Thematic Approach
Our topic is particular and universal, directed to the three areas of education, literature, and mass communications — aware they both overlap and concentrate particular concerns.
Education, Literature and Mass Communications are the three pillars of our exploration.
Education, our first thematic, considers how the habit of reading longer and intellectually demanding books is vanishing for students. By “education” we meet at all levels, all modern kinds.
Some thematic question to consider:
- What are some of the reasons for this 21st c. transition to less demanding texts?
- Has today’s youth lost touch with books? Lost touch with concentrating?
- Has reading among the young deteriorated to such an extent that one must question the ability to produce an educated — and not entertained — public?
-Is the declining culture of reading caused by the growing influence of electronic and social media? Or something else?
-What kind of information the history of education can provide us with? What does the past of the discipline can teach us in order to familiarize with the history of education alogn with the past actions and policies around the world? What are the changes that alterd edcuation and what are they key people/key events that can offer more insights?
- By embracing modern tools and social media has literacy been
abandoned?
Literature, our second thematic, explores such questions as why in the last few years, literary experts have been warning against continuous partial attention. Others have described the times we live in as an age of interruption. Is this so?
Some suggested thematic questions:
- Has increased partial attention effected 21st c. literary production?
- Is there an extensive decrease in learned reading these days?
- An inability to focus on longer texts?
- Have shorter forms of writing become more appealing?
- How have genres changed?
- Has literary collage replaced linear narrative? Why fragments and not the whole in 21st century literature?
Mass Communication, our third thematic, deals with questions of theory and practice for educators and all members of the fourth estate. Consder:
- What has become of news and information in our digital era’s
hyperconnected world?
- Is surveillance important?
- In our hyperconnected world, where everyone seems to use mobile devices as self-extension — why are we constantly clicking,
browsing, and accessing bits of information that encourage
fragmentary understanding?
- How has news reporting process been influenced by new technological resources?
- With social media in mind, who reports and how is communications reliability determined?
- What about issues of speed in 21st c. communications? Why and with what results do all sorts of cultural and social events happen faster than ever?
- Have generations dramatically shortened since mid-20th century because people identify with a smaller range of mass communications interests?
In this conference we would like to hear from interested parties from all over the world and together seek ways to deal with this abundant assortment of Concentration & Distraction issues.
GIRES, committed to the cross-pollination of interdisciplinary learn, invites scholars from all fields for which education is a pertinent issue — to debate relevant questions and to seek a wealth of answers in these growing problems.
Proposed Topics (In addition to the above queries)
- Regarding mass media communications, hasn’t media always been broadcast? But not like it is today?
- How have means changed matter?
- Does an indiscriminate dispersal of information erode the foundations of fact?
- Are digital communications the symptom but not the cause of the 21st century’s diffusion of conflicting values?
- How does the ever-multiplying digital variety of mass communications effect the messages received?
- Has focused broadcasting become scattershot transmission?
- Why and with what result in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century have the daily newspaper and few dominant networks been blanketed and atomized by online news and information sources?
- What will happen to legacy media and mass communications in the 21st century?
- Is there no end to the cultural and technological multiplication of mass communications?
Proposed Formats (Lingua franca: English)
- Individual papers (GIRES will included it in a panel)
- Panels (up to 4 presentations-chaired by one of the presenters or appointed by GIRES)
- Roundtable presentations (chaired by one of the presenters or appointed by GIRES)
- Poster presentations
- Student presentations (one paper presented by up to 3 young scholars)
- Keynote speech (depending on the time availability)
- Pre-recorder presentation (s) (Asynchronous Platform)
- Pre-recorder presentation (s) (Synchronous-live- Sessions: live participation of presenter (s) during the Q&A sessions)
Publication Opportunity
The Organizing Committee and GIRES Press will publish the most powerful and dynamic presentations of the conference and include them
in a collective volume in the form of short articles and/or long essays. For more information please contact us
Live Sessions Recording
All participants have the option to have their presentations recorded (during live sessions) in HD quality. The recordings will be uploaded to GIRES media for unlimited access and dissemination.
Asynchronous Options
All participants have the option to have their presentations (video/audio/text) uploaded to our Virtual Platform. All registered participants will have access to the material for 5 days.