[ecrea] IJOC Special Issue CFP on North Korea, Media and Communication

*_CFP: International Journal of Communication Special Issue: North 
Korea, Media and Communication_*

**

*Talking With the 'Hermit Regime': North Korea, Media, and Communication*

*Guest Editors:*

Seungahn Nah (University of Oregon)

Soomin Seo (Temple University)

*
**Description:**
*

North Korea remains an under-explored region in communication research. 
Even among the more authoritarian and dictatorial regimes of the world, 
the country stands out with its government’s tight grip on the movement 
and communication of its citizens (who lack Internet access) and 
outsiders alike. This — coupled with the physical isolation of the 
Pyongyang regime in the global arena — has made it difficult for 
scholars to produce meaningful research about North Korea. With the 
exception of a small body of scholarship on foreign media coverage and 
Pyongyang’s state propaganda, scholarly work on communications and media 
about, within and around North Korea is virtually nonexistent.

In recent years, however, the country has slowly moved to end its 
decades-long isolation. North Korea has invited more foreign 
visitors, including Western journalists at the AP and AFP who have been 
allowed to set up permanent bureaus in the capital. The North Korean 
government has lifted cellular phone restrictions for the general 
public, resulting in over 70% of Pyongyang citizens having access. In 
2018, the young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has engaged 
in fast-paced diplomacy, meeting with the US President Donald Trump and 
the South Korean President Moon Jae-in, as well as the Chinese President 
Xi Jinping. Such exchanges are hoped to result in increased 
communication between the “Hermit Regime” and the outside world. Given 
the historic and geopolitical significance of such developments, North 
Korea is emerging as an important site of scholarly inquiry.

The goal of this proposed special issue on /International Journal of 
Communication/ is to call for theoretically and methodologically sound 
scholarship that register this shift in North Korea and examine causes, 
components, and civic consequences of a uniquely oppressed and 
isolated — but rapidly-changing — country. Such an examination presents 
important practical implications and policy applications.

This special issue addresses the following major questions:

1.How can we conceptualize and theorize changes in the media in and 
about North Korea in recent years?

2.What are the roles of communication/rhetoric — any specific factors 
related to media (new or traditional), messages (symbolism, keywords, or 
tropes), context/situation, — or speakers or audiences in a 
changing North Korea?

3.What are the emerging norms, practices and routines with regards to 
the production and consumption of new and traditional, as well as formal 
and informal/underground media?

4.How are the changes in media and journalism impacting diverse 
communities —  regional, class, gender etc. — within North Korea as well 
as with neighboring countries, including China, South Korea, Russia, and 
Japan?

The special issue editors would welcome submissions addressing the 
following topics:

1.Studies on post-2000 developments regarding media and communication 
in North Korea, both internally as well as externally, including 
diplomatic developments;

2.Theoretical and conceptual work on doing communication research in and 
about North Korea, qualitative as well as quantitative;

3.Comparative work on media and politics in North Korea and the 
Socialist Bloc, including China, former Soviet Union, and East Germany

We particularly encourage media and communication-related research from 
diverse scholarly traditions including (but not limited to) political 
science, journalism studies, sociology, history, Asian studies, 
psychology, science and technology studies, public relations, 
advertising and gender studies.

*Submission Guidelines:*

Please submit an extended abstract of 1,000 words with 5-6 keywords. 
Abstracts must be in MS Word (.doc) format with a title page that 
includes the title of the paper, full names, affiliations, email 
addresses, telephone numbers, complete addresses, and biographical 
sketches of all authors.

Manuscripts must contain original material which has not been previously 
published elsewhere or is not currently under consideration by another 
journal.

All manuscripts will go through a blind, peer-reviewed process so no 
indicators of authorship should appear in the texts.

Please refer to the full submission guidelines available at: 
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Manuscripts should be submitted directly via email to 
(nkcommresearch /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(nkcommresearch /at/ gmail.com)>.

*Timeline *

•Submission deadline for abstracts: September 30, 2018

•Editorial decision: October 30, 2018

•Full manuscript deadline: February 28, 2019

•Final revision deadline: April 30, 2019

•Anticipated publication date: July/August 2019

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