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Appel à contributions, "Mass media and the Genocide of the Armenians One Hundred Years of Uncertain Representation"
Date limite : 1er mars 2014
The role of mass media in genocidal phenomena is fundamental and multifaceted with respect to the disclosure and flow of information. In fact, the mass media provide both explanations and interpretations of events to the public. Some have even argued that genocide and other mass crimes represent issues of such importance that they impose social, moral, historical and political responsibilities on the media.
From this perspective, the genocide of the Armenians, the first of its kind in the modern era, continues to raise many questions. What impact did mass media have on related events as they occurred ? Similarly, what direct and indirect impact did media coverage have on the international public space ? What importance should be attributed to mass media iconography in the representation of mass violence ? How was the media discourse expressed semantically ?
On the eve of the commemoration of the centenary of the Armenian genocide, it would be desirable to consider the place and role of the mass media (press, radio, TV, Internet) in the knowledge and recognition of the crime committed against the Armenian civilian population of the Ottoman Empire.
To this end, it is appropriate to investigate the phenomenon from a long term perspective by taking into account three specific periods :
the pre-genocidal period that preceded the events, namely the Hamidian massacres in the 1890s and those of Adana in 1909 ; the period of the genocide , when the radical events of 1915-1916 led to the extermination of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire ; the post-genocidal period, which saw the establishment of a collective memory and significant developments in the definition and conceptualisation of genocide within the international public sphere since 1965. This periodisation will structure the edited volume, while four thematic axes allow for a better understanding of the role played by the media in knowledge creation, the dissemination of relevant facts and their subsequent interpretation :
1) mass media studies : the importance and role of sources of information in developing awareness of the events and recognition of the genocide worldwide ;
2) international relations : the consequences on Turkey’s international relations following the formation of a specific media space related to the Armenian genocide ;
3) iconographic studies : the presence of an iconography of the genocide of the Armenians in mass media representations ;
4) sociolinguistic studies : the study of sociolinguistic markers of discourse produced by the media (vocabulary, morphosyntax and semantical relations) and semantical representation of the events in the legal, political and symbolic sphere.
Note that while the geographical area of the crime was restricted to the Ottoman Empire, contributions can deal with questions of mass media anywhere in the world.
Time schedule
Please send by e-mail to both Richard Godin, Richard.Godin@elul.ulaval.ca, and Stefanie Kappler, kapples@hope.ac.uk
an abstract (500 words max)
a biographical note (including institutional affiliation, e-mail and recent publications)
March 1st 2014 : Deadline for proposals (abstracts)
April 15th 2014 : Selection of proposals
September 1st 2014 : Deposit of complete chapter texts for evaluation (6000 words max. including footnotes and bibliography)
November 1st 2014 : Results of the peer-review
December 15th 2014 : Final submission of texts for publication
Editors of the volume
Joceline Chabot, History, Université de Moncton,
Richard Godin, Sociology of mass media, Université Laval, Richard.Godin@elul.ulaval.ca
Stefanie Kappler, International Relations, Liverpool Hope University, kapples@hope.ac.uk
Sylvia Kasparian, Linguistics, Université de Moncton, sylvia.kasparian@umoncton.ca
Publisher
This volume has received an initial expression of interest from a publisher in England.