[ecrea] CFP: Medien Journal, 4/2015 - Media and democracy in troubled times

CALL FOR PAPERS: Medien Journal, 4/2015, published by the Austrian 
Society of Communication

MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY IN TROUBLED TIMES

*Deadline for paper submissions:  November 15, 2015

Whether at a local, national, European or global level, the current 
political landscape is defined by citizens' growing disappointment and 
distrust of political institutions and traditional mass news media. The 
consequences of the financial and economic crisis can still be felt by a 
large portion of the public today. National governments' cutbacks and 
austerity measures imposed by the European Union, along with a recession 
and high rates of unemployment that affect young people in particular, 
have shaped the lives of many European citizens. Many democratic parties 
are faced with low approval ratings and sinking party affiliation, while 
populist parties on the left and the right have gained momentum. Parties 
like the UKIP in Great Britain or the AfD in Germany have sprung up and 
existing populist parties such as the Freedom Party of Austria and the 
Front National in France have gotten stronger. The public's 
dissatisfaction with politics and politicians is growing as quickly as 
the amount of indifferent citizens. The so-called "third age of 
political communication" (Blumler & Kavanagh, 1999) thus looks bleak, 
and one must ask how democratic systems can survive in the face of the 
increasing number of disillusioned (non-)voters. On the other hand and 
particularly among younger people, there is a fundamental move away from 
the established representative political system, with its group-based 
identities and interests and its institutionalized forms of 
participation, toward individualized, intrinsically motivated forms of 
civic engagement. Usually, this process is assumed to be fostered by new 
communication technologies which make it easier for people, due to low 
entry barriers, to participate in exchanges of thoughts, opinions and 
ideas (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012).

We are accepting contributions about current issues in political 
communication for publication in volume 4/2015 of the "Medien Journal", 
published by the Austrian Society of Communication. These contributions 
may deal with the following and related topics:

Key actors:
*How do politicians address the issue of increased disappointment and 
distrust among citizens? Which strategies have politicians developed to 
influence, convince, and mobilize potential voters?
*Which role do social movements and interest groups (such as the Occupy 
Movement or PEGIDA in Germany) play in capturing citizens' interests and 
concerns and creating public discourse around them?
*Which differences exist between populist parties on the left and the 
right with regard to their appeal to the public and mobilization of the 
same?
*How do citizens express or deal with their frustration and 
disappointment in political institutions and politicians? Are there any 
new forms of civic engagement on the rise?

Issues:
*How does the media portray crucial political issues and politicians? 
What are the differences between different types of media?
*How does the media address issues such as distrust in politics or low 
voter turnouts? To what extent does mass media act as a mediator between 
politics and society?
*How and to what extent are citizens and their concerns, fears and hopes 
in regards to politics portrayed in the media?
*What role do new media (such as Facebook and Twitter) play in processes 
of political communication?

Perception and impact:
*How does political journalism influence its audience? What positive and 
negative effects on democracy can be found?
*How are right-wing and left-wing populist parties perceived by the 
public in comparison to mainstream parties? How do these parties differ 
from one another? In what ways are they similar?
*Which individual and societal factors shape traditional forms of 
political participation and more recent forms of civic engagement?
*Which measures should political and media actors take to build 
society's trust in politics and increase participation in politics?

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Papers must be in either English or German and have a maximum of 5,000 
words (including references); a cover page (indicating the title, 
author(s), and contact information) and an abstract of 150 words must be 
included (the abstract must be in German and in English for papers 
written in German). Please send all contributions to Josef Seethaler 
((josef.seethaler /at/ oeaw.ac.at); 
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/cmc/en/seethaler.html) or Christiane Grill 
((christiane.grill /at/ univie.ac.at)) by November 15, 2015. All papers will be 
anonymously peer-reviewed. Acceptance notifications will be sent out on 
December 1, 2015.

MANUSCRIPT GUIDELINES
*Format: Times New Roman, 12pt, 1.5 line spacing (in WORD). Please avoid 
formatting the text. Headings should only be emphasized with the use of 
blank lines or bold lettering at the most (do not use colons, periods, 
etc. at the end of a line). Emphases in the text should be made with 
italics.
*Headings: Headings of papers and chapters should be short. Subheadings 
can be longer, subheads should not be longer than one line in 12pt font. 
Individual chapters should be numbered, there should be no punctuation 
after the first or second number (1 or 1.1).
*Long quotes: Long quotes should be indented on the left and the right 
and be in italics. The source should be noted in the next line justified 
to the right.
*Footnotes: Footnotes (no endnotes) should be sparse and only used for 
elaboration, not for references. Footnotes should be numbered.
*Tables and figures: Tables should be included in the text; figures 
should be provided as EXCEL files.
*Cross-references: For in-text citations and references use the Chicago 
Manual of Style 
(http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html: 
"Author-Date" citations).



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