Call For Papers:

A panel for the 16th annual Cultural Studies Conference on
"Entertainment" at Kansas State University, March 8-10, 2007.

(http://www.k-state.edu/english/symposium/)

"INFOTAINMENT" IN THE UNITED STATES BEFORE 1980

This panel seeks papers on infotainment programs in the United States
before 1980 (essentially, before the launch of CNN in 1980 and MTV in 1981).

We shall use a broad conception of infotainment that includes
newspaper, magazine and other modes of textual nonfiction, and radio,
film, and both "Golden Age" and post-"Golden Age" television.

Credibility (and the projection of credibility), the merchandising of
fact (or facts created to merchandise), and the creation of "events"
for the purposes of infotainment may be explored.

Papers may also highlight technical and formal issues in the
deployment of infotainment, such as the transition process from
information to infotainment, or from entertainment to infotainment,
in a particular program.

Both canonical examples as well as unexplored examples of
infotainment are encouraged.

Papers should not only provide a thorough cultural studies approach
to infotainment, but most importantly, they should also work to
provide original, historically-anchored definitions of infotainment
before 1980 that may suggest a re-conception of how we understand
contemporary infotainment.

Please send a summary of your paper (no longer than one page), and a
brief biography (no more than a paragraph) to
douglas-dowland_at_uiowa.edu. by September 1, 2006.

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Received on Fri Aug 04 2006 - 09:25:42 EDT