ECREA Media and Communication Conference, Rotterdam 2009

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Nick Couldry, Goldsmiths, University of London
Douglas Kellner, University of California
Liesbet van Zoonen, Loughborough University

Rotterdam, 26-27 November 2009
(Deadline for submissions: 15 May)
Hosted by: ERMeCC (Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and
Culture), Erasmus University Rotterdam
www.fhk.eur.nl/english/ermecc/ecrea

We would like to hereby invite abstracts for a conference organised by
ERMeCC (Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture)
together with ECREA's Gender & Communication, Communication & Democracy, and
Film Studies sections and the Young Scholars’ Network. Please see below for
a short description and a list of possible areas of contributions. Please
note that the deadline for abstracts has been extended to 15 May 2009.

***Media, Communication and the Spectacle***
This conference is a collaboration between the ECREA sections Gender &
Communication, Communication & Democracy, and Film Studies and invites
abstracts in these domains. The theme of the conference is the interrelation
between Media, Communication and the Spectacle (see
www.fhk.eur.nl/english/ermecc/ecrea). Viewing the notion of the spectacle in
broad terms, this colloquium seeks to bring together scholarly work from
academic fields such as democracy and (new) media, as well as journalism and
film studies.

We invite paper and panel proposals related to the central theme of the
conference, including (but not limited to) the following topics:

- The notion of society of the spectacle.
- Culture as spectacle in the media.
- The use of performance and spectacle by protest movements, creating or
being part of media events
- Infotainment as spectacle
- Hollywood and spectacular images: blockbusters, CGI, etc.
- Consuming the spectacle: historical and contemporary practices of cinema
going.
- Behind the screens of the spectacle: the political economy of cultural
industries
- Screening the (un)spectacular? World cinemas and/as alternative screen
cultures
- Fandom, cult media/film and performative consumption
- Youtube and citizens’ spectacularised self-presentation
- The hyperreality of the spectacle of 'truth' (linked to information, news,
representations, visual culture as such, etc.).
- The materiality of information production as commodity fetishism
(commodities become images and the other way around).
- Private/public debate and the spectacle of bodies, gendered bodies,
politics, etc.
- The imaginary and media performativity.
- Vision and Voyeurism: The Politics of Surveillance Post-9/11

Organised by ERMeCC (Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and
Culture) and ECREA’s Gender and Communication section, Communication and
Democracy section, Film Studies section and the Young Scholars' Network.

See URL for full call for papers: www.fhk.eur.nl/english/ermecc/ecrea

Proposals: abstracts of max. 400 words can be submitted via e-mail to:
[log in to unmask] Abstracts may be submitted as attachment in word, .rtf or
.txt format or embedded in the body of the email. Please make sure to
include the name of the author(s), affiliation, contact address, and email.
Young scholars are also encouraged to apply. When submitting your abstract,
please indicate to which section you are submitting: Gender and
Communication, Communication and Democracy, or Film Studies. Deadline for
sending in the paper abstract is 15 May 2009. Notification of selection will
be no later than 15 June 2009.