As specific material and cultural artefacts, foreign-language periodicals call for a multifaceted approach in order to unravel the intricate connections between text and context, forms and meanings, language and message, as well as the complex interactions between editors, printers, authors and readers. With this in mind, of particular interest for us in the Fourth International Conference of the Transfopress network if the global circulation of media culture at a time when print communication was becoming a mass phenomenon in the 19th and 20th century.

23, 24 & 25 November 2016

Mexico city, Rectoria general, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana de México

Argument

For its Fourth International encounter to be held in Mexico City on Wednesday 23, Thursday 24^th  and Friday 25^th  November, 2016, the Transfopress Network welcomes papers on the following topic : “The Foreign-Language Press: New Forms, Contents and Functions”.

As specific material and cultural artefacts, foreign-language periodicals call for a multifaceted approach in order to unravel the intricate connections between text and context, forms and meanings, language and message as well as the complex interactions between editors, printers, authors and readers. With this in mind, of particular interest for us in this conference is the global circulation of media culture at a time when print communication was becoming a mass phenomenon in the 19^th and early 20^th century. Editorial models, formats and contents were becoming part of a continuous flow of journalistic innovations, information and cultural practices and we would like to explore the channels through which these transfers occurred and how they affected the foreign-language periodicals in different cultural contexts. Another area of investigation regards the multiple functions fulfilled by the foreign-language press. Following David Abrahamson’s call to go “beyond the mirror metaphor”[1], foreign-language periodicals should be considered as both descriptive and prescriptive and it would be interesting to explore how they not only reflected but also shaped their environment, what kind of public space of discussion they created and to what extent they were tools of empowerment for the communities of readers they addressed.

Following these two broad lines of inquiry, proposals are invited on the following topics:

1^st line of enquiry: The global circulation of media culture and how it affected foreign-language periodicals.

• Diffusion and transfer of editorial models and practices. Foreign-language periodicals were the products of their time and a media environment that was both international and local. To what extent did they borrow from existing models abroad and from the press of their host country?  Or did they innovate in creating sui generis models? How did this affect their materiality (periodicity, lay-out, hierarchy between the various sections and columns)?
• Journalistic networks and Magazine Editors. Who were the men and women behind these journalistic enterprises? Were they attached to particular institutions or part of national and transnational media networks (personal and/or institutional)? Or were they single media entrepreneurs?
• Circulation, transformation and recycling of images and texts. Looking at the conditions of elaboration of the content of these periodicals is it possible to identify the way texts and images circulated nationally and transnationally and how they were transformed and recycled in the process?  
• Linguistic strategies.  Language is central to any journalistic enterprise but even more so to foreign-language periodicals. A survey of linguistic strategies in this context would address not only the choices of publication language and their avatars (foreign language, translation, bilingualism, hybridization, shift from one language to another) but also the levels of language (informative or specialized, idiomatic or high-brow)

2^nd line of inquiry: The multiple functions of foreign-language periodicals

• Diffusion of knowledge, dissemination of culture and construction of cultural models. Periodicals are cultural vehicles that create a major public space for discourses about society and culture. How are we to understand the particular role of foreign-language periodicals in that respect? What kind of knowledge did they help diffuse? What ideas did they circulate? What kind of social behaviours and cultural paths did they promote? 
• Cultural brokers, mediators between the original language group and the host society. To what extent can we look at foreign-language periodicals as cultural brokers and which cultures do they uphold? To what extent can we consider them as mediating toolsbetween two cultures?Or do they limit themselves to promoting their language and culture of origin?
• Financial dimension. How are these periodicals financed (government, political groups, businesses, advertising, or other sources)? To what extent are these periodicals also commercial enterprises? What role does advertising play apart from financing the publication (promotion of ethnic consumerism and ethnic businesses)?
• Political dimension. Foreign-language periodicals have always taken part to the ideological debates of their period. To what extent have they been influenced by particular political contexts (problems of official censorship and self-censorship)? Does the exile press limit itself to upholding its ideals to its readership or does it try to promote the cause more broadly in order to rally support within the host society? As for the ethnic press, to what extent does it fulfil a role of political representation for ethnic communities?

[1] David Anrahamson, “Beyond the Mirror  Metaphor: Magazine Exceptionalism and Socio-cultural Change”, Journal of Magazine and New Media Research, Spring 2002, 4(1)

Conference languages

Spanish, French, English. When necessary simultaneous Spanish/French translation will be provided

Submission guidelines

Please send proposals for 15/20mn papers with a title in English/Spanish/French if possible (maximum 300 words - panels of 3 or 4 papers will also be considered), together with your professional affiliation and a short CV () to: ausgomez@correo.xoc.uam.mx and diana.cooper-richet@uvsq.fr

Deadline for submitting proposals: 31 May 2016

The selection committee will inform applicants about the decision by 30 June 2016.

Organizing and scientific Committee

• Arnulfo Uriel de Santiago Gomez (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana)
• Lilia Vieyra (Universidad National Autónoma de México, Institute of Bibliographic Research)
• Alexandra Vigil ( Universidad National Autónoma de México, Institute of Bibliographic Research)
• Diana Cooper-Richet (Université Versailles Saint-Quentin - CRHCSC)
• Bénédicte Deschamps (Université Paris-Diderot, LARCA)
• Isabelle Richet (Université Paris-Diderot, LARCA)