Staffan Ericson, Culture and Communication, Söderturn univeristy

2009-2014

The project was launched in January 2010, and included three scholars: Staffan Ericson (docent, Södertörn University), Amanda Lagerkvist (docent, Stockholm University), and Paul Achter (Associate Prof., University of Richmond, USA). As stated in the application, its purpose was to increase our understanding of television's specific historiography, through case studies of three temporal forms: "the time of the chronicle" (as in the organization of successive time through documentaries, fictional series, chronicles); "the time of catastrophe" (as in disruptions through the live broadcasting of trauma, disaster); "the time of ritual" (as in pre-planned,ceremonial events, inviting audiences to witness history in the making). A basic assumption was that these three forms and their interrelations were fundamental for how television represented history and organized cultural memory.

As specified below, the project has basically stayed on track with its application. While its publishing output is not yet completed (an international volume on "The Times of Television " is being compiled during 2014, see below), the objective as stated in the mid-term report to RJ - at least six published articles from project participants - was already achieved by the end of the project, and four more articles had been prepared and ventilated for the final volume.
In retrospect, the project resonated with a series of expansive research fields :medialization, temporality, memory. While this offered good potential for exposure and further development, it also clarified the limitations of a three-year (part-time) project.

"Changes in aim"
One case study chose a slight change of material. Initially, Achter's study addressed the US presidential campaign of 2008,but its focus shifted to how the president's televised speeches after the election would initiate, escalate or close states of war. Thus, it came to involve the transformation of classic, delimited media events into the coverage of ongoing states of "crisis" (a temporality not defined in the project design), while all three studies came to engage with the relation media -war (a thematic not developed in the application).

"Three important results"
In the early phase, attention was directed to the stated aims of each case study, attempting to define the three forms, in relation to specified material and theories. Thus, the historical television chronicle, its referential, narrative and temporal specificity, and its relation to conventional historiography, was described with reference to the CNN series Cold War (Ericson 2011); television's function as "electronic lieux de memoire" was described with reference to how catastrophic time (9.11) was commemorated on Swedish television (Lagerkvist 2012); the rhetorical conditions of media events was described with reference to declared beginnings and endings of the Iraq war on American television (Achter 2014). In later phases,focus could shift to the intersection of these forms, and the shared specificity of televisual mnemonics: interactions between the transient and the reenacted within "liveness" (Lagerkvist 2013, Ericson and Lagerkvist, forthcoming 2014), its intensification within certain televisual "spatio-temporal" configurations (Ericson forthcoming 2014, Lagerkvist 2012), corresponding patterns of historiography within media theory (Ericson 2013, Achter forthcoming 2014).

The project chose a "media-specific" angle on "old" media, while much contemporary research focused convergence, digitization, post-television. One might argue that one outcome of the project was a heightened awareness of the continued presence of the "televisual", not only in relation to how the digital, trans-, or post-medial organize time, but also to our understanding of "historical time". This theme will be emphasized in the final volume, but has also formed the basis for new projects.

"New research questions"
Related to the above, Lagerkvist received the Wallenberg Foundation's five-year support for humanities scholars, with the project "Existential Terrains: Memory and Meaning in Cultures of Connectivity" (2014-2018). With Johan Fornäs (main applicant) and Anne Kaun, Ericson initiated an RJ -funded network group on the theme "The Times of Mediatization", involving 15 scholars, for future workshops and publications (2013-2015). With art historian Dan Karlholm, Ericson received a planning grant for a project on liveness and renactment during the 1950s (television as "the prehistory of the postmedium"), to be submitted Spring 2015. Quarterly Journal of Speech, a flagship journal in American research on rhetoric, invited Achter write an overview/review article (8000 words) on the theme "Mediation, Rhetoric, and History" in 2014.

"International connections"
From the outset, the project strived to present its approach in qualified scientific contexts, for instance by organizing panels at leading international conferences. At the ICA conference in Boston, 2011, Lagerkvist led a panel on "Transnational Mediated Memories: Digital and Televisual Paradigms", with presentations by Lagerkvist, Ericson, Anna Reading, Amit Pinchevsky (commentator: Marita Sturken). Achter organized a panel of U.S. scholars for the NCA conference 2011, New Orleans, on "Memory, Historiography and War in the Twenty-First Century" (commentator: Barbara Biesecker). For ECREAs conference 2014, Lisbon, Ericson has organized a panel on "Media and Forgetting", with six scholars from three countries (commentator:Eric Rothenbühler). Another strategy was to apply for advanced, thematic conferences during the period. Ericson has presented at the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory, Tartu ("Time in Culture", 2010), at New School, New York, ("The Art of Memory", 2012), at MIT, Boston ("Media in Transition"), at Oslo University ("Regimes of Temporality", 2013) and ECREA 's conference in Istanbul, 2013.Ericson and Lagerkvist have presented at NORDMEDIAS conferences (Iceland 2012, Oslo, 2013), and have been invited to present project material as "keynote speaker" at international conferences ("Critical and Cultural Theory", Stockholm 2012, "Media and Death ", Helsinki 2013), and to contribute to symposia organized by other projects ("Meetings of Historians" 2011, "Catastrophic Cultures " 2012).

Some international contacts proved more important than others. At the beginning of the project, Paul Frosh and Amit Pinchevski published a volume on "Media Witnessing". The two were invited to Södertörn in 2011 for lectures and project meetings,Frosh returned a year later for a workshop on article drafts and publishing strategies. In 2011, the French scholar Katharina Niemayer published a phenomenologically inspired dissertation on television and history, using the Berlin Wall and 9.11 as case studies. Niemayer's familiarity with German and French scholarship - often neglected in the Anglo-Saxon-dominated media studies -came to reveal more ongoing, related work. In 2013, the project invited Niemayer to co-edit its final publication.

"Dissemination (outside the scientific community)"
While dealing with a current, everyday phenomenon, the project's media exposure has admittedly been modest. One notable exception: in 2011, the U.S. television network CBS produced a feature about the project for its "Six O'Clock News", including interviews with Achter and Ericson. In addition, the project has continuously been used as exemplification by participants when contributing to the media (for example, on Swedish radio).

The application stated an intention to integrate the project with pedagogical activities. All three participants have during the period taught at least one new course on the project's themes at Swedish and U.S. universities. The plan to conduct a course on Media, Memory, Monument, on U.S. soil, with the participation of Swedish and American students, has been developed by Achter and Ericson, and will be implemented Spring 2014, with support from the Carnegie Melon Foundation.

"Two main publications"
According to the application, the main output was intended as an internationally published volume, adding contributions from scholars outside the project. In 2013, the collection of abstracts for a volume entitled "The Times of Television", edited by Ericson and Niemayer, commenced. During the spring of 2014, detailed proposals to, primarily, a special issue of an international journal, alternatively, a book anthology by an international publisher, will be distributed. At the moment, format, date and final selection cannot be specified. However, the prognosis for finding a qualified fora appear to be good (see below). In addition to the project participants and Frosh and Niemayer, five scholars are currently considered for contributions.

In what has already been published, Ericson (2011) presents the general approach of the project, in a broader, interdisciplinary context.

"Strategies of publication"
After the project's presentations at conferences, an interest for publication could be noted among publishers and journals. Also, dilemmas arose: several intended contributors noted the growing disadvantages of the anthology format (in terms of academic qualification and dissemination),while the thematic journal issue might extend the production process, and offer less volume and editorial control. To ensure options, a proposal was prepared by Ericson in 2012 for a guest-edited issue on the project in a Scandinavian online journal (peer-reviewed, open access).This was (tentatively) accepted, but contract was at the time postponed, as project activity would continue in 2013: Ericson had future opportunities for editorship, through his participation in the research program "Time, Memory and Representation" (running to 2015). During 2013, work on the final volume was initiated as described above, while the project's individual case studies were completed.

Publications

Achter, Paul (2014):”Reluctant Memories: Media Events and the End of the Iraq War”. I Lynne Webb & Erin Sahlstein (eds.):  A Communicative Perspective on the Military: Messages, Strategies, Meanings. Peter Lang, New York.

Ericson, Staffan (2011), "The Times of Television: Representing, Anticipating, Forgetting the Cold War", in Ruin, Hans & Andrus Ers: Rethinking Time: Essays on History, Memory, and Representation, Södertörn Philosophical Studies 9, Huddinge: Södertörn Academic Studies.

Ericson, Staffan (2013), “Media and Maelströms (McLuhan and Benjamin)”, Site Magazine 33, 2013: ”Senses”

Lagerkvist, Amanda (2012): ”9.11 in Sweden. Commemoration at Electronic Sites of Memory”, Television and New Media, Onlinefirst, Sept 14 2012

Lagerkvist, Amanda (2013): ”New Memory Cultures and Death: Existential Security in the Digital Memory Ecology”. Thanatos: The Finnish Journal of Death and Dying, Vol 2, Issue 2

Lagerkvist, Amanda (2013): ”Memories in the Making: Media, Memory, Performance”, Chapt 2 in Media and Memory in New Shanghai: Western Performances of Future Pasts, Palgrave MacMillan

Kommande/forthcoming (2014/2015;

Achter, Paul: ”After Iraq”, i Ericson & Niemayer, eds, The Times of Television

Achter, Paul: ”Review Essay: Mediation, Rhetoric, History" (prel. title), Quarterly Journal of Speech

Ericson, Staffan (med K Niemayer): ”Introduction: The Times of Television”, i Ericson & Niemayer, eds.

Ericson, Staffan: ”The Allegory of the Bunker: Cold War as Television”, i Ericson & Niemayer, eds.

Ericson, Staffan: ”Medialiserad historia, historiserad medialisering” (prel title) i Hans Ruin et al, eds.), Historiens hemvist,  vol 3, Medialisering, materialitet, och minnets teknicitet. (prel title), 2015.

Lagerkvist, Amanda: ”Between History and Amnesia: Aliveness in Electronic Media”, i Ericson & Niemayer, eds.

Lagerkvist, Amanda: ”A Quest for Communitas: Rethinking Mediated Memory Existentially”, i Nordicom Review