Review: Peer review and dissemination of Media Practice Research Symposium, University of Salford, June 2006

Abstract

This symposium focussed on issues around peer review, dissemination, documentation and publishing of media research. A mix of papers, presentations and workshops provided stimuli for discussion and the opportunity to explore ways forward on peer review and use of media in publishing research. The debate centred on the problems of framing research questions for genuinely innovative work; of finding a way through the tensions between the requirements of our research, of funding bodies, and our own creative aspirations; on the ways in which dissemination needs to be considered as an integral part of the project, and how the different characteristics of forms of dissemination need to be carefully weighed up when making decisions around publishing. There is a tension between the open space that new media creates and the conventional gate-keeping process traditionally seen as one of the characteristics of the process to guarantee quality. There has been concern about the whole apparatus of peer review and evaluative criteria being brought to bear on media practice, and the ways in which the framing of the work for research application purposes may conflict with an exploratory approach. This symposium gave academics from a variety of higher education institutions the opportunity to further develop thinking on media practice research.