Call For Papers

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Call for Papers
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Justice, Media and Public
Changing Public Perceptions in the New Media Landscape

Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice
Keele University, 25-26 March 2010

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Confirmed keynote speakers:
His Honour Judge Keith Cutler, Chairman of the Judges’ Council Committee on Communications
Olga Kavran, Spokeswoman to the Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, The Hague
Joshua Rozenberg, Freelance journalist, former BBC legal correspondent and former legal editor of the Daily Telegraph
Daniel Stepniak, Associate Professor, University of Western Australia, author of Audio-visual Coverage of Courts: A Comparative Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 2008).

This conference invites contributions on the theme of representations and public perceptions of crime and justice in a multimedia communications environment. The new media landscape is creating both opportunities and challenges for improving and maintaining public confidence in the criminal justice and legal system. How can new information and communication technologies (ICTs) be utilized in public outreach initiatives? What kind of strategies are criminal justice agencies already deploying to maximize the potential of new technologies? To what extent do user-centred communication practices (blogging, social networking, on-demand TV, mobile technologies, file sharing, etc), generate public confidence and perception issues that are new or different? How are narratives and representations of justice evolving in the new media environment? Are old media and their institutional practices genuinely in decline or are we just witnessing a reordering of the public sphere under the influence of new technologies? What lessons can be drawn from the past in order to understand the new media landscape and its implications for the communication of justice?
While the main emphasis is on new media and ICTs, the submission of abstracts involving reflections on policy and practice, theoretical developments, methodological innovations and recent empirical analyses relating to communication, media and public confidence in the criminal justice and legal system is also very much encouraged. Contributions from postgraduate and early career researchers are particularly welcome.
The conference aims to attract an international audience of academics and practitioners from the (criminal) justice field. It seeks to facilitate a dialogue across disciplinary, professional and jurisdictional boundaries.
Please send an abstract of maximum 250 words proposing individual papers or panels to Lieve Gies (l.gies@keele.ac.uk) by 31 October 2009. For any queries, please contact the organizers Lieve Gies (l.gies@keele.ac.uk) and Rob C Mawby (rim3@leicester.ac.uk).