Media@LSE summer symposium on communication, information and culture:
Emerging questions, conceptual innovations and changing approaches to
research


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Media@LSE's Postgraduate Workshop 2010
Monday 7 June 2010, 09h30 - 17h30
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE

OVERVIEW
A wide range of existing and emergent questions in social research are
connected to questions about the media, communication and information
technologies. Technological innovations engender new social
constellations and human engagements, the role of communication in
social organization and political practices is being explored in new
ways, and changing media environments shape and re-shape our cultural
landscape. The questions asked, the mode in which they are asked, and
the means and methods by which they are explored are in continuous
development across a range of fields of inquiry. We find ourselves
facing new questions, methods, innovations and challenges in each
segment of what Richard Johnson called the Circuit of Culture -
production, text, consumption and culture/social relations. 

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
This year's Media and Communication PhD workshop hosted by Media@LSE in
June 2010 builds on the success of the workshops organized in previous
years. The 2010 workshop offers the opportunity for students to present
in two formats. 

1.	The first format is a traditional paper submission, where papers
will be divided into panels. We aim to cut across and cluster around the
four directions offered by the circuit of culture model. Under
production we invite critical analyses of media production, policy and
regulation as well as research on critical and cultural industries from
any theoretical perspective. Following text, we invite papers that look
at representations across a range of mediation technologies,
particularly new media textual environments. Under consumption we
welcome audience as well as user research and we locate this all in the
circuit of culture/social relations, where we welcome papers looking at
public participation, engagement and democracy as well studies of
specific cultural processes/societal relations.  
2.	The second format is that of roundtables organized around
'keywords', that offer students the opportunity to participate in
dialogue. This invites individual or group submissions outlining panel
contributions around- 1) conceptual approaches to mediation,
publics/publicness, or usage; OR 2) methodological approaches to use,
new technologies and changing social constellations, or the significance
of comparative research 

Prof. Sonia Livingstone will offer an opening keynote. An e-paper
consisting of all selected abstracts, revised by the presenters shortly
after the symposium into 500 word pieces, will be produced as a
post-event output. We also aim to offer faculty comments to students,
and an opportunity for a 'best paper' from those submitting full papers
to be considered for inclusion in the Electronic Working Paper series at
the LSE.


WORKSHOP STREAMS

A) Traditional paper based format: 
*	Production, technology and innovation, regulation
*	Use, audiences, engagement
*	Media representations, particularly new media (multimodal)
representations
*	Public participation, pluralism and democratic practices 

B) Dialogue based format around keywords:
*	Mediation, Public/Publicness
*	Usage
*	Methodological conversation around use, new technologies and
changing social constellations
*	Comparative research 

SUBMISSIONS
We invite research students working on projects in any discipline with a
focus relating to media or communications to submit abstracts to this
one day interdisciplinary symposium. Please submit a 250-word abstract
for a paper indicating if it is for the paper or dialogue (A or B) by 24
April 2010, including details of your institutional affiliation, PhD
project title, and supervisor. Pre-formed panel proposals for Stream B
are also welcome. Successful submissions will be announced by 15 May
2010. Send submissions to [log in to unmask] Research students
wishing to attend the workshop without presenting are welcome (subject
to availability); please indicate your interest by e-mailing the same
address with details of your institutional affiliation, PhD project
title, and supervisor.


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