The following journalism and writing conferences in New York City (August 31 - September 3, 2017) might be of interest to German-CFP members exploring broadcast and print media in European contexts. Group registration will be available to delegates presenting at both conferences. Please feel free to share with faculty, students, and non-academic writers.

Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) 5th International Conference

Bridging Gaps: Where is the Critic in Television Journalism?

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
 New York City, USA
August 31-September 1, 2017

Conference Keynote Speaker:

Andrew Mendelson
Associate Dean & Professor, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

Conference Key Media Speaker:

Tim Harper
Journalist & Visiting Professor, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

In broadcast journalism, the notion of the ‘TV academic’ is rare but important with the origins related to the Fourth Estate’s veritable position as critical government watchdogs. Similar in nature to questions on conflating the journalist with celebrity in popular discourse are those surrounding the academic and celebrity. In his case, Birmingham City University professor and broadcaster David Wilson discovered, “The greatest tension is the growing perception by some members of the public that I am a celebrity, rather than an academic.” At the same time, he notes that the benefits of being a public scholar greatly outweigh the downsides.

Mainstream TV uses social media to augment its reach, facilitating dialogues between actors and viewers. These dominant tactics further engage by mitigating the role of perceived mediators between celebrities and their on-screen personas. In an analogous way, more conversations that include academics are crucial in mainstream TV. Without them, redefining or redesigning efforts that stimulate critical faculties in the collective mind and make for good citizenry become lost amidst the noise of what postmodern French philosopher Jean Baudrillard once characterized as an era of “more and more information, and less and less meaning”.

So how can an academic produce a TV show or offer television appearances while disregarding stereotypical trappings associated with the ‘celebrity academic’? How can these efforts be accomplished in ways that preserve the integrity of the academe yet also cater to mass audience within one’s area of scholarship? What are some ethical tactics and key platforms in which these voices are best and most widely heard?

The Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) Bridging Gaps conference, in association with sponsors Centre for Ecological, Social, and Informatics Cognitive Research (ESI.CORE) and WaterHill Publishing, invites academics, journalists, publicists, producers and guests to attend, speak and collaborate at the international conference Bridging Gaps: Where is the Critic in Television Journalism? Join us in NYC where the conference will uniquely combine vibrant roundtable and workshop panels with a CMCS TV proposal in a collaborative network.

The format of the conference aims at being open and inclusive ranging from interdisciplinary academic scholars to practitioners involved in all areas of television journalism, including tactics related to engagement capitalizing on existing public and private television channels and evolving forms of social media—from YouTube to Vimeo, Zoom to Jing, Periscope to Google Hangout. Working papers and media productions will be considered for the conference.

Extended versions of selected best papers will be published in an edited book.

Registration includes: Your printed package for the complete conference, professional development workshops, coffee / tea breaks, access to evening receptions, complimentary evening drinks, consideration for publication, and the CMCS $100 best paper and $100 best screen awards.

Submission guidelines:

Celebrity Chat Video Submissions:

Topics include but are not limited to:

The best writings will be reviewed, selected, and offered publication in an edited book.

Registration includes: Your printed package for the complete conference, professional development workshops, coffee / tea breaks, access to evening receptions, complimentary evening drinks, consideration for publication, and the WaterHill Publishing $100 best writing award.

Submission guidelines:

Featured Writers’ Workshops

Our unique workshops aim at developing the writer's sense of self and learning how to use media effectively.

 

Workshop #1
Pathways for the Writer’s Success

with Kofi Forson

 

The creative process of writing starts when the writer recognizes his / her personal and cultural history. Everything begins when the writer identifies a literary voice through which the writing is expressed in detail. That is when the writer is able to tell the story. We will achieve the power of storytelling with review of written drafts and feedback from groups, and evaluate the writing process whether writing an op-ed, press release or creative story. In doing so, we bridge a gap between the creative process and career

development of a writer. The objective then is to map out an audience for marketing the writing and seek publishing with help of research and dialogue.

 

What will you learn from this workshop?

 

 

Bio: Kofi Forson is a writer, poet and playwright living in New York City. His blog, Black Cocteau,

presents a mixture of philosophy and art on modern culture. Kofi Forson also writes for Whitehot

Magazine. In his writings, he aims at sharing his inspirations and advice for artistic and literary

treatments of cultural figures and artifacts in popular culture.

 

Workshop #2

Creativity as a Cognitive Tool: Writing as a Reflexive Process

with Andrea Marshall

 

This workshop will demonstrate interventions designed to assist writers throughout the process of prewriting, drafting, and editing various types of projects. Creativity can be harnessed and refined into a cognitive and critical tool that allow us to find our unique voices as writers, through scientific methods that produce tangible and viable results as we proceed with writing projects. Reflexivity is an approach to writing that promotes the finding of our individual voices as writers, through the application of innovative problem solving techniques including peer review. Creativity promotes sensitivity to others’ perspectives, and collaboration supports innovation during the writing process. This workshop will feature hands on exercises created to bring the writing process out of isolation and into contemporary multimodal approaches that construct new ways of understanding writing as procedural knowledge that includes the transparency of process.

 

This workshop will feature activities that will:

 

 

Bio: Andrea Marshall’s interdisciplinary work seeks to understand how informal learning environments support the construction of gendered expertise in sociotechnical contexts. She aims at creating value sensitive educational practices that synthesize new approaches to skill building and nonlinear learning processes, in order to better comprehend how we can create innovative pedagogical approaches that support diversity in terms of both varied gender expressions and multivalent learning styles.

WaterHill Publishing aims at publishing books and periodicals that:

Our authors are both emergent and established inspirational thought leaders who bring forth provocative and actionable ideas.

Conference Chair: Saul Courrier
Conference Committee: Ashley Barthes, Kofi Forson and Andrea Marshall
Conference URL: http://www.waterhillpublishing.com/events/nycconf2017.html
Twitter: @whpublishing #WH2017

 

 

 

******************* The German Studies Call for Papers List Editor: Sean Franzel Assistant Editor: Olaf Schmidt Sponsored by the University of Missouri Info available at: https://grs.missouri.edu/german/resources