[Commlist] CFP 1980s and 1990s media histories, TMG – Journal for Media History

*CfP: Media histories of the 1980s and 1990s. Special issue of /TMG – 
Journal for Media History/. *

Deadline (Abstracts): May 16, 2022

Contemporary research predominantly conceives of ‘new media’—i.e., media 
worthy of scholarly attention—as digital media and computer technologies 
(Peters, 2009; Borah, 2017). Media historical scholarship has responded 
to this in various ways. Media archaeologists, for example, argue that 
historicising media helps to counter teleological perspectives 
concerning the current digital media landscape, as well as the 
corporate-fed idea that present-day media are more disruptive and 
transformative than ever. Others seek to historicise the current media 
ecosystem and its conceptual underpinnings to investigate claims of 
their supposed “newness” (Balbi, Ribeiro, Schafer & Schwarzenegger 
2021). Media history at large has thus shifted from a central focus on 
traditional mass media towards a more diverse set of research ambitions, 
also including transnational media histories.

However, media and technologies that emerged or prospered over the 
course of the 1980s and 1990s have largely been neglected, some 
exceptions notwithstanding (e.g., Arceneaux 2005; Moe & Van den Bulck 
2016; Slootweg 2018; Verhoef 2022). This is problematic, for it results 
in a gap in our socio-cultural knowledge. After all, scholars have 
abundantly made clear that media histories form an apt prism through 
which to analyse ‘a rich web of cultural practices and ideas’ (Douglas 
1987: xv). Seminal works have highlighted the societal changes that 
older media technologies, such as the telegraph (Czitrom 1982), 
telephone (Fischer 1992), radio (Douglas 1987) and television (Spigel 
1992) engendered and reflected—yet there is a dearth of similar 
histories pertaining to the 1980s and 1990s. An earlier special issue of 
/TMG—Journal for Media History/ sought to bring electromagnetic media 
such as video back into the limelight. More needs to be done, however. 
We believe that encouraging 1980s and 1990s media histories is 
imperative to understand historical developments such as burgeoning 
individualisation, consumerism or neoliberalism—developments which 
continue to affect our lives today. In short, 1980s and 1990s media 
technologies moved fast and broke things, too.

This special issue of /TMG—Journal for Media History/ aims to give media 
historical research into the 1980s and 1990s a new impetus. Which 
sources can be used and on what empirical grounds can we construct 
histories of those media that have fallen through the cracks of 
traditional and current media historical inquiry? We welcome a variety 
of disciplines and approaches to make a head start in realising our 
ambition to present//these histories. Contributions can, for instance, 
focus on well- and lesser-known media technologies such as the Walkman, 
videodisc, CD-I, Datasette, Teletext, pager/beeper, cell phone, Discman, 
various home computer systems or video game consoles (e.g., the NES). 
Media that underperformed in one market, but flourished in others, also 
qualify. Relevant topics and themes for this special issue might 
include, but are not limited to:

  * media histories as a lens to reflect on wider socio-cultural
    developments, to ‘chart the desires and concerns of a given social
    context and the preoccupations of particular moments in history’
    (Sturken & Thomas 2004: 1).
  * the social construction of media and technologies, including popular
    consciousness, discourses and imaginaries and the ways in which such
    media were advertised.
  * media archaeological investigations of forgotten and neglected media
    technologies from the 1980s and 1990s //
  * various legacy media from the 1980s and 1990s that areimportant to
    understand their purported convergence during the current digital
    media landscapes (cf. Balbi 2015)
  * the exhibition of media. Consumer electronics exhibitions and trade
    events such as Firato (Amsterdam) and Electronic Entertainment Expo
    (E3) were crucial cultural intermediaries in the dissemination of
    media and technology.
  * other intermediaries that helped promote and adopt media, such as
    designers (e.g. du Gay et al. 2017) and sites where users, consumers
    and/or producers convened, such as hobby clubs (e.g. Veraart 2011).

Since the majority of media histories tend to focus on the 
English-speaking world, we also welcome contributions that focus on 
other countries or regions around the globe.

*Submission guidelines*​

Contributions should be in English. Abstracts should present the main 
research question(s), scientific literature, method, and case study the 
authors plan to use. They should not exceed 500 words. Please submit 
your abstract via e-mail to (80sand90smediahistories /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(80sand90smediahistories /at/ gmail.com)>. Abstract submissions are due 
on May 16 2022.

Manuscripts: 6,000-8,000 words (including notes). Deviations are 
possible, subject to the agreement of the editors. Authors are to submit 
original papers that are not under consideration for publication 
elsewhere. No payment from the authors will be required

Final acceptance depends on a double-blind peer review process of the 
manuscripts. The expected publishing date of this special issue of 
/TMG—Journal for Media History/ is in autumn 2023.

Contributions that receive positive reviews but are not accepted for the 
special issue may be considered for publication in another issue of 
/TMG—Journal for Media History/.

If you have questions, please reach the editors, dr. Jesper Verhoef 
(Utrecht University) and dr. Tom Slootweg (University of Groningen), via 
(80sand90smediahistories /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(80sand90smediahistories /at/ gmail.com)>.

*Key dates:*

Abstract submission deadline: May 16 2022

Authors receive confirmation of selection of papers: June 7 2022

Full paper submission deadline: November 16 2022

*References*

Arceneaux, Noah. 2005. “The World Is a Phone Booth: The American 
Response to Mobile Phones, 1981-2000.” /Convergence/ 11 (2): 22–31.

Balbi, Gabriele. 2015. “Old and New Media. Theorizing Their 
Relationships in Media Historiography.” In /Theorien des Medienwandels/, 
edited by Susanne Kinnebrock, Christian Schwarzenegger, and Thomas 
Birkner, 231–49. Köln: Herbert von Halem Verlag.

Balbi, Gabriele, Nelson Ribeiro, Valérie Schafer & Christian 
Schwarzenegger, eds. 2021. /Digital Roots: /

/Historicizing Media and Communication Concepts of the Digital Age/. 
Oldenburg: De Gruyter.

Borah, Porismita. 2017. “Emerging Communication Technology Research: 
Theoretical and Methodological Variables in the Last 16 Years and Future 
Directions.” /New Media & Society/ 19 (4): 616–36.

Czitrom, Daniel. 1982. /Media and the American Mind: From Morse to 
McLuhan/. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Douglas, Susan J. 1987. /Inventing American Broadcasting, 1899-1922/. 
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Fischer, Claude S. 1992. /America Calling: A Social History of the 
Telephone to 1940/. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Gay, Paul du, Stuart Hall, and Linda Janes. 1997. /Doing Cultural 
Studies. The Story of the Sony Walkman/. London: Sage.

Moe, Hallvard, and Hilde Van Den Bulck, eds. 2016. /Teletext in Europe: 
 From the Analog to the Digital Era/. Göteborg: Nordicom.

Peters, Benjamin. 2009. “And Lead Us Not into Thinking the New Is New: A 
Bibliographic Case for New Media History.” /New Media & Society/ 11 
(1–2): 13–30.

Slootweg, Tom. 2018. “Resistance, Disruption and Belonging: Electronic 
Video in Three Amateur Modes.” PhD diss., Groningen: University of 
Groningen.

Sturken, Marita, and Douglas Thomas. 2004. “Introduction: Technological 
Visions and the Rhetoric of the New.” In /Technological Visions: Hopes 
And Fears That Shape New Technologies/, edited by Marita Sturken, 
Douglas Thomas, and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach, 1–18. Philadelphia, PA: 
Temple University Press.

Veraart, Frank. 2011. “Losing Meanings: Computer Games in Dutch Domestic 
Use, 1975–2000.” /IEEE Annals of the History of Computing/ 33 (1): 52–65.

Verhoef, Jesper. 2022. “The Epitome of Reprehensible Individualism: The 
Dutch Response to the Walkman, 1980-1995.” /Convergence - Forthcoming/.

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