CALL FOR PAPERS: CONTROVERSIAL IMAGES

For a special issue of Popular Communication: International Journal of Media
and Culture, 2009, edited by Sharon Lockyer and Feona Attwood.

Controversial images are increasingly central to media which are
concerned with scandal, titillation and horror, and in a culture where
images and image making is so important. Controversial images circulate in a
wide range of different media forms from films, TV programmes, newspapers,
and advertisements, to internet sites, video games, and music videos. In
recent years there have been a number of instances where controversial
images have become the primary focus of public fascination and debate. These
include the paparazzi shots of Princess Diana's fatal accident, images from
Abu Ghraib, the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons and footage of the
execution of Saddam Hussein. More generally, images of sex, scandal,
destruction and abuse function as the emblem for some of the major social
and cultural concerns of our times.

This special issue seeks to address the significance of controversial
Images and their subsequent public debates, and reflect on what they can
tell us about the production, content and reception processes of
contemporary media.

Proposals are welcomed on, but not limited to, the following topics and areas:

Shock sites
Extreme porn
Religious controversies
Atrocity images
War reporting
Body horror
Invasion of privacy issues
Media representation of sensitive subjects 
Censorship and regulation

Proposals with an international focus are particularly welcome, as are those
which focus on controversial images in various different countries.

Proposals of 200-250 words, accompanied by a biographical note of 100 words
should be sent by Tuesday 31st July 2007 to Feona Attwood, [log in to unmask] 

The deadline for submission of drafts will be March 2008 and June 2008 for
finished drafts.


Popular Communication: International Journal of Media and Culture

The journal provides a forum for the scholarly investigation, analysis, and
dialogue on communication symbols, forms, phenomena, and strategic systems
of symbols within the context of contemporary popular culture across the
globe. Popular Communication publishes articles on all aspects of popular
communication, examining different media such as television, film, new
media, print media, radio, music, and dance; the study of texts, events,
artifacts, spectacles, audiences, technologies, and industries; and
phenomena and practices, including, but not limited to, fan, youth and
subcultures, questions of representation, digitalization, cultural
globalization, spectator sports, sexuality, advertising, and consumer
culture. The journal welcomes diverse theoretical and methodological
perspectives within the tradition of media, communication, and cultural
studies as well as interdisciplinary research in and across related disciplines.

Editors:
Cornel Sandvoss (University of Surrey, UNITED KINGDOM)
C. Lee Harrington (Miami University, USA)
Jonathan Gray (Fordham University, USA)