[Air-L] CfP: Streaming, Binge-Watching & Second Screening: Online Social Television in Perspective

[Jacob Groshek]

Dear Colleagues,

Please share widely: The Division of Emerging Media Studies at Boston
University is hosting a two-day conference to address the most pressing
issues related to streaming television, binge-watching and television's
growing intersection with social media.

We hope this event, which is scheduled to take place in The Castle, one of
the most historic and intimate meeting halls on the Boston University
campus fromApril 20th - 21st, will provide a platform to make an impact
unique to the field.

The call for papers follows below -- abstracts are due March 13 -- and we
especially welcome submissions from emerging scholars.  Please visit
http://sites.bu.edu/cmcs/april-2017-conference/ for more information, and
feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Thanks much,

Jacob

Boston University – CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Streaming, Binge-Watching & Second Screening: Online Social Television in
Perspective

Highlights
• Aim:
Television itself is almost indistinguishable in its form, distribution,
content, and uses from earlier network and cable/satellite modes. This
workshop thus considers what the most pressing social, political, and
health issues related to streaming television, binge-watching, and
television's growing intersection with social media are. Research here will
help clarify what to expect for television as a medium, and how we as users
and researchers of television can best navigate a path forward in better
understanding the transformational role of television in society, and
indeed, television itself.
• Call for papers:
Research-based perspectives invited, especially from younger scholars. Send
abstracts by email to conference coordinator Jessica Bonner jbonner at bu.edu
• Workshop format:
Brief papers and in-depth discussion, built on research and scholarly
perspectives. Event will have an in-person audience and also be
live-streamed. Papers and live-stream will be archived on our website.

Key dates
March 13   Extended abstracts (~500 words) due to organizers.
        Send abstracts to jbonner at bu.edu
March 20     Notification of acceptance decision.
April 13       Completed papers (~2,500 – 9,000 words) due to discussants.
April 20-21     Workshop held at Boston University.

Program & informational updates will be posted at:
http://sites.bu.edu/cmcs/april-2017-conference/

Overview

Television has been transformed.  It is not a just fixed, flickering screen
in living rooms and public spaces around the world anymore.  In the
contemporary sense, television has literally cut the cord to become a
mobile, always-on, and personalized experience that is informed by
recommendations and algorithms. Seeing “what’s on” TV from a hierarchical
schedule provided by a handful of dominant media producers and distribution
systems is fading into memory or no longer exists for billions of
television viewers around the world.

Previous work in on streaming television and social media has suggested
that “While the process of storytelling is technologically agnostic, each
communication vehicle offers specific affordances that encourage certain
behaviors and interactions” (Groshek & Krongard, 2016, p. 3). However,
there is still only a relatively limited body of research about streaming
television, binge-watching, and the use of television in combination with
other social media platforms across a wide range of social, political,
personal, emotional, and health areas.

Thus, the Division of Emerging Media Studies at Boston University is
hosting a two-day conference to address the most pressing issues related to
streaming television, binge-watching and television's growing intersection
with social media. We hope this event, which is scheduled to take place in
The Castle, one of the most historic and intimate meeting halls on the
Boston University campus from April 20th - 21st, will provide a platform
for the collective expertise of International Scientific Advisory Board
members as well as other researchers working in the area to make an impact
unique to the field.  As conference organizers, we do not want to place
parameters on contributions, which can be empirical, theoretical, thought
exercises, essays, reflections, analyses, qualitative, quantitative,
observations – any scholarly approach is welcome.

In terms of topics, we ask prospective contributors to feel free to draw on
their expertise and vision, but of course there are a wide range of topics
that relate to streaming television and second screening in terms of
adoption, use, or content, such as (but not limited to):


• mobile devices
• life satisfaction
• human relationships
• health communication
• civility and elections
• political and civic participation
• television platforms
• social networks
• artificial intelligence
• algorithms
• metadata and meta-analyses
• academic performance


At this stage, abstracts should be approximately 500 words, including
references and figures, and can be submitted by email to conference
coordinator Jessica Bonner (jbonner at bu.edu) no later than March 13, 2017.
There are no specific author guidelines, but we do ask that authors be
consistent in using the referencing style of their choice. Full papers
(from approximately 2,5000 - 9,000 words) will be due to discussants one
week before the conference.  For those interested, we will be pursuing
options for a special issue of these proceedings with a leading journal.

Practitioners and subject-matter experts will be invited to give brief
papers on selected topics which will then be followed by interrogative
discussion. In addition, drawing on an open, peer-reviewed “call for
papers,” additional scholars and practitioners will be included in the
sessions. The format of the talks will be to organize them into panels. In
each panel there will be a brief presentation by the paper author followed
by an extended commentary from among panelists.

Audiences, both attending in-person and participating via live-streaming
sessions, will have an opportunity to raise questions and contribute
viewpoints. Ample time is also scheduled for informal discussion so that
discrete ideas can be explored in depth and serendipitous interpersonal
connections can be forged. Following the conference, selected papers will
be published online and in special issues of peer-reviewed journals so that
the ideas developed and expressed during the conference can receive wide
circulation. Some talks and interview excerpts will also be posted online
to further the event’s impact.

International Scientific Advisory Committee*

Ahmed al-Rawi (Concordia University)
Luca Barra (University of Bologna)
Britt Christensen (Zayed University)
Pedro Ferreira (Carnegie Mellon University)
Homero Gil de Zúñiga (University of Vienna)
Mareike Jenner (Anglia Ruskin University)
Sarah Krongard (Boston University)
Elana Levine (University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee)
Seth Lewis (University of Oregon)
Amanda Lotz (University of Michigan)
Grant McCracken (Berkman Center, Harvard University)
Peppino Ortoleva (University of Torino)
Matthew Pittman (University of Oregon)
Mark Stewart (University of Amsterdam)
Chuck Tryon (Fayetteville State University)
* Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes and do not
imply endorsement.

Abstract submission

Please submit abstracts, as well as interest in serving as panel chairs or
discussants, to conference coordinator Jessica Bonner no later than March
13, 2017: jbonner at bu.edu

Please contact me for information regarding the workshop -- thanks!

Jacob
--
Dr. Jacob Groshek
Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Studies
Communication Research Center <http://sites.bu.edu/crc/about-crc/> Fellow
Hariri Institute <http://www.bu.edu/hic/> Junior Faculty Fellow
Boston University
jgroshek.org <http://www.jgroshek.org/>

Founding Editor, *Journal of Communication and Technology*
Boston Civic Media Consortium <http://bostoncivic.media/> Founding Member
Previously: Research Fellow, Erasmus Uni
<http://www.eshcc.eur.nl/english/research/research_centres/erasmus_research_centre_for_media_communication_and_culture/>
| Full Member, NeSCoR <http://nescor.socsci.uva.nl/>| Visiting Scholar, IAST
<http://www.iast.fr/>
@jgroshek <https://twitter.com/jgroshek> | google scholar
<https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=G1XXhccAAAAJ&hl=en>