*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES JSR, JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF RADICALISM

JSR: Journal for the Study of Radicalism—an academic journal published by Michigan State University Press—announces a call for articles and reviews for our twelfth year of issues.

Forthcoming thematic issues will include anarchism, including Black Bloc activism, ecological radicalism, animal rights radicalism, and right-wing forms of radicalism. We are particularly interested in articles on transnational subjects as well as on lesser-known examples of radicalism, as well as in articles that include theoretical and methodological considerations.

We are interested in articles on radicalism in a wide range of contexts and areas, and encourage articles from humanities and social science perspectives. The Journal for the Study of Radicalism engages in serious, scholarly exploration of the forms, representations, meanings, and historical influences of radical social movements. With sensitivity and openness to historical and cultural contexts of the term, we loosely define "radical," as distinguished from "reformers," to mean groups who seek revolutionary alternatives to hegemonic social and political institutions, and who use violent or non-violent means to resist authority and to bring about change. 

*CFP* “GAMES AND COMEDY”, BOOK CHAPTERS

To say that games, humour, and comedy have a lot in common would be stating the obvious. The affinities between the ludic and the comic have been remarked by scholars in various fields. Wittgenstein (1980, 83e) likens a shared sense of humour to the reciprocal understanding of the rules of a game. In his book The Game of Humor (1997), Gruner sees a fundamental similarity between humour and games in a shared competitive dynamic, closely bound up with ‘winning’. From an evolutionary perspective, laughter – today associated with humour – has been a signal of play (Gervais and Wilson 2005). Moreover, the English word ‘joke’ likely shares its etymology with the Italian word ‘gioco’ for ‘game’ and ‘play’, deriving from the Latin ‘jocus’ (OED).

Despite these links, there is surprisingly little academic work on humour and comedy in games. The existing literature has charted the possible avenues of research. Humour has been analysed as a tool to make games more engaging, and to contribute memorable scenes and characters (Dorman and Biddle 2009; Fernández-Vara 2009). In-game comedy can also arise from the self-reflective commentary on the games’ form and structure (Bonello 2015), or constitute a part of a broader set of grotesque and carnivalesque aesthetics (Majkowski 2015). Moreover, the joys of excessive movement, collisions, and playful destruction link games to slapstick comedy (Švelch 2014; Hudson 2014; Garin 2015).

*CFP* "RIVERDALE: A LAND CONTRASTS", EDITED BOOK

Riverdale: a comic book turned hit TV show, a comic strip turned murder mystery, a town that is both nowhere and everywhere. Recently renewed for a fourth season, the CW’s popular campy teen drama is notable for its apparent departures from the checkout-stand digests of yore, and has a new witchy counterpart in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, as well as a projected spin-off in the development of a Katy Keene series.

How might we interrogate – and interpret – Riverdale, Sabrina, and the print works from which they derive as sites of contrasts, conflicts, and intersections? How are the television series reliant on or defiant of their roots as comics? How does this familiar set of characters act and react to its new – yet still-familiar – setting in the “real” world? How do we navigate nostalgia, narrative, genre, and fandom in this ever-expanding multiverse of adaptations?

*CFP* "AUTISTIC REPRESENTATION & ENGAGEMENT IN MEDIA NARRATIVES", EDITED COLLECTION

Autism is becoming a controversial topic within contemporary Western culture, arguably due to a lack of information and out-dated perceptions of the condition. Autistic adults are increasingly using social media as a way to try and get their voices heard, and to challenge prevalent narratives, and what they see as abusive and dangerous practices used to try and 'cure' the condition. The Neurodiversity movement in particular, seeks to open up discussion and awareness of Autism as something inherent to Autistic people, rather than as a disease to be cured.

However, the Anti-vax movement has served to further demonise Autistic people, whilst cult celebrities have used social media to attack Autistic activists for criticising problematic charities such as Autism Speaks. Autistic voices are still struggling to be heard, and often suffer from being infantilised or dismissed due to being perceived by archaic labels as “high functioning” and thus not “properly” Autistic.

*CFP* “MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY IN TRANSITION: ADVANCING MIL IN THE BALTIC REGION, CEJC, SPECIAL ISSUE

This special issue aims to examine current issues and challenges in advancing media and information literacy (MIL) in the Baltic region.

Media and information literacy (MIL) is regarded as a crucial competence in today’s societies. The concept of MIL combines media and information literacy under one umbrella term, and includes a range of different media- and communication-related competences. The term has come to be the focus of a number of political, social and cultural expectations and interests, used in very different contexts and adapted to a variety of approaches. Meanwhile, the concept has also undergone changes, adopting altered meanings, and a large number of similar concepts have emerged, resulting in local applications and cultures of adaptation.

Taking the prefix ‘trans’ – from transnational or transition – to its conceptual starting point, articles in this issue should explore transitions in MIL policies and pedagogies, in contexts of societal transition. The prefix refers to movement across, through, over, beyond, to, on the other side of, or outside something.

*CFP* “MINING MEMORIES: NEW EXPLORATIONS IN CINEMA, MEMORY AND THE PAST”, INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, in association with the Irish Audiences Research Network, announces a one-day international symposium on the subject of cinema and memory, which will take place at University College Cork on Friday November 22, 2019

We are delighted to welcome Professor Annette Kuhn, Emeritus Professor in Film Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, as our Keynote speaker.

We invite abstracts for papers or media/film presentations, no longer than 20 minutes, on the topics of memory & cinema; memory in film; or cinema-going memories. We are especially interested in papers that explore new methodologies for research/ data gathering and dissemination/visual capturing.

*CFP* “GOTHIC MASH-UPS”, EDITED COLLECTION

From its beginnings in the 18th century, the gothic was disparaged for its predictable group style and unoriginality. The earliest reviewers and parodists criticized gothic novels for being admixtures of already clichéd gothic scenes thrown in merely to attract fans of the new genre. To this day, the gothic is a paradoxical genre, its outré subject matters seemingly at odds with a tendency to rely on familiar tropes and formulae. All gothic texts are mash-ups to the extent that they are haunted by previous texts. Far from being a failing, this propensity on the part of gothic storytellers to make new stories out of older ones is arguably the genre’s most compelling feature.

Intended for publication with Lexington Books, Gothic Mash-Ups will theorize and trace the way that producers of gothic fiction – from the 18th century to today – appropriate, combine, and reimagine elements from earlier texts and genres. Particularly welcome are essays about individual texts (or groups of texts) that bring together characters and storylines from two or more prior gothic narratives or cross gothic storylines with other kinds of stories. From Walpole’s early generic hodgepodge and Universal Pictures’ monster film crossovers to such contemporary “Frankenfictions” (De Bruin-Molé) as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Penny Dreadful, this collection will examine the fundamental hybridity of the gothic as a genre.

*CFP* "CULTURAL LITERACIES IN TRANSITION", SPECIAL ISSUE CRITICAL ARTS: SOUTH-NORTH CULTURAL AND MEDIA STUDIES JOURNAL

On-going public and academic debate has focused on the importance of knowledge about culture and the arts, what is generally referred to as “cultural literacy”. Often the debate focuses on an alleged “lack” of such knowledge. Whereas traditional approaches to cultural literacy emphasized the importance of a shared national culture, the reading of books and the literary canon, in recent years there has been an increasing focus on what cultural “literacies” can imply within our current globalised, pluralized and media saturated societies. While the conception that the arts constitute (Western) High Culture has for a long time already been strongly criticized from a broad range of perspectives, this idea is still reflected in more traditional approaches to the importance and functions of culture and the arts. 

However, contemporary societal transitions raise a number of important questions about the specific content of cultural literacies (i.e. what is still considered to be relevant and valuable knowledge about culture and the arts?), about the potential functions of culture and the arts for society (i.e. what is considered to be the societal and educational value of knowledge about and engagement with the arts?) and about the specific role of cultural institutions today (i.e. how do cultural institutions address their roles as mediator and go-between of knowledge about the arts?).

*CFP* CALL FOR PAPERS, VOL. 8.2, REVISTA CARACTERES: ESTUDIOS CULTURALES Y CRÍTICOS DE LA ESFERA DIGITAL

Caracteres. Estudios culturales y críticos de la esfera digital es una publicación académica independiente en torno a las Humanidades Digitales con un reconocido consejo editorial, especialistas internacionales en múltiples disciplinas como consejo científico y un sistema de selección de artículos de doble ciego basado en informes de revisores externos de contrastada trayectoria académica y profesional. El próximo número (vol. 8 n. 2, noviembre 2019) está abierto a la recepción de colaboraciones.

Los temas generales de la revista comprenden las disciplinas de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales en su mediación con la tecnología y con las Humanidades Digitales. La revista está abierta a recibir contribuciones misceláneas dentro de todos los temas de interés para la publicación.

*CFP* CALL FOR ARTICLES, Nº 6.1, JOURNAL OF GREEK MEDIA & CULTURE

We invite contributions on any topic related to the media and/or culture of Greece, from a contemporary or historical perspective and from a multiplicity of disciplinary and theoretical viewpoints. The Journal of Greek Media & Culture (JGMC) adopts a broad and inclusive approach to media and culture with reference to film, photography, literature, the visual arts, music, theatre, performance, as well as all forms of electronic media and expressions of popular culture. It aims to engage with broader methodological and theoretical debates, and – when possible – situate the Greek case in global, diasporic and transnational contexts.

Articles received up until November 2019 will be considered for the next OPEN THEMED issue, but in order to ensure that there will be space available please send us an abstract by end of August 2019 (or sooner). The journal is double blind peer reviewed so acceptance of abstract does not guarantee acceptance of paper, but it will prioritise it in terms of order of publication. Articles accepted that will not fit into 6.1, will be published in the next OPEN THEMED issue.

*CFP* “FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION & MEDIA STUDIES”, UNIVERSITY OF BONN 2019 CONFERENCE

The Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies will be held at the Unviersity of Bonn, Bonn, Germany 26-28 September 2019. 

We invite proposals for paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, posters/exhibits, virtual lightning talks, virtual posters, innovative showcase, or colloquia addressing one of the following themes:

Theme 1: Media Cultures

Theme 2: Media Theory

Theme 3: Media Technologies and Processes

Theme 4: Media Business

Theme 5: Media Literacies

*CFP* “STAGE THE FUTURE III”, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE, TALOS 2019

Stage the Future III

Science Fiction Theatre Festival of London

6-7 December 2019

Omnibus Theatre, London

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Louise LePage, Lecturer in Theatre (University of York)

Following two successful conferences in the UK, at Royal Holloway, University of London and in Arizona, at Arizona State University, in 2014 and 2015 respectively, Stage the Future returns to the UK for its third conference on science fiction theatre on 6-7 December 2019. We welcome papers, panels, and performances that examine and explore the unique attributes live performance offers to science fiction and those that science fiction offers to live performance.

*CFP* "GERIACTION CINEMA", SPECIAL ISSUE, JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION

The action film has been widely analysed for its investment in spectacle, its hyperbolic masculinity, its significance for film marketing and its ideological implications across various conflicts and contexts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. So too have its stars been extensively framed in their cultural-political surroundings over recent decades of film scholarship. As the action-adventure format’s most contemporary manifestation in the blockbuster era reaches middle age and late-adulthood, and the personae of Cold-War era action stars increasingly adapt to incorporate themes of ageing, debates around seniority in the genre’s marquee personnel are ever more timely. As cinema as a whole is increasingly globalised, we are keen to expand the definitions and understandings of ageing, stardom, gender and genre in more transnational and multicultural contexts.

The Journal of Popular Film and Television will explore these ideas in a special themed issue focusing on the notion of ‘Geriaction cinema’. The issue will offer scholars the opportunity to discuss the concept of the ageing action star across historical periods, genders, ethnicities and national cinemas, bringing together diverse perspectives on the historical and political coordinates of this enduring genre. We are especially keen to encourage scholars looking at stars from outside Hollywood and Europe, so we have a particular interest in papers that heighten the international and multicultural approach to the genre. With female-centred action films becoming more mainstream, we are also particularly keen on papers that explore the female action star (Michelle Rodriguez, Angelina Jolie). 

*CFP* "WITCHCRAFT: ACCUSATIONS AND PERSECUTIONS", CONFERENCE

On Saturday 21st September 2019 the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic will be supporting a one-day conference, in conjunction with the University of Wolverhampton, on the subject of Witchcraft: Accusations and Persecutions to complement the 2019 exhibition. It will be held in the Wellington Hotel, Boscastle, Cornwall UK.

If you would like to present a paper please send an abstract of no more than 200 words together with a brief biographical note to: louise.fenton@wlv.ac.uk 

The subject is vast so papers can be as broad or as specific as you wish. Themes to address include, but are not restricted to, the following:

*CFP* "GENERATIONS, DIGITAL USES AND COMPETENCES", SPECIAL ISSUE, VOL. 10 (2019) 20, JANUARY 2020, MEDIA STUDIES JOURNAL

Media generational identities are culturally, socially, economically and historically shaped. A single vision of generational identity is impossible.

This special issue welcomes different approaches to intergenerational and generational perspectives from various geographical landscapes. Moreover, it aims to discuss digital uses and digital competences within intergenerational and generational perspectives. The proposal is to assume as context the current digital media environment, which has shaped media history over the past decades. Non-Western voices covering generations, digital uses and competences are particularly welcome.

Historically, media were mostly considered as reinforcements of the generational gap, mostly in the family context. Though research by Livingstone and Haddon (2009) found that the intergenerational gap is diminishing in time, according to Bolin & Skogerbø (2013), the digital era is contributing to straight the generations. Čuvalo (2017) discerns shared media repertoires among the youngest, so-called digital generation or digital natives and the older generation of digital immigrants (Thomas, 2011). In this sense, there is the need to work closely on life course perspectives as a possible explanation of the diminishing or perpetuating of the generational gap (Amaral & Daniel, 2018).  The context of digital literacy reinforced activities by civil society and schools and can bring some light to the discussion of this need (Brites, 2017). Furthermore, a generational perspective in scholar and familiar environments can empower the discussion.

*CFP* "BODY, MIND, AND THE POSTHUMAN: A COROLLARY TO POSTMODERN THOUGHT", LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES JOURNAL

“Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?”

Nietzsche

Within post-Enlightenment thought supremacy of a disembodied and ahistorical Cartesian subject, surveying the objective world lying before and imparting it meaning in accordance to its own wishes, becomes the ground of what is understood as being human. This anthropocentric conception, challenged in various manners—most comprehensively in Heidegger’s reformulation of human subject as Dasein—within the history of ideas, however remains the frame of reference till the end of 20th century. With the advent of 1990s epistemologies are remodelled, tracing their roots to Heidegger’s Letter on Humanism, to incorporate first an anti-human strain of thought and then, subsequently, announce the death of a coherent human subject—whether in Derrida’s concept of differánce, or in Foucault’s dirge on death of man with the corollary of the author being reduced to a “function”—as an essential and stable entity, an announcement that contributed to a scattered and de-constructed postmodern landscape of mind.

*CFP* “YOUNG ADULT SEXUALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE”, CHAPTER BOOK

Technology is rapidly advancing, and each innovation provides opportunity for such technology to mesh with humans’ enactment of physical intimacy or in the quest for information about sexuality. Many people will seek out online communities for sexual identity formation, for knowledge or validation that they are not alone, or to seek out others with whom they share identity or affinity.

Additionally, technology has allowed for new ways of meeting people, of arranging for both casual and serious sexual encounters and intimate relationships, and created a platform for sexual communication.  Online communities may also help young adults shed stigma traditionally associated with certain sexual identities. However, the availability of this technology has also complicated sexual decision making for young adults as they navigate sexual identity, orientation, behavior, and community.

*CFP* "UNDERWORLD: INVESTIGATING CRIME FILMS FROM TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES", CHAPTER BOOK

We are seeking chapters for an edited volume tentatively titled Underworld: Investigating Crime Films from Transnational Perspectives. With its thrilling subject matter and commentary on the consequences of urban and industrial modernization, the crime film holds an abiding fascination for filmmakers and audiences. While the historical lineage of many crime films can be traced to the international popularity of American and British detective novels in the 19th and early 20th century, this book project aims to expand the field of research of crime films into a transnational study of the genre. For this collection, we seek studies that probe the historical provenance of crime films produced outside of the United States and inside or outside Europe, essays that probe the lesser-known connections between films in the crime genre internationally, and explorations of the untraced transnational genealogies of crime films originating from any national context.

The crime genre adapts and translates well into different cultural contexts. We thus welcome essays that look at the ways in which crime subject matter fosters cultural hybridity in film, especially studies that examine the ways that these films open the possibility for the reconfiguration of established genre cycles and national cinema conventions. Crime films often move beyond representing—even glorifying—the criminal anti-heroes/heroines in which they meaningfully examine and confront a country’s socio-political situation and beliefs.

*CFP* "AUDIENCES AND PARATEXTS", Nº 14.1, CINEPHILE JOURNAL

Following popular application of Gérard Genette’s literary term “paratexts” to film, paratexts here signifies those peripheral items emerging from and encircling a primary (filmic) text. Critically, film paratexts mediate the relationship between audience and film by shaping reputations, expectations and adding meaning to its consumption. While traditional examples of film paratexts range from movie reviews to advertisements and promotional material, digital and cultural shifts have driven new iterations, shaping modern cinematic reception and engagement. This evolving influence of paratexts on film culture and consumption demands attention, aligning with calls for media literacy in response to this proliferation of technology.

Cinephile 14.1 aims to interrogate this shifting landscape by considering digital, cultural, or historical forces mediating film reception and film culture more generally. While audience and reception studies have flourished in recent decades (Janet Staiger; Barbara Klinger; Linda Williams) and paratextual analysis has rigorously investigated fanfictions and trailers (Henry Jenkins; Jonathan Gray; Chuck Tryon; Keith M. Johnston), analysis of the interrelation of paratexts and audiences in today’s technological landscape requires further investigation. 

*CFP* "THE YOUTUBE PIVOT: CREATORS, COMMUNITY AND GOING AD-FREE", CHAPTER BOOK

Seeking contributions for The YouTube Pivot: Creators, Community and Going Ad-Free. Chapter submissions are sought for a prospective Palgrave Macmillan volume providing a critical overview of innovations with YouTube and other online video creators’ rejection of platform based programmatic advertising.

To date, much of the literature examining the struggle of YouTube Creators to build sustainable careers has focused on challenges embedded in the singular economic underpinning of both YouTube and parent company Alphabet. Both companies rely heavily on traditional advertising revenue to sustain their business and promote further growth. Indelibly linked as they are, much of the analysis to date has struggled to separate questions of AdSense and advertising revenue from notions of successful careers on YouTube. Indeed, these metrics of how successful online video creators are understood, (subscriber count, subscriber growth, video views and watch-time) are the same metrics by which YouTube seeks to monetize and demonstrate value to advertisers.

Industry reporting of the relative importance of advertising revenue for YouTubers continues to vacillate between inconsequential and integral. For every industry report on the need for creators to diversify away from AdSense reliance, another article exists warning of a return to the “Adpocalypse” revenue fallout of the 2017.

*CFP* "ENCUENTROS ESTADOUNIDENSES-MEXICANOS EN EL CINE NORTEAMERICANO CONTEMPORÁNEO", ISSUE, REVISTA MÉXICO INTERDISCIPLINARIO

Contributions to this iMex issue will explore the impact of the Trump era on images of Mexicans and Chicanos in recent US and Mexican cinema. Throughout the 2016 US presidential campaign and Donald Trump’s subsequent election to the presidency, Mexican immigration and Mexican-Americans, or Chicanos, were a central issue. Among a number of other comments and ostentatious claims, Trump’s successful campaign may be best remembered for a spectacular shift to discourses that promoted essentialist and xenophobic notions of the Other as inferior and dangerous (Valverde 2016). As the largest minority group in the US (Diaz de Leon 2011), Hispanics, and in particular Mexicans, continue to be the target of some of Trump’s most extreme rhetoric, who began his presidential campaign in 2016 by condemning Mexico for ‘bringing drugs, crime and rapists’ to the US (Greenwood 2018).

Unlike populist political discourse, which often relies on static represent explore in how far and how exactly the shift in political rhetoric in the era of Trumpism (Caliskan/Preston 2017) has affected portrayals of Chicano and Mexican identity in recent US and Mexican cinema. Of particular interest for an in-depth investigation are films that focus on immigration from Mexico (e.g. Pitts’ Soy Nero 2017, Cuarón’s Desierto 2017), life in the US for Mexican-Americans (De Montreuil’s Lowriders 2016, Bratt’s Dolores 2017), the effects of Trumpism on Mexico (Clift’s La Madre Buena 2017) and the portrayal of Mexican cultural identity by Hollywood (see Unkrich’s Coco 2017, which has been described as ‘pro-Mexico’ Disney film by Rose 2018).

*CFP* "SOUND STUDIES, SOUNDSCAPES, AND SOUND ART OF LATIN AMERICA", ISSUE JOURNAL OF SONIC STUDIES

Music, radio, and TV broadcasts; blaring loudspeakers, public announcements, street vendors; city sounds, sounds of progress, sounds of revolution, or sounds of change; sounds deliberately produced or emerging unintentionally, serving a disciplinary function or expressing forms of freedom; musical as well as non-musical (functional) sounds; overwhelming natural sounds of rain forests, the pampas, and highlands.

Latin America is filled with sounds; indeed, its cities might count among the noisiest of the world, in notable contrast with the (relative) quietness of its rural areas and wild nature. Is it possible to identify specific Latin American soundscapes? How can they be characterized? What can be heard there? How should we listen to them, experience them, affect and be affected by them? What is their political, social, religious, ethical, economic, aesthetic influence or meaning?

*CFP* "POWER, PRIVILEGE AND PATRIARCHY IN JOURNALISM: DYNAMICS OF MEDIA CONTROL, RESISTANCE AND RENEWAL", #ISOJ JOURNAL 2020

Journalism is commonly described as a public good that is essential for the functioning of a democratic society, with journalistic discourse imbued with a rhetoric of mission and service to the public. The normative fundamentals and professional ideology of journalism are often taken as a given and the starting point for practice and research. Yet scholars have highlighted the persistence of power structures with the discipline of communications in general, and journalism more specifically.

Journalism has been described as a form of elite discourse that promotes, maintains and reifies political, ideological and economic hierarchies to the detriment of other groups, reproduced by journalists working under editorial, professional, managerial and financial constraints.

Critiques of journalism have pointed out how maleness and whiteness have been embedded in journalistic norms and practices. These notions have shaped the definition of what and whom is newsworthy and contributing to a process of ‘othering’ along lines of class, ethnicity, gender, race, Indigeneity, sexuality or national difference. Such work goes beyond simply considering the over-representation of male whiteness in the newsroom to consider the prominence of elite sources, disregard for other groups, inaccurate depictions of racialised groups, and potential harm to marginalized communities. 

*CFP* CONVOCATORIA PARA PARTICIPAR EN EL IV CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE ESTUDIOS SOBRE MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN

IV Congreso Internacional de Estudios sobre Medios de Comunicación

Universidad de Bonn

Bonn, Alemania

26-28 de septiembre de 2019

La Red de Investigación de Estudios Organizacionales proporciona un foro que posibilita la comunicación con otras personas afines a la misma área de conocimiento, intercambiar ideas y publicar su trabajo.

Fundada en 1993, la Red de Investigación de Estudios Organizacionales propicia un lugar de encuentro donde convergen el interés y la preocupación por explorar las nuevas posibilidades que ofrece el conocimiento, la cultura y la gestión del cambio, dentro de un contexto más amplio que engloba a la naturaleza y futuro de las organizaciones, así como del impacto que ejercen sobre la sociedad moderna.

Convocamos a presentar artículos, talleres/sesiones interactivas, pósteres/exhibiciones, coloquios o ponencias virtuales de los siguientes temas:

*CFP* “TRANSMEDIA SELVES: IDENTITY AND PERSONA CREATION IN THE AGE OF MOBILE AND MULTIPLATFORM MEDIA”, BOOK CHAPTERS

Edited by Matthew Freeman (Bath Spa University) and James Dalby (University of Gloucestershire)

With digital technologies continuing to develop and expand their functionality and reach, mobile devices have cemented their essentiality in the average individual’s daily life. More than this, the ubiquity of media content is one of the defining characteristic of the early 21st century era, in the developed world. Driven by the ongoing synthesis of human and device in the form of mobile internet and media communications technologies - including the behaviours, interactivities and reliances associated with this - and as notions of media become less about ‘entertainment’ and more closely aligned with the fundamentals of a contemporary life, traditional conceptions of ‘the self’ become perhaps harder to define.

*CFP* "STORIES OF DIGITAL RADICALS", THE DIGITAL RADICAL MAGAZINE

The newly formed Center on Digital Culture and Society (CDCS) at the University of Pennsylvania invites submissions of stories of digital radicals from around the world. A digital radical is a person with a radical relationship to digital technologies. This relationship could be reflected in an attitude or belief, a daily practice, a political act or commitment, a way of life, and more. As to what is radical about the relationship, we will leave it for you to decide. It could be about forms of disengagement from social media, or ways of deploying them for social and political causes. We welcome stories about both well-known public figures and ordinary individuals around us. They may be people you know directly, or people you know through the media or your research. The stories may be biographical or autobiographical. The important thing is that you have a story to tell about the individual, and your story illustrates a vision for what you think of as a radical approach to digital technologies. The current conditions of social media and technological developments demand radical new visions and new politics.

Stories of individuals are becoming a rarity in our digital age. Contemporary society is saturated with data, metrics, and quantification. Our personal traces on the web are harvested and turned into data to serve commercial, political, and other purposes beyond our control. Individual experiences are reduced to numbers. Against this background, we call for stories.

*CFP* "MEDIA EDUCATION, DIVERSITY AND VOICE", INTERNATIONAL MEDIA EDUCATION SUMMIT

International Media Education Summit

Media Education, Diversity and Voice

University of Leeds, UK: April 2nd & 3rd 2020

Keynotes confirmed so far: Kate Pahl; Eszter Hargittai, Ivan Sigal.

Each year the Media Education Summit brings together a global network of researchers, educators and practitioners working across all aspects of media education, media and digital literacy and media / technology in education.

The event is the leading global showcase for research, pedagogy and innovation on all aspects of media education.

Now running for thirteen years, MES is convened by the UK’s Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, in collaboration with a leading organisation in a different country each year. In 2020, our host is the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds.

*CFP* "CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS IN EDUCATION, TEACHING AND LEARNING", INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

“Challenges and Solutions in Education, Teaching and Learning” International Conference

12 October 2019 – London, UK

organised by London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research

Attempting to answer the what-is-worth-knowing questions, the conference will explore major themes concerning the current situation in education, teaching and learning. It will focus on globally relevant challenges such as multicultural education, education for citizenship, social inequality and schooling, gender and socialisation, new technologies and new literacies. It will examine the ways of overcoming the challenges as well as provide perspectives and dialogue on education systems around the world focussing on the major factors of academic achievement.

*CFP* CALL FOR SUBMISSION, VOL. 12 Nº 1, APRIL 2020 ISSUE, JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA RESEARCH

The Journal of Communication and Media Research is a research-based and peer-reviewed journal published twice-yearly in the months of April and October by the Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (CAC/IT/NO 111018). The journal is addressed to the African and international academic community and it accepts articles from all scholars, irrespective of country or institution of affiliation.

The focus of the Journal of Communication and Media Research is research, with a bias for quantitative and qualitative studies that use any or a combination of the acceptable methods of research. These include Surveys, Content Analysis, and Experiments for quantitative studies; and Observation, Interviews/Focus Groups, and Documentary Analysis for qualitative studies. The journal seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of communication and media studies and welcomes articles in all areas of communication and the media including, but not limited to, mass communication, mass media channels, traditional communication, organizational communication, interpersonal communication, development communication, public relations, advertising, information communication technologies, the Internet and computer-mediated communication.

*CFP* "AGATHA CHRISTIE", FALL 2019 ISSUE, IN MEDIA RES JOURNAL

Dame Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976) is one of the most important figures in mass media. Known as the “Queen of Crime,” Christie is the prolific author of some of the most famous works in detective fiction. As a writer, Christie is renowned for, among other things, crafting puzzling mysteries with startling solutions. Her oeuvre includes mystery novels, short stories, and stage plays. With the exceptions of the Bible and the plays of William Shakespeare, Christie’s works are the biggest selling literary texts in the world. Her novels include famous titles like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), The ABC Murders (1936), And Then There Were None (1939), and A Murder is Announced (1950). 

Other famous works of hers include the short story “Witness for the Prosecution” and The Mousetrap, the longest running play in theatrical history. Besides authoring these famous works, Christie is also the creator of some of the most popular fictional detectives of all time, including Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. And, her works have been adapted in cinema, television, and other media throughout the world. These adaptations include the motion pictures And Then There Were None (1945), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and two versions of Murder on the Orient Express (1974, 2016). They also include various television programs, like Miss Marple (BBC One, 1984-1992), Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1989 – 2013), Agatha Christie’s Marple aka Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (ITV, 2004 – 2013), and others. In Media Res welcomes submissions for a theme week on Agatha Christie. We welcome posts from a variety of perspectives on any aspect of Christie’s career and/or life.

*CFP* SPORT, MEDIA & GENDER 2020 CONFERENCE

It is my pleasure to announce that the call for submissions for the one-day conference On the same page? The theory-practice divide and gendered media representations of sport is now open.

The event, which will be held at the Northumbria University’s London campus on 17th January, 2020, is funded by the Leisure Studies Association and Northumbria University’s Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences.

The quality and influence of research produced by sports media scholars from a range of disciplines is improved by both an interdisciplinary approach and the direct, active involvement of stakeholders. As such, the aim of this one-day conference is to provide a platform for the knowledge exchange between scholars (from a range of disciplines), stakeholders, and practitioners who are united by a focus on sports media.

*CFP* "FASHION IN LITERATURE AND LITERATURE IN FASHION", APRIL 2020 ISSUE, JOURNAL dObra[s]

The Brazilian open access academic journal dObra[s] invites researchers with a minimum master's degree to submit articles, reviews, interviews, and translations for the "Fashion in literature and literature in fashion" dossier, to be published in issue 28, April 2020.

The subject of the dossier welcomes – but is not limited to – the following approaches to studies that articulate fashion and literature:

• Fashion as a literary creation strategy for character construction in a fictional narrative; 
• Fashion as a historical record in fictional works, literary essays, chronicles; 
• Fictional works that depict the universe of fashion and its system and structure; 
• Literature as inspiration for the fashion creative process: designers who use literary works (novels, short stories, poetry, essays, chronicles) as inspiration to create collections, taking literature as part of the research process. 

*CFP* "MEDIA COLLABORATIONS", FALL 2019 ISSUE, IN MEDIA RES JOURNAL

In Media Res is looking for curators that are examining media collaborations, particularly through the lens of famous or lesser known teams of media creators. Subjects could include partners in creation (The Wachowski sisters), performance (Laurel and Hardy), some combination thereof (Scorsese & DiCaprio), or other such avenues.  

Curators can approach these related movements through a variety of lenses and methods including, but not limited to:

• Critiques or defenses of collaborators as co-auteurs 
• Textual readings of collaborated works 
• Ghost writers, script doctors, and unseen collaborations 
• Comedy teams 
• Below- and above-the-line partnerships

*CFP* FIFTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE ARTS IN SOCIETY, NUI GALWAY

Fifteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

NUI Galway, Galway, Ireland

24–26 June 2020

We invite proposals for paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, posters/exhibits, virtual lightning talks, virtual posters, creative practice showcase, or colloquia addressing one of the following themes:

• Theme 1: Arts Education 
• Theme 2: Arts Theory and History 
• Theme 3: New Media, Technology, and the Arts 
• Theme 4: Social, Political, and Community Agendas in the Arts 
• 2020 Special Focus—Against the Grain: Arts and the Crisis of Democracy

*CFP* "COMPLEXITY, HIBRIDITY, LIMINALITY: CHALLENGES OF RESEARCHING CONTEMPORARY PROMOTIONAL CULTURES", ECREA CONFERENCE

Complexity, hybridity, liminality: Challenges of researching contemporary promotional cultures

A European Communication Research and Education Association conference co-sponsored by the ECREA Organisational and Strategic Communication section; the Department of Media and Communications, LSE; and the School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester.

Date/Time: Friday 21 February 2020, 09:30-17:30

Venue: The Silverstone Room, Department of Media and Communications, Fawcett House (7th floor), London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE

We live in a time characterised by uncertainty, hybridity and complexity, when the powerful dualisms that characterised the post-Enlightenment era (nature/society, human/machine, male/female, etc.) are being problematised in a fundamental way. This conference explores how we research the promotional cultures that have become central to the liminal times in which we live. What strategies do we use to explore and attempt to understand the assemblage of technologies, texts, networks, and actors in contemporary promotion?

*CFP* "9/11 A GENERATION LATER", FALL 2019 ISSUE, IN MEDIA RES JOURNAL

September 11, 2019 marks 18 years since almost 3,000 people were killed in a coordinated series of attacks on vital symbols of the United States. For those who experienced the events in real time, it is a discernibly pivotal and historical moment. And now, with satirical articles, like The Onion’s with the bitterly, and darkly comic headline “18-Year-Old Fighting In Afghanistan Has 9/11 Explained To Him By Older Soldier,” being made manifest through real stories of soldiers serving with their parents who began their service in the wake of 9/11, it is important to remember how the world has been remade in the wake of the attacks.

Topics may include:

• Connecting with students who need the context of the events to understand media traditions born of them 
• A state of “post-9/11” media 
• Problematizations of divisions of time based on catastrophic national events 
• Analysis of the legacy of 9/11 outside of the United States, through media or otherwise

*CFP* "DATA ANALYTICS FOR DETECTING AND COMBATING ONLINE CRIME AND TERRORISM", CHAPTER BOOK

Increased usage of social media led to the formation of online communities of terrorist groups for discussing many violent plans. These online communities present big data to researchers to identify hidden patterns and behaviours to generate actionable intelligence which can be useful for security agencies. Recruiting new people over online social media is an emerging trend which presents how the internet is exploited by terrorist groups.

Terrorism is a global issue which is affecting many nations directly or indirectly. Online social media have given a vital platform for terrorists to form online communities and to operate remotely. Jihadist groups such as ISIS are most popular over online social media such as Twitter, YouTube or Facebook for radicalizing their agendas and sharing violent content or videos. Detecting such radical messages over social media has been the topic of study for many researchers. Terrorist groups are also using the anonymous nature of internet browsing to build their own private online communities over public internet architecture. 

*CFP* "CARRY ON CAMPING: THE POLITICS OF SUBVERSION", ONE-DAY CONFERENCE

Carry on Camping: The Politics of Subversion

A One-Day Conference

University of Brighton, Friday 6 September 2019

Camp has enjoyed many definitions throughout decades of academic discussion and debate. For Susan Sontag it is a ‘sensibility’: ‘the essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration’(1964: 515). For Richard Dyer (1977), as argued in an essay titled ‘It’s being so camp as keeps us going’, camp is a form of queer resistance, a way of looking at objects rather than any inherent qualities in those objects themselves. Fabio Cleto (1999) also sees camp as an unstable, but powerful, progressive critical tool; while for David Halperin, camp is connected to irony as a strategy of subversion. ‘Camp,’ Halperinwrites, ‘is a reminder of the artificiality of emotion, of authenticity as a performance’(2012: 288). In both academic and popular terms, camp is clearly a quality that evades easy definition.

*CFP* "A HERO WILL ENDURE: ESSAYS ON THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF GLADIATOR", EDITED COLLECTION

Vernon Press invites chapter proposals on the theme: “A Hero Will Endure”: Essays on the Twentieth Anniversary of Gladiator for an edited collection. All areas of study, with a common goal of representing the cultural and material impact of the film since its release in May 2000.

Martin M. Winkler edited a collection about Gladiator regarding its historical and media aspects. There are also several single essays about psychological (Skweres), political, or cultural issues related to the film. Nevertheless, there have been no other collections on the cultural and social impact of the film since its release. With the twentieth anniversary approaching in 2020, the time is right for presenting new insights about this award-winning film.

The scope of the present call is broad. All topics regarding the film’s impact on material, social, and academic culture will be considered. Specific topics that the editor is seeking to round out the collection include:

*CFP* INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR VISUAL FRAMING OF FOOD TECHNOLOGIES, WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY & RESEARCH

International Seminar Visual Framing of Food Technologies

Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands)

16-18 October 2019

In the age of post truth, scientifically informed visualizations and imaginaries of innovative food technologies are hard to distinguish from the production of art, or even ‘alternative facts’. These visuals travel easily across administrative borders through internet platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube), affecting both online and offline social, political, policy and regulatory practices. Visualization and visual framing play an important – but often neglected – role in affecting actor relations, and the space to deal with innovations in food production and consumption.

To encourage international transdisciplinary collaborations and cross-pollination of ideas and methods, the Department of Social Sciences of Wageningen University & Research organizes the first “International Seminar on Visual Framing of Food Technologies” on 16th until the 18th of October, 2019.

*CFP* "HISTORICITY OF THE VISUALITY AND IMAGE HISTORY: NEW FORMS OF DIGITAL AND VISUAL HISTORY/HUMANITIES", INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP

Center for Urban History opens a call for applications to the interdisciplinary workshop "Historicity of the Visuality and Image History: New Forms of Digital and Visual History/Humanities" to take place on November 14-15, 2019, in Lviv. 

Since the formulation of the "visual history" and announced pictorial turn in humanities, pictures have enjoyed increased scrutiny. Often different approaches to visual history followed an operationally mixed attitude to studying the pictures of history (cultural history) and the historicity of images (art history). Today visual history is combined out of diverse disciplines, from history to art history, from communication and media studies to social and political studies. However, the current turn to digitalization poses new challenges for visual history – it can confront images as a medium, to analyze the material dimension of traditional visuality (its mediality) and immateriality of digital pictures. In addition, images, which are disseminated through various media, cause informational overload, and require a new research agenda. The workshop purpose is to analyze the relation between history, visuality, and academia with special concerns of the digital turn. It demands to combine the theoretical debates on digital history along with the educational experience. The workshop may suggest new research directions in visual history research, to familiarize the visualization research community with the problems faced by historians, and to foster future collaboration between fields such as vision (and visualization) and historical research.

*CFP* "DIGITAL AND INTERACTIVE", SPECIAL ISSUE, HARTS & MINDS

This call for papers invites submissions from postgraduates or early career researchers on topics relating to the interactive and aspects of interactivity, for the next edition of HARTS & Minds, set for online publication in 2019/20.

We invite submissions from those working across the arts and humanities, and those working beyond those areas in dialogue with other scholarly fields, interested in answering what interactive means to them, what aspects of interactivity can be found within their discipline, and how barriers to interactivity can be addressed within their own research.

Suggestions for proposals could include but are not limited to:

*CFP* "WOULD YOU KINDLY?: CLAIMING VIDEO GAME AGENCY AS INTERDISCIPLINARY CONCEPT", Nº 8 ISSUE, G|A|M|E JOURNAL

The new issue of G|A|M|E proposes a re-examination of the concept of agency in games. We welcome contributions that address the idea of agency from a variety of academic perspectives, taking into account its interdisciplinary history and application, in order to expand our critical understanding of the concept more broadly. We therefore invite scholars from all fields to reflect on different notions of agency, not only in relation to physical and digital games, but also to other media and art forms as they impact on games and game studies. At the end of the influential first-person shooter Bioshock (2K Games, 2007), its critique of the rhetoric of choice and freedom emerges from the dialogue between the protagonist Jack and the visionary despot of Rapture, Andrew Rayan. Rayan's seemingly innocent question ‘Would You Kindly?’ conceals a cognitive trigger that casts a shadow over the protagonist's actions. By shattering the illusion of free will for both character and player, the game breaks the fourth wall and confronts the user with the question: who is being/has been controlled?

Already central to the fields of Human-Computer Interaction as well as that of design (e.g. Sherry Turkle, 1984; Brenda Laurel, 1991), agency was redefined more than twenty years ago in Janet Murray's seminal volume Hamlet on the Holodeck (1996, p. 123) as ‘the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices’. To this day, the concept of agency is still prominent in scholarly debates on video game and game design: to describe a key ontological category that delineates the multiplicity of paths as well as the breadth of choices made available by interactive texts; and also –closer to Murray’s acceptation– to define a primary category of video game aesthetics, a textual effect attached to the pleasure of taking meaningful decisions within virtual environments.

*CFP* "COMMUNICATION TO IMAGINE DESIRABLE FUTURES IN LATIN AMERICAN", SPECIAL ISSUE, CONTRATEXTO JOURNAL

Contratexto is an Open Access refereed academic journal published by the Faculty of Communication at the University of Lima every six months (two issues per year from 2015), with emphasis on the field of communication and related branches, designed for academics, professionals and students of communication, social sciences and humanities. It edits articles, research papers, essays and bibliographical reviews in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

The 33rd edition of Contratexto will address the questions and challenges in the field of research in communication in the short, medium and long term, from a Latin American perspective.

In the words of the Venezuelan researcher Antonio Pasquali, in his speech at the last biannual Congress of the Latin American Association of Researchers (ALAIC), on the field of communication, he considered that its future involves communicating in diverse societies with inclusion, equality and democracy, because "only diversity is fertile". A diversity that characterizes our continent and that, in terms Jesús Martín Barbero, represents the place from which to think about communication, "with one's own head, the experience of today's world". 

*CFP* "APPS MÓVILES Y EMPODERAMIENTO MEDIÁTCO EN ENTORNOS DIGITALES Y UBICUOS", REVISTA MEDITERRÁNEA DE COMUNICACIÓN

Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación / Mediterranean Journal of Communication invita al envío de textos para el monográfico. Los dispositivos móviles y ubicuos se han convertido en espacios de convergencia tecnológica, comunicativa, mediática, educativa y cultural. A través de las aplicaciones (apps) los usuarios prosumidores cuentan con un acceso inmediato y fugaz a la información y sus redes, en cualquier momento, lugar y persona-comunidad. Este entorno plantea nuevos paradigmas en torno al consumo y la producción mediática, así como a la interacción, la relación y la construcción-acción cultural en estos escenarios, en los que la Educación Mediática desempeña un papel protagonista.

Este ecosistema mediático, digital y ubicuo requiere el desarrollo de competencias que permitan a los ciudadanos empoderarse de los medios y sus relaciones a nivel social, cognitivo y emocional. Requiere una actitud crítica, reflexiva y democrática para una participación social y cultural adecuada. Desde el ámbito educativo y de la investigación científica, se requieren acciones que permitan conocer mejor este fenómeno, así como dibujar las estrategias necesarias de empoderamiento a través de las aplicaciones móviles y ubicuas.

*CFP* "MODERN TELETHON", FALL 2019 ISSUE, IN MEDIA RES JOURNAL

Ever since the first telethon in 1949, telethons and radiothons have been something of a staple in society. From yearly planned telethons to reactions to major catastrophes around the world, telethons spring up regularly. This history of charity media has bled into new media in various ways, from Games Done Quick events to streamer charity streams to Facebook charity requests for birthdays, there are numerous forms charitable endeavors are being carried out via the internet. This week In Media Res is seeking submissions on matters dealing with telethons and how they’ve changed for the modern media landscape.

Topics may include:

• Internet Charity Events 
• Modern Telethon Events 
• Charity Streaming 
• Fan Charity Fundraising & Events 
• Social Media Birthday Fundraisers

*CFP* "MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON MEDIA FANDOM", CHAPTER BOOK

Leisure time today is driven by fandom. Comic book movies dominate the box office. Sporting events are among the biggest draws on television. Gaming brings in the most money of any entertainment field. In the past, to be a fan was to be an outcast, a social pariah, a geek. Now the “fanboy” is the vanguard and demands study. But fandom is a coat of many colors. Sports fans, comic collectors, gamers, cosplayers – they are all part of that patchwork. Some fandoms are long-established and are starting to mutate. Gamers, for instance, have moved beyond the console and into darker realms where conspiracy theories, misogyny, and racism meld into a toxic brew. Some fandoms are being enriched. Consumer brands have always had fans, but now companies recognize the potential for such loyalists. Fans who not only buy a product, but who actually incorporate a product or a brand into their own identity are the most sought-after customers. Marketers are now working hard to make such meaningful connections. Some fandoms are still developing. Cosplayers (costume play), for instance, have moved from subculture oddity to headlining conventions. Research on these fandom trends is desperately needed. Other fandoms have been completely ignored. For instance, the secondary sports fan exists, but few studies have explored this topic. Many people identify a second team to follow or cheer for if their primary team is not available. Not every team makes it to the World Cup or the playoffs. But people often identify a favorite in such competitions beyond their primary teams. What are the motivations for such? The goal of this edited collection is to offer insight into these developments – insights that will prove both useful to researchers and will add to the existing body of knowledge for popular culture.

*CFP* "INFERTILITY IN MEDIA", FALL 2019 ISSUE, IN MEDIA RES JOURNAL

In Media Res is looking for curators that are examining the topic of Infertility in Media. Instances of infertility in media have been limited and restricted through the functions of humor, children’s narratives, and quick resolutions. Examples of this include Robin’s narrative arc on How I Met Your Mother, Disney’s Up, and Carla’s story in Scrubs. In Media Res is looking to explore how such instances have an impact on the social and cultural impacts, understandings, and performances of infertility. 

Curators can approach these related movements through a variety of lenses and methods including, but not limited to:

• Rhetoric of infertility 
• Stigmatization of infertility 
• Representations of infertility 
• Infertility and pregnancy as oppositional in media 
• Media as a support network 
• Infertility and marginalized groups

*CFP* “BTS (방탄소년단)”, MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS & MUSIC GLOBAL INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE PROJECT, AT KINGSTON UNIVERSITY

BTS (방탄소년단)

Global Interdisciplinary Conference Project

4-5 January 2020

Kingston University, Penryn Road, London

Keynote Speaker: Professor LEE Jiyoung (Sejong University) Author of BTS, Art Revolution

Korean boy group BTS are the first ever Korean act to perform at Wembley Stadium as part of their Love Yourself: Speak Yourself world tour. Debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment, BTS initially struggled to gain recognition in Korea as they didn’t come from one of the big three Korean entertainment companies. However, the last few years have seen BTS become the most internationally successful Korean act of all time, amassing not only domestic awards but prestigious US awards including The Best Duo/Group at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards. Their recent sold-out concerts at Wembley clearly delineate BTS as a dominant force in global music and within popular culture.This inclusive inter- and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine the success and popularity of BTS from a variety of academic, practice, and fan-based perspectives.

*CFP* "ISN'T IT IRONIC?: RECEIVERSHIP AND RESPONSIBILITY IN POPULAR CULTURE", EDITED COLLECTION

The American writer David Foster Wallace once declared that irony would be the death of culture. In the so-called ‘post-truth’ era, marked by the obscene populist palaver of Brexit-day Britain and the ‘truthiness’ of Trump’s White House tenure, it is little wonder that he has been proven correct: saying something other than that which one means has become the rhetorical choice de jour of contemporary political society. It matters more, it seems, if something feels true than if it is factually accurate. One of the multitude of troubles that accompanies this ‘post-truth’ climate is our relationship to irony. For irony, of course, requires a foundation of a shared sense of what is ‘real’ and ‘true’ in the first place in order for this foundation to be effectively disrupted, subverted, and satirised.

As literary technique, irony is a dissimulative rhetorical act in which the tenor and vehicle of one’s language are often in deliberately playful conflict with one another for the purposes of emphasising paradox, incongruity, and humour. Examples abound in literary culture, from Shakespeare’s use of comical and tragical ironic techniques and Jonathan Swift’s most audacious example of verbal irony, A Modest Proposal, to the darkly parodic fictions of those such as Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Zadie Smith. The common conception is that irony is hard to define, but that ‘we know it when we see it’. Of course, this is not always the case, as irony has so often been misunderstood. It is indeed ironic that the very irony of Alanis Morissette’s famous song ‘Ironic’ is that none of the lyrics are, in fact, ironic at all – a point compounded by the song’s popularity as a ‘dictionary definition’ of irony.

*CFP* "POPULAR DECONSTRUCTIONS", FALL 2019 ISSUE, IN MEDIA RES JOURNAL

Mystery Science Theater 3000 represents the perfect intersection of Gen X disaffection and cynicism, with the underlying affection and openness that the stereotypes belie. Modern iterations of the popular deconstruction, like podcast How Did This Get Made, attract audiences with varied perspectives. From true aficionados of cult and less-popular films who crave a forum to discuss the nuances of their favorites, to those seeking a takedown of a hated work, the opportunities afforded by (meta)commentary programs for analysis of otherwise dismissed films should be of interest to any media scholar.

Topics may include:

• Discussion of polysemic readings of unpopular films 
• Discussion of the Kickstarter-funded renewal of MST3K 
• Analysis of the industrial components of “bad” films 
• Analysis of industrial components of modern commentary programs

*CFP* "READING THE NEW GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION: ON CONTEMPORARY SERIES", ISSUE TROPOS: COMUNICAÇÃO, SOCIEDADE E CULTURA

We live in a new age of television series with more and more quality shows being produced every day (McCabe & Akass, 2007) not only for different channels (BBC, CBS, Fox, HBO, Showtime), but also for different (streaming) platforms (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime), not to mention the growing popularity of the web series. The current “Golden Age” of television is usually seen as having started in mid-to-late nineties/early 2000s until today, with series comprising longer episodes like The Sopranos (1999-2007), Six Feet Under (2001-2005), Downton Abbey (2010-2015), or the more recent phenomena of Game of Thrones (2011-2019), Narcos (2015-), Stranger Things (2016-), 3% (2016-) or Casa de Papel (2017); as well as shows with shorter episodes like The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019), Modern Family (2009-) or Black-ish (2014-). 

These represent just a small fraction of a major wave of sophiscated creations that rise in quality and in quantity, thus giving more options to viewers and also to directors, actors, producers and all those involved in those creations. For some, this may pose a problem (Jeffrey, 2018) since with the numbers of programs rising this also means that too many choices may overwhelm audiences. For others, this is a unique opportunity to see what television programs have to offer and how they challenge the viewer with their “ability to bring into focus elements of the existing world” and explore the contemporary and current affairs – political, cultural, social or others (Shuster, 2018).