The periodical press, as a means of mass communication, reflects the collective relationship with a society. It is the fourth estate governing humankind without any laws or punishments and responsible to readers and the state. East, Central and North Europe regions entered the age of the periodical press at different times–mid-17th c. to early 19th c.–however, all of them strived to adapt to the changing conditions of the period in a modern way.

The predecessor of periodicals “Nusidavimai Dievo karalystėje” (News in the Kingdom of God), published in 1823, in Tilžė (Lithuania Minor, the kingdom of Prussia), was a part of this consistent process of development and change of information and communication. It has its origins in the continuous publications and calendars of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Prussia. The volume of the world press grew day by day, and the repertoire of Lithuanian periodicals also expanded (in 1760, a newspaper in Polish was launched in Vilnius, in 1802 the first newspaper in French was published, in 1810 – in German, in 1841 – in Hebrew, 1862 – in Belarusian).

Societies were changing simultaneously by immersing themselves into a multidimensional informational existence, and the press became an integral part of the image of a modern person. The first digital periodical in Lithuania was launched in 1998, nowadays, we have hundreds of them. The periodical press has transformed itself in a digital age; new ways of publishing, new forms and formats to present information have been invented.

The conference is dedicated to celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Lithuanian periodical press and discussing the research on historical change of periodicals and their heritage, specific features of contemporary publishing and dissemination of the periodical press, highlighting the most important changes in publishing of contemporary periodical press faced by network societies in the Baltic States and neighbouring countries.

We invite you to submit papers on the following topics:

  • Theoretical approaches to periodical research. Changes in the concept of periodical, continuous, serial publications. Methodology and sources of periodical research. Critical communication and information, book studies, source studies, interdisciplinary perspective. Formation of the bibliographic resource base for periodicals and the state of the art today.
  • History, historiography and bibliography of periodicals. Predecessors of periodicals (calendars, manuscript newspapers, dissertation theses, silva rerum) and changes in repertoire in the 16th and 19th centuries. Periodicals of the period of the National Revival. Discoveries in the history of the periodical press changing the understanding about the period, significant events for the press, etc. Synthetic results of the research on history and bibliography of periodicals.
  • Heritage of periodicals, its communication, digitalisation and research. Historical collections of periodicals and continuing publications, their development and composition. Heritage genres of periodicals, artistic decoration. Specialised digital resources of the heritage of periodicals, their creation and use. Technological and methodological issues of digitalisation of documentary heritage. The relevance of press research to processes of digitalisation.
  • Data analytics in research on periodicals. The concept of data and specificity in the publishing of periodicals. Opportunities and experiences in content analysis of the data of periodicals.
  • Periodicals and society groups. Periodical research from an ethnic, religious, regional, national, local identity or target audience analysis points of view. Illegal press of the Soviet period. Periodicals of emigrants. Periodicals of minorities. Users (readers) of periodicals.
  • Market of periodicals. State and business interests in shaping the periodical press market by ensuring access to different genre and purpose press. Dimensions of internationality, nationality and regionalism.
  • Periodicals and digital publishing. Emergence of the digital content of the periodical press, digitalisation of management of publishing processes, new models of publishing business.

Conference organizer
The Faculty of Communication at Vilnius University

Partner
The Association of Lithuanian Serials

Conference language
English

Conference format
Online

Key dates
Until 24 April 2023 – Final deadline for proposals of individual paper abstracts
Until 15 May 2023 – Assessment and notification of acceptance
Until 30 June 2023 – Publication of the program
19–20 October 2023 – Conference date

Submission guidelines / Registration
Please submit your proposals and register online through the conference website https://www.ibsc2023.kf.vu.lt/en/.
The time allocated for presentations is 20 minutes (max. 2500 words). Proposals for papers must include a title, an abstract (max. 250 words), and a short biography of the presenter (max. 50 words). Articles based on the papers will be published in the scholarly journal “Knygotyra” (Book Science) for 2024. The journal is peer-reviewed, open access and has been indexed in Scopus since 2018. Attendance of the conference is free of charge.

Conference contact information
Secretary of the Conference organizing committee Kristina Gedvilaitė, e-mail: [email protected]

Correspondence address
Department of Book, Media and Publishing Research
Faculty of Communication
Vilnius University
3 Universiteto Str.
LT-01513 Vilnius, Lithuania