[ecrea] Call for Papers: Children's and Young People's Media in Africa

>Childrens and Young Peoples Media in Africa:
>Evolving Markets, Producers and Audiences
>CALL FOR PAPERS
>International Conference organised by the
>Africa Media Centre, Arab Media Centre, Media Policy Group,
>  Communication and Media Research Institute 
> (CAMRI), University of Westminster, UK
>Date: 11-12 March 2011
>It is widely believed that the mass media have 
>taken over the role of storytelling, something 
>which traditionally was performed by 
>grandmothers and grandfathers in most of Africa. 
>If so, who today are storytellers in Africa? 
>What stories do they tell, when, where and with 
>what effect to children and young people? The 
>answers to these questions are not clearly 
>established because there is currently not much 
>information about how children and young people 
>in Africa are targeted by the mass media. This 
>is a call for papers for a conference on 
>production and reception strategies for 
>childrens and young peoples media in Africa. 
>Papers are invited on media in the whole 
>continent of Africa: north, south, east and 
>west, whether individual countries, groups of 
>countries or the regions of North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
>The conference will focus on how children and 
>young people engage with the mass media on a 
>continent where there is still a strong 
>traditional culture and where media choices are 
>often limited. Television, music, film, radio 
>and newspapers, books and more recently, 
>internet and mobile phones, have helped children 
>and young people enjoy their right to 
>entertainment.  Every year many childrens media 
>and related initiatives emerge but this also 
>opens many social, cultural and economic 
>questions about the production and distribution 
>of the content. The mass media reflect and 
>affect social change in and of the media for 
>children and young people in Africa.
>Across Africa, attempts to produce media more 
>suitable for children and young people have not 
>always succeeded. Equally important are the 
>growing debates about how children and young 
>people in Africa are influenced by what they 
>receive. African mass media for children and 
>young people are seen as necessary, but also as 
>spheres of great concern. That media for 
>children and young people use both local and 
>foreign formats, languages and styles also raises many questions.
>The conference will feature panel debates by 
>invited industry practitioners, educationists 
>and policy-makers. Some sessions will be devoted 
>to presentation of academic research. The 
>organisers also plan to include some screenings 
>of prize-winning broadcast material. By bringing 
>scholars together with executives and experts 
>from all parts of the childrens media 
>landscape, the conference aims to explore, among other things.
>Papers may include, but are not necessarily limited to:
>Production of mass media for children and young people in Africa
>Storytelling for children in African media
>Formats and themes adopted by African 
>broadcasters Funding and its implications for media content
>Children and young peoples music in African media
>African children and young peoples books and magazines
>Interactive and other digital media and their 
>reception by children and young people in Africa?
>Please e-mail your 200-word abstract to Helen 
>Cohen at: <mailto:(journalism /at/ westminster.ac.uk)>(journalism /at/ westminster.ac.uk)
>All submissions must include the title of the 
>conference, the suggested topic, an abstract and 
>should list the authors full name, with contact 
>information and affiliation. The deadline for 
>the submission of abstracts is 5 November 2010 
>and those whose abstracts are accepted will be notified by 5 December 2010.
>Conference Fees:
>Unwaged/Students: £40                       Waged/Non-Students: £100
>Fees cover registration, conference pack, lunch, coffee/tea and wine reception
>Background to the Event:
>The conference reflects three specialist areas 
>of research being developed within the 
>University of Westminsters Communication and 
>Media Research Institute (CAMRI), namely Africa 
>media, Arab media and the ecology of media 
>production for children. In its 2008 Research 
>Assessment Exercise, the UKs Higher Education 
>Funding Council ranked CAMRI as the best media 
>and communication research centre in the 
>country, with all of its submissions rated as 
>being of international standard, including 60 
>per cent classified as world leading and a 
>further 30 per cent as internationally excellent.
>CAMRI runs numerous international conferences 
>every year. In September 2008 it held a 
>conference on Making Television for Young 
>Children: Future Prospects and Issues.  In 
>March 2009 it held another on Arab and African 
>Audiences: Shared Agendas for Research and 
>Racism, Ethnicity and the Media in Africa was 
>the topic for the annual African media event in 
>2010. Strong interest in the recent Arab Media 
>Centre conference on Childrens TV in the Arab 
>World (June 2010) has prompted us to create a 
>slot for papers and screenings related to North 
>Africa in the coming African Media Centre event.
>Conference Team: Winston Mano, Naomi Sakr, 
>Jeanette Steemers, Tarik Sabry, Jane Thorburn, 
>Maria Way, Colin Sparks, Helen Cohen, Peter Goodwin and Brilliant Mhlanga
>

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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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New Book:
Trans-Reality Television
The Transgression of Reality, Genre, Politics, and Audience.
Lexington. (Sofie Van Bauwel & Nico Carpentier eds.)
http://www.lexingtonbooks.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0739131885
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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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