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CFP: JCHB - Special issue "Enabling elderly users to create and share self authored multimedia content"
by A.C.Roibas＠bton.ac.uk 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

Journal of Computers in Human Behavior - Special issue: "Future networked interactive media systems and services for the new-senior communities: enabling elderly users to create and share self authored multimedia content". OBJECTIVE This Special issue looks at understanding crucial design issues of incoming scenarios of pervasive networked systems for elderly people. These systems should seek to improve elderly peoples' access to social services, to facilitate social contacts as well as access to context-based infotainment and entertainment, to facilitate social participation and independent living, in sum, to improve the welfare and quality of life for the industrialized world aging society and reducing the digital divide. More specifically this special issue addresses three major obstacles that must be overcome for elderly citizens to take advantage of these new technological developments: 1) lack of methods and tools to identify elderly users requirements for a social and creative media usage, 2) lack of knowledge in understanding the factors motivating usage of such applications as well as its social impact on senior citizens and 3) the complexity of multimodal user interfaces in networked applications. IMPORTANT DATES: -- Deadline for paper proposals: 1st of August, 07 -- Feedback to proposal authors: 15th of September, 07 -- Full paper submission deadline: 1st of December 07 -- Referee, reviews: November- 1st February 2008 -- Meta reviews and feedback to authors: 22nd February 2008 -- New paper iteration, submission revised papers: 2nd May 2008 -- Proofreading final submissions, 4th July 2008 -- Publishing, October 2008 PROPOSALS: Please submit a 300-500 word proposal* for your paper to both editors by 6th July. A plain text abstract in email is preferred; otherwise, please attach a document in either PDF or MS Word format. If you cannot meet this deadline, please feel free to contact the Special Issue Editors to discuss your plans: Anxo Cereijo Roibás [a.c.roibas(a)brighton.ac.uk] and Petter Bae Brandtzæg [ Petter.B.Brandtzag(a)sintef.no] *Note that proposals are not a prerequisite for submitting a paper, but are strongly preferred, as they will help us shape the special issue and help you plan your paper. If you have missed the proposal submission deadline, please contact us to let us know you intend to submit a paper. PAPER SUBMISION: Authors should submit an electronic copy (preferably in MS Word or PDF formats) by email, with full contact details by 1st of August 2007, to Anxo Cereijo Roibás [a.c.roibas(a)brighton.ac.uk] and Petter Bae Brandtzæg [ Petter.B.Brandtzag(a)sintef.no] Information about submissions to Computers in Human Behavior can be found at the journal's web site: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/759/authorinst…. Submissions should in the journal style, which is best understood by looking at a recent issue of Computers in Human Behavior.

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Boostrom Winner of Couch Award
by Mark D. Johns 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- June 18, 2007 Contact: Dr. Mark D. Johns, Executive Director Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research c/o Department of Communication Studies Luther College Decorah, Iowa Tel: (563) 387-1347 or (319) 268-1902 email: mjohns(a)luther.edu Boostrom Winner of Couch Award CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research (www.cccsir.org) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award. Robert E. Boostrom, Jr., a doctoral student in Department of Marketing, College of Business and Administration at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is the First Place winner for his paper, “The Social Construction of Virtual Reality and the Stigmatized Identity of the Newbie.” Jijesh Devan and Dany DiTullio, doctoral degree candidates in management information systems at Queen's Business School in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, are Second Place winners for their paper, “Socialization in Open Source Software Communities: A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective.” The Third Place award winner is Alvin S. Concha, a master’s degree candidate in gender studies at the Ateneo de Davao University in Davao City, Philippines, for his paper, “Filipino cyborg sexualities: Chatroom masculinities, self-ascribed identities, ephemeral selves.” The Couch Award is presented annually and recognizes excellent student-authored papers. Winning papers apply symbolic interactionist approaches to internet studies as advocated by the late Dr. Carl J. Couch, long-time professor of sociology at the University of Iowa. The Couch Center established the Couch Award in 2002 as the centerpiece of an extensive awards program. Competition is open to graduate or undergraduate students of all disciplines, and winners are selected by a committee of university professors in communication studies and sociology from across the U.S. This year’s competition was rigorous, with a record number of entries. Papers were received from students from undergraduates through Ph.D. candidates, and were submitted by students from a half dozen nations, studying in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, as well as North America. Winners receive a cash award as well as the opportunity to present their papers at a national or international conference. This year’s awards will be presented at the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers in Vancouver, Canada, October 17-20. The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research is a non-profit organization established to promote the scholarship of the late Carl J. Couch and his academic associates. Couch is recognized as the founder of The New Iowa School in sociological and communication inquiry, and was a pioneer in the qualitative research of information technologies. The Center provides networking opportunities for students and scholars who conduct social and Internet research, inspired by Couch's work. - 30 -

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CFP: Virtual Sport as New Media
by Leonard, David 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

Call for Papers Virtual Sport as New Media Special Issue of Sociology of Sport Journal Guest Editor: David J. Leonard Daily, sports fans throughout the globe visit various sports websites, participate in fantasy sports, celebrate and criticize teams, players, and sporting cultures on blogs, in discussion groups, and list serves, and enjoy immense pleasure in playing sports video games. Each of these media, to varying degrees, embodies what has come to be known as new media, a catch-all phrases that includes everything from the Internet to the Blogosphere to video games, virtual reality, and other examples in which media technologies are defined by increased accessibility, fluidity, and interactivity. In 1998, David Rowe found that Yahoo UK and Irish Search engines offered 4,271 categories and 14,591 sites devoted to sport. As of 2007, a U.S. Google search landed 822,000,000 sports websites, yet yielded few scholarly inquiries of sports and new media, especially in regards to race, gender, sexuality, and nation. Moreover, when much of the video game industry faced losses in sales in 2005, sports games remained strong within the industry, accounting for more than thirty percent of all video games sales. In total, sports video games represent a $1 billion industry, a fact that demonstrates the economic power and cultural significance of sports video games. Yet, to date, the literature within sports sociology, amongst commentators and scholars of global sports culture, has with few exceptions remained relatively silent to the cultural, political, sociological, economic, and overall significance of new media within a globalized sports culture. While there are countless examples and evidence of the increasing significance of new media within global sporting cultures, the academic community continues to lag behind in terms of analysis and critical interrogation. This special issue attempts to bridge the gap between old media, and new, reflecting on the ways in which new media cultures infect and affect fans, teams, sporting cultures. Possible topics include but are not limited to: sports video games; sporting blogs; the Internet and global sports culture; white masculinity and virtual sports culture; fantasy sports; sports discussion groups; ESPN.com and virtual sports media; virtual sport as minstrelsy; the intersections of race, nation, sexuality, gender, and class with sports and new media; race, gender and fantasy sports leagues; analysis of the cultural affects of Youtube, Myspace, or Google video on sporting cultures; sports talk radio and podcasting/the Internet (particularly as they relate to race and gender); virtual sports culture and Diaspora: Sports as imagined community; links between racism, sexism and other institutions of domination and virtual sporting cultures, and, virtual sports culture as racial/ gendered performance. This issue will consider textual, empirical (data-based), case study, and/or theory-based papers grounded in sociological theory and related to virtual sports culture, but is especially interested in papers that are empirically-based and those that critically engage the links between virtual sport and race, gender, sexuality, nation or globalization, as well as papers that push analysis into realms of comparison (beyond the U.S.). Authors should follow the Instructions to contributors found in every issue of the Sociology of Sport Journal. Essays should be roughly 6,000 words, excluding endnotes and reference list. Questions should be sent to Dr. David J. Leonard, djl(a)wsu.edu. All submissions are due by March 1, 2008 and should be submitted on line to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hk_ssj Dr. David Leonard Comparative Ethnic Studies Washington State University

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REMINDER: CALL FOR PAPERS: CONTROVERSIAL IMAGES
by Attwood, Fiona 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

REMINDER: CALL FOR PAPERS: CONTROVERSIAL IMAGES For a special issue of Popular Communication: International Journal of Media and Culture, 2009, edited by Sharon Lockyer and Feona Attwood. Controversial images are increasingly central to media which are concerned with scandal, titillation and horror, and in a culture where images and image making is so important. Controversial images circulate in a wide range of different media forms from films, TV programmes, newspapers, and advertisements, to internet sites, video games, and music videos. In recent years there have been a number of instances where controversial images have become the primary focus of public fascination and debate. These include the paparazzi shots of Princess Diana's fatal accident, images from Abu Ghraib, the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons and footage of the execution of Saddam Hussein. More generally, images of sex, scandal, destruction and abuse function as the emblem for some of the major social and cultural concerns of our times. This special issue seeks to address the significance of controversial Images and their subsequent public debates, and reflect on what they can tell us about the production, content and reception processes of contemporary media. Proposals are welcomed on, but not limited to, the following topics and areas: Shock sites Extreme porn Religious controversies Atrocity images War reporting Body horror Invasion of privacy issues Media representation of sensitive subjects Censorship and regulation Proposals with an international focus are particularly welcome, as are those which focus on controversial images in various different countries. Proposals of 200-250 words, accompanied by a biographical note of 100 words should be sent by Tuesday 31st July 2007 to Feona Attwood, f.attwood(a)shu.ac.uk. The deadline for submission of drafts will be March 2008 and June 2008 for finished drafts. Popular Communication: International Journal of Media and Culture The journal provides a forum for the scholarly investigation, analysis, and dialogue on communication symbols, forms, phenomena, and strategic systems of symbols within the context of contemporary popular culture across the globe. Popular Communication publishes articles on all aspects of popular communication, examining different media such as television, film, new media, print media, radio, music, and dance; the study of texts, events, artifacts, spectacles, audiences, technologies, and industries; and phenomena and practices, including, but not limited to, fan, youth and subcultures, questions of representation, digitalization, cultural globalization, spectator sports, sexuality, advertising, and consumer culture. The journal welcomes diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives within the tradition of media, communication, and cultural studies as well as interdisciplinary research in and across related disciplines. Editors: Cornel Sandvoss (University of Surrey, UNITED KINGDOM) C. Lee Harrington (Miami University, USA) Jonathan Gray (Fordham University, USA)

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Re: [Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites
by Julian Hopkins 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

It strikes me that maybe the reason why a commonly accepted verb has not emerged is because there is not a commonly accepted understanding of what the action (as represented by the verb) actually consists of. Thus: if I 'Facebook' someone, I am checking him/her out to find out more about them/how they represent themselves - this is understood as a form of social vetting. But if I set up a facebook (or MySpace or whatever), different people do it for different reasons, which probably operate simultaneously. Just a thought - not sure if it pans out. ++++++++++ Blog: www.julianhopkins.net Skype: julhop IM: jfprhopkins(a)hotmail.com ------------------------------ Message: 9 Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:15:49 +0200 From: <richard.ling(a)telenor.com> Subject: Re: [Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> Message-ID: <04161341FDE60141B7640D4E801D11EC028E292F(a)TNS-FBU-2E-011.corp.telenor.no> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello all, This is interesting. The use of these social networking sites has been around for a couple of years now and actually they have become quite popular. However, this has not resulted in a verb describing their use. It is possible to speculate that since all the different variations are commercial products that have slightly different characteristics that this has somehow hindered the development of a collective verb describing the activity. If that were then case, for example, IM would have suffered the same fate. In the case of IM there were a lot of mutually exclusive sites/companies offering their services and each had a somewhat different offering. Nonetheless, it resulted in the verbs of either IMing or chatting. Blogging followed suit with IM. As several have suggested, the "oh so cool" verb might derived from a portion of the name, such as facing or spacing, but that would only refer to one site. Another more clumsy alternative might be communitying or social networking, but neither of these has the verve to be widely used. I just think it is odd that these sites are quite successful and widespread, but that there hasn't been the step of developing a verb to describe their use. Rich L.

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Re: [Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites
by Alex Goldman 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

Personally, I find the appropriation of corporate/software titles as verbs to describe certain activities more than a little insidious. It's certainly a sign of marvelous branding, but also limited public creativity. Perhaps people find IT so mysterious that they are compelled to defer to this new generation of engineers turned magicians. However, I also recognize that there is plenty of precedent for product titles morphing into generic nouns i.e. kleenex. To help lead a linguistic reconquista (here I'm influenced by my family that that works for the French govt), I recently formulated a fun acronyn for use in descriptions of certain social networking products. JANC - "just another network connection". I hope will gain adoption as a a device aiding a social critique these online products that increaingly shape our behavior and identity processes. It helps that I appropriated the original phonetics from "jank", a piece of african american slang meaning "unnecessarily redundant, superfluous, or meaningless." It can serve as both a noun and adjective, the latter preferably in combination with colorful expletives such as, 'Dude, that's some janc ass bullshit you've got on your facebook profile." So, use it as a way to refer to networking connections made online that amount bto little more than a device to heighten the appearance of connectivity and popularity - hopefully helping to gain access to even more connections - more janc likely. Anyhow, feel free to use the term as you see fit, capitalized or not, without crediting me or street vernacular. Let's think of it as a people's term - a way to stimulate interest in wresting back ownership of our language from marketing experts. Hey, maybe the kids across the digital divide will feel some affiliation with it. P.S. In the same vein, ever notice how the terms "twerk" and "tweet" (a form of the new verb "to twitter") share the same sort of sensibility? They're both quite new and denote an somewhat undefined set of activities. I enjoy these kinds of thoughts regarding Web 2.0 language trends... -- ALEX GOLDMAN www.alexevasion.com <javascript:void(0)>

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A verb for using social networking sites
by Derek McMillan 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

I am not answering the question because I expect a verb will emerge sometime but hasn't as yet. In English we tend to just use the noun and turn it into a verb e.g. "facebooking" or "booking" On Dr Who last night (British TV series popular with teens) two characters were flirting and talking off-topic while the Doctor was trying to save the universe as ever - he turned around and said "and look at you two - blogging." I would also like to note the evolution of the term "owned" meaning "I beat you". First someone on MSN misspelt it pwned and that became a substitute. then I think South Park used "poned" and more recently "You've been Edgar Allen Poned" ___________________________________________________________ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com

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Re: [Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites
by Margie Borschke 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

The best I've heard for myspace is "spacing" as in "I've been spacing with her too." A poignant play on words.

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Re: [Air-l] A verb for using social networking sites
by Marj Kibby 16 Jun '07

16 Jun '07

I've been interviewing bands on their use of social networking, and I'm finding that YouTube is an adjunct to MySpace not an alternative to it. MySpace is still the musician's site-of-choice. Marj Dr Marjorie Kibby, Senior Lecturer in Communication & Culture Faculty of Education and Arts The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia Marj.Kibby(a)newcastle.edu.au +61 2 49216604 >>> "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns(a)luther.edu> 06/17/07 8:28 AM >>> I'm told that more and more bands are going to YouTube, which lends credence to your remark that loyalties are subject to change.

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http://popurls.com/
by Tyrone Adams, Ph.D. 16 Jun '07

16 Jun '07

Has everyone seen this URL yet? Interesting use of XML and RSS feeds to create a two-level ranked page of all kinds of content. http://popurls.com/ -- Tyrone L. Adams, Ph.D. Richard D'Aquin Professor of Journalism and Communications Department of Communication http://comm.louisiana.edu University of Louisiana at Lafayette P.O. Box 43650 Lafayette, LA USA 70504 Direct Phone: 337.482.6077 Facsimile: 337.482.6104 http://www.swampboy.com/

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