[ecrea] CFP: ICA Africa regional conference: 'African Digital Cultures: Emerging Research, Practices and Innovations'

http://sics.ug.edu.gh/icaafrica-ghana/conference-call

Call for Papers
                                                           ICAfrica 2nd 
Biennial, 2018
The Africa Regional Conference of the International Communication 
Association (ICA)

Theme: African Digital Cultures: Emerging Research, Practices and 
Innovations
Date:  7-9 November, 2018
Organisers: School of Information and Communication Studies, University 
of Ghana, Legon

Digital technology has become an inherent part of contemporary African 
life. Fueled by increasing internet penetration, changes have occurred 
to accommodate a more digital-driven lifestyle across various sectors of 
African societies. Compared with other parts of the world, Internet use 
in Africa is still relatively low, but digital technology is rapidly 
changing how people on the continent communicate with one another, 
produce and consume goods and services, enact citizenship, and construct 
narratives about themselves. New configurations in the communication, 
information and media landscape resulting from digitalization provoke 
new questions and challenge old assumptions about mediation practices 
for scholars. Traditional media such as radio, for example, may be still 
dominant in the information and communication ecology of Africa, but 
their practices are constantly being impacted and transformed by 
emerging digital cultures, especially amongst the youth.

The dynamic nature of technology-driven transformations in mediated 
communication in Africa calls for deeper insights into the cultures 
forming around the appropriation of digital technologies. In a world in 
which the face of communication is constantly evolving, we believe 
Africa can provide fresh thinking on how people adopt, appropriate and 
deploy digital technologies in various communicative contexts and the 
impact(s) that has on their lives.
The School of Information and Communication Studies (SICS) of the 
University of Ghana, in collaboration with the International 
Communication Association (ICA) is hosting the 2018 Regional ICA 
conference on the theme African Digital Cultures: Emerging research, 
practices and innovations. The conference seeks to bring together 
scholars from within and outside the continent to share their research 
and perspectives on the cultures forming around conceptualizations, 
production and consumption of the digital space in Africa. We invite 
abstracts of empirical and conceptual papers that address the following 
and other relevant themes for presentation at the conference:

. Transformation of knowledge in a digital era
. Epistemologies, disciplinary developments and pedagogies in digital 
communication
. Theorizations of the digital
. Gendered cultures and digitization
. Youth cultures and digitization
. Rural digital cultures
. Digitization and marginalization
. Digitization, regulation and governance
. Digital colonization
. Ethical concerns related to digitization
. Newsroom norms and practices in a digital era
. Corporate communications and digitization
. Communication, entrepreneurship and digitization
. Digitization and interpersonal communication
. Audiences and digital culture
. Privacy, publicity, surveillance
. News and disinformation
. New mediation practices in a digital era
. Digitalization and visualization

Special Panel:  We also invite abstracts for a Special Panel on 
Revisiting the Foundations of African Communication Scholarship in 
honour of pioneering African communication scholars.

Submission for Conference:  Please submit abstracts of a maximum 300 
words by June 30, 2018 to the following email: (eracheampong /at/ ug.edu.gh) or 
(najamartey-commey /at/ ug.edu.gh). Abstract acceptance notifications would be 
issued by July 25, 2018 and full papers will be expected to be submitted 
by October 15, 2018. Abstracts should include name, institutional 
affiliation and contact details of author(s) and paper title.

Policy Lab:  The Conference will create space for a Policy Lab on 
Digital Empowerment (Access, Literacy, Safety, etc.). The main objective 
of the policy lab is to improve the synergies amongst researchers, media 
and communication practitioners, and policy actors. It aims at 
encouraging research agendas of direct interest to policy constituencies 
on issues related to the topic of the policy lab and to stimulate demand 
for research findings amongst potential users in policy and practice. 
Participation will be open to only a limited number of participants.

Submission for Policy Lab: Please submit a short synopsis of research 
relevant to the theme you are currently developing and which could 
benefit from feedback from policy makers by June 30, 2018 to the 
following email: (eracheampong /at/ ug.edu.gh) or (najamartey-commey /at/ ug.edu.gh). 
Acceptance notifications would be issued by July 25, 2018.

Graduate Student Mentoring Session: There will also be a graduate 
student mentoring session. We invite graduate students to send in 
abstracts of their research for consideration by June 30, 2018 to the 
following email: (eracheampong /at/ ug.edu.gh) or (najamartey-commey /at/ ug.edu.gh).

Acceptance notifications would be issued by July 25, 2018. A limited 
number of partial/full sponsorship may be available for covering flights 
and hotel accommodation.

Key dates
. Abstract submission deadline: June 30, 2018
. Acceptance notification and invitations: July 25, 2018
. Full paper submissions: October 15, 2018
. Conference dates: November 7-9, 2018
NB: Please include the session you are submitting your abstract to in 
the subject line of your submission email.

Venue: University of Ghana, Legon, Accra-Ghana
Kindly visit the link below for further information: 
http://sics.ug.edu.gh/icaafrica-ghana

Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo
Dean, School of Information and Communication Studies
University of Ghana


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