[ecrea] CFP 7th international conference Comparative media studies in today’s world

7^th Annual Conference

*COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES IN TODAY’S WORLD*

*(CMSTW’2019)*

**

*CALL FOR PAPERS*

**

Time:*April 16–18, 2019*

Place:*St.Petersburg, Russia*

Working language:*English *

**

Theme for 2019:

*Communities, Audiences, Publics*

**

In the recent decades, proliferation of communicative channels, 
including digital ones, has led to fragmentation of mass communication 
and its overarching audiences. Digitalization, on one hand, has brought 
on stage new audience constellations aligned along new societal 
cleavages – the process that is often framed negatively in academic 
literature, as it potentially contributes to social disintegration in 
the absence of common information denominators. On the other hand, the 
boom on the market provides numerous opportunities to rethink relations 
between media and their audiences, focusing on constructing consumer, 
political, and/or cultural communities around media product on all 
levels, from hyperlocal to transnational.

In rethinking social groups as audiences and/or publics, one can go even 
further. When people are exposed to trans-border and multi-channel 
information flows, it is a person, not a group, who increasingly becomes 
the ultimate informational crossroads, forming a highly personal and 
hardly repeatable media diet. How do media survive upon highly 
individualized media consumption repertoires? Is there a balance between 
targeting masses and user-centricity? How do we turn a communicatively 
diverse community into a commercially viable and socially understandable 
media audience, as well as into a politically efficient public? Do media 
channels continue to form communities, increasingly shaping lifestyles, 
or do they fail?

Also, the economic recession, the growing complexity of societal 
choices, and post-ideological convergence of political markets have 
recently led to the rise of pseudo-ideological populism in established 
democracies, as well as to attempts of authoritarian regimes to co-opt 
Internet communication techniques for their benefit. On what 
communicative grounds do political publics form today? Do we face the 
birth of new types of public spheres? How do professional, cultural, and 
values-based communities find ways to communicate their political 
messages? And how does platform dependence reshape political and social 
communication?

And if we, indeed, face the fundamentally new, fragmented, redefined 
communicative groupings, how do we describe them? Can we actually 
measure ‘a public’ similar to the way we measure audiences – and how do 
we measure the latter, too? Do social media represent publics, and with 
what limitations? Is community equal to a platform? And can we draw 
parallels with the recent and no-so-recent past of the media systems 
when calling a constellation of people a community, an audience, a public?

The conference seeks contributions that deal with describing, measuring, 
and assessing the deliberative quality and consumer behavior of 
communicative communities, audiences, and publics, both today and in the 
past. The aim of this conference is to bring together sociological, 
economic, psychological, communicative, and technological perspectives 
in rethinking the relations between social groups, media markets, and 
communicative technologies. We especially welcome contributions of 
comparative nature, while single-case studies are also welcome if they 
state how the method may be expanded to involve comparisons.

*CONFERENCE TRACKS*

In 2019, the conference will have four tracks that feature various 
aspects of the questions posed above. The submissions might orient to 
but are not limited to the following sub-topics:

*THEORY track *

Chairs: Silvio Waisbord, George Washington University, USA

Florian Toepfl, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

·(Re)defining communities, audiences, publics: academic vs. industrial 
definitions of communicative groupings

·Today’s grounds of formation of audiences and publics: towards 
multi-dimensional assessment of group communication

·Group communication and its role in social change: national to regional 
to global

·New types of democratic and authoritarian publics and their social and 
political roles

·Public sphere(s): old, new, (non)existent

·Communicative affordances and their roles in community building

·Media effects in fragmented communication

*POLITICAL AND SOCIAL track*

Chairs: Svetlana Bodrunova, St.Petersburg State University, Russia

Anna Litvinenko, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany – St.Petersburg State 
University, Russia

·New socio-economic order and communication in the post-recession world

·Personal vs. group communication: the borders of the social in public 
discussions

·Social gaps and political publics

·Communicating ideology in today’s world

·The state and co-optation of platforms: free speech, communicative 
authoritarianism, and computational propaganda

·Communities communicating: practices in comparative perspective

·Minority, ethnicity, and migration as communicative triggers

*MEDIA INDUSTRY AND JOURNALISM track*

Chair: Federico Subervi, University of Leeds, UK

·Communication as belonging: media consumption as community 
builder/destroyer

·Business models for newspapers and beyond: is there an audience?

·Group interests and media content: new rituals of audience involvement

·Online journalism and the blurred borders of media consumption

·Personalized or mass journalism? Decisions for today’s fragmentation of 
media use

·Community media and their resources for survival

·Measuring audiences: media metric industries of today

·The visual: representing communities and creating audience involvement

*TECH AND METHODS track*

Chairs: Olessia Koltsova, National Research University – Higher School 
of Economics, Russia

·Platform affordances and community formation

·Media and their audiences on social networks

·Communities and computationals: bots, trolls, and their real impact tested

·Detection of communities and publics: automated and semi-automated methods

·Measuring publics: conceptualization and instruments

·Approaches to comparisons in online community detection

When submitting to the conference, *please start your title with naming 
the track*, e.g. ‘THEORY A new definition of community building on Twitter’.

*ABOUT THE CONFERENCE*

**

Since 2013, the conference has gathered experts in a wide range of 
topics within comparative media research, from media systems studies and 
transformations in communication to the rise of platform-based 
communication to emotions and rationality in mediated discussions.

In 2019, the 7^th conference will include a plenary podium discussion, 
four keynote speeches, special ‘guest country’ events, panels for 
presenting papers, book presentations, and a range of workshops (subject 
to submissions).

The conference is an integral part of the 58^th Russian-speaking ‘Media 
in Modern World’ Annual Forum. Thus, interested audience is ensured, and 
you may wish to take part in the Plenary Session (with simultaneous 
translation into English), as well as other sessions and panels at the 
Annual Forum on April 18-19.

The cultural program of the conference will include excursions to the 
State Hermitage and the Russian Museum that holds one of the best 
collections of Russian fine art in the world.

**

**

**

*INVITED GUESTS*

*Tentative keynote speakers*

**

*Jean Burgess *(Queensland University of Technology, Australia)**

*Barbara Pfetsch *(Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)

*Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska *(University of Wroclaw, Poland)

*Florian Töpfl*(Freie *Universität Berlin**,*Germany)

*Guest country of the conference*

**

This year, Poland will be the guest country of the conference. In the 
recent years, Poland has experienced both political polarization and 
development of new forms of digital activism. The delegation will be 
chaired by Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska (University of Wroclaw) and Teresa 
Sasinska-Klas (University of Krakow).

**

*FORMS OF PARTICIPATION*

**

*Individual submissions*

**

*Full papers: *9 to 15 pages, Springer formatted, anonymized**

*Short papers: *5 to 8 pages, Springer formatted, anonymized**

*Extended abstracts: *300 words, free form (pdf), anonymized

All submissions must be uploaded via the conference EasyChair account 
(will be available starting from November 15, 2018; please see the 
address on the conference website). Full and short papers will be 
considered for publication in the conference proceedings.

*Group submissions*

*Panel submissions:*a 300-word panel rationale plus 3 to 5 abstracts of 
max 200 words, free form (pdf), anonymized. Full and short papers may be 
submitted as parts of the panels to be included in the proceedings, but 
panels may also be accepted without full paper submission.

*Workshops: *2 to 4 pages, Springer formatted, de-anonymized

All submissions must be uploaded via the conference EasyChair account 
(will be available starting from November 15, 2018; please see the 
address on the conference website).

**

*Workshops*

**

Workshops are a special group form of participation in the conference. 
They are dedicated to detailed in-group discussion of a collection of 
papers (up to ten). Workshop proposals are submitted by the general 
conference deadline; workshop papers are submitted by a later deadline, 
but are subject to blind peer-review just as the conference submissions. 
Accepted papers will be published in the second volume of proceedings 
after the conference. The initial payment for the workshop includes all 
the papers by workshop organizers; also, external individual submissions 
may be included in a workshop. Workshop chairs organize the reviewing 
process together with the conference organizers.

*PUBLISHING OPPORTUNITIES AND AWARDS*

**

*Springer International Publishing*

**

The conference has applied to Springer International Publishing to 
publish its proceedings in one of its series (SCOPUS). We ask all the 
authors of full, short papers, and workshop proposals, to use the 
Springer templates. The templates and the guidelines for authors: 
www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines?countryChanged=true&countryChanged=true 
<https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines?countryChanged=true&countryChanged=true>

*Special issue at /Social Media + Society/*

**

The conference will feature its best papers at /Social Media + Society, 
/a leading journal in the field (SCOPUS Q1). The journal focuses on 
research upon social media and their roles in social and political life. 
While submitting via EasyChair, please tick the box ‘I want my paper to 
be considered for the special issue’ if you wish so. Note that the issue 
is regarded ‘invited content’, which makes this open access publication 
free of charge.

*/Digital Journalism/**publishing opportunity*

The conference steering committee will identify (based on the reviews) 
the best conference paper on issues that relate to digital media and 
online journalism. This paper will be suggested for publication in 
/Digital Journalism /(SCOPUS Q1), another distinguished journal in 
communication studies. Prof. Svetlana Bodrunova, the CMSTW program chair 
and /Digital Journalism/ board member, will advise on how to make the 
paper fit the standards of the journal before submitting it to the 
journal peer review.

*Katrin Voltmer’s prize for the best PhD student paper*

In 2018, Katrin Voltmer established a prize for the best PhD student’s 
paper of the conference; this prize is equal to 10,000 RUR. The prize 
will be handed in at the closing ceremony.

**

*DEADLINES AND OTHER DATES*

**

*Individual submissions*

**

*January 14, 2019 **– main submission deadline (papers and extended 
abstracts, including papers that belong to panels)*

*February 5, 2019 – notifications of acceptance*

*February 15, 2019 **– camera-ready papers deadline*

February 10, 2019 – deadline to confirm participation

*March 1, 2018 – early-bird registration deadline *

April 1, 2018 – regular registration deadline

*Group submissions*

*January 14, 2019 **– main submission deadline (panel and workshop 
proposals)*

January 20, 2019 – notification of acceptance and announcement of 
workshops on the website

*February 5, 2019 – deadline for individual workshop submissions to 
EasyChair*

February 20, 2019 – notification of acceptance for workshop papers

*March 1, 2019 – registration deadline for group submissions*

*March 15, 2018 – early-bird registration deadline for individual 
workshop submissions*

April 1, 2018 – regular registration deadline

Please note that _there will be no on-site registration payment procedures_;

please ensure your participation by paying the participation fee before 
April 1, 2018.

*Visa support*

**

St.Petersburg University provides visa support for the conference 
participants. Visa invitation letters will be sent out on request. 
Please note that for the USA and UK citizens, preparation of an official 
invitation may take up to 5 weeks, while for the EU citizens it takes 1 
to 2 weeks.

*PARTICIPATION FEES*

**

Presenters:

UN Tier 1 country: 150 euro (early-bird: 120 euro)

UN Tier 2 country: 120 euro (early-bird: 100 euro)

UN Tier 3 country: 80 euro (early-bird: 60 euro)

Student/PhD student presenter – 50 euro

Individual workshop submission: 100 euro (early-bird: 80 euro)

The lists of countries by tier may be found here: 
https://www.icahdq.org/page/tiers

Panel (up to 5 papers): 250 euro (early-bird: 200 euro), individual 
submissions included in payment

Workshop (up to 10 participants): 250 euro for the initial group submission

Non-presenting participant – 30 euro

Please note that the price for the entrance tickets to the State 
Hermitage is to be paid extra at the museum and is currently 10 euro, or 
700 roubles.

*ORGANIZERS AND CONTACTS*

*Program steering committee*

Nico Carpentier (Belgium – Sweden)

Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska (Poland)

Kaarle Nordenstreng (Finland)

Florian Toepfl (Germany)

Katrin Voltmer (UK)

*Local organizing committee*

Svetlana Bodrunova – program chair

Anna Smoliarova

Alexander Marchenko

**

*Conference venue, website, and email*

**

The conference venue is *School of Journalism and Mass Communications, *

*St. Petersburg University, *

26, 1st line of Vasilievsky Island, St. Petersburg 199004 Russia

The conference website will be cmstw2019.org <http://cmstw2019.org> 
(opens November 15, 2018). Those interested in learning of previous 
conferences and general information may wish to visit cmstw2018.org 
<http://cmstw2018.org>.

In case of any queries, please send us your questions to 
(_cmstw2019 /at/ spbu.ru) <mailto:(cmstw2019 /at/ spbu.ru)>_.

We’re looking forward to welcoming you in St.Petersburg!**

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