[ecrea] Anti-Austerity and Media Activism - an IAMCR 2016 pre-conference

You are warmly invited to join us for:

Anti-Austerity and Media Activism - an IAMCR 2016 pre-conference at 
GOLDSMITHS, University of London

Austerity refers to the specific sets of policies designed ostensibly to 
reduce public debt through a decrease in government expenditure on 
public services and welfare systems. Austerity programmes have, however, 
been heavily criticized for facilitating the growth of corporate welfare 
at the expense of a safety net for the poorest, for bringing about the 
systematic entrenchment of a market logic into as many areas of public 
life as possible, and for being precisely the wrong approach to 
stimulate economic growth.

The media are implicated in creating and circulating this narrative 
about the current crisis in many ways. All over the world publicly 
funded media are facing increasing deregulation and privatisation as 
well as growing political interference, declining budgets and even 
outright closure. News media have also been some of the most vociferous 
cheerleaders for austerity.There has also been a growth in populist 
television programmes that have been criticised for attacking the 
principle of welfare and demonising the poor. Alongside the popular 
presentation that austerity makes good economic sense, despite arguments 
to the contrary, there has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been a surge in 
anti-austerity protests from those groups who bear the brunt of 
austerity policies and want to resist a future of cuts, privatization 
and commercialization. Frequently such groups have turned to social 
media as a means both of mobilisation of protest but also of information 
sharing.

The conference will seek to highlight the connections between austerity 
and the media and, in particular, to highlight the role of 
communications in fostering anti-austerity movements. We invite papers 
that illustrate how:

Media outlets have helped to construct contemporary narratives of austerity
Mainstream media have related to discourses of austerity
Non-mainstream media have attempted to counter austerity narratives
Activists and campaigners have sought to mobilise against both media and 
political elites in order to press for media reform, to secure 
democratic gains and to protect public spaces.

Date and time: Saturday 23 July 2016. 10:00 - 17:00

Proposal requirements: Proposals can be made for single papers or 
panels. Abstracts for single papers must be no more than 300 words. A 
complete panel proposal will include four (4) abstracts of up to 300 
words each plus a supporting rationale of up to 300 words.

Proposals must be submitted by 15 February 2016 at midnight GMT here:

http://iamcr.org/leicester2016/preconf/anti-austerity

We look forward to welcoming you to Goldsmiths in the summertime!

All best

Natalie Fenton

PLEASE NOTE THIS PRE-CONFERENCE WILL BE FREE!

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