CALL FOR PAPERS
UCLA's film, television, and digital media e-journal, Mediascape, is now
accepting submissions for its next issue. This journal, a place for
articles pertaining to visual culture, is peer-reviewed and published on an
annual table. The deadline for the next issue is the 1st of January 2008.
For more detailed information about Mediascape and this call for papers,
please visit our website:
http://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/index.htm
FEATURES:
The features section is seeking articles that consider themes and
variations of comedy within all areas of media studies.
The comedic text, often touted as universal, but frequently catering to
individual tastes, thrives in highbrow culture and lowbrow entertainment
alike. Functioning as a release or act of enlightenment, the belly laugh,
the titter, the yowl, the boffo will find its way to the surface. From the
silent mime to the viral video, in what way does the comic of the past
reflect on the wit of the future? How has technology, the present day means
of production and distribution, and the changing venues of exhibition,
affected humorous content? With an expanding multi-platform marketplace,
what impact does culture have on comedy and what does the subject offer in
return? From the carnival, to the multiplex, to the iPod, what keeps us
laughing?
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
* Historical perspectives: classical, global, national, local
* Affects of technology: means of production, distribution and exhibition
* Performance: reality, stand-up, animation, make-over
* Genre: variety shows, single/multi-camera, romantic, tragicomic
* Modes of spectatorship: theater-going, home video rentals, DVR viewership
* Censorship and regulation: network vs. cable, theatrical release vs.
internet downloads
Feature submissions should offer a unique perspective on film, television,
and digital media and are encouraged to address more than one area of
moving image culture. To submit a feature article, please email a short bio
and a copy of your manuscript in Word format to Maya Smukler at
maya_at_smukler.com by January 1, 2008. For the purposes of confidentiality
during the double blind peer review, please include both your bio and your
personal contact information in the accompanying email only, rather than in
the Word document. Feature submissions should range from between 15 to 25
manuscript pages.
REVIEWS:
The reviews section is seeking reviews of comedy in any mediated form. The
object of review can be a film, a TV program, a website, a toy, an
advertisement, a piece of hardware, a movie review, an academic
conference—anything. The comedy can be intentional or otherwise.
Questions that may arise include:
* How does mediation structure comedy?
* How does comedy cross (or not cross) cultures?
* How does one "review" comedy?
* How do we identify and evaluate styles and genres of comedy?
* How do user comments and other participatory communities structure
comedy?
Reviews must be original, and creativity (in argumentation and/or style) is
encouraged. Reviews need not be funny. Please direct reviews section
questions, proposals, and submissions to Brian Hu at brianhu_at_ucla.edu by
January 1, 2008.
COLUMNS
Machinima has quickly become one of the most interesting new forms of
filmmaking in the last decade (or two). In the process it has challenged
conventional production practices and has destabilized many of the key
terms and theories in film studies. This issue of the columns section is
seeking short papers (800-1500 words) and machinima examples that can
elucidate the importance of machinima for film studies.
Topics may or may not address:
* Issues of production and/or collaboration
* The actor, celebrity, performer, star of machinima
* Soundtracks and voice-overs
* Nonfiction and cinema verite machinima
* New genres that have come out of machinima
* The machinima serial
* Machinima porn
* Machinima on television
Please submit columns and inquiries to Jonathan Cohn at beatnikd_at_ucla.edu
by January 1, 2008.
META
Research, publication, and presentation are all integral parts of academic
scholarship, and yet there are very few opportunities for scholars to
explicitly discuss the challenges, rewards, and methods of those practices.
MediascapeMETA hopes to provide a forum in which cinema and media students
and scholars can discuss all facets of academic and professional cinema and
media scholarship.
In our continued commitment to widening the discussion of the value,
limitations, and future of scholarly pursuit within the academy,
MediascapeMETA also seeks to open a space where non-traditional forms of
academic publication and research can be widely disseminated and discussed.
We believe that today's oddities may yet prove tomorrow's exemplars.
For that reason, MediascapeMETA not only seeks papers discussing academic
and professional scholarship, but also examples of scholarly work that
defies traditional categories of research and publication. We welcome
submission of podcasts, online tools, hypertext or flash experiments, and
we also seek new approaches to more conventional forms such as the academic
article, essay, and book. Our intention is that these works provide
concrete examples of new and intriguing scholarly methods in research and
publication, regardless of format, and, as such, will inspire further
discussion of the forms and functions of scholarly work.
Please submit your paper or project to Bill McClain at WMcClain_at_ucla.edu by
January 1, 2008.
Please refer to our website's submissions page
(http://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/submissions.htm) for more detailed
information and formatting guidelines.
Because of the peer review and editorial processes of the journal's
different sections, it may take as long as eight weeks for decisions on
submissions to reach the writers.
General email inquiries can also be sent to Jennifer Porst at
jenporst_at_mac.com.
--
Iain Robert Smith
Doctoral Student
Institute of Film and Television
School of American and Canadian Studies
University of Nottingham
University Park
NG7 2RD
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