[Commlist] Call for papers: Cultural Journalism: Its Global, Democratic and Transformative Dimensions

Cultural Journalism: Its Global, Democratic and Transformative Dimensions

International symposium, Stockholm University, February 13-14, 2020

***Call for papers***

In an era when culture itself has become central to political debates, 
when boundaries between hard and soft news, facts and opinion are 
dissolving, cultural journalism in mainstream media contributes to 
democratic discourses on vital issues of our time. European and Nordic 
research has shown the steady expansion of cultural journalism, from new 
forms of aesthetic expression to news, to harbouring debates and 
reflection on such issues as freedom of expression, ethnicity and 
national identity. Cultural journalism is furthermore indicative of 
questions of journalistic autonomy and specialisation within media 
organisations, and of the relationship between the cultural and 
political public spheres.

This symposium brings together international researchers to compare and 
contrast research on cultural journalism from diverse geopolitical 
contexts, focusing specifically on transnational and democratic aspects. 
The symposium will showcase and discuss prominent research in the field, 
and identify future research agendas on cultural journalism. To this 
end, it aims to create opportunities for collaboration across 
geographical, disciplinary and subject-specific contexts. The symposium 
also constitutes an opportunity to interact with practitioners of 
cultural journalism, and to discuss the particularities of cultural 
journalism as well as the challenges that concern the entire 
journalistic field, such as the economic and democratic crisis of 
journalism, professionalization, populism, and the importance of digital 
platforms and social media.

Cultural journalism’s expansion of content coincides with the increased 
blurring of the boundaries in relation to lifestyle and celebrity on the 
one hand, and news journalism and political debate, on the other. 
Cultural journalism’s engagement in themes such as migration, #Metoo, 
terrorism and climate change, have inspired some scholars to go beyond 
the boundaries of the field, and connect it to political communication. 
Research has also pointed to the fact that the topics and discourses of 
cultural journalism are becoming more difficult to distinguish from 
lifestyle journalism, especially since the adoption of a more 
“service-oriented” journalism, which sets itself up as a guide to 
personal cultural consumption. At the same time, scholars report a 
greater international, or even transnational orientation of cultural 
journalism. This may portend a greater homogenization of content, as 
well as more cosmopolitan and transnational perspectives in content. 
Although several large comparative studies have linked the field of 
cultural journalism to globalization in this sense, studies of cultural 
journalism have in themselves still mainly been undertaken in national 
contexts.

The symposium will provide a forum for presenting in its final stages 
the project “The Worlds of Cultural Journalism: Politics and Culture 
under Globalization and Digitalization”, which explores content, 
production and consumption of Swedish cultural journalism over the last 
four decades. The symposium will provide the opportunity for the 
cultural journalism research field to summon and direct its attention to 
transformations related to democracy, politics and globalization, 
including issues such as citizen participation, reach, digitalization, 
professionalization and the blurring of genres in view of new media 
ecologies.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

* Geographical, spatial and scalar dimensions of cultural journalism
* Cultural journalism, politics and democracy
* Cultural journalism and cultural conflicts
* Multiculturalism and hybridity in cultural journalism
* Cultural journalism and professionalization
* Cultural journalism and its relation to the cultural industries
* The sources and actors of cultural journalism
* Cultural journalism beyond legacy media
* Local, national or global audiences of cultural journalism
* Cultural journalism and digital content circulation in social media
* Genre and style developments in cultural journalism
* Representations of “culture” in other subfields of journalism (e.g. 
news, economy, editorials, sports journalism etc.)
* Critics and public intellectuals in the digital media • Entertainment, 
celebrity and cultural influencers

We plan to draw on the symposium contributions to put together a 
comparative international anthology that contributes to the current 
literature on the subject.

The program includes:

* Confirmed keynotes: Professor Nete Nørgaard Kristensen (University of 
Copenhagen) and Professor David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds)

* Presentation of results from “The Worlds of Cultural Journalism” 
project by Kristina Riegert, Anna Roosvall and Andreas Widholm.

* A concluding keynote panel with researchers and cultural journalists 
discussing the future of cultural journalism.

Participation is free of charge and includes two lunches and one dinner.

Please e-mail your abstract to*: *(cjsymposium /at/ jmk.su.se) 
<mailto:(cjsymposium /at/ jmk.su.se)?subject=Cultural%20Journalism%3A%20Its%20Global%2C%20Democratic%20and%20Transformative%20Dimensions> no 
later than 5 November. Notification of acceptance will go out 15 
November. If you have any questions about the symposium, don’t hesitate 
to ask (kristina.riegert /at/ ims.su.se) 
<mailto:(kristina.riegert /at/ ims.su.se)?subject=Cultural%20Journalism%3A%20Its%20Global%2C%20Democratic%20and%20Transformative%20Dimensions>.

Read more about the symposium on our project website: 
https://wcj.ims.su.se/symposium

Kristina Riegert, Professor of Media and Communication Studies
Anna Roosvall, Professor of Media and Communication Studies
Andreas Widholm, Associate Professor of Journalism
Department of Media Studies, Stockholm University

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