[ecrea] Cfp: Northern Lights on Age, Generation and the Media

Call for abstracts/articles:

*Age, generation and the media -- proposals for 2013 volume of /Northern 
Lights. Film and Media Studies Yearbook/*

*(editors: Eli Skogerbø & Göran Bolin)*

The media landscape is more diverse than ever. The traditional media -- 
TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, film and music -- continuously 
diversify their products and enter new platforms. In addition, new 
social networking and personal web-based media have expanded extending 
our communication spaces. For media producers this brings with it 
increased competition for target audiences. Formats, programmes and 
genres are designed and specifically tailored to fit specific audience 
groups in order to satisfy the advertisers' need to more effectively 
capture digital consumers. Young audience segments are typically 
targeted as they are conceived of as heavy consumers and trend-setters, 
but also because these audiences bring symbolic values to the products 
they are believed to desire. The targeting is often formed in terms of 
points of identification, which traditionally has led to 
overrepresentation of certain age groups in media content, and a 
corresponding underrepresentation of others.

Media consumption is, as we know, divided in terms of social and 
demographic variables. In the Nordic countries the oldest age groups in 
general watch more TV, read more newspapers, listen more to radio, than 
younger groups, whereas the pattern is the opposite regarding the use of 
Internet, blogs, the advanced functions on smartphones and other mobile 
personal media. Interestingly, some age gaps seem to be closing: the use 
of the Internet, some uses of the mobile phone, and social networking 
sites such as Facebook are increasingly used by older segments. Yet 
other gaps are widening. The dynamics of this development are yet to be 
fully explored, and especially the elderly and the older age groups are 
rarely singled out as an important target group for advertisers, nor 
have they to any extent been the main focus for media research. While 
the elderly seem a neglected research topic, there is an abundance of 
studies examining media use and preferences of the young, often 
highlighting innovative and/or dangerous media use.

/Northern Lights/ invites theoretical and empirical articles on the 
theme "Age, generations and the media". We especially encourage 
cross-age/generation analysis and focusing on the older age groups as 
mediated representations, target groups, media users, interpreting 
subjects, etc. Research themes and questions may include (but are not 
restricted to):

   * Comparative cross-generational studies of media use
   * Techno-generational divides
   * Age and/or generation-specific contents
   * Age and generations as target groups
   * Generational segmentation in production
   * Generational experience in reception
   * Niche markets for the older age groups
   * Representations of age and generation in news, fiction and
     entertainment
   * Media generations as theoretical and empirical categories
   * Interrelations of age/generation and media content
   * Historical analysis of media in generational perspectives (e.g.
     how certain media have been defining for some generations).
   * Representations of age in the media (advertising, news,
     entertainment, life-style magazines)
   * The role of age and generations for the interpretation and
     reception of media content.

***

Send abstracts of 3-400 words to (eli.skogerbo /at/ media.uio.no) 
<mailto:(eli.skogerbo /at/ media.uio.no)> and (goran.bolin /at/ sh.se) 
<mailto:(goran.bolin /at/ sh.se)>

Deadline for abstract submission: 15 April 2012.

Notification of authors: 15 May 2012

Final article submission: 1 October 2012.

See more about information about /Northern Lights/, including style 
guide for authors, see 
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-journal,id=143/

best regards,

Stig

Stig Hjarvard, Professor, Ph.D., Vice-Chair
Dept. of Media, Cognition and Communication
University of Copenhagen, Njalsgade 80,
2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark,
Phone: (+45) 3532 8113, (stig /at/ hum.ku.dk) <mailto:(stig /at/ hum.ku.dk)>
Personal website staff.hum.ku.dk/stig <http://staff.hum.ku.dk/stig>
Project website: mediatization.ku.dk <http://mediatization.ku.dk/>