The recent surge of populist, nationalist, and authoritarian politics has brought to light an immense resistance against modern, professional journalism’s claims to truth and fairness. The trending notion of a “post-truth” age may not be a satisfying diagnosis of journalism’s predicament, but it signifies that a long battle has intensified over how news institutions discern truths and prioritize key facts and voices. While not alone, conservative news organizations have been at the front lines of that battle for decades, which begs the questions: How have conservatives approached the question of news and its veracity? Indeed, what is the ‘news’ on the right?
The aim of this collection is to bring focus to conservative news and information as a crucial area for academic inquiry, especially for critical media studies and journalism studies. Despite several important works historicizing the growth of conservative news, there remains a relative dearth of scholarship on conservative news cultures and, even more importantly, a lack of continuity and exchange of ideas among the outposts where such scholarship is underway. To start bridging this disconnect, this book will bring together an interdisciplinary array of scholars to build upon key questions, enrich debates, and share knowledge about the currents of conservative media. Conservative newshas become a tremendously powerful platform in the United States, wielding a vast influence on the terms of political discourse. Some of the major questions we pose for thinking about conservative news include: What principles and habits have these news cultures adapted for discerning truth and falsehood? For judging news selection and prioritization? How have the aesthetics of conservative news developed? How do conservative news producers and consumers see their purpose within a larger, more heterogeneous public sphere? What actors, historic circumstances, and affective dynamics have shaped conservative newsnorms? How have those norms differed across factions and moments?
This collection will focus mostly on conservative news cultures centered in the United States, but we are also seeking contributors who can offer transnational and comparative perspectives. We are looking for contributors who will draw on cultural history, political economy, rhetorical analysis, and/or cultural studies approaches to studying conservative news, the growth of its media infrastructure, its diverse publics, its normative propositions, and related topics. While we are seeking case studies among other approaches, we hope all contributors will connect their research to broad questions or lines of research relating to conservative news – i.e. we are looking for studies that clearly articulate significant claims beyond the analysis of a single text. We would like contributors to submit abstracts of no more than 500 words. We also ask that contributors be willing to share their drafts with each other, so that we may recommend contributors address each others’ ideas during revisions.
For a preliminary draft of our proposal, see:https://ajdotorg.
Schedule:
Abstracts due: April 30,th 2017
Decisions on proposals: May 30th
Proposal to presses: June 1st
Chapter drafts: November 1st
Revisions: February 1st, 2018
Please send abstracts or questions to: rightnewscfp@gmail.com
We seek contributions centering on the following themes:
-The mythology of the liberal media
-The affective registers and/or aesthetics of conservative media
-Journalistic sensibilities of conservative news producers
-Journalistic sensibilities of conservative news audiences
-Conservative news and movement infrastructure
-Methodological questions and dilemmas for scholarship on right wing news cultures
-Right wing news and media technologies
Editors
Anthony M. Nadler is an Assistant Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Ursinus College. He is the author of Making the News Popular: Mobilizing U.S. News Audiences (2016, University of Illinois Press). His latest research project focuses on the growth of online conservative news and opinion outlets.
A.J. Bauer is a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellow and Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Social & Cultural Analysis at New York University. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The New Inquiry and Social Test: Periscope, and is forthcoming in American Journalism. His dissertation, “Before Fair and Balanced: Conservative Media Activism and the Rise of the New Right” will be defended this spring.
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