[ecrea] CFP "Audiences, Elsewhere?" ICA pre conference 17June 2013

Call for Papers

Audiences, elsewhere? Reviewing the applicability of audiences and 
audience research to those in other fields

A pre-conference at ICA 2013 co-organized by the Audience and Reception 
Studies section of ECREA and the COST Action IS0906 Transforming 
Audiences, Transforming Societies, and presented in collaboration with 
ICA Division for Communication and Technology

Hosted by the University of Leicester
June 17th, 2013

Opening keynote address: professor Kirsten Drotner,  Institute of 
Literature, Culture and Media Studies, University of Southern Denmark 
and founding director of DREAM: Danish Research Centre on Education and 
Advanced Media Materials.

Closing keynote address: professor Sonia Livingstone, Department of 
Media and Communications at London School of Economics and Political 
Science, director of EU Kids Online network.

Submissions are invited in a range of two possible formats for an 
exciting pre-conference titled ‘Audiences, Elsewhere?’ to be held on the 
eve of the 2013 annual conference of the ICA. The pre-conference will be 
hosted by the Department of Media and Communications at the University 
of Leicester on 17th June 2013. The pre- conference features addresses 
by Professor Sonia Livingstone and Professor Kirsten Drotner, with an 
intensive, innovative and interactive format for discussing audience 
research throughout the day.

Intellectual scope - More than five decades after the theoretical and 
empirical appearance of in communications research, it seems apt to ask 
what, if at all, the idea of audiences and the insights from reception 
studies might imply for those elsewhere. Caught up in internal debates 
about establishing the role of the reader, countering and then 
qualifying the narrative of powerful media effects, over-celebrating 
diversity, accumulating too much empirical work at the expense of 
theoretical advancement, and lately, the advent of users and produsers – 
audience research has seldom had the chance to (re)consider its 
applicability and utility for other fields. Some of these links 
‘elsewhere’ have already been theorised by audience researchers – 
consider the public or the citizen from democratic participation theory. 
Consider also, how the text-reader metaphor that lies at the heart of 
audience reception becomes a tool worthy of interest in the face of 
discussions about technologies as texts or the affordances and 
appropriation of technologies.  But there are other links waiting to be 
unpicked – how best might the audience (a media-framed concept) and 
insights from reception research inform, for instance, education 
studies, tourism, sociologies of the family? Such a line of questioning 
places the tradition of audience research into a direct dialogue with 
other trajectories communication scholars walk on.

We suggest that reviewing the applicability of audience research to 
those outside communication studies is an important task for two 
overlapping reasons. First, in intellectual terms, indeed, there is a 
danger in not engaging with these questions, for these fields, 
‘elsewhere’ often assume the audience to be homogenous, singular, or 
even passive – an ironical fact after the last fifty years of 
theoretical advancements in audience studies, which have proved 
otherwise. Second, in more socio-economic terms, audience researchers 
are often called upon to inform policy, a task in which we must convey 
the justification for our agenda to economists, political scientists, 
sociologists, educators and others. This should make us question as to 
what we must cross-fertilise for these bridges to be built, which 
insights shall not prove to be useful. And so, Audiences, Elsewhere 
brings together keynote speakers from both within and outside the field 
of academic audience research and proposes a work-in-progress format 
where the latest research can be discussed with aim to look at what may 
be useful for ‘elsewhere’.

Paper submission guidelines- Research will be presented in a more 
interactive fashion than in usual conferences. Hence, we will be 
offering two formats for presentations over the day.

Participants can choose to make submissions for both formats. However, 
to encourage diversity and spread we will include only one submission 
per participant as a first author. You should clearly indicate in your 
proposal text which of the two formats your submission targets.

1.     Guidelines for submission to the roundtable component – This 
format will involve a roundtable discussion where presenters are 
requested to present one concept of value from their work with media 
audiences which they believe are of utility to scholars elsewhere. 
Presenters are encouraged to focus particularly on developing potential 
linkages with democracy and participation, science and technology 
studies, education studies, media policy, travel and tourism, politics 
and government, and other fields as they choose.
a.    For this format, participants are required to clearly indicate 
what concept they will focus on from their work.
b.    Submissions of up to 300 words, clearly elucidating the concept, 
and how it links audience research with a field of their choice, are 
invited.
c.     Submissions will be judged on conceptual clarity and a real 
attempt to build bridges between audience research and other areas of 
media and communications studies or indeed, other social sciences
d.    Please also include a 75 word biography with your submission

2.     Work in progress component – This format includes brief 
presentations of latest/on-going audience research, which demonstrates 
strong existing or potential linkages with other areas of research, 
outside audience studies. Presenters are to focus key ideas of their 
current research from the perspective of their relevance and 
applicability in terms of delivering insights to other fields. We are 
looking for the latest audience research, which demonstrates 
methodological rigour, and a strong demonstration of existing or 
potential linkages with other areas of research, outside audience studies.

a.    For this format, participants are required to clearly indicate the 
key questions, methods and theoretical frameworks they are using in 
their projects
b.    Submissions of up to 300 words, clearly demonstrating how the 
research builds links between audience studies with a field of their 
choice, are invited.
c.     Submissions will be judged on conceptual clarity and a real 
attempt to build bridges between audience research and other areas of 
media and communications studies or indeed, other social sciences
d.    Please also include a 75 word biography with your submission

Deadlines and schedules – Please submit abstracts by 15th December 2012 
to (audienceselsewhere /at/ gmail.com) in order to reach the conference team. 
Notification of acceptance will be made by 31st January 2013. The 
preconference will be held on 17th June 2013. Registration will be at 9 
am, the proceedings of the day will be concluded by 15.40 pm enabling 
participants to take the train back to reach Central London soon after 5 
pm, in time for the opening session of the ICA conference.

Costs and venue – The event will be held at the Charles Wilson building 
of the University of Leicester. The University of Leicester is home to 
the Centre for Mass Communications Research which has had an important 
role to play in the country’s media and communications scene in the 
past. The Department of Media and Communications is a lively and big 
department with a number of faculty members intellectually committed to 
audience research and thus the pre-conference enjoys a high amount of 
support at Leicester.

Transport on East Midlands Trains – the fastest route between Leicester 
and London will be pre-arranged for participants so that they can avail 
of the best possible prices owing to a group booking, and they reach 
central London well in time for the ICA Plenary at the end of the 
pre-conference. The journey should take approximately one hour from 
London’s St Pancras Station. The venue at Leicester is located at a 
convenient walking distance, or a short bus ride from the railway station.

A conference fee of $50 will be required to attend this pre conference. 
This covers conference materials, three coffee breaks, a 2 course buffet 
lunch and the train travel from Leicester to London. In case 
participants do not wish to book the train ticket back to London through 
the group booking scheme via the organisers, the conference fee is $30.

Organising teams

ECREA organising team: Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Ranjana Das, Jakob Bjur
COST organising team: Geoffroy Patriarche, Helena Bilandzic and the 
Steering Group of the COST Action IS0906
ICA Division for Communication and Technology: Lee Kwan, James Danowski 
and Lee Humphreys
Local organising team: Ranjana Das, Peter Lunt and the University of 
Leicester Department of Media and Communications

(Call of papers available in pdf on the website of the COST Action at: 
http://www.cost-transforming-audiences.eu/node/982)



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