Mass Communication and Society Symposia Call
The Olympics, media, and society
Call for Papers
Editor: Stephen D. Perry
Guest Editor: Kim Bissell
The publisher of Mass Communication and Society, Routledge, intends to produce a set of Olympics themed special issues in several of their journals. This unique collection will become part of the educational legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to be staged in their home city, London, in 2012. The special issues will be launched together at the International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS) in July 2012, shortly before the start of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games on July 27th.
To that end, Mass Communication and Society invites submissions for a special issue that will explore the relationship between the Olympics, Media, and Society. The topic is broad. The Olympic influence affects the programming of media networks, how success is portrayed in society, and the icons of advertising and marketing campaigns. Scholars have researched representations and language used on Olympic media coverage with an eye to gender and race, assuming influence on audience perceptions. The 2008 Olympics in Beijing served a role in increasing advertising by international corporations in China and influenced the Chinese media system itself according to recent texts. The largest television audiences worldwide tune in to the Olympic Games. Thus, studying this important topic further will benefit the literature in the discipline of Mass Communication as well as that related to the Olympics broadly.
Manuscripts that investigate the interaction between the Olympic Games, media, and society directly or tangentially through the related symbolism, merchandising, system influences, and the like are welcome. The manuscripts are encouraged to explore questions of how the Olympic media coverage influences patriotism, politics, issues of national power, or international enmity or cooperation from any national or global perspective. However, any related Olympic themed exploration of media and society will be welcomed for submission.
Manuscripts that are accepted for this special journal issue are also likely to be proposed for inclusion as a book chapter in an Olympic themed book series to be published by Routledge, giving potential for wider dissemination.
Submissions: Authors are initially asked to submit a 300-500 word abstract describing the focus and research goal of the paper they propose to submit. Abstracts should be emailed to Stephen D. Perry, editor, at mcs@ilstu.edu by October 15, 2010. Completed manuscripts of up to 9000 words (including references, tables, and endnotes) will then be expected by September 1, 2011 and should be submitted electronically through http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mcas. Additionally, one paper copy should be mailed to: Stephen Perry, Editor, Mass Communication and Society, School of Communication, Campus Box 4480, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA 61790-4480. Authors should indicate in their cover letters that the manuscript is for the “Olympics Special Issue.” Selected manuscripts will be published in third issue of 2012, Volume 15(3) of the journal.
The community structure model: innovations in exploring the impact of society on media
CALL FOR PAPERS
Guest Editor: John C. Pollock
The community structure model research is valuable because it explores media and journalists from an unusual perspective. Instead of the more standard paradigm, examining the impact of media on society, this approach explores the impact of society on media. In modern communication theory, Robert Park at the University of Chicago in the early twentieth century, concerned about integrating waves of new immigrants into US society, admonished the incipient communication field to look not only at the impact of media on public opinion, but also at the impact of public opinion on media.
The community structure approach provides communication scholars with several advantages:
A. Measures of public opinion at the city/metropolitan level are difficult to obtain, and the community structure approach makes a contribution by enabling scholars to employ unobtrusive, easily obtainable measures that reflect metropolitan public perspectives/opinions.
B. The community structure approach specifies relatively enduring structural characteristics that pre-date most coverage, enabling scholars to make observations about social conditions existing prior to coverage, lending credence to robust causal explorations and affirmations.
C. The community structure approach contextualizes journalists, attempting to specify the living and working environments that add perspective to what reporters write, challenging the classic “objective” reporting notion that all reporters everywhere, regardless of variations in crime rates or health care opportunities or poverty levels, can be expected to report similarly on critical issues.
D. Modern community structure analysis now reaches beyond the initial work of Tichenor, Donohue and Olien, focused tightly on political power structures and city size, to: a) national samples of newspapers; b) a wide range of political and social issues; and c) new conceptions of “structure”, which encompass a wide range of patterns measured by community demographics or other aggregate measures of community identity, membership, participation, production, consumption or access.
Therefore, we invite submissions for a special issue on the community structure model. A wide range of research questions and methodologies are welcome. While any research on the community structure model may be submitted, manuscripts that address directions for advancement of the model are particularly encouraged. Sample questions might include:
1. Critical issues: What crucial topics of compelling social and political importance are being addressed by scholars excited by the study of the impact of society on media coverage of critical events?
2. Methodology: What new concepts of “structure” are emerging as closely related to reporting variation, including a wide range of ecological and resource possibilities (e.g., concepts of resource consumption such as energy)?
3. Empirical measurement: What innovative measures of community structure appear promising?
4. Comparing multiple cities or nation-states: What new insights have been offered by comparisons of more than two cities, metropolitan areas, or even nations, including variations in media systems and related elements of government control of media?
5. New models of journalism: In addition to the classic “objective/neutral” model or alternative models such as the “guard dog” model in which media reinforce or protect socially and politically dominant groups, what other models of journalism emerge from the findings of community structure studies? How much evidence exists for a model of journalists as “representatives” of the interests of a broad range of social and political groups in their communities?
Deadline for submissions: Manuscripts should be submitted by January 10, 2011, via the Mass Communication and Society online system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mcas following the standard journal submission procedures. Authors should note in their cover letters that the submission is for the Community Structure Model symposium. Final publication will be in December 2011.
In addition, please send one hard copy of each submission to: Guest Editor John C. Pollock, Professor and Chair, Communication Studies Dept., The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ 08628; pollock@tcnj.edu; 609-771-2338
THE OLYMPICS, MEDIA, and SOCIETY
Focus: London, 2012
Editors:
Andrew Billings (Clemson University, USA)
Marie Hardin (Penn State University, USA)
The publisher of Mass Communication and Society, Routledge, intends to produce a set of Olympics themed special issues in several of its journals. This unique collection will become part of the educational legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to be staged in its home city, London, in 2012. The special issues will be launched together at the International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS) in July 2012, shortly before the start of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games on July 27.
To that end, Mass Communication and Society invites submissions for the second of two special issues exploring the relationship between the Olympics, media, and society.
The focus of this second special issue will be on the blurring of lines between producers and consumers of the 2012 London Olympic spectacle in the new media landscape. Submissions should contribute to our understanding of the increasing degree of overlap between traditional and new forms of media as it relates to production and consumption of the London Olympic or Paralympic Games. Studies should examine the ways in which audiences consume news and competition (live or as-live) or the various intersections between athletes, journalists, etc. within social, user-generated, and other online forms of media and more traditional forms of print and/or broadcast coverage.
Manuscripts that are accepted for this special journal issue are also likely to be proposed for inclusion as a book chapter in an Olympic-themed book series to be published by Routledge, giving potential for wider dissemination.
Submissions: Manuscripts of up to 9000 words (including references, tables, and endnotes) must be submitted by January 2, 2013, and should be submitted electronically through http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mcas. Authors should indicate in their cover letters that the manuscript is for the Olympics Special Issue No. 2. Selected manuscripts are scheduled be published on December 1, 2013 in Volume 16(6) of MCS.
Questions: Queries about this issue should be directed to Andrew Billings (acbilng@clemson.edu) or Marie Hardin (mch208@psu.edu).