Media production studies for the digital age: AI-driven analyses of Jonas Risvig’s Danish young adult content

In this article, we propose a shift towards AI-driven methodologies in media production studies, encompassing data collection, processing, and visualization. We highlight how online sources offer a valuable opportunity to understand contemporary trends and discourse around popular media. Focusing on serial drama, we demonstrate that digital methods enable the analysis of larger datasets, which can enhance the credibility of humanistic research. As a case study, we examine interviews with Danish director and screenwriter Jonas Risvig and his YouTube channel as data sources. From this example, we suggest that media production studies could incorporate even larger datasets from diverse online sources. We conclude that digital desktop production studies not only confirm existing knowledge but also provide novel insights into contemporary media production.