[ecrea] Call for Papers - Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies

CALL FOR PAPERS


/Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies/


SPECIAL ISSUE

"Should I post that picture or issue that story? Journalistic practices
in the representation of the migrant crisis"


Guest editors: Vittoria Sacco and Valérie Gorin



Human migration is not a new phenomenon. However, recently it has gained
substantial space in media coverage. In particular, the images of the
little Aylan, a child escaping Syria with his family, lying dead on
Bodrum's beach, have raised old ethical questions of journalistic
practices. Aylan’s pictures were extremely powerful and not without
symbolism, becoming icons of Syria’s tragedy. They went viral on social
media, but they were also criticized. Several media opted not to show
the images. The criticism centered on whether it was justifiable or
ethical to direct readers’ attention to the conflict in Syria with stark
images of an innocent victim. There were parallels to the images of Kim
Phuc, the little girl running naked and screaming in Vietnam in 1972.


This very issue of audience engagement with crisis is a topic of heated
debate in academia. In her book “Compassion fatigue: how the media sell
disease, famine, war and death” (1999), Susan Moeller discusses audience
engagement with the news coverage of war, conflict or other types of
violence. The media has thus the potential to stress particular forms of
engagement to mobilize the public and create a collective memory amongst
audiences. Exposed daily to distant suffering, the audience can develop
apathy and disengage with events, resulting in compassion fatigue.


Kerry Moore, Bernhard Gross and Terry Threadgold drive same message home
in their book on “Migration and the Media” (2012). They try to trace the
reporting practices that produce migration coverage. A large part of
academic studies has otherwise explored visual representations of
migrants and refugees in humanitarian appeals (Mannik 2012), emphasizing
the role of aid agencies in framing visual stereotypes of helpless
people (Rajaram 2002) or racializing, victimizing and feminizing the
refugees (Johnson 2011). However, the questions around how the problem
of compassion fatigue challenges journalistic practices, and what the
news boundaries and standards when reporting crises should be in a
digital online age, has had less attention in academic research.


This special issue of the “Journal of Applied Journalism and Media
Studies” (AJMS) aims to shed some light on the complex ecosystem
journalists covering the crisis face. It

invites contributions on the relationship between journalistic practices
and audience compassion fatigue, as well as the role of social media and
new technologies on how to have it alleviated.


The guest editor welcomes contributions from both scholars and
practitioners in the field of media and journalism studies and practice.
Scholarly submissions can have a theoretical, analytic, critical,
empirical or comparative angle. Other topics may include:

  * Practices, cultures and ethics of covering migration crisis
  * Economics, political, and social situations impacting journalistic
    practices
  * Audience understanding of the crisis, its coverage and relevance for
    audiences
  * The challenges the migration crisis has posed to citizen and
    user-generated content
  * What transformations the crisis has brought about as far as the
    relationship between journalists, their organizations and their
    audience is concerned
  * Has the crisis had a bearing on freedom of expression and social media
  * Economic imperatives and the migration crisis
  * Visual communication and photojournalism vis-à-vis the migration crisis

High-quality and original submissions are expected to be conceptually
relevant to the topical relation between journalistic practices,
migration crisis and the notion of compassion fatigue. They can develop
communication and media theories, report empirical and analytical
research, present critical discourses, apply theories to case studies
and set out innovative research methodologies.


Contributions from both academics and practitioners are welcome.


Questions regarding the special issue can be directed to the guest editors.


**


**

*Important deadlines and milestones *


Prospective authors should submit an /abstract/ not exceeding 250 words
directly by email to the guest editors Vittoria Sacco
((vittoria.sacco /at/ unine.ch) <mailto:(vittoria.sacco /at/ unine.ch)>) and Valérie
Gorin ((valerie.gorin /at/ unige.ch) <mailto:(valerie.gorin /at/ unige.ch)>) by end of
March 2016. Please mark your submission as “Special Issue on the
migration crisis”.


Following peer-review, a selection of authors will be invited to submit
a /full paper/ (from 5000 to 8000 words) by end of September 2016. Full
details about the journal and the prescribed format for manuscript
submissions can be found at:

http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/page/index,name=journalstyleguide/


Please note that acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee
publication, given that all papers will be put through the journal’s
peer-review process.


//

/Tentative publication date: Third issue of 2017/


Vittoria Sacco

Postdoctoral assistant

Académie du Journalisme et des médias

Université de Neuchâtel

Bureau R 118

A. –L. Breguet 2

CH – 2000 Neuchâtel

Email: (vittoria.sacco /at/ unine.ch) <mailto:(vittoria.sacco /at/ unine.ch)>

Valérie Gorin

SNF Senior Researcher and Lecturer

Center for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action

University of Geneva and Graduate Institute

Rue de Rothschild 22

1202 Genève

Email: (valerie.gorin /at/ unige.ch) <mailto:(valerie.gorin /at/ unige.ch)>





*________________________
*Valérie Gorin, PhD

/Lecturer - SNF Senior Researcher/
CERAH (UniGE)
ISS (UNIL)




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