Archive for October 2008

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[ecrea] CFP - The Ends of Television Conference, Amsterdam

Wed Oct 29 09:57:20 GMT 2008



Call for Papers:



The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) and the Department of Media Studies of the Universiteit van Amsterdam invite papers for a 3-day conference on


The Ends of Television

Logics/Perspectives/Entanglements

Monday June 29 ? Wednesday July 1 2009 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Keynote speakers:
Joke Hermes (InHolland, Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Toby Miller (University of California Riverside)
Anna McCarthy (NYU)

Conference theme:
Is TV as we know it dead? Does TV Studies have any relevance in a world of media convergence? Are we at risk of becoming gravediggers of an obsolete medium rather than innovators in a cross-medial regime? The conference will address some of the central frames through which TV has been analyzed to test their relevance in an age where digitalization and convergence is redrawing the boundaries of media and of disciplines. Rather than accept the narrative of obsolescence or the nostalgia of seclusion, the conference aims at seriously analyzing both the contemporary specificity of TV and the challenges thrown up by new developments in technology and theory. For example: What is the specificity of the TV image in an environment suffused with moving images? Has the spectator of TV changed in a media world that begs ?interaction?? How does the relevance of ideology-critique and propaganda fare in the age of surveillance? Is the educational role of TV obsolete with the triumph of market logics?

Depending on how these and other questions are answered, TV Studies must rethink its own status as a discipline, beginning with its own position vis-à-vis Film Studies and New Media Studies. Do such separations still hold analytical purchase? What old concepts need reformulation, and what areas of study (e.g. cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, political science, art history) can we both borrow from and enrich?

Contributions are invited which take a stand on the relevance of TV, and TV Studies, through substantial and close analyses of specific dimensions of television:

(Medium) Specificity
If we are witnessing the end of TV as we know it, what is it being replaced with? What form will TV take in the future, and what are its aesthetic qualities? What is the ontology of the televisual image and sound once it has been digitized? How does the aural experience of contemporary television sets enhance or affect television watching? If ?flow? and ?liveness? was what distinguished TV from film in the 20th century, how does this hold true in the 21st? What effects does the change from flow and liveness to the archive have for our understanding of the medium? How do TV, film and new media relate to each other in the new constellation?

(Functional) Logics
How does TV function? Questions of broad and narrow-casting, the blurring of genres and media (cross media), the fluidity of audiences, the multiple settings of TV reception, etc ? all these dimensions point to an acceleration of change in the logics of TV?s mode of functioning. What broad changes can be identified in the logics of TV, and how do they relate to larger shifts in contemporary societies, technologies, and communication patterns? More specifically, what is the impact of these changes when we consider the purposeful use of TV? What will become of advertising when television goes digital? What is the relationship between branding and television?s functional logics? What becomes of propaganda in a multi-channel environment? In what sense has TV?s governmental logic changed during the last decade? How does media literacy function in knowledge societies?

(Conceptual) Changes
If the logics of TV are shifting, how might they be studied in the contemporary context? What new, or different perspectives can be brought to bear in intellectually engaging with the medium? Do the established (analytical) distinctions of production, reception, textual analysis, suffice? Do more dimensions need to be added, or do the existing distinctions need to be broadened, sharpened or reviewed, keeping in mind the changing logics of television? ? e.g. in the context of convergence, and multimedia interaction, such as UGC, how do terms like ?production? and ?reception? change their meaning?

(Transdisciplinary) Entanglements
Given that the logics of television?s mode of functioning, and the perspectives of TV Studies need analysis and change, in what way do these changes suggest an entangled and cross-fertilized re-definition of the field itself, its ends (goals), and its future development? On the one hand, how might a reviewing of television and its modes of analysis enrich other disciplines (for example Visual Culture, a re-defined Art History, Film History, Media Archaeology)? On the other, what might TV Studies gain from strategically borrowing and re-working theories and concepts from other fields (Sociology, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law, Cultural Analysis)? What contributions can more recent paradigms like cognitivism or network theory make? Can TV studies borrow terms from chaos theory like emergence, non-linearity, or attractors, and what do they contribute to the already existing theoretical vocabulary?

Proposal deadline: proposals for papers and/or panels should be sent to <mailto:(asca-fgw /at/ uva.nl)>(asca-fgw /at/ uva.nl) before February 26 2009.

Organising committee: Sudeep Dasgupta, Marijke de Valck, Jaap Kooijman, Jan Teurlings



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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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Sponsored links ;)
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Discourse Theory and Cultural Analysis. Media, Arts and Literature.
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Democracy, Journalism and Technology
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European Communication Research and Education Association
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ECREA's Second European Communication Conference
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
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