[ecrea] CFP - Critical Media Studies and the “Future of Ne ws” Debates

Special Issue of Communication Review

Perhaps more than any other major media genre, news media appear to be 
facing a pivotal historic moment as mounting debts, declining revenues, 
and new competition and formats challenge the viability of “traditional” 
news formats.  The future of news may not look much like its recent 
past.  This situation raises many questions regarding the survival and 
mutation of news formats and styles, the structure of news 
organizations, the business models that will support reporting, and the 
working relationships between paid and unpaid news journalists.

Robert McChesney and John Nichols have described the contemporary moment 
as a “critical junction” for journalism: a moment when choices made now 
will likely set a course for the development of news media that will be 
difficult to change for coming decades.   Given the present 
destabilization of news media and the centrality of journalism to 
democratic governance, it is not surprising that the “the future of 
news” has become a meme organizing an endless number of blog posts, 
articles, and conferences.  Business leaders, journalists, media 
activists, policymakers, and indeed a number of scholars have been 
contributing to this public discussion.  Beyond the strong work produced 
by media policy scholars, there has not been a great deal of research 
under the sign of “critical media studies” in these crucial debates.  
Discussions about the future of news offer an opportunity to imagine new 
modes of circulating stories about public life and collectively building 
more democratic communication systems. For critical and cultural media 
scholars devoted to “conjunctural” analysis and participation in public 
struggles over the appropriation of emerging media potential, this 
moment should not be missed.

This CFP asks for contributors to this special issue to bring 
perspectives from critical media studies into the future of news debates 
and to bring insights from those active in the debates to discussions in 
critical media studies.  We are also looking for contributors who can 
integrate work from the political economy of journalism with cultural 
approaches.  Some of the topics that might be addressed include:

-        Race, gender, class, sexuality, and the future of news.

-        Changing concepts of “the popular” in the emerging news media.

-        Fragmentation and stratification in online news.

-        Rhetorical dimensions of the future of news debates.

-        Critical media studies and normative thinking about news.

-        The future of citizen journalism as popular culture.

-        The role of public intellectuals in the future of news debates.

-        The power of users and limits to that power in shaping online 
journalism.

-        How the cultural and social history of news can inform current 
choices.

-        Technophilia and technophobia in thinking about the news.

-        News media as “technologies of citizenship.”

-        Media reform activism and public discourse.

-        What social activists and emerging movements seek in digital news.

Please contact Dr. Anthony Nadler (anadler /at/ ursinus.edu) if you have any 
questions about this special issue.  Submissions of abstracts of 500 
words (maximum) should be sent to Dr. Mary Vavrus (vavru001 /at/ umn.edu).

Submission Dates:

Abstracts Due: January 1st, 2014

Notify Contributors: February 10th, 2014

Full Manuscripts Due: July 1st, 2014

Reviews back by September 1st, 2014 (and access to guest contributors’ 
essay)

Revisions due by December 1st, 2014



--
Anthony Nadler
Assistant Professor of Media and Communication Studies
Ursinus College



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