Call For Papers

In order to fully understand the digital culture, it is important to examine not only the economic and social impacts of an information society but to examine these alongside the shifting and emerging cultural forms that are already playing an increasing part in mainstream consumer and media cultures. Thus, this conference strives to integrate and make explicit the link of more economically based ‘information society’, emerging from cultural studies and communication studies that focuses on the production, use and consumption of digital media.

As we experience the pressures from new media we tend to readjust our positions and situate these within wider sociological debates around globalization, individualization and consumerism. The conference aim to emphasize and contextualize the increasing importance of mobile, wireless and converged media technologies and forms in everyday life activities and also to map the transformations of cultural forms associated with the rise of new media and its consumption. It is interesting to examine the ways in which the rise of information society has posed new challenges and transformations of older socio-cultural topics such as inequality, power, identity, community and belonging.

While digital culture has become an unremarkable part of everyday life, it also continues to be source of never-ending creativity, the continual manifestations of digital culture never ceases to be surprising in its developments. This conference from department of communication studies, ask their paper presenters to think differently about contemporary digital media cultures, whether through a historical questioning of the perceived newness of new media or of alternative historical possibilities, or through a critical or creative rethinking of accepted forms, institutions, economics, relationships and aesthetics. This conference can be considered as off-shoot of TCC-2012(Conference conducted in 2012 on Technology Communication and Culture at DCS),and this niche collection of themes aims both to contribute to the fields of study addressing new media and digital culture, whilst also challenging them.

Papers- based on empirical research or discursive analysis , focusing on any of the following or other relevant themes are invited for the conference. The following list is only indicative and should not be considered as exhaustive.

Ethics & politics in new media era:
New media ecology is a chaotic landscape evolving at a furious pace. Central question is to what extent existing media ethics is suitable for todays and tomorrow’s new media, that is immediate, interactive and ‘always on’. Investigation of the increasingly urgent question on how digital technologies structure and incorporate the domains and boundaries of political and ethical reflections of Society.

Economics of New Media:
The rise of New Media has radically changed many aspects of daily life, yet the economic implications of New Media are hard to discern. The age of new media has produced only a handful of profitable new companies (like Amazon, Google etc.). So, an economic analysis of new media must begin to understand the viability and long term impact to offer policy recommendations.

 Comparative media:
New media from the perspective of the old media and vice versa. How the new media have assumed the conventions of the old media (‘rear view mirrorism’) and how the old media have expanded their scope under the influence of the new media. (‘remediation’)

 New media and Popular culture:
Socio-cultural exchange between the new media and practices from daily life. This field ranges from subcultures to mainstream markets and can include objects such as computer games, online communities, databases, mobile telephony, etc.

 Identity Construction & Communal Participation:
Reflecting on the transformations and consolidations of identity (ethnic, gender, age, etc.) from the perspectives of cultural philosophy and politics, with an emphasis on the opportunities for participation, co-construction and criticism of digital cultures.

 Communication & Technology:
Pragmatic analysis of the technological component of new communication technologies (design, interface, programming).

 Theorizing New Media:
There is no set method or theoretical framework for studying New Media. Accelerated diffusion of digital media demand exploration on its own. Traditional media environments have been challenged not simply by technological innovations, but at an ecological level. MNDC-2013 welcomes the discussion on new theoretical approaches to New Media as it outlines the way the media has been analysed and explained historically.

 Semiotics and Aesthetics of New Media
How do new media relate to different sign systems and languages, technological phenomena like digitality and virtuality, or categories like orality and literacy?