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CFP: "Rethinking the distinction between old and new media"

Special Issue of *Convergence: The International Journal of Research
into New Media Technologies*

Guest editors: Frederik Lesage (Simon Fraser University, Canada) and
Simone Natale (Loughborough University, UK)

**Expected date of publication: August 2019**

Since at least the early 1990s with the publication of groundbreaking
works such as Manovich's The Language of New Media, the rise of digital
and online media into every facet of our lives has been conceptualized
through distinctions between "new" and "old" media. Yet, scholars have
recently started to criticize such concepts, arguing that they are
inappropriate to describe media change and that they do not help improve
our understanding of the relationship between different media in
contemporary societies. Approaches to the biography and social life of
media have examined how definitions of oldness and newness are
attributed to technologies and artefacts throughout their lifetime,
providing an interpretative model to rethink processes such as
convergence, media encounters, and the transformations that media
technologies and practices experience throughout time.

This special issue will further advance these reflections. It aims to
illuminate places, cases, and contexts where distinctions between old
and new media break down, and to propose alternative theoretical
frameworks that redefine media change and the interaction between
different media. Papers are invited that interrogate how changing
definitions of old and new media inform the trajectory of specific media
as well as their interrelations, moving away from rigid conceptions of
oldness and newness to emphasise, instead, the persistent changes that
characterise our relationship with media objects and technologies.

##### Potential topics:

The editors welcome contributions that explore questions such as:

- How can we rethink media change beyond the old/new media and the
 analogue/digital media distinctions?
- How can approaches to the biographies and social life of media
 contribute to the redefinition of approaches to "old" and "new" media?
- How and in which contexts are specific media technologies and
 artefacts attributed the qualities of oldness and/or newness?
- To what extent do definitions of old and new media change throughout
 time?
- How do emotions such as nostalgia, enthusiasm for the new, etc. inform
 our definitions and perceptions of oldness and newness in regard with
 media?
- What is the role of narratives and storytelling in these processes?
- To what extent are newness and oldness employed as rhetorical tropes
 by specific groups and individuals to animate particular visions of
 technological change?
- To what extent does the marketing and promotion of specific media
 products and technologies draw from representations of novelty and/or
 oldness?
- What do we mean when we consider the potential "death" of media such
 as print books, cinema, or television?
- Which research methods can be used to study media change and the
 encounter between different media technologies and practices
 throughout time?

**Deadline for abstracts: [31th May 2018]{.underline}**

Please send a 500-word abstract and a 100-word bio to the guest
editors: [flesage@sfu.ca](mailto:flesage@sfu.ca){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} and [s.natale@lboro.ac.uk](mailto:s.natale@lboro.ac.uk){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}

Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to send full contributions
by 31st October 2018

- <http://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/CON/Rethinking_the_distinction_between_old_and_new_media.pdf>

CFP: “Rethinking the distinction between old and new media” Special Issue of

 Convergence:


 The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

Guest editors: Frederik Lesage (Simon Fraser University, Canada) and Simone Natale (Loughborough University, UK)

 Expected date of publication: August 2019

Since at least the early 1990s with the publication of groundbreaking works

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

CfP: Convergence, Special issue “Rethinking the distinction between old and new media”. Deadline: May 31, 2018.