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Apologies for cross posting



> From: Michael Bailey <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> With apologies for cross-posting
>
> Call for papers: Narrating Media History, Michael Bailey, Editor.
>
> I am seeking contributors for a book I am proposing for the 
> Communication and Society series at Routledge.  Papers should be 
> between 5,000-6,000 words.
>
> Based on the work of media historian, James Curran, the book will 
> explore British media history as a series of competing narratives. The 
> significance of the book is that there has been no previous attempt to 
> identify common themes and differences amongst scholars concerned with 
> media history. This is particularly important given the growth in 
> media history scholarship over the past few years and it being 
> recognised as a valuable field of research in its own right. Given 
> these recent developments, it seems timely to bring this work 
> together, not only to identify and contrast the various 
> interrelationships between media histories, but also to encourage 
> dialogue between different historical, political, and theoretical 
> perspectives.
>
> As well as an introductory essay by Curran, the book will be divided 
> into six sections.  Each section will include three essays that 
> illustrate the particularities, affinities, strengths and weaknesses 
> of one of the following narratives.
>
>
> Liberal Narrative How have the mass media strengthened the democratic 
> process by making government and power elites more accountable to 
> public scrutiny, thereby contributing to the on-going cumulative 
> empowerment of the people?  To what extent has the mass media 
> facilitated communication between different social groups who might 
> not otherwise have anything in common, thus mitigating any extreme 
> antagonistic social relations?
>
>
> Feminist Narrative To what extent have the mass media historically 
> reinforced traditional gendered demarcations between public and 
> private, thus giving rise to a two-spheres ideology. In what way have 
> liberal ideals of publicness excluded women from mediated channels of 
> public discourse? How have the media attempted to capture and re-order 
> women’s use of time and space? Is there a historical turning point in 
> terms of media representations of women becoming more varied and less 
> stereotypical?
>
>
> Populist Narrative In what way has the mass media gradually succumb to 
> popular tastes and preferences? How has the popularisation of the 
> media challenged certain cultural elites? How have public service 
> values changed in response to an increasingly commercial media? What 
> is the relationship between populism, pleasure and consumption, in 
> mediated contexts? To what extent is the commercialisation of the 
> British mass media symptomatic of Americanisation?
>
>
> Libertarian Narrative How and why have the state, church and 
> traditionalists sought to regulate what the public sees and hears? 
> What is the relationship between secularisation and the strengthening 
> of individualism? What are the key historical developments in terms of 
> the moral regulation of the media? To what extent does the 1960s 
> represent a watershed in the history of greater moral pluralism and 
> tolerance of different social values?
>
>
> Anthropological Narrative What role have the media played in the 
> formation and subsequent development of the British nation-state and 
> British national culture? How did imperialists use the media to 
> enforce and enlarge British power and influence in the colonial world? 
> How has the state intervened in an effort to protect British media 
> from foreign cultural influences and economic competition? Has the 
> national media historically undermined local variety and class 
> differences? Has the media come to represent the nation in a more 
> socially inclusive way?
>
>
> Radical Narrative Has the media’s principal role been as instrument of 
> social control, thus containing democracy rather than facilitating it? 
> How has the media helped maintain the power base of certain cultural 
> and political elites? What role has the media played in giving rise to 
> radical political consciousness and social movements? Has the mass 
> media resulted in the standardisation of cultural forms and lessened 
> the capacity of individuals to think and act in a critical and 
> autonomous way?
>
> Possible case studies would include but are not limited to 
> developments in the history of British media over the last three 
> hundred years (e.g. the newspaper press, popular literature, 
> advertising, musical entertainment, photography, cinema and film, 
> radio and television, etc). Submissions which attempt to synthesise 
> histories of individual media into multi-media accounts and/or 
> consider the links between media history and social history more 
> generally, thus providing a wider historical framework of analysis, 
> would be particularly welcome.
>
> Please send your proposal or inquiries to [log in to unmask]
>  
> Dr. Michael Bailey
> Lecturer in Media and Popular Culture
> Leeds Metropolitan University
> School of Cultural Studies
> City Campus
> Leeds LS1 3HE