Proposal for a themed issue of TMG Journal of Media History
by Marie-Noëlle Yazdanpanah
on behalf of the research project ‘Educational film practice in Austria, 1918-1970’, University of Vienna and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History (LBIDH), Vienna
and Nico de Klerk
on behalf of the research project ‘Projecting knowledge: the magic lantern as a tool for mediated science communication in the Netherlands, 1880-1940’, Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICON), Utrecht University (UU)
The growing body of work on the history of audiovisual educational media in recent years has also led to intensified methodological efforts to grasp the complex interplay between institutional policies, screening situations, and the form, style, and content of the respective media employed (be they magic lantern slides, educational films or television programs). In particular, the (heuristic) concept of the dispositif has proved to be extremely instructive in this regard, as it allows to map these different elements in a large variety of performative educational situations and describe their pragmatic interrelations: expectations, requirements, goals.
Therefore, we propose to adopt the term educational dispositif as a starting point for a themed issue and define it as a variant of the “performance dispositif” of illustrated lectures that Frank Kessler expounded in a recent article.[1] Kessler has modeled the abovementioned set of elements as a triangular configuration of so-called poles – performance context, text, and user-spectator – that stand in an interdependent, pragmatic relation to each other.
At the same time, by focusing on the educational aspects of the performance dispositif, we want to open up a space for considerations that capture the specificity—and productivity to media and cultural studies—of the pedagogical issues brought to bear on media use in the classroom and lecture hall. On the one hand, this means engaging with the heterogeneous arrangements of objects, people, spaces, technologies, policies, and implicit and explicit norms that constitute actual educational practices, and the contributions of media within them. These arrangements have been the subject of nuanced considerations as well as apodictic prescriptions by pedagogues past and present (as witnessed in many guideline documents) and have recently become the subject of increasing sociological and ethnographic interest.[2]
On the other hand, this means investigating the inventory of pedagogical and aesthetic concepts used in considering and evaluating media objects and their uses for teaching and learning. In the debates about the correct use of media in the classroom, two terms in particular stand out for their connection to media studies: the term “contemplation” (“Anschauung”), derived from philosophical aesthetics,[3] and the term “showing” (“Zeigen”), derived from the theory of didactics.[4] Contemplation refers to the complementarity and cooperation of perception and concept as well as an “aesthetic heteronomy” that allows aesthetic objects to be used for the didactic purpose of instruction. (This was fleshed out, among others, in Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’s concept of Anschauungsunterricht, the “object lesson”). The goal of showing seems comparatively straightforward: to display something to students that is not immediately given. But educational scholar Klaus Prange, among others, has developed a more fine-grained taxonomy of “showing” in pedagogical contexts that encompasses a wide host of activities including not only representation, but also exercise and incitement to react.
While concepts such as these should not be limited to exploring visual media (see for instance the boom of educational audiotapes from the 1960s onwards), much of the expanding use of media in education since the mid-19th century was organized around the idea of visual education, which was understood as an engine for the democratization of knowledge and facilitated by an explosion of reproductive mass media.
For the themed issue we would like to demonstrate the productivity to media studies of investigating pedagogical concepts and practices by outlining the workings of a variety of educational dispositifs of media usage. The issue is open for theoretical and methodological reflections as well as for the detailed analysis of the techniques, grammars, and operations used in the context of media in school, university, educational advertising/counseling, popular education or vocational training/guidance.
Possible topics and focal points include, but are not limited to, the following, concerning both historical and contemporaneous educational uses of media:
We ask interested researchers to submit an abstract of max. 350 words which clearly outlines a research question, relevance of the topic, a theoretical/historical framework, justification of research material and approach, and main argument.
Please send your proposals to the editors of this issue: Marie-Noëlle Yazdanpanah (Marie-Noelle.Yazdanpanah@geschichte.lbg.ac.at) and Nico de Klerk (n.h.deklerk@uu.nl). Deadline: please hand in your abstract no later than 1 October 2021. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 1 November 2021.
The authors of the accepted abstracts will be invited to contribute a full article (max. 8000 words, excluding references and bibliography).
[1] Frank Kessler, ‘The educational magic lantern dispositif’, Dellmann, Kessler (reds.), A million pictures: magic lantern slides in the history of learning (New Barnet: John Libbey, 2020), 181-191.
[2] Tobias Röhl, ‘Unterrichten. Praxistheoretische Dezentrierungen eines alltäglichen Geschehens’, Schäfer (ed.),Praxistheorie. Ein soziologisches Forschungsprogramm (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2016), 323-343.
[3] Waltraud Naumann-Beyer: ‘Anschauung’, in: Karlheinz Barck a.o. (eds.), Ästhetische Grundbegriffe, Vol. 1 (Stuttgart, Weimar: J.B. Metzler 2010), 208-246.
[4] Klaus Prange, Die Zeigestruktur in der Erziehung. Grundriss der Operativen Pädagogik (Paderborn: Brill 2019).
Posted on 04 Aug 2021
Voordat we gebruik maakten van het internet voor informatie over filmvertoningen, publiceerden de kranten wekelijkse filmladders. In hun samenwerking met Cinema Context nodigen de projectleden van Rotterdams Publiek u uit om deel te nemen aan ons nieuwste crowdsourcing project dat de filmcultuur van de jaren tachtig weer tot leven zal brengen.
We hebben alle ladders verzameld voor films die in de jaren tachtig in Rotterdam speelden. We verwelkomen de hulp van het publiek om de namen van filmtitels, het filmtheater en het aantal vertoningen per week te transcriberen. Het doel van het project is om een open dataset te creëren voor publiek en wetenschappelijk gebruik.
Wilt u een kijkje nemen, of beter nog, meedoen tijdens de dagen van lockdown die voor ons liggen: bezoek het crowdsource project op Het Volk: https://widgets.hetvolk.org/data-entry/start/678ec0d9-91a6-07cb-a7c9-d91c4fef852e
Posted on 17 Dec 2020
TMG Journal for Media History welcomes submissions on any topic in media history.
TMG Journal for Media History has a section devoted to a specific theme (special issue) and also has a general section that is open to any media historical topic, both for peer-reviewed academic articles and for non-peer-reviewed contributions, that can include book reviews, conference reports, portfolios, in memoriams, interviews, et cetera.
TMG Journal for Media History is an academic journal that wants to promote research in media history and publish the results of that research. It offers a platform for original research and for contributions that reflect theory formation and methods within media history. TMG Journal for Media History wants to represent media history across the board: contributions may focus on film, radio, TV and the press, but also on new media, photography and printmaking – provided that the historical perspective is central. The emphasis lies on the media history of the Netherlands and Belgium, but the editors also welcome contributions that fall outside this geographic framework and gladly offer space to transnational and other types of comparative research. The journal accepts contributions in English and in Dutch.
See for more information on author guidelines, peer review policy and the journal’s profile, or browse through earlier editions. Submit your contribution here.
TMG Journal for Media History verwelkomt inzendingen over elk onderwerp in de mediageschiedenis.
TMG Journal for Media History heeft een sectie gewijd aan een specifiek thema (speciale uitgave) en daarnaast ook een algemene sectie die openstaat voor elk media-historisch onderwerp, zowel voor peer-reviewed academische artikelen als voor niet-peer-reviewed bijdragen, zoals boekbesprekingen, conferentieverslagen, portfolio's, in memoriams, interviews, et cetera.
TMG Journal for Media History, voorheen Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, is een academisch tijdschrift dat onderzoek in de mediageschiedenis wil bevorderen en de resultaten van dat onderzoek wil publiceren. Het biedt een platform voor origineel onderzoek en voor bijdragen die theorievorming en methoden binnen de mediageschiedenis ontwikkelen. TMG Journal for Media History wil de mediageschiedenis over de hele linie vertegenwoordigen: bijdragen kunnen gericht zijn op film, radio, tv en pers, maar ook op nieuwe media, fotografie en drukwerk – op voorwaarde dat het historisch perspectief centraal staat. De nadruk ligt op de mediageschiedenis van Nederland en België, maar de redactie verwelkomt ook bijdragen die buiten dit geografische kader vallen en die graag ruimte bieden aan transnationaal en andersoortig vergelijkend onderzoek. Het tijdschrift accepteert bijdragen in het Engels en in het Nederlands.
Zie voor meer informatie over auteursrichtlijnen, peer review beleid het profiel van het tijdschrift, of blader door eerdere edities. Dien uw bijdrage hier in.
Posted on 08 Dec 2020