Mediascape, UCLAâ??s journal of Cinema and Media
Studies, is pleased to announce the publication
of the Fall 2009 issue. In light of the
increasingly diverse range of texts available
for study in the present media environment, we
sought in this issue to consider genre from our
contemporary and multi-media point of
view. This issue features work by scholars on
topics ranging from westerns and sex comedies to
sports media, and includes another round table
discussion between Jason Mittell, Scott Ruston,
Timothy Shary, and Vernon Shetley. We are also
very excited to include a section dedicated to
scholarly work done in the medium of visual
essays. You can view this spectacular new issue here:
http://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/
We are also beginning work on our new issue and are welcoming submissions:
CALL FOR PAPERS - SPRING 2010 ISSUE
For this issue, Mediascape is considering the
theme of the local and global in cinema and
media, and visual culture. The deadline for submissions is 30 January 2010.
FEATURES
â??Featuresâ?? is seeking articles that consider
themes and variations on traversing the local
and global mediascape within all areas of media studies.
To understand media today one must examine the
global system of media industries, while also
taking into account national and local
identities and differences. Synergy between
local and global communities has surfaced not
only in the broader geo-political arena, but in
our creation and consumption of media. As a
result, the possibility or predicament of local
collective identity enculturation within newly
established global marketplace presents itself
as a primary concern for media scholars. Do
global programs eliminate local production? Has
the globalization of the media brought about a
Westernization of world media systems? How does
the role of the internet come into play
regarding the relationship between local users
and the power of global media corporations?
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
* Transnational media productions, e.g.,
How can we conceive of national cinemas in the
contemporary media landscape? Are there local
or national cinemas anymore? What is the role
of local and international film festivals in the global film market?
* The role of state and local institutions
in shaping transnational strategies, e.g., How
have different local government regulations,
such as quotas on imports/exports or
censorship, affected the flow of media across nations?
* Global media governance and the migration
of intellectual properties between nations,
e.g., How are television shows adapted from one
country to another such as American Idol or The Office?
* How have new media technologies like the
internet and the increased migration of texts
across borders impacted the notion of the public sphere?
* The use of advertising and marketing in
reaching diverse local and global audiences,
e.g., How is a film marketed differently for a
domestic US market vs. specific states, cities
or regions, as compared to the way it is marketed internationally?
Feature submissions should offer a unique
perspective on film, television, and digital
media are encouraged to address more than one
area of moving image culture. Please direct
feature section questions, proposals, and
submissions to (michelleton86 /at/ ucla.edu) by January 30, 2010.
REVIEWS
Reviews seeks submissions which analyze
discourses that complicate the notion of the
local and the global in any medium. The object
of review can be a film, a TV program, a
website, an architectural design, a book, an
artwork, an industry/trade report, an
advertisement, a tourist brochure, a piece of
hardware, a movie review, an academic
conference, merchandise ?anything. Becausse the
scope of local and global as a theme encompasses
a large spectrum of concepts, it is imperative
to distinguish between, and specify, the
different scales of the local and global. Subjects that may arise include:
* How has the concept of the local and
global evolved over time? E.g., how this
concept was originally used as a dichotomy
(local/global), but is now increasingly used as
mutually dependent construct (local.global).
* How are the national cinema paradigm and
locally specific film conventions being
complicated today? Consider the attempt to
globally market films dealing with local themes
and concerns to â??art-houseâ?? audiences.
* How do communities and/or multinational
corporations market themselves to their own
perceptions of a local market/audience? For
instance, how have schools of visual art often
presented themselves in highly strategized ways
in internationally-renowned museums? And
McDonaldâ??s, for example, adopts slightly
altered menus and employs highly different
marketing strategies for various regions of the world.
* How is exhibition operated across
cultures? Consider how films originally
targeted for a mainstream audience in a
non-Western nation, often end up either being
exhibited only in film festivals or university circuits in the West.
* What are similarities and differences
between international gaming cultures and
productions? How are video games developed in
the US and abroad, and how video games have
become a social unifier on a global scale with online gaming technology?
* What are the effects of the increased
quality in home theater systems in light of
technological advances in and content produced
for theatrical 3-D projection and the IMAX
format? Consider how these two movements relate to issues of spectatorship.
* How do the local and global coexist and
function in, while addressing dimensions of
space, both the localized and the dispersed?
Consider new architectural works such as Millennium Park in Chicago.
Reviews must be original, and creativity (in
argumentation and/or style) is encouraged.
Reviews should be a minimum of 2,500 words,
although exceptions may be granted. There is no
maximum word limit, provided work is readable,
structured, and visually appealing in the online
format. Please direct reviews section
questions, proposals, and submissions to Dennis
Lo at (dennislo /at/ ucla.edu) by January 30, 2010.
COLUMNS
Documentaries, perhaps more than any other media
form, have the ability to highlight the tensions
between local cultures and the global
community. While bringing an observant eye to
underreported issues, documentaries may also
raise questions concerning the representation of
local/national cultures. This issue of
â??Columnsâ?? seeks short papers (800-1500
words) on the role of documentary filmmaking in
the larger framework of local/global.
Topics may or may not address:
* Issues of production and/or collaboration, distribution and exhibition
* Minority and/or cultural expression in documentary
* Effects of globalization on documentary form and aesthetics
* National/local documentaries and issues
of nationalism/cultural performance
* Documentary as a political, social and historical agent
* Documentary as memory
* Effects of new media on the documentary
form and its ability to communicate local concerns globally
* Journalism and issues of representation
* Virtual essays and documentary scholarship
Please submit columns and inquiries to Ben
Sampson at (sampson615 /at/ ucla.edu) by January 30, 2010.
META
The pursuit of cinema and media scholarship
often leaves unexamined questions about the
practice of scholarship itself: how we formulate
analysis and argument, why certain issues emerge
to the fore, what new forms and expressions of
media and cultural analysis enhance our
understanding. The META section presents
students and scholars of cinema and other media
the opportunity to publish work that exemplifies
scholastic self-awareness?papers and projects
that conteemplate academic methods, critique
their implications and limitations, and
propagate new approaches to media scholarship.
As the very name Mediascape invokes a sense of
place and space in visual culture, META presents
an opportunity to reflect upon the ways we
explore the elastic boundaries of the global and
the local in student and scholarly work:
* How have the expanding parameters of
production, reception and distribution
challenged classical definitions of
â??national,â?? â??international,â?? and
â??transnationalâ?? for scholars in the field of visual studies today?
* What historical and theoretical
methodologies are employed to complicate the
apparent dichotomy of local/global?
* How are borders and territories of media
scholarship being contested and revised in the
turn toward the global while at the same time
calling attention to the importance of local specificity?
* What does it mean to do transnational scholarship?
* What does the broad concept of â??global
villageâ?? mean for visual studies and its
future; that is, as scholars we often
interrogate global media structures but rarely
reflect on the notion of a global village of scholars?
* How are spatial geographies mapped onto
the study of cinema, television and digital
culture that position the object of study but also (re)situate the scholar?
* What are the problems and benefits
related to the digitization of local archives,
and how have they hindered, improved or facilitated scholarship?
These are just a sampling of questions of
interest to META for the next issue and we
welcome you to present your own lines of inquiry
in an original paper or project.
If you have questions about META submissions, or
wish to submit a paper or project for
consideration, please contact Heather
Collette-VanDeraa at (collette17 /at/ ucla.edu) with
the subject header â??Mediascape METAâ?? by January 30, 2010.
GENERAL GUIDELINES:
All submissions should follow MLA Style
guidelines, employ endnote citations, and comply
with the following formatting requirements:
1. No cover page, with title instead centered at
the top of the first page of the articleâ?¨2.
Language of document set to Englishâ?¨3. Double
spaced paragraphs in 12 point fontâ?¨4. 1"
Marginsâ?¨5. Endnotes rather than footnotesâ?¨6.
Images correctly sized outside of word (sizing
them in word slows web editing process) and then
placed within the word document's layout where
they should appear at publication
Because of the peer review and editorial
processes of the journal's different sections,
it may take as long as eight to twelve weeks for
decisions on submissions to reach the writers.
General email inquiries can be sent to (Mediascape /at/ tft.ucla.edu).
MEDIASCAPE COPYRIGHT POLICY:
Articles appearing in Mediascape are accepted on
the basis that the material is the original,
uncopied work of the author or authors. The
ownership of manuscripts for publication in
Mediascape shall reside with the author(s),
though Mediascape reserves exclusive first
rights of publication. This means that
Mediascape alone may publish the article for the
first time, and the author(s) may not publish
the piece elsewhere for a period of 6 months following initial publication.
Following the 6 month first-rights period, the
author will retain full rights and ownership to
the material, and will be free to re-publish the
manuscript elsewhere, provided that full and
appropriate credit for first publication be
given to Mediascape. In exchange for retaining
author ownership rights post-publication,
Mediascape requires that authors not submit
their manuscripts simultaneously to other
journals/publishers while under consideration for publication in Medisascape.
Note on images: Mediascape uses images by
permission of the original creator(s), or under
the parameters and protections afforded
non-profit, educational use by the principles of Fair Use.
