The International Journal of Creative Media Research (Journal)

Description of Activity

I am one of the guest editors of a special issue on Making and Faking the News

From the politician to the social media pundit, cries of “fake news” resound across the contemporary media landscape. As ideological critique, as ubiquitous Twitter soundbite or, in Bob Franklin and Brian McNair’s words, “attack meme” (2017), the very term has become shorthand for an epoch’s struggle with the rise of populism, culture wars, and a broader crisis of trust within the mainstream media.

And yet, as so many accounts of the fake news phenomenon attest, here is just the latest manifestation of a long-standing debate on truth, spin, misinformation, propaganda and conspiracy. The contemporary moment offers multiple opportunities for exploration as does the historical in manufacturing the pretext for wars, “bad science”, conspiracy, advertising, and slander to name a few. Misinformation has played a consequential role in the shaping of societies. Indeed, as Marcus Gilroy Ware argues, falsehood and distortion are logical epiphenomena of our neoliberal “market-driven society” (2020), in which the profit drive often overtakes ethical and epistemological standards applying to big business, media, education and academic research. The malaise has been aggravated by what Richard Seymour calls the “addiction machine” (2018) of social media, on which platforms users can rapidly and widely disseminate misinformation with little fear of oversight or regulation.

This special edition of the International Journal of Creative Media Research asks how practice research might enable fresh perspectives on the construction and critique of fake news (both contemporary and historical examples). In what ways can artists, designers and moving image makers interrogate fake news’ histories, political and emotional impact and signifying power? How might practitioners confront fake news’ significance within the communication wars, or unpack its “creative” (disingenuous) treatment of reality? Can practitioners examine questions of epistemology (what is knowledge? what is true or false?) using methodologies that are different to traditional theorists’ and thereby help define what should stand in contrast or in opposition to fake news?

Submissions could engage the above questions in a variety of ways, including (but by no means limited to):

Exploring the visual culture of fake news.

Considering the ways in which a creative discipline, and its formal and stylistic qualities, might offer unique perspective on key issues (e.g. “bad science”, political lies and manipulation, historical falsities)

The power of visual storytelling to reach non-academic audiences and improve democratic citizenship with the objective of building public resilience against fake news

Identifying the aesthetic decisions that underpin fake news’ construction and dissemination.

Reflecting on the potential of practice research as a challenge to fake news and its purveyors.

Considering how practice research could contribute to public debates on fake news

Submissions could also explore the following themes:

The propagation of falsehoods related to race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class and nationality.

Bias, distortion and “churnalism” caused by corporate media proprietorship and other economic factors

Consumerism and lifestyle marketing

Conspiracy theory

Historical and contemporary superstition, mythology and belief

Pop cultural discourses on fake news

Deep fakes and digital manipulation


The deadline for 300 word abstracts is December 19th. Please send to Louis Netter ([email protected]). Response by January 4th. Final paper submission by March 17th.

We will accept work in one of the 3 submission categories:

Single piece explorations (a single media artefact accompanied by a 1,500 word research statement)

Multi piece portfolios (a number of media artifacts accompanied by a 3000 word research statement)

Practice Discoveries (a 6000 word article intended to advance knowledge about a particular form of practice)

Period	15 Aug 2022 → 3 Mar 2023
Type of journal	Journal
ISSN	2631-6773
Degree of Recognition	International