Call for papers for the Thematic Dossier “Mapping the Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture: historical contributions and perspectives for the future”

Call for papers for the Thematic Dossier “Mapping the Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture: historical contributions and perspectives for the future”

 

EPTIC, a Journal produced by the Observatory of Economics and Communication (OBSCOM) of the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), informs the call for papers for the Thematic Dossier of the edition of Sept-Dec, vol. 22, n.3.

The edition will be made in partnership with ULEPICC-Brasil - Latin Union of Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture - Brazil Section, and the theme of its thematic dossier is “Mapping the Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture: historical and prospects for the future ”.

The partnership stems from the anniversaries of two decades of initiatives related to political economy, as well as from the need to map out groups, research topics and challenges that surround the area.

Deadline for submission of articles: until June 20, 2020

Submission site: https://seer.ufs.br/index.php/eptic

Period of publication of the magazine: September-December 2020

Coordinators of the thematic dossier: Ms. Anderson Santos (president of Ulepicc-Brasil / UFAL) and Dr. Manoel Dourado Bastos (scientific director of Ulepicc-Brasil / UEL).

 

Mapping the Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture: historical contributions and perspectives for the future

Ulepicc-Brasil (Brazil chapter of the Latin Union of Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture) was created in March 2004, in Aracaju-SE. Its emergence results from an entire process of structuring the studies of Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture in Brazil, whose Latin American cultural broth began to be formed in the 1960s, with articles and books that sought a critical analysis appropriation and diffusion of culture and the Cultural Industry in Brazil.

The book “Mercado Brasileiro de Televisão” (BOLAÑO, 1988) is considered as an organizational landmark, given its objective of creating a “Marxist theory of communication” and the development of a theoretical-methodological axis that will influence other researchers in Latin America from then on. The 1990s saw a multiplication of productions. Working Groups on the topic were created in important research associations (cases of INTERCOM and ALAIC) and the inauguration of the EPTIC Online Magazine, paired with the Latin American articulation for the consolidation of the Latin Union of Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture (ULEPICC), which would take place in 2002.

As Santos and Mota (2015, p. 70) state:

 

Following the “Letter from Buenos Aires” [which served as the basis for the creation of ULEPICC], but also the theoretical bases of the Political Economy of Communication, in addition to having a critical analysis aspect of the communication markets and the space that needs to be opened for new voices, ULEPICC-Br also acts in an interdisciplinary way in the theoretical area, dialoguing with other currents, and in a purposeful manner in the instances of civil society.

 

Much has been done and produced in the past three decades, consolidating the Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture (EPICC) as a space for debates and contributions, including political interventions, throughout Brazil. We have Working Groups in academic events, disciplines and lines of research in undergraduate and graduate courses, books and publications in scientific journals, in a wealth of knowledge production that deserves a systematization of its various aspects and nuances. Nevertheless, we also know about the challenges that are imposed on the production of knowledge in the current context and that fall, even more strongly, on a space associated with the critical perspective, in this moment of multiple crises that we live.

The proposition of this dossier aims, in view of this situation, to bring up the history of EPICC, as well as to point out challenges, considering both the issues that remain fundamental to the field (situation of broadcasting at national and local level, for example) and the new challenges (as the conformation of an entire social mediation structure associated with information and communication technologies).

Therefore, we suggest for this dossier that the articles sent can:

 

- Discuss the contributions of investigations carried out by research groups or researchers who identify their work from the perspective of EPICC;

- Identify the characteristics of groups and authors, observing institutional link, gender, race, class and other aspects;

- Analyze what is presented in Research / Working Groups on EPICC in Communication congresses or nearby areas (cases of INTERCOM, ALAIC, IBERCOM, CONFIBERCOM, ULEPICC, Ulepicc-Brasil and IAMCR);

- Mapping projects, research and products of research groups that work with the EPICC perspective;

- Take stock of the Brazilian contribution of research in EPICC;

- Present research balance in EPICC in any research group, State, region or country;

- Identify specificities of the studies that form the EPICC, case of critical contributions in the areas of Information Sciences, studies on Culture or Public Communication and Culture Policies;

- Identify possible sub-fields within the EPICC from what is produced, cases of the Political Economy of Journalism, Television, Cinema, the Internet, among other possible aspects;

- Indicate paths or perspectives for EPICC studies in Brazil and Latin America.