October 1-2, 2020

Main campus of the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal)

Deadline: March 30, 2020

ECREA preconference on the relevance and persistence of traditional media co-organized by three ECREA Thematic Sections: Communication History, Radio Research, Television Studies.

Media and communication studies today especially focus on questions surrounding how digital media and digitization have changed and revolutionized previous media ecologies. Funding opportunities, PhD dissertations, journals and books on digitization and the relevance of digital media are overwhelming. This joint ECREA preconference, organized by the Communication History, Radio Research, and Television Studies Sections, invites colleagues to focus on and discuss claims that studying old media is imperative and still fully relevant to understand our contemporary media landscapes. In several media sectors, traditional media, such as television and radio, printing, analog photography and music, are still the most profitable businesses. The integration of old and new media seems to be more effective than disruptive models, and the so-called “old media” are still used and appreciated by media audiences worldwide. This preconference invites empirical and theoretical contributions from different angles. Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Old media persistence in terms of content, political mentality, business, law, regulation, audience and usage;
• Remediation and persistence of old media forms into new media, processes of digitization of old media and persistence of old media business models;
• The significance of traditional media (e.g. broadcasting, printing, analog photography and music, etc.) in contemporary digital culture;
• Production studies of old media industries;
• The persistence of propaganda and fake news from old to new media;
• Old media and how they contribute to the process of datafication;
• The persistence of old media in the everyday life of minoritarian or marginalised audiences;
• New media histories for old media;
• The persistence of old media activism;
• The continuation and renewal of old controversies and debates (on governance, neutrality, etc.);
• Nostalgia and use of old media archives as current practices both in the production of new media contents and in the audience consumptions.
• Analog photography, vinyl, tapes and Super8 movies (among others): the return of nostalgic media

Please send your 500 word abstract and a short bio of 100 words to info@oldnewspersistence.com.

Deadline for submissions is 30 March 2020. Authors will receive word of acceptance by 30 April 2020. The conference is schedule on the 1st and 2nd October, 2020 at the main campus of the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal).

For more information, please visit the website https://oldnewspersistence.com/ and contact the management teams of the three sections:

• Communication History (Gabriele Balbi, Valérie Schafer, Christian Schwarzenegger)
• Radio Research (Belén Monclús, Tiziano Bonini, Salvatore Scifo)
• Television Studies (Juan Francisco Gutiérrez Lozano, Susanne Eichner, Berber Hagedoorn)