CFP for SCMS 2024 panel: Branding and Re-Branding Hallmark Media
andrea.braithwaite
Panel organizer: Andrea Braithwaite
Communication and Digital Media Studies, Ontario Tech University
Preliminary panel description:
At a time when network and cable television struggle to retain audiences, Hallmark is thriving, adding two more channels to its roster in the past decade. The company has also expanded its media production, launching additional TV drama series and a standalone app, as well as branching into podcasts, book publishing, and even Hallmark-branded wine. At the same time, Hallmark Media has undergone high-profile leadership changes, with its new CEO Wonya Lucas proclaiming: “We’re really seeking to make sure that everyone sees themselves in our movies” (mediavillage.com).
This panel takes a close look at Hallmark Media’s strategies for diversifying and thriving – particularly its strategies of media production, of representation (including and exceeding romantic and familial relationships), and of audience interpellation. Approaching Hallmark Media’s success as more complex than simply apolitical comfort viewing, this panel tackles questions like: What can Hallmark Media’s continued expansion across media sites and forms tell us about contemporary circuits of culture? How does Hallmark Media translate its affective and brand identity across media sites? To what uses does it put the affordances of particular lifestyle media modes, and what can this tell us about the traffic between media forms, gender, and genre? What does Hallmark script as pleasurable, and in what sorts of spaces and places do Hallmark texts tell us such pleasures can be found? How are these pleasures being (re)envisioned for audiences more diverse than the company’s historically dominant demographics?
Branding and Re-Branding Hallmark Media’s panelists critically expand this under-attended area of inquiry to illustrate the ways in which Hallmark Media can help us understand the operations and appeals of branded media cultures in today’s media and political landscapes.
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Please send expressions of interest (a brief outline of your paper topic plus a short author bio) by July 28 2023. Proposals that address Hallmark Media’s more recent (i.e. post-Abbott controversy) movies are encouraged, and work addressing Hallmark’s other media (TV series, podcasts, etc.) is especially welcome! Decisions will be communicated no later than August 4 2023. Full proposals exemplifying SCMS’ standards for successful submissions will be needed by August 20 2023, in order to meet the conference portal deadline.
Feel free to share with any colleagues and graduate students who may be interested!
Cheers,
Andrea Braithwaite