CFP: CA Mobile Pre-Conference Call for “Blue Sky” Workshop Proposals

ICA Mobile Pre-Conference Call for “Blue Sky” Workshop Proposals

International Communicatio Association
The 15th Annual Mobile Pre-Conference
 

Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Prague, Czech Republic

 From Voice to … ?
 

Call for Proposals

Deadline for Workshop Proposals: Friday, Dec. 8, 2017
Where to submit proposals: icamobile2018@gmail.com
Location: National Technical Museum, http://www.ntm.cz/en, Prague, Czech Republic

Research on mobile communication has grown from a niche area into a well-established sub-discipline. Since the mid-1990s, the study of mobile communication has developed its own research trajectories, theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and methodological approaches for better understanding of the implications of the technology dominating contemporary social life.  

We therefore call for “Blue Sky” workshop proposals for the 2018 Mobile Preconference that continue to push our understandings of this field. The proposals should focus on the discussion of new ideas, theory, and empirical results, but also can be more practical-, community- or industry-oriented. The preconference will be organized around several interactive Blue Sky workshop sessions, with each lasting about 90 minutes. We invite scholars to present ideas that are at various levels of gestation. Research ideas that are just being formed, ideas for mobile pedagogy, and notions of mobile applications used by practitioners in the field particularly are welcome. This forum is designed to cultivate a supportive and integrated community of thinkers.  

A Blue Sky workshop session typically will be organized around a consortium of four or five main participants who present and discuss their work around a coherent theme but also directly will engage and involve the audience. Our preconference attendees usually participate in multiple workshops in the same day, as a way to further develop our community of scholars.

The theme of “voices” at this year’s ICA conference resonates well with the history of mobile communication research. Indeed, much of the early work focused on just that, person-to-person talk. Mobile communication studies, and telephone/telecommunications studies, before it, were pioneering in attention paid to mediated voice (as well as listening). With time, we have seen the development of ever-more-advanced ways of using our mobile handsets to interact with one another, to gather information, and to entertain ourselves. In all of this, however, mobile voice remains fundamental.

Workshop themes can focus on any of the dimensions of mobile communication ranging from mobiles and social cohesion, mobile theory/methods, mobile communication and the news, mobile learning, entertainment, gaming and/or photography. They can look into mobile communication in organizations, mobile communication and development, mobile communication for social good, and mobile communication as a means for threats to privacy, cyberbullying and/or robotification. Workshops could look into mobile romance, parenting mobiles, locative gaming, mHealth, and the relationships of mobile technologies to the elderly or children. They could focus on mobile communication in the Global South, mobile communication and migration, mobile journalism, etc. In short, we are open to a wide variety of themes associated with the the use of mobile communication and mobile media in society.

Workshop proposals are particularly welcomed from mobile-oriented scholars in the early stages of their careers. We also welcome established scholars to partner with younger colleagues in the development of proposals. Each workshop will be alloted a timeslot of 90 minutes.

Submissions should include a workshop summary of 500-800 words (excluding title and references).

This summary should describe:

(1) the topic and its relation to the preconference theme,

(2) the goal of the workshop,

(3) the scheduled activity, detailing how participants and audience members will be involved, and

(4) the participants and their relationship/contribution to the workshop.

Proposals can be submitted via email to: icamobile2018@gmail.com. The workshop summaries will be published online and in the printed program. Submissions will be reviewed by a committee of scholars. Proposals will be selected based on criteria of relevance, originality, composition of the group, theoretical/practical contribution, clarity of presentation, as well as fit with the conference theme. Review will be non-blind due to the interactive workshop nature. Notifications of acceptance will be emailed to contributors by early January 2018.

The 15th annual Mobile Preconference will take place at the National Technical Museum that is approximately 1.5 km from the Prague Old Town Hilton Hotel.

How to participate:

Teams wishing to submit a proposal should see the call for proposals.

Individuals wishing to attend the conference without presenting a paper should see the registration page on this website.

CFP: 20th Annual Conference: Global Media Literacy in the Digital Age

CALL FOR PAPERS

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: January 15, 2018

====================================

Society for Phenomenology and Media

20th Annual Conference: Global Media Literacy in the Digital Age

------------------------------------

March 14-16, 2018

University of Akureyri

Akureyri, Iceland

====================================

The overarching theme of the 20th Annual Conference of the Society for Phenomenology and Media will be ‘Global Media Literacy in the Digital Age.’ We encourage submissions that speak to this theme in a broad sense, or to other pertinent topics. 

It has been claimed that we stand on the brink of a third digital revolution, which has been labelled as Web 3.0. This new era adds artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things to our present, mobile social media (Web 2.0). 

The advent of social media, with global reach, has arguably increased the requirements of media literacy. Controversies such as the ‘fake news´ and Twitter debates around the present U.S. President can be interpreted as revealing insufficient media literacy. How should we read traditional newspaper reports in contrast to presidential tweets? 

As members of the public, we may need work on our media literacy. As media scholars, however, we certainly need to enhance and deepen our understanding of media literacy. This conference aims to explore various dimensions of media literacy in the global and local media landscapes, cultural constraints, educational practices, theoretical distinctions, philosophical dilemmas.

The Society for Phenomenology and Media (SPM) is pleased to receive abstracts (250 words maximum) for consideration of inclusion in its 20th annual international conference. The conference will be hosted by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Akureyri (UNAK), Akureyri, Iceland.

Proposals for 3-person panels are also accepted. These should be organized around specific media — for example, film, the Internet, mobile communication, medieval manuscripts, print media (books, newspapers, and magazines), stage drama, television, visual art, dance. Panel proposals should include three papers, one of them by the panel organizer. Individual abstract submissions are assigned to a panel by the conference host.  

We kindly ask contributors to align their submission with the conference theme, but welcome proposals about all areas covered by the Society.

The Society for Phenomenology and Media encourages interdisciplinary approaches and theoretical diversity. Individual papers and panels need not be limited to phenomenological approaches. Participants have come from a wide range of disciplines: philosophy, media studies, communications, psychology, history, political science, sociology, rhetoric, literary theory, cognitive science, cultural studies, and other fields.

Doctoral students are invited to submit proposals but should note that SPM limits the number of papers from students.

Conference abstracts and panel proposals submitted are peer-reviewed. Papers accepted and presented are published in the SPM annual Conference Proceedings; selected papers are also published in Glimpse, the annual publication of SPM.  

Applications for an SPM annual conference is a two-step process: 

1) Make an application through EASYCHAIR (see below); 

2) When your application is accepted, immediately complete your application by registering on the SPM webpage (http://societyphenmedia.wix.com/socphenmedia#!conference-registration). You complete your acceptance only when you have paid your conference and membership fees. This is done through PAYPAL.

For consideration, submit abstracts/panel proposals by using the EasyChair system at:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=spm2018 

For up-to-date information on the conference and the Society, see the SPM website:

http://societyphenmedia.wix.com/socphenmedia#!info

If you have questions about the conference hotel and getting to and from Akureyri or Iceland in general, see the SPM website:

http://societyphenmedia.wix.com/socphenmedia#!info

Other questions may be addressed to:

Cristina Bonfiglioli

SPM VP and Acting Secretary

Email: socphenmedia@yahoo.com

CFP: CfP ICA's Doctoral Consortium of Communication and Technology and Mobile Communication

CALL FOR STUDENT PROPOSALS

9th Annual Doctoral Consortium of the Communication and Technology Division
co-sponsored by the Mobile Communication Interest Group of
the International Communication Association (ICA)

Thursday, 24 May 2018 | Skautsky Institut, Prague, Czech Republic

Description
The consortium will bring together PhD candidates conducting research on various types of communication technologies and mobile communication to give them the opportunity to present and discuss their research in a constructive and international atmosphere. The objectives of the event are to provide feedback and advice to participating PhD candidates on their in-progress research thesis. Moreover, the Doctoral Consortium will provide the opportunity to meet experts as well as fellow PhD candidates from different backgrounds working on related topics.

During the consortium, students and faculty will be organized into small groups, determined by the thematic nature of the research. In each group, students will present their work, and receive feedback from their fellow students and faculty participants, all of whom will have read the proposals in advance of the Doctoral Consortium. Each proposal will receive detailed feedback from three faculty participants. There will be two poster sessions to allow participants from other groups to learn about and comment on the research of the PhD candidates.

In addition to the presentation and critique of proposals, there will be discussion of issues related to making the transition from graduate student to faculty member. Of course, this process differs widely across different nations and academic traditions. Bearing these differences in mind, we will discuss positioning one’s work for the job market, strategies for publication, the interviewing process and other aspects of faculty job searches. Anticipating a time when participants will have an academic position, the discussion will include issues like managing workload and working relationships, finding a work/life balance, and ways of being a successful academic.

Submission Process
Applicants must be advanced to candidacy, and have their dissertation proposal topic previously approved by their committee or supervisor. Ideally, students will be in the early stages of their dissertation, where feedback would be helpful in refining and advancing their work. To apply, students must submit a proposal describing their research.

Submissions must be related to one of the working areas of the Communication and Technology Division (CAT) or the Mobile Communication Interest Group (MCIG) of the International Communication Association (ICA). A description of the respective research areas can be found in the last section of this call. In your submission, please identify whether you’re submitting to MCIG or CAT.

Proposals must identify a significant problem (or problems) in a relevant field of research, briefly outline current knowledge of the problem domain, and clearly formulate a research question, or specify hypotheses to be tested. Proposals should outline the research approach, methods, and any results obtained so far. Submissions should be between 3000 and 4000 words (excluding references and appendices), and must include name and affiliation of the PhD candidate.

Applications need to be accompanied by a short letter of recommendation from the advisor or member of the dissertation committee stating how the PhD candidate can benefit from participation in the Doctoral Consortium.

The proposal and letter of recommendation must be submitted as one PDF document and sent as an attachment in an email to Veronika Karnowski at veronika.karnowski@ifkw.lmu.de<mailto:veronika.karnowski@ifkw.lmu.de>. The deadline for submission is 1 February 2018. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by the members of the program committee based on significance of research, specificity of research topic and/or questions, clarity of writing and degree to which student can benefit from expert guidance and feedback.

To help ensure the consortium best meets the needs of its members, limited financial assistance is made possible by the CAT Division and the MCIG. Please note in your application if you would like to be considered for financial support to cover your costs for participation in the Doctoral Consortium (this support would cover only the $75 participation fee and not travel to the conference).

About the Communication and Technology Division
The CAT Division is concerned with the role played by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the process of communication. It is committed to enhancing theory and methodology pertaining to adoption, usage, effects, and policy of ICTs. Areas of research include human-computer interaction, computer-mediated communication, mobile communication, and other technologically mediated social interaction and networking in all contexts (interpersonal, group, organizational, societal/cultural) and at all levels of analyses. CAT invites papers that make an innovative and original contribution to our understanding of ICTs, with the primary focus on communication aspects of particular technological characteristics.

About the Mobile Communication Interest Group
The MCIG focuses on the phenomenon of mobility in communication – thus being placed on the intersection of mobility, technology, and culture in human communication. While including a wide array of perspectives and approaches in communication scholarship from historical perspectives to studies on future media innovations, from ethnographic to quantitative empirical approaches, from journalism studies to media effects research the common ground of the Interest Group is state of the art theorizing on mobile communication as well as the discussion of adequate methodology to do so.

Registration
Participation is only by invitation. Once a proposal is accepted, students can register through the ICA website. Cost for participation is US$75 per person.

Program Committee (faculty mentors)
Marjolijn L. Antheunis, Tilburg U, Netherlands (Program Director)
Katy Pearce, U of Washington, USA (Program committee)
Veronika Karnowski, Ludwig-Maximilians U, Germany (Program committee)
Klaus Bruhn Jensen, U of Copenhagen, Denmark
Benjamin H. Detenber, Nanyang Technological U, Singapore
Jordan Frith, U of North Texas, USA
Jesse Fox, Ohio State U, USA
Roselyn Lee-Won, Ohio State U, USA
Richard S. Ling, Nanyang Technological U, Singapore
Malcolm Parks, U of Washington, USA
Lidwien van de Wijngaert, Radboud University, Netherlands
Mike Yao, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

CFP: 2018 #SMSOCIETY CFP: NETWORKED INFLUENCE AND VIRALITY-REVISITED

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIETY COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (JULY 18-20, 2018)

2018 #SMSOCIETY CFP: NETWORKED INFLUENCE AND VIRALITY-REVISITED

CFP:
http://socialmediaandsociety.org/2017/2018-smsociety-cfp-networked-influence-and-virality-revisited/


IMPORTANT DATES:

Full & WIP Papers Due: Jan. 29, 2018
Panels, Workshops, & Posters Due: Mar. 19, 2018

Join us on July 18-20, 2018 for the 9th annual International Conference on Social Media and Society (#SMSociety). The conference is an interdisciplinary gathering of social media researchers, practitioners, and analysts from around the world. The 2018 conference is hosted by the Centre for Business Data Analytics at the Copenhagen Business School.

In 2012, in the wake of Occupy and the Arab Spring, the #SMSociety community explored networked influence and virality, and saw social media and viral events as a democratizing force. Fast forward five years and we find ourselves in quite a different, some would argue, darker social media landscape where those same democratizing forces are now being exploited in ways we could not foresee. With the rapid change on social media platforms and their affordances, the heightened emphasis on mobile and visual communication, the rise of bots, and the increased participation of state actors, we believe it is time to revisit the ideas of Networked Influence and Virality once more!

Powered by networked influence and made possible by privately owned social media platforms, we are said to be in a sharing economy. We are now owning less and sharing more, giving and receiving crowdsourced content, adapting, innovating, remaking, and re-sharing original and remixed materials. New attitudes, practices, and legal precedents about ownership, rights, and information evaluation are emerging with the growing use of social media. The joys of sharing and connecting through social media-as amateur music videos inspire responses and the sharing of cute animal videos brings joy to millions-are tempered with concerns about the manipulation and exploitation of social media platforms. Hateful, anti-social speech, coordinated misinformation campaigns (i.e. "fake news") and "false flag" operation by actors unknown now dominate the news cycle and compete for an opportunity to "go viral."

Considering the rapid changes in social media environments, use, and users, the conference organizers invite scholarly and original submissions that relate to the 2018 theme of "Networked Influence and Virality." We welcome both quantitative and qualitative work which crosses interdisciplinary boundaries and expands our understanding of the current and future trends in social media research.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE:

From its inception, the International Conference on Social Media & Society Conference (#SMSociety) has focused on the best practices for studying the impact and implications of social media on society.

Organized by the Social Media Lab at Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, the conference provides participants with opportunities to exchange ideas, present original research, learn about recent and ongoing studies, and network with peers. The conference's intensive three-day program features workshops, full papers, work-in-progress papers, panels, and posters. The wide-ranging topics in social media showcase research from scholars working in many fields including Communication, Computer Science, Education, Journalism, Information Science, Management, Political Science, Sociology, Social Work, etc.


SUBMISSION DETAILS:

See online at
http://socialmediaandsociety.org/submit/


PUBLISHING OPPORTUNITIES:

Full and WIP (short) papers presented at the Conference will be published in the conference proceedings by ACM International Conference Proceeding Series (ICPS) and will be available in the ACM Digital Library. All conference presenters will be invited to submit their work as a full paper to the special issue of the Social Media + Society journal (published by SAGE).


ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

Anatoliy Gruzd, Ryerson University, Canada - Conference
Chair Ravi Vatrapu, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark  -  Host Chair
Philip Mai, Ryerson University, Canada - Conference Chair
Jenna Jacobson, Ryerson University, Canada - Conference Chair
Hazel Kwon, Arizona State University, USA - WIP Chair
Jeff Hemsley, Syracuse University, USA - WIP Chair
Anabel Quan-Haase, Western University, Canada - Panel Chair
Luke Sloan, Cardiff University, UK - Panel Chair
Jaigris Hodson, Royal Roads University, Canada - Poster Chair

CFP: After Social Media: Alternatives, New Beginnings, and Socialized Media

After Social Media: Alternatives, New Beginnings, and Socialized Media
 

***Call for Proposals***
Editors: Fenwick McKelvey, Sean Lawson, and Robert W. Gehl

The editors seeks 500 word abstracts for proposed articles for a special issue of Social Media + Society on "alternative social media." The editors welcome proposals from scholars, practitioners, and activists from across disciplinary boundaries so long as the work is critical and empirically rich.

Our call starts with a question: what comes after social media? It is hard to imagine something other than the current configuration of social media – of Facebook and Twitter – but signs of discontent abound. Social media companies have become deputized to police and moderate whilst being accused of poisoning civil discourse. Their integration of advertising and targeting signals a new epoch of promotional culture, but no one trusts the media anymore. As Brooke Duffy argues in (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love, everyone can create, so long as they
don’t mind growing broke doing so. In sum, today’s social media is broken... but what’s next?

For the past several years, one answer to "what's next?" has been "alternative social media." Alternative social media encompasses a wide range of systems, from diaspora* to Ello to Tokumei. In contrast to what Robert Gehl calls "corporate social media," such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest, alternative social media (ASM) "allows for users to share content and connect with one another but also denies the commercialization of speech, allows users more access to shape the underlying technical infrastructure, and radically experiments with surveillance regimes" (see http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305115604338).

Thus, alternative social media may be understood in relation to larger histories of alternative media, documented by scholars such as Megan Boler, Nick Couldry, Chris Atton, and Clemencia Rodriguez, and carried through into social media alternatives by collectives such as Unlike Us
(http://networkcultures.org/unlikeus/).

Earlier instances of ASM included diaspora*, built as a critical response to the growing dominance of Facebook in the late 2000s, with a goal of decentralizing social media data and allowing end users more control over their personal information. Later, decentralized systems,
such as Twister and GNU social, came online as alternatives to Twitter. The Pinterest alternative Ello gained a lot of attention, especially due to its manifesto with the opening provocation: "Your social network is owned by advertisers." Alternatives to Facebook and Twitter have even
appeared on the Dark Web (see https://socialmediaalternatives.org/archive/items/browse?tags=dark+web for examples).

As they have developed over the past several years, alternatives decried the censorship and manipulation of content found in corporate social media. Building on this, new alternatives dedicated to "free speech" arose during and after the contentious elections in Western countries in 2016 and 2017, including the Twitter alternative Gab. Proclaiming its defense of free speech – especially against the perceived liberal bias of Silicon Valley-based corporate sites – Gab promises freedom for everyone, including the "alt right" and white supremacists, to speak.

But other networks, such as the federated system Mastodon, have been built to allow for powerful moderation of discourse, with Codes of Conduct that often prohibit hate, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or racist speech. Indeed, while they are wildly divergent in their
politics, both Gab and Mastodon have positioned themselves as antidotes to corporate social media. These debates over speech in ASM echo the longstanding tension identified by alternative media scholars, where many alternative media developers seek to socialize media and bring it in line with leftist politics, but see their discourses appropriated by right-wing media organizations.

Regardless of whether they are right or left, alternative social media face a simply reality: they just aren't popular. Compared to the billions of Twitter and Facebook users, alternative sites' user bases are tiny. Whether or not their goal ought to be massive scale, the powerful network effects of corporate social media – as well as the bewildering array of alternatives – certainly have stifled the growth of the alternatives. Still, the alternatives deserve critical attention, because they force us to rethink what we mean by "social media." What tethers so many people to so few corporate sites? And what actual "alternatives" to corporate social media do the current slate of alternative social media platforms propose?

Topics that may be explored in this special issue of Social Media + Society might include:

• ethnographic or participant observation engagements with alternative social media communities
• software studies analysis of shifts in underlying ASM technologies
• narratives from practitioners who have built, moderated, or extensively participated in ASM
• comparative analysis of two or more ASM platforms
• studies of ASM as political, technical or cultural discourses or desires
• regulatory and policy discussion regarding controversies involving ASM
• speculative proposals or fictions about new ASM that address existing problems
• analysis of appropriation of ASM innovations by corporate social media systems

***Timeline/Important Dates [subject to change]
DECEMBER 20 2017: 500 word abstracts and CVs/resumes may be sent to asm@robertwgehl.org
JANUARY 20 2018: Acceptance notifications sent to authors
MAY 15 2018: Full drafts due to asm@robertwgehl.org
JULY 15 2018: Comments sent to authors by editors
SEPTEMBER 15 2018: Final drafts submitted to Social Media + Society for
peer review
FEBRUARY 2019: Special Issue Publication

Questions? Please email asm@robertwgehl.org.