*CFP* "CROSS-BORDER MEDIA INFRAESTRUCTURES AND IMAGINARIES IN A CHANGING ASIA-PACIFIC", SPECIAL ISSUE, MEDIA INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA

Media of various forms, and the infrastructures and communities that are associated with them, have often been strongly determined by national boundaries. This is particularly the case in the Asia-Pacific region, where media organizations have traditionally been owned by government entities and/or large national conglomerates. At the same time, the movement of people, goods, capital, information and ideas are undergoing shifts and intensifications, owing to broader geopolitical changes, state-led infrastructure projects and the aspirations of individuals and communities shaped by such regional transformations.

Against this context, media flows are being created, worked and reworked, facilitated by new infrastructures, imaginaries and understandings. These flows frequently cross, circumvent or come up against borders, both domestic and international. Online shopping, logistics, blockchain and fin-tech are fostering new cross-border flows of goods and money. Media content is increasingly consumed internationally, posing new opportunities and challenges for media companies, regulators and governments. Users and consumers of the media are also witnessing the reworking of their media environments because of these changes, adopting inventive responses to and adaptations of the media in return.

While much attention has focused on how powerful states seek to exert influence beyond their borders through the promotion of platforms, technologies and services, this special issue challenges dominant narratives of the contemporary moment from the vantage point of the Asia Pacific region and the heterogeneity it embodies. Through attention to the changing circuits of media in the region, this special issue seeks to understand (and explore alternatives to) ‘great power struggle’ narratives by considering the role of local media forms, perspectives and practices in such processes of transformation. Specifically, we ask contributors to consider:

• How are media flows redefining understandings of borders? 
• What kinds of novel communities are being created by cross-border media flows?  
• What forms of social imaginaries accompany the emergence of new infrastructures from “outside”? 
• How are boundaries and borders being made, unmade or remade within and across the Asia-Pacific region? 

We are particularly excited to include case studies that address imaginations and infrastructures of cross-border media from across the broader Asia-Pacific region. 

Contact:

Tom McDonald (mcdonald@hku.hk)

Heather Horst (h.horst@westernsydney.edu.au)

Proposed timeline:

30 April 2020: Abstracts due for submission to guest editors

15 May 2020: Invite to submit full papers sent to selected authors

30 July 2020: Full papers due for submission to guest editors

30 August 2020: Feedback on full papers sent to selected authors

30 September 2020: Full papers due for submission to Media International Australia

PDF version of CfP