[acc-cca-l] Call for papers - Eyewitness Textures, edited collection

Michael Lithgow malithgow at gmail.com
Mon Sep 30 12:53:44 MDT 2019


*Call for papers: Edited collection focusing on User Generated Content
(UGC) *
*in news coverage and changing practices for journalists and educators*

*Eyewitness Textures: User Generated Content & News Coverage in the 21st
Century*

We are calling for abstracts for chapter contributions for an edited
collection exploring user generated content (UGC) in news coverage.
Abstracts are due Oct 15, 2019.

Among the many changes introduced by new media technologies to news
practices, the growing utilization of User Generated Content (UGC) is one
of the most challenging. Members of the public are capturing dramatic
events around the world and then sharing them, not only on social media
platforms, but with professional news media organizations which are eagerly
incorporating posts, tweets and images into professionally produced news
stories. The presence of amateur content in news discourses is a growing
phenomenon that is reshaping the profession of journalism, news coverage
and public expectations.

The issues raised by these practices often involve tensions between labour
precarity and professionalism, entertainment and evidence, centralized and
decentralized management of news rooms, traditional and emerging forms of
social media news narratives, truth and immediacy.

We are calling for papers from academic researchers and journalists that
address this important and timely subject. Questions the collection will
address include:

 1.   How is the use of UGC reorganizing professional practices?
• User generated content and professionalism in news rooms
• Role and significance of verification in news production
• The problems of fake news when working with UGC
• The growing shift of UGC onto private networks: threats and opportunities
• The challenge and opportunities of new technologies for professional news
rooms

2.   How is UGC transforming labour practices among journalists and the
structural organization of news media?
• Changing labour practices in the newsroom
• Changing structures, staffing and organization of news desks
• Organizational changes and emerging business models
• Emerging forms of produsers and precarious labour
• Professional labour vis-à-vis labour of love

3.   How is UGC influencing the construction of meaning in news coverage?
• The impact of user produced content on the form and aesthetic of visual
news
• Role of contextualization in UGC verification services
• The influence of non-professional producers on news narratives, framing
and agendas

4.   What are emerging themes and tensions in non-professional practices of
production?
• Emerging motivations for creating UGC news content
• Emerging practices and conventions for UGC production
• Precarity and risk in UGC production

5.   What are the theoretical, methodological and historical considerations
helping to understand and explain the growing use of UGC in professional
news coverage?

Deadline: Abstracts (300-500 words) should be emailed to the editors by Oct
15, 2019 clearly identified by “UGC Chapter Abstract” in the subject line.
Email: michael.lithgow at athabascau.ca Please contact the editors (at the
same email address) if you have any questions.


About the Editors:

Dr. Michael Lithgow is an Assistant Professor of Communication and Media
Studies, in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Athabasca
University. His research focuses broadly on citizen engagement in public
cultures. His most current research explores expanded approaches to
community digital & network literacies encompassing design, creation and
operation of telecommunications infrastructure. He is also part of a
research group investigating changing practices in professional news rooms
in response to the growing use of user-generated content (UGC) in news
production.

Prof. Michele Martin

Dr Michèle Martin is Professor Emerita at Carleton University, Ottawa,
Canada. Her research focuses on the history of illustrated news, feminist
studies, and sociology of labour in the media. She has published several
books - among them Hello Central? (nominated for the Harold Innis Prize),
which has been translated into several languages, Communication and Mass
Media and Images at War (attributed the Canadian Communication Association
prize) - and numerous articles and book chapters. She is currently part of
a research group investigating changing practices in professional news
rooms in response to the growing use of user-generated content in news
production. She has also been invited as a visiting professor at Oxford
University, The London School of Economics and Political Sciences,
Université Panthéon-Assas Paris, American University in Istanbul among
others.



-- 

Michael A Lithgow, MA, PhD
Assistant Professor, Communication and Media Studies
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Athabasca University






-- 

Michael A Lithgow, MA, PhD
Assistant Professor, Communication and Media Studies
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Athabasca University
Tel: (514) 983.1965
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