Mediatization of Culture: Constructing New Texts and Practices

During the conference we propose to discuss the process of mediation of culture, its effects and consequences, focusing on the following aspects (but not limited to them).

- Theoretical approaches to the research on mediatization. What concepts and methods should researchers use to take into account the changing media environment? How productive is it to use classical theoretical resources under these conditions? If a significant area of human interaction goes into the media field, how can we observe it? - Mediatization of academic knowledge. Are there any transformations of scientific knowledge under the influence of mediatization? What are the new types of data that appear as a result of mediatization, and what are the ways of their processing (multimodal data, new software for quantitative / qualitative data processing)? Do they change humanitarian knowledge today? How are the results of academic research evaluated in the context of the idea of “post-truth”? How does the translation of academic knowledge into a language that is accessible to a wide audience work? What results of researches are chosen to be presented in media? - Mediatization of memory. What are the opportunities for the accumulation, storage and spread of knowledge about the past that the media environment provides (including the development of websites on cultural and historical memory, folklore and ethnographic databases, blogging, online diaries, social networking pages)? - Mediatization of everyday practices. How do the media transform everyday practices? In which areas are the media becoming an important source, legitimizing the rules by which we live? What new spheres are open to the mass audience under the influence of mediation, what effects does it cause? - Mediatization of identity. How different are the strategies for identity construction happening in face-to-face interaction from construction strategies found in media environment? What are the strategies for building a personal identity in the media (through language and other semiotic means)? How is the identity of communities built in social networks? - Mediatization of folklore. What is the media’s role in beliefs and development of cultural products? How are traditional views transformed when they get into the media environment? What are the semiotic and communicative aspects of the translation of folklore into the language of the media? What is the specificity of modern adaptations of folklore (cinema, animation, advertising, etc.)? How does the secondary folklorization of the media text (movie-dependent anecdotes, etc.) occur? - Mediatization of political life. Does political activity correlate with actions outside of the media environment? What new practices of political participation does the mediaization of political life develop? How real are the “twitter-revolution”, the launching of paper airplanes and similar phenomena? What is their ontological status? Researchers (anthropologists, sociologists, philologists and representatives of related disciplines), as well as cultural and public figures are welcome to apply. Please fill out the participant form before September 10 following the link: https://goo.gl/forms/UxUuDmKoyxZoLym33 Notification of acceptance: no later than September 20. The Organizing Committee is considering the possibility of reimbursing participants' expenses for travels to / from Moscow and accommodation in the RANEPA hotel. Conference languages are Russian and English. You can find further information about the conference at http://www.shagi.ranepa.ru and http://www.ruthenia.ru/folklore

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions via shagifolk@gmail.com.