The New New Economy: Media Economies at a Moment of ?Crisis?
An NCA Pre-Conference Scholar?s Seminar
Date: Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
This seminar, organized in conjunction with this year?s meeting of the
National Communication Association Meeting in Chicago, seeks to offer
insights into the relationships between communications media and
economies?historical or current, emergent or residual? in our present moment
of crisis.
The current global economic ?crisis? has raised questions about the
stability of the neo-liberal order and its unquestioning faith in market
self-regulation. Increasingly integrated into larger corporate bodies, it is
not surprising that the communication and media industries have been deeply
affected by the ongoing events. Yet, the current state of the cultural
industries is not simply symptom of the collapse of global finance markets
and the credit crisis. The cultural industries have also experienced a
series of structural changes in the past two decades whose impact have been
quickened by the breakdown of the established logics of production in the
contemporary moment of ?crisis. Thus, the contemporary ?crisis? in the media
economy cannot be understood in isolation from the broader processes of
transition that have been underway in cultural industries for many years.
Has this moment of crisis will simply serve to crystallize longstanding
trends around industry consolidation, the casualization of labor and the
fragmentation of distribution networks?
The day?s events will be chaired by Robert W. McChesney, Gutgsell Endowed
Professor, Department of Communication, University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign, who will also offer closing remarks as well.
Papers are welcomed from a wide scope of subfields in Communication
Studies, including research in political economy, communications history,
cultural studies, rhetoric, policy studies, political communication and
public opinion, or other areas. The format of the event will be four
thematically linked discussions held over the course of a single day, where
presenters will be asked to talk about their work with the goal of providing
a space in which scholars working in different areas will be able to
initiate and engage in dialogue with one another. Those interested in
participating should submit abstracts to seminar planners by June 26, 2009.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted electronically to:
Brian Dolber ((bdolber2 /at/ illinois.edu)) and Mark Hayward ((mhayward /at/ aup.fr)).
Decisions regarding the program will be made before August 31, 2009.
--
Christina M Ceisel
Doctoral Student
Institute of Communications Research
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
228 Gregory Hall
810 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL 61801
