[ecrea] cfp - digital intermediaries and media pluralism

UNIVERSITY OF DUBROVNIK
Department of Mass Communication
In cooperation with
EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom

International scientific conference
13TH DUBROVNIK MEDIA DAYS
October 27-28, 2017

CALL FOR PAPERS
“DIGITAL INTERMEDIARIES AND MEDIA PLURALISM”

Digital intermediaries (search engines, social media, digital stores, 
news aggregators, and messaging apps) became one of the most important 
platforms for accessing and finding news in the 21st century (Napoli 
2014; Rasmus and Schroder, 2014; Helberger, 2016). The recent example of 
the 2016 elections in the US showed the importance of Facebook as a 
(primary) source of news and the creation of a privately-controlled 
public sphere (Helberger, 2016) where social networks act as ‘social 
editor’ (Helberger, 2016) which controls the algorithm (news feed)  that 
allows users to access and engage with content. That kind of  power of 
digital intermediaries questions media freedom, media  pluralism, and 
current media policies (Helberger, 2016).

Digital intermediaries make editorial-like and personalisation judgments 
in their algorithms and therefore can cause effects like filter bubble 
(Pariser, 2011) and echo chambers (Jamieson and  Cappella, 2008; 
Garrett, 2009). However, “their potential to make  information visible 
and accessible is why information intermediaries  can have a very 
positive effect on diversity and pluralism.”  (Helberger et al., 2014) 
Because of these processes, policy -makers  should consider taking 
measures to ensure media plurality and diversity.

Different studies (Foster, 2012; Helberger et al., 2014; Nenadic and 
Ostling, 2016; Newman et al., 2016) tried to address the issue but  none 
of them manage to answer the questions of how to measure and  benchmark 
media pluralism and diversity of digital intermediaries.  Existing tools 
and metrics for monitoring media pluralism provided by  the European 
University Institute (The Media Pluralism Monitor) and  Ofcom in the UK 
only partially address the problem. Ofcom (2015) noted  that survey data 
and the web measurements (reach, page views, and time  spent) do not 
provide “a complete and consistent picture of online  news consumption 
across both the full range of devices and the sources  used.” 
Considering the trend that is visible in the research of the  Reuters 
Institute for the Study of Journalism (Foster, 2012; Newman et  al., 
2016) and other sources (Ofcom; EUI) determining the appropriate  tools 
for measuring media pluralism and diversity is crucial.

The goal of the conference is to explore topics such as but not limited to:
•	What are the indicators/measures of media pluralism of content 
distributed & shared by digital intermediaries?
•	What (big) data sources and computational techniques can be used for 
measuring media pluralism of content distributed & shared by digital 
intermediaries?
•	How to benchmark or weight indicators of media pluralism in content 
distributed & shared by digital intermediaries?

Different theoretical and empirical scientific approaches are welcome.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Dr. mr. Natali Helberger, Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam, NL
Dr. Damian Tambini, Research Director at Department of Media and 
Communications, The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Dr. Norberto Andrade, Privacy and Public Policy at Facebook, affiliate 
scholar at the Center for Internet & Society, Stanford University, USA

Conference venue: University of Dubrovnik Main Campus http://goo.gl/vc1tLO

Papers presented at the conference (after peer review) will be published 
in Proceedings which will be submitted for indexation by  ISI, SCOPUS, 
and Google Scholar.
Official conference language is English.

TIMELINE
Deadline for submission of abstracts (300 words): July 31, 2017; 
Notification of acceptance: August 10, 2017;
Registration fee for participants whose papers are accepted – 120 Euro 
(SEE academia pay 50 Euro), all others pay 200 Euro.

Full Papers due by October 1, 2017 (4,000-6,000 words, including 300 
word abstracts and six keywords; referencing - APA)

REGISTRATION AND SUBMISSION VIA E-MAIL: dmd (at) unidu.hr

For further information about the conference in general, contact:
dr.sc. Mato Brautovic (mbraut (at) unidu.hr)


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