[ecrea] Media Fields CFP–Media and migration

*Call for Papers: Media and Migration
Media Fields Journal
University of California, Santa Barbara*

*Submission Deadline: February **15, 2016*

             A recent /New York Times /article reporting on the Syrian
refugee crisis ranked smartphones on par with food and shelter as part
of the “21st Century migrant’s essentials.” Smartphones equipped with
maps and GPS allow displaced Syrians to navigate unknown territories.
They also allow access to crucial support and information provided by
families and migrant networks through messaging apps and social media
sites. This report exemplifies the complex interplay between media,
migration, and the construction of cultural and geopolitical space. Also
indicative of these complexities is Barack and Michelle Obama’s public
tribute to Univision’s /Sá//bado Gigante /and its host, Don Francisco/,
/as the show ends its 53-year run on television. Originally produced in
Chile in 1962, the /Sá//bado Gigante /came to the United States in 1986
and has since become, as the First Lady states, “a fixture in living
rooms across America and an important part of our cultural life.” The
show thus has a migrant experience of its own and indexes various
historical shifts in the movement of people and media between Latin
America and the United States.

            Recent studies demonstrate the need to reassess longstanding
assumptions about the connections between media andmigration. Carolyn
Cartier, Manuel Castells, and Jack Linchuan Qiu challenge the
understanding of marginalized communities as “have-nots” who stand
outside the information society. Instead, they use the term “have-less”
to indicatemigrants’ limited and precarious access to media technology.
Given the particular challenges to reaching and moving across space
thatmigrantsexperience,migrantsare, as Karim H. Karim demonstrates, at
the forefront of technological adoption. In this context, the uprooted
migrant has given way to what Dana Diminescu calls the “connected migrant.”

             Taking stock of such intricacies, the Media Fields
Collective is excited to announce a new issue of /Media Fields
Journal/ exploring the relationship between media, migration, and space.
We invite manuscripts, art projects, and interviews that explore the
communicative ecology experienced by migrants and the way that media
informs movement of bodies, information, and networks across space.
Contributors may submit essays (1500-2500 words), digital art projects,
and audio or video interviews exploring possible dynamics between media,
migration, movement, and space. Please include an abstract (150 words)
and an author bio. We encourage approaches to this topic from scholars
in media studies, material arts, anthropology, computer science,
communication, art/art history, geography, urban planning, sociology,
global studies, and other fields.

             We propose the following questions as catalysts for these
explorations:

•      How do physical media infrastructures condition movements of
information and people? Or even the movement of animals, water, or waste?

•      What economic, social, or legal frameworks regulate the movement
of information, spectrum allocation, information systems, and human
migration?

•      How is GPS or other tracking technology being taken up by
migrants or their opponents?

•      How might thinking about physical or digital migration of
information, media devices, or technologies shed new light on how we
approach the movement of people across space?

•       Does the way information move within systems or across borders
provide a nuanced way to rethink human migration, immigration laws, and
border enforcement?

•      How does the migration of media and people influence ideas about
the global, national, and post-national?

•      How do media technologies influence the formation of
transnational communities, online communities, and networks for the
marketing and consumption of nostalgia?

•      How do media technologies and social media alter processes,
communication, and economic experiences of migration for migrants as
well as those “left behind”?

•      What role does media play for migrants resettling in a host
nations and navigating new cultural, political, and physical
surroundings? How does settlement in the host country affect migrants’
relationship to media?

•      Do gender, sexuality, race, and class differences influence
migrants’ access to media technologies? Or the way they use these
technologies? How might this contribute to diverging experiences of
migration?

•      What effects do media technologies have on the relationship
between migration and the gendered distribution of paid and unpaid care
work?

•      What methodological questions or issues emerge in understanding
this moment of intensifying movement of both people and information
across the national borders and through media infrastructures?

For any inquiries, contact issue co-editors, Bianka Ballina
((blb /at/ umail.ucsb.edu) <mailto:(blb /at/ umail.ucsb.edu)>) and Carlos Jimenez
((c_jimenez /at/ umail.ucsb.edu) <mailto:(c_jimenez /at/ umail.ucsb.edu)>). Email
submissions to (submissions /at/ mediafieldsjournal.org)
<mailto:(submissions /at/ mediafieldsjournal.org)>


For more information and submission guidelines, please visit
http://www.mediafieldsjournal.org/


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Media Fields Journal | http://www.mediafieldsjournal.org/

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