*CFP* "REFLECTIONS AND REVERSALS. SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND AUDIOVISUAL FICTION", III INTERNACIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

 Reflections and reverslas. Symbiosis between political communication and audiovisual fiction

III International Symposium of Political Communication

Faculty of Philology and Communication

University of Barcelona

December 2-3, 2021

Even though audiovisual fiction is usually studied within cultural bounds (Trenzado Romero, 2000), it also presents an important political dimension taking into account that representations play a large role “when it comes to determining which social reality is to be constructed; that is, which figures and forms will prevail in the process of modelling life and social institutions” (Ryan and Kellner, 1988: 13). The spectacularisation of politics is inspired, partly, by the processes of fictionalisation and, at the same time, spheres such as the cinema or scenarios characteristic of serialised fiction are also a reflection of that reality (Rodríguez and Padilla, 2018). In turn, fiction can be a pretext of understanding so as to find the significance of knowledge and to try to bring it closer to a framework of reality (Oliveros Aya, 2010). However, beyond being a call and a reminder of certain events or political phenomena, fiction can also represent reality “by means of a different type of evidence and therefore it can offer a different and more complete approach to realism” (Whitebrook, 1991: 5). It can be said that, as a significant part of mass culture, audiovisual fiction contributes decisively to the formation, debate, inspiration and interpretation of a variety of political imaginaries.

*CFP* "COMUNICACIÓN POLÍTICA Y TECNOLOGÍAS APLICADAS: DESINFORMACIÓN, NOTICIAS FALSAS Y VERIFICACIÓN DE HECHOS", VOL. 25, Nº 112, REVISTA RAZÓN Y PALABRA

La facilidad de propagación de las noticias falsas en la sociedad digital constituye un peligro para la salud o la economía, pero también para la democracia en su conjunto. Esta es una consecuencia más de la popularización de la computación, de la robotización o de la segmentación algorítmica. En el marco de la Comunicación Política, sus consecuencias nocivas preocupan a instituciones, medios de comunicación y ciudadanía, muy especialmente en época electoral.

La crisis originada por la pandemia de COVID-19 ha generado un debate sobre la necesidad de establecer mecanismos de control que eviten la desinformación, así como el desarrollo de instrumentos que permitan verificar hechos. El “fact-checking”, pues, es una de las principales tareas de la comunicación, constituyéndose como pieza angular de la responsabilidad social: automatiza la corroboración de las noticias a través de la detección de la fuente, del análisis de contenido y de la dirección de los distintos flujos informativos. Y es que, en este contexto de miedo colectivo, la proliferación de datos inexactos y la utilización con fines de intoxicación de las redes sociales por parte de actores políticos erosiona la estabilidad social, la convivencia pacífica y las bases sobre las que se construyen las democracias liberales, también las iberoamericanas.

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, POLITICAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION MEDIA AND POLITICS GROUP ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Political Studies Association Media and Politics Group Annual Conference

Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures

Canterbury Christ Church University

15-16 December 2021

This conference will facilitate a space for thinking critically about the concept of communities and how it is used in political discourse and political communication in the digital and (post)pandemic context. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Political discourses about and by communities

*CFP* "DESINFORMATION STUDIES AS AN EMERGING RESEARCH FIELD", SPECIAL ISSUE, JOURNALISM PRACTICE

This special issue of Journalism Practice looks at the complexities of disinformation and its implications on society. The number of studies that were already growing increased exponentially with Covid-19. The main goal of this special issue is to develop a set of studies and policies that allow us to identify and contribute to combat and effectively minimize the phenomena of disinformation, misinformation and manipulation in the journalistic field.

The contributions to this special issue, from different national and international contexts, can focus (among others) on the following topics:

• Identifying through case studies, examples of media whether revealing weaknesses or, instead, using strategies particularly directed to fight the phenomenon;
• Discussing new manipulation and disinformation strategies, considering in those the study of the audience from the perspective of their manipulation through the mobilization of emotions;

*CFP* "DISIDENCIA Y COMUNICACIÓN: VOCES Y DISCURSOS EN LA ERA DE LOS HECHOS ALTERNATIVOS", CONGRESO MEDIAFLOWS 2021

Congreso Mediaflows 2021

Disidencia y Comunicación: Voces y discursos en la era de los hechos alternativos

27, 28 y 29 de octubre 2021. UIMP Valencia

 

La vocación de este congreso es acoger un debate académico en torno al rol que la comunicación está jugando actualmente en las sociedades modernas como herramienta con la que desafiar los discursos oficiales y plantear lecturas alternativas a las voces del poder, pero también como instrumento con el que construir versiones de la realidad que poco o nada tienen que ver con las verdades fácticas, dando resultado a un sinfín de bulos y teorías conspiratorias. La relación entre comunicación y disidencia se revela, por tanto, como un objeto de discusión y reflexión académica de máxima importancia dado que, como han demostrado estos últimos meses, constituye un fenómeno que impacta sobre todo tipo de áreas, desde la política a la ciencia, pasando por la religión y la cultura.

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRESS/POLITICS

 "Virtual Conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics"

The International Journal of Press/Politics

13 - 16 September 2021

On 13-16 September 2021, the seventh conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics, focused on academic research on the relationship between media and political processes around the world, will be held virtually. Professor Young Mie Kim from the University of Wisconsin will deliver a keynote lecture.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 5 July 2021. Attendees will be notified of acceptance by 12 July 2021. Full papers based on accepted abstracts will be due 1 September 2021. A selection of the best full papers presented at the conference will be published in the journal after peer review.

*CFP* "THE AESTHETICS OF TRAVEL", VOLUME 65 (02/2022), THE POLISH JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS

This upcoming issue of The Polish Journal of Aesthetics calls for submissions focused on the associations between traveling and aesthetics, both understood broadly. There is a necessity for interdisciplinary dialogue between Aesthetics and different fields of research related to traveling. Aesthetics is the study of perceptions, experiences, and speculative developments. The practice of traveling reaches from the importance of nomadism for forming human culture up to the idea of Bildung (moral, intellectual, cultural, and artistic formation). Narratives about travel may come from Western written and oral tradition, such as Homer’s Odyssey, and film genres such as Westerns, Sci-fi, or Road trip cinema. Various types of travel literature could include logbooks and texts that support learning about living in a way that necessarily encompasses alterity. 

Traveling invokes a type of self-knowledge that is dislodged from a homeland and is connected to ritualistic reunions sustained through an oral tradition, the extraordinary adventures of a people. Travel transmits knowledge about the world for future generations. Through the experience of distance and strangeness, traveling creates an authentic space for cosmological and philosophical investigations, exploration, nostalgia, and personal, collective, scientific, or territorial discoveries, above all. In the category of space, fictional and narrative aspects find imaginary projections and territorial explorations from which knowledge emerges, individuating itself by an investigative perspective and observation. A new personality—a new Self and new Selves—appears from unknown space and time. The essential and precise subject matter for this issue is to deal with the representation of traveling and the imaginary, even if trips are objective and documented. Papers should include studies about the bond between the objective and the subjective, the individual and the collective, united with memory, time, and space.

*CFP* "DISSENT AND COMMUNICATION: VOICES AND DISCOURSES IN THE ERA OF ALTERNATIVE FACTS", MEDIAFLOWS CONFERENCE 2021

 

"Dissent and communication: voices and discourses in the era of alternative facts"

Mediaflows Conference 2021

Universidad de Valencia

27, 28 & 29 October 2021

 

In order to present a paper at the Mediaflows Conference 2021 ‘Dissent and communication: voices and discourses in the era of alternative facts’, a 250-word proposal should be sent through the specific form available at this link until 15 July 2021. The conference accepts papers in Spanish and English.

The conference accepts papers in face-to-face mode (health circumstances permitting) or virtual mode (by sending a video or participating online).

*CFP* "ANY MEDIA... IS HILARIOUS", Nº 3 (2021), GALACTICA MEDIA: JOURNAL OF MEDIA STUDIES

It is difficult to imagine a society where humor is completely absent. From ancient times to the present day, this phenomenon performs the most important functions: from psychological détente to reflection of the socio-cultural and political atmosphere in which this or that community resides. Since the XVIII century, it has also become an instrument of mass communication and political struggle, and becomes an integral part of the mass media.

We used in the title of this special issue for a reason the paraphrase of Will Rogers' saying in Marshall McLuhan's book "Media Understanding" (the original sounds like this: "Any newspaper read aloud from a theater stage is hilarious"), because the well-known thesis of the Toronto School of Communication Theory about the mutual influence of communication and the media, which transmits it, can be reactivated in the direction of the mutual influence of humor as a way to interpret information, on the one hand, and specific media as a way to convey this information, on the other. But in this context a number of important issues for modern communications researchers arise: what happens to media once it is "infected" by humor? Does humor necessarily satisfy the need for entertainment, as claimed by Neil Postman? Can humor have a "serious face"? Parody, caricature, irony, satire -- is there something constructive in them for communication? Does "Humor is always a monopoly of the semi-literate" (McLuhan)?

*CFP* "COMUNICACIÓN POLÍTICA Y TECNOLOGÍAS APLICADAS: DESINFORMACIÓN, NOTICIAS FALSAS Y VERIFICACIÓN DE HECHOS", VOL. 25, Nº 112, REVISTA RAZÓN Y PALABRA

La facilidad de propagación de las noticias falsas en la sociedad digital constituye un peligro para la salud o la economía, pero también para la democracia en su conjunto. Esta es una consecuencia más de la popularización de la computación, de la robotización o de la segmentación algorítmica. En el marco de la Comunicación Política, sus consecuencias nocivas preocupan a instituciones, medios de comunicación y ciudadanía, muy especialmente en época electoral.

La crisis originada por la pandemia de COVID-19 ha generado un debate sobre la necesidad de establecer mecanismos de control que eviten la desinformación, así como el desarrollo de instrumentos que permitan verificar hechos. El “fact-checking”, pues, es una de las principales tareas de la comunicación, constituyéndose como pieza angular de la responsabilidad social: automatiza la corroboración de las noticias a través de la detección de la fuente, del análisis de contenido y de la dirección de los distintos flujos informativos. Y es que, en este contexto de miedo colectivo, la proliferación de datos inexactos y la utilización con fines de intoxicación de las redes sociales por parte de actores políticos erosiona la estabilidad social, la convivencia pacífica y las bases sobre las que se construyen las democracias liberales, también las iberoamericanas.

*CFP* "BEYOND FAKE NEWS: MITIGATING EPISTEMICALLY TOXIC CONTENT", AN INTERNATIONAL ONLINE WORKSHOP

University of Haifa/Zefat Academic College

An International Online Workshop

Beyond Fake News: Mitigating Epistemically Toxic Content

21st-22nd April, 2021

Online

 

In 2016, “fake news” took ‎center stage as a contributor to surprising political events. Reluctant to do so at first, Facebook and Twitter have since taken steps to fight dubious posts, and have drawn on independent fact ‎checkers to validate and flag stories that are reported as fake by users. Misinformation spreaders have not rested on their laurels either. They have started creating deepfakes, namely, artificial realistic faces and ‎videos that make ‎it appear as if people said or did something they didn’t, and artificial intelligence-generated images to create seemingly real ‎profile pictures on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to lend the users an air of credibility. At the same time, individuals are regularly posting and sharing misinformation and disinformation without any apparent help or encouragement from malign actors, often without malevolent intent.

*CFP* "POLITICAL COMMUNICATION", SPECIAL ISSUE, CONTRATEXTO JOURNAL

Contratexto is an Open Access refereed academic journal published by the Faculty of Communication at the University of Lima every six months, with emphasis on the field of communication and related branches. It edits articles, research papers, essays and bibliographical reviews in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

The 36th edition of Contratexto will address the new forms of communication education: extended classroom. This concept refers to the new pathways to emit messages and content through the use of media in the processes of teaching and learning. Thus, surpassing the barriers of the behaviorist framework, promoting disruptive, critical and creative thinking.

Dossier editors: Franahid D’silva (Universidad Nacional Abierta, Venezuela) and Mariana Gabriela Torres (Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral, Argentina).

*CFP* CALL FOR PARTICIPATION, 2021 CONFERENCE IN REYKJAVIK

2021 conference in Reykjavik

Iceland

August 18-20, 2021

 

We welcome full papers, extended abstracts, panel presentations and workshops on the division's theme from a wide range of methodological and theoretical perspectives.

Send in your 500-word abstract by February 19, 2021 through the conference website.

The division highlights how topics related to the environment, science and risks are debated, represented and contested in the contemporary media environment.

*CFP* LLAMADA A CONTRIBUCIONES, VOL. II, Nº 20 (DICIEMBRE 2020), REVISTA SPHERA PUBLICA

Sphera Publica - número 20, volumen II (diciembre 2020). Revista de ciencias sociales y comunicación. Universidad Católica de Murcia, España.

Sphera Publica es una revista multidisciplinar de ciencias sociales y comunicación editada por el departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación de la UCAM, España. Es una publicación de acceso abierto, con doble revisión ciega y comité científico internacional.

Aunque se trata de un número miscelánea, acoge con especial interés para el próximo número las siguientes temáticas:

• Comunicación política
• Calidad del debate público online
• Periodismo y minorías sociales
• Análisis bibliométricos
• Proyectos de innovación docente

 

*CFP* "POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA PRACTICES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA", EDITED COLLECTION

I.B.Tauris is seeking book proposals for a new academic book series: Political Communication and Media Practices in the Middle East and North Africa.

The popular uprisings that rocked several Arab countries at the beginning of 2011, and the more recent ones in Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon and Iraq, arose, among other things, in the context of changing media practices and political communication in the region. Beyond the actions by political elites and institutions, several of these movements were characterised by grassroots communication on social media, and many included creative practises by a diverse range of actors.

Books in this seriescritically engage with the complex and fluid relationship between politics, communication and culture in the Middle East and North Africa, taking into account the specificities of social and political local contexts, diverse political and media systems, media institutions, media and political actors and populations as well as differentiations along religious, sectarian, ethnic, gendered and racial lines. Topics and themes include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

*CFP* "RESILIENCE, EXPERTISE, HOPE", POLITICAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL 2021 CONFERENCE

Political Studies Association Annual International 2021 Conference

Resilience, Expertise, Hope

29th-31st March, 2021

Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland

 

The Covid-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on all aspects of our lives and the societies in which we live, providing new challenges, but also opportunities, in terms of how we think about and study socio-economic organisation, democratic institutions and international governance, as well as the fundamental questions of justice and equality that provide the normative underpinnings to social scientific research. The 2021 PSA Conference seeks contributions that address these multifarious challenges and opportunities in the context of three overarching themes: Resilience, Expertise and Hope.

 

Resilience, Expertise and Hope will be crucial ingredients in our ability to adapt and respond in the wake of fundamental disruption. They will also prove invaluable in informing and shaping diverse and evolving research agendas in political science to make sense of and understand the global economy, global ecosystems and the climate, public health, international security, and many other interrelated issue areas that combine to generate the most pressing challenges of our age. 

*CFP* "PUBLIC DIPLOMACY", SPECIAL ISSUE, ILLETI-S-IM: GALATASARAY UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION

Public diplomacy, which is the intersection field of international relations and communication disciplines, is an important concept that has been included in the political communication literature of the 21st century. The basis of public diplomacy, which is defined as the strategic communication management of a state for foreign peoples, is based on Joseph Nye's “soft power” concept mainly. Historically, cultural diplomacy activities started with the establishment of Alliance Française in 1883, and many communication activities carried out in the First and Second World Wars had the characteristics of public diplomacy activities, although not called as public diplomacy. The transformation of the propagandist communication form of the Cold War era with the new communication technologies of the 90s also has changed the concept of public diplomacy.

The one-way communication form of traditional public diplomacy has become a research-based, planned, and proactive communication method according to the results of the research in today's new public diplomacy. The actors and application areas of New public diplomacy, in which targeted messages are delivered to specific audiences, have diversified. “New public diplomacy is about building relationships with civil societies of other countries and facilitating networks with non-governmental parties inside and outside” (Melissen, 2007: 22). Civil society is one of the most important actors of this new public diplomacy and is an efficient tool for transmitting soft power.

*CFP* "ELECTIONS, JOURNALISM AND ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE", SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE MEDIA STUDIES JOURNAL

The Covid-19 pandemic crisis deeply influenced the relationship between media and politics. Slowing down of economic activity amid lockdowns and physical distancing influenced revenue and sustainability of media organizations and patterns of media consumption. Some preliminary research found that the crisis prompted higher trust in government and inclination to vote for the ruling party or president (Blais et al., 2020). Most of the parliamentary and presidential elections have been postponed in 2020. However, some have been held amid the 2020 pandemic (parliamentary elections in Croatia and Serbia, presidential election in Poland).This special issue invites authors to contribute to understanding elections that are taking place in an increasingly unstable political environment, characterized by hybrid media systems (Chadwick, 2017) and data driven communication (Kreiss and McGregor, 2018).

We invite papers that address mediatization of elections, relationship between journalism and politics, characteristics of media messages, frames and discourses, agenda-setting, characteristics of political campaign and communication strategies, the rise of new platforms (TikTok, Snapchat etc.),

*CFP* “CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MIGRATION IN DISCOURSE AND COMMUNICATION”, STUDIES IN COMMUNICATION SCIENCES THEMATIC SECTION

We are seeking contributions for a thematic section of Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS) exploring discursive constructions of migration. SComS is a peer-reviewed journal of communication and media research with platinum open-access (no article processing charges).

The massive movement of migrant and refugee populations from war and conflict zones to Europe in summer 2015 created a state of emergency for the member-states and institutions of the European Union (EU). More specifically, in the context of the so-called “refugee crisis” (2015-2017) new fences and borders were raised in Europe as well as alarming racist and hateful discourses were disseminated (see Mussolf 2017; Assimakopoulos et al. 2018). During this polarized period, studies that adopt a critical perspective focused on the examination of migration, racism and xenophobia across various fields of research in communication sciences (see e.g. Krzyzanowski, Wodak & Triantafyllidou 2018).

This thematic section aims at advancing this perspective in communication sciences by gathering cutting-edge research revolving around the discursive/communicative constructions of the migratory phenomenon and the related new forms of racism traced in various European countries (e.g. Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, United Kingdom etc.).

*CFP* "THIRD ECPR-ODIHR SUMMER SCHOOL ON POLITICAL PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY", SUMMER SCHOOL EVENT

Third ECPR-ODIHR Summer School on Political Parties and Democracy

17-23 August 2020

Warsaw, Poland or Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (to be confirmed)

The summer school event will bring together an international team of academics and practitioners to train and instruct a group of 20 MA/PhD researchers, practitioners and civil society activists in the field of political parties and democracy.

Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, the format of the school might be changed - adopting a “hybrid” or “online only” arrangements.


Organisers and sponsors