This conference is organised by London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research.

Nowadays we live and breathe media, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour. News, television, social media, celebrity culture, music, and more. As the media and communication sector becomes ever more diverse and dynamic, and we are going to consume it, we also need to understand it.

Today, the new bio-technical forms of life produced by mainstream digital media and by a whole range of artistic and non-artistic practices confront us with unprecedented theoretical questions, which can be dealt with by combining profound and perplexing perspectives. We need appropriate theoretical frameworks in order to understand the phenomena.

Media studies requires the in-depth analysis and criticism. From newspapers, radio and television, to the Internet and mobile technologies, media, communication technologies and information tools impact our daily lives in countless ways. We use them to socialize with others, to seek out or share information and entertainment and to participate in social and cultural debates. But what are media, exactly? How do media institutions and technologies impact the development of society and culture and influence our activities and behaviours?

In turn, how do users shape media? What role does the economic structure of media institutions play in shaping our relationship with them? In what ways does the organization and presentation of information influence our understanding of the world and our place in it? How are user-generated forms of media such as social networking sites, blogs, and collaborative informational sources like Wikipedia changing the modern media environment?

These are just some of the questions the conference aims to answer. It will also focus on modern communication and information technologies, and try to discover the ways they influence our lives.

The conference will bring together speakers from various fields, including mass media, film studies, games industries, political sciences, education, etc., creating closer ties and connections among scholars from different disciplines working on communication and media studies.

Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

Media Cultures
Cultural representation and power in media
Politics of media and media in politics
Censorship, affront and censoriousness in media
Media Theory
Psychology of media and communications
The idea of the virtual
Cybernetics
Media discourses
Media analytics
Media Technologies and Processes
Mass media and broadcast media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines
Cinema and documentary
Typographic media
Internet and online media
Social media
Media Business
Media management
Intellectual property
Globalization of media
Advertising and marketing
Media Literacies
Media education
Media training and workforce development

Paper proposals up to 250 words and a brief biographical note should be sent by 15 June 2018 to: media@irf-network.org. Please download paper proposal form.

Standard registration fee – 260 GBP Student registration fee – 200 GBP

Venue: Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7HX