*CFP* "MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN PÚBLICOS, CIUDADANÍA E INFLUENCIA DIGITAL EN LA ERA DE LA DESINFORMACIÓN", COMLOC 2021 XVI CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE COMUNICACIÓN LOCAL

“Medios de comunicación públicos, ciudadanía e influencia digital en la era de la desinformación”

ComLoc 2021. XVI Congreso Internacional de Comunicación Local

Universitat Jaume I

4 y 5 de noviembre de 2021

 

En los últimos años, se constata la pérdida de relevancia de los medios de comunicación públicos, en un escenario muy complejo en el que han coincidido diversos factores. Por un lado, una fuerte crisis económica que ha reducido notablemente los presupuestos de las corporaciones públicas. En segundo lugar, la irrupción de las plataformas digitales, que ha alterado los hábitos y formas de consumo de la ciudadanía. Asimismo, una fuerte pérdida de credibilidad de los medios públicos –y también privados–, por la falta de independencia del poder político y económico que muchos ciudadanos perciben. Y, finalmente, la expansión de las redes sociales ha cambiado las prácticas periodísticas, así como los modos de producción de contenidos de entretenimiento y de ficción audiovisual. En el caso de la Comunidad Valenciana, estas circunstancias han contribuido a debilitar, de manera bastante notable, el sistema comunicativo y audiovisual valenciano, sumido en una profunda crisis desde hace más de una década.

*CFP* "PEACE, INTERSECTIONALITY AND UNCERTAINTIES", THE 6TH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA STUDIES CONFERENCE

Peace, Intersectionality and Uncertainties

The 6th International Communication and Media Studies Conference

Eastern Mediterranean University (Cyprus)

Famagusta, North Cyprus: 25-26 November 2021

 

 

The Center of Research and Communication for Peace in the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at Eastern Mediterranean University invites submissions addressing the general theme of Peace, Intersectionality and Uncertainties the 6th International Communication and Media Studies Conference will be held on 25-26 November 2021 in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus. The conference is dedicated to bringing together a significant number of diverse scholarly events for presentation within the conference program. Thus, academic scientists, early-stage researchers, and graduate students are invited to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of communication. It also provides a platform for researchers to present and discuss recent innovations, trends, and concerns raised with Covid-19 pandemic as well as practical challenges encountered, and solutions adopted in the Communication and Media Studies. 

*CFP* "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE HUMAN. CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON SCIENCE AND FICTION", CONFERENCE AND EDITED VOLUME

Current debates on artificial intelligence often conflate the realities of AI technologies with the fictional renditions of what they might one day become. They are said to be able to learn, make autonomous decisions or process information much faster than humans, which raises hopes and fears alike. What if these useful technologies will one day develop their own intentions that run contrary to those of humans? The line between science and fiction is becoming increasingly blurry: what is already a fact, what is still only imagination; and is it even possible to make this clear-cut distinction? Innovation and development goals in the field of AI are inspired by popular culture, such as its portrayal in literature, comics, film or television. 

At the same time, images of these technologies drive discussions and set particular priorities in politics, business, journalism, religion, civil society, ethics or research. Fictions, potentials and scenarios inform a society about the hopes, risks, solutions and expectations associated with new technologies. But what is more, the discourses on AI, robots and intelligent, even sentient machines are nothing short of a mirror of the human condition: they renew fundamental questions on concepts such as consciousness, free will and autonomy or the ways we humans think, act and feel.

*CFP* "MAKING A MURDERER: TRUE CRIME IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE", SPECIAL ISSUE, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS CRIME FICTION STUDIES JOURNAL

“Everybody’s fascinated with the notion that there is a cause and effect,” claims notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, quoted in the Netflix original, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019) – that we can “put our finger on it,” and reassuringly rationalise the genesis of the uniquely modern phenomenon of the American serial killer. But when there is “absolutely nothing” in the background of a serial murderer that would lead one to believe they were “capable of committing murder,” how do we begin to acclimatise ourselves to this violent defect of contemporary history? More challengingly, how do we bring depth to our collective portrait of what constitutes a murderer, so that we may then self-exempt our compulsion to look more closely at these perversely familiar figures? 

Over the last 50 years, a plethora of books, magazines, film and television adaptations on the subject of true crime has captured – and held – the public imagination in a vice-like grip, ultimately achieving cult status in postwar-American society while furthermore granting the white male serial killer the kind of cultural capital usually awarded only to celebrities. With the enormous popularity of such series as Making a Murderer (2015) and Mindhunter (2017), however, it seems like now, more than ever, the uneasy question of why we continue to glorify killers by inserting them into mainstream media – and what exactly the appeal of this enduring genre and its mythologization of ultraviolent masculinities tells us about ‘who we are’ and the nature of American society itself – has acquired a new level of urgency, which, in turn, requires new depths of understanding. Likewise, with the growing Netflixisation of true crime, and the narrativization of true crime more broadly, now is the time to establish a study that evaluates the politics of the ever-increasing fine line between actual crime documentaries versus fictional shows that reference true crime.

*CFP* CALL FOR PROPOSALS, MULTIPLAY NETWORK'S FIRST CONFERENCE

MultiPlay Network 1st Conference

University of Sunderland (London)

19th January 2022

 

 

We have released a call for papers for MultiPlay network's first conference. MultiPlay is a new network for multidisciplinary research on digital play and games. It was created with the support of the University of Sunderland, which will be host our first event.

The theme of the conference is identity – how games shape identity, how gamers define themselves, how place and space in games can build a sense of identity, and how marginalised identities are depicted in games and can challenge or reinforce dominant power structures.

We are accepting submissions on this theme. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words, with an accompanying biography which should describe your fields of interest. We will respond to each applicant before October 1st to confirm whether their presentation proposal has been accepted.

*CFP* CALL FOR CONTRIBUTION, NEXT ISSUES, BULLETIN OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR ROBIN HOOD STUDIES

The Bulletin of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, invites submissions on any aspect of the Robin Hood tradition. 

The editors especially welcome essays in the following areas: formal literary explication, manuscript and early printed book investigations, historical inquiries, new media examinations, and theory and cultural studies approaches. Proposals for guest-edited special issues are also welcome. 

Forthcoming special issues focus on Otto Bathurst’s 2018 Robin Hood film and Robin Hood games. We are looking for concise essays, 4,000-8,000-words long, in current CMS style with footnotes and end bibliographies. The journal is hosted by Ball State University’s Open Journals platform and is actively indexed in the MLA International Bibliography.

Submissions and queries should be directed to both Valerie B. Johnson (vjohnso6@montevallo.edu) and also Alexander L. Kaufman (akaufman@aum.edu).

*CFP* "VISUALIDAD Y PODER", II COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL (ONLINE)

“Visualidad y Poder” II Coloquio Internacional

Del 30 de noviembre al 2 de diciembre de 2021

Formato online

 

La Maestría en Comunicación, mención Visualidad y Diversidades y URU Revista de Comunicación y Cultura convocan al II Coloquio Internacional «Visualidad y Poder», el cual se desarrollará en formato online a través de internet y redes sociales, del 30 de noviembre al 2 de diciembre en consideración del fenómeno de salud que atraviesa la humanidad.

El evento es un espacio de debate sobre problemas e innovaciones actuales de los estudios de visualidad que permita el diálogo interdisciplinar entre investigadores, académicos, creadores, docentes y estudiantes que tienen como objeto de investigación aspectos estéticos, tecnológicos, políticos y culturales de las imágenes. Igualmente se constituye en un espacio de referencia de los debates contemporáneos asociados a la visualidad dentro de América Latina.

*CFP* "DIALOGUE-SHARED EXPERIENCES ACROSS SPACE AND TIME: CROSS-LINGUISTIC AND CROSS-CULTURAL PRACTICES", 6TH ESTIDIA CONFERENCE

6th ESTIDIA Conference

Dialogue-shared Experiences across Space and Time: Cross-linguistic and Cross-cultural Practices

University of Alicante, Spain

15-17 June, 2022

 

From the Socratic dialogues to post-modern cyberchats, it is only in and through communicative interaction that we can understand the world, people, and how things are working around us (Bohm, 2004/1996, Rockwell 2003). By means of dialogue people are able to argue for their viewpoints, to come to terms with each other, to jointly solve problems, and to resolve conflicts (Pickering and Garrod 2021). Dialogue brings together women and men, young and old, people from the east and the west, from the north and the south. Through the creative synergy of shared thoughts, ideas, and experiences, we can travel anywhere in space and time. 

*CFP* "FROM THE SCENIC ESSAY TO THE ESSAY-EXHIBITION. EXPANDING THE ESSAY FORM IN THE ARTS AFTER LITERATURE AND FILM", S:PAM CONFERENCE

From the Scenic Essay to the Essay-Exhibition. Expanding the Essay Form in the Arts after Literature and Film

S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts & Media)

Ghent University (Belgium)

27th-29th of April 2022

 

 

More than 400 years after the publication of Michel De Montaigne’s Essais, the enduring afterlife of the essay form attests how this 'heretical form’ (Adorno) not only continues to challenge the literary conventions but also transgresses the borders of the literary field to venture into other artistic disciplines. The genre of the essay film is the most prominent example of this dissemination but the expansion has set out into other areas as well. Engaging with this emerging prominence, From the Scenic to the Essay-Exhibition welcomes scholars and art practitioners to present their academic and artistic engagements with the essay form.

*CFP* "EL PARADIGMA DEL DIGITAL LITERACY: RETOS Y EXPERIENCIAS", NÚMERO 21, COMMUNICATION PAPERS: SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH JOURNAL

La de 2020 no ha sido la primera pandemia que ha atravesado la Humanidad, como tampoco será la última, al menos, eso aseguran las voces expertas. Lo que sí ha sido una novedad es que esta tragedia sanitaria global coincide con el mayor periodo de interconectividad que hemos experimentado como especie.

A principios de mayo de ese año, la Organización Mundial de la Salud publicó una hoja informativa titulada Entender la Infodemia y la Desinformación en la lucha contra la Covid-19, en la que se advierte sobre las consecuencias tanto de la infodemia (flujo excesivo de información, verídica o no) como de la desinformación deliberada.

Porque la extraordinaria difusión de las tecnologías de la información está suponiendo la quiebra de muchos paradigmas educativos tradicionales. En este contexto global, los medios digitales -Internet- han disipado las fronteras entre la comunicación de masas y la comunicación interpersonal y, las diferencias entre los productores y los consumidores de productos culturales y de entretenimiento, son cada vez más difusas. Muchas de estas transformaciones implican inexorablemente a la infancia, adolescencia y juventud, usuarios intensivos de las tecnologías, que provenientes de las pantallas audiovisuales, han migrado a las interficies digitales.

*CFP* "MANY DOORS TO FANTASTICA: THE NEVERENDING STORY & THE EDUCATION OF THE IMAGINATION", EDITED VOLUME

When thinking of family films from the 1980s, the plethora of weird yet engaging movies seems endless. Chief among them was Wolfgang Petersen’s 1984 film adaption of The Neverending Story. The film drew from Michael Ende’s 1979 Die unendliche Geschichte: Von A bis Z, known better by the English title which was shared with the film. Ende’s book ultimately spawned three films, two animated series, a hit song which has been covered by musicians in a variety of genres, and a host of short stories written as tributes to the imaginative work. Ende’s work managed to secure a spot in the collective memory of Americans. References to the film and the book populate television shows. This collection of essays seeks to engage in interdisciplinary readings and viewings which will help shed light on the lasting power of Ende’s fictional world.

The multifaceted framework of Ende’s story helps to shape the interdisciplinary approach of this collection. The lines between reality and fiction, between characters, and between purposes are all blurred in such a way that there is much to mine from the stores rich layers. This volume hopes to do the same by investigating the text from a variety of viewpoints, as well as offering pedagogical approaches for the classroom. It also seeks to highlight the various media representations of Ende’s story, including the films and cartoon adaptations. In the end, the book will enrich the reading and viewing experiences for those for whom Bastian and Atreyu are a part of their imaginative fabric, as well as serving as a gateway for those just coming to Fantastica for the first time. Contributors are invited to submit paper proposals that approach the imagination from a variety of lenses.

*CFP* "SPIES AND SECRET AGENTS ON EASTERN EUROPEAN SCREENS", SPECIAL ISSUE, STUDIES IN EASTERN EUROPEAN CINEMA JOURNAL

While various generic manifestations of popular cinema in Eastern Europe have attracted increasing scholarly attention, as testified, for instance, by special issues of SEEC devoted to sci-fi and musicals, a  research gap can still be observed regarding the espionage genre in the region, despite the fact that some of the Eastern European titles of this variety have become box office hits. The lukewarm academic interest in Eastern European spy thrillers thus far can perhaps be partly explained by the low cultural prestige of the genre and its assumed adherence to the hegemonies and realpolitik of the Cold War – implicit preconceptions that the proposed special issue is designed to address.

 

Aside from screen stories with a central focus on clandestine affairs, we also encourage studies on works that present secret agents in a range of generic frameworks, such as historical dramas, biopics or comedies.

• Some of the possible topics and approaches include:
• The espionage genre and cinematic secret agents before World War II
• Spy films and Cold War

*CFP* "SOCIEDAD E IDENTIDAD EN EL AUDIOVISUAL LATINOAMERICANO Y ESPAÑOL", NÚMERO ENERO 2022, MIGUEL HERNÁNDEZ COMMUNICATION JOURNAL

A lo largo del siglo XX, los medios audiovisuales han sido los constructores más potentes de imaginarios sociales e identitarios. En el siglo XXI, la realidad de la globalización, la generalización de Internet y de las redes sociales y el surgimiento de las plataformas de consumo online han impulsado exponencialmente el intercambio cultural de dichos imaginarios. Se ha conformado así una cultura global que aglutina de forma paradójica la homogeneidad y la diversidad.

Por este motivo, este monográfico intenta responder a algunas cuestiones que se plantean en torno a la construcción de los imaginarios audiovisuales y suscitar el análisis de esta realidad compleja, tanto en el pasado como en el presente. El espacio de debate propuesto establece como marco la producción audiovisual (cine, televisión y otros canales posibles) de España y de Latinoamérica, con el fin de centrarse en la evolución social de estos ámbitos geográficos a partir de su representación en los medios.

A continuación, se proponen algunas líneas generales, aunque no exclusivas en torno al tema propuesto para el monográfico

*CFP* "MEDIA AND CREATIVITY", INTERNATIONAL ONLINE CONFERENCE

“Media and Creativity” International Conference

London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (online)

2021-11-27 to 2021-11-28

 

Nowadays we live and breathe media, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour. News, television, social media, celebrity culture, music, and more. As the media and communication sector becomes ever more diverse and dynamic, and we are going to consume it, we also need to understand it.

Today, the new bio-technical forms of life produced by mainstream digital media and by a whole range of artistic and non-artistic practices confront us with unprecedented theoretical questions, which can be dealt with by combining profound and perplexing perspectives. We need appropriate theoretical frameworks in order to understand the phenomena.

*CFP* "THE IDEA OF THE SHAKESPEARE ACTOR", EDITED COLLECTION

What comes to mind when we think about the Shakespearean actor, or Shakespearean acting? What do actors past, present, and future consider ‘Shakespearean acting’ to be? Is the idea of the Shakespearean actor helpful, or does it limit and restrict the notion of what Shakespearean performance can be?

Histories of Shakespearean acting have often provided catalogues of names weighted in favour of white cisgender actors including David Garrick, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh, and Mark Rylance, in favour of cerebral or declamatory performance styles, and in favour of performing in an English accent. This collection will read against the grain of theatre history to confront the idea of the Shakespearean actor.

As performance trends have changed over the last thirty or forty years, and as landmark works in Shakespeare and early modern performance studies have shown, the limits and definition of ‘the Shakespearean’ have expanded.[1] New approaches address the limits of a teleological, British-centric approach to the histories of Shakespearean acting and acting practices: there have been interesting challenges to the limits of 'Shakespearean acting' from earlier periods, from figures such as Ira Aldridge, Paul Robeson, Asta Nielsen, Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt, Fanny Furnival, Sarah Siddons, and even Edward Kynaston.

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, MEDIA LAW & POLICY MLPSC SCHOLARS CONFERENCE

Media Law & Policy

MLPSC Scholars Conference

13-14 January 2022 (online)

 

We invite you to submit an abstract for the Media Law & Policy Scholars Conference (MLPSC 2021), which will take place online on January 13 & 14, 2022.

MLPSC is not like other big conferences you may normally attend. It is an interdisciplinary, paper workshop. The goal is to provide advice and support for works-in-progress – to deepen their intellectual and theoretical impact. We interpret media law and policy broadly, welcoming scholars from around the world who study free speech, free press, access to information, intellectual property, data privacy, emerging technologies and other related law and policy issues from a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodologies. Our goal is to include scholars and practitioners from law, journalism & communication, philosophy, political science, information systems, sociology, history, business and myriad other disciplines.

*CFP* "LGBTQIA+ FANTASTIKA GRAPHICS", A DIGITAL SYMPOSIUM

“Fantastika” – a term appropriated from a range of Slavonic languages by John Clute – embraces the genres of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror, but can also include Alternate History, Gothic, Steampunk, Young Adult Dystopic Fiction, or any other radically imaginative narrative space. Our goal is to bring together academics, independent researchers, creators, and audiences who share an interest in this diverse range of fields with the aim of opening up new dialogues, productive controversies, and critical collaborations.

Following the 2020-pandemic hiatus, we are pleased to re-launch our annual conferences this year as a digital symposium. LGBTQIA+ Fantastika Graphics focuses on graphics and illustrations in its widest possible remit (comic books, manga, animes, cartoons, picture books, video games, and other such productions.) [This is an updated remit from ‘graphic novels’; please disregard previous CFPs.] We are interested in works that contain representations of the LGBTQIA+ community, relationships, and full spectrum of identities. We welcome abstracts for 15-minute papers or panels of 2-4 people on LGBTQIA+ Fantastika as they occur in the graphic form. Some suggested topics are:

*CFP* "COSTUME AND FAIRY TALES", SPECIAL ISSUE, STUDIES IN COSTUME & PERFORMANCE JOURNAL

Costume plays an important part both in traditional fairy tales and in their adaptations in diverse media forms, especially in performing arts such as theatre, ballet, opera, and musical, but also in other media such as film, visual art, manga, theme parks, video games, and digital and social media. Clothes worn by characters in fairy tales function according to the internal narrative logic that constitutes and organizes the story-world, defining and transforming the wearers’ identities and social contexts. In this sense, fairy-tale clothes can be regarded as costume, defined as the kind of clothes that bear significance, within a staged, performed moment for an audience, ranging from traditional theatre to live art, through spoken, movement based, or sung performance. The ubiquitous persistence of fairy tales in popular cultures across the globe renders them a means to express social, cultural and psychological anxieties, evoking ethical dimensions of individual and collective struggles. As such, the way characters are embodied through their clothes bears significant narrative and performative potential in layering of meanings in performance making.

Equally, iconic fairy tale characters may float away from their narrative roles and be found to be expressing key themes in contemporary performance-based artistic practices. For example, Korean-born photographer Chan-Hyo Bae in his Existing in Costume series (2006-) casts himself in the roles of princesses in European fairy tales such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty by wearing authentic dresses worn by ruling-class women in eighteenth-century England, thereby foregrounding the physical and metaphorical tension between the male Asian body and those kinds of historical costumes which evidence the Eurocentric colonial norms still dominant in today’s globalized culture.

*CFP* "MEDIATING MOTHER-ACTIVISM", BOOK CHAPTER

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in exploring motherhood and mothering as political and emotional resources for digital activism. Although the intertwinement of mothering and politics predates the digital context, feminist debates around the politicization of mothering, from protests against state killings and disappearances, via the role of the mother in nation-building, to advocacy for right wing populisms, need addressing all the more urgently as we endeavour to understand the ways in which mothering is not only mediatised, but agentively deployed across social media platforms. The political role and significance of the mother, the uneasy relation between motherhood as gendered identity and mothering as daily practice, continue to be contentious issues for feminists (Rich 1976, DiQuinzio 1999, Gumbs, Martens and Williams 2016, Naber 2021). Mother-activists have historically constructed public issues from their personal experiences of suffering and loss within family structures (Reiger 2000), utilizing the symbolic power of motherhood in order to motivate others to join their causes (Logsdon Conradsen 2011). Notwithstanding, campaigns such those of the Argentinian Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been cast as ‘trapped by a bad script’ (Taylor 1997), that is as reproducing the same narratives of familialism and heteropatriarchal bloodline that underpin the narrative of the state. Conversely, many feminist scholars have argued that the political mobilisation of the trope of the mother has the potential to challenge the ‘official’ frameworks of national, ethnic or other group loyalty and to undermine or to radically reframe these very narratives (Kim 2020, Athanasiou 2017, Carreon and Moghadam 2015). For example, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have raised the slogan ‘One child, all the children’ (Sosa 2014), taking the campaign beyond limits of blood kinship.

*CFP* CALL FOR MEDIA REVIEWERS AND PAPERS, MIDDLE WEST REVIEW

Middle West Review (MWR) is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that examines the American Midwest. The journal is published biannually by the University of Nebraska Press.

MWR is seeking scholars to review media texts that engage with midwestern identity, history, and culture. From popular films and television series to online exhibitions and digital archives, MWR spotlights Midwest-oriented media texts in each issue. We welcome reviews of texts from our list below, as well as texts that are not currently on the list (including films and television series from across the histories of both mediums).

We accept rolling submissions of media reviews, review essays, and scholarly articles:

• Media reviews should be 900-1,500 words. 
• Review essays should be 2,000-3,000 words. These pieces may address multiple texts or more thoroughly consider a single film, television series, or other media object. 
• Scholarly articles should be 3,500-10,000 words. As an interdisciplinary journal, we invite submissions that utilize methodologies from a variety of fields, including film, television, media, and literary studies.

*CFP* "BEYOND PSYCHO: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF JOSEPH STEFANO AND HORROR IN THE OUTER LIMITS", BOOK CHAPTER

We invite chapter proposals (300-500 words) for an edited volume of critical essays dealing with screenwriter Joseph Stefano and elements of horror in the 1960s television program The Outer Limits.

This edited collection, with articles from film scholars working in the fields of horror and science fiction, will examine not only Stefano’s post-Psycho accomplishments as a scriptwriter but also his importance as a producer, establishing his gothic vision as a consistent characteristic of the show. The Outer Limits, filmed in black and white, employs an expressionist cinematography uncharacteristic of other broadcasts at that time, emphasizing the gothic elements of the plots while suggesting a new category of horror noir and science fiction drama. The Outer Limits, as horror noir, employs visual elements and narrative conventions of the art-house foreign films and noir drama of the past to create an ambiance of horror while anticipating future challenges of a society confronting accelerated scientific and technological change.

Essays will be structured around Stefano’s ten filmed screenplays and two contributed story ideas, while each essay also may examine other episodes, as appropriate, to illustrate how Stefano’s horror noir themes, tropes, and characterizations pervade the entire series.

*CFP* "DISINFORMATION-FOR-HIRE AND CLICK FARMING AROUND THE WORLD: IDENTITIES, INCENTIVES, INFRAESTRUCTURES", SPECIAL ISSUE, SOCIAL MEDIA + SOCIETY JOURNAL

From state-sponsored propagandists using paid troll armies, to commercially motivated data analytics firms selling their toolkits to politicians, and platform workers producing memes for overseas clients, the global industry of disinformation production has only professionalized and diversified. This special issue for Social Media + Society aims to deepen understanding about the social identities, work arrangements, and political and commercial motivations of an emerging class of digital disinformation workers. We are interested in critical and interdisciplinary research that examines the political economy, specifically the digital and creative industries that propel and produce disinformation. The special issue’s focus on business models and disinformation worker identities in global context aims to expand on disinformation studies’ analysis of “fake news” and hate speech as content that require better policing or fact-checking. It also aims to expand platform studies’ research agenda and consider the range of digital professionals and entrepreneurs who buy and sell engagement on social media–with pernicious political consequences especially in contexts where dissenting voices are suppressed.

Thus, we solicit submissions that discuss the diverse worker hierarchies and conditions, outsourced gig arrangements, money politics, and/or regulatory loopholes in the promotional industries that enable the strategic production of disinformation. We are interested in interdisciplinary and ethnographic research that engages with the deep stories of workers in “dark PR” firms (Silverman, Lytyvenko & Kung 2020; Verwey & Muir 2019), data analytics firms (Briant 2021), Latin American and Indonesian Instagram click farms (Lindquist 2021), and “propaganda secretary” offices (Hassan & Hitchen 2019). We are also interested in normative discussions about complicity and collusion in digital industries as well as scholarly self-reflection about the challenges of doing engaged research about disinformation (Ong 2020).

*CFP* "FANTASY AND THE FANTASTIC", SPECIAL ISSUE, MAPPING THE IMPOSSIBLE JOURNAL

We welcome submissions from undergraduate and postgraduate students (and from those who have graduated within the last year) from any higher education institution. We publish articles on any aspect of fantasy and the fantastic and any work within this transmedial genre. Increasingly, students from more established disciplines (including, but not limited to, Literature Studies, Game Studies, Film and Television Studies, Media Studies, Philosophy and Theology) elect to write essays on a fantasy related topic that intersects with their primary discipline.

Robert Maslen defines Fantasy as that which ‘focuses instead on what certainly did not happen and never could, foregrounding the impossibility of what it represents.’ While this is only one definition of how fantasy works, and certainly not definitive, we find ‘representing impossibility’ to be a useful starting point when approaching fantasy, the fantastic, and the techniques of wider speculative fiction. However, we would like to note that this is only a starting point. We are open to papers that explore all different kinds of interpretations and definitions of fantasy across disciplines and across media.

Our second issue, to be published in March 2022, will be a general issue. Submissions for this issue are currently open.

*CFP* "SENSING THE ARCHIVE. EXPLORING THE DIGITAL (IM)MATERIALITY OF THE MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVE", ISSUE 19, FRAMES CINEMA JOURNAL

Shrunken film strips, faded footage, distorted sound, and a harsh vinegar scent; such lamentable deterioration exposes the material vulnerabilities of audio-visual heritage which often determine the work of archivists and conservators. With constant changes in the technology of access have come profound changes to the world of dusty boxes, narrow strip-lit and high-stacked aisles, and data stored in obscure and obsolescent formats. At the same time, audio-visual materials offer new sensory modes of historiography. What kinds of historical knowledge lie within these resources and how can they be revived?

Mass digitisation has transformed the ways in which we can access, understand, and interact with histories stored in audio-visual media. Digitisation highlights the tangibility of the medium, and the fluidity of the material. Archives have always had their absences and lacunae, but digital materiality – or immateriality – produces new instabilities that require novel ways of approaching audio-visual heritage. How does our sensory experience of film history change due to the digital turn? What kind of research behaviours and patterns can this process enhance, and what kinds of research are inhibited?

*CFP* "REGGAE FILMS, REGGAE ICONS, REGGAE MUSIC", 7TH GLOBAL REGGAE CONFERENCE

 "Reggae Films, Reggae Icons, Reggae Music"

7th Global Reggae Conference

University of the West Indies

February 16-19, 2022

 

 

Hosted typically as a premier biennial event, in this its 7th staging, the Global Reggae Conference shifts to a triennial offering in 2022. Hosted inside Jamaica’s Reggae Month, this conference will engage academics within a wide field of scholastic orientations and practice. In celebration of the productive space created by the film, this conference aims to bring together students, scholars, filmmakers, researchers, writers, critics, music aficionados, and artists to deliberate on the conference theme. This event comes as part of larger project on music, popular culture and Reggae Studies in particular, through which scholars, students, institutions have engaged in partnership to expand scholarship and outreach through research, creative production, community engagement, experimentation, archive building, and exhibitions, among others.

*CFP* "IMAGES BETWEEN SERIES AND STREAM. RETHINKING SERIALITY AND STREAMING", INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Interdisciplinary Conference

“Images Between Series and Stream – Rethinking Seriality and Streaming”

18-19 November 2021. Conference will be held online.

 

In the last few years watching TV series has become a distinct socio-cultural phenomenon. The increasing rise of streaming media services has profoundly changed the accessibility standards of TV series but also the way of watching them. However, the domestication of our life in pandemic, made us realize that streaming series and films should become more important objects of our interest than ever before. In some sense, we live in-series and on-stream platforms. New technological situations, such as the presence of videoconferences in our life, presents us not only with new problems but a new reorganisation of sensibile as Jacques Ranciere might say. Video-technology enters into our private sphere and in some sense it calls us to be constantly available – to be on-stream but also to live in series of accessibilities. The re-organisation of our life is obvious, but the role of images in this “re-” or “de-” organisation still requires some reflection. We are in constant tension between being-in-series and being-on-stream. We perceive ourselves as moving-images on screen. It affects our relationships and our perception. The collaboration of the Techno-Humanities Lab and Film Lab encourages us to ask questions on two different planesphilosophical and cinematic one. Thus, we ask what happens with the pieces of the film art when they become just “tiles” on a streaming platform — a series of „bricks in the wall”? But also – what happens with us when we become just tiles on video conference meetings?

*CFP* "WASTE", VOL. 42.2 (FALL 2022), SPECTATOR JOURNAL

Look around and all the eyes can see is waste. From piles of face masks used during the COVID-19 pandemic to heaps of fake lifejackets left behind by migrants along Europe’s shores, we seem to be surrounded by discarded objects—used, abused, and left behind. As climate change accelerates and racial capitalism continues its relentless agenda of extraction and consumption, human and nonhuman life grows increasingly disposable as well. Despite—or perhaps because of—ongoing calls for better “management,” governments seem more than willing to sacrifice the elderly, disabled, and poor in order to “save” the economy. Over the past few years, we have watched states detain migrant children in cages and abandon refugees stranded at sea. We have witnessed communities around the world endure increasingly extreme weather events while environmental regulations are dismantled by autocrats and democrats alike.

Waste, materially and conceptually, is marked by a certain excess. The term ‘waste’ can signal excessive practices of extraction and production, or improper habits of consumption (wasting food, wasteful spending). It can describe an excess of the body (excrement), and the refusal or inability to make the body productive (wasted talent, waste of time, to waste away from disease or malnourishment). As a verb, ‘waste’ can also mark excessive acts of destruction (laying to waste). Across these uses, waste seems to connote a transgression, a violation of an intended order.

*CFP* "TRANSITIONS IN TENSION. CONTROVERSIES AND TENSIONS AROUND ECOLOGICAL TRANSITIONS", COMMUNICATION, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY CONFERENCE

Transitions in tension. Controversies and tensions around ecological transitions

Communication, Environment, Science and Society Research Group

16 & 17 December, 2021

 

 

The conference will take place in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and will also be held remotely on a digital platform, on 16 and 17 December 2021 - Conference website

This colloquium aims to question the discourses and communicational phenomena related to ecological and energy transitions - we explicitly use the plural to indicate the complexity of the object in question. The polemical dimension of the communication surrounding the transitions - controversies, polemics, discussions, debates - which mobilises verbal language and all other types of semiotic devices (notably still and moving images), is at the centre of attention. 

*CFP* "BLACK AND QUEER, MUSIC ON SCREEN", SPECIAL ISSUE, LIQUID BLACKNESS: JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS AND BLACK STUDIES

This special issue of liquid blackness: journal of aesthetics and black studies proposes to work on Black Queer expression in audiovisual musics cutting across histories of the avant-garde, popular audiovisuality, and frameworks both transnational and critically transhistorical. The goal of the issue is to set up the framework for a survey of Black and Queer musicality in audiovisual media so as to suggest “non-contemporaneous” dialogues between and across historical registers and media platforms, so that the critical expressive power of non-conforming persons of color become a given rather than an alibi, an absence, or a projection.

From early sound cinema to the present, queer or gender non-conforming black artists have voiced a complex series of claims, propositions, demands, and desires, from the introduction of sound to the cinematic screen to the introduction of social media video in networked digital cultures. Black feminist and queer scholarship has often engaged with the meanings and powers expressed in these works, or in musical artists indebted to them or referencing them, from Angela Davis’ reading of transformations of historical memory in Smith’s St. Louis Blues (Blues Legacies and Black Feminisms), to Lindon Barrett’s study of Billie Holiday (Blackness and Value), to Saidiya Hartman’s discussion of errancy in relation to woman-identified women singers in the early years of recording (Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments), and Daphne Brooks’ recent reading of black women’s use of arrangement, sonic curation, and blackness as technology (Liner Notes for the Revolution) in articulating a politics of being and becoming. 

*CFP* CAL FOR ARTICLES, MEDIÁLNÍ STUDIA JOURNAL

Mediální studia / Media Studies (ISSN 2464-4846) is a peer-reviewed, open access electronic journal, published in English, Czech and Slovak twice a year. Based in disciplines of media and communication studies, it focuses on analyses of media texts, media professionals practices and media audiences behaviour.

The journal is indexed in SCOPUS, MLA, Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL), and European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS).

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. This means that your submission can be sent at any time, all year round. Manuscripts submitted by the end of November 2021 will be considered to be included in the 1/2022 issue.

Submission Guidelines.

Please submit your manuscripts via e-mail address medialnistudia@fsv.cuni.cz

*CFP* "ENTERTAINMENT AND AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE SINCE 1950", ESSAYS COLLECTION

Popular Culture has been an integral factor in the fabric of America since its inception. Indeed, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the film and television we watch, literature we consume and other facets of our daily being is heavily, if not entirely influenced by the culture that we reside in. Exploring this culture can reveal some of our most deeply held beliefs and assumptions, ideas that we may otherwise take for granted. This is particularly the case since the mid 20th century. We are soliciting proposals for a collection of essays on Entertainment and American Popular Culture Since 1950. Submitted proposals should discuss any of the following topics, celebrities, events, awards, music, pageants, film, television, race, gender, religion, literature, sexuality, family. technology etc… Essays must focus on the topic of entertainment or the entertainment industry in some fashion.

While we will consider submissions from ABD’S and individuals from varied academic backgrounds, strong preference will be given to Ph.D.’s , Ed.D’s, MFA’s, MBA’s , Juris Doctorate’s , Journalists, MD’s and others with terminal degrees. Proposals should be no more than two pages. Submissions should be sent to either:

Elwood Watson, watsone@etsu.edu

Blake Scott Ball, bsball@hawks.huntingdon.edu

*CFP* "OPORTUNITIES FOR INNOVATION", IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING SYMPOSIUM

Immersive Storytelling Symposium: Opportunities for Innovation

2nd and 3rd November 2021,

Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, UK, and online

 

A huge amount of R&D talent is focused on the global immersive technology market, which is estimated to be worth $95-105 billion by 2023. In the United Kingdom the Creative Industries Sector Deal draws on £72 million government funding to support this new wave of innovation. The national network of Creative Industries Clusters includes XR Stories (York), StoryFutures Academy (London) and XR+D (Bristol and Bath). The Audience of the Future demonstrator programme is producing unique experiences spearheaded by renowned cultural institutions like the Royal Shakespeare Company, Natural History Museum and Royal Opera House. These initiatives are designed to establish the UK’s position in an international marketplace that encompasses everything from Dreamscape Immersive’s location-based VR attractions, to Museum of Ice Cream’s multi-sensory installations, to Punch Drunk’s immersive theatre shows. Just this small selection of examples is spread across the USA, Singapore, Dubai and China.

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, BLANQUERNA SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CONFERENCE

Blanquerna School of Communications and International Relations

Ramon Llull University, Barcelona

October 7, 8, and 9, 2021

 

With a global pandemic and a world unsettled by profound transformations, we currently live a time of uncertainty, doubts, and opportunities. This conference invites to rethink the role of communication in times of disruption. Civil society, the public sector, and businesses must all face new challenges and respond to unforeseen trials.

The conference welcomes papers dealing with new narratives, communication strategies, messages, storytelling, and publics as they relate to the current and past elements of social, political, and economic disruption: the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic crisis, globalization and business challenges, domestic terrorism, the rise of authoritarianism, political polarization, and widespread protest movements, and insurrections, included the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as current and historical protest/insurrection movements of the past in other parts of the world.

*CFP* "IMAG(IN)ING THE NATION: LITERATURE, THE ARTS AND PROCESSES OF NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION", RELATIONAL FORMS VI CONFERENCE

Relational Forms VI

Imag(in)ing the Nation: Literature, the Arts and Processes of National Construction

2 - 4 December 2021

Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto, Portugal

 

According to scholars, criteria for nationhood have typically involved a commonality of ethnicity, language or religion, historically prolonged occupation of a stretch of land, frequently linked to the existence of a state apparatus, collective experience, and shared memories. Literature and the other arts have often been mobilized to support (if not altogether participate in the construction of) this sense of belonging and identity, which they can also challenge and complicate. Nationalism may simply be described as the most extreme form of such engagements and allegiances. In his 1945 essay “Notes on Nationalism”, George Orwell denounces the characteristic aggressiveness and single-mindedness of the nationalist, as well as the peculiar indifference to reality such attitudes entail. Orwell’s essay betrays a sense of urgency derived both from the hazards of the Second World War and from the perceived political and ideological threats of the approaching Cold War – a term he would himself coin. 

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, COMEDY IN CRISIS CONFERENCE

Comedy in Crisis Conference

Mixed Bill: Comedy and Gender Research Network

Birmingham City University, 14th and 15th January 2022

 

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, comedy (and social uses of humour) have become increasingly vital as a method of coping with adversity on both a local and global scale. Shared laughter can provide a temporary relief from the anxieties that continue to dominate a socially distanced existence, and thus bring people together whilst physically apart. In this context temporary humour communities have become increasingly significant. This conference will creatively explore how comedy (both in terms of content and industrial practices related to live and mediated forms) adapts and engages with times of crisis.

Although we anticipate a significant amount of discussion will look to recent events related to the pandemic, we also actively seek presentations engaging with wider conceptions of personal, social, political and environmental crises. We therefore invite abstracts for presentations, performances and creative responses on the following topics. 

*CFP* "AUDIOVISUAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES - PRESENT AND FUTURE", VOL.7 Nº2, THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS

The present issue of the International Journal of Film and Media Arts invites full papers that deal in particular with:


• Audiovisual ecosystems in local, regional, national and international level

• New formats and languages in audiovisual media and on the internet

• Transmedia narratives

• Second Screen and the impact of the multitasking viewer

• Analysis and semiotics of audiovisual and multimedia discourses

• New theories, new concepts, new paradigms and new approaches in audiovisual communication

• New audiovisual research methods and techniques

 

All submission will be select by double-blind peer review. The author must provide separate files:
a) The title pageshould include the title, author’s name and affiliations, email address, acknowledgements (optional) and conflict of interest statement (if necessary).

*CFP* "COUNTER-MEDIATIZATION, DIGITAL DISCONNECTION AND OTHER REVERSE TRENDS IN MEDIA USE", TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIATIZATION RESEARCH V WORKSHOP

Towards development of mediatization research V

Counter-mediatization, digital disconnection and other reverse trends in media use

10.12.2021

Institute of Social Communication and Media Studies

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland

in partnership with Academia Europaea Wroclaw Knowledge Hub

 

Continuing our research meetings focused on specific issues of mediatisation chaired by eminent experts (Göran Bolin (2017), Johan Fornäs (2018), Andreas Hepp (2019), Mark Deuze (2020)), this year the workshop will take place online on 10 December 2021 and it will be led by Professor André Jansson, director of the Geomedia Research Group at the Karlstad University, Sweden.