DIGISCREENS in Vilnius: Conference on Identity and Democratic Values in the Age of Streaming

Conference program:

October 23d:

 

9:00 - 9:30 Registration 

9:30 - 10:45  Welcome address and presentation of DIGISCREENS 

Maud Ceuterick, University of Bergen, Norway; Lina Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė, Cinema and Media Research Centre KIMO at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre; Ángela Rivera-Izquierdo, University of Granada, Spain 

9:45 - 10:45 Keynote presentation

"Discoverability of What for Whom? Inequalities in Europe’s Path towards a Competitive European Audiovisual Industry and a Diverse Cultural Public Sphere" by Cathrin Bengesser (Aarhus University, Denmark). Chair: Marine Malet (University of Bergen, Norway)

 

10:45 - 11:00 Coffee break 

11:00 - 12:30 Panel 1: Media Regulation and Democracy. 

Chair: Angela Rivera-Izquierdo (University of Granada, Spain)

Sabri Derinöz (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium) Negotiating the Democratic Aspects of “Diversity” in the (Audiovisual) Media Public Policies and Political Discourses in Francophone Belgium

Sandra Becker (University of Utrecht, Netherlands) and Berber Hagedoorn (University of Groningen, Netherlands) The Dutch Investment Obligation in Context: Media Policy and Cultural Diversity in Local Video‐on‐ Demand Production (2013–2023) 

Maria Jansson (Örebro University, Sweden), Orianna Calderón-Sandoval (University of Granada, Spain), Marine Malet (University of Bergen, Norway), and Lina Kaminskait-Janorien(Cinema and Media Research Centre KIMO at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre) Comparing the Implementation of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive in Lithuania, Sweden, Spain and France: Tensions and Bridges between Media and Cultural Policy

 

12:30 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 15:30 Panel 2: Representation of Identities. 

Chair: Adelina Sánchez Espinosa (University of Granada, Spain)

Lucile Coenen (Free University of Brussels, Belgium) Heteronormativity & Invisibility: Self-Identified Lesbian and Bisexual+ Women and Their Perception of LB+ Portrayals in Series 

Hélène Breda (University Sorbonne Paris Nord, France) “Yeah, idiot. That’s How Consent Works!” How Netflix Teen Dramas Promote Feminist Sexual Norms 

Ángela Rivera-Izquierdo and Adelina Sánchez Espinosa (University of Granada, Spain), Maud Ceuterick (University of Bergen, Norway) Utopian Nordic Parenting? Gendering Care in Norwegian and Spanish Series

15:30 - 16:30 Panel 3: Streaming Cultures and Audience. 

Chair: Maud Ceuterick (University of Bergen, Norway)

Vendula Kadlecová (Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic) Shame, Irony, and Identity: The Role of Hatewatching in Contemporary Streaming Cultures 

Maria Jansson (Örebro University, Sweden), Marine Malet (University of Bergen, Norway), Ugnė Rakauskaitė (Cinema and Media Research Centre KIMO at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre) Watching Lupin – Global Audiences on Representations of Inequalities and the “Frenchness” of a Netflix Series

 

19:30 - Conference dinner
 

October 24th:
 

9:30 - 10:30 Keynote presentation 

"Video-on-Demand Research Methods: Past, Present, and Future" by Ramon Lobato (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia). Chair: Maud Ceuterick (University of Bergen, Norway)

10:30 - 12:00 Panel 4: Diversity and Inclusion. Chair: Maria Jansson (Örebro University, Sweden)

Fatma Ozen (York University, Canada) Streaming Methods between Algorithmic Personalization and Human Curation 

Cassandre Burnier, Lucile Coenen and Louis Wiart (Free University of Brussels, Belgium) Diversity and Inclusion in Fiction in Belgium: A Statistical Overview 

Emre Dinçer (Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Turkey) Streaming Across Cultures: The Impact of Subtitles and Dubbing on Students’ Cultural Identity

 

12:00 - 13:30 Lunch

13:30 - 15:00 Panel 5: Industry and Democracy. 

Chair: Orianna Calderón-Sandoval (University of Granada, Spain)

Georgia Aitaki (Karlstad University, Sweden) Ethical Negotiations in the Age of Streaming: Reality TV, Meta Television and Industrial SelfReflection 

Aurore Berger Bjursell (Independent Researcher) Swedish Non-Cinema: Navigating Identity and Access on Draken Film (2017-2023)

Renata Šukaitytė, Giedrė Plepytė-Davidavičienė, Daiva Siudikienė (Vilnius University, Lithuania) Lithuanian Media Audiences After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Segmentation and Preferred Streaming Platforms

15:30 - 16:30 Stakeholders closing discussion: Identity and Democratic Values in the Age of Streaming

Participants: Marie-Lou Dulac (Diversity and Inclusion Consultant and Founder of the DIRE & Dire Agency, president of Women in Games France), Klara Nilsson Grunning (Film Commissioner, Western Norway Film Fund), Giovanna Ribes (Filmmaker, Co-Director of the Dona i Cinema Association), Anna Serner (former CEO of the Swedish Film Institute), Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė (Independent Film Producer, Lithuania), Kristina Zorita (women filmmakers association, Basque Country, Spain). 

Moderator: Maud Ceuterick (University of Bergen, Norway)

 

16:30 Farewell drinks

 

 

Abstracts

Keynotes 

Cathrin Bengesser, Aarhus University, Denmark 

Discoverability of What for Whom? Inequalities in Europe’s Path Towards a Competitive European Audiovisual Industry and a Diverse Cultural Public Sphere

Discoverability of European works on streaming services has been high on political agendas ever since the revision of the AVMSD in 2018. The quota for European works, investment obligations and the call for their prominence aims to unite two policy objectives: sustaining revenue for the European audiovisual industries in the platform age and ensuring audiences’ access to European works for the benefit of diversity of cultural expression or even European integration. With evidence from VoD catalogues, interfaces and research into European audiences, this talk maps the power dynamics that pitch these two objectives against each other and ultimately shape the outcome of these policies: Different levels of VoD market development across Europe, differences in scale between European and global platforms, competition between content from different European countries as well as representations aimed at national vs. transnational audiences, personalization obscuring transparency and a lack of attention to European content’s discoverability beyond streaming.

 

Ramon Lobato, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia 

Video-on-Demand Research methods: Past, Present, and Future

The disciplines of film, television and screen studies have recently undergone a 'streaming turn' as online video-on-demand (VOD) services become mainstream topics of investigation. Responding to this wave of interest, scholars have invented and adapted novel research methods such as catalog scraping, data donations, and prominence analysis, allowing new ways to study VOD catalogs, interfaces, and audiences. Yet familiar questions endure as problems of knowledge for our field. How should consumption and exposure be measured? Should streaming audiences be conceptualised differently from broadcast, cable or theatrical audiences? And what is gained or lost when we foreground streaming rather than some other aspect of screen culture in our analyses? Reflecting on these questions, my paper offers a critical assessment of the evolution of VOD research methods over the last decade, and the degree to which VOD research has--and has not--articulated with established methods of empirical screen research, including audience research. Drawing on John Urry's notion of the double social life of methods, and my own experiments with researching smart TV distribution, I will explore the wider implications of different 'ways of knowing' VOD.

 

Papers

Panel 1. Media Regulation and Democracy 

Sabri Derinöz, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium 

Negotiating the Democratic Aspects of “Diversity” in the (Audiovisual) Media Public Policies and Political Discourses in Francophone Belgium

The notion of "diversity" has increasingly shaped democratic and media political discourses in European media landscapes, yet remains ambiguously defined and contested (Auboussier et al., 2023; Derinöz 2023; Devriendt, 2012). This paper focuses on analyzing how "diversity" is articulated with the notion of “democracy” in political and institutional discourses surrounding media and audiovisual governance in Francophone Belgium. In the middle of the 2000s, following the dynamics of other countries, particularly France, the issue of diversity in the media was addressed in Francophone Belgium by public authorities. The government, along with the audiovisual regulatory authority, developed public policies to enforce “diversity” and “equality” in the audiovisual sector. In the following years until now, “diversity” has become a regular focal point on audiovisual and media public policies and political discourses. The notion of “diversity” in media and audiovisual related political discourse is often related to minority issues (e.g., representation, inclusion), but can also appear in terms of pluralism (variety of viewpoints), and cultural diversity (recognition of cultural groups), and is often used fuzzily and ambiguously. Drawing on a corpus spanning fifteen years, including parliamentary and governmental work and negotiated management contracts with public service media, this study uses discourse analysis methods (Krieg-Planque 2009, Maingueneau 2014), with the help of statistical text analysis software to understand how the public problem (Cefaï 1996, Gusfield 1984) of “diversity in (audiovisual) media” is (not) articulated with the notion of “democracy”. The ways in which public problems are defined is having effects on the responses given to them (Cefaï, 1996), with categorizations (Widmer, 2010) allowing for action programs (Arquembourg, 2016). By articulating (or not) the public issue of “diversity” with the notion of “democracy” , public and political actors participate in a (re)configuration of the public issue that imply or not key democratic stakes such as minority rights and the question of the representation of ideas and opinions in the “public sphere” , making, or not, the “diversity” issue a “democratic” issue.

 

Sandra Becker, University of Utrecht, Netherlands and Berber Hagedoorn, University of Groningen, Netherlands 

The Dutch Investment Obligation in Context: Media Policy and Cultural Diversity in Local Video‐on‐Demand Production (2013–2023)

On January 1, 2024, the Dutch government officially introduced an investment obligation for streaming services whose annual revenues exceed 10 million euros based on the EU’s Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMSD). This policy requires respective Subscription Video‐on‐Demand (SVoD) platforms to reinvest 5% of their turnover into Dutch cultural audiovisual content production. The decision to adopt the investment obligation into Dutch legislation came after years of fierce debates and two commissioned reports from the Council for Culture (Raad voor Cultuur, 2018) and Dialogic (Maltha et al., 2019), which both lack empirical data on actual production numbers and related budgets due to obstacles to data accessibility from production companies and streamers. While first self‐reporting on compliance by SVoDs with the new regulation will not be due until 2027, our presentation contextualizes the new law in recent institutional approaches and initiatives in the Netherlands to diversity and inclusion in its screen industry. These include newly established Dutch industry initiatives such as Vrouwen in Beeld (Engl.: Women in the Picture, est. 2020) and Kleur (Engl.: Colour, est. 2020), whose fundamental research on‐ and off‐screen diversity in the Dutch screen industry funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science revealed stark shortcomings in gender and ethnic diversity despite the countries colonial past (Crone et al., 2023; Sanders, 2022; Sanders and Becker, forthcoming 2025). In an effort to lay the groundwork for a review of the legislative texts of the Dutch investment obligation, we assess trends in production data from international SVoD platforms (e.g., Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+) and domestic streaming services (Videoland, NPO Start/Plus) over the period 2013, when Netflix entered the Dutch market, until the end of 2023 by type and genre. We thereby critically reevaluate the potential of the investment obligation to foster cultural and genre diversity in Dutch VoD fiction.

 

Maria Jansson, Örebro University, Sweden; Orianna Calderón-Sandoval, University of Granada, Spain; Marine Malet, University of Bergen, Norway; and Lina Kaminskait-Janorien, Cinema and Media Research Center KIMO at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre 

Comparing the Implementation of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive in Lithuania, Sweden, Spain and France: Tensions and Bridges between Media and Cultural Policy

Most European countries have included gender equality and diversity policies in their support schemes for film production and in their regulations of public service television. Further, global streaming platforms, such as Netflix, feature equality and diversity schemes. We investigate how existing gender equality and diversity initiatives have been impacted by the implementation of the 2018 EU Audiovisual Services Directive in Lithuania, Sweden, Spain and France. Drawing on the notion of a porosity between cultural and media policy, we compare what different problem representations the Directive have given rise to in the four countries, of which only France and Spain have implemented SVODs requirement to financially contribute to domestic audiovisual productions, the so-called “Netflix Tax” . The comparative analysis of the implementation in the four countries reveals both tensions and increased bridging of media and cultural policy, and that in Lithuania and Sweden, the implementation of the Directive has either been used as a political opportunity to limit gender equality and diversity or been implemented simultaneously as gender equality and diversity policies are rolled back.

 

Panel 2. Representation of Identities 

Lucile Coenen, Free University Brussels, Belgium 

Heteronormativity & Invisibility: Self-Identified Lesbian and Bisexual+ Women and Their Perception of LB+ Portrayals in Series

Extensive research has explored LGBTQIA+ portrayal in media (Griffin, 2024; Rouleau, 2022). Although platforms such as Netflix have increased visibility and diversified storytelling, the GLAAD (2024) reveals a decline in the number and diversification of LGBTQIA+ characters on screen. Plus, many depictions remain stereotypical or negative (Corey, 2017). This has an impact on viewers as shown by Logie and Rwigema (2021) who found that some viewers were “not feeling as a good LGBTQ+ person” as representations fail to resonate with their identities. This research explores how self-identified lesbian and bisexual+ (encompassing pansexual and queer women, hereafter LB+) women aged 20-29 « consume, interact with, and reflect on » LB+ characters in series (Hermes & Kopitz, 2023). 15 semistructured interviews were conducted to identify which series resonated with them, what are their emotional responses and the influence on their self-construction. Results show a particularly important absence of representation during adolescence that left viewers without models. Due to stereotypes and lack of diverse stories, LB+ women shared difficulties identifying with LB+ characters. This notwithstanding, the latter’s representations have allowed interviewees to counter isolation feelings, and to both understand and better address their sexuality. It showed them it was a possibility, that it existed and that it was accepted. Clearly, depictions of sexual minorities are essential to viewers’ self-construction, especially when offering LB+ characters full stories and diverging narratives. This study draws connections between media representation and audience research – largely overlooked (Turner, 2019) - and explores images that may impact viewers’ sense of self. It also examines how LB+ women exploit series to construct their sexual identity and contributes to do so in the context of understudied Belgium.

 

Hélène Breda, Sorbonne Paris North University 

“Yeah, idiot. That’s How Consent Works!” How Netflix Teen Dramas Promote Feminist Sexual Norms

The presentation I propose explores how Netflix teen dramas contribute to the transmission of feminist values through a didactic treatment of sexual consent. As audiovisual “technologies of gender” (De Lauretis, 1987), television series have long participated in the social construction of gendered norms. However, in the post-#MeToo era, a growing number of teen-oriented streaming series have shifted from conservative cautionary tales about adolescent sexuality to narratives that actively promote consent as a core value. Focusing on a corpus including Sex Education, 13 Reasons Why, Heartbreak High, and Degrassi: Next Class, I examine how fictional narratives function as tools of edutainment for young audiences in the context of changing sexual norms. Using a media-representational approach inspired by feminist media studies and cultural studies, I have identified three interconnected modes of transmission: monstration (the repeated depiction of behaviors such as explicitly asking for consent during sexual encounters), enunciation (didactic dialogues between characters that convey feminist knowledge), and narrativization (story arcs structured around the theme of consent). Through this analysis, I demonstrate how Netflix’s global platform leverages culturally resonant themes—such as equality, respect, and bodily autonomy—to shape a “neo-normative” sexual script. While not all audiences may decode these messages uniformly, these teen dramas contribute to the diffusion of democratic values such as inclusion and mutual respect, particularly for adolescent viewers navigating their sexual identities. By situating these texts within the broader context of global streaming culture and feminist critique, I argue that teen dramas can act as vectors of soft power, mediating contemporary debates on gender and sexuality across national borders. This contribution aims to reflect on how streaming platforms can both challenge and reinforce hegemonic norms, while also participating in the education of young citizens on matters of consent and sexual ethics.

 

Ángela Rivera-Izquierdo, University of Granada, Spain; Adelina Sánchez Espinosa, University of Granada; Maud Ceuterick, University of Bergen, Norway 

Utopian Nordic Parenting? Gendering Care in Norwegian and Spanish Series

The chapter offers a brief genealogy of Spanish representations of motherhood and fatherhood on TV series, alongside a concise family history in Spain, before concentrating on the representation of both motherhood and fatherhood in RTVE Play’s series Esto no es Suecia (RTVE/3Cat, 2023). Esto no es [This is not Sweden] anatomises how the pursuit of Nordic-style “perfect" child-rearing collides with the contradictory realities of neoliberal optimisation. By comparing the series to Nordic parenting as represented in the acclaimed Norwegian series Pørni (Viaplay, 2021-2022, Netflix 2024-2025), this paper will deconstruct the continuous gendered labour of affect and pedagogy. It will first look at the novel norms of respectful caregiving, work–life reconciliations, and negotiations of external pressure, before considering the series through their different generic codes and production demands. While both series are constructed as (realist) comedies, they differ in their critique or absence of critique of gendered models of motherhood and fatherhood. While Pørni was produced and distributed on commercial platforms, the Spanish series forms a salient case in how the public television seeks to intervene in, and productively structure, contemporary debates on society, education, and family relationships, elucidating their mutual entanglements and the contested ethics of care in late‑modern Spain (and Europe).

 

Panel 3. Streaming Cultures and Audience 

Vendula Kadlecová, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic 

Shame, Irony, and Identity: The Role of Hatewatching in Contemporary Streaming Cultures

The consumption of television content is inherently tied to the viewer's emotions and individual perceptions. These perceptions are strongly shaped by social conventions and hierarchies of taste, which (in)directly determine what content is considered normative and what is considered deviant. Concepts such as guilty pleasure and hatewatching illustrate the dynamic interplay between cultural and personal identity, and represent complex phenomena of audience behaviour from two ambivalent positions. This paper, based on a pilot case study from the Czech YouTube environment, shows that the concepts of guilty pleasure and hatewatching are not easily distinguishable. The term guilty pleasure refers to feelings of shame or embarrassment associated with enjoying certain television programmes, which may distance the viewer from dominant audience norms and accepted tastes. In contrast, hatewatching implies a more critical – or even culturally superior – mode of engagement, often externalised through social media commentary aimed at public ridicule. The rise of hatewatching as a dominant mode of television consumption seems to coincide with the decline of television's original constructive-critical function, which once sought to moderate uncritical fan engagement and foster essential aesthetic dialogue within audience culture. This paper also argues that in the contemporary media landscape, hatewatching facilitates increased emotional manipulation and monetisation of Czech viewers. Furthermore, the shift in focus from broader programmatic critique to personal attacks on actors and content creators may ultimately contribute to forms of symbolic violence.

 

Maria Jansson, Örebro University, Sweden; Marine Malet, University of Bergen, Norway; Ugnė Rakauskaitė, Cinema and Media Research Center KIMO at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre

Watching Lupin – global audiences on representations of inequalities and the “Frenchness” of a Netflix series 

This study seeks to understand how global audiences receive the messages of the French Netflix production Lupin (2021-223). Based on focus groups with audiences in France, Lithuania and Sweden, we ask how audiences have received the narrative and messages of the series and how they perceive its French origin. The series Lupin – Gentleman Burgler reached the Netflix top list of several European countries at the same time as the Spanish Money Heist and Korean Squid Game and was seen as part of a trend of non-US series reaching international audiences and becoming economically lucrative. But how do audiences perceive the messages in Lupin? The series has been described as a story with different layers, on top there is a story about the gentleman burglar performing the perfect heist, but beneath the series seek to problematize social issues such as racism and the French colonial past. The fact that national productions from various European countries “travels” and reach major audiences have attracted scholarly attention. Seeking to understand why certain series travel such studies often draw on theories about proximity to find out what it is that attracts foreign audiences, or how audiences perceive and read the cultural context presented in such series. Simultaneously, scholars have argued that the global proliferation of commercial platforms has led European productions to increasingly mimic features of US series, smoothing out differences and European flavors. This article seeks to understand how the messages in Lupin are received by global audiences. Based on feminist and intersectional theory, the study analyzes how global audiences describe what the story is about, how they discuss the power relations and inequalities that are depicted in the series and how they perceive the “Frenchness” of the series compared to other content they watch.

 

Panel 4. Diversity and Inclusion 

Fatma Ozen, York University, Canada 

Streaming Methods between Algorithmic Personalization and Human Curation

As streaming platforms increasingly dominate global audiovisual consumption, they also reshape the methodological tools researchers use to study media production, distribution, and reception. This paper investigates how platform design—specifically the contrast between algorithm-driven models (e.g., Netflix, Amazon Prime) and curation-based platforms (e.g., MUBI)—influences research methods in the study of identity, representation, and audience engagement. Algorithm-driven platforms personalize content through opaque recommendation systems and data-driven logics that prioritize popularity and user behavior, often obscuring how and why certain content is surfaced or hidden. In contrast, MUBI’s curated approach—highlighting auteur cinema, global film festivals, and editorial selections— emphasizes human taste, thematic coherence, and cultural specificity. These divergent platform logics pose unique challenges and opportunities for researchers. How do we capture fragmented, data-mediated viewing on one hand and the intentional, guided experiences of curation on the other? This paper proposes a comparative methodological framework that blends digital ethnography, interface analysis, and reception studies to examine how different platform ecologies affect the visibility of diverse identities and the interpretive labor of audiences. It also reflects on how researchers interact with platforms—navigating personalization biases, shifting catalogues, and access limitations. Rather than privileging one model over the other, the study argues for a methodological awareness that attends to the politics of platform architecture. It considers how curatorial and algorithmic logics each frame diversity, cultural value, and audience agency in distinct ways, shaping not just what viewers see but how researchers can meaningfully study it. Ultimately, this paper calls for methodological approaches that are adaptive, critical, and attuned to the layered infrastructures of streaming in the age of platform capitalism.

 

Cassandre Burnier, Lucile Coenen, and Louis Wiart, Free University Brussels, Belgium 

Diversity and Inclusion in Fiction in Belgium: A Statistical Overview

The rise of streaming platforms is transforming the production, distribution, and consumption of films and television series in Europe (Ceuterick & Malet, 2024; Daalmans et al., 2024; Thuillas & Wiart, 2023). This article presents a statistical overview of diversity and inclusion in fiction available on VOD platforms in Belgium. This study is based on a quantitative content analysis (Bamman et al., 2024; Bengesser & Sørensen, 2024; Macé, 2009) of 160 popular or trending films on a sample of 4 VOD platforms available in the country: RTBF Auvio, RTL Play, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video. A total of 975 characters and 1484 audiovisual professionals were analyzed and coded across a variety of criteria (gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, religion, etc.). The results show that women, ethnic minorities, elderly people, and LGBTQ+ characters are underrepresented. Women are primarily depicted in supportive and caregiving roles, while men are more often portrayed in work and leadership roles (Dowd et al., 2023; Eschholz et al., 2002; Valentowitsch, 2023). Ethnic minorities are underrepresented, with a predominance of white characters (Asibong, 2013; Gergaud, 2022; Sandeau, 2022). Elderly people are significantly underrepresented compared to their proportion in society. LGBTQ+ characters are also underrepresented and often stereotyped (Norbury, 2014; Ringer, 1994). The statistical analysis will also compare Belgian television channels to American platforms in terms of diversity and inclusion, as well as their evolution over the years. This research contributes to a better understanding of diversity and inclusion in fiction. It also invites a broader discussion on how VOD platforms can contribute to more inclusive and equitable representation.

 

Emre Dinçer, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Turkey 

Streaming Across Cultures: The Impact of Subtitles and Dubbing on Students’ Cultural Identity

The paper examines the impact of multilingual content consumption on streaming platforms such as Netflix, focusing on how subtitle and dubbing preferences shape the cultural identities of students. As digital media increasingly influences young adults’ identity formation in a globalized world, this research explores how preferences for subtitles versus dubbing affect students’ cultural perceptions and identity development. It also investigates the role of multilingual content in fostering cultural diversity and intercultural understanding among communication faculty students. The study aims to uncover how viewing preferences reflect broader media habits, offering new insights into cultural identity formation in the digital age. By bridging academic discourse and practical implications, it highlights the transformative role of digital media in shaping students’ cultural identity. The research adopts a qualitative case study approach, targeting students from a communication faculty with similar foreign language backgrounds. Participants will be selected through purposive sampling to ensure relevance and coherence in their media consumption experiences. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews designed to explore the motivations behind subtitle or dubbing preferences and their perceived impact on cultural understanding and identity. Approximately 10-15 participants will be interviewed to achieve data saturation. Data analysis will integrate descriptive and thematic analysis. Descriptive analysis will summarize participants’ preferences and experiences, while thematic analysis will identify recurring patterns. To enhance validity, triangulation will be applied by cross-verifying findings across multiple data sources: interview responses, participants’ reflections on specific streaming content, and researcher observations during the interviews. This multi-perspective approach will provide an interpretation of how multilingual media influences cultural identity.

 

Panel 5. Role of the Industry 

Georgia Aitaki, Karlstad University, Sweden 

Ethical Negotiations in the Age of Streaming: Reality TV, Meta Television and Industrial Self-Reflection

This paper explores the ethically complex and contradictory nature of reality television, a genre that consistently provokes critical reflection on broader questions concerning the ethics of entertainment. Focusing on how the television industry itself engages in this ethical discourse, the study asks: How do TV industries in the streaming era reflect on questions around ethics and responsibility? 

Grounded in a theoretical framework of reflexivity, metatextuality and meta television (Stam, 1985; Giannini, 2024), as well as entertainment ethics and citizenship (Ouellette, & Hay 2007; Elliot 2012; Orgad & Nikunen 2015), the paper examines the growing trend of self-aware, reflexive media that interrogate their own practices. Two recent Netflix documentaries serve as case studies: Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action (2025) and Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser (2025). Both works function as reflective accounts of national and transnational histories of reality TV, highlighting themes such as the limits of entertainment, the long-term consequences for participants-turned-celebrities, and specific instances of on-set violence and harassment. Employing a textual analysis, this paper explores the audiovisual strategies these texts use to define and frame ethical transgressions, as well as negotiate discourses of responsibility. By activating ethics as the central analytical lens, this study offers an overview that bridges three major strands in (reality) television studies: the construction and negotiation of authenticity and performance in reality TV; the (re)conceptualization of production ethics; and the shifting norms of ethical spectatorship in the age of streaming. As such, the paper aspires to contribute to ongoing debates about how streaming platforms position themselves in relation to reality TV’s controversial legacy, suggesting a new era of industrial self-reflection.

 

Aurore Berger Bjursell, Independent Researcher 

Swedish Non-Cinema: Navigating Identity and Access on Draken Film (2017- 2023)

This presentation examines ten Swedish “non-cinema” films distributed by the Sweden-based video-on-demand (VOD) platform Draken Film from 2017 to 2023. Primarily viewed through VOD during and after festival runs, these works highlight the role of national streaming services as fragile mediators in the contemporary digital screen culture. While major streaming platforms have attracted significant attention, national independent films, often reliant on local VOD services for exposure, have received comparatively little academic scrutiny. The example of these ten independent films' intermittent availability, marked by their rarity, questions the democratic access to Sweden's film heritage and the representation of diverse sociocultural identities. Adopting a postdisciplinary approach, this study combines critical readings, film analysis, and the collection of limited short reviews and few but valuable testimonies from professionals, given the sparse stakeholder response. Findings suggest that unstable access to local national films has the potential to undermine the long-term visibility of alternative cinematic voices, thereby affecting Sweden’s collective memory and cultural diversity. Addressing this neglected field, the research advocates for the preservation of “noncinema” films as national cultural heritage. It encourages scholars and institutions to strengthen access, protect plural identities, and expand the scope of film studies beyond dominant global platforms.

 

Renata Šukaitytė, Giedrė Plepytė-Davidavičienė, and Daiva Siudikienė, Vilnius University, Lithuania 

Lithuanian Media Audiences After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Segmentation and Preferred Streaming Platforms

Although the growing body of research on the distribution and reception of film and television content in national and international markets from various perspectives, including historical (Biltereyst et al. 2011, Hammett-Jamart et al. 2018, Parvulescu 2020, Szczepanik et al. 2020, Szczepanik 2021, Parvulescu and Hanzlík, 2021, Meir and Smits 2024) and the European Audiovisual Observatory’s annual Key Trends reports on the pan-European audiovisual market as a whole, Lithuanian audiovisual market and media audiences remain unresearched and unmapped. This epistemological situation, which complicates the work of researchers, arose due to the specific characteristics of the local market and its historical development. These include, for example, the size of the market, its fragmentation and dependence on public stimuli, the audience’s linguistic preferences, and the intense internal and external competition between audiovisual content producers and service providers, which leads to limited access to data on gross box office receipts and audience ratings, as well as the reliability of the data itself. The lack of stable national funding for this type of research, as well as the fragility and fragmentation of researchers’ collective interest in this type of research, is another problem that leads to the irregularity of studies on Lithuanian film and media audiences, film distribution and film reception, causing the gaps in longitudinal data. To address these challenges, the authors of this paper will share the outcomes of the recent pilot research based on the sample data from 2021 and 2023 acquired from KANTAR, an international media and market research company operating in Lithuania that conducts the largest number of representative surveys of the Lithuanian media audiences (TV, radio, press, Internet). The aim of our research is to investigate the audience of Lithuanian streaming platforms and their behaviour in the transmedia environment after the COVID-19 pandemic employing quantitative data analysis.

 

Stakeholders closing discussion: Identity and Democratic Values in the Age of Streaming

Marie-Lou Dulac (Diversity and Inclusion Consultant and Founder of the DIRE & Dire Agency)

After working at Ubisoft, Marie-Lou Dulac founded DIRE & Dire, a diversity and inclusion consulting agency. She has worked with organizations like Netflix and published a book on the “woke movement” in pop culture. She specializes in representation issues in films, series, and video games. In 2025, she was elected president of Women in Games France, an association that promotes gender equality in the gaming industry.

Klara Nilsson Grunning (Film Commissioner, Western Norway Film Fund)

Klara Nilsson Grunning is an Emmy Award winning Swedish American film producer. The past 15 years she has been a commissioning editor in the Nordics at the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian film institutes, supporting Oscar winning No Other Land, Sundance winners The Remarkable Life of Ibelin and A New Kind of Wilderness and classics like Queen of Versailles. During nine years she worked as a supervising producer for American and international co-productions at ITVS with Lion in the House, New Americans and the PBS strand Independent Lens. Currently she is film commissioner for fiction features, documentaries, series, and games at the Western Norwegian film fund.

Kristina Zorita (women filmmakers association, Basque, Spain Country)

Kristina Zorita Arratibel is a journalist in the EITB MEDIA (the Basque TV and radio public corporation) since 1992. Currently she is covering culture and especially cinema news. She has covered the Cannes, Berlin, Venice, San Sebastián film festivals, among others. She is a member of AICE (Association of Cinematographic Informers of Spain) and has served on the Feroz Awards jury - bestowed to the best Spanish films and series. Holding a Master’s Degree in Screenwriting from the London Film School, she had directed two short films and produced a couple more. She has been a member of a jury in the San Sebastian Film Festival and the Festival du Cinéma Espagnol de Nantes. She is the co-founder and co-president of (H) emen, the Basque association of professional women in audiovisual media and the performing arts.

Giovanna Ribes (Filmmaker, Co-Director of the Dona i Cinema Association) 

Anna Serner (former CEO of the Swedish Film Institute)

Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė (Independent Film Producer, Lithuania)

Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė has over 20 years of experience in film and television. In 2007, she founded the studio Just a Moment, producing a wide range of audiovisual projects, including feature films, media projects, or documentaries. She is an active member of several prestigious industry organizations, including the European Producers Club, European Film Academy, ACE, EAVE, Eurodoc, The Independent Producers Association of Lithuania, and the Association of Film Culture in Lithuania. She regularly enhances her expertise through international professional training and serves as a mentor, lecturer, and expert for organizations such as the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Lithuanian Short Film Agency (Lithuanian Shorts), the training and consultancy program First Cut Lab, the arts agency Artscape, the Lithuanian Film Centre, etc.

Her recent productions include Dance Plus City, a series of short dance and architectural films co-produced with partners from Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, and France, featuring 9 directors from 5 countries;Twittering Soul, the first Lithuanian 3D film by Deimantas Narkevičius, showcased at Rotterdam, Marseille, and Tallinn Film Festivals; and Burial, a documentary by artist Emilija Škarnulytė, which has been featured in over 30 festivals and art spaces worldwide.