Face to face meetings and globalization : Networks and collective learning in a trade fair for TV programs in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

In this dissertation, we analyze the social construction of a market of TV programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on the study of a trade fair where buyers (TV channels, distribution intermediaries) and sellers of TV programs (studios, distributors and independent producers) can meet, negotiate, discuss, and close deals, we try to understand how this event participates in the transformation of the ways in which TV programs were “exchanged” in Africa and in the integration of the African TV programs market into the global one. TV programs distribution at the global level has long been considered to be a market. But until recently in Sub-Saharan Africa, TV channels used to acquire programs “for free” through diverse ways. Political, economic and technical evolutions have slowly transformed this sector into a market. The trade fair under examination in this research plays a central role in this evolution because it is the first to bring together the microcosm of this industry. We studied this event for three years and ran three surveys in order to collect social network data and analyze informal information exchange networks between attendees of the events. We study how trade fairs attendees learn from each other and define, select and share market values, norms and rules.