[Commlist] Call for Papers for Thematic Secton in SCOMS: “Old media persistence. Past continuities in the brand-new digital world”

*Call for Papers for Thematic Secton in SCOMS: “Old media persistence. 
Past continuities in the brand-new digital world” – Deadline 15 February 
2022*

Deadline for submission of abstracts (max. 500 words) is February 15 2022.

The Thematic Section aims to better understand the reasons why, despite 
the popular discourses of disruptive innovation of the digital age, old 
media persist over time. Specifically, it seeks to elucidate the very 
current examples of past continuities in the brand-new digital world. In 
several media sectors, “old” or traditional media, such as landline 
telephony, television, radio, film, printing, analogue photography and 
music, have not disappeared – despite voices to the contrary (see, 
amongst others, Enli & Syvertsen 2016). Depending on social, cultural, 
and political contexts, these industries and platforms can be preferred 
spaces of communication and maintain their potential as profitable 
businesses. Old media also persist in terms of content, political 
mentality, business, law, regulation, audience and usage. We aim to 
better understand the reasons why this is the case. Why is the old 
persisting? The Thematic Section should ideally generate theoretical and 
empirical debates among media scholars from diverse disciplines in media 
and culture studies, with specific case studies but also theoretical 
reflections on this topic. We are aware of the fact that journals, 
conferences, and books are devoted to “old media” today. But the aim of 
this Thematic Section is different: It aims to provide a comprehensive 
and intermedial reflection on: (1) the persistence of the old and past 
continuities in the brand-new digital world; (2) the role of innovation 
that old or traditional media still play in societies today, and (3) the 
future of old media in media studies research. Mapping the continuities 
and discontinuities between the contemporary and inherited practices of 
media constitutes a new mode of inquiry into the historiography of 
media. Dialectic relationships between old and new media also provide 
political, methodological and theoretical cues in understanding the 
contemporary media landscape.

Submitted papers have to address one or some of the following research 
questions:

• Why and how do old media persist in contemporary media ecologies?

• What does persistence mean in media studies?

• What is the relationship between traditional and digital media, and 
how traditional media are integrated in digital realms?

• How do digital media remediate old media and, vice versa, how do old 
media change because of digital media?

• Can old media be innovative, and how?

• Will old and traditional media be studied in the future, and how?

The deadline for max 500-word abstracts is set on 15 February 2022. If 
accepted, full papers are due by 15 July 2022.

For more information, see 
https://www.hope.uzh.ch/scoms/announcement/view/31 
<https://www.hope.uzh.ch/scoms/announcement/view/31>

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