November 1, 2019

Coventry University

Deadline: July 31, 2019

MeCCSA Local and Community Media Network

Abstracts are invited for a one-day symposium examining the current landscape for local and community media. The event is the first organised by the MeCCSA Local and Community Media Network and aims to bring together scholars and practitioners together to reappraise the sector as it undergoes rapid change and disruption. Keynote sessions will be delivered by Professor Bridgette Wessels from Glasgow University, researcher in the REGPRESS project, which is based in Sweden and which is examining the role of regional and local press, and Matthew Barraclough, head of BBC Local News Partnerships.

Papers which examine any area of the above are welcome and may include both theoretical reflections and practice-based interventions to consider the range of responses to this disruption and how those relate to the perceived role and purpose of local and community media.

Areas which might be addressed include, but are not limited to:

• Local democratic processes
• Social justice
• Information provision
• Local media ecosystems
• Communities
• Policy makers
• Media entrepreneurs and emerging business models
• Alternative local and community media
• Interventions, for instance the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Facebook-funded Community News Project.

Papers will be peer-reviewed. Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a cover sheet with a brief biographical note, your institutional affiliation (where relevant) and your contact details (including your email address). Abstracts should be sent to network chair r.matthews@coventry.ac.uk. Please address any queries to the same address in the first instance.

Closing date for proposals: July 31 2019. You will be notified of the acceptance of your paper by early September.

The event will be held at Coventry University in the Midlands of the UK on Friday, November 1, 2019. A nominal fee of £10 will be charged for attendance. A limited number of travel grants will also be available to enable attendance by PG/ECR researchers. Please state on your abstract if you would like to be considered for a grant and the amount requested.