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[Commlist] CFP: Nixon resigns! 50 years of the Watergate syndrome

Fri Sep 29 18:16:38 GMT 2023




Call for Papers
Nixon resigns! 50 years of the Watergate syndrome

Guest Editor: Andrea Carson (La Trobe University)

The 1970s were a turning point for journalism. Investigative reporting, pioneered by the ‘muckrakers’ in the early 20th Century, made a comeback, and with it political cynicism and a loss of faith in the goodwill of the political class. Popular contestation had been breeding up since the end of the 1960s, but over the next decade it expanded from young leftists to the general population. In a matter of months, a reelected president with a landslide majority became a reviled leader that shamed a nation. His farewell salute from the helicopter stairs remains as one of the most iconic images of his tenure at the White House.

In hindsight, it is difficult to tell myth from reality. For all the talk about journalism’s role in Nixon’s debacle, the Washington Post investigations were well under way when he got reelected. Perhaps the record enrollments enjoyed by journalism schools across the US owe more to Alan J. Pakula’s film than to the Woodward and Bernstein’s articles, which may have had more influence on the political and the judicial spheres.

The shadow of Watergate would be long and durable. In the 1990s, the journalists and academics behind the ‘civic’ journalism movement decried what they called the Watergate syndrome, and adversarial attitude of journalists towards policymakers and candidates that resulted in generalized political cynicism and apathy. To be fair, the suspicious mindset of political reporters was not exclusively attributable to the reporting that followed the burglary at the Watergate residential complex in Washington, DC. It was in tune with the college students’ contestation of the police repression at the Chicago Republican Convention in 1968. Or with the increasing popular discontent with the Vietnam war. Adversarialism was even more present in Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo journalism. Only a lunatic, he famously claimed, would do that kind of job: political reporting.

A central figure in the Watergate case, the whistleblower, has become a fixture in political revelations since. Anonymous leaks have been instrumental for accessing hidden truths. In a way, we owe public accountability to individuals who have betrayed their superiors. From the NYT’s Pentagon Papers to the WSJ’s Facebook Files, reporters have relied on these traitors in the name of the public’s right to know. From Daniel Ellsberg to John Snowden, by way of Julian Assange and Hervé Falciani, the whistleblowers have been casted as enemy spies, double agents, or heroes.

The International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics would like to invite submissions for a special issue celebrating the 50 years of Nixon’s resignation after the Watergate investigations. The topics likely to be covered will include:

• The reception and influence of the Watergate scandal in journalism culture, both in the US and elsewhere.
• The ethical conundrums of anonymous sourcing in investigative reporting.
• The relationship between political scandals and popular participation and engagement in politics.
• Investigative reporting now: collaborative and transnational?
• Case studies in the coverage of political scandals
• Political corruption and political change
• The figure of the whistleblower in journalism
• Accountability and the costs of opposing authoritarian governance

Submissions will be considered in a two-step fashion: first, interested authors should submit an abstract by November 30, 2023. Those authors whose abstracts are deemed appropriate for the special issue will be notified by January 31, 2024 and will be invited to submit a full paper by May 31, 2024.

The titles and abstracts of the proposed papers may be sent to (francisco.seoane /at/ uc3m.es) <mailto:(francisco.seoane /at/ uc3m.es)>, and should include title, author(s) institutional affiliation(s), and a 300-word summary. Please, state in the subject of your email ‘Watergate special issue’.

For more information about the International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, please visit the website: https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-media-cultural-politics <https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-media-cultural-politics>

APC Policy:
Publication in the International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics does not entail any Article Processing Charges (APCs).

SUBMISSION TIMELINE:
Abstract submission deadline: November 30, 2023
Notification on acceptance: January 31, 2024
Article submission deadline: May 31, 2024


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