Marc Steinberg

Marc Steinberg is author of the award-winning book Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan (University of Minnesota Press, 2012) which historically situates the practices of merchandising or the media mix in relation to the anime industry. Along with its expanded Japanese translation is Why is Japan a “Media Mixing Nation”? (Tokyo: Kadokawa, 2015), it won the ITRA-BTHA Book Prize (Senior Prize) from the International Toy Research Association (2014), and the Japan Society for Animation Studies Book Prize (2015).

His second monograph, The Platform Economy: How Japan Transformed the Commercial Internet (University of Minnesota Press, 2019), tracks the platform-led transformation of film,media, and Internet cultures. Offering a comparative study of platformization with a focus on Japan as the key site for global platformization,the book systematically examines the managerial, medial, and social functions of platform theories and platform practices.

Media Theory in Japan (Duke University Press, 2017), co-edited with Alexander Zahlten, traces the politics and parameters of media theorization in the Japanese context.

He is currently at work on three different projects. The first examines the effect media platforms have on animation production and circulation, with a continued focus on media industries and transmedia practices in the wake of platformization. The second, maps the intersection of management theory and just-in-time logistical systems. The third project analyzes East Asian “super apps” KakaoTalk, WeChat and LINE, and their platformization of cultural production.

He welcomes supervisees on topics such as Netflix and other streaming platforms, platform studies, media industry studies, animation studies, anime histories, social media, fan studies, and transmedia.

Education

• PhD (Brown University), MA (McGill University), BA (McGill University)

Areas of expertise

Platform studies, industry studies, Asian media industries, Japanese animation/anime, animation studies, material culture, media theory, digital culture, app studies