Authorship and agency in the media industries
Abstract
The process of creating new products in the media industries involves a number of people moving from an original idea to, for instance, a final film or television series. This collective process raises a number of issues related to questions of authorship and agency as creative work takes place in specific industrial contexts and production cultures marked by various constraints and demands. This chapter outlines different approaches to thinking about and studying authorship and agency in the media industries, outlining tensions between traditional notions of individual authorship/agency and the collaborative institutional and industrial frameworks of the media industries, as well as issues related to autonomy, power, and creative control. The chapter also raises questions about how to understand authorship and agency in the digital era marked by media convergence and more complex interplays between producers, users, and “produsers.” While researching authorship and agency in the media industries has always been complex and contested, focusing on these notions are still a fruitful entry point for many different kinds of media industry studies in the 2020s.
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The Romantic idea of the author lived in the minds of some screenwriters.
“While most media industry studies highlight that authorship should be understood as a collaborative action (Redvall, 2021), the Romantic idea of the author lived in the minds of some screenwriters.”
From Is prompt engineering the future of screenwriting? Views of professional screenwriters and commissioners about the impact of AI technologies on their profession (2025) · cites this paper as Redvall, 2021
Media industry processes are labelled by an understanding of industry operations as modes of authorship and by varying senses of ownership across multiple micro and macro perspectives.
“Media industry processes are labelled by an understanding of industry operations as modes of authorship and by varying senses of ownership across multiple micro and macro perspectives (Freeman, 2016: 65 cited in Redvall, 2021;also Redvall, 2014: 232-233).”
From Is prompt engineering the future of screenwriting? Views of professional screenwriters and commissioners about the impact of AI technologies on their profession (2025) · cites this paper as Redvall, 2021
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Vainikka, E., Soronen, A., & Kallio, S.-M. (2025) · Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies · doi:10.1177/17496020241269277 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“While most media industry studies highlight that authorship should be understood as a collaborative action (Redvall, 2021), the Romantic idea of the author lived in the minds of some screenwriters.”
- Authors
- Redvall, E. N.
- Affiliations
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Redvall, Eva Novrup
- ORCID
- Redvall, Eva Novrup
- Venue
- The Routledge Companion to Media Industries
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Published
- 2021-09-22
- Pages
- 223-232
- OpenAlex
- W3198968537
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 2.73
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Routledge eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Cinema and Media Studies
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Cultural Industries and Urban Development
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Keywords
- authorship, agency, media industry, creative work, collaborative production, creative control, autonomy, power, production culture, media convergence, produsage, digital media, film and television production
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