CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Edited Book by the Audience & Reception Studies Section of ECREA
-- DEADLINE EXTENDED: July 15, 2009 --
The 'Social' Media User
European Perspectives on Cultural and
Social Scientific Audience Research
Edited by Helena Bilandzic and Geoffroy Patriarche
There is a long tradition of research in both
critical/cultural and social scientific
paradigms in communication science that
describes or explains (new) media use as a
social activity. For example, audiences use
newspapers to be able to talk about current
topics, watch television to spend time with
their families, or use ICTs to build
relationships and form communities. The purpose
of this book is to offer a state-of-the-art
review of a variety of contemporary approaches
to the 'social' media user. Submissions will be
used to compose a proposal for an edited book
that will be submitted to the ECREA book series
in December 2009. If the proposal is supported
by ECREA, the book will be published as an
official ECREA publication and will receive wide
attention by distribution to second year
individual ECREA members, and to the
coordinators of associated and institutional ECREA members..
The European landscape of audience research is
very heterogeneous, including a broad variety of
scientific perspectives ranging from
interpretative approaches (that often root in
humanities and follow a rather hermeneutic
paradigm) to 'counting' and statistic-based
approaches that try to follow the paradigm of
natural sciences (e.g., media psychology). This
book will help to further our understanding of
the existing approaches towards the 'social'
media user their diversity, their strengths
and weaknesses, their shared assumptions, but
also their potential incompatibilities. By
focusing on one specific topic, the book will
manifest one of ECREA's basic principles, which
is to emerge as an integrative platform for
European media and communication scholars.
Chapters should focus on one aspect of the
'social' media user and media use as a social
activity - for example, subcultures,
communities, parasocial relationships, actual
and constructed audiences, social motives for
media use, or interactions during media use. The
book aims to provide an easy-to-understand
systematic overview of different scientific
perspectives; thus, chapters should elaborate
the theoretical background in detail and give a
systematic literature review on the chosen
research field. As the book also aims at
illuminating and comparing scientific paradigms
in Audience studies, we ask authors to
contextualize their approach in a general
underlying scientific field or paradigm (e.g.,
cultural studies, reception research, sociology
of ICTs, media psychology). A study
representative of the theory and the
field/paradigm should then be used to provide an
example for the approach. Theory and
paradigmatic issues should compose two thirds of the chapter, the exemp
lary study one third. Authors should write
their chapter in a simple and comprehensive
style to provide the opportunity for a wide
audience (media researchers from different
paradigms, students, practitioners, interested
public) to acquaint themselves with the basic logic of the perspective.
The selection process for contribution will be twofold:
1. Authors submit chapter proposals of approx.
200 words by July 15, 2009. Submissions will be
reviewed by the editors according to the
following criteria: (1) scientific quality of
the chapter, (2) relevance and originality of
the approach, (3) contribution to theory, (4)
appropriateness of methodology and (5)
appropriateness of chapter for the book. As part
of the ECREA series, editors will also consider
ECREA membership, diversity of countries and
gender as well as presence of young scholars
among authors as additional criteria for selection.
2. When selected at the first stage, authors
will be invited to contribute full chapters to
the book, pending the decision of the ECREA
board to fund the book proposal. Full chapters will be needed in autumn 2010.
TIMELINE
July 15, 2009 Deadline for chapter proposals (200 words)
September 15, 2009 Notice of acceptance to
authors and invitation to revise chapter proposals
November 1, 2009 Deadline for revised chapter proposals
December 31, 2009 Submission for consideration to the ECREA book series
March 1, 2010 Notice of acceptance to authors
and invitation to submit full chapters
October 1, 2010 Deadline for full chapters
Dr. Helena Bilandzic
University of Erfurt
Department for Media und Communication
Nordhaeuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt, Germany
Phone +49 (0)361 / 737-4182
Fax +49 (0)361 / 737-4179
E-mail: (helena.bilandzic /at/ uni-erfurt.de)
