Call for submissions: Focus on the Media

“All over the world, autocratic-minded rulers [...] have learned that de facto control of the political content of television is perhaps the most important lever of power in our day. They have learned that it does not matter politically if 15 or even 25 percent of the public is well informed as long as the majority remains in the dark. The problem has not been censorship but something very nearly censorship’s opposite: the deafening noise of the official megaphone and its echoes—not the suppression of truth, still spoken and heard in a narrow circle, but a profusion of lies and half-lies; not too little speech but too much. If you whisper something to your friend in the front row of a rock concert, you have not been censored, but neither will you be heard.”Jonathan Schell, The Nation, August 14, 2006

Media concentration. The manufacture of consent. Canadian content. CBC cutbacks. Shock-jock talk radio. The blogosphere. Embedded reporting. The indymedia movement. The recent folding of Clamour, LiP, and the Independent Press Association south of the border….

Briarpatch Magazine invites submissions on the above and much more for its June/July “focus on the media” issue. How well are we served by our media? What has been the effect of the increasing concentration of media outlets into fewer and fewer powerful conglomerates? How well or poorly have Canadian media been reporting on the war in Afghanistan? Is the alternative press in this country gaining any ground? What is media democracy and what would it look like?

These are just a few of the questions we’re hoping you can help us answer in this issue. We are looking for feature articles, op-eds, investigative reports, news briefs, interviews, profiles, reviews, poetry, and artwork that explore the intersection of media and politics in Canada and beyond.

First drafts are due by Monday, April 10, 2007. Unsolicited submissions are welcome, but we encourage you to first send us a query. Your query should outline what ground your contribution will cover, give an estimated word count, and indicate your relevant experience or background in writing about the issue.

Send your queries/submissions to editor@briarpatchmagazine.com. Please include contact info and a short (1-2 sentence) bio of yourself. If your work is accepted for publication, you can expect to participate in a more-or-less intensive editing/rewrite process until consensus on a final draft is reached between yourself and the editor.