Monday 28 November 2011

Call for papers for UGC-sponsored seminar in Kolkatta on Journalism in the age of New Media


I received the following from Prof Uma Shankar Pandey. Please spread the word around:
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UGC-Sponsored National Seminar on
Journalism in the Age of New Media
Organized by: Department of Journalism
& Mass Communication,
Surendranath College for Women
24, M G Road, Kolkata 700009 (India)
In Association with Calcutta University
January 10-11, 2012
Call for Papers
Abstracts Due: December 12, 2011
Full Papers Due: December 27, 2011

Seminar Dates : January 10-11, 2012
Registration Fee: Rs 500.
Venue: Gitanjali Auditorium, Kolkata
Mail: uspcalseminar@gmail.com

Introduction:
This national seminar will explore intersections between new media, journalism and technology in order to enhance our understanding of the influence of information and communication technology, specially internet technology on traditional journalism. Are new media fundamentally changing the practice of democracy? Recent years have seen a significant transition in the role computer mediated communications play in the political sphere. A technological revolution driven by economic and market forces is undermining settled practices, established institutions, and traditional communications norms.
The digital revolution in information and communication technologies has created the platform for a free flow of information, ideas and knowledge across the globe. The new media (internet) has been able to incorporate all other means of communication the newspaper, magazine, radio, television, cinema, photographic image, and video. The consequence is the Internet divergence from mass communication. Not only has it led to normative rethinking on the traditional role of the press, it has also led to the  adaptation of publication roles. Apart from the more apparent evolution of the content in mainstream mass media, it has also led to a rethinking of the role of the media professionals.  Added to this is the greater ’interiority’ and also ‘interactivity’ of the audience , which is no longer regarded as a passive entity.
The hyper-local media is now accessible on the international platform. New media outlets have now made it possible for highly differentiated local discourse to be available to a wider transnational media. Interest groups now easily access alternative voices that were hitherto available only to a smaller community audience, across national boundaries. Apart from a plethora of content available for dissemination, new technology also makes it possible for patterns of similar events and issues to be associated across various societies. Solutions to local problems are no longer restricted to the community themselves but are picked up by interest groups, the world over and projected as exemplars.
Classical theories of mass communications are being reworked for the new media, because of its structural differences. The new media has also removed passivity among the media audience by enabling simultaneous reception, alteration and redistribution of cultural objects. It dislocates communicative action from the posts of the nations, provides instantaneous global contact and inserts the late modern subject into a machine apparatus that is networked.Marshal McLuhan had first associated technology with content in his celebrated treatise. He outlined four different media cultures. The first was the ancient culture of oral communication, exemplified by many of the old Sanskrit texts followed by a literature culture using the phonetic alphabet and a handwritten script which coexisted with the oral culture. The third progression, according to McLuhan described as ‘The Gutenberg Galaxy’ was that of mass-produced mechanical printing. Finally we are in the midst of what is known as the culture of the ‘electric media’ — radio, television and computers.
But as we have seen earlier, computer mediated communication provides a separate media culture altogether. The important characteristics of the new media are that media texts are dematerialized in the sense that they are separated from their physical — newsprint — form. The data can be compressed into very small spaces and it can be accessed at very high speeds in non-linear ways.
The seminar, in addition to the usual program of contributed presentations, posters and invited presentations, the main conference will include a selection of keynote talks from prominent media educators and professionals.

Suggested topics for papers include, but are not restricted to, the following:

  • Alternative journalism
  • Analyzing the relationship between new media and mainstream media
  • Best practices in online journalism
  • Business models for news
  • Challenges to journalism education
  • Changes in journalists’ professional identity
  • Changes in the relationship between journalists and the public
  • Changes in workflows and news production routines
  • Changing relationship between editors and reporters
  • Citizen journalism
  • Conflict of Interests in Journalism
  • Democratization of Communication
  • Digitization and journalism practice
  • Doing more with less resources
  • Education, ICT and Media
  • Ethical and legal issues related to globally accessible journalism
  • Ethical Issues in Journalism
  •  Globalizing tendencies of Indian journalism
  • Human computer interaction; social media tools
  • Innovative news formats
  • Inter-Media Rivalry
  • Internet and Participatory culture
  • Marketization of news
  • Media Ecology
  • Media and Education
  • Media Literacy
  • New social media applications; interfaces; interaction techniques
  • Participatory journalism
  • Political Economy of ICTs
  • Politics of access and transparency in E-Governance
  • Psychological, personality-based and ethnographic studies of new media
  • Qualitative and quantitative studies of new media
  • Social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) and news
  • Soft news, infotainment and political life
  • The commoditization of news
  • The effects of the changing nature of journalism on democracy
  • The impact of new technologies on reporting
  • The Implications of Cross Media Ownership
  •  Transnational journalism in India

ONLINE SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS

Please submit your abstracts and papers via the conference management system, EasyChair.
Kindly create a username and a password to access the system. Save your password since you will need it to access the system. Click the link
below to submit abstract online.

 https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=janm12

All accepted papers and abstracts will be published in the conference proceedings.
Send me an email at uspcalseminar@gmail.com or call me at +919433180755 for any clarifications. Spot registration is welcome. Local accommodation can be arranged for Rs 300-400 per person on a twin sharing basis at hotels close to the seminar venue. Prior booking is advised

Kolkata, the third largest city in India is regarded as its cultural capital. It is the only city in India to have produced Nobel laureates. Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa and Amartya Sen are all identified with Kolkata.  It was the capital of British India till 1911. It is regarded as one of India’s busiest tourist destinations.
Mid-January is the best time to be in Kolkata with minimum temperatures around 12degrees and the maximum around 25 degrees Celsius.
 The seminar venue at 24, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Kolkata-9 is very close to the Sealdah Railway station. It is a 10 minute walk from the University of Calcutta, College Street campus and 4 km from Howrah station. The city airport is just 15 km away. Being located in central Kolkata, access to different parts of the city is extremely convenient.



Uma Shankar Pandey
Seminar Convenor
+919433180755

Friday 18 November 2011

Call for papers for the July-Dec 2012 issue of Media Watch

I have received the following announcement Prof Dev Vrat Singh

The Media Watch, research journal on Journalism and Mass Communication, invites research papers on:

Media and Human Rights
For its forthcoming issue July-December 2012.
With the cooperation from media researchers, teachers and eminent media scholars, the Centre for Communication Studies has been regularly bringing out mass communication research and studies journal, ‘Media Watch’ for some years now. In its earlier issues, the journal has published papers and articles on some of the important issues in journalism, new media, broadcasting, and information and communication technologies.

The journal has been publishing articles and research papers on specialised themes in journalism and mass communication from its inception.

The current issue of the journal, July-December 2011, has published specialised research papers on ‘On-line Advertising/Internet Advertising.’The next issue of the journal, January-June 2012 will focous on ‘Changing Face of Indian Media.’
Themes for July-December 2012 Issue. Human Rights have become an important part of media debate recently. It is therefore, bounden duty of a research journal to highlight the issues in this area.

Logically, therefore, the next issue of Media Watch journal, July-December 2012 will
concentrate on diverse areas of research on media and human rights.
Papers are invited for publication in the journal by March 30, 2012. Suggested topics are as
under:

1. Freedom of expression Right to information
2. Corruption and criminalisation of politics Political violence by non-state actor
3. Disability HIV/AIDS
4. Labour and child rights Environmental disaster
5. Domestic violence

Please Note
Authors are requested to adhere to Media Watch’s style sheet posted on Media Watch Website (www.mediawatch.org.in). Contributions may preferably be sent preferably by e-mail.
Acknowledgement will be sent immediately.

For any inquiry, please write to Editor, Media Watch at mediajournal@ymail.com
Dr. R.C. PATTNAIK
Editor, Media Watch (Mobile : +91-94395 37641)
Media Watch: Home
www.mediawatch.org.in

Thursday 3 November 2011

MICA's Free online help for PhD and MPhil scholars


Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA), Gujarat, has started a new initiative called MiDOCS. It is an online doctoral thesis facilitation service in the communication discipline. Now students of MPhil and PhD programs can ask queries through this service and will get answers from experts.

Moderator: Prof. Pradeep Krishnatray, Dean Research, MICA, tells me:
It is free of cost.

This service addresses doubts, questions and apprehensions that students face such as: How to chose a topic for research, how to review relevant literature or where to find it, how to identify gaps and frame questions or hypotheses, what methodology (ies) to use, how to analyze data and write the dissertation.

You can have a look at it through following link.
http://www.mica-apps.net/micablog/

Here are details from this web page:

About MiDOCS
MiDOCS is MICA’s online doctoral thesis facilitation service in the communication discipline. It is designed to support and encourage MPhil and PhD students to complete their doctoral thesis. Its structure and focus keeps the doctoral students’ concerns in mind. It addresses doubts, questions and apprehensions that students begin to face the moment they enrol into a MPhil or PhD program: How to chose a topic for research, how to review relevant literature or where to find it, how to identify gaps and frame questions or hypotheses, what methodology (ies) to use, how to analyze data and write the dissertation. Click on the relevant category in the sidebar to write in your questions or respond to queries students have.

The MiDOCS service recognizes the role and importance of the research supervisor. But good dissertations often are products of peer and expert consultations, learning from others, and seeking help. We encourage you to share what you read here with your supervisor.

Please note the views and opinions expressed here are authors’ own and do not reflect the views and judgement of Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA).

Moderator: Prof. Pradeep Krishnatray,
Dean Research, MICA (Email: pradeep.micore@micamail.in)

For any queries related to administration of MiDOCS, please contact: Himanshu Dandotiya (Email: himanshu.micore@micamail.in)