*CFP: Reality Television: Media Convergences and Narrative Futures Conference*** *July 5-6, 2013. The Media School -- Bournemouth University, United Kingdom.* Proposals are invited for potential papers (of 20 minutes length) considering the contemporary potential of reality television for an academic media conference held by The Media School in Bournemouth University, at Kimmeridge House on Talbot Campus. Confirmed plenary speakers include: * Professor Stella Bruzzi of the University of Warwick, author of New Documentary (Routledge 2006) * Dr Deborah Jermyn, Reader at the University of Roehampton, editor of Understanding Reality Television (Routledge 2003) * Professor Helen Wood of DeMontfort University, author of Reacting to Reality Television: Performance, Audience and Value (Routledge 2012) and co-editor of Reality Television and Class (Palgrave 2011) The conference places a particular focus on issues of media convergence and narrative innovation. Proposals for the conference may involve a purely academic focus involving textual investigation, such as considering media narratives, representations, cultures and/or audiences. Also proposals are invited which might consider issues within creative practice or industry. A published edited collection is planned, to include a range of papers that will be presented at the event. With the rise of reality television formats, which involve media convergent opportunities, such as connecting to mobile technologies, and involving increased distribution through web based downloading, alongside an increased interest and popularity in the use of scripted reality formats, this conference offers an innovative chance to share research interests, intersecting contemporary television, new media and narrative potentials. General topics could include: * Convergent media technologies * Multiplatform textual innovations * Contemporary narrative forms * Realism and the hyper-real * Issues of identity * The politics of representation * Potentials for minority groups * Theories of intimacy and affect As a small example, texts that could form possible case studies include: * Community celebrity: The Hills (MTV); The Only Way is Essex (ITV) * Talent searches: The XFactor (ITV); The Glee Project (Oxygen) * Relationships & dating: Playing in Straight (Channel 4); Temptation Island (Fox) * Historical recreation: The 1900 House (Channel 4); Pioneer Quest (CBC) * Personal makeover: The Swan (Fox); Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo) * Food & domesticity: Come Dine with Me (Channel 4); The Chew (ABC) * Education & otherness / addiction: The Undateables (Channel 4); Intervention (A & E) * Domestic audiences: Gogglebox (Channel 4) *Please send abstracts (of 200 words length) and a biography, indicating any technical requirements for the delivery of your paper, by Monday the 13th of May 2013 to Chris ([log in to unmask]) and Peri ([log in to unmask] ) * Decisions will be made by Monday 20th May 2013 *Registration and Costs: * Details of registration processes will appear shortly at the following URL: http://buybu.bournemouth.ac.uk/Events/EventCatalogInfo.aspx Accepted papers will incur no registration fees. Attendees only, will pay a modest registration fee. Also there will be bespoke web page for the conference available shortly. *About the Organisers: * Dr. Christopher Pullen is Senior Lecturer in Media Theory at Bournemouth University, UK. He is widely published in the area sexuality and contemporary media, with a specific focus on social identity and self-reflexivity. He is the author of Documenting Gay Men: Identity and Performance in Reality Television and Documentary Film (McFarland, 2007) and Gay Identity, New Storytelling and the Media (Palgrave, 2012). He is the editor of LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media (Palgrave 2012), and the co-editor of LGBT Identity and Online New Media (Routledge, 2010) and Queer Love in Television and Film (Palgrave, 2013). His current research in progress includes - a funded research project examining secondary school student responses to media, foregrounding the education of social and sexual diversity in relation to discouraging bullying, and an edited collection entitled Queer Youth and Media Cultures. Dr. Peri Bradley is a lecturer in Media Theory at Bournemouth University. She has interests and publications in horror, reality TV, 1970s cinema and TV and LGBT culture. Her publications include, 'Monstrous Makeovers: Transforming 'Monsters' into Beauty Queens' in Dark Reflections, Monstrous Reflections: Essays on the Monster in Culture, 'Hideous Sexy -- The Eroticised Body and Deformity in 1970s British Horror Films' in Don't Look Now: British Cinema in the 1970s, '"You Are Awful...But I Like You!" The Politics of Camp in 1970s Television' in British Culture and Society in the 1970s: The Lost Decade, 'The Exotic Erotic: Queer Representations in the context of post-colonial ethnicity on British TV' in LGBT Identity in Non Western Worlds, Archival appendix to British Cinema In The 1970s:The Boundaries of Pleasure, 'Romancing the Soap: Representations of Gay Love and Relationships in EastEnders' in Queer Love in Film and Television. At present she is working on an edited collection on Food on Screen and a monograph looking at makeover TV and the Carnivalesque - specifically the UK TV personality Gok Wan. *About the funders: * This conference is funded by the Narrative Research Group at Bournemouth Media School, with supplementary funding from the Centre for Broadcasting History Research Group, also at Bournemouth. -- Pamela Demory, Ph.D. Continuing Lecturer University Writing Program University of California, Davis One Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616 Fax: 530-752-5013 Email:[log in to unmask] http://writingprogram.ucdavis.edu ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]