CFPs for Cross-Media Researchers

For those cross-media researchers out there (and those interested in how academia is framing cross-media issues), here are some calls for papers:


SCAN > Convergences

Call for Contributions
New technologies and News: Convergences and Divergences
A special issue of ‘Scan’, edited by Chris Atton & Graham Meikle

N.B. This is a slightly revised CFP from that appearing earlier this year. Potential contributors who have already submitted work for consideration need not resubmit. Due to a revised publication schedule at Scan, we are able to extend the deadline for submissions to 30 April 2006.

The study of news has always been central to the study of the media. But while the rise of new technologies such as the Net, mobile phones and digital TV has attracted enormous scholarly interest and has reinvigorated the field, there has not as yet been as much research on news and these new technologies as there might be. Some recent research has emphasised online journalism as a set of professional practices developed from existing journalistic philosophies and routines, though often privileging the dialogical nature of the medium to generate news agendas with media audiences (Deuze and Dimoudi, 2002). Other work emphasises journalism as a set of deprofessionalised practices that privilege grassroots ‘native reporting’ as a distinctive feature of an ‘alternative journalism’ (Atton, 2003). Such research highlights the potential of new technology use to enable new configurations of news production, distribution and reception; new modes of authorship and audiencehood; new kinds of producer and consumer. This special issue of ‘Scan’ invites contributions that are able to push forward our thinking about the modalities of news production and reception. We are particularly interested in papers that combine theory and practice to critically explore the claims made for the various manifestations of
these practices.

Who uses online news? What do they use it for? How is credibility judged? To what extent are relationships changing between reporters and readers, between news outlets and consumers, in a media environment that can be customised? How significant are participatory news and discussion projects such as Indymedia, Wikinews, OhmyNews or Slashdot?

What of news values and news content? What contributions are made to the discussion of news by online art and satire projects such as Tenbyten, News Reader or The Onion? And what of blogging? The blog may be just as much the province of the professional journalist as the amateur and, indeed, the much-vaunted ‘independence’ of blogs is often curtailed by a reliance on dominant news agendas and framing mechanisms (Haas, 2005).

Answers on a postcard to…

Chris Atton
Napier University, Edinburgh

Graham Meikle
Macquarie University, Sydney

Submission dates and guidelines
Completed papers should be sent to the issue editors by 30 April 2006.
Refereeing and revisions to be completed by 31 May 2006, for a June 2006 launch.

Submission details and style guidelines are at . Maximum length is 6,000 words.

Scan‘ is a refereed quarterly online journal of media arts and culture, hosted by the Media Department at Macquarie University, Sydney.

References
Atton, Chris (2003) ‘What is “Alternative” Journalism?’, Journalism:
Theory, Practice and Criticism 4(3): 267-272.

Deuze, Mark and Dimoudi, Christina (2002) ‘Online journalists in the
Netherlands: Towards a profile of a new profession’, Journalism: Theory,
Practice and Criticism 3(1): 85-100.

Haas, Tanni (2005) ‘From “Public Journalism” to the “Public’s
Journalism”? Rhetoric and reality in the discourse on weblogs’,
Journalism Studies 6(3): 387-396.

Dr Graham Meikle
————————-
Lecturer, Department of Media,
Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy,
Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia.

tel: (61 2) 9850-6899
fax: (61 2) 9850-6776
email:

e-Media > Inter-medial

The deadline for our inaugural issue is November 15, 2005. Special topic sections of the journal, to include more than one related essay, may be proposed. We intend our inaugural issue to premiere in Spring, 2006.

We are committed to the rapid turnaround of subsequent journal submissions in as practical a means as possible.

Manuscripts can be e-mailed to the editors at e-Media@Dartmouth.edu,
or a CD/DVD version may be mailed to:

Journal of e-Media Studies
JOE-MS is a blind peer-reviewed, on-line journal dedicated to the scholarly study of the history and theory of electronic media, especially Television and New Media. It is an inter-disciplinary journal, and we welcome submissions across the fields and methodologies that study media and media history.

Our goal is to promote the academic study of electronic media, especially in light of the rise of digital media and the changes in formal and expressive capacities resulting from new configurations of electronic media forms. We solicit the best new scholarly work on current and historical e-media issues and topics, including work on inter-medial relations to traditionally non-electronic media (such as cinema, theater, and print media).

We welcome essays in traditional textual formats. We strongly encourage submissions that utilize and develop the features that an on-line journal can afford, in order to realize new analytical and pedagogical practices and strategies.

Convergence > New Media Writings

CALL FOR PAPERS
Vol 12. no 4.Winter 2006
An End to the New? Re-assessing the claims for New Media Writing(s)

Guest-edited by Simon Mills, Gavin Stewart & Sue Thomas

The focus of the special issue

This special edition of Convergence marks the tenth anniversary of the trAce Online Writing Centre, UK. To commemorate this landmark event, the guest editors are seeking to evaluate the state-of-the-art of new media writing(s).

This special edition will seek to re-assess the claims made for these forms over the last decade, to challenge the dominant ideologies and terminologies of this maturing field, and to provide a critical re-evaluation of new media writing(s) in all its forms.

We encourage discussion of the following:

* The institutional settings of new media writing(s)
* The relationship between academia and new media writing(s)
* Re-assessments of the claims made for hypertext, new media or digital writing(s) over the past decade
* Art policies and development strategies for new media writing(s)
* The audience for new media writing(s)
* The economics of new media writing(s)
* Pedagogical approaches to new media writing(s)
* The historical context of new media writing(s)
* The relationship between new media writing(s) and other digital arts

Copy deadline for refereed research articles: 30 January 2006

All proposals, inq

uiries and submissions for this special issue to:

Gavin Stewart, Artistic Project Manager
Address: trAce Online Writing Centre
Nottingham Trent University
Clifton Lane
Nottingham
NG11 8NS
United Kingdom

e-mail: gavin.stewart@ntu.ac.uk
phone: ++44 (0)115 848 3569

WRT & DAC

It is now official, I’ve got a paper in DAC! The paper, which frankly I didn’t do as much as Jeremy and Mark, is our first collaborative academic paper. We’ve been working on our collective blog, WRT, for about a year now. Basic info about the DAC program is now online. Our paper, A Framework for Comparative New Media Studies, is an interesting (we think) exploration of how the remediation of stories over different media has pedagogical as well as Narratological and Media ramifications and applications. Jeremy is representing Mark and I as I won’t be travelling over for the event. We’re all looking forward to meeting in person, but I don’t see that happening this year. We’re thrilled to be in DAC though, it is a rite-of-passage for researchers & practitioners.

Spielberg Has Crossed the Floor

Interesting news for those following the Narratology (Story) versus Ludology (Game) debate:

Steven Spielberg will be collaborating with the game makers at EA’s Los Angeles studio (EALA) to create three new original franchise properties. Beginning this year, with offices located on site at EALA, Spielberg will work directly with EA’s development teams to offer his signature style of storytelling to the concept, design, story and artistic visualization of the new games. EA will own the intellectual properties and the game franchises will be developed, published and distributed worldwide by EA. [source]

This sounds very exciting to me, because it is a sure sign cross-media properties are being developed. Cross-media properties combine story design and game play. Although I call this site ‘cross-media storytelling’ I am actually working in both story and game. I see a cross-media story as having strong interactive elements that pull on game design. As a cross-media storyteller and researcher, I recognise that I am utilising what I’ve learnt from traditional narrative, interactive storytelling, installation and games. Cross-media stories are different to normal stories and normal games. They are not foreign to them either. More on the nature of cross-media properties another time. But for now, I wanted to highlight this move of the game & film industry moving together.

Spielberg’s comments on the narratisation of games are interesting. Check out this wonderful quote on when games will be a ‘storytelling artform’:

“I think the real indicator will be when somebody confesses that they cried at level 17,” Spielberg said. [source]

Ludologists are already spitting ‘bah!’ at this interloper. Game designers have been working hard to elevate games to being ‘valid’ or recognised forms of entertainment. They are not half-baked stories, they are full-baked games. You know what I mean. For references on the war that was raging for a while (and still is for some) check out these links. The latter references are to articles that give you more links.

Cameron, A. (1995) ‘D I S S I M U L A T I O N S: illusions of interactivity‘ in Millennium Film Journal: Interactivities, Vol., 28.

Barrett, M. (2000) ‘Irreconcilable Differences: Game vs. Story‘, Gamedev.net

Adams, E. (2004) ‘The Designer’s Notebook: Dramatic Novelty in Games and Stories‘, Gamasutra

Aarseth, E. (2005) ‘Storylines versus gameworlds: Landscaping as narrative device?‘ presented at 5th Symposium on Art and Multimedia: Metanarrative[s]?, CaixaForum, Barcelona, published by mediatecaonline.net

Mateas, M. and A. Stern (2005) ‘Build It to Understand It: Ludology Meets Narratology in Game Design Space‘ presented at Digital Games Research Association

Barwood, H. (2005) ‘Wiring Narrative into Play: a Practical Primer‘ presented at The Game Developers Conference, San Francisco, 7-11 March, published by GDCTV

Juul, J. (2005) ‘N & L: I can’t take it anymore!‘, The Ludologist, 19 June

Costikyan, G. (2005) ‘”No Justice, No Peace”: No Truce in the Narratology/Ludology War‘, *Games * Art * Design * Culture, 20 June