Towards a Structuration Theory of Media Intermediaries
Towards a Structuration Theory of Media Intermediaries
This chapter claims that media managers frequently engage in storytelling practices known as “industry lore.” These practices not only serve as sense-making rituals in managing the circulation of culture, but also as a means of negotiating and rationalizing individual agency in relation to structural forces within production cultures. The chapter examines the role of industry lore in legitimating and challenging discourses about what types of television texts can circulate internationally and why. It draws on sociologist Anthony Giddens' post-structuralist concept of “structuration” as a middle-ground between structure and agency, as well as Michel Foucault's theories of power/knowledge. These allows for an examination of how knowledge about the audience and the kinds of media content that might appeal to it are produced through an interaction between structural and cultural forces.
Keywords: industry lore, media managers, individual agency, structural forces, structuration, Anthony Giddens, power, knowledge, Michel Foucault
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