CFP: Qualitative Research in Communication

Qualitative Research in Communication
International Conference

Qualitative Research in Communication
September 23-25, 2015
Bucharest, Romania

This conference  is dedicated to exploring qualitative methodology as an approach which enriches interdisciplinary understanding of communication phenomena. It aims to provide a venue for discussing related theories and methods, for presenting the results of research projects, and for assessing emerging trends.  An additional goal is to provide international researchers with a stimulating environment for cultivating current and future collaborative projects.  We invite communication scholars and interdisciplinary colleagues to contribute papers in all of these areas, but particularly welcome those addressing the following themes: mediated interpersonal communication, intergenerational communication, communication and emotion, language and social interaction, digital media, and applied communication.

Accepted papers will be programmed for one of three themed panels (see below), or in the open sessions.

1. Ageing, Communication and Technology

Panel head: Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, IN3 - Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona (Catalonia), Spain

Ageing populations are experiencing a world that is increasingly mediated by digital devices, and influenced by their proliferation. Related questions include: How do digital and mobile technologies mediate the communication experiences and practices of older people? Does ICT use contribute to the development of personal autonomy of seniors (and if so, how)?

This panel is organized in collaboration with the ACT Project [http://actproject.ca/ ]

2. Communication and the Emotion Economy

Panel head: Liz Yeomans, Leeds Business School, Leeds Beckett University, UK

Increasingly, emotion is viewed as more than an individual psychological state, and as a social and cultural phenomenon which is also constituted 'outside' the individual. An 'emotion economy' perspective encourages us to view communication as part of a system of emotion expression, exchange, circulation, and distribution. New, related codes and rituals are subsequently developed in interpersonal, organizational, intercultural, political, and mediated contexts. Related questions include: What are the distinctive forms and practices of which constitute the emotion economy? How may qualitative methods distinctively advance this research program?

3. Digital Explorations: Research with and about Digital Media

Panel head: Ana Adi, Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany

The rise in global popularity of the Internet, its increased adoption both by organisations and individuals, and the rise of 'big data' regimes all present numerous opportunities for qualitative researchers. Related questions include: How, generally, are traditional research methodologies challenged and transformed by online application?  By the specific context of social media platforms? How do new digital research tools (e.g., crowd-sourcing, visualization, etc.) influence the design of qualitative projects, and the collection and analysis of qualitative data?

Keynote speakers for the conference will include:

Kim Sawchuk, Professor in Communication Studies, Concordia University, Canada; Bryan C. Taylor, Professor in Communication, University of Colorado Boulder, USA; Eugene Loos, Professor at Amsterdam School of Communication Research ASCoR, Department of Communication Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Important conference deadlines include:

April 7th, 2015: Abstract submission;
May 15th, 2015: Notification of authors via email; June 20th, 2015: Full paper submission; August 30th, 2015: Notification of authors.

Abstracts

Paper abstracts (max. 300 words, followed by 3-5 keywords) should be submitted for review in MS Word format (.doc, .docx). Please use the abstract template available at: http://centrucomunicare.ro/qrc_2015/qrc_2015.html.  Please mention whether you desire consideration for programming on one of the three themed panels. Only one paper for each participant (i.e., as a first author) will be accepted. Submit abstracts as attachments in messages to the following e-mail address: corina.buzoianu@comunicare.ro. The official language of the conference is English.

Publication

All conference papers are subject to a peer-review process. All accepted papers will be published in a hard-copy, conference proceedings volume (i.e., with ISBN). Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations (www.journalofcommunication.ro).

Conference Fees:

The conference fee is 100 Euro/participant. The fee includes conference attendance, conference bag, publication in conference proceedings, and consideration for publication in the Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, refreshments during coffee breaks and lunch.

Conference Venue:

National University of Political and Administrative Studies, College of Communication and Public Relations, 30A Expozitiei Boulevard, Bucharest, Romania.

Sponsoring Programs and Institutions:

. National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania; . ACT project, Concordia University, Canada; . University of Colorado Boulder, USA.

For further information and updates, please consult the conference website: http://centrucomunicare.ro/qrc_2015/qrc_2015.html

For details and inquires please send an e-mail to: corina.buzoianu@comunicare.ro

Job

http://hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=A1145

Lectureship in Mobile Work

50th Anniversary Lectureships - Management
Starting Salary between £33,242 - £39,685 *
Closing Date:   Sunday 22 February 2015
Interview Date:   To be confirmed
Reference:  A1145

As Lecturer in Mobile Work, you will further develop Lancaster’s already strong international reputation for research on mobilities. You will contribute to the research agendas of the Departments of Organisation, Work and Technology in the Management School and Sociology, and will play a central role in the Lancaster University Centre for Mobilities Research. More broadly you will have potential to build links with one or more of Lancaster’s School of Health and Medicine, Institute for Contemporary Arts (LICA), School of Computing and Communications, Security Lancaster and DEMAND centres, and the Work Foundation.

Your research will address the growing tendency for work to be detached from any fixed place or space. It will explore one or more of the various ways that work can be mobile, including but not limited to work completed whilst travelling, work that has a constantly changing location, work that involves virtual connectivity and mobility, work that involves constantly move between employers etc.

You will adopt a critical and theoretically informed approach to research, and in line with the interests of the Departments and Centres that the post will be associated with, will address the wider implications of mobile work for issues such as: climate change and sustainability; economic development and resilience; work and organisation; social equality, diversity, and inclusiveness; health and wellbeing, (for example in terms of work-life balance); technology and society; and smart cities and digitally enabled practice.

For further information on the 50th Anniversary Lectureship Scheme please visit http://www.aplacetoblossom.co.uk/

For an informal discussion about the post, please contact Professor James Faulconbridge on j.faulconbridge@lancaster.ac.uk

* Appointments will normally be made with starting salaries in the range £33,242 - £39,685 but appointments may be made at a more senior level including Senior Lecturer/Reader.

CFP: Screen Policies: Geographies, Economics, Technologies

Call for Chapters: Screen Policies: Geographies, Economics, Technologies

Editors: Nolwenn Mingant (Université de Nantes, France), David Newman (Simon Fraser University, Canada), Cecilia Tirtaine (Université Sorbonne nouvelle-Paris 3, France)

https://www.academia.edu/10275010/Screen_Policies_Geographies_Economics_Technologies

In 1996, Albert Moran published a seminal overview of film policy in different parts of the world. Since then, the screen media environment has significantly changed. Globalization has made the screen media environment less constrained geographically by impacting the production and distribution of screen media contents. Technologies have also revolutionized the media environment. Distribution platforms have evolved: film is now frequently digital; television content is streamed over the Internet to a variety of different screens; digital games have become a much larger and more ubiquitous medium played on a variety of devices, including cellphones. Growing synergies have appeared between different media, leading to the idea of ‘transmedia content’ and ‘media convergence.’

Government and industry policies have adapted to this changed environment. Film policies have been the first to adapt. Incentive wars have intensified between different regions across the world seeking to attract internationally mobile productions. Most States have continued to worry over suitability of some content for their local audiences, as reflected through censorship and

ratings schemes. The layering of policies over the intranational, national and supranational policy regimes has led to more complex situations. Measures to protect culture and to nurture local screen industries have been increasingly challenged under international trade regimes. Whereas previously film was at the centre of cultural policies globally, those policies are now starting to

incorporate other forms of screen media, notably video games.

Following the success of the CinEcoSA research cycle on Screen Policies (see www.cinecosa.com), we are now calling for chapter proposals for a peer-reviewed edited volume to be entitled Screen Policies: Geographies, Economics and Technologies. This volume will explore and interrogate the shifts and changes in both government and industry-based screen policies over the past 30 years.

The volume will cover different types of screens: movie theatres, television (notably video and videogames), computers (Internet), smartphones. It will include chapters that cover a diverse range of screen industries from different parts of the world, along with the interrelationship between different localities, policy regimes and technologies/media.

Particular areas we are seeking chapters on include:

• Nature of Screen Policies
• Theoretical chapters and /or review of literature on screen policies around the world
• Case studies of screen industry policy in specific regions, particularly those outside of Europe and North America (though contributions from those regions are welcome as well)
• Emerging policies in developing markets
• Motivations of public powers for creating/updating/abandoning screen policies
• Criteria for aid and impact on screen media policies on media content
• State policies vs. industry-led policy (such as voluntary rating systems), partnerships between public and private spheres
• Protective policies: censorship, quotas, licensing, copyright

International Relations

• Interrelationships of policy and regulation between local, national and supra-national institutions
• Influences and impact of international trade regimes on screen policies
• Competition between regions via incentive schemes
• Co-production treaties
• Support for exports
• Role of screen policies in diplomatic relations

New technologies

• Adaptation of screen policies to the new technological context: adaptation of older models or creation of innovative models?
• Regulation of access to new technologies such as streaming TV, mobile content, video games
• Support for trans-media initiatives

Please send you proposal (title, 400-word abstract, 4 bibliographical references, brief biography) to David Newman (dbnewman@sfu.ca) and Nolwenn Mingant

(nolwenn.mingant@univ-nantes.fr) by March 1st, 2015.

Notification of acceptance: April 30th, 2015.

Completed chapters due August 25th, 2015. Chapter length: 6,000 words maximum (footnotes and bibliographical references included)

CFP: Media Industries

Call for Papers

Media Industries is a new peer-reviewed, multi-media, open-access online journal that supports critical studies of media industries and institutions worldwide. We invite contributions that range across the full spectrum of media industries, including film, television, internet, radio, music, publishing, electronic games, advertising, and mobile communications. Submissions may explore these industries individually or examine inter-medial relations between industrial sectors. We encourage both contemporary and historical studies, and are especially interested in contributions that draw attention to global and international perspectives, and use innovative methodologies, imaginative theoretical approaches, and new research directions. 

We are currently seeking high-quality submissions for our second peer-reviewed issue; for full consideration for publication in this issue, authors are encouraged to submit their manuscripts by April 1, 2015.

More About Media Industries

The journal is maintained by a managing Editorial Collective and Editorial Board comprised of an international group of media industries scholars. For additional information about the Board and Collective, please visit:

Media Industries

Website: mediaindustriesjournal.org

Email: mediaindjournal@gmail.com

Facebook: facebook.com/mediaindustriesjournal

Twitter: twitter.com/mediaindjournal

CFP: Digital Freedoms: Challenges

Digital Freedoms: Challenges

The Cyber-cultures Project

Tuesday 7th July - Thursday 9th July 2015

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations:

Online freedoms have become increasingly endangered in many regions of the world. This year's Interactive Convergence will be devoted to exploring the various ways in which digital freedoms are currently challenged - as well as possible responses to such threats - within the framework of five thematic tracks. Because of the complexity of these challenges and the overlap of issues across themes, we are inviting participants of various backgrounds (academic, legislative, commercial; across disciplines) to submit proposals on several topics of interest to them. Presenters are additionally encouraged to think broadly within and across thematic tracks; we encourage submissions addressing research questions such as (though not limited to) those listed here below.

Topical Areas: Regulating Online Communities, Computer-supported Subcultures: What are strategies for preserving freedom of speech and regaining privacy online? To what extent is it really possible to preserve digital privacy? In an era when users of anonymity projects such as Tor are almost automatically considered threats to society, do there exist user-friendly strategies and applications for protecting individual communication? If such tools do exist, why have they not been more broadly adopted by the general public? In the wake of WikiLeaks and Edward Snowdon, what cyber-security issues have emerged? Is the term "privacy" itself a remnant of the past?

Internet-related legislation is an ever-present driver of network activity. What is the future of online piracy? Do current legal frameworks suffice in relation to data sharing trends? What should happen to the data and profiles of deceased persons?

Topical Areas: Social Networks, Online Communities: Social network users are increasingly targeted by online marketing. Do principles of ethical marketing even exist today? How should users desiring to maintain a social media presence avoid being disrupted by non-stop advertising? What strategies exist for creating simultaneous online user profiles which span social networking services? What are trends in user-generated content, and how might online communication culture be defined today? What services have been established with crowd-sourcing?

Topical Area: Mobile Applications: It no longer matters how one accesses the Internet; mobile devices now compete in terms of functionality, speed, and software with traditional desktop computers. How have cloud and mobile services changed user behaviour? That app trends are emerging in tele-sports, tele-exercise, tele-health, or traffic systems?

In sum, we encourage authors to explore and discuss why - when networks are increasingly accessible, with increasingly user-friendly interfaces and lower costs - the status of online citizenship appears to be increasingly threatened because of government control, loss of privacy, endangered Internet neutrality, ubiquitous marketing, and cyber-crime.

Proposals, presentations, studies, and reports might explore topics such as:

Online Communities:

• Emerging and Potential Practices in Social Networking.
• The Psychological Impacts of Online Interaction.
• User-generated Content and Changes in Cultural Practice.
• Ubiquitous Consumption, Mobile Advertising, and Crowd-sourcing.

Design for Social Networking:

• Trends in Web Services, Interfaces and Apps.
• Accessibility, Usability, and Design.
• Quality of Experience.
• Cloud Systems.
• Convergence of Desktop and Mobile Communications.
• Semantic Web - Web 3.0.
• Metadata. Access to Data.
• Surveillance Technologies and Anonymisation Tools.
• Impact on User Behaviour.

Regulating Online Communities:

• Internet Neutrality
• Governance and Control over the Online Environment. Insufficient Legislation.
• Self-Regulation. Hactivism. Computational Privacy.
• Cyber-Activism and Social Mobilisation: Real World Impacts.
• Cyber-security and Cybercrime.
• Intellectual Property Protection. Decline of Piracy?

Computer-supported Subcultures:

• Technology-dependent/Independent Subcultures.
• Interactions between Regional, Glocal, Global, Multi-national, Intercontinental, Cross-generational and Diasporic Online Communities.

Mobile Applications:

• Mobile Applications for Social Networking, Online Marketing, Tele-Health, Traffic Systems, Distance Education and Online Entertainment.
• Promises, Expectations, Case Studies.

The Steering Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement.

What to Send:

Proposals will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday 13th March 2015. If a proposal is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 22nd May 2015. Proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; proposals may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Cybercultures 10 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:

Daniel Riha: rihad@inter-disciplinary.net

Rob Fisher: cyber10@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the 'Critical Issues' programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit:

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/cybercultures/call-for-papers/

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

CFP:Health Communication Working Group/American Public Health Association

Call for Abstracts - Health Communication Working Group/American Public Health Association

Call for health communication abstracts:
APHA 143rd Annual Meeting 2015
“Health in All Policies”
October 31 – November 4, 2015
Chicago, IL

The deadline for submissions is February 13, 2015.

About the Health Communication Working Group
The Health Communication Working Group (HCWG) is part of the American Public Health Association’s (APHA)’s Public Health Education and Health Promotion (PHEHP) Section. The mission of HCWG is to create a forum for interaction and information exchange on health communication. We host sessions on health communication at the APHA Annual Meeting, and within APHA, we are the leading advocate for, and authority on, the use of communication and marketing approaches to improve the public's health.


Abstract Submission

• All abstracts for the Annual Meeting must be submitted online through the APHA Website. Here are step-by-step instructions:
• Visit the PHEHP section Website and then click on “Start Abstract Submission” at the bottom of the page.
• When you reach the topic selection screen, select any topic “organized by HCWG”.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete your abstract submission.
• You do not need to be an APHA member to submit an abstract. However, if your abstract is accepted for presentation, you must become an APHA member and register for the annual meeting prior to the presentation.

Abstract Topics
All topics related to health communication and marketing are welcome. However, HCWG is especially interested in abstracts on the following topics:

• Public Policy for Communicating Health and Risk Information (e.g. warning labels on tobacco products, nutrition labels, etc.)
• Policy to Regulate Marketing of Products with Health Effects (e.g. marketing of alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, etc.)
• Using Health Communication to Influence and Advocate for Policy
• Communication to Reduce Health Disparities and Inequalities
• Health Communication and Technology
• Online, Social, and Mobile Media Initiatives
• Mass Media Influences on Health Behavior
• Social Marketing and Health Communication Campaigns
• Cross-Cultural Health Communication
• Health Communication in Special Populations
• Cancer Communication, Prevention, and Survivorship
• Health Communication with Children, Adolescents, and Teens
• Communication and Personalized Medicine
• Patient-Provider Communication and Relationships
• Health Literacy Issues
• Health Communication and Organizations
• Health Communication: Other Topics

Abstract Guidelines
Abstracts must include at least two learning objectives. Learning objectives are needed as a standing APHA requirement. Incomplete abstracts cannot be reviewed.
Abstracts must be limited to 250 words or less. Please create your abstract off-line before accessing the online submission form. Use the spell check and word count features of your word processor before submitting it. (Learning objectives are NOT included in the word count.) Authors are encouraged to submit abstracts on current and emerging public health issues, especially around the theme of health policy.

If your abstract is accepted by another section, but you want recognition of its health communication merits, please contact Meghan Moran (mmoran@jhu.edu) regarding co-sponsorship by HCWG.

Please forward this email to anyone who may be interested in submitting an abstract. We look forward to your submissions and seeing you at APHA! Contact Meghan Moran (mmoran@jhu.edu) with any questions.

CFP: The Future of Journalism: Risks, Threats and Opportunities

The Future of Journalism: Risks, Threats and Opportunities

Thursday 10th and Friday 11th September 2015
Cardiff University, UK

Call for Papers


We are delighted to announce the fifth biennial conference - The Future of Journalism – to be hosted by the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies (JOMEC) at Cardiff University, UK. The 2015 conference theme will be ‘Risks, Threats and Opportunities.’

A selection of the research-based papers presented at the conference will be published in special issues of the peer-reviewed journals Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice and Journalism Studies. Sponsorship for the conference is provided by JOMEC and Routledge Taylor and Francis.

The plenary speakers will be Professor Jean Seaton and Professor Stephen D. Reese (their bios appear below).

This call for papers invites contributions from the international community of scholars of journalism studies, journalism practitioners, educators and trainers, media executives, trade unionists and media regulators. Papers focused on any aspect of the broad theme, ‘The Future of Journalism: Risks, Threats and Opportunities,’ are welcome, although priority will be given to those papers addressing one of the five sub-themes:

Journalism and Social Media. In the digital age of social networking, crowd-sourcing and ‘big data,’ how is journalism – and the role of the journalist – being redefined? How do we investigate the influence of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, and the like, on the gathering, reporting or consumption of news?

Journalists at Risk. Covering the world’s trouble spots has always posed acute challenges, but increasingly news organizations and their sources are being targeted in war, conflict or crisis situations. What are the key issues at stake to protect journalists’ safety and their right to report?

Journalism Under Surveillance. What does freedom of the press mean in a post-Snowden climate, when spying, leaks and whistleblowing are making news headlines around the world? What are the new forms of censorship confronting journalism today, and what emergent tactics will help it to speak truth to power?

Journalism and the Fifth Estate. At a time when the traditional ideals of the fourth estate risk looking outdated, if not obsolete, to what extent can we rely on citizen media to produce alternative, independent forms of news reporting?  How best to reform mainstream media institutions to make them more open, transparent and accountable to the public?

Journalism’s Values. How are journalism’s ethical principles and moral standards evolving in relation to the democratic cultures of communities locally, regionally, nationally or internationally? What are the implications of changing priorities for the education, training and employment of tomorrow’s journalists?

Titles and abstracts for papers (250 words max) are invited by Friday 9th January 2015 and should be submitted online via the email address:

Futurejournalism2015@cardiff.ac.uk

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Jean Seaton is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster, UK, and the Official Historian of the BBC. She has written extensively on media history and policy, the interaction between the media and politics, conflicts and security as well as children's broadcasting and the broadcast arts. Her publications include Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the Nation, 1974-1987 (Profile Books, February, 2015), Carnage and the Media (Penguin, 2006) and co-authored with James Curran, the eighth edition of Power Without Responsibility: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain (Routledge, 2014). She is on the boards of Full Fact and the Reuters Institute, and is Director of the Orwell Prize, Britain’s premier prize for political writing.

Professor Stephen D. Reese has been a member of the University of Texas at Austin faculty since 1982, where he is the Jesse H. Jones Professor of Journalism. His research focuses on a wide range of issues concerning the sociology of news, the process of media framing, the globalization of journalism, and larger issues of press performance. Recent publications include Mediating the Message in the 21st Century: A Media Sociology Perspective, co-authored with Pamela Shoemaker (Routledge, 2014), and Networked China: Global Dynamics of Digital Media and Civic Engagement, co-edited with Wenhong Chen (Routledge, 2015). He has held major roles with the AEJMC and ICA, and lectured at several universities around the world, including as Kurt Baschwitz Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam.

On behalf of the organising committee,
Stuart

Professor Stuart Allan
Deputy Head of School (Academic)
School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies
Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue
Cardiff University
Cardiff, CF10 3NB
UK

CFP: Communication Policy and Technology section (CPT)

Call for Papers: Communication Policy and Technology section (CPT)

International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)

Academic Conference, July 12-16, 2015, Montreal (Canada)

Hegemony or Resistance? On the Ambiguous Power of Communication

http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca

The Communication Policy and Technology (CPT) Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites submissions for the IAMCR 2014 conference to be held from July 12-16, 2015 in Montreal (Canada). The deadline for submissions of abstracts for papers and panel proposals is February 9, 2015.

The conference will be held under the general theme: Hegemony or Resistance? On the Ambiguous Power of Communication. The latter seeks to explore the ambiguous relationship of communication towards hegemony and resistance. This ambiguity has prompted debates in academia about communication being at the same time a value and a tool, a space of consent and one of struggle, and having (more authentic) local and global dimensions. Many recent events have triggered discussions and reflections about the utopia of communication. However while multiple sites of resistance are spreading around the world, much of the debates about communication technologies mark an increasing suspicion towards the new media’s capability for empowerment. In addition political reform promises, as well as the social, economic and cultural prominence of new technologies seem to contribute to the maintenance of a negotiated status quo, related to Gramsci’s notion of hegemonic domination by consent.

Giving the central role of technology in these developments, the theme closely links to the remit of the Communication Policy and Technology section. Therefore we invite abstracts that take an interdisciplinary perspective at how the empowerment and disempowerment of users/citizens/consumers are configured by the co-evolution of (disruptive) media technologies on the one hand and social, cultural, economic, and political forces on the other hand. In what way can we identify paths for exerting ‘democratic rationalisation’, defined – by Andrew Feenberg – as user interventions that challenge undemocratic power structures rooted in modern technology? Or are we entering a ‘post-hegemonic age’ – as defined by Scott Lash – based on algorithmic power and datafication? Answers on these and related questions can be found in media and communication studies, but also in associated fields of science and technology studies (STS), computer science (privacy, security, requirement engineering, etc.) and digital humanities (software studies, platform studies, critical code studies, etc.). The question is then to what extent and how researchers and civil society in these disciplines can formulate answers to strengthen user empowerment and to mitigate disempowerment on the levels of access, media literacy, privacy, publicness and surveillance in the age of social, mobile and ubiquitous media.

The CPT section therefore invites submissions that critically engage with these issues. In addition we welcome papers and panel proposals addressing the following more particular themes that fit in the general call for papers and are relevant to the section. They are organised by a focus on governance, practices, and technologies:

1. Policies and governance

• Governance, control and (liquid) surveillance through technological infrastructures and algorithms
• Critical perspectives on big data, datafication, cloud computing, including ecological issues
• Social, economic and legal issues related to (new) regulatory initiatives in different regions of the world, on privacy, surveillance, and data protection
• Struggles over and issues related to anonymity and the dark net
• Public values, public sphere and the sharing economy
• Copyright issues and the commodification of culture
• Convergence and/or deconvergence of corporate strategies and value networks (platformisation)
• New intermediaries, community and user management, and cross cultural issues

2. Practices

• Domestication revisited, in a media-saturated private and professional sphere
• Tactics and strategies of resistance and protest in technology design and use (end-user programming, cheating, counterplay, hacking, hackathons communities of practice, etc.)
• Consumer/citizen awareness, attitudes, capabilities and practices towards privacy, surveillance and the commodification of personal data in digital marketing techniques
• Reconfiguring media literacy, digital literacy, digital inequalities and divides in online/offline social contexts
• Critical perspectives on labour in social, mobile and ubiquitous media (free labour, immaterial labour, emotional labour, prosumer, gendered structures, cultures of communication work, etc.)
• Ethics and data

3. Technologies

• Critical perspectives on social media and technology design, in particularly related to privacy and surveillance (e.g. PETs - Privacy Enhancing Technologies, Privacy Feedback and Awareness Tools)
• Creativity, transparency, privacy and control through social, local and mobile technologies, autonomous systems and ubiquitous computing (e.g. RFID, sensors, etc.)
• Interdisciplinary analyses of technologies for data inference, profiling, recommendations, and prediction of user behaviour (predictive analytics)
• Datafication of digital broadcasting (television and radio)
• Switch from analogue to digital radio and its consequences for community/local radio
• Assessing socio-technical ‘by design’ perspectives (privacy by design, data protection by design, fundamental rights protection by design, surveillance by design, etc.)

The CPT Section will also look for opportunities for hosting joint sessions with other sections and working groups.

Submission information

The CPT section welcomes proposals for papers bearing on the above or related issues by submitting an abstract. Abstracts should contain title, main question or research problem, theoretical framework, method(s) used, and – if applicable – (expected) empirical outcomes. Submitted abstracts will be evaluated by a double blind review on the basis of: (1) theoretical contribution, (2) methods, (3) quality of writing, (4) literature review, (5) relevance of the submission to the work of the CPT section, and (6) originality and/or significance of the work.

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).

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

• The panel description text, 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 CPT section call. A panel chair and a discussant should also be proposed.
• An abstract for each paper, including title and author(s).

The panel description text 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. All abstract submissions in a panel must indicate “PANEL:” as the first word of their title and the complete title of the panel must appear in the first line of each abstract. The panel proposal will be reviewed and based on this review we will accept, accept with revisions, or decline the panel.

Submission of abstracts, panel proposals and (if accepted) full papers must be submitted through the online Open Conference System (OCS) at http://iamcr-ocs.org from 1 December 2014 until 9 February 2015. Early submission is strongly encouraged. There are to be no email submissions of abstracts addressed to any Section or Working Group Head.

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. Presenters are expected to bring fully developed work to the conference. Prior to the conference, it is expected that a completed paper will be submitted to Section, Session Chairs, and Discussants.

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 CPT best paper award prize may be awarded to one of the paper presenters, based on the full papers submitted in time.

Please note following deadlines and key dates for the 2015 IAMCR Conference:

1 December 2014: Open Computer System (OCS) available for abstract submission at http://iamcr-ocs.org

9 February 2015: OCS closes: Final deadline for submission of extended abstracts and panels (submissions will be assessed by double blind review)

23 March 2015: Notification of acceptances of abstracts

14 April 2015: Confirmation of participation by presenters

6 May 2015: Deadline for early bird registration

19 June 2015: Deadline for full paper submission via OCS (around 7,500 words, excluding notes and references). There is no second round of reviewing for acceptance.

12-16 July 2015: IAMCR UQAM 2015 Conference, Montreal (Canada)

Additional questions about the CPT sessions (submission, themes, panels etc.) at the IAMCR 2015 conference can be addressed to Bart Cammaerts (b.cammaerts [AT] lse.ac.uk). For further information, please consult the IAMCR conference website (http://iamcr.org/congress/montreal2015) or the local UQAM conference website (http://congresiamcr.uqam.ca)

For general information on the CPT section (http://www.iamcr.org/cpt), you can contact:

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

Vice-Chair: Bart Cammaerts (b.cammaerts [AT] lse.ac.uk), London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

Vice-Chair: Aphra Kerr (aphra.kerr [AT] nuim.ie), Maynooth University, IE.

CFP: Call for participants: Digital Placemaking Workshop at ICWSM (Oxford, UK)

Digital Placemaking: Augmenting Physical Places with Contextual Social Data

May 26, 2015  

Oxford, UK

More information available here <http://digitalplacemaking.apps-1and1.com/> or below.

People have embraced social media as a means to express their experiences within and knowledge about particular places, and researchers have continued to analyze these digital traces in order to better understand social activities within particular places. Geo-tagged social media data such as photos, tweets, check-ins, audio, video, and status updates have proliferated and reveal individual and collective senses of place and local insights into interactions between people and place. However, these digital traces alone cannot reveal a holistic sense of place and placemaking.

One of the key goals of the workshop is to create a hands on experience and encourage participants from a variety of backgrounds to discover, share, and interact with experimental techniques of data gathering and urban sensing. The Digital Placemaking Workshop fosters discussions covering topics such as (but not limited to):

• Use of social media to engage communities in placemaking activities and participatory design
• Mobilizing and exhibiting place and placemaking efforts through social media
• Improving understandings of place and space through mining social media
• Pervasive applications for local user interaction and data collection
• Methodological advances in contextual understandings of social media outputs across space & place
• Use of social media to inform design and planning practices
• Role of social media in expressing or altering a sense of place or aiding in the understanding of everyday functionalities of regions, spaces and places
• Enabling citizen, artist, government, and NGO initiatives through social media
• Visualizations and interfaces to enable exploration and sharing of local data and experiences
• Privacy and ethical concerns in citizen engagement

We accept two types of submissions: (1) original research or work-in-progress and (2) project idea around digital placemaking that might be developed as part of this workshop.

Paper submission deadline: March 13, 2015

All contributions must be submitted as PDF files. Submissions will be evaluated by the organizers and Program Committee. The workshop accepts novel research or work-in-progress papers (no longer than 4 pages) or position papers (no longer than 2 pages). All papers must be submitted by the deadlines provided below and formatted in AAAI two-column, camera-ready style (see the author instructions page). All submitted papers will be reviewed and judged on originality, technical correctness, relevance, and quality of presentation by the Program Committee. All accepted submissions must be presented during the workshop.

Please submit papers through EasyChair:
*https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=digitalplacemaking20
<https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=digitalplacemaking20> *

*Organizers:*
Germaine Halegoua, University of Kansas
Raz Schwartz, Facebook Research
Ed Manley, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London