(with apologies for cross-posting)
Dear Colleagues,
We are looking for 1-2 more participants to join our panel on media
violence and entertainment for the ICA 2013 conference in London.
Papers can be focused on the theoretical side, or present a case study
within a medium. This is a PhD student-organised panel so far, but we
will be happy to welcome both students/early career researchers and
senior researchers (as respondents or participants). If you are
interested, please email Rafal Zaborowski ([log in to unmask])
with a title, a 150-word abstract, and a 50-word bio by Thursday,
October 25, noon. Please find the proposed panel rationale below.
Thank you!
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Violence as entertainment
In her essay “Regarding the pain of others”, Susan Sontag argued that
“the appetite for pictures showing bodies in pain is as keen, almost,
as the desire for ones that show bodies naked” (2003: 41), and that
“mayhem is entertaining rather than shocking to many people in most
modern cultures” (Ibid: 101). If we accept this argument, is there a
difference in weight and meaning of pain to audiences of different
media? Does it matter, for example, if the medium is participatory or
non-visual? If so, why? This panel aims to revisit Sontag’s arguments
by looking at the mediation of violence by several cultural products.
It explores the mediated engagement with violence in a digital age,
while critically reflecting on the involvement of media institutions
and audiences in producing and engaging with representations of
violence.
Coming from a variety of strands connected by a cultural studies
perspective, the panelists will investigate the assets of violence as
a cultural product, concentrating on a number of key questions. What
is it about violence that is so appalling – or appealing? What does
the study on the mediation of violence teach us about pleasure and
suffering, solidarity and estrangement? What role do the media play in
giving meaning to spectacles of violence? How are audiences engaging
with, consuming (reading, playing, watching, listening to) and
interpreting violence – and did the emergence of new technologies
change the nature of these engagements? Finally, what can the research
tell us about the effects on people in modern society being
surreptitiously bombarded with violence as both news and
entertainment? The panelists, referring to empirical and theoretical
research, propose an interdisciplinary approach to the study of
mediated violence, and suggest the benefits and shortcomings of such
perspective.
Daniel Kardefelt-Winther, Tal Morse, Rafal Zaborowski: London School
of Economics and Political Science
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Best regards,
Rafal
--
Rafal Zaborowski
PhD candidate
London School of Economics and Political Science
[log in to unmask]
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