[ecrea] special issue of Convergence on old/new media - cfp

CFP: "Rethinking the distinction between old and new media"

Special Issue of /Convergence: The International Journal of Research 
into New Media Technologies/

Guest editors: Frederik Lesage (Simon Fraser University, Canada) and 
Simone Natale (Loughborough University, UK)

Expected date of publication: August 2019

Since at least the early 1990s with the publication of groundbreaking 
works such as Manovich’s The Language of New Media, the rise of digital 
and online media into every facet of our lives has been conceptualized 
through distinctions between “new” and “old” media. Yet, scholars have 
recently started to criticize such concepts, arguing that they are 
inappropriate to describe media change and that they do not help improve 
our understanding of the relationship between different media in 
contemporary societies. Approaches to the biography and social life of 
media have examined how definitions of oldness and newness are 
attributed to technologies and artefacts throughout their lifetime, 
providing an interpretative model to rethink processes such as 
convergence, media encounters, and the transformations that media 
technologies and practices experience throughout time.

This special issue will further advance these reflections. It aims to 
illuminate places, cases, and contexts where distinctions between old 
and new media break down, and to propose alternative theoretical 
frameworks that redefine media change and the interaction between 
different media. Papers are invited that interrogate how changing 
definitions of old and new media inform the trajectory of specific media 
as well as their interrelations, moving away from rigid conceptions of 
oldness and newness to emphasise, instead, the persistent changes that 
characterise our relationship with media objects and technologies.

Potential topics

The editors welcome contributions that explore questions such as:

  * How can we rethink media change beyond the old/new media and the
    analogue/digital media distinctions?
  * How can approaches to the biographies and social life of media
    contribute to the redefinition of approaches to “old” and “new” media?
  * How and in which contexts are specific media technologies and
    artefacts attributed the qualities of oldness and/or newness?
  * To what extent do definitions of old and new media change throughout
    time?
  * How do emotions such as nostalgia, enthusiasm for the new, etc.
    inform our definitions and perceptions of oldness and newness in
    regard with media?
  * What is the role of narratives and storytelling in these processes?
  * To what extent are newness and oldness employed as rhetorical tropes
    by specific groups and individuals to animate particular visions of
    technological change?
  * To what extent does the marketing and promotion of specific media
    products and technologies draw from representations of novelty
    and/or oldness?
  * What do we mean when we consider the potential “death” of media such
    as print books, cinema, or television?
  * Which research methods can be used to study media change and the
    encounter between different media technologies and practices
    throughout time?

Deadline for abstracts: _31th May 2018_

Please send a 500-word abstract and a 100-word bio to the guest editors: 
(flesage /at/ sfu.ca) <mailto:(flesage /at/ sfu.ca)> and (s.natale /at/ lboro.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(s.natale /at/ lboro.ac.uk)>

Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to send full contributions 
by 31st October 2018

http://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/CON/Rethinking_the_distinction_between_old_and_new_media.pdf


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