This year's ICA conference will feature a preconference entitled "The Long History of New Media: Contemporary and Future Developments Contextualized." As its title implies, this preconference will be dedicated to applying the idea of history to the idea of 'new media'. The preconference will bring together scholars with a common interest in exploring the historical contextualization of new media.
This is a broad purview for a preconference, and the papers that have been programmed for the preconference will feature papers touching on such diverse topics as: the very idea of 'new'-ness in media, the history of video games, historical perspectives on audience analysis, the forgotten roads not taken to the development of the World Wide Web, the role of the state in the history of the internet in Niger, and the origins of color in computer art. This is just a taste of the range of topics. To see the entire program for the pre-conference, please visit the pre-conference URL here: http://ten.newmediaandsociety.com/
Participants will address and discuss theoretical constructs such as 'interactivity' and 'the digital divide,' investigate the utopianism surrounding the internet as it compares to similar ideas surrounding other media from other times., address changing ethical considerations as they relate to online and other new media research, and consider the potentially tremendous changes in methodology made possible by the advent of new media.
The midday centerpiece of the preconference will be a roundtable entitled "Doing New Media History." This roundtable will feature Carolyn Marvin, Jonathan Sterne, Lisa Gitelman, Fred Turner, and Benjamin Peters. The participants will share their insights concerning how media history is to be done, and what contemporary new media tell us about the well-established practice of media history.
The preconference is situated within a wider celebration of the 10th anniversary of New Media & Society as a leading journal for scholarly exploration of new forms of mediated communication. This anniversary will culminate in a special issue of the journal drawing from papers presented at this preconference.
The preconference also represents a coming-out party for the ICA's Communication History Interest Group, for which the 2008 conference in Montreal will be an inaugural event. All ICA members interested in historical work in communication are welcome to join this new interest group.
The preconference will not take place at the Centre Sheraton, but will instead take place in the academic splendor of McGill University, which is walking distance from the Sheraton. Preconference attendees will convene at the Centre Sheraton on May 22 at 8:30 a.m. to walk over to the preconference venue.
