MedieKultur: Call for papers
Challenging Genre – Genre Challenges. New media, new boundaries, new formations
Special theme. Editors: Anne Jerslev (guest), Mette Mortensen, Line Nybro Petersen
Submission deadline: February 1, 2011
Publication date: Fall 2011
Today’s intensified blurring of boundaries between media, and between media and their audiences is challenging our traditional understanding of genre. New genres surface at the same rapid pace as old ones are contested or simply deemed out of date. Even though terms such as genre hybridity and cross genres have pointed to generic instabilities and experiments for a couple of decades now, the altered modes of media production and distribution raise a number of topical questions: How might we understand genre today? In which ways might genre be a productive term for conceptualising and comprehending the new digital media landscape? And not least, do we need to change our notions of traditional genre expressions, for example in film and television?
While the scholarly literature on genre is substantial in film studies, television studies and literary studies, the concept of genre remains largely underdeveloped theoretically as well as methodologically in our present era of digital transformation. Genre has traditionally been defined as a horizon of expectations and a contractual relationship between audiences and media formats. However, this definition hardly seems adequate in relation to contemporary media characterised, on the one hand, by new genres constantly emerging and evolving, and, on the other hand, by persistent renegotiations of the relationship between author, audience and media product.
This special issue of MedieKultur consequently sets out to rethink genre across a wide range of media offerings, including, but not limited to, online social media, television entertainment and news, film and film culture and video games. We thus invite contributions on:
• Media convergence and genre
• Genre, interaction, participatory practices and aesthetics
• Genre and digitalisation
• Genre and media production
• Genre and audiences
• Conceptualising genre – now and then
FMJK Course: Games Research and Ethics: Current Issues, Possible Resolutions
Games Research and Ethics: Current Issues, Possible Resolutions
Sponsored by The Danish National Research School in Media, Communication and Journalism (FMKJ), the Department of Information- and Media Studies (IMV), Aarhus University, and the (U.S.) National Science Foundation, Project number 0924604.
Organizer: Charles Ess
October 25-26. Conference Center, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Contact: Charles Ess <imvce@hum.au.dk>: Beatrice Gamborg (workshop administrative assistant) <imvbg@hum.au.dk>
The rapid development of computer-based / networked games in all their forms has inspired growing research into a range of questions, from concerns about potential social impacts (e.g., violence in games such as Grand Theft Auto) to interest in how player groups in such MMOGs as World of Warcraft resemble and differ from other online communities.
At the same time, computer games thus evoke new sorts of ethical challenges for researchers. For example, a central research ethics question – especially in Europe with its strict laws protecting personal information – is: What are the obligations, if any, of the researcher to protect the identity and confidentiality of her research subjects? This concern becomes especially tricky, say, for an ethnographer who records voice chats of guild players in a MMOG. While texts from a text chat may be paraphrased so as to protect the identity of their authors in a published research report – manipulating voice recordings in analogous ways may not be so easy. Can the ethnographer safely publish these as part of her research, or is she ethically obliged to disguise or conceal this part of her research for the sake of protecting the confidentiality of her subjects?
The goal of the workshop is to explore the novel ethical difficulties facing those undertaking games research – and this in a two-fold way. One, the course includes two panels of presentations – open to interested internet researchers and scholars, including participants in the AoIR conference in Gothenburg the previous week – by leading scholars and researchers on games and games research ethics: Elizabeth Buchanan (Director, Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR), and chair, AoIR ethics working group) Mia Consalvo (Visiting Professor, MIT, and current President, AoIR) Malin Sveningsson (University of Skövde, Sweden) Annette Markham (Senior Research Fellow, Internet Research Ethics, CIPR, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), and Miguel Sicart (IT-University, Copenhagen, and author of The Ethics of Computer Games, MIT Press, 2009). These presentations will provide an overview of contemporary understanding and reflection on central ethical and methodological issues in games research.
Two, the workshop encourages PhD students (who attend the workshop under the sponsorship of FMKJ) to contribute their current research and specific ethical challenges in an “extended master class,” constituted by an informal paper/poster-session designed to catalyze dialogue and debate with the invited presenters. PhD students will be asked to submit either a paper or poster. Students will be assigned to a working group of no more than 3 students plus one or two of the senior workshop presenters. Each student will have 10 minutes to present his/her paper/poster, followed by comments from a designated respondent. The attending senior scholar(s) will then offer additional comments and continue open discussion, for a total time of 1.5 hours. If enough students participate, you will also be able to attend / audit a second such class. In these ways, we anticipate that PhD students will receive useful advice and guidance – and that you in turn will contribute your work from the praxis of your research to the reflections and frameworks continuously being developed by the invited presenters.
Course registration
In order to register for the course, you should send an email to Beatrice Gamborg (workshop administrative assistant) <imvbg@hum.au.dk> by October 1 2010. You should also attach a 1-page description of your PhD project. Phd students wishing to present a paper or poster must also submit their paper/poster by this date.
You are welcome to contact either Charles Ess (<imvce@hum.au.dk>) or Kirsten Frandsen, Head of PhD study programme, (<imvkf@hum.au.dk>) for additional information. Maximum number of PhD participants: 20.
* The morning presentations on Monday and Tuesday (25-26. October – see preliminary schedule below), are open to interested scholars and researchers, including those attending the AoIR annual conference the previous week in Gothenburg, Sweden. Registration for general audience Those interested in attending the open presentations are required to register via email with Beatrice Gamborg (workshop administrative assistant) <imvbg@hum.au.dk> by October 1 2010. Registrants will be assessed a fee to cover catering costs (fee to be determined).
Course Requirements
Participation in the course requires two kinds of preparation: readings that address each of the presentations in the course, and a 10-page paper or poster-session equivalent that you must submit by October 1 2010. The paper / poster presentation should outline your doctoral project, with particular reference to the research design and its methodological challenges. The course readings will be available by late September 2010.
ECTS points
1.5 ECTS for participation without presenting a paper / poster.
1.5 ECTS for presenting a paper / poster – i.e., 3 ECTS possible.
Costs
The Danish National Research School in Media, Communication and Journalism (FMKJ) will cover all expenses for Ph.D. students who are enrolled in the School. PhD students who are not enrolled in FMKJ will have to pay for their own travel, accommodation, and meals while in Aarhus.
Preliminary Program
Monday 25. October
8:30-9:00 Coffee / tea / refreshments
9:00-9:15 Introduction to workshop – charles
9:15-10:00 Elizabeth Buchanan – Research Ethics 2.0
10:00-10:45 Miguel Sicart – Games and Research Ethics
11:45-11:15 Coffee / tea / refreshments
11:15-12:00 Malin Sveningsson – “Going Native” in World of Warcraft: what’s the problem(s)?
12:00-13:00 Lunch
13:00-16:00 Extended Master Class (Paper/ Poster sessions with individual PhD students in dialogue with senior scholars) (coffee, tea, refreshments available by 14:00)
16:00-16:15 Coffee / tea / refreshments
16:15-17:00 Closing plenary discussion (charles moderates)
17:00-18:30 Rest / relaxation
18:30-21:00 Dinner
Tuesday, 26. October
8:30-9:00 Coffee / tea / refreshments
9:00-9:15 Reminders / springboards – Charles
9:15-10:00 Annette Markham – methods and ethics in games research
10:00-10:45 Mia Consalvo – Researchers and Developers: Ethical Reflections from the Field
11:45-11:15 Coffee / tea / refreshments
11:15-12:00 Closing plenary discussion: lessons learned, remaining questions, unsolved issues, next steps?
12:00-13:00 Lunch / evaluation / goodbye
Journalistica: Call for Papers
Call for Papers
Today, status updates, tweets and wall postings are all messengers of news. For journalism this change implies new ways of working with sources, new ways to find inspiration for stories and new ways to collaborate with readers, listeners, viewers and users.
How do social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter influence our understanding of the ’public sphere’? Given that transparency and dataveillance is one of the main characteristics of today’s digital living, this question is of central importance to our understand of “the public”.
How are journalists to cope with the cacophony of digital voices on social networking sites, where network participants no longer have reverence for journalistic products? These products are no longer as unchallenged as they once were when they are published and remixed in a social media environment.
We welcome submissions that address how social media is changing journalism, the practice of journalism, the role of the news media in society and the ways that news is being consumed.
We encourage submissions from a broad range of perspectives and disciplines.
Submission deadline: November 1, 2010.
Publication date: February 2011.
Journalistica accepts articles written Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and English. Scandinavian contributors are kindly asked to submit in their native language.
For submitting online, please go to:
http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/journalistica/login
In case of questions, do not hesitate to contact Lars Holmgaard Christensen (lhc@journalisthojskolen.dk), editor of this issue of Journalistica.
FMKJs ph.d.-kurser, efteråret 2010
Forskerskolen i Medier, Kommunikation og Journalistik er nu inde i sit sidste halvår, før al ph.d.-kursusvirksomhed overgår til fakultetsregi på de enkelte universiteter, samt til nationale kursusnetværk som fakuleterne har besluttet sig til at samarbejde om fremover.
Som forskerskoleleder for FMKJ rundsender jeg det kommende efterårs kursusudbud til alle SMID-medlemmer, fordi der kan være adskillige ph.d.-studerende inden for fagområdet, der ikke er tilmeldt FMKJ, og derfor ikke nødvendigvis modtager informationer om kurser, der kunne have interesse for dem.
I tidens ånd er kursusopslaget skrevet på engelsk….:
The Danish National Doctoral School (FMKJ) offers ten international ph.d. courses in the fall of 2010. For further information about the courses, please consult www.fmkj.dk. (menu item: KURSER). Some application deadlines are imminent.
Participation in the courses is free of charge for participating ph.d. students who are not members of the Danish Doctoral School FMKJ. You will have to pay your own travel and accommodation costs, and a fee will be charged to cover meals, coffee during intervals, texts, etc. during the course.
- Organizational Communication – between functionalism and interpretivism – with Cynthia Stohl. 15-17 September 2010, Aarhus School of Business.
- Emotions, Media and Crime. Aarhus University, September 29 – October 1, 2010.
- Media, citizenship, social movements, and processes of democratization, 4-6 October 2010, Aarhus University.
- Games Research and Ethics: Current Issues, Possible Resolutions / with Charles Ess. 25-26 October, Aarhus University.
- Performance, Space and Design, Roskilde University and other locations, 1 – 5 November 2010 (mostly in Danish)(will be advertised shortly).
- New Media, New Theories, New Methods. Cross media analysis, web sphere analysis, network analysis. Ph.d. course organized by NordForsk and FMKJ. 14-17 November, Aarhus University.
- Challenging genres – genre challenges. Transformations of genre in the contemporary media landscape, November 17-19, 2010, The University of Copenhagen.
- The sociology of journalism – traditions and new perspectives. Masterclass with Gaye Tuchman. University of Copenhagen 17-18 November 2010. A co-event of FMKJ and the NordForsk Journalism Network
- Gaming and Gameness. Relating Avatars, Bodies, Perceptions, Actions, Virtualities, and Materialities in Computer Games. 22-24 November, Sandbjerg Gods/Aarhus University.
- Usable Pasts: Modern Applications of Old Ideas about Communication (Rhetorical traditions past and present), November 25-27, 2010, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Kim Christian Schrøder
Professor, Department of Communication
Roskilde University, Building 43.3
Universitetsvej 1, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
Direct line: (+45) 46 74 38 08, telefax: (+45) 46 74 30 75
Email: kimsc@ruc.dk , www.ruc.dk/komm/Ansatte/vip/kimsc/
Conference: “Emotion, Media and Crime” at Aarhus University 29 September – 1 October 2010.
Dear colleagues
We would like to invite you to participate in the conference “Emotion, Media and Crime” at Aarhus University 29 September – 1 October 2010. Experience 7 keynotes and over 30 paper presentations, discussions on crime scene investigations, crime-jam, murder walks and screening of the upcoming season of BBC’s Wallander-series.
Read more conference here: http://www.imv.au.dk/emcconference/
Kjetil Sandvik, MA, PHD, Associate Professor
Educational coordinator of Master in Cross-Media Communication: http://cross-mediacom.dk
Dept. Media, Cognition and Communication
Film and Media Studies Section
Njalsgade 80, room 17.2.17
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Phone: +4524944770
Mail: sandvik@hum.ku.dk
Website: http://filmogmedie.ku.dk/ansatte/profil/?id=269353
Research project: Crime fiction and crime journalism in Scandinavia: http://www.krimiforsk.aau.dk
Nordic research network (NordForsk): The Culture of Ubiquitous Information: http://ubiquity.nu/