[ecrea] Call for Papers: Redefining Journalism in the Era of the Mass Press

I'd like to draw your attention to the following call for papers:

*/Redefining Journalism in the Era of the Mass Press/*

University of Sheffield, 5 July 2013.

*Confirmed Keynote Speakers:*

*Professor Joel H. Wiener *(City University of New York)

*Professor Jane Chapman *(Lincoln University, UK)

*Professor Martin Conboy *(University of Sheffield, UK)* *

This conference seeks to interrogate two key trajectories arising from 
the change or stasis in the role perceptions of journalism that occurred 
between 1880 and 1920 with the rise of the mass press. The way we speak 
of and interrogate this period continues to exert great influence in 
terms of how we understand contemporary journalism, and how we 
conceptualize the role of the journalist in terms of its historical, 
cultural and economic development.

Specifically, this conference aims to discuss how we now define 
journalism at the end of the 19^th century from our contemporary and 
comparative perspective.

It seeks to contrast this with how contemporaries defined journalism 
during this actual period of transition.

Was there an expression of shifting role perception towards journalism 
and the journalist at the onset of the era of the mass press?

We are inviting contributions to help craft a taxonomy of journalism at 
the cusp of the twentieth century, a chronology of significant 
indicators that help describe this period and its ongoing significance 
to journalism scholarship. We welcome papers on various countries, 
international comparisons or transnational developments.

*/ Abstracts of 500 words/* are invited for consideration as 
contributions to this conference, the next event hosted by the research 
network, /Capturing Change in Journalism: Shifting Role Perceptions at 
the Turn of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries/. This network, which is* 
*funded by the British AHRC and the Dutch NWO, and run by the journalism 
departments of the universities of Groningen and Sheffield has already 
held a successful launch event in September 2012, which discussed how we 
can /Conceptualize Role Perceptions and Change in Journalism/.

* Deadline for submission: *31st January 2013

· *For more information, please contact: *Dr John Steel 
((j.steel /at/ sheffield.ac.uk) <mailto:(j.steel /at/ sheffield.ac.uk)>)

*Conference Themes:*

Journalism at the end of the nineteenth century could be said to have 
entered an era of creative reformulation. Yet this era was not 
necessarily one which was marked primarily by technological changes but 
rather by an accumulation of social and cultural changes in the 
expectations of what journalism was supposed to deliver.

These shifts in expectation were in turn reconstituting the role of the 
journalist. This was not a simple trajectory but one which bore the 
cultural traces of many previous iterations of the role of the public 
communicator. The changes in perception of the journalist and journalism 
were not driven by or even most importantly structured by technological 
changes but perhaps more by the confluence of cultural and political 
expectations of periodical publications directed commercially towards 
the masses.

What was the role of the reporter in this new era? The journalist may be 
defined at this point onwards by his/her engagement with mass popular 
audiences and the extent to which these 
contrasted/complemented/contradicted rival perceptions of the journalist 
as either a hack or a political publicist. It might be that the 
technological and infrastructural changes of the late nineteenth century 
were not as significant as the political and cultural purposes to which 
journalism was now contributing.

Of course the coming of the mass press was not a phenomenon restricted 
to the UK and its geo-cultural variations had complex interactions with 
one another. We therefore encourage various national and international 
perspectives on change in this period.

*Context of the research project:*

This interdisciplinary project is made more urgent by the need of 
scholars, journalists and the media industry to tackle what is often 
labeled as a growing ʽcrisis of journalismʼ. While there is a certain 
level of agreement in scholarship on the importance of journalism for 
democracy and civil engagement, as well as over the existence of a 
contemporary economic and professional crisis, research that strives to 
understand the structure of transformation is scarce. Much like its 
position at the turn of the 20^th century, journalism is now forced to 
reconsider the roles it can play in society and to come up with new 
justifications for its position. The contemporary influence of 
digitization, Internet and mobile communications is changing the 
informational needs of citizens and the news media must adapt. This 
project argues that crucial to understanding journalismʼs future role is 
looking to previous moments when its position in society was seemingly 
tenuous. It aims to amplify this research theme by clarifying how 
journalists themselves perceive their role and their relationship with 
the public -- historically, in contemporary society, and going forward.

Regards,

John


Dr. John Steel
Programme Leader MA International Political Communication
Department of Journalism Studies
University of Sheffield
18-22 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 3NJ
0114 2222545
(j.steel /at/ sheffield.ac.uk) <mailto:(j.steel /at/ sheffield.ac.uk)>
http://www.shef.ac.uk/journalism/staff/steel.html