CALL FOR PAPERS


Media and Culture: "Searching for the Black Diamond"
Date: 2-4 July 2009
Venue: Zonguldak Karaelmas University

Conference organized by KAD: Kültuür Arastirmalari Dernegi
(Cultural Studies Association of Turkey)
Partners: Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Zonguldak Karaelmas Journalists Association, Turkish Communication Research Association, Platform for Communication Faculties, Turkish Journalists Association.


_Deadline for sending abstracts: November 30, 2008._


Objectives:

The Cultural Studies Association of Turkey aims to gather scholars of cultural studies in biennial conferences. The theme of the 2009 conference is "Media and Culture."

Media shapes culture in many different ways. This conference will help us both to understand how media transforms society, and to assess critically the ways and methods employed in the study of the interrelated transformation(s) of media and culture. Zonguldak has been chosen as the venue of the conference on purpose, in order to underscore "the invisible versus the visible." A historical coal (named "black diamond" [karaelmas] in the region) mining city with a history of unceasing coal miners' labor movements, Zonguldak is currently at the periphery of the popular media agenda, and is reduced to the local football team's news at the first league, tailing after the trends of economical, political and cultural globalization. Its local and regional media (news bulletins, newspapers, television broadcasting, both in the conventional type and also using new technologies such as internet media), although outside of the mainstream, is nevertheless a strong and alternative force with
numerous active media professionals in the region. The University of Zonguldak Karaelmas provides an additional lively intellectual environment in the region. The participants of the conference will have the opportunity to exchange research findings and ideas on different aspects of Communication Studies with special reference to "media and culture" within the contexts of the cultures of Turks and Turkey.
Main theme: Media as a keyword in this conference is taken in its broadest context: almost all of the tools of social communication are considered as "media." Keeping in mind that social communication is mediated by "mass media," we include the conventional press, journalism, audio-visual broadcasting, advertisements, photos, movies, documentaries, new media environments, city billboards, graffiti, social networks, alternative media, internet, etc., and search for the "invisibles" in mainstream media.

Papers may deal with, but are not limited to the following topics (all further suggestions are welcome):

Social Transformations and Audience: Social memory, consuming culture, poverty, deprivation...
Public Sphere and Citizenship: Participation, Cultural Policy, City networks,
Arts and articrafts, Politics
Identity: gender, labour, sports, youth, children; representation and discourse
Environment and Media literacy: education and health issues
Journalism: professional, global, local
Interrelated formats in Media: infotainment, documentaries, news, celebrities, etc.
New media technologies: internet media, e-groups, ICT's, et

As the major aim of the Cultural Studies Association of Turkey is to gather scholars studying the cultures of Turks and Turkey, the language of the conference is first and foremost Turkish; but, as in previous conferences, there will be English-language sessions for those scholars of cultures of Turks and Turkey and of Communication Studies unable to express themselves academically in Turkish.

Abstracts of 100 to 200 words should be sent to <sempozyum@kulturad.org> with five keywords and a brief CV.


Deadline: 30 November 2008.


Details concerning the registration fee and accommodation as well as other info will be distributed later.



On behalf of the Organizing Committee:

Gönül Pultar, Chair, Cultural Studies Association of Turkey
Nurcay Turkoglu, Conference Organizer