November 6-8, 2019
Berlin
Keynote by Shoshana Zuboff
This is the annual conference of the German Communication
Association’s Division “Digital Communication”. The theme speaks to a broad set
of issues, including the dynamics of innovation, actors and strategies, digital
methods and their critical reflection, and theoretical contributions. Please
find the Call for Papers below and at the conference website.
A defining—yet understudied—feature of digital communication
is automation: the production of content, the distribution of information and
messages, the curation of media use and the governance of content are all
increasingly shaped and influenced by automated processes and automated actors.
Algorithms automate the production of content, algorithms
operate the selection and filtering of information in news, news feeds and
search engines, they attribute relevance and popularity, perform content
moderation and fact-checking. Automated actors such as social bots participate
both in organizational communication such as customer service and, as a
potential force of manipulation, in election campaigns. While communication
scholars have focused their attention on algorithms in diverse areas of the
field, they can be studied as a means of the broader process of automating social
relations and public
communication.
Because automation takes place in hybrid media systems,
automation is not restrained to social media platforms or apps, but also plays
a role in journalism and legacy media, as well as in interpersonal communication.
Algorithms write simple news articles, rank mostread articles, and shape what
journalists find relevant or newsworthy. Networked societies rely on permanent
connectedness, all of which takes place in strongly automated, curated
environments of data gathering, sharing, liking, commenting: monitoring complex
actor-networks, self mass-communication, or organizing protest through
connective
action.
The story of automating communication has two sides: the few
who are shaping, designing, programming and implementing algorithms and other
technologies, and the many who are using and are impacted by automated
communication. In this regard, automation raises questions of power and power
relations. Automating core features of democracy such as the assignment of relevance
and legitimacy to issues, actors, and specific content, based on data and
algorithms controlled and operated by a few private companies, challenges
notions of transparency, due process, and legitimacy. What are the regulatory
measures to curb this power? And are automation, algorithms, and artificial
intelligence really meaningful answers to social problems?
Submissions may cover one or several of the following
aspects:
1. Theoretical innovations
The process and consequences of automating communication
challenge theoretical concepts. Are bots actors? Are algorithms institutions?
Are software developers communicators? Does automated communication cause
dissonance and disrupted public spheres, and how? Are concepts around
consonance and deliberation really “out of touch with reality” (Pfetsch &
Bennett 2018)? How does automated communication affect media use and media
effects? How can we theoretically model automated communication?
2. Dynamics of communication
Algorithms are at the core of automation, because automation
works through algorithms. But how do they change and challenge the dynamics,
the processes, and structuration of communication? How do search engines impact
on public communication and information retrieval? How does the curation of
news feeds work and how do they affect how media users receive information?
What causes and influences the viral distribution of content? How do hate
speech and “fake news” travel in networks of social media platforms and legacy
media? Do algorithms cause filter bubbles and echo chambers? What is the impact
of the increasing automatic detection of content deemed illegitimate (e.g.,
hate speech, copyright violation, nudity) in social media and comment section?
What is the role of datafication for automated and automating communication?
3. Actors and strategies, accountability and governance
Automating communication affects and involves a variety of
actors: when algorithms produce content, this changes the effort and role of
journalists. How do media actors work with algorithmic content production? Are
journalists “gaming” the algorithms of platforms, and how? Who creates the
tools and affordances that automate communication—and
under which conditions? What happens when low-wage employees
execute highly
automated tasks, partly in order to mimic algorithms and
artificial intelligence (“fauxtomation”)? New and (semi-)automated actors such
as trolls, connected activist, and social bots alter the strategies of campaigning
and the way parties and other organizations plan their activities. Who can be
held accountable for automated communication? What are challenges and possible solutions for regulation and
media policy?
4. Methods and critical reflection of methods
Studying automated communication often involves
computational methods and trace data. But qualitative methods such as
ethnography, interviews or observations can also help to understand how
algorithms are created, platforms are shaped, and actors use or make sense of
automated communication. Particularly research focusing on social media
platforms faces severe challenges of data access and data management nowadays,
dealing with data protection regulation, privacy issues, and proprietary data.
Analyses of automated actors, such as bots, rely on black-boxed tools and call
for interdisciplinary approaches. We thus also invite submissions with a
critical perspective on research methods, revisiting research ethics and quality standards.
5. Open call
In addition to topic-specific submissions, there is an open
call for current research on digital communication. We also welcome submissions
that are not directly related to the conference theme but address pertinent
issues of the research field. This must be noted in
the submission.
Submissions
Deadline for abstracts submission is July 15, 2019. Send it in electronic
form (*.docx, *.rtf or *.odt; not *.pdf) as email attachments to submissions@digikomm2019.de The
abstracts must be made
anonymous by means of a separate cover page and the removal
of all identifying
information from the text and document settings.
All submissions will be evaluated in a peer review according
to the following criteria customary in the German Communication Association:
theoretical foundation, relevance of research questions, method/procedure,
novelty/originality, clarity and conciseness of presentation. The results of
the review process will be announced by mid-August 2019.
Organization
The conference will take place from November 6-8, 2019 in
Berlin. The event is hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked
Society (FU Berlin) and the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and
Society. More information will be added on the
website, such as location, program, and social events:
www.digikomm2019.de
Hosts and contact
German Communication Association, Digital Communication
Division
Christian Katzenbach, (katzenbach@hiig.de)
Christian Pentzold, (christian.pentzold@uni-bremen.de)
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