[Commlist] CFP: Publicity and Transparency - Special Journal Issue

*PUBLICITY AND TRANSPARENCY*

*Special Issue -- Call for Abstracts*

In the contemporary era of “disrupted” public spheres (Bennett & Pfetsch 
2018), “fractured” democracies (Entman & Usher 2018), and “networked” 
disinformation (Ong & Cabañes 2018), it is time to rethink some basic 
precepts of public communication. This special issue takes up the 
challenge posed by these critics and others to rework concepts and 
develop methods of research that can adequately account for the habits 
and systems of contemporary politics. We focus here on the nexus of 
publicity and transparency, two foundational concepts regarding the 
proper structure of democratic communication, and solicit work 
addressing how these concepts are being reshaped in our moment.

Rather than presuming a necessary symbiosis between transparency and 
publicity, we invite proposals for papers that will investigate the 
tensions between these concepts as they manifest within actually 
existing democracies and through actually existing acts of promotion. 
What happens when transparency is appropriated as a promotional tactic? 
Are there situations in which transparency and publicity are present and 
vigorous, yet together politically ineffectual? How do digital platforms 
or interfaces affect the nexus of transparency and publicity in 
productive or problematic ways? What types of transparency make 
publicity powerful, and vice versa? To address these and similar 
questions, we invite contributions to this special issue that examine 
the labor of publicity, investigating promotional intermediaries 
operating between organizations and publics. Articles may address the 
role of promotional work in government, political parties, corporations, 
NGOs, loosely-knit online networks, activist collectives, or other civil 
sphere groups, but will share an attempt to better understand 
transparency and publicity as processes, not just normative standards. 
We particularly encourage research attentive to the ways publicity and 
transparency are harassed to either challenge or ossify inequalities 
across lines of race, gender, class, nationality, or other structuring 
identities.

We ask all interested contributors to send a short abstract of their 
proposed paper (250-350 words) and a bio (~75 words) to 
*(twood12 /at/ fordham.ed)*u by *March 15, 2019*. We are currently in 
conversation with a journal about publishing this special issue, and 
abstracts will be included in a final proposal to the publisher. 
Inquiries regarding the scope, timeline, or details of the proposed 
issue can be directed to the same address.

Tim Wood, Fordham University

Melissa Aronczyk, Rutgers University

Works Cited

Bennett, L., & Pfetsch, B. (2018). Rethinking Political Communication in 
a Time of Disrupted Public Spheres. Journal of Communication 68, 2 43-253.

Entman, R., & Usher, N. (2018). Framing in a Fractured Democracy. 
Journal of Communication 68, 298-308.

Ong, J. C., & Cabañes, J. V. (2017). Architects of Networked 
Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News 
Production in the Philippines. Newton Tech4Dev Network. University of Leeds.


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