Following the late prompt from IAMCR's Community Communication Section, here is a final prompt from the Audience Section too. Virginia


Audience Section Call for Papers



IAMCR, 23-25 July, 2007, UNESCO, Paris (France)

Media, Communication, Information: Celebrating 50 Years of Theories and Practices



Section Chair: Virginia Nightingale, University of Western Sydney, Australia

Deputy Chair: Brian O'Neill, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland



Please submit abstracts directly to Virginia Nightingale

Email: [log in to unmask]

Closing date for abstracts: 15th February, 2007

Guidelines for Submitting Abstracts: See below.



Sub-Theme for the Audience Section: Integrating Digital Media: Emerging Issues for Audience Research.



For the Paris conference, the Audience Section welcomes contributions that explore the newer forms of audience research emerging as a response to the challenges of digital communications and globalisation. It will also welcome contributions that reflect on the history of audience research and its practice, with a view to exploring how the field might move on.



Ø      Digital Media Audiences: The internet and mobile media have changed the nature of mass communication. It can now be argued that the mediating form dominating digital media is the website, and the primary forms of online engagement are 'search' and 'social networking' - but in what senses do these new audience activities call into question our theories of participation and engagement, and to what extent do they develop or derail individuation as opposed to individualism? In what ways are the personalised formations that characterise mobile communications comparable with more formalised human formations like cooperatives, organisations or workforces? What is gained and what lost in the emergence of 'networked individualism' (Castells, 2001).



Ø      Audiences and the Public Sphere: Debates about the media and the public sphere centre on audiences and the changing nature of audience publics. The impact of commercialisation and its promotion of individualism raises questions about the future of the democratic political formations with which we are currently familiar. How is the strategic management of audiences affecting the nature and quality of public sphere?



Ø      Audience Development: The recognition that audiences are made not given has added the new research field of audience development to the audience research agenda. At least three arenas where audience development is practiced are promoting new theories and methods in audience research. Audience development plays an important role in national development, where national governments rely on principles of audience development to interest and involve traditional communities in the development of skills for participation in the information age. Audience development has become a mainstay of Arts policy and administration, designed to create audiences for new and emerging art practices. And audience development practices have been enthusiastically adopted by the advertising industry as a key dimension of branding and brand development.



Ø      Audience Response - Joint Session with Gender Section: In 2007 the Gender Section and the Audience Section will join forces to celebrate the contribution gender studies has made to audience research and that audience research has made to gender studies. For this session the convenors will particularly welcome abstracts that reflect (or encourage reflection) on the symbiotic relationship between these two fields and on the important contribution that studies of audience response have made to the history of audience research. Abstracts for this session may be submitted to either the Gender Section or the Audience Section.



Guidelines for Submitting Abstracts



1. Abstracts should include the following:

Ø      Presenter's name

Ø      Institutional affiliation

Ø      Email address

Ø      Paper Title

Ø      Keywords (no more than five)

Ø      The Abstract

2. All abstracts must be submitted by 15th February 2007.

3. Abstracts must be no longer than 300 words if submitted without references; or 500 words including references.

4. All abstracts will be blind refereed.

5. You will be notified as to whether your paper has been accepted as soon as all abstracts have been assessed, and the selection of papers for presentation has been made.

6. Completed papers must be submitted in accordance with IAMCR requirements.




Associate Professor Virginia Nightingale
School of Communication Arts
University of Western Sydney
Australia

Member of the Centre for Cultural Research