Tech Wars: The Social and Aesthetic Dimensions of New Media Innovation

Google Glass promises a seamless integration of the best aspects of mobile technology with our daily lives. Blogs and micro-blogs allow us to record everything from our most profound thoughts to minutiae for the entertainment of a potential audience of millions. Video game consoles trend more and more towards virtual reality. The proliferation of social media networks and the social pressure to "belong" speak to our ostensible ever-growing desire for increased connectivity. Tech-related advertisements, from campaigns for computers and tablets to the promotion of specific internet browsers and email servers, anthropomorphize products or capitalize on tech rivalries to garner users.

All these things point to the myriad ways our lives are precipitously enmeshed with digital technology in the twenty-first century. With that immersion comes an increasing concern with the social and aesthetic dimensions of new media production and reception. This panel aims to interrogate those social and aesthetic aspects of the digital age: how we produce, promote, consume, and interact with various forms of new media. How does advertising affect consumers' reception of new technology? In what way(s) does digital innovation align with global or domestic politics? Does brand loyalty trump or reflect upon the form and function of the product(s)?

Papers on this panel may explore anything from over-arching trends in a particular aspect of new media innovation to something as specific as a single blog or Twitter feed. Possible paper topics include, but are not limited to

• Films and television shows (narrative or documentary) exploring our relationship to new media/digital technology
• Virtual/digital integration with daily life (i.e. Google glasses, etc.)
• Use of digital technology in films/TV shows
• Tech company rivalries (i.e. Apple v. Samsung, wireless carriers, etc.)
• Branding, brand loyalty and advertising
• Blogging and micro-blogging (i.e. Live Journal, Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.)
• Photograph/video production and reception and/or viewing platforms (i.e. Youtube, Vine, Instagram, Flickr, etc.)
• The social dimensions of online fan communities, discussion boards, etc.

Please send abstracts of less than 2500 characters (to meet SCMS' proposal submission guidelines) and a brief bio to Dr. Aviva Dove-Viebahn (adovevie@asu.edu) by August 5, 2013

Potential panelists will be notified no later than August 15, 2013. If you're chosen as a panelist, you must be registered on the SCMS website (cmstudies.org) by August 28th (if you are not currently a member, you can sign up for a free temporary membership for the purposes of proposal submission). Acceptance to the panel does not guarantee that the panel will be accepted by the SCMS programming committee, which usually makes its decisions by mid-November. If the panel is accepted, all panelists will need to become members of SCMS in order to present at the conference.

The 2014 SCMS Conference will be held Wednesday, March 19 through Sunday, March 23, 2014 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. More information can be found here: http://www.cmstudies.org/news/129793/June-2013-News-Brief.htm.