[Commlist] CFP: International Online Conference "Media in America, America in Media"

CALL FOR PAPERS

INTERNATIONAL ONLINE CONFERENCE

/Media in America, America in Media/

25-26 March 2021**

We invite the submission of abstracts for /Media in America, America in 
Media/ international conference to be held online on 25-26 March 2021. 
This is the third edition of a joint effort of the American Studies and 
Political Science scholars at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin, 
Poland) who aim to generate a cross-disciplinary debate that brings 
together divergent yet complementary voices reflecting on American media 
environment and America’s portrayals in media across the globe.

Abstracts (150-250 words) in English + a short bio should be sent by 
*January 15th, 2021* to *(media.ameryka /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(media.ameryka /at/ gmail.com)>*. *There is no registration fee*. The 
details can be found on the conference website 
https://mediainamericaconference.wordpress.com/ 
<https://mediainamericaconference.wordpress.com/>

For the 2021 edition of /Media in America, America in Media/ conference 
publication we are pleased to announce the cooperation with two 
peer-reviewed open access academic journals: Res Rhetorica 
<https://resrhetorica.com/>**(Scopus, WoS) and**NewHorizons in English 
Studies <https://journals.umcs.pl/nh>**(MLA, Erih+)*. 
*The**post-conference volumes**are scheduled for publication in 2021 
(NHES) and 2022 (RR).

Since the conference is being held under the patronage of the Polish 
Rhetoric Society, we are honoured to present our Keynote Speaker, *Dr. 
Jim A. Kuypers 
<https://mediainamericaconference.wordpress.com/jim-a-kuypers/>*(Virginia Tech’s 
School of Communication), a pioneer in the area of rhetorical framing 
analysis in political communication.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

The one thing we have certainly learnt since our first conference in 
2017 is that there are no media trends that cannot be reversed. While in 
2019 we hailed the dawn of the TV era, the 2020 annual media report 
prepared by the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford in the 
midst of the COVID-19 pandemic showed the increased consumption of 
traditional sources of news, especially television... However, some new 
digital behaviours that are likely to have long-term implications have 
also emerged in this crisis. Many have joined Facebook or WhatsApp 
groups for the first time and have engaged in local groups’ online 
activities. Young people of Generation Z (aged 18-24) have consumed more 
news through services like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok and the use 
of Instagram for news has doubled since 2018 and looks likely to 
overtake Twitter over the next year. Video conferencing has become a new 
platform for personal communication but has also changed the face of 
government press conferences. The media have embraced these new 
technologies in terms of remote working, but also in terms of the 
production and distribution of content. Due to falling revenues from 
traditional media outlets, in the last 12 months more publishers have 
started charging for digital content or tightening paywalls and this is 
also beginning to have an impact. There is a growing fear of information 
inequality, where people with less money become more dependent on social 
media and other lower-quality news spreading damaging misinformation. 
There is also a question of a growing bias, yet interestingly, this is 
not a global phenomenon. Comparing 2020 with data from 2013, the Reuters 
report has shown the increased preference over time in the UK (+6) for 
news that has ‘no particular point of view’. At the same time, the 
proportion that prefers news that ‘shares their point of view’ has 
declined by a similar amount (-6). On the other hand, in the United 
States, where both politics and the media have become increasingly 
partisan over the years, we do find an increase in the proportion of 
people who say they prefer news that shares their point of view – up six 
percentage points since 2013 to 30%.

The conference /Media in America, America in Media/ addresses a wide 
variety of topics across the disciplines of media, political science, 
language and cultural studies. They may include the following themes, 
among others:

*I.**Media in America*

1. Media and their representations in America

• Mass media, social media and personalized media

• Rhetoric of media in America - ideology, persuasion, manipulation past 
and present

• Media roles in the election process

• Media as a tool in identity formation

2. Media theories in America

• Contemporary American theories of communication and media

• Mediatization – American model vs. European model

• Rhetorical perspectives on /logos, ethos and pathos /in media

• Visual media studies, game studies – intertexts and intermediality

3. Media technologies in America

• Technological revolutions – trends and implications

• Media personalities - the role and ethos of a (digital) journalist

• Advertising - role, medium, case studies, micro-rhetorical situations

• Big Data, fake news, bots and apps – new concepts, new challenges

*II.**America in Media*

**

1. Images of America in American media

• Representations of the majority and the minorities: ideological, 
feminist, religious, racial, ethnic, LGBTQ+ and other

• New phenomena, new audiences – America in TV series, podcasts, games, 
hashtags, infographics, tweets, pins...

• Adaptations in the media: history, literature and art in a new form

2. Images of America in foreign media

• American models – political and advertising campaigns, streaming 
platforms, newsrooms, sitcoms, talk shows, etc.

• American media and international reception – a comparative study

• Whose America? – a homogeneous or heterogeneous media image

Due to the interdisciplinary character of the conference, the invitation 
is addressed to representatives of all scientific disciplines dealing 
with the topic of media.

Organizing Committee

Anna Bendrat, Ph.D.

Elżbieta Pawlak-Hejno, Ph.D.

Anna Oleszczuk, M.A.

Agata Waszkiewicz, M.A.

Lidia Kniaź-Hunek, M.A.

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