A new collection, Media Building: New Perspectives on Journalism, Mass Communication, and the Built Environment, is soliciting abstract proposals for an upcoming edited volume. The collection will bring together scholars to interrogate the enduring and evolving relationship between journalism, mass communications, and the built environment. From the emergence of the first newspapers, media creators have intuitively understood the importance of connecting place and content. This has centered on the media building – most powerfully rendered through iconic headquarters such as the Tribune tower in Chicago and the Daily Express building in London.

Abstracts of 350-500 words, alongside a short position statement explaining how you envision your chapter contributing to the collection as a whole, to be submitted by January 10, 2023. Editors are Will Mari, LSU; Carole O’Reilly, Salford; E. James West, Northampton.

We invite chapters that interrogate the concept of the media building from a variety of perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds. Potential topics include:

•     Media power and the modern skyscraper (e.g. China Media Group HQ, Beijing; the New York Times building, ‎Manhattan)

•     Media buildings and media(ted) cities (e.g. New York’s “newspaper row”; Facebook Menlo Park Campus, Silicon Valley; Media City Park, Dubai)

•     Media buildings in popular culture (e.g. Superman and the Daily Planet)

•     The pasts and futures of media buildings (e.g. redevelopment and building conversion; demolition; public memory).

•     Architecture, labor and media technologies (e.g. air conditioning; digitization and the newsroom; spatial politics and media workers)

•     Identity, community, and media buildings (e.g. minority media and the built environment; race, gender and sexuality in the modern newsroom)

•     Media buildings and the end of empire (e.g. the Times of India building, Mumbai; National Media Group, Nairobi; Broadcasting House, London)

•     The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on media buildings and their employees (e.g. the transition away from 24/7 newsrooms, working from home)

Accepted chapters of 5,000-to-7,000 words to be submitted August 15, 2023.

Direct queries and submissions to: mediabuildingconference@gmail.com