Welcome to Flow, Volume 5
by: Marnie Binfield and Matt Payne / FLOW Coordinating Editors
Welcome! We are positively thrilled to bring you the fifth volume of Flow.
The beginning of a new journal volume marks an important moment in the history of a publication and in the lives of its collaborators. As this cycle’s Coordinating Editors, we’d like to recognize and extend an advanced “thank you” to our gifted human resources – our new and returning columnists who’ve committed to bringing us pithy and timely pieces, our new and returning editors and staffers who will volunteer their time, energy, and creativity over the coming months, and our future respondents who, by virtue of simply replying to columns and comments, transform the site from collected sets of criticisms into an interactive community of media analysts and enthusiasts. But before recognizing those who’ve made this newest volume possible, we’d like to quickly mention what we have to look forward to in the coming months.
The first Flow Conference will be hosted in just a few short weeks here at the University of Texas. The conference organizers have been working diligently to produce what promises to be an innovative and exciting meeting of minds – uniting media industry professionals, activists, journalists, and academics.
During the event, we will also preview the “new and improved” version of the online journal. Conference attendees will have a chance to explore our work-in-progress and share their opinions about the beta version of FlowTV.org, including ways that we might improve the online experience. We have already received excellent feedback from our reader survey and are implementing changes that you requested!
And in November we will publish the first of our “Special Issue” series, which will tap into discussions borne out of the Flow Conference. Subsequent Special Issues are organized around distinct topics, including a Video Games issue in February, and a Spanish Language issue in April.
As we launch today, we have an exciting roster of columnists for Volume 5, including a great group of returning contributors with some wonderful new additions. We look forward to discovering what this new cast has to say about the changing face(s) of media. This volume’s contributors include:
Kim Akass, Hector Amaya, Mary Beltrán, Michele Byers, Raymond Cha, John Corner, Nichola Dobson, Adam Fish, Eric Freedman, Tim Gibson, Thom Gillespie, Judith Halberstam, Craig Jacobsen, Lynne Joyrich, Shanti Kumar, Sarita Malik, Janet McCabe, Alan McKee, Gareth Palmer, Charles Tryon, and Jennifer Warren.
This emergent project is delivered to you week after week (after week, after week) by our tireless and gracious workforce of graduate students. This volume’s new and returning Flow-ers are:
Peter Alilunas, Julia Price Baron, Bo Baker, Marnie Binfield, Courtney Brannon, Susan Broyles, Alexis Carreiro, Marlene Costa, Tariq Elseewi, Katherine Haenschen, Elizabeth Hansen, Michael Kackman, Carly Kocurek, Kristen Lambert, Jean Lauer, Nick Marx, Nick Muntean, Matt Payne, Allison Perlman, Jennie Phillips, Juan Pinon, Kevin Sanson, Anna Staab, Olivier Tchouaffe, and Jacqueline Vickery.
It is imperative that we also extend our gratitude to our outgoing columnists and graduate workers. We look forward to reading “guest columns” by some of last volume’s contributors, and encourage former writers and volunteers to post their comments in the issues to come. We will miss you all, and hope to see your thoughts and musings in comment postings soon.
Again – thank you, thank you, thank you – for participating in this constantly evolving experiment in emergent scholarship. There is no Flow without each of you.
Enjoy the new fall television lineup and “stay tuned” to Flow for the best in online commentaries on TV and New Media texts, industries, and cultures.
Best wishes,
Marnie Binfield and Matt Payne
Please feel free to comment.