*CFP* "COMMUNICATING CRISIS IN NETWORKED ASIA", SPECIAL WINTER 2021 ISSUE, JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EASTERN ASIA

The Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia (JCEA), a refereed biannual open access journal on East and Southeast Asia is announcing a call for papers for a special Winter 2021 issue: Communicating Crisis in Networked Asia

 

Invited Editors:

K. Hazel Kwon, Arizona State University, (khkwon@asu.edu)

Sejung Park, John Carroll University, (sjpark@jcu.edu)

Youngju Shin, Arizona State University, (Youngju.Shin@asu.edu)

 

Digital media has become an integral part of crisis reporting and management in networked societies. How digital social interactions and activities unveil during a large-scale crisis are embedded in a country’s social, cultural, and political context. For example, commentaries in western news media about Asian countries during the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated that the use of digital media and technologies as pandemic response tools is never isolated from the norms, values, and sociotechnical conditions of a society. For instance, Wall Street Journal had mentioned Confucianism as a cultural prompt for paternalistic digital surveillance in South Korea and Japan [1]; New York Times noted that a high level of social trust contributed to South Korean citizens’ tolerance for the adoption of digital contact-tracing [2]. Meanwhile, Katharin Tai (a German scholar who studies Chinese internet policy at MIT) pointed in her Twitter post that non-western factors have been overemphasized: “I keep hearing that Europe cannot learn #Covid19 strategies from Asia bc Asians are ‘obedient’ & not as ‘critical’ — South Koreans ousted their last president with mass protests, Taiwanese students occupied parliament to protest a trade deal & HK has been protesting for months” [3].

These commentaries may be an accurate assessment, or they could be another artifact of Asian stereotypes. Regardless, the recent discussion on Asia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic invites scholars to ponder the current status of crisis communication in Asia, particularly at the intersection between digital media and sociopolitical –and cultural –conditions of each society.

This special issue calls for empirical studies that explore how networked Asian societies have been imagined and manifested during a crisis, and what we learn about crisis sensemaking from networked Asia. This special issue welcomes COVID-19-related studies, but is NOT limited to the current pandemic. Instead, the special issue aims to cover a broad range of humanitarian crises including public health crises, natural disasters, and human-made events (e.g., terrorist attack, violent political unrest). We define digital media broadly as well, including both web-based and non-web services. The geographical scope of this issue intends for pan-Asia, inviting submissions about, and from, all parts of Asian societies (East, Southeast, South, and Middle East).

We are particularly interested in but not limited to:

• mis/disinformation during a crisis in an Asian society 
• crisis stakeholders in an Asian society (e.g., first-responders, government authorities, opinion influencers, experts, civil sectors) and their uses of digital media for crisis management 
• networked crisis publics in Asia 
• crisis-related digital governance in Asia 
• the role of crisis journalism in networked Asia 
• the use of digital media for crisis-related campaigns in Asia 
• a cross-national comparison of digital practices in the context of crisis.

 

While this issue is open to everyone, we also welcome submissions from the 2021 International Communication Association (ICA) conference sessions held by the Korean American Communication Association (KACA), Chinese Communication Associations (CCA), and other associations or interest groups that focus on Asia. Please submit your manuscript in English to Dr. Hazel Kwon khkwon@asu.edu by April 1, 2021 (subject line should include “JCEA_Special Issue_2021”). There are no submission fees, publication fees, or page charges for this journal.

 

Deadlines

Manuscript submission: April 1, 2021

Notification of Acceptance/Rejection: July 1, 2021

Final Submission of Revised Papers: October 1, 2021

 

Submission Guidelines

Submitted manuscripts must be in MS Word (.doc) format with a separate title page that includes the title of the paper, full names, affiliations, email addresses, telephone numbers, complete addresses, and biographical sketches of all authors.

Manuscripts must follow the manuscript template for in-text citations, reference lists, headings, etc. The word limit is 8000 words, including abstract and bibliography. Abstract (150-250 words) and 5-6 keywords are required. Where available, URLs for the references shall be provided, including the date of access.

To facilitate the review process, please suggest three experts in your area in the cover letter, including their names, affiliations, contact information, and the reasons why you recommend these people. Peer reviewers should be experienced scholars with a track record in the area. The names should be unbiased and do not have a conflict of interest (e.g., colleagues in your department, thesis advisers and committee members, etc.). Please note that while we will consider the authors’ suggestions, we may not necessarily contact them.

Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia (JCEA) is a SCOPUS-indexed refereed open access journal that takes the lead on a new scholarship in Asia.

Building on a foundation of dedicated study in current political, social and economic trends in East and Southeast Asia, the JCEA is expanding its scope to unique aspects of Asian scholarship, including (socio-technical) convergence and future (network) studies.

The JCEA editorial board is committed to working very hard to boost the scholarly presence of new Asian scholarship around the world and secure its reputation as an emerging world-class publishing outlet. The editors welcome manuscripts based on original research or significant reexamination of existing literature.