Informal Media Economy

How are e-book pirates changing the publishing industry? What do ticket scalpers and internet search companies have in common? What role does organised crime play in the global movie business? How do 'jailbroken' iPhones drive innovation? What does a '.bit' internet address entail? This book sets out to answer these and other questions by bringing media studies into dialogue with a wider body of critical research on informal, or off-the-books, economies. Social scientists have long studied the dynamics of informal commodity distribution circuits and how they intersect with legal industries. But we have not yet begun to seriously think about the media landscape in this way. The Informal Media Economy is the first book to do so. Its central claim is that the most dynamic activity in global media happens at the edges of, or entirely outside, formal businesses and public institutions so we need to explore the world of informal media if we wish to understand the momentous challenges facing media industries and media workers today. Featuring vivid descriptions of black and 'grey' media networks, the book opens up new insights on a range of topical issues in media studies, from the creative disruptions of digitisation to amateur production, piracy and cybercrime.