Dear MeCCSA members

I would like to bring to your attention a call for papers by the
International Journal of Press/Politics for a special issue on
"Comparative Perspectives on the Changing Business of Journalism and
its Implications for Democracy." Deadline is 1 October 2012.

International Journal of Press/Politics

SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS: Comparative Perspectives on the
Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy

The last decade has seen tremendous change in the commercial news
media that play a central role in political processes in democracies
around the world. Dramatic social changes, economic fluctuations, and
new technologies have all combined to transform at least in part the
media systems inherited from the 20th century. But our understanding
of the direction, drivers, and implications of these changes remains
incomplete and provisional, partially because there has been a
tendency to try to understand the transition in purely national terms
without rigorous comparison to how things have unfolded elsewhere.

This special issue of the International Journal of Press/Politics is
dedicated to international comparative research on the changing
character of commercial news media in democracies around the world at
the beginning of the 21st century, and what these changes in turn mean
for democratic politics. The motivation is our view that cross‐country
analysis is necessary to understand both the causes and consequences
of current changes, and that mass media and mass politics remain so
tightly intertwined that changes in one will have consequences for the
other. We therefore invite contributors to focus, on the basis of
empirical work in two or more democracies, on both substantive and
more theoretical issues including:

• Developments in news media industries including newspapers,
free‐to‐air broadcasting, cable television, and pure player news
provision with an emphasis on what these developments mean for their
role in democracies

• Similarities and dissimilarities between trends in the functioning
of news media in different democracies, in established versus new
democracies, and in mature markets versus emerging markets with
attention to their political consequences

• The role of public policy in responding to recent changes in the
media industries across different democracies, and the wider
democratic implications • The changing definition and role of
“journalism” and the potential rise of new kinds of journalism
(partisan media, private high‐price subscription‐only news services,
etc) in different countries and what it means for democracy

• The development of new information and communication technologies as
used for news production, dissemination, and engagement across
different democracies, and what this means for the relations between
media and politics

• The utility of inherited conceptual vocabularies based on individual
media platforms (print, broadcasting, etc) and often assuming the
nation‐state as a unit of analysis (media systems, etc) in
understanding present changes in times some see as defined by
internationalization and convergence In each case we seek
contributions that use a comparative approach to get a firmer
empirical and conceptual understanding of current transformations in
the media sector in democratic societies, and directly address the
question of what this means for politics.

The issue will be edited by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (University of Oxford
and Roskilde University), Frank Esser (University of Zurich), and
David Levy (University of Oxford).

Authors should submit papers using the online system
(http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijpp). The deadlyne for submission is
October 1st 2012. Submissions should not exceed 8,000 words including
tables and bibliography. All submissions will be peer reviewed, and
the editors will select 5 or 6 articles for publication. The issue is
tentatively scheduled for publication in July 2013.

Questions should be directed to Dr Nielsen
([log in to unmask]) or Professor Esser
([log in to unmask]). More information is found here:
http://hij.sagepub.com/

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MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. Membership is open to all who teach and research these subjects in HE institutions, via either institutional or individual membership. The field includes film and TV production, journalism, radio, photography, creative writing, publishing, interactive media and the web; and it includes higher education for media practice as well as for media studies.

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