[housekeeping note: i hope to slowly ease back into more regular posting in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here's the CFP for something I am very excited about]

Call for Papers

Affective Audiences: Analysing Media Users, Consumers and Fans

Preconference sponsored by the Popular Communication Division

Date: 20th ^ 21st May 2009

Venue: Marriott Downtown Chicago, Magnificent Mile Hotel

The study of audiences constitutes a central concern of contemporary (popular) communication research. As Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama fills football stadia addressing enthusiastic supporters and political commentators frequently refer to ,,Obama fans? and ,,Palin fans?, evidence of the centrality of notions of affect and participation in contemporary mediated communication - within and beyond the realm of traditional popular culture - is abundant. This preconference aims to explore the social, cultural, textual and psychological conditions through which readers engage with, and attach meaning and emotional significance to the texts they privilege in their everyday life media consumption.

Corresponding with the theme of the 58th International Communication Association,s conference - Keywords in Communication (21st-25th May 2009 in Chicago, Illinois, USA) - the field of audience studies constitutes a key conceptual battleground that has witnessed a number of paradigm changes over the past half century which have both reflected and contributed to the wider discourses of Social and Cultural Theory.

"Affective Audiences" explores these recent paradigm changes by offering a dedicated space within the ICA conference programme that combines empirical audience research with a thorough examination of the field,s canon and a discussion of its conceptual challenges vis-