*CFP* "COMPARING COMMUNICATION STUDIES BEYOND CHINA", SPECIAL ISSUE, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION GAZETTE

In 2004, Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini published their classic book, Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics, outlining three major models of media system development. Eight years later, the authors invited a group of scholars from outside Western Europe and North America to contribute papers and co-edited Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World (Hallin & Mancini, 2012), “calling for an extension of comparative analysis beyond a framework centered on Western cases” (p. 3). Cases such as those of Israel (Peri, 2012), Russia (Vartanova, 2012), South Africa (Hadland, 2012), and China (Zhao, 2012) were included in the “most similar systems” design to supplement the scope of their original framework. Against this background, this proposed special issue recommends further consideration of the Chinese case, referring to both similarities and differences between China and other countries of the world.

Over the past thirty years, China has undergone extraordinary changes in its media and communication system, with significant implications, both domestically and internationally. Correspondingly, the scholarship on media and communication studies focusing on Greater China—including the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore, and the global Chinese diaspora—has burgeoned in recent years, as witnessed by the rapidly increasing number of journals, such as the Chinese Journal of Communication and Global Media andChina. 

Despite the significance of China's media and communication changes and the vigor of the scholarship addressing these changes, little is known about how such scholarship would tackle other subfields and the core debates and developments in communication studies beyond China. Such lacunae not only leads to the low visibility of China-specific research in some fields but also hinders potential opportunities for the development of universally applicable theories beyond the case of China. In sum, the proposed special issue offers a comparative and cross-cultural perspective on the current investigations about the Chinese media and communicative environment, provides a comprehensive and careful outlook on the insights to be gained from comparing the Chinese media system with its counterparts in the world, and ultimately attempts to reflect on both differences and similarities between China and other countries across a spectrum of social and cultural factors.

In this proposed special issue, we look for original, rigorous, and creative contributions and reflections based on the communication phenomena in Greater China yet speak beyond the case of China. Importantly, we hope to reflect on the impact of communication studies addressing Greater China on debates and developments in a broader field of communication studies. The papers can be primarily theoretical or based on empirical studies, addressing micro level as well as macro level research questions. In all forms, the papers should make explicit, original, and substantial contributions to the relevance and the implications of their research beyond China.

Please direct all inquiries and submissions to the guest editors (not to the journal):

Jun Liu, (University of Copenhagen) at: liujun@hum.ku.dk

Chris Chao Su, (University of Copenhagen) at: chris.su@hum.ku.dk

Manuscripts should strictly adhere to the ICG submission guidelines and must be submitted through email to the guest editors no later than February 1th 2020. Please clearly state in your email that the manuscript is submitted to the special issue “Comparing Communication Studies Beyond China”.