[ecrea] CfP: Semiotic Theories of Media? Prospects and challenges of combining media theory and semiotics

*15th International Conference of the German Association of Semiotic 
Studies: “Borders”, September 12—16, 2017, University of Passau, Germany*
*Panel: Semiotic Theories of Media? Prospects and challenges of 
combining media theory and semiotics*

The panel aims to discuss prospects and challenges of a closer 
co-operation between media theory and semiotics. We intend to focus on 
the possibilities of a theoretically and empirically justified 
delineation between signs, on one hand, and media, on the other hand. By 
facilitating a discussion between epistemologically informed theories of 
signs and empirically oriented approaches to the analysis of media, we 
expect to advance our understanding of the functioning of signs, media, 
and multimodal communication, to gain new impulses to reflect on signs 
and media, and to develop new methodologies and methods of their analyses.

Contributions can focus, for example, on the relations between semiotic 
theories and media theories, or on empirically oriented approaches to 
linguistic and non-linguistic sign uses and media practices. As we 
intend to encourage a transdisciplinary discussion on signs, media, and 
multimodality, we are highly interested in contributions focusing on the 
interdependences between sign practices on different levels (word, 
sentence, text, discourse, image, sound, film) and the “media 
infrastructure” they are part of.

We envisage discussing, for example, the following questions:

•Is there a possibility, or necessity, to differentiate between semiotic 
and technical media? If yes, how should we conceptualize this 
differentiation? If no, how should intertwining of signs and media be 
conceptualized?
•What are possibilities and challenges of applying a technical 
understanding of media in semiotics? What can a semiotic epistemology 
offer to media studies? And what are the questions which arise out of 
these interdisciplinary approaches?
•How can multimodal texts (in social networks or online magazines, for 
example) be described if the differentiation between a technological 
understanding and a semiotic understanding of media is suspended?
•What are the prospects of applying a semiotic understanding of media in 
the analysis of esthetic phenomena (in the analysis of design, 
architecture, fashion, street art, for example)?
•How can we theorize shifts in the history of media from a semiotic 
and/or empirical perspective, and how do shifts in the history of media 
influence conceptions of the sign?
•How can we define concepts as “medium”, “materiality”, “sign use” from 
the point of view of a epistemologically informed semiotic media theory?
•What do traditional empirical approaches to media studies offer to the 
analysis of semiotic practices, and where and how could they be 
broadened to include semiotic knowledge?


Please send your abstract as a word document to Jan Georg Schneider 
((schneiderj /at/ uni-landau.de) <mailto:(schneiderj /at/ uni-landau.de)>) and Stefan 
Meier ((stefan.meier /at/ uni-tuebingen.de) 
<mailto:(stefan.meier /at/ uni-tuebingen.de)>) by November 15, 2016. Your 
abstract should contain: Title of the presentation, name(s) of the 
contributors, abstract (max 300 words), institution, e-mail address and 
a short bio. Presentations will be 20 min; we plan to publish selected 
panel contributions after the conference.

---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------