[Air-L] CFP: Book Chapters on Conservative News

[A.J. Bauer]

*CFP for Book Chapters**: News on the Right: Studying Conservative News
Cultures*

The recent surge of populist, nationalist, and authoritarian politics has
brought to light an immense resistance against modern, professional
journalism’s claims to truth and fairness. The trending notion of a
“post-truth” age may not be a satisfying diagnosis of journalism’s
predicament, but it signifies that a long battle has intensified over how
news institutions discern truths and prioritize key facts and voices. While
not alone, conservative news organizations have been at the front lines of
that battle for decades, which begs the questions: How have conservatives
approached the question of news and its veracity? Indeed, what is the
‘news’ on the right?

The aim of this collection is to bring focus to conservative news and
information as a crucial area for academic inquiry, especially for critical
media studies and journalism studies. Despite several important works
historicizing the growth of conservative news, there remains a relative
dearth of scholarship on conservative news cultures and, even more
importantly, a lack of continuity and exchange of ideas among the outposts
where such scholarship is underway. To start bridging this disconnect, this
book will bring together an interdisciplinary array of scholars to build
upon key questions, enrich debates, and share knowledge about the currents
of conservative media. Conservative news has become a tremendously powerful
platform in the United States, wielding a vast influence on the terms of
political discourse. Some of the major questions we pose for thinking about
conservative news include: What principles and habits have these news
cultures adapted for discerning truth and falsehood? For judging news
selection and prioritization? How have the aesthetics of conservative news
developed? How do conservative news producers and consumers see their
purpose within a larger, more heterogeneous public sphere? What actors,
historic circumstances, and affective dynamics have shaped conservative
news norms? How have those norms differed across factions and moments?

This collection will focus mostly on conservative news cultures centered in
the United States, but we are also seeking contributors who can offer
transnational and comparative perspectives. We are looking for contributors
who will draw on cultural history, political economy, and cultural studies
approaches to studying conservative news, the growth of its media
infrastructure, its diverse publics, its normative propositions, and
related topics. While we are seeking case studies among other approaches,
we hope all contributors will connect their research to broad questions or
lines of research relating to conservative news – i.e. we are looking for
studies that clearly articulate significant claims beyond the analysis of a
single text. We would like contributors to submit abstracts of no more than
500 words. We also ask that contributors be willing to share their drafts
with each other, so that we may recommend contributors address each others’
ideas during revisions.

For a preliminary draft of our proposal, see: https://tinyurl.com/jqcts9k

Schedule:

Abstracts due: April 30,th 2017

Decisions on proposals: May 30th

Proposal to presses: June 1st

Chapter drafts: November 1st

Revisions: February 1st, 2018

Please send abstracts or questions to: rightnewscfp at gmail.com

We seek contributions centering on the following themes:

   - The mythology of the liberal media
   - The affective registers and/or aesthetics of conservative media
   - Journalistic sensibilities of conservative news producers
   - Journalistic sensibilities of conservative news audiences
   - Conservative news and movement infrastructure
   - Methodological questions and dilemmas for scholarship on right wing
   news cultures
   - Right wing news and media technologies

*Editors *

Anthony M. Nadler is an Assistant Professor of Media and Communication
Studies at Ursinus College. He is the author of *Making the News Popular:
Mobilizing U.S. News Audiences *(2016, University of Illinois Press). His
latest research project focuses on the growth of online conservative news
and opinion outlets.


A.J. Bauer is a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellow and Doctoral
Candidate in the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis at New York
University. His work has appeared in *The Guardian*, *The New Inquiry*
and *Social
Test: Periscope*, and is forthcoming in *American Journalism*. His
dissertation, “Before Fair and Balanced: Conservative Media Activism and
the Rise of the New Right” will be defended this spring.

-- 
A.J. Bauer
*Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellow*
Doctoral Candidate | American Studies
Department of Social & Cultural Analysis
New York University
214.244.8247