CFP: Docs, Blogs, Zines, Online Media (Society for Cinema and Media Studies)
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
March 2-5, 2006
Vancouver, Canada
http://www.cmstudies.org/conference_index.html
The SCMS Caucus on Class ( http://terri1.home.mindspring.com) is sponsoring the following call for papers. Please send 150-word proposal, plus brief bibliography and bio statement, by August 20, 2005.
"Filling the Void: How Docs, Blogs, Zines, and Other Online Media Are Redefining Journalism"
While mainstream media grows more economically consolidated and politically conservative, social issue documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Supersize Me have achieved surprising box office success and received extensive critical attention. Other critical documentaries (e.g. Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War) have reached audiences through links to
progressive political organizations. This panel seeks papers exploring the ways in which contemporary documentaries-as well as other forms of alternative, online distribution (websites, blogs, online journals, etc.) and exhibition venues-are explicitly engaging political discourse. How has the "new journalism" influenced documentary technique and challenged that of corporate and mainstream media? How are online distribution and alternative exhibition venues related to the politics of such films/videos? Are there significant differences from political documentary strategies of the 1930s and 1960s?
CONTACT: Christopher Sharrett - sharrech@shu.edu
