IAMCR 2014: Communication Policy and Technology Section - CfP - Deadline 10 February

Call for Papers - COMMUNICATION POLICY AND TECHNOLOGY (CP&T) section

The Communication Policy and Technology (CP&T) Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites submissions for the IAMCR 2014 conference to be held from July 15-19, 2014 at Hyderabad (India). The deadline for submissions of extended abstracts for papers and panel proposals is midnight GMT on 10 February 2014.

The conference will be held under the general theme: Region as a Frame: Politics, Presence, Practice. The overall conference theme seeks to explore the dynamics of media systems, communication patterns and organizational relationships within the ‘framing’ of region as a physical and conceptual category.

The breaking down of some the world’s walls has created an uncertainty about the geographies and substantive nature of the regions they had once defined. Mobility, migration and disembodied interactions by cyberspace further complicate the notion of region as a conceptual and experiential category. New regional hierarchies, such as the economic power of emerging economies (BRICS) are taking shape, serving to decentre traditional loci of power, while different forms of identity politics are creating fissures in the modern nation state. Corporations have acquired the power to dictate politics through their ownership of forms and channels of expression, and this has created a new urgency to re-think old arguments around media control and dispersal in a regional rather than global framework. This conference theme thus lends itself to papers and panels dealing with a wide range of specific sub-themes and topics relevant for the Communication Policy and Technology section:

• What are the policies, user practices and technologies that co-evolve with media discourse, organization and economics?

• What kind of presence is at all possible in this redefined regional space, and how does region become a real and imagined construct across new media presences?

• What sorts of practices then become key to media and communication spaces enclosed in or defined by this new frame?

The Communication Policy and Technology section invites contributions to this overall theme that link and integrate the different levels of policy, industry, civil society and user practices with the possible shifts in local, national, regional and global power relations and communication technologies. The latter fits within the interdisciplinary framework of socio-technological changes taking place in communication and media production, diffusion and consumption, on micro, meso, and macro levels. The question is to what extent and how researchers and civil society in the media and communications field can formulate answers to strengthen user empowerment and to mitigate disempowerment on the levels of access, literacy, privacy and surveillance in the age of mass self-communication.

Starting from the remit of the Communication Policy and Technology section, we invite submissions that take a closer look at these issues. In addition to our open call for papers and the sub-themes, the CP&T section also invites papers and panel proposals addressing the following particular themes that are relevant to the section, organised by a focus on governance, practices, and technologies:

1. Policies and governance

• Governance, control and (liquid) surveillance through technological infrastructures and algorithms

• User driven (bottom up) forms of governance, strengths and weaknesses 

• Critical perspectives on big data, data mining, social sorting, and Internet governance

• Civic/internet liberties in relation to hacktivism and peer-to-peer file sharing

• Social, economic and legal issues related to (new) regulatory initiatives in different regions of the world, on privacy, surveillance, and data protection.

• Media and Digital Literacy policies in comparative perspective

• Convergence and/or deconvergence of policies and value networks (business modelling) of digital audio-visual systems

• The emerging digital rights agenda

2. Practices

• User (dis)empowerment and mediation

• Tactics and strategies of resistance and protest in technology design and use (e.g. end-user programming, open source initiatives, DIY, cheating, counterplay)

• Consumer/citizen awareness, attitudes, capabilities and practices towards privacy, surveillance and the commodification of personal data in digital marketing techniques

• Reconfiguring media literacy and digital literacy in online/offline social contexts

• User Convergence and/or deconvergence in digital audio-visual systems

3. Technologies

• Critical perspectives on social media and technology design, in particularly related to privacy and surveillance (e.g. PETs - Privacy Enhancing Technologies)

• Big data and the ethics of state and corporate surveillance

• Creativity, transparency, privacy and control through social, local and mobile technologies, autonomous systems and ubiquitous computing (e.g. RFID, sensors,...)

• Technologies for data inference, profiling, recommendations, and prediction of user behaviour (predictive analytics)

• Socio-economic aspects of transnational and transregional systems of distribution in comparative perspective

The CP&T Section will also look for opportunities for hosting joint sessions with other sections and working groups. In this regard the Working Group on Global Media Policy - in co-operation with the CP&T section - invites papers addressing World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)-related topics with the focus on its 10 year history. This is part of a joint IAMCR effort to engage with international debates around communication and social transformations in the digital age, in the line up to take stock of the WSIS+10.

Submission information

The CP&T section welcomes proposals for papers bearing on the above or related issues by submitting an extended abstract (between 300 and 1,000 words in length). Abstracts should contain title, main question or research problem, theoretical framework, research method(s) used, and (expected) empirical outcomes. The scholarly presentation of accepted submissions can take place in two types of sessions: paper presentation sessions (i.e. 4-5 presenters each with 12-15 minutes, requiring full paper submitted on time) and high intensity sessions (i.e. 6-8 presenters each with 5-7 minutes). While, IAMCR accepts presentations and papers in English, French and Spanish, it is requested that extended abstracts and panel proposals, if at all possible, be submitted in English to facilitate the reviewing process.

Proposals for panels of 90 minutes are also welcome. A complete CP&T panel proposal must have 4 to 5 papers and include:

1. The panel description, including, the panel title, a framing text, the names of the panelists and the titles of their papers. The framing text (maximum 350 words) should contain the overall idea and goal of the panel, and how it responds to the CP&T section call. A panel chair and a discussant should also be proposed.

2. An (extended) abstract for each paper (between 300 and 1,000 words in length), including title and author(s). The panel description and the individual abstracts must be submitted individually. Thus a panel with 5 papers involves making 6 separate submissions via the Open Conference System (OCS). Abstracts can be submitted directly by the panel authors or the panel coordinator can submit them on the authors’ behalf. The abstract submissions must indicate “PANEL:” as the first word of their title and the complete title of the panel must appear in the first line of the abstract. The panel proposal will be reviewed and based on this review we will accept, accept with revisions, or decline the panel.

Submission of extended abstracts, panel proposals and (if accepted) full papers can only be done online via IAMCR’s Open Conference System (OCS) at http://iamcr-ocs.org from 1 December 2013 until 10 February 2014 (midnight GMT).

Early submission is strongly encouraged. Submissions only sent via e-mail will not be reviewed.

It is expected that for the most part, only one (1) abstract will be submitted per person for consideration by the Conference. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same applicant either individually or as part of any group of authors. Please note also that the same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to other Sections or Working Groups of the Association for consideration, after an initial submission. Such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be automatically rejected by the Open Conference System, by the relevant Head or by the Conference Programme Reviewer. Such applicants risk being removed entirely from the conference programme.

Upon submission of an abstract, you will be asked to confirm that your submission is original and that it has not been previously published in the form presented. You will also be given an opportunity to declare if your submission is currently before another conference for consideration.

If a proposal is accepted, the presenter must also register for conference participation in order to be included in the final conference programme of the Section. A CP&T best paper award will be made to one of the paper presenters, based on the full papers submitted in time.

Please note following deadlines and key dates for the 2014 IAMCR Conference:

Additional questions about the CP&T sessions (submission, themes, panels etc.) at the IAMCR 2014 conference can be addressed to Aphra Kerr (aphra.kerr [AT] nuim.ie).

For further information, please consult the conference website at: http://iamcr2014.org or contact the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) by email: info@iamcr2014.org.

For general information on the CP&T section http://www.iamcr.org/cpt, you can contact:

Chair:
Jo Pierson (jo.pierson [AT] vub.ac.be), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE (only from February 2014)

Vice-Chairs:
Aphra Kerr, National University of Ireland Maynooth, IE.
aphra.kerr [AT] nuim.ie

Bart Cammaerts, London School of Economics, UK.
b.cammaerts [AT] lse.ac.uk