[ecrea] Launch of Participatons 8.2

We are pleased to announce the launch of issue 8.2 of /Participations/ 
-- a truly astonishing issue both in scale and range.  It contains a 
total of 28 articles -- 5 independent submissions, along with 3 special 
sections, devoted to comedy audiences; film audiences; and online 
audiences -- all topped up with four book reviews.  We are following our 
principle of publishing work as soon as it is ready, rather than (as 
print journals are often forced to do by their size limitations) 
building up a backlog.  This issue sees our move, too, to providing all 
materials in PDF format, which simplifies our production process, but 
also means that all works are now sequentially page-numbered, for ease 
of referencing. To go direct to the issue, just click this link:

http://www.participations.org/Volume%208/Issue%202/contents.htm.

With this message, we want to add an invitation.  As Joint Editors of 
/Participations/, we have taken what we believe could be a very 
important decision.  It has long been an ambition of the Journal to be 
able to host not just research and debates about audience and reception 
research, but to carry the research materials themselves.  We believe 
this could have great benefits -- from encouraging young researchers to 
develop their analytic skills, to enabling lecturers and teachers to use 
them in 'classes', but also to seeing what might be learnt by 
re-examining, and perhaps comparing and relating, bodies of research.

A chance series of events has led us to believe that the time might be 
right to begin this -- but with a particular angle.  We believe that it 
might be possible, at least in a limited way, to breach the current too 
common divide between industry/commercial, and academic research into 
audiences.   Accordingly, we are issuing a Call for Submissions for our 
next issue, to be published May 2012.  We invite readers to submit 
proposals for any of the following:

1.       Essays on aspects of the relations between industry/commercial 
and academic researches.  These could include:

a.      Historical reflections on the relations between these;
b.      Case studies of particular researches or crossovers;
c.       Discussions on the current relations and differences relating 
to these

2.       Possible datasets or bodies of materials.  These could be 
quantitative or qualitative, and could take the form either of the 
sets/materials themselves, or of links to sites holding them.  A brief 
(for now) statement of their nature and provenance would be helpful.

The deadline for outline proposals is 31 January 2012.  Please send 
these to one of the email addresses below.

Martin Barker ((mib /at/ aber.ac.uk) 
<file:///C:%(5CUsers%5CMartin%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%5CTemporary%20Internet%20Files%5CContent.Outlook%5CRHE5GCG7%5Cmib /at/ aber.ac.uk)>) 

Sue Turnbull ((sturnbul /at/ uow.ed.au) <mailto:(sturnbul /at/ uow.ed.au)>)