Call for Papers
Researching (Popular) Media in the Age of Convergence:
Methodological innovations in the study of media industries, texts,
technologies and audiences
ICA Preconference by the Popular Communication Division
22nd June 2010, Singapore
The processes of digitization and deregulation have transformed the
production, distribution and consumption of information and entertainment
media over the past three decades. Today, researchers are confronted with
profoundly different landscapes of domestic and personal media than the
pioneers of qualitative audience research that came to form much of the
conceptual basis of Cultural Studies first in Britain and North America and
subsequently across all global regions.
The process of media convergence, as a consequence of the dual forces of
digitisation and deregulation, thus constitutes a central concept in the
analysis of popular mass media. From the study
of the internationalisation and
globalisation of media content, changing regimes of media production, via the
social shaping and communication technologies and conversely the impact of
communication technology on social, cultural and political realities, to the
emergence of transmedia storytelling, the interplay of intertextuality and
genre and the formation of mediated social networks, convergence informs
and shapes contemporary conceptual debates in the field of popular
communication and beyond.
However, media convergence challenges not only the conceptual canon of
(popular) communication research, but poses profound methodological
challenges. As boundaries between producers and consumers are increasingly
fluent, formerly stable fields and categories of research such as industries,
texts and audiences intersect and overlap, requiring combined and new
research strategies.
This preconference aims to offer a forum for the presentation and discussion
of methodological innovations in the study of contemporary media and the
analysis of the social, cultural and political impact and challenges arising
through media convergence. The preconference thus focuses on the following
methodological questions and challenges:
? New strategies of audience research responding to the increasing
individualisation of popular media consumption.
? Methods of data triangulation in and through the integrated study of media
production, distribution and consumption.
? Bridging the methodological and often associated conceptual gap between
qualitative and quantitative research in the study of popular media.
? The future of ethnographic audience and production research in light of
blurring boundaries between media producers and consumers.
? A critical re-examination of which textual
configurations can be meaningfully
described and studied as text.
? Methodological innovations aimed at assessing
the macro social, cultural and
political impact of mediatization (including, but not limited to, ?creative
methods?).
? Methodological responses to the globalisation of popular media and
practicalities of international and transnational comparative research.
? An exploration of new methods required in the study of media flow and
intertextuality.
We invite contributions in form of paper presentations and discussion papers.
Please submit extended abstracts of 300-500 words (including contact
information and affiliation) to Cornel Sandvoss, ((C.Sandvoss /at/ surrey.ac.uk)),
Popular Communication Division Chair, by Thursday, 5th November 2009.
