MEA 2020 Convention Submission Deadline Extended to January 10, 2020

The Twenty-First Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association Communication Choices and Challenges 

June 18-21, 2020 Adelphi University, Garden City, New York

Media Ecology is a discipline whose history, perspectives, and scholarly interests incorporate a broad array of academic and professional disciplines focusing on “the study of complex communication systems asenvironments” (Christine Nystrom, 1973). Every year, the MEA convention provides a unique opportunity for academics and professionals to come together in a relaxed and collegial environment that encourages conversation and creativity. 

The theme of the 2020 convention is “Communication Choices and Challenges.” In every act of communication, people make choices. We choose where, when, and how to express ourselves or locate and use information. We choose the medium that seems best suited to the task: are we trying to reach the largest possible audience, get the word out quickly, or ensure that our message reaches future generations? Do we wish to convey a deep sense of intimacy, empathy, authority, or cool distance? Are we looking for information from a wide variety of perspectives, confirmation of what we already believe, or the deepest possible exploration of an issue? 

Featured speakers at the 2020 convention include Jay Rosen, press critic and author of PressThink.org, What Are Journalists For?, and countless articles and essays on American journalism; and Maryanne Wolf,international advocate for children and literacy and author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Tales of Literacy for the 21^stCentury, and Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain. 

We invite all papers, thematic panels, roundtable discussion panels, creative projects, performance sessions, and other proposals of interest to media ecologists. We also encourage submissions that explore the convention theme. For example, we are interested in submissions that address choices and challenges related to 

• the construction of identity and the presentation of self on social media
  
• the use of media to establish and/or maintain relationships (among individuals, in families, between political leaders and their constituents, in between celebrities and fans, etc.)
  
• representation and storytelling by producers of news and entertainment
  
• promotional and strategic communication—the choices involved in designing strategic messaging, as well as the impact on audience attitudes, decisions, and behaviors
  
• the erosion or illusion of choice due to the concentration of media ownership
  
• the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which will take place just months after the convention

Guidelines for Submission

Please submit paper and panel proposals, in English, by January 10, 2020 to MEA2020Convention@gmail.com. 

A maximum of two submissions per author will be accepted. Authors who wish their papers to be considered for the Top Paper or Top Student Paper award must indicate this on their submission(s). 

Submission Guidelines for paper and panel proposals: 

1. Include title(s), abstract(s) (maximum 250 words), and contact information for each participant.

2. Outline, as relevant, how your paper or panel will fit with the convention theme.

3. Authors with papers submitted as part of a panel proposal or as a paper proposal that wish to be considered for Top Paper or Top Student Paper must send the completed paper to the convention planner by May 15, 2020. 

Submission guidelines for manuscripts eligible for MEA award submissions:

1. Manuscripts should be 4,000-6,000 words (approximately 15 to 25 double-spaced pages)

2. Include a cover page with your institutional affiliation and other contact information.

3. Include an abstract (maximum 150 words). 

Please direct questions to:

Peggy Cassidy, MEA2020Convention@gmail.com.

For more on the Media Ecology Association, visit www.media-ecology.org

Here is the list of MEA Panels and Presentations at NCA this Month

November 14

11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Presentations:

Hashtags, Binarisms, and the Flattening of Discourse in a Post-Parkland Ecology

Author: Samantha Chaffin, Idaho State University

Networked Insularity: Using WeChat to Foster Activist Enclaves

Author: Elizabeth Brunner, Idaho State University

The Digital Hydrosphere: On Twitter’s Billowing, Prodigious Flood

Author: Eric S. Jenkins, University of Cincinnati

The Fragmented Architecture of Instagram: Scrolling, Swiping, and the Intimate Reaches of Neoliberal Logic

Author: Kate L. Drazner Hoyt, Pacific Lutheran University

5:00 PM – 6:15 PM

Presentations:

“What would Virginia Woolf do?” Managing Women’s Midlife Demands via Facebook Support Group

Author: Alane L. Presswood, Hollins University

From the Boardroom to the Bedroom: We are F*cking Machines

Author: Bernadette Ann Bowen, Bowling Green State University

Men in the Menstrual Media Ecology

Author: David Linton, Marymount Manhattan College

Social Media Ecology and Digital Women’s Work

Author: Angela M. Cirucci, Kutztown University

The Extensions of Man, the Exclusion of Women

Author: Carolin Aronis, University of Colorado Boulder, and Colorado State University 

November 15

8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

Presentations:

Hey Google: A thematic analysis of Twitter users’ comments on the privacy of AI devices in the home

Author: Heather Riddell, University of West Florida

Co-Author:

Christopher Fenner, University of West Florida

Beyond People: Communication is Transhuman

Author: David K. Westerman, North Dakota State University  

Co-Author(s):

Autumn P. Edwards, Western Michigan University

Patric R. Spence, University of Central Florida

Chad Edwards, Western Michigan University 

The Relevance of R. D. Laing to the AI Movement: Projection and the Feeling of Being Understood

Author: Corey Anton, Grand Valley State University

Whose Perspective? The Productive Censorship of A.I.-Assisted Comment Moderation

Author: Andrew Wirzburger, University of Pennsylvania

11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Presentations:

The Racist’s Library: An Analysis of ‘Cultural Marxism’, the Hyperlink, and Sovereignty

Author: Rishi Chebrolu, University of Pittsburgh  

Literacy and Internet Pornography: Media Ecology Meets Psychology

Author: Lane Grafton, Duquesne University  

The Great Symbol Drain of Christianity: Neil Postman and the Postmodern Church

Author: Kati E. Sudnick, Duquesne University  

The Kind of Problem a Smart City Is

Author: Austin David Hestdalen, Duquesne University  

Communication as Travel: The Genre of Letters to the Dead in Public Media

12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Author: Carolin Aronis, University of Colorado Boulder, and Colorado State University

Dancing with My Drone: Affective Entanglements and Mobile Companionship

12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Author: Julia M. Hildebrand, Eckerd College

12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Lance A. Strate, Fordham University, will be holding an office hour

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Respondent(s):

David E. Weber, University of North Carolina, Wilmington 

Peter G. Lindmark, North Dakota State University 

Kyle Heuett, Ball State University 

Joseph Sery, Christopher Newport University

Michael Plugh, Manhattan College

Lindsey A. Harvell-Bowman, James Madison University

Tim Steffensmeier, Kansas State University 

Emily Winderman, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 

Richard Huskey, University of California, Davis 

Joy M. Woods, University of Texas at Austin 

Presentations:

A Media Ecological Approach to the History of Music Notation: The Neume, Staff and Mensural Rhythm

Author: Barry D. Liss, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Respondent:

Lance A. Strate, Fordham University 

Presentations:

First Nations of the Book: Understanding Judaism

Author: Lance A. Strate, Fordham University 

Holocaust Memorials as Urban Medium

Author: Gary Gumpert, Urban Communication Foundation

Co-Author: Susan Drucker, Hofstra University 

The Jewish Tradition of Rocks, Stones, and Bricks in Plastic Times

Author: Carolin Aronis, University of Colorado Boulder, and Colorado State University  

November 16

8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

Presenter(s):

Janine Khammash, St. Edward’s University

Jennifer Jean Reinwald, University of Pittsburgh

Ambrose N. Curtis, University of Pittsburgh 

Austin David Hestdalen, Duquesne University

Respondent(s)

Brenton J. Malin, University of Pittsburgh 

Teresita (Tere) Garza, St. Edwards University 

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Presenter(s):

Corey Anton, Grand Valley State University

Susan Drucker, Hofstra University 

Thomas F. Gencarelli, Manhattan College 

Stephanie Gibson, University of Baltimore 

Paul Grosswiler, University of Maine

Susan A. Jasko, California University of Pennsylvania 

Paul Soukup S.J., Santa Clara University 

Lance A. Strate, Fordham University 

Valerie V. Peterson, Grand Valley State University 

11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Presenter(s):

Eric S. Jenkins, University of Cincinnati 

Peter Zhang, Grand Valley State University 

Ronan Hallowell, University of Southern California

Robert C. MacDougall, Curry College

Respondent

Padrick Ritch, Curry College

Call for Submissions for EME

Submissions for Explorations in Media Ecology Vol. 19

All articles submitted should be original work and must not be under consideration by other publications.

Explorations in Media Ecology, the journal of the Media Ecology Association, accepts submissions that extend our understanding of media (defined in the broadest possible terms), that apply media ecological approaches, and/or that advance media ecology as a field of inquiry. 

As an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary publication, EME welcomes contributions embracing diverse theoretical, philosophical, and methodological approaches to the study of media and processes of mediation through language, symbols, codes, meaning, and processes of signification, abstracting, and perception; art, music, literature, aesthetics, and poetics; form, pattern, and method; materials, energy, information, technology, and technique; mind, thought, emotion, consciousness, identity, and behavior; groups, organizations, affiliations, communities; politics, economics, religion, science, education, business, and the professions; societies and cultures; history and the future; contexts, situations, systems, and environments; evolution, and ecology; the human person, human affairs, and the human condition; etc.

EME publishes peer-reviewed scholarly articles, essays, research reports, commentaries, and critical examinations, and includes several special features. Our Pedagogy Section focuses on teaching strategies and resources, pedagogical concerns, and issues relating to media ecology education; we are particularly interested in articles that share great ideas for teaching (GIFTs) media ecology in the classroom. The Probes Section features short items that are exploratory or provocative in nature. Creative writing on media ecological themes can be found in our Poetry Section. Questions and matters of concern to media ecology scholars are taken up in our Forum Section. And our Review Section includes individual book reviews and review essays.

EME is a refereed journal. Strict anonymity is accorded to both authors and referees. References and citations should follow the Harvard Referencing system, and the journal otherwise follows standard British English for spelling and punctuation.

Submissions can be uploaded online. Click here. 

MEA and CATF Reception at NCA

To RSVP and learn more, click here.