Runaway film production: A critical history of Hollywood's outsourcing discourse

Runaway production is a phrase commonly used by Hollywood film and television production labor to describe the outsourcing of production work to foreign locations. It is an issue that has been credited with siphoning tens of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs from the U.S. economy. Despite broad interest in runaway production by journalists, politicians, academics, and media labor interests, and despite its potential impact on hundreds of thousands—and perhaps millions—of workers in the U.S., there has been very little critical analysis of its historical development and function as a political and economic discourse. Through extensive archival research, this dissertation critically examines the history of runaway production, from its introduction in postwar Hollywood to its present use in describing the development of highly competitive television and film production industries in Canada. From a political economic perspective, I argue that the history of runaway production demonstrates how Hollywood’s multinational media corporations have leveraged production work to cultivate goodwill and industry-friendly trade policies across global media markets. More critically, I argue that the history of runaway production tells the story of the development of a Hollywood labor diaspora: a globally dispersed labor force bound by a common cultural identity as Hollywood labor, but divided by their unequal relationship to the discursive mythology of Hollywood as the industry’s authentic “homeland.”

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communications

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Yale, Camille K.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nerone, John C.
• Hay, James W.
• Jones, Steven G.
• McCarthy, Cameron R.

• runaway production
• media industries
• globalization
• outsourcing
• media history

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Camille K. Yale

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/18481

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F18481