From: Ned Rossiter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 22 January 2003 03:02
To: Interdisciplinary academic study of Cyber Society
Subject: CFP: The Geopolitics of Electronic Messaging
Call for Papers
Southern Review: Communication, Politics & Culture
Special Issue, 36.2, 2003.
The Geopolitics of Electronic Messaging
Editors: Mary Griffiths and Susan Yell
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Monash University, Gippsland Campus
"The Geopolitics of e-Messaging" invites theoretically informed
discussions of the social and political outcomes of P2P electronic
communications, and case studies of the dynamics of governing new
publics and the spaces of private communication.
Email, webmail, voicemail, text messaging, ICQ, pxt, chat forums,
digital television messaging, discussion boards, and now, wireless
communications form distinctive protocols, and different capacities
in users. New geographies of space and politics are made possible.
But, not all that results from the increase in the kind and volume of
communication is beneficial. The pressure on many users is to be
always available and immediately responsive. Organisational
communications may improve but increased surveillance is the
corollary. At home and work, time is needed to manage "legitimate"
electronic messages and users also deal with unsolicited spam, and
with scams, and viruses. Many find themselves, either willingly or
involuntarily, in new and compelling sets of relations with others.
New etiquettes of interaction are emerging.
The "free" space of limitless communication shows signs of shrinking
back to more private and customised domains. For example, online
communities now use gating technologies to secure themselves from all
but identifiable messages. Individuals are increasingly using
filters, junk folders and different accounts for protection of
privacy.
What is being gained or lost by these developments? Is an organised
retreat from the exigencies of the most demanding and clamorous
aspects of e-messaging starting? Can the new gated communities be
thought of as publics? Do they provide evidence of undemocratic
tendencies? What can be produced by the crossing of traditional
communicative borders? What are the skills, capacities and literacies
which are being formed by different messaging technologies? What
counts as "nuisance mail" and how is it being dealt with? How are
subjectivities being constructed and governed by compulsory
participation in online work and educational communities? How are
nations, communities, institutions, businesses and individuals
managing the virtual spaces of electronic messaging across physical
frontiers? Which technologies are being favoured to help sort and
filter messages, and protect the privacy of the user? Conversely, why
have weblogs, the privatised acts of publicity and broadcasting,
become so popular?
Full articles due: April 30, 2003.
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