[ecrea] Call for Papers: Edited Collection, "Ethics in Screenwriting"

Call for Papers: Edited Collection, "Ethics in Screenwriting"

A recent discussion of the ethics of screenwriting on the Screenwriting 
Research Network email list has led to this call for expressions of 
interest for an edited book collection on 'Ethics in Screenwriting'. The 
intention is to submit a proposal to Palgrave Macmillan for inclusion in 
their Palgrave Studies in Screenwriting Series, with a view to obtaining 
a commission and work towards publication in late 2015. A first call was 
circulated to the Screenwriting Research Network, and received a strong 
response. This second call is addressed more broadly to scholars 
interested in screenwriting ethics.

Submission of abstracts for chapters of between 7,000 and 10,000 words 
is invited. A project description follows.

Project Description: This collection seeks to open up different 
approaches and perspectives on the complex relationship between ethics 
and screenwriting, raising compelling new questions for an 
under-examined but culturally significant area of media practice. At the 
same time, it seeks new perspectives on ethics— going beyond moralising, 
as well as simple demands for censorship and regulation. The collection 
will seek to explore the myriad judgements and decisions underpinning 
screenwriting practice in order to examine the place of screenwriting 
and role of screenwriters in relation to contemporary ethics.

Against the backdrop of decades of thinking about media and journalism 
ethics, research into the ethics of screenwriting is at a nascent stage. 
Early work includes the work of Beker, and Chalvon-Demersey, as well as 
work on negotiating Hollywood codes. This lack of attention is 
surprising given the central role writers play in the realisation of 
story material. Screenwriters have a unique zone of responsibility in 
terms of ethics. They have a close proximity to story material, and as 
such issues of listening and the right to communicate are important. 
Like journalists and documentarians, screenwriters can be said to have a 
strong obligation to the sources of their stories, but unlike news 
reporters, they also have a license to create compelling drama. At the 
same time, screenwriters also frequently have little autonomy in the way 
they they can explore the material they have. This collection seeks to 
provide new frameworks for understanding the complexity of ethical 
screenwriting, but also explore new perspectives on the relationship 
between ethics and screenwriting.

Background:
Since the emergence of the social responsibility theory of the media in 
1946, media theorists have developed complex normative theories to 
account for their professional practice (See Christians et al). 
Practitioners have since the 1920s sought to codify their ethical norms 
in codes of practice. Key works have sought to probe what it means to be 
an ethical journalist (Harcup 2007, also Sanders ), a virtuous 
journalist (Klaidman and Beuchamp ), what it means to do ethics in media 
(Black and Roberts), storytelling as seduction and betrayal (Malcolm) 
and media ethics more generally (Keiran 1998). Documentary practice has 
made a significant contribution to thinking the representational issues 
surrounding the telling of stories, especially in light of the excesses 
of anthropological objectification of indigenous and non-Western groups. 
Digital storytelling is re-negotiating the links between stories and the 
communities within which they emerge.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

* Theories of ethics (loyalty, duty, care) and how they might apply to 
screenwriting practice
* Screenwriting representations and the ethical/unethical treatment of 
stereotypes and social issues
* Historical analyses of the ethics of writing in particular political 
or ideological systems
* The responsibilities and /or obligations of the screenwriter
* Ethical modes of production
* The ethics of collaboration
* The ethics of writing across cultures, and in culture, including the 
ethical treatment of indigenous story lines
* Queer and/or feminist perspectives on screenwriting practice
* The ethics of mediating stories and ethical treatment of narratives
* Writing moral ambiguity, transgression and taboo
* Ethical issues in non-fiction screenwriting
* The relationship between ethics and storytelling, especially 
depictions of difference and conflict in contemporary societies.
* Screenwriting on topics involving historical or structural injustice
* Bias and screenwriting
* The ethical role of screenwriters
* The relationship between organisational industrial constraints and /or 
regulation and ethics in screenwriting practice.
* Screenwriting and the ethical imagination


Detailed Abstracts (approx 1000-1200 words, excluding references) 
elaborating on your argument, approach or structure, and conceptual 
framework may be submitted until April 30th 2014 to Assoc. Prof. Steven 
Maras, <(steven.maras /at/ sydney.edu.au)>. Detailed abstracts will be required 
for the book proposal process. Please remember to include a title and 
state your name, affiliation and contact information. Include a brief 
statement (100 words) detailing your title, affiliations, publications 
and/or screenwriting practice.

About the Proposer: Associate Professor Steven Maras is the author of 
Screenwriting: History, Theory, Practice (Wallflower/Columbia UP 2009). 
He also teaches media ethics and is author of Objectivity in Journalism 
(Polity, 2013). He works in the Department of Media and Communication at 
the University of Sydney.

Some Suggested References:

Beker, M. (2013). The screenwriter activist: writing social issue 
movies. New York: Routledge.

Beker, M. (2004). Screenwriting with a conscience: ethics for 
screenwriters. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Chalvon-Demersay, S. (1999). A Thousand Screenplays: The French 
Imagination in a Time of Crisis (T. L. Fagan, Trans.). Chicago & London: 
The University of Chicago Press.

Black, J., & Roberts, C. (2011). Doing ethics in media : theories and 
practical applications. New York: Routledge.
Christians, C. G. et al (2009). Normative theories of the media : 
journalism in democratic societies. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Christians, C. G. et al. (2012). Media ethics : cases and moral 
reasoning (9th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Couldry, N. Madianou, M., & Pinchevski, A. (2013). Ethics of Media. 
Palgrave.
Craig, D. (2006). The ethics of the story : using narrative techniques 
responsibly in journalism. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Downing, L and Saxton, L. (2010), Film and Ethics: Foreclosed 
Encounters. New York and London: Routledge
Gardner, H., Damon, W., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2001). Good work : when 
excellence and ethics meet. New York: Basic Books.
Gross, L., Katz, J.S., and Ruby, J. (1988) (Eds.) Image ethics : the 
moral rights of subjects in photographs, film, and television. New York: 
Oxford UP.
Harcup, T. (2007). The ethical journalist. London: SAGE.
Kieran, M. (1998). (ed) Media ethics. New York: Routledge.
Klaidman, S., & Beauchamp, T. L. (1987). The virtuous journalist. New 
York: Oxford University Press.
Malcolm, J. (1998). The journalist and the murderer. London: Papermac.
Poynter.org Media Ethics Bibliography 
http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/785/media-ethics-bibliography/
Sanders, K. (2003). Ethics & journalism. London: SAGE.
Spence, E. H., Alexandra, A., Quinn, A., & Dunn, A. (2011). Media, 
markets, and morals. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.



Steven Maras, PhD |
Associate Professor |
Media and Communications Department
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Rm S207, John Woolley Building A20
NSW 2006, Australia
T +61-2-9036 7041 | F +61-2-9351 5444
E (steven.maras /at/ sydney.edu.au)

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