Crowdsourcing, privacy, location-based technologies and producer/audience collaboration are among the pressing issues at the forefront of the futures of entertainment and media. Thought leaders from the media, entertainment and marketing industries will gather alongside media studies scholars in Cambridge to discuss these subjects at next month's Futures of Entertainment 5 conference at MIT. The fifth-annual event -- which explores the current state and future of media properties, brands and audiences -- expects more than 300 attendees this year.

The two-day conference explores how the media industries are evolving, how storytelling is changing and the shifting dynamics in how people relate to media properties and brands. While the first day will focus on the issues shaping the futures of entertainment, the second day will look at innovations and experimentation taking place in particular media industries: serialized storytelling, children's media, music and journalism and documentary filmmaking.

Panelists will include experts from the U.S., Brazil, India, The Netherlands, Finland, Chile, Mexico and the United Kingdom. The conference will also feature representatives from a range of media companies and publications, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, The San Jose Mercury-News, Fast Company and Worship Leader Media to Gowalla, Loku, Sesame Workshop and The Leaky Cauldron.

Conference attendees will be treated to two keynote talks. The conference will open with Henry Jenkins, Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California; Sam Ford, Director of Digital Strategy with Peppercom Strategic Communications; and Joshua Green, Research Specialist at Undercurrent, sharing insights from their forthcoming book, Spreadable Media. The first day will close with a session of the privacy considerations that must be taken into account when exploring "the futures of entertainment" withJonathan Zittrain, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and Helen Nissenbaum, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, and Computer Science at New York University.

"Since 2006, the Futures of Entertainment conference has brought together scholars and practitioners to discuss the issues that will be driving future innovation in the media industries," said Sam Ford, director of digital strategy, Peppercom Strategic Communications, and Futures of Entertainment board member. "This year, we are excited to have a wider range of international perspectives than ever before to better understand the concepts and forces that are helping shape the media landscape."

The conference is sponsored by Viacom Media Networks, Petrobras, The Alchemists and the Program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT and will be produced by Peppercommotions. It will be held on the campus of MIT, where all four previous conferences have been hosted. For more information, or to purchase a ticket, please visit http://convergenceculture.org/futuresofentertainment/2011/. 

About Futures of Entertainment 
The core researchers and practitioners that comprise the Futures of Entertainment community collaborate throughout the year and provide a steady stream of individual and collaborative work aimed at addressing many of the issues tackled at the conference. The Futures of Entertainment website provides a home for updates on the research and publications of FoE Fellows, the Futures of Entertainment conference, and its sister event, Transmedia Hollywood, which is a collaboration between the University of Southern California and the University of California-Los Angeles. The Futures of Entertainment community and conference was launched from the Convergence Culture Consortium project through the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, a five-year initiative that produced original research and provided high-level consulting on the changing dynamics of the media industries/brands and their audiences.

SOURCE Futures of Entertainment