Distribution Matters // Media Circulation in Civic Life and Popular Culture
ICA [INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION] PRECONFERENCE CALL May
25, 2017 in San Diego
[This call is on the web at https://distributionmatters.wordpress.com]
This preconference aims to examine how and why media distribution
matters to civic life and media culture and the ways in which it
underpins issues that are more traditionally examined in terms of
media production or textual analysis. After all, many of the biggest
challenges and opportunities facing the media industries today revolve
around the capacity to circulate media and information instantaneously
and more cheaply than ever before via the internet—what Michael
Curtin, Jennifer Holt, and Kevin Sanson (2014) have referred to as the
"distribution revolution."
At the same time, grappling with the signal importance of media
distribution in industry and public life also means understanding that
this importance is older than, and reaches beyond, today's commercial
internet. Scholars from across the field of media industry
research—and in other areas including media law and regulation,
communication history, journalism studies, and cultural theory—have
used a variety of analytical vocabularies to theorize the distribution
process. Historian and social theorist Michael Warner (2002), for
instance, offers examples from the 17th century press when he argues
that distribution is the central concern in the construction of
democratic publics. "Not texts themselves create publics, but the
concatenation of texts through time," he writes. "Only when a
previously existing discourse can be supposed, and when a responding
discourse can be postulated, can a text address a public" (p. 90). In
other words, reliable distribution networks make possible the
individual and collective conceit that when we publish a text we are
speaking to the same assembled group over time.
Media distribution, then, can be read as the infrastructural heart of
"imagined communities" in the style of Benedict Anderson (2006). If,
as Charles Acland (2003) argues, "the organization of how, when, and
under what conditions people congregate is a fundamental dimension of
social life," it is through distribution practices and infrastructures
that much of this organization takes place (Tryon, 2013), both
historically and in today's media environment.
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
We aim to bring together the growing group of scholars who focus on
distribution as its own topic of study, as well as other work that
intersects with distribution, but has not typically been framed in
that way—topics such as internet governance, trending algorithms,
digital rights management, media infrastructures, and others.
Participants should submit an extended abstract of one to two pages.
Accepted abstracts will be developed into papers to be distributed to
panelists and other attendees in advance of the event. Abstracts may
take the form of brief case studies, position papers, conceptual
interventions, or other formats likely to lead to engaged discussion.
Rather than lengthy research presentations, participants will present
briefly (5 minutes) on their work before participating in a roundtable
discussion.
Submissions dealing with both contemporary and historical themes and
subjects are welcomed, as are submissions from a wide variety of
disciplinary approaches. Suggested topics include, but are not limited
to:
* Distribution and Imagined Community. How do contemporary, legacy,
and historical distribution infrastructures, practices, and policies
affect the construction of publics and our sense of community? Whether
it's a nation's postal network, the broadcast radius of the local
television station, the circulation footprint of the local newspaper,
the far-flung reach of satellite television channels, or the
"calculated publics" (e.g., Gillespie, 2014) produced by algorithms on
contemporary online media platforms, we welcome explorations of the
ways in which distribution brings together—or divides—publics and
public discourses.
* Distribution and Media Work. Can a focus on distribution broaden
traditionally production-focused accounts of labor in the media
industries, whether by considering distribution as an important form
of labor unto itself or by exploring the impact of distribution on
production work? We welcome accounts that examine what it takes to get
content in front of audiences, and the various kinds of labour
involved—from PR and marketing work to warehousing, shelf-stacking and
transportation.
* Distribution and Public Discourse. Much has been said—and
debated—about the manner in which digital technologies have allowed
ordinary people to distribute their own content, as well as the manner
in which a few large online intermediaries have come to dominate
revenues and the market for audiences' attention. Digital distribution
platforms (and some of their historical predecessors) also present us
with a high-choice media environment characterized by filter bubbles
and fragmentation. Where do these debates about disintermediation and
fragmentation stand today? And what does it mean to examine them in
terms of distribution?
* Distribution, Public Visibility, and Surveillance. The
infrastructures of distribution—the presence of papers on news racks
or channels on the dial—have long served to make the audiences for
particular media visible to a broader public, as well as to
interpellate prospective members of those audiences/publics. At the
same time, distribution infrastructures also offer tremendous
affordances for surveillance—rifling the mail, intercepting telegraph
signals, tapping phones, placing digital cookies, deep packet
inspection. We welcome contributions that examine distribution as a
tool of visibility and/or consider its role in the business and
politics of seeing and being seen.
* Distribution, Popular Culture, and Personalization. Digital media is
characterized by the contrasting dynamics of increased sociability
(through apps, social media and 'sharing') and increased
individualization (through mobile viewing, miniature screens, and
personalized recommendations). By some accounts, media use has shifted
from being a communal, in-person experience in theaters and living
rooms to a rather more individual and personalized one, enjoyed by
each user on her own personal device. We welcome contributions that
examine the changing scale of media experiences through various
distribution technologies.
* Distribution and Intellectual Property. The one-click model of
friction-free digital distribution is still a work in progress.
Content providers, streaming services, and digital storefronts jockey
for position in ways that have resulted in fragmentation, incompatible
standards, and copy protection schemes that alter consumers'
relationships with their media and devices. Unsurprisingly then,
unauthorized distribution (i.e., piracy) remains a constant feature of
everyday media consumption in all countries. We welcome contributions
examining the relationship between distribution, IP, and consumption.
* Affordances of Distribution, Past and Present. Digital distribution
infrastructures include a tremendous number of high-tech affordances
for selectively placing content in front of audiences—filters,
recommender systems, geolocation/geoblocking, and metadata-based
categorization to name just a few. What role do these affordances (and
their associated constraints) play in contemporary media distribution
and its social impacts? And what historical precedents exist for what
we typically think of as uniquely digital phenomena?
FORMAT
Panelists whose abstracts are accepted will develop them into papers
that will be distributed in May to preconference attendees in advance
of the event.
Participants will introduce, then discuss their papers with other
scholars in a series of thematically organized roundtables, with the
conversation moderated by a panel chair who participates in the
conversation.
Roundtables will be held in front of the full audience of
preconference attendees; after the initial moderated discussion the
floor will be opened to audience questions. The final panel of the
preconference will be a reflection by senior scholars on the work and
themes of the day.
The organizers hope to work with participants following the event to
develop a selection of the conference abstracts into papers for a
special issue or edited volume.
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Please email submissions to <[log in to unmask]>
by November 20, 2016. Authors will be informed of acceptance/rejection
decisions no later than December 20, 2016. Accepted abstracts will be
posted to the preconference website in advance of the event.
If you have questions about submissions or any aspect of the
preconference, you may direct them to
<[log in to unmask]> or contact any of the
individual organizers—Joshua Braun <jabraun at umass dot edu>, Ramon
Lobato <ramonlobato at gmail dot com>, or Amanda Lotz <lotz at umich
dot edu>.
LOCATION AND REGISTRATION
The preconference will be held at San Diego State University's Conrad
Prebys Aztec Student Union (6075 Aztec Cir Dr.), which is located
directly on the San Diego trolley system's Green Line, making it
reachable from the conference hotel for just $5 round-trip. For faster
door-to-door service, participants can split cab fares to and from the
event. More details on transport to and from the event will be
provided at a later date.
Registration will be limited to 60 persons via a registration code to
be issued by the organizers. After accepted presenters have
registered, registration will be open to any ICA attendee who requests
a code until the cap of 60 is reached or administrative deadlines
force us to finalize event attendance. Thanks to the generosity of our
sponsors, we do not anticipate a registration fee.
CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS
Sandra Ball-Rokeach, ICA Fellow, Professor in the Annenberg School for
Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California,
director of the USC Communication Technology and Community Program
Sandra Braman, ICA Fellow, John Paul Abbott Professor of Liberal Arts
and Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University.
Stuart Cunningham, Distinguished Professor of Media and
Communications, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University
of Technology
Greg Downey, Evjue-Bascom Professor in the School of Journalism and
Mass Communication and the School of Library and Information Studies
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Sharon Strover, Philip G. Warner Regents Professor in Communication,
director of the Technology and Information Policy Institute at UT
Austin
Joseph Turow, ICA Fellow, Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of
Communication, University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for
Communication
SPECIAL THANKS
This preconference is possible thanks to the ICA Media Industry
Studies Interest Group and the ICA Journalism Studies and Popular
Communication Divisions.
We are especially grateful for financial support from the Media
Industry Studies Interest Group; the University of Michigan Department
of Communication Studies; the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Journalism Department and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences;
the San Diego State University School of Journalism and Media Studies;
and the Culture Digitally scholarship collective. It is thanks to
their generous support that we expect to be able to make this event
free to participants.
>>>
Ramon Lobato
Senior research fellow
Swinburne Institute for Social Research | Department of Media and Communication
Room EW121, Hawthorn campus, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne
+61 3 9214 8637
http://www.sisr.net
http://www.swinburne.edu.au/health-arts-design/staff-profiles/view.php?who=rlobato
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