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[ecrea] Call for papers for the conference “Theorizing media change”

Wed Sep 05 15:17:50 GMT 2012




Call for papers for the conference “Theorizing media change”



Hosted by the Communication History Section of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) and the Department for Media and Educational Technology, Augsburg University

Time/Place: 17 – 18 January 2013, Augsburg (Germany)

Organizers: Susanne Kinnebrock, Christian Schwarzenegger, Thomas Birkner, Maria Löblich



Yesterday the newspaper, today the news app; formerly family gathering in front of the television at 8 pm, now, available anytime and anywhere, “tagesschau in 100 seconds”; formerly flying paving stones, these days shitstorms via Twitter. Media change is ubiquitous. But the various academic disciplines studying specific phenomena of media change keep struggling to find a concise definition of media change or even allocate a systematic-theoretical classification to it. Mono-disciplinary descriptions of isolated single phenomena prevail, while profound historical perspectives – particularly in communication sciences – are comparatively rarely applied.

In part, this may be owed to the seductive power of “the new” which is associated with the notion of media change and tempts scholars to interpret media change in the sense of “new media”, “new technology”, and “media innovation”. However, such a view systematically neglects the fact that each change has a “before”; i.e. something that had existed before and has changed under the impact of the media and new technologies. In order to describe and understand media change, it will be necessary to look at the diachronic dimension of multiple forms of change. This is the intention of the conference.

To understand media change historically, it is necessary to consider the complementary factor in respect of change, i.e. continuity. History is characterized by dialectics of continuity and change. The presence is not determined by the past, but builds on the latter. Change and continuity are not to be seen as absolute factors, but can be observed simultaneously and in different scales: Media change does not include all and everything with the same speed; neither does it cause a uniform, linear development in a certain direction; continuity does not mean rigid unchangeability. Thus, change and continuity are to be contextualized in multiple ways, i.e. to be grounded historically.

A further reason why media change is so difficult to grasp lies in the dialectic structure of media change. Media change refers to the change of media (media technologies, institutions, production, content, formats and audiences) and at the same time to the change caused by media (in society, culture, politics, life worlds and work environments).

It is the objective of the conference to provide new insights into the problematic fields mentioned above by contextualizing the numerous concepts – which differ greatly among scholars and subfields of communication studies – of media change and how it should be researched, thus promoting the development of theories. The conference’s focus is not on the search for “the one and only” theory of media change. It intends to compare and historicize various theories of different scope and may thereby help to simulate dialogue between different kinds of research with respect to media change (or related key words such as mediatization or mediation), to clarify specific and common features of the approaches, as well as to illustrate possible perspectives of integration of parallel research strands.

The conference centers on theorizing media change, however, theories are seen in close connection with innovative methods of grasping media change in empirical research.

Papers on the following topics would be greatly appreciated, yet submissions are not limited to these:

·         Media change in macro perspective

How can media change as a meta-process be contextualized and related to other social processes of change? Are there any meta-theoretical connecting factors or basics for theories of media change in communication sciences which have been seized or which may have heuristic potential? Which theories from other disciplines (e.g. history, media studies and cultural studies) are suitable for diachronic communication research?



·         Discourses on new media technologies

Media and communication history has always devoted its studies to “new” media technologies without explicitly labelling it with “media change”. Which media technologies in a historical view prove to be extremely stable and resistant to change, and why is that so? Which lasting constants can be identified in discourse about new media technology, both in the mass media and in the academia?



·         Concepts of media change on micro level

How can media change be theorized on the level of individuals? What changed practices of media use, changes in everyday life and personal communication habits result from processes of mediatization. This includes, on the side of the communicator, change in production routines, and on the content side, change of formats.



·         Methods of research of media change

Diachronic research designs usually define distinct points of measurement. Media change, however, does hardly happen at a defined point of time, it is rather a continuous process comprising retarding and accelerating moments. Even endpoints and final states are difficult to define. How can these characteristics be dealt with in respect of methodology?

Papers theorizing other aspects than those described above in an exemplary manner are likewise welcome.

The conference is organized by the Communication History Section of German Communication Association DGPuK and the Department for Media and Educational Technology (imb) of Augsburg University.

Presentation proposals (20 minutes each, maximum 2 pages) on the subject fields should be sent as extended abstracts via email attachment to (petra.cullmann /at/ phil.uni-augsburg.de). Submissions are due Monday 1 October 2012 at the latest. No contributions will be accepted which have been published or presented before at a conference in German-speaking countries. The proposals will be reviewed in an anonymous process. Presenter’s name and address as well as the title of the presentation should be on a separate sheet. The abstracts should outline the content and issue of the presentation, and illustrate its originality and relevance with regard to the topic of the conference. Reviews will be based on these criteria. The review results will be communicated in early November.

The conference begins on Thursday, 17 January 2013, and end on Friday, 18 January 2013. Details on place, accommodation, etc. will follow with a formal invitation for the conference.



Please mail abstracts to: (petra.cullmann /at/ phil.uni-augsburg.de)



For any questions concerning the conference please contact



Prof. Dr. Susanne Kinnebrock

Public Communication

Department for Media and Educational Technology

University of Augsburg

86135 Augsburg / Germany

Phone ++49-(0)821-598-5665

Email: (susanne.kinnebrock /at/ phil.uni-augsburg.de)

or

Christian Schwarzenegger, M.A.

Public Communication

Department for Media and Educational Technology

University of Augsburg

86135 Augsburg / Germany

Phone ++49-(0)821-598-5769
Email: (christian.schwarzenegger /at/ phil.uni-augsburg.de)

--
Prof. Dr. Susanne Kinnebrock
Public Communication
Department for Media and Educational Technology
University of Augsburg
86135 Augsburg
Tel. ++49-(0)821-5985665
Email: (susanne.kinnebrock /at/ phil.uni-augsburg.de)


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