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

Tue Sep 03 21:42:13 GMT 2013




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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