[Air-L] CFP Deadline Reminder: 1984: Freedom and Censorship in the Media – Where Are We Now?

Mark Mckenna mark.mckenna at research.sunderland.ac.uk
Mon Nov 25 04:54:59 PST 2013


Apologies for cross posting.


This is a reminder that the deadline for the submission of abstracts for
the conference is Saturday 30th November. Please find all information below.



*1984:Freedom and Censorship in the Media – Where Are We Now?
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J88rmGLVg&feature=youtu.be>*

A conference to be hosted at the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural
Studies at the University of Sunderland on the 8th and 9th of April 2014.


*Confirmed keynote speakers:*


 Professor Martin Barker, University of East Anglia

Jerry Barnett, Sex and Censorship

Professor Julian Petley, Brunel University

Professor Clarissa Smith, University of Sunderland


Worries over effects of media content and technologies are never far from
the headlines. When anxieties centre on protecting children and the
fortification of the social fabric, regulation often seems like the first
resort. The year 2014 will see the thirtieth anniversary of the 1984 Video
Recordings Act (VRA): this event offers the opportunity to reflect on how
and why concerns about individual media technologies and particular media
genres become so important that campaigners and politicians can claim that
‘the very soul of the nation’ is at stake. Using the VRA as a starting
point, this conference aims to critically examine the key issues in
politics and campaigning which shape calls for censorship. If new
technologies always spark old anxieties around ‘effects’ and propensities
to cause ‘harm’, what might we learn from extant legislation and their
implementation? As we settle into the internet age and media on demand,
policing national media borders seems ever more futile, yet the clamour for
legislation to protect children and society shows no signs of abating.

We invite submissions that explore issues relating to censorship which may
be specific to the history, implementation and legacies of the Video
Recordings Act but we also welcome papers which examine media
regulation/censorship in their broader cultural contexts, which are
national and international in focus and which draw connections between
contemporaneous issues and their historical antecedents.

Suggested topics:

§  Censorship

§  Evolving practices and technologies of media classification and/or
censorship

§  ‘Problematic’ media cultures

§  Regulation of representations of sex, gender and sexualities

§  Digital and online censorship

§  Oppositional voices

§  Protecting and questioning national borders

§  Campaigns and campaigners

§  Activism/activists and the political arena

§  International narratives of censorship

§  British regulation in a global context

§  National and international regulation/censorship

§  Documentary and avant-garde

§  Controversies around computer games

§  History of contemporary film censorship/classification

§  Audiences and the social experiences of censorship

§  Censorship and the creation of communities of dissent

§  Regulations and government policy

Proposals for individual papers or pre-constituted panels are welcomed. The
submission deadline is 1st December 2013 and notifications of acceptance
will be made by 6th January 2014. Proposals should include title, abstract
(350 words), 3-5 key bibliographical references, along with the name of the
presenter, institutional affiliation and biographical information (100
words). Panel organizers are asked to submit panel proposals including a
panel title, a short description of the panel and information on all the
papers following the guidelines listed above. Panels may consist of three
speakers with a maximum of 20 minutes speaking time each.

All submissions, expressions of interest and enquiries should be sent to:
admin at where-are-we-now.co.uk



Kind Regards,

Mark McKenna and Alessandra Mondin

Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies

University of Sunderland

http://www.where-are-we-now.co.uk

http://www.crmcs.sunderland.ac.uk/



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