VOd

Today, VOD (video on demand) sites and portals specializing in long-form, high-quality documentary and factual content proliferate online. This article explores the multiplatform strategies of public service broadcasters in the UK in this context. It examines how the BBC and Channel 4 address the masses of user generated content that flood the documentary market and partake in the battle for audiences for documentary films and factual content in a multiplatform context. Both channels seek to reinvent themselves as public service media providers and curators of documentary content online, in order to fulfil public service remits and secure their positions as leading providers of documentary and factual content across platforms in a global multiplatform mediascape. However, by contrasting Channel 4’s online ‘verticals’ with the BBC’s themed and branded documentary portals, the article argues that although Channel 4 and BBC pursue similar strategies online they do so for different reasons and to different effect.

This thesis explores the current pervasiveness of conspiracy-themed shows on American television. It argues that such shows should not simply be regarded as symptomatic expressions of widely shared cultural anxieties in post-9/11 America, but circulate because of a shared narrative structure which provides unique appeals and invites 'forensic' audiences practices. Discussing prominent examples like The X-Files, Lost, Fringe, and Homeland, this thesis sketches the narrative logics of what I call 'the conspiratorial mode of storytelling' and the audience practices it invites - arguing that these shows encourage their audiences to engage with their narrative material in a manner that parallels the paranoid hermeneutics of conspiracy theorists. As such, they provide audiences with a pop-cultural playground to engage with conspiracy theory - and allow them to 'try out' the paranoid interpretive logics of conspiracy theorists in the attempt to unravel their central narrative enigmas. These shows thus become culturally 'productive' by promoting conspiratorial thought. My thesis furthermore offers an overview of recent work on conspiracy theory (as ideology, as a mode of interpretation, and as a narrative structure),  relates the latter to popular television series and engages critically with recent academic appraisals of narratively complex television and participatory culture.
In developing its argument, it tries to offer some answers to the question how increasingly complex television series maintain their accessibility and audiences' active engagement despite increasingly dense narrative developments and their stories' tendency to careen towards incoherence. Accordingly, this thesis relates their current prominence to the media environment of the post-television (or convergence) era, and its digital fora that allow for the discussion, interpretation, and analysis of TV texts. It furthermore reads the increasing complexity of television series as indicating a further permeation of the boundaries between work and leisure under advanced capitalism.

Massive data collection and analysis is at the heart of many business models today. New technologies allow for fine-grained
recommendation systems that help companies make accurate market predictions while also providing clients with highly
personalized services. Because of this, extreme care must be taken when it comes to storing and managing personal (often
highly sensitive) information. In this paper we focus on the influence of big data management in media business content
platforms, mainly in well-known OTT (Over the Top) services. In addition, we comment on the implications of data management
in social networks. We discuss the privacy and security risks associated with this novel scenario, and briefly comment
on tools that aid in securing the privacy of business intelligence within this context.

Derecho de la Unión Europea sobre contenidos digitales

Analizamos la política y el Derecho de la Unión Europea en el ámbito de los contenidos digitales y concretamente de la posibilidad de la gestión multi-territorial o transfronteriza de los derechos de autor para que la venta, alquiler o descarga de música, cine o periódicos pueda ser efectiva en el Mercado Único Europeo.
Así veremos la entrada en vigor de la Directiva 2014/26 que ya debería haberse aplicado, y otra norma que el Consejo y el Parlamento Europeo están tramitando desde 2015, la propuesta de Reglamento del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo por el que se garantiza la portabilidad transfronteriza de los servicios de contenidos en línea en el mercado interior, que pensamos podrá entrar en vigor antes que la Directiva de 2014 siendo un “bypass” para la lenta incorporación de cambios en el copyright.

"Fandependence in a Web 2.0 World.

In 2009, one time film producer and now digital strategist Thomas Mai called for the recognition of the end of the independent film era and the shift to a ‘fandependent’ entertainment industry. The rise in networked communication, digital and mobile devices, and participatory strategies in content creation, development, funding and distribution, and the affordances of the web and digital media have changed how content across media is created and consumed. This paper will assess the implications of current trends in terms of the disruptive innovations likely to radically alter a global media landscape in the coming year, with a particular focus on new practices impacted by social media in the increasingly hybrid sphere of film, television and gaming."

In all the buzz surrounding Video on Demand, with scores of executives and mounds of data predicting certainty of success, questioning the value proposition borders on heresy. But with hundreds of channels and thousands of programs already available, offering more programs over VOD is like trying to sell sand in a sandstorm. Movies-on-Demand seems like an obvious winner, but is 'order, pause & rewind' enough to inspire viewers to spend more money on Cable TV?

Easy access to multimedia information is important as the amount of information is exponentially growing. Content-based retrieval is a viable approach. Extensibility and flexibility of data models is another important issue as the field is constantly evolving. The ADMIRE framework applied in this paper satisfies both criteria. This we show in two practical cases, one in the field of clinical assessments of measurement data, the other in the field of video directory services. ADMIRE offers a uniform solution for structuring these data. Content disclosure is supported by labelling of these data structures. This is done by automatic, semi-automatic or manual labelling.