*************************Call for papers******************************
Justice, Media and Public
Changing Public Perceptions in the New Media Landscape
Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice
Keele University, 25-26 March 2010
Confirmed keynote speakers:
His Honour Judge Keith Cutler, Chairman of the Judges' Council Committee on
Communications
Olga Kavran, Spokeswoman to the Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia, The Hague
Joshua Rozenberg, Freelance journalist, former BBC legal correspondent and
former legal editor of the Daily Telegraph
Daniel Stepniak, Associate Professor, University of Western Australia,
author of Audio-visual Coverage of Courts: A Comparative Analysis (Cambridge
University Press, 2008).
This conference invites contributions on the theme of representations and
public perceptions of crime and justice in a multimedia communications
environment. The new media landscape is creating both opportunities and
challenges for improving and maintaining public confidence in the criminal
justice and legal system. How can new information and communication
technologies (ICTs) be utilized in public outreach initiatives? What kind of
strategies are criminal justice agencies already deploying to maximize the
potential of new technologies? To what extent do user-centred communication
practices (blogging, social networking, on-demand TV, mobile technologies,
file sharing, etc), generate public confidence and perception issues that
are new or different? How are narratives and representations of justice
evolving in the new media environment? Are old media and their institutional
practices genuinely in decline or are we just witnessing a reordering of the
public sphere under the influence of new technologies? What lessons can be
drawn from the past in order to understand the new media landscape and its
implications for the communication of justice?
While the main emphasis is on new media and ICTs, the submission of
abstracts involving reflections on policy and practice, theoretical
developments, methodological innovations and recent empirical analyses
relating to communication, media and public confidence in the criminal
justice and legal system is also very much encouraged. Contributions from
postgraduate and early career researchers are particularly welcome.
The conference aims to attract an international audience of academics and
practitioners from the (criminal) justice field. It seeks to facilitate a
dialogue across disciplinary, professional and jurisdictional boundaries.
Please send an abstract of maximum 250 words proposing individual papers or
panels to Lieve Gies ((l.gies /at/ keele.ac.uk)) by 31 October 2009. For any
queries, please contact the organizers Lieve Gies ((l.gies /at/ keele.ac.uk)) and
Rob C Mawby ((rim3 /at/ leicester.ac.uk)).
