The Velvet Light Trap Issue #89, "Media Awards:
Beyond the EGOT," has extended its deadline! We
will now be accepting submissions until February
28th. If more time is needed beyond that, please
email the editors at
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] as soon as possible to discuss.
The full CFP is below. Please send submissions to
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] We
understand the delays and frustrations inherent
to working during a pandemic, and will be as
accommodating as possible to your requests. We
look forward to reading your work!
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The Velvet Light Trap #89
Media Awards: Beyond the EGOT
The “big four” American entertainment awardsthe
Emmy for television, the Grammy for music, the
Oscar for film, and the Tony for theater, often
referred to by the “EGOT” acronymhave long
served as a barometer of mainstream taste
cultures in their respective fields. While
literature on media awards is not completely
absent, its scope has been narrow. Popular press
works on the somewhat standardized journalistic
narratives surrounding the EGOT, particularly the
Oscars. Scholarly literature has largely focused
on awards as they pertain to the international
art cinema circuit and its attached film
festivals, such as the Cannes Film Festival. This
call, while respecting the literature that
addresses these familiar narratives, intends to
reimagine and reinvigorate discussion of
entertainment awards and their meaning within the media industries.
Awards are a near-ubiquitous feature of media
cultures across mediums, narrative forms,
industrial roles, and both geopolitical and
virtual spaces: The Nolly Awards, for the span of
a few years, recognized achievement in Nollywood
films, i.e. the cinema of Nigeria; TikTok user
Ashley Hufford (@ashleyhufford) recently sought
to establish the “Tik Tok Tony Awards”; The Ursa
Major Awards is awarded for “the furry arts.”
What purpose do these and other awards serve for
their respective communities, beyond the
oft-stated objective of recognizing excellence?
In what cases do awards recognize achievement in
areas beyond the media text? In what aspects of
the media industries are awards rarely given, but
excellence still expected? When is the stated
purpose or ultimate effect of an award something
distinctly separate from excellence?
Furthermore, we are interested in the
intersection of awards with critical discourse on
political, social, and identity-based issues.
Media award shows have long served as a locus for
the discussion of issues through sartorial
statements, protests on and off the red carpet,
and political statements in acceptance speeches
or other awards forums. Recent conversations
about inclusion and equity for marginalized
communities in nominations and organizational
membership have served to highlight the
institutionalized bigotry of the media industries
and media cultures more generally. This advocacy
has come from many perspectives, both within
those industries, from cultural intermediaries in
the fourth estate, and from vocal audience
members. Such discussions have been accompanied
by some change, including the establishment of
the Academy Inclusion Standards in 2020, and the
2019 Tony for Best Musical Revival going to
Oklahoma!, a production which transformed the
traditional work into an allegory for racism and
intolerance in contemporary America. It remains
to be seen, however, whether these gestures
signal a larger, permanent shift towards equity,
or whether they will remain largely symbolic
events. Media awards thus provide a microcosm of
larger representational concerns, one that can
serve as a rich point of study for scholarly inquiry.
The Velvet Light Trap #89 seeks to challenge and
expand our understanding of media awards so that
we may better understand the media ecologies that
support such events. These awards bridge media
criticism, sociocultural issues, national and
international politics, and cultures of art and
entertainment into discourses both in and outside
of the mainstream. We welcome submissions that
push the boundaries of current media awards
literature, use media award contexts as key case
studies, or exploring any of the following themes:
Reimagining our approach to or conception of
major awards, ‘awards seasons,’ and their
attendant discourses, including the Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, and Grammys
Media awards outside North American and Anglophone contexts
The various meanings of entertainment and media
award shows in relation to the local, national, and global contexts.
Historical media awards (defunct or still
ongoing), particularly situated within sociocultural contexts
Explorations of the various cultural
intermediaries that enable and coordinate the
hubbub of “awards seasons,” including critics, culture writers, and so on.
Recognition of technical, below-the-line,
organizational, or corporate achievement
Recognition of achievement for communities of
color and marginalized groups (e.g. NAACP Image Awards, the Unforgettable Gala)
Recognition of achievement in marginalized groups
(e.g. the GLAAD Media Awards, the Mental Health
Media Awards, the Media Access Awards)
Recognition of achievement in media subcultures,
communities, or genres (e.g. the Ursa Major
Awards, the Saturn Awards, the r/Aww Awards)
Recognition of achievement in pornography (e.g.
the PornHub Awards, the GayVN Awards)
Recognition of social media and digital content
achievement (e.g. the American Influencer Awards,
the Webby Awards, the Streamy Awards, the Shorty Awards)
Recognition of achievement in video games (e.g.
the Game Awards, the Game Critics Awards)
Recognition of achievement in comics and
animation (e.g. the Annie Awards, the Eisner Awards)
Recognition of achievement in understudied,
under-recognized or niche media types
Intentionally subversive media-related awards (e.g. the Razzies)
Recognition of achievement in relation to
conventions and/or fandom-specific contexts
Controversies related to a specific media-related
award, award show, or win/loss
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be between 6,000 and 7,500
words, formatted in Chicago Style. Please submit
an electronic copy of the paper along with a
separate one-page abstract, both saved as
Microsoft Word files. Remove any identifying
information so that the submission is suitable
for anonymous review. Quotations not in English
should be accompanied by translations. Please
send your submissions to
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] by
February 28th, 2021. If additional time is
necessary, please email us to discuss.
About the Journal
TVLT is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal of
film, television, and new media. The journal draw
on a variety of theoretical and historiographical
approaches from the humanities and social
sciences and welcomes any effort that will help
foster the ongoing processes of evaluation and
negotiation in media history and criticism. While
TVLT maintains its traditional commitment to the
study of American film, it also expands its scope
to television and other media, to adjacent
institutions, and to other nations' media. The
journal encourages both approaches and objects of
study that have been neglected or excluded in past scholarship.
Graduate students at the University of Wisconsin
at Madison and the University of Texas at Austin
coordinate issues in alternation, and each issue
is devoted to a particular theme. TVLT's
Editorial Advisory Board includes such notable
scholars as Ben Aslinger, Caitlin Benson-Allott,
Lauren S. Berliner, Dolores Inés Casillas, Aymar
Jean Christian, Lisa Dombrowski, Raquel Gates,
Dan Herbert, Deborah Jaramillo, Lori Morimoto,
Meenasarani (Linde) Murugan, Safia Noble, Bob
Rehak, Debra Ramsay, Bonnie Ruberg, Avi Santo,
Samantha Noelle Sheppard, Dan Streible, Neil
Verma, and Alyx Vesey. TVLT's graduate student
editors are assisted by their local faculty
advisors: Mary Beltrán, Ben Brewster, Jonathan
Gray, Lea Jacobs, Derek Johnson, Shanti Kumar,
Charles Ramírez Berg, Thomas Schatz, and Janet Staiger (emeritus).
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