Intellect

Download the NL Notes for Contributors

Aims and Scope of the Journal

Northern Lights: Film and Media Studies Yearbook

is a peer reviewed international yearbook started in 2002 and dedicated to studies of film and media. Each yearbook is devoted to a specific theme. In addition, every volume may include articles on other topics as well as review articles. The yearbook wants to further interdisciplinary studies of media with a special emphasis on film, television and new media. Since the yearbook was founded in Scandinavia, the editors feel a special obligation towards Scandinavian and European perspectives.

But in a global media world it is important to have a global perspective on media culture. The yearbook is therefore open to all relevant aspects of film and media culture: We want to publish articles of excellent quality that are worth reading and have direct relevance for both academics in the broad, interdisciplinary field of media studies in both humanities and social sciences and for students in that area. But we also want to appeal to a broader public interested in thorough and well-written articles on film and other media.

Call for Submissions

Northern Lights: Film and Media Studies Yearbook

is published once a year and the publication has the form of a book-length anthology of articles related to a specific theme, but also with articles outside the theme. The editor is always open to receiving submissions. Articles should not exceed 8000 words, contain references and bibliography, and must include an abstract of no more than 150 words.

Call for Papers: Volume 12 - Themed Issue on:

New media talk
(Volume editor: Professor Anne Jerslev)

‘If all else failed, there was talk’, Paddy Scannell observes in his Televison & New Media article about Big Brother (2002). In many ways this observation is emblematic of what is going on in the new media landscape of today. Mediated talk seems to be flourishing and talk which was formerly primarily non-mediated has now entered the public mediated space in the form of different kinds of participatory activities - on Facebook and Twitter, on discussion forums, online chat rooms, blogs, etc. New media technologies enable new possibilities for ‘face-to-face’ talk and provide platforms for new kinds of talk; online small-talk and chat, postings and comments on commentary sites and social networking sites, confessional first-person close-ups talking directly to the user, and sms-comments to a political talkshow are all examples of communication enabled by new media. Correspondingly, viewers are invited to participate in all kinds of programs on all kinds of platforms by uploading opinions, talking back, gossiping, chatting online, making their own talk-videos, etc. Not to forget how mediated talk constructs sociability and influences non-mediated sociability.

The abundance of new digital communication tools and new ways of inviting consumers to participate in the production of media content produce talk everywhere. The question is what kinds of talk are generated in this new media ecology? How and to what extent are new forms of talk enabled by the development of new communication platforms? What forms of public talk are made possible – and in what ways have traditional talk genres like the talk show, the interview and the conversation developed with new possibilities for interaction and participation?

In reality television mundane sociable talk has served crucial functions, both as a social glue between participants, as a barrier against boredom and as a vehicle for emotional outbursts. The talk about programs has become integral to programming strategies in the new digital media landscape. Programs are constructed in order to generate talk and migrate across platforms; at best the rapid spread of talk about an uploaded video on YouTube can transform it into an event, a scandalous news item turns into a topic of instant gossip.

This volume of Northern Lights endeavours to look into new media talk and hence to follow up on preceding media talk books from Paddy Scannell’s 1991 Broadcast Talk volume to Sonia Livingstone’s and Peter Lunt’s Talk on Television, audience participation and public debate from 1996, Andrew Tolson’s Television Talk Shows and Media Talk from 2001 and 2006 respectively and Ian Hutchby’s Media Talk: Conversation Analysis and the Study of Broadcasting from 2006 – besides a host of other books and articles about talk shows, interviews, mediated debates, confessional talk, everyday talk and so on. Thus, talk is here understood in a broad meaning of the term.

Moreover, the title “New Media Talk” should be understood in two ways, one being “talk in new media” and the other “new forms of media talk”. In other words, this volume of Northern Lights focuses on the importance of new media for the development of forms and functions of different kinds of talk and the changes brought about to talk-genres and talk-forms in both ‘new’ and ‘old’ media.

Research topics may include (but are not restricted to):
• Discussions on the Internet related to different genres and media, including film
• Changes in broadcast talk genres influenced by new media
• Twitter talk and Facebook talk
• The use of sms-talk in different program contexts
• Anonymous discussion contra discussion by named participants on the internet
• Celebrity gossip
• Reality television talk and gossip
• Video conferences and the construction of presence
• Skype talk as face to face communication
• Live talk and the construction of presence in talk genres
• Talking heads in new media
• Sociability and talk in new and old media

Send abstracts of 3-400 words to Professor Anne Jerslev (volume editor): jerslev@hum.ku.dk
Deadline for abstract submission: May 1st 2013.
Notification of authors: 25 May 2013
Final article submission: 1 October 2013.
 

Already Published

The themes covered so far in the yearbook can be seen from the following list:

Vol. 1(2002): Realism and Reality in Film and Media

is dedicated to the representation of reality in film, TV and new media - a question of new importance in modern film and media, where a new wave of realism has dominated cinema and reality-TV became a mass phenomena on both TV and the internet. 11 articles by Danish, British, and American film and media researchers focus on two sub-themes: "Film and Realism" deals theoretically with film realism and analyses classic films and modern Danish Dogma films; "Documentary Forms, Reality TV and New Media" treats new forms of non-fiction film, TV and on the internet in a both theoretical and historical perspective. Authors: Ib Bondebjerg, Anne Jerslev, John Corner, Torben Grodal, John Ellis, Johannes Riis, Birger Langkjær, Arine Kirstein, Stig Hjarvard and John Caldwell.

Vol 2 (2003): Media in a Globalized Society

is concerned with the ways in which media take part in processes of globalization, including how they challenge existing cultures and create new and alternative symbolic and cultural environments. The volume addresses these questions through theoretical discussions and re-examination of existing international research and through a series of individual empirical studies covering global media phenomenon like the Olympics, the talk show, international beauty contests, satellite television, and media discourses on national culture. Authors: Stig Hjarvard, Daniel Biltereyst, Henrik Søndergaard, Hanne Bruun, Kirsten Frandsen, Norbert Wildermuth, Kevin Robins.

Vol 3 (2004): Visual Authorship. Creativity and Intentionality in Media

is a collection of essays offering a new approach to the study of authorship. The contributors point out that individual creativity is essential in the richly faceted media landscape of today. Individual creativity and the role of authorship are discussed in relation to film, television, computer games and the Internet. Theories of cognition and emotion offer new tools for the understanding of visual aesthetics; they explain why works of art are created by individuals and not by discourses and ideologies. Several contributors analyse in detail the works of Lars von Trier. Authors: Torben Grodal, Casper Tybjerg, Patrick Colm Hogan, Johannes Riis, Peter Schepelern, Birger Langkjær, Bente Larsen, Iben Thorving Laursen and Espen Aarseth.

Vol 4 (2006): European Film and Media Culture

is dedicated to the study of European film and media in general and gives a view of the general political and historical development of European media as well as case studies of European film and European television. In focus here are the problems related to national media cultures in a European and global context. Some of the articles discuss the American film and media as the general common culture all over Europe and the lack of a transnational European counterpart. The case studies cover both case studies of Turkey, Netherland, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, England and Hungary. The articles focus on different genres like popular European art films, television fiction-series, children's television, game shows, reality-series and more. Authors: Miyase and Christian Christensen, Miguel Angel Casado, Katalyn Lustyik, Sonja de Leeuw, Andreas Fickers, Dave Sinardet, Hilde van den Bulck, Helle Kannik Hastrup, Ib Bondebjerg, Peter Schepelern and Lennard Højbjerg Hansen.

Vol 5 (2007): Digital Aesthetics and Communication

examines how Media proliferate and migrate across new technological devices in an ongoing digital revolution. This involves changing aesthetics as well as refigured communication patterns. Among the questions raised for current scholars as well as for media practitioners are the following: 

Are 'new media' new in a more fundamental way than previous media? How are players coming to produce the computer games they play, and how does this phenomenon relate to the economic logic of Web 2.0? How are statesmen and -women dressing up their websites, and do these sites add to our democracies? To what extent and in which ways are media converging? These are just some of the questions discussed in this book, which collects contributions from: Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Arild Fetveit, Ib Bondebjerg, Adam Arvidsson, Kjetil Sandevik, Niel Brügger, Kristine Jørgensen, Gitte Bang Stald, Jay Bolter, Lev Manovich.

Vol 6 (2008): The mediatization of religion: enchantment, media and popular culture

focuses on the interconnectedness of popular culture, media and religion and discusses the role of media in the possible (re-)enchantment of cultural experiences. Popular culture provides an important source for a variety of popular religious beliefs, and media industries actively seeks to develop religious-like bonds to audiences in the form of fan cultures, brand communities etc. Furthermore, both old and new religious movements and beliefs have found new ways to reach their congregations through digital media. Due to the expanding role of the media system religion has become mediatized.. While late modernity in general is characterized by the spread of rationality, the popular culture of the media may be a growing source of enchantment. This book includes contributions from Stig Hjarvard, Graham Murdock, Torben Grodal, Casper Tybjerg, Ryan G. Hornbeck, Justin L. Barrett, Line Nybro Petersen, Christopher Partridge, Helle Kannik Haastrup, Lynn Schofield Clark, Ehab Galal and Lars-Martin Sørensen.

Vol 7 (2009): Film, Media & Politics

This issue deals with documentary films, democracy and the war on terror, media coverage of the falling of the Berlin wall, the role on online media in elections and politics, political news in a cross media perspective, feature films and politics in Europe and media events and international politics. Volume editors: Ib Bondebjerg and Jens Hof

Vol 8 (2010): Newspapers and Journalism in transition:The Printed Press as a Cultural and Political Resource in Contemporary News Landscapes

The 2010 volume of Northern Lights focuses on the function of the printed press as a cultural and political resource, at a time when extensive changes to both the market structure and journalistic content of newspapers entail large-scale consequences for the press, as well as for the public in general.

Vol 9 (2011): Media and Crime - Fiction and Journalism

This issue focuses on the relationship between media and crime. Since the modern, urban breakthrough, mediation of crime has been a crucial factor in determining how crime is perceived within the public sphere. It has enabled a dissemination of the discussion on moral and ethical issues from the few enlightened to the many. Crime is the central point of an extensive production of fiction in books, films, TV series, and games. Crime is also one of the most popular subjects of journalism, mediated in newspapers and electronic media, not least the internet. On this background, the concept of mediatization can be considered as a term apt to designate the new relationship between media, crime and society.

Vol 10 (2012): Re-thinking Film and Media Production: Creativity, Convergence and Participation

The 2012 volume of Northern Lights focuses on the renewed interest in film and media production. In recent years there has been a shift across a broad field of media and cultural studies from primarily devoting attention to the finished product, oeuvre or reception to also considering production practices. On the one hand, technological changes in the modes of production and distribution have caused a blurring of boundaries between media consumers and producers. On the other hand, concurrent with a heightened awareness of the project-based nature of work in creative industries, a scholarly interest in creative collaborations, choices and constraints as well as institutional contexts have emerged. New empirical topics along with new theoretical and analytical tools have gained ground within film and media research in response to this development. Areas of studies such as ‘screenwriting’, ‘creativity’ and ‘convergence culture’ are appearing, just as familiar theoretical keywords like ‘production aesthetics’ and ‘cultural production’ are being rethought. Acknowledging that the conditions of production have a great impact on the framework for reception, production analysis and theory may pave the way for new insights into the aesthetical, technological, ethical, ideological, political and economical aspects of film and media.