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M/C Reviews - An ongoing series of reviews of events in culture and the
media. <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/>
Call for Contributors
M/C Reviews, the companion publication to the University of Queensland's M/C
-- A Journal of Media and Culture, would like to invite contributions of review
articles for its upcoming feature on the millennium.
M/C Reviews aims to provide an ongoing culture and media review forum for those
interested in media and cultural studies.
We hope that by publishing critically engaging reviews (and
ethnographies) of every conceivable cultural form, M/C Reviews will provide a
useful barometer of culture-in-process and also, thereby, opportunities to
share the kinds of pertinent insights that are not usually available in
academic publications. We accept short and medium-length pieces, favouring ones
that are accessible and thought provoking.
In 1999 we have initiated a series of themed feature sections designed to
collect and juxtapose various angles on particular issues. Each feature consists of five to fifteen
review articles. Previous features (which
are still available online) have focussed on Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, the
Stage X Youth Festival, the E-Journal genre, the National Young Writers'
Festival, and Food.
M/C Reviews invites contributions to the upcoming M/C Reviews feature:
Freedom Dreams: Politics and
Alternative Media on the Net
Edited by
Guy Redden
M/C Reviews would like to invite contributions of review articles for its upcoming
feature issue about politics and alternative media online. M/C R accepts short
and medium-length pieces (500 - 1500 words), favouring ones that are accessible
and thought-provoking. We seek contributions from all interested and involved
parties including activists, journalists, NGOs, politicians, academics and
independent 'netizens'. Critiques, ethnographies and reports (first and third
person), reviews of sites, interviews and any other original pieces that shed
light on this multifaceted theme will all be relevant.
There seems little doubt that the mobilisation and information-sharing of concerned
groups and individuals over the Internet played a decisive role in last year's protests
against the World Trade Organisation in Seattle. Daily, massive amounts of
political information - from action alerts, political propaganda, exposs and
alternative media reports to independent research, petitions and press-releases
- are circulated through Websites, Usenet, and email discussion lists.
Alternative video sites show hours of political and protest footage edited from
TV; issue-based coalitions are created nearly overnight and local groups post
information relevant to their communities.
Martin Luther started a social revolution by posting a public message on a door.
Yet it was because that message and others were propagated by the then-radical
new print media that the Reformation took hold. Are we then, as some suggest,
on the brink of a digital political revolution? Are new forms of
alliance/participation-based civil society emerging to counter the status quo
held in place by representative democracy, corporate plutocracy and the conventional
mainstream media? Or are online activists and alternative journalists largely
irresponsible purveyors of conspiracy theories? How is mainstream politics
adapting to the Net? Will 'e- government' become a reality?
Some suggested topics for 'Freedom Dreams' include:
Cybercampaigns - the roles of computer networks, especially the WWW, email and
Usenet, in high-profile activist campaigns such as those against landmines,
militarism, biotechnology and genetically-modified foods, trade liberalisation,
environmental degradation and economic globalisation (WTO, MAI), third world
debt.
Alternative media - resource and portal sites, alternative news services, email
newsletters, NGO sites, activist sites, challenges to mainstream media,
'reliability'.
Party politics - political campaigns online (especially the US presidential),
official and unofficial sites, 'Web-slander' and sabotage. Groups, netizens and alliances - the role of
the Net in the running of organisations, one-to-many communication, creating
links, critical mass, the perils and payoffs of making the online transition,
information overload, exclusion of the netless and the 'globalisation' of
activism, the libertarian impulse.
Government and business - reactions of governments and businesses to online information
flow, their use of the Net, censorship, surveillance, PR, government and
business engagement with online NGO research and lobbies, attempts at
incorporation.
Submission deadline: 3 April 2000.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/>
- M/C Reviews Website <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/contribute.html>
- M/C R contributors' guidelines
(please read before submitting)
g.redden@mailbox.uq.edu.au - enquiries and submissions
Examples of previous feature sections and how to contribute can also be found
on our Website.
Axel
Bruns
--
M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture mc@mailbox.uq.edu.au
The University of Queensland http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/
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