[ecrea] COST CfP for a special section "Generations as (media) audiences" in Participations

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Special Section “Generations as (media) audiences”

in Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies

Guest editors of the special section:

Andra Siibak (University of Tartu, Estonia)

Nicoletta Vittadini (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy)

Galit Nimrod (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)



The Special Section aims at illuminating the relationship between media 
audiences, their media consumption cultures and the social formations 
called “generations”. We believe that the concept of “generations” may 
help scholars in describing the contemporary audience fragmentation. 
Within the Special Section authors will discuss how the cultural concept 
of generations offers a wide range of valuable heuristics to explore the 
meaning and use of media in people’s lives (media repertoires, media 
habits, media as status symbols, etc.), and may help us explore the 
complex interrelations between audiences, technologies and cultural 
settings.

Rather than adopting the demographic perspective (generations as age 
cohorts of people who were born and happen to be alive at about the same 
time) when analysing the concept, the scholars involved in this special 
issue will adopt a cultural approach to the “problem of generations” 
(generations are constituted on the basis of shared experience of the 
same formative events and collective memory) (Vittadini et al, 2013). 
Their cultural approach, is based on the idea that “generational 
identity/belonging” is built through social relationships (mediated or 
not) and helps to define the social significance of generations.

According to the cultural approach media experience is relevant in 
defining generations and their media consumption cultures (Aroldi 2011). 
For each generation, the so-called “generational identity” and the 
experience with media and technologies in their formative years shape 
some features of audience practices in the course of the whole lifecycle 
of its members. At the same time, media representations, repertoires, 
and technologies contribute to defining the particular “generational 
semantic” of generations (Aroldi 2011; Colombo 2011).

The Special Section has the aim to present different points of view on: 
how generations matter for defining media consumption cultures and how 
media consumption matters for defining generations. The scholars 
submitting papers for this special issue are encouraged “to view 
generations as a multifaceted phenomenon”, consisting of both objective 
(e.g. shared experiences) as well as subjective dimensions 
(self-definitions) (Vittadini et al, 2013).

The Special Section will  include: an introduction on generations and 
media (editors) and five sub-sections dealing with different point of 
views on the topic: the different consumption cultures of diverse 
generations; the relevance of some specific traits of generational 
identity (the migration experience or specific historical events) in 
defining media consumption practices and meanings; the 
inter-generational relations and their consequences on media use; the 
relevance of generational identity in social media use (SNS and social 
radio); and the particular media consumption cultures of the younger and 
older generations.

Time schedule:

December 1, 2013 - deadline for sending in full papers

March 1, 2014 - reviews sent back to the authors

May 1, 2014 - final version of the manuscripts sent to the editors

July 1 2014 - we send the special issue to the publisher with the 
planned publication date of November 2014.

For additional information and for sending full papers, please contact: 
Andra Siibak ((andra.siibak /at/ ut.ee)), Nicoletta Vittadini 
((nicoletta.vittadini /at/ unicatt.it)) or Galit Nimrod ((gnimrod /at/ bgu.ac.il)).

About the journal:

Participations is an on-line Journal devoted to the strengthening and 
development of the fields of audience and reception studies, located at 
www.participations.org. The aim of the Journal is to become a focal 
point for research, debate and publication on all aspects of the study 
of audiences for cultural and media products and practices.  The Journal 
has now been publishing for more than a decade, and has established 
itself as a major force in the sphere of media and cultural research and 
scholarship.Participations has pioneered a system of open refereeing of 
submissions, for both general and special issues, under which the names 
of authors and referees are known to each other.  This has been widely 
welcomed by submitting authors for its encouragement of 
critical-supportive refereeing.

--
Andra Siibak, Phd
Vanemteadur/Senior Research Fellow
TÜ Ajakirjanduse ja kommunikatsiooni instituut/
Institute of Journalism and Communication, University of Tartu
Lossi 36, Tartu 51 003
GSM/Mobile Phone: +372 51 74 146
E-mail: (andra.siibak /at/ ut.ee)



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