VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture, Vol. 2, Issue 4

VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture is the first peer-reviewed multi-media e-journal in the field of television studies. Offering an international platform for outstanding academic research on television, the journal has an interdisciplinary profile and acts both as a platform for critical reflection on the cultural, social and political role of television in Europe’s past and present as well as a multi-media platform for the circulation and use of digitized audiovisual material.

The journal’s main aim is to function as a showcase for a creative and innovative use of digitized television material in scholarly work, and to inspire a fruitful discussion between audiovisual heritage institutions (especially television archives) and a broader community of television experts and amateurs. In offering a unique technical infrastructure for a multi-media presentation of critical reflections on European television, the journal aims at stimulating innovative narrative forms of online storytelling, making use of the digitized audiovisual collections of television archives around Europe.

The theme of this issue of VIEW is the ‘Hidden Professions of Television‘, which can be interpreted quite broadly within the European television context. The issue seeks to shine a light on the ‘behind the scenes’ activities of television and their hidden, often unrecognised and uncelebrated personnel and processes. As a result, we welcome contributions that may engage across a wide range of selected organisational, administrative or technical activities that have played their understated, ‘invisible’ parts in the historical formation of television: from aspects of TV continuity for instance, to television outside broadcast management, TV retailing or manufacture, television music or the TV weather forecast. These indicate some of the ‘gaps’ that this issue seeks both to fill and to explore.

Proposals are invited on (but not limited to):

• Personnel involved in all aspects of television, from technicians, production staff, editors to preservationists, administrative staff or media managers

• ‘Behind the scenes’ activities across the whole spectrum of television broadcasting, including organizational, administrative and technical activities

• ‘The making of’ understudied TV programmes like the weather forecast

• Services associated with television consumption, such as TV retailing, manufacturing or repair services

• Practices that focus on preserving the content (film, video or audio) and making it available for reuse

• Material artifacts used in television production or post-production

Contributions are encouraged from authors with different expertise and interests in television broadcasting, from researchers to television professionals, to archivists and preservationists. Contributions can be in the form of conventional articles, illustrated commentaries or photo-essays.

The deadline for proposals (max. 500 words) is 1 May 2013. Submissions should be sent to the managing editor of the journal, Dana Mustata (journal@euscreen.eu). Articles (2-4,000 words) will be due on 1 September 2013.

For further information or questions about the issue, please contact Tim O’Sullivan (tosulliv@dmu.ac.uk) and Andy O’Dwyer (andyodwyer@gmail.com).