CFP: Private chat to public sphere: Mobile media, political
participation, and civic activism in Asia
Edited by Ran Wei, Ph.D., University of Caroline
To be published by Springer in January 2016
With increasing personal freedom and faster mobile
technologies centered around the smartphone, more and more individuals have the
capacity to participate, create and disseminate information, shaping a new
public sphere of participatory citizenship or democracies for Asia. As the
smartphone gets smarter, communal networks take shape and interact,giving rise
to grassroots movements that capture national and even global attention. With
more than 2.5 billion users, Asia leads the world in mobile phone population.
The increasing saturation of Asian societies by mobile phones with their
participatory capacity call for a special volume to explore the mobile phone’s
efficacy as a tool for citizen engagement and participation in civic and
political affairs, especially in the search for solutions to widespread social
problems such as food safety, pollution, government corruption, terrorism, and
sectarian violence, and public health risks.
This volume in the Springer series, “Mobile Communication in
Asia,” explores how personalized content and the inherent networked nature of
the mobile phone lead to positive network effects for public good and fostering
social progress. Considering the vast cultural diversity of Asian societies
that are shaped by different levels of political, social, economic and
religious development, the volume will focus on nuanced investigation and
in-depth analysis of the mobile phone and political communication in particular
Asian societies, from which it will draw broad themes from local cases and
synthesize enduring concepts of global significance. Research is only now
catching up with advanced mobile technology, and this book provides the most
significant and up-to-date studies on the topic.
We welcome research by emerging Asia-focused or Asian-based
scholars whose work has not previously been published in English.
Chapter proposals are needed for topics in the volume
including but not limited to:
- Empirical studies that examine uses of the mobile phone (calling, voicemail, SMS/texting, mobile social media, mobile blogs, mobile Weibo, mobile webchat) to access and share information about public affairs, mobile crises, community events, and the like.
- How social media transforms at the individual level and at the structural level, leading to mobilization and civic engagement.
- The bridge between Asian news consumption and political participation (e.g. voting).
- Creative use of mobile media for consuming news as well as increasing autonomy.
- The growth of a networked publics among young people through mobile social media.
- Explorations and theorizing about the technical aspects of mobile media in virtual social movements, from network apps to contents of posts.
- Implications of mobile media in Asia for citizenship, national identity, social capital, solidarity and empowerment.
- Research that assesses the effectiveness and outcomes of social movements organized or facilitated by the mobile phone.
- Enhancement through social media of collective action in both scope and integration into daily life.
- Mobile media campaigns in specific movements, such as students’ rights and climate change.
- The implications of the Asian experience for world politics.
- Mobile campaigns to confront social problems such as food safety, pollution, corruption, and social injustice.
- Enhancing information and services for public health initiatives.
Please submit proposals up to 800 words, and a brief (300-word)
author bio in an e-mail attachment by 15 June, 2015, to wei2@sc.edu. Authors of
accepted proposals will be notified by 15 July, 2015, and invited to submit a
full paper by 1 October, 2015. Manuscripts should be no more than 9,000 words,
including notes and references, and conform to APA style. All chapters will be
subjected to anonymous peer review following submission.
The volume editor: Ran Wei is the Gonzales Brothers
Professor of Journalism at University of South Carolina, and current
Editor-in-Chief of Mass Communication and Society. He earned a B.A. in English Literature
and International Journalism from Shanghai International Studies University
(China), a M.A. in Journalism Studies at the University of Wales (U.K.), and a
Ph.D. in Mass Communication at Indiana University. His research focuses on new
media, the processes and effects of media messages in various contexts
(political, social, promotional, health and risk) that involve a wide range of
media channels and devices (traditional and emerging). He is a pioneering scholar
in mobile communication research, with his mobile phone studies being widely
cited. He serves on the inaugural board of Mobile Media & Communication, and was a guest editor of Media Asia.
