[ecrea] Call for Chapters: (R)evolutionizing Political Communication through Social Media

REMINDER - Call for Chapters:(R)evolutionizing Political Communication 
through
Social Media

Editors

Dr. Tomaž Deželan (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Dr. Igor Vobic (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Call for Chapters

Proposals Submission Deadline: June 15, 2014
Full Chapters Due: October 15, 2014

Introduction

For release in the Advances in Public Policy and Administration (APPA)
Book Series.

The Advances in Public Policy and Administration (APPA) Book Series aims
to publish scholarly publications focused on topics pertaining to the
governance of the public domain. APPA’s focus on timely topics relating
to government, public funding, politics, public safety, policy, and law
enforcement is particularly relevant to academicians, government
officials, and upper-level students seeking the most up-to-date research
in their field.

Social media as broad, omnipresent, and always-on communication environments
create various kinds of interactions for actors in the political arena.
Research indicates how social media emerge as an ambient communication space
where politicians and their parties are in constant asynchronous
connection with their political competitors, the media, and electorate,
where various agents engage in a network of interactive co-constructions
of the political arena, and where political actors seek power through a
diverse, shared communication field. From a historical perspective,
societal conditions that would allow for the ideas of access to and
participatory interactions in the political sphere have never fully
materialized because of the unequal possibilities of entry into the
media field, the uneven distribution of communication competences, and
the reduction of public debates as well as the legitimization of
dominant opinions created by the powerful elite. Preliminary scholarly
findings indicate revolutionary potentials for social media; however, there
is emerging evidence of the normalization of social media as tools of narrow
political struggles and at the same time new evolutionary paths of
political communication towards a more inclusive, multi-layered, and
multi-directional social phenomenon.

Considering the possibilities and constraints for more dynamic and open
communication engagement, can we speak about the dominant modes of
political communication on social media outlets in general, and Twitter
in particular? How have social media impacted political communication and to
what extent are the existing offline power positions mirrored in this
ambient communication environment? What are the communalities and
particularities of articulations between social networks, politics, and 
media
across societies? Keeping in mind the challenges of setting boundaries
between different political roles of actors engaged on Twitter, how does
this affect the prevailing modes of governmental communication, public
relations, journalism, and popular culture? The proposed edited book
considers these questions as the starting points of theoretical
reflections about social media, politics and communication, methodological
reconsiderations for investigating these empirical realities, and
comparisons of social media manifestations of political communication
between countries. In this sense, the book brings together studies
exploring country-specific realizations of social media about the ways in
which political actors communicate to the electorate and among
themselves. It also elaborates on the findings of these
theoretically-informed explorations in the larger context of
transformations in political communication. Through this prism, the book
explores contingent connections between political communication and
social media, as they can be forged or broken in particular political
and social contexts and as they are manifested in different ways across
the globe. Different relations of dominance and subordination in
connoting, symbolizing, and evoking the prevailing conceptions of
politics and communication shape the online character of political life.

Objective

The edited volume intends to overcome solid boundaries in studying
structures and networks, processes and relations, as well as strategies
and outputs in studies of political communication, and explores the
often unrelated structural, organizational, and individual levels in the
study of politics and online communication. Therefore, the volume seeks
to move beyond the prevailing scarcity in one of the key areas of
practice and study of political communication online as the project
attempts to fully explore the relationship between social media, politics,
and communication with respect to structures and networks, processes and
relations, as well as strategies and outputs.

Thus, the editors welcome theoretically-informed and context-sensitive
sets of case studies that will examine rarely resolved issues, such as
how technological innovation in the politics-communication relationship
can revitalize political communication, reconfigure power relations in
the political economy, strengthen the political relevance of social
media and revive political life in general.

Target Audience

The target audience of this book will be composed of professionals,
researchers, and students interested in the field of political
communication who are becoming increasingly interested in more sensitive
approaches to the study of social media and its effects, particularly
the impact of Twitter and new technologies on the functioning of
society. Readers are likely to be academics from a whole range of
humanities and social science disciplines, including communication
research, political science, public relations, and media and journalism.
Moreover, the book will provide insights and support to researchers,
party officials and consultants, political activists, technology
practitioners, and students interested in the latest research on the
impact of information technology on political life as well as the global
patterns and local idiosyncrasies of social media’s appropriation.

Recommended Topics

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, theoretical
deliberations, comparative studies and case studies of the following
four clusters of topics:

Political Tools and Tactics
- an adoption of new information and communication tools and tactics by
political actors

Restructuring of Power Relations
- a restructuring of power relations of the political economy online

Return of the Citizen
- a reorientation in the political communication relationship with
citizens towards a more interactive and individualized engagement

Ambient Political Communication Mode
- an ambient awareness between political actors, social power holders,
and the mass media

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before June
15, 2014, a 250-500 words long chapter proposal clearly explaining the
mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. All proposals
should be submitted through the link at the bottom of this page. Authors
of accepted proposals will be notified byJune 15, 2014 about the status
of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are
expected to be submitted by October 15, 2014. All submitted chapters
will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also
be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea
Group Inc.), publisher of the "Information Science Reference" (formerly
Idea Group Reference), "Medical Information Science Reference,"
"Business Science Reference," and "Engineering Science Reference"
imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please
visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released
in 2015.

Important Dates

June 15, 2014: Proposal Submission Deadline
June 20, 2014: Notification of Acceptance
October 15, 2014: Full Chapter Submission
December 15, 2014: Review Results Returned
January 30, 2015: Revised Chapter Submission
February 15, 2015: Final Acceptance Notification
February 28, 2015: Final Chapter Submission

Inquiries

Dr. Tomaž Deželan
Faculty of Social Sciences
SI-1000 UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA
Tel.: +386 1 5805 231 _ Fax: +386 1 5805 101
E-mail: (tomaz.dezelan /at/ fdv.uni-lj.si)

Dr. Igor Vobic
Faculty of Social Sciences
SI-1000 UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA
Tel.: +386 1 5805 234 _ Fax: +386 1 5805 101
E-mail: (igor.vobic /at/ fdv.uni-lj.si)



Further information about this call

http://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/1354



Propose a chapter for this book

http://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/submit/1354


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