Mediascape Features Section Call for Papers
Fall 2014: Adaptation

For the Features section of its Fall 2014 issue, Mediascape, UCLA’s journal of cinema and media studies, invites scholarly articles that address the theme of adaptation.

Adaptation has long characterized both “old” and “new” media. From the early days of cinema through today, we see adaptations occurring in many forms, especially as the media landscape itself adapts to new technologies, changing audiences, dynamic industries, and fluid geographical boundaries. The aim of this issue is to explore the various methods by which adaptation informs our mediascape. We welcome papers that examine any interpretation of adaptation in the context of film, television, and digital media.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- Traditional forms of adaptation (adapting stories from one medium to another, book adaptations, adapted screenplays, etc.) — How has this practice changed? What factors characterize “traditional” adaptation today?
- Digital adaptation — How are adaptations made from “old” to “new” media? How are video games (or even board games) adapted into traditional cinematic forms? Likewise, how are filmic narratives adapted into digital media?
- Character/narrative adaptation — What happens to characters or narratives when they are adapted between different media forms? How are they improved or compromised by such changes?
- Remediation — How are different media themselves adapted within other forms of media?
- Transnational adaptations — What happens when adaptations occur across national boundaries and across cultures? How are Hollywood films re-edited to appeal to international audiences? How are “foreign” films adapted to appeal to American audiences?
- Adapting real-world locations to diegetic spaces — How are real-world spaces adapted in different media? Similarly, how have fictional worlds impacted real-world spaces?
- Adaptation theories in the age of convergence — How have changing technological and digital environments (social media, etc.) led to new adaptations of older cinematic traditions to fit a world in flux?
- Adapting to new technologies — How have industrial aspects such as distribution or exhibition adapted over the years (both historically and more recently) in response to changing technologies?

Interested participants are invited to submit papers of between 4,500 and 7,000 words (about 15-25 pages) in length along with a CV to features.mediascape@gmail.com by February 14th, 2014.

If you have any questions, please contact Heather Birdsall or Sean Bristol-Lee at features.mediascape@gmail.com