[ecrea] Call for Papers - Media Accountability -- Strategies, Trends, Benchmarks

*Call for Papers: Medien Journal. **Zeitschrift für Kommunikationskultur *

*Vierteljahreszeitschrift der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für *

*Kommunikationswissenschaft (ÖGK) Heft 1/2012 *

* *

*Media Accountability -- Strategies, Trends, Benchmarks *

This issue of the Medien Journal, the double-blind, peer-reviewed 
quarterly journal of the Austrian Communication Association (ÖGK), 
should be published on the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the 
reestablishment of the Austrian Press Council and focuses on Media 
Accountability.

Yellow press papers invading the privacy of crime victims, TV society 
shows each detail of a celebrity's life, blogs insulting politicians for 
personal reasons, cost cuts and staff reduction which seem to water down 
ethical standards in journalism -- these are just some issues our media 
environment currently presents. How can - in an environment like this - 
traditional media accountability institutions like press councils deal 
with these problems? Are there other, better ways to keep media outlets 
accountable? What about the situation in countries where there is no 
press council? Is a tight legal framework the only solution? How can we 
balance media freedom and media accountability? May the new online 
technologies (facebook, twitter, wikis...) become a new way of 
encouraging citizens to participate in media accountability processes? 
And how to deal with content published by "normal" citizens? These 
questions are in the centre of the ongoing debate on limitations and 
possibilities for media accountability in modern democracies. This issue 
of the Medien Journal wants to contribute to this debate from the 
viewpoint of communication sciences. We encourage submissions covering 
the wide field of media accountability practices and institutions. 
Papers might show benchmarks or best practice examples on all levels of 
journalism, be it the journalists themselves, media companies or 
successful practices/institutions covering the whole media system, 
including emerging online tools, encouraging journalist as well as 
citizens to keep media accountable.

Topics may include:

· Media accountability systems focussing on the media itself (press 
councils, media councils etc.)

· Media accountability systems practices within media companies trying 
to obligate journalists to high ethical/ high quality standards 
(ombudsperson, media audits, etc.)

· New, innovative online practices using the developments of web 2.0 
technologies (watchblogs, twitter etc.)

· Practices enabling citizens or other underrepresented stakeholders to 
participate in the process of ethical reflecting and evaluate media 
coverage

· European or transnational perspectives on media accountability systems

· Legal frameworks and questions of (co-) regulation

Criteria for submissions:

· Manuscripts submitted to Medien Journal should not be published 
elsewhere until the peer-review process is finished.

· original texts only (not published elsewhere)

· Papers are supposed to range between 3000 and 4.500 words (approx. 10 
-12 pages)

·  Submissions must contain an lines abstract (10 lines) and a short 
biographical note for each author (max. 3 lines)

· Texts can be submitted in English or German language. The formal 
criteria for the submission in English must follow APA style guides (see 
www.apastyle.org). German texts must follow the citation guidelines 
published under www.ogk.at 
(http://www.uni-salzburg.at/portal/page?_pageid=1947,815605&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL) 


· Deadline for submissions: 01.11.2011

Please send submissions to Mag. Klaus Bichler- Medienhaus Wien- Research 
Coordinator Austria MediaAct (www. Mediaact.Eu) (klaus.bichler /at/ mhw.at)

Prof. DDr. Matthias Karmasin, Mag. Klaus Bichler, Editors

Ass. Prof. Dr. Thomas Steinmaurer
  ________________________________


  Fachbereich Kommunikations-
  wissenschaft
  Abteilung Kommunikationstheorien
  und Mediensysteme



  Vorsitzender der Österreichischen Gesellschaft
  für Kommunikationswissenschaft (ÖGK)

  Universität Salzburg
  Fachbereich Kommunikationswissenschaft
  Rudolfskai 42
  5020 Salzburg
  Tel +43 662 8044 4164
  Fax +43 662 6389 4164
www.uni-salzburg.ac.at <http://www.uni-salzburg.ac.at>
www.ogk.at <http://www.ogk.at>