power is neither 'overwhelmingly negative' nor is 'all power in the people's hands' but is better understood as a set of 'push and pull' relations (p. 765). Similarly, Heuman writes that his aim is 'to explore negotiations and transformations of the writers' institutional role' (Heuman, 2016(Heuman, , 2017. The concept of negotiation is utilized to understand the historical, social and cultural meanings of media contexts.…”

Section: Tv Production and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Production and politics in Chinese television

Zeng

Sparks

2018

Media, Culture & Society

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Political pressure and censorship are unavoidable conditions for producing an entertainment show in Chinese TV. The relationships between a production team and the government are, however, extremely complex. Based on participant observation in a TV channel and in-depth interviews with related television professionals, this article analyses the tensions between production and politics in Chinese television. The article argues that a centralized and topdown model fails to capture all the aspects of power relations in television production. A more productive starting point is that television production necessarily involves negotiation between different participants. This article analyses relations between the production team, the central broadcasting authorities and local governments. The production team in this case study utilized different strategies to negotiate with multiple levels of government.

show abstract

Who's Running the Show? Negotiating Authority in Post-Fin-Syn Writer-Producer Deals

Cited by 2 publications

References 17 publications

The showrunner’s skills and responsibilities in the creation and production process of fiction series in the contemporary North American television industry

The showrunner’s skills and responsibilities in the creation and production process of fiction series in the contemporary North American television industry

Production and politics in Chinese television

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