Call for Papers Old media persistence. Past continuities in the brand-new digital world

Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS) is very pleased to announce that Gabriele Balbi (USI Università della Svizzera italiana), Berber Hagedoorn (University of Groningen) and Nazan Haydari (Istanbul Bilgi University) will guest edit a Thematic Section entitled: "Old media persistence. Past continuities in the brand-new digital world". Deadline for submission of abstracts (max. 500 words) is February 15 2022.

This Thematic Section aims to better understand the reasons why, despite the popular discourses of disruptive innovation of the digital age, old media persist over time. Specifically, it seeks to elucidate the very current examples of past continuities in the brand-new digital world. In several media sectors, “old” or traditional media, such as landline telephony, television, radio, film, printing, analogue photography and music, have not disappeared – despite voices to the contrary (see, amongst others, Enli & Syvertsen 2016). Depending on social, cultural, and political contexts, these industries and platforms can be preferred spaces of communication and maintain their potential as profitable businesses. Old media also persist in terms of content, political mentality, business, law, regulation, audience and usage. We aim to better understand the reasons why this is the case. Why is the old persisting? The Thematic Section should ideally generate theoretical and empirical debates among media scholars from diverse disciplines in media and culture studies, with specific case studies but also theoretical reflections on this topic. We are aware of the fact that journals, conferences, and books are devoted to “old media” today. But the aim of this Thematic Section is different: It aims to provide a comprehensive and intermedial reflection on: (1) the persistence of the old and past continuities in the brand-new digital world; (2) the role of innovation that old or traditional media still play in societies today, and (3) the future of old media in media studies research. Mapping the continuities and discontinuities between the contemporary and inherited practices of media constitutes a new mode of inquiry into the historiography of media. Dialectic relationships between old and new media also provide political, methodological and theoretical cues in understanding the contemporary media landscape.

Submitted papers have to address one or some of the following research questions:
• Why and how do old media persist in contemporary media ecologies?
• What does persistence mean in media studies?
• What is the relationship between traditional and digital media, and how traditional media are integrated in digital realms?
• How do digital media remediate old media and, vice versa, how do old media change because of digital media?

Plese see this link for the call for papers and formal requirements.