Call for Papers
Northern Lights. Volume 9 (2011). Volume editors: Gunhild Agger
((gunhild /at/ hum.aau.dk)) and Anne Marit Waade
Media & Crime – Fiction and Journalism
Deadline for abstracts: September 15, 2010 – Full articles to be
delivered December 15, 2010
The 2011 volume of Northern Lights will focus on the relationship between
media and crime.
Since the modern, urban breakthrough, mediation of crime has been a
crucial factor in determining how crime is perceived within the public
sphere. It has enabled a dissemination of the discussion on moral and
ethical issues from the few enlightened to the many. Crime is the central
point of an extensive production of fiction in books, films, TV series,
and games. Crime is also one of the most popular subjects of journalism,
mediated in newspapers and electronic media, not least the internet. On
this background, the concept of mediatization can be considered as a term
apt to designate the new relationship between media, crime and society.
The phenomenon we can call ‘crime culture’ today is characterized by the
following features:
- The different genres of crime fiction are broadly exposed and debated
via several, often interconnected, media. Formerly, crime fiction
appealed almost exclusively to a dedicated fan audience. Now, crime
fiction tends to form part of the public cultural sphere both via
transmedial references and traditional genres formerly neglecting the
phenomenon such as reviews.
- Via a similar use of aesthetics, e.g. point of view and style, the
mediation of facts has demonstrated an approximation to the devices of
fiction and vice versa.
- More generations and both sexes are fascinated by mediation of crime.
Thus, traditional barriers of gender and generation are overruled: Crime
fiction has a broad appeal and is widely consumed and debated (documented
by fan sites, reader response studies, public debate).
- The interest in mediated crime has both a national basis and a
transnational impact. Import and export flourish, developing
intercultural exchange in the variety of fiction genres as well as the
forms of journalism. In a Scandinavian context, national interest in
crime fiction may have augmented due to the changing relationship between
periphery and production centre.
The exploration of these and related features invites to applying
different methods and approaches (media sociology, textual analysis,
cultural and criminological orientations, aesthetic analysis, etc.)
In particular the editors will consider articles relating to the
following themes:
• The chain of communication and exchange between different media,
enhancing the permanent interest of crime in the media.
• Tendencies in present national and transnational crime fiction
(including the developments of new subgenres and new aesthetics).
• The relationship between periphery and production centres (e.g. the
Scandinavian example).
• Historical studies of the crime fiction genres’ development.
• Historical studies of the development of crime journalism.
• Comparative studies of crime fiction and crime journalism, including
studies of journalistic interaction with crime fiction.
• The role of crime fiction and journalism in the light of production
(e.g. importance for the development of crime tourism) and consumption
(e.g. forms of reader and viewer participation).
• The role of crime fiction in popular culture (e.g. considering the
democratic potential of popular culture and the concept of cultural
citizenship).
Deadlines:
Abstracts/papers September 15, 2010
Full articles: December 15, 2010
Publication: September 1, 2011
Papers/abstracts should be sent to the volume editor: Professor Gunhild
Agger, University of Aalborg, email: (gunhild /at/ hum.aau.dk)
--
Gunhild
Agger
Professor, dr.
phil.
Institut for Sprog og Kultur
(Dep. of Language and Culture)
Aalborg
Universitet
Kroghstræde
3
DK-9220 Aalborg
Øst
Tlf. 9940
9029
www.krimiforsk.aau.dk
www.kultur.aau.dk
