[Reader-list] CFP: Global Media Journal

[Tapas Ray]

Please forward to your friends.

==================================================================
GLOBAL MEDIA JOURNAL – INDIAN EDITION

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Indian edition of the online Global Media Journal (GMJ) is
completing its fourth year and intends to move ahead with new vigour
and enthusiasm. The Summer and Winter issues of the year 2009 will be
brought out as a single combined issue in December 2009. The themes,
announced earlier, remain unchanged. Contributors are encouraged to
take the Indian context into account, but papers set in the global
context are equally welcome. One of the articles will be selected for
peer review. Book reviews  also are invited on subjects related to
media and communication, especially the two issue themes.

The Summer issue will focus on “Emerging theories and trends in film
studies.” Filmmaking has seen many movements, such as Italian
neo-realism and German expressionism, and in recent years there has
been some talk of postmodern cinema. Film theory, too, has a rich
heritage that includes but is not exhausted by formalism, Marxism and
Neomarxism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism.

Meanwhile, an increasingly globalised world has come into being,
marked by networks, flows and borders that are often indistinct or
non-existent. Cinema could not have been left untouched by these new
realities. Have any new trends in filmmaking come into existence as a
result? Can cinema be still viewed under the sign of the postmodern?
If so, is today’s postmodern cinema a monolith or are there multiple
shades in it? As for theory, are any new trends discernible today? Do
these possess adequate explanatory power for today’s cinema in its
full diversity, as well as that which has gone before? These are some
of the questions that present themselves to students of cinema, and we
invite contributors to address.

The theme of the Winter issue is “Global economic recession and the
media.” After globalization or even as its continuity comes the global
economic meltdown. While its full implications are yet to be
understood, its impact already has been felt in many ways. The media
industry is shedding jobs and holding back appointments. In its ‘Media
Predictions’ for 2009, the global consultancy firm Deloitte states
that the print media, already threatened by the internet (in the
global North), will continue to face challenges due to the meltdown.
As for the developing world, although increasing literacy would expand
readership in normal times, spread of the economic crisis to these
countries threatens to slow or even reverse growth. Industry
consolidation –which has been taking place in the North for several
years now but has been criticized by Bagdikian and others for its
negative effect on the diversity of points of view in media
discourse–is one of the measures recommended under present
circumstances.

Though the recession’s impact on television will be cushioned by
increasing viewing hours due to the expansion of high-definition TV
(in the North) and other factors, the industry can use the present
situation as a ground for demanding a relaxation of the regulation of
product placement and other practices that appear questionable from
the point of view of those who view the mass media as a pillar of
democracy or as a field of cultural practice into which the incursion
of commerce needs to be resisted. As for industry consolidation, it is
not limited to print: we may note that it has been taking place in the
television industries of the USA and some other countries for some
years now and the industry has been arguing for more of it on economic
grounds in the face of opposition from many legislators, academics and
activists. The downturn provides an opportunity for the television
industry to demand relaxation of rules limiting consolidation. Thus,
the downturn presents an intensified threat to the democratic
potential of the mass media, whose foundational role was recognized by
Debord many years ago in his formulation on the society of the
spectacle. Are we in a period of unmitigated gloom? Can the challenge
posed by the economic crisis be turned into an opportunity for
realising a renewed, democratic media? These are the questions we
invite contributors to address.

Articles are invited on one of these topics or both. Abstracts may be
sent to mic.gmj at manipal.edu with a copy to Dr Buroshiva Dasgupta,
Editor, at buroshiva.dasgupta at gmail.com. They will be received until
September 17, 2009. Those intending to contribute book reviews need
only provide details of the books they wish to review. Acceptance will
be notified by September 30, 2009. Complete papers and book reviews
will be required by November 15, 2009. Word limits, citation formats
and other details will be intimated at the time of notification of
acceptance. For further information, please visit
www.manipal.edu/gmj/.