[ecrea] Special Journal Issue on Histories of media(ted) participation (WG2 COST TATS Action)

Special journal issue on Histories of media(ted) participation
Edited by Nico Carpentier & Peter Dahlgren
CM - Communication Management Quarterly
Nr. 30 (2014)

Free to download from:
http://www.cost-transforming-audiences.eu/system/files/pub/CM30-SE-Web.pdf

This special issue takes on the challenge to combine historical research 
with the study of participatory media, and participation in/through the 
media. The attention spent on the notion of participation has oscillated 
over time and within different academic disciplines and societal fields. 
In recent years, we can see a hopeful celebration of the capacities on 
online technologies to facilitate (or even embody) participatory 
practices. Reflections on these 'new' technologies in many cases have 
led to formulations of strong claims to novelty and uniqueness, in 
combination with processes of amnesia in relation to the societal roles 
of old media technologies. As Ekström et al. (2011: 4) write: "by 
overstating the newness of participatory media, the history of audience 
activity [and media participation] is made invisible and the present 
elusively vague." Apart from the need for historical research for its 
own sake, and the need to show the complexities and differences over 
time by going back to periods "when old technologies where new" -- to 
quote Marvin's (1988) book title -- historical research is also very 
necessary to compensate for the mythologies of novelty that characterize 
contemporary reflections about 'new' -- or better: online -- media. 
Today's digital media landscape is of course in constant evolution, and 
it is important to understand how its patterns of development, not least 
in regard to its political economy, technical architecture, and 
socio-cultural usage, embody built-in contingencies that both engender 
and delimit its efficacy for democratic participation. This special 
issue contains 6 articles that, each in their own ways, demonstrate the 
complexities, fluidities and limitations of specific participatory 
practices, located in the past and present, and the interconnections 
between different societal fields, such as the technological, the 
cultural, the political and the journalistic.

Table of Contents

Histories of media(ted) participation: An introduction (p. 7--14)
Nico Carpentier, Peter Dahlgren

Fighting for a regime change through active listening (p. 15--34)
Nelson Ribeiro

For an archeology of online participatory literary writing: Hypertext 
and hyperfiction (p. 35--54)
Francesca Pasquali

Wrong turns towards revolution? Grassroots media and political 
participation in Italy (1967-2012) (p. 55--78)
Fausto Colombo

Propaganda, critical media literacy and participation: Tracing memories 
of the Soviet media (p. 79--104)
Natalija Maz(eikiene, Kristina Juraite

The tales of the three digital cities of Amsterdam: The application of 
ICT for social and political participation (p. 105--130)
Dennis Beckers, Peter van den Besselaar

Historicising the journalist--audience relationships in the internet 
era: A case study of the Slovenian newspaper Delo (p. 131--156)
Igor Vobic

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Other publications of WG2 of the TATS COST Action are:

- Special issue on "Interrogating audiences: theoretical horizons of 
participation" in CM Communication Management Quarterly, 2011, nr. 21. 
url: 
http://www.cost.eu/library/publications/12-02-Interrogating-audiences-Theoretical-horizons-of-participation-in-CM-Communication-Management-Quarterly
- Special issue on "Public voice and mediated participation" in 
COMMUNICATIONS. The European Journal of Communication Research, 2012, 
volume 37, issue 3. url: 
http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/commun.2012.37.issue-3/issue-files/commun.2012.37.issue-3.xml
- Special issue on "Audience Research and media management" in the 
International Journal on Media Management, 2012, volume 14, issue 2. 
url: http://www.mediajournal.org/ojs/index.php/jmm/issue/view/53.
- Special issue on "Networked belonging and networks of belonging" in 
Observatorio (OBS*), 2012. ulr: 
http://obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/issue/view/34
- Special section on "Audience Involvement and New Production Paradigms" 
in Participations. Journal of audience and reception studies, 2012, 
volume 9, issue 2. url: 
http://www.participations.org/Volume%209/Issue%202/contents.htm.
- Special section on "COST - audience interaction & participation" in 
Participations. Journal of audience and reception studies, 2013, volume 
10, issue 1. url: 
http://www.participations.org/Volume%2010/Issue%201/contents.htm.
- Special issue on "New media, audience and emotional connectivity" in 
Sociedad de la Información, 2013, nr. 44. url: 
http://www.sociedadelainformacion.com/cost_2013/specialissue_44.pdf
- Special Issue on "Participatory Journalism: Possibilities and 
Constraints for Audience Participation" in Medijska istraz(ivanja/Media 
Research, 2013, volume 19, issue 2. url http://www.mediaresearch.cro.net/

An overview of all WG2 publications can be found on WG2's output page:
http://www.cost-transforming-audiences.eu/node/303