[Commlist] Call for Papers: Columbia U Workshop on Disinformation in Asian Elections

*CALL FOR PAPERS - COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY WORKSHOP*

*DISINFORMATION AND ELECTIONS IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA: **DIGITAL 
FUTURES AND FRAGILE DEMOCRACIES*

*New York City, October 3-4, 2019 *

Co-sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, the Columbia 
Journalism School, and the New York Southeast Asia Network

*CO-ORGANISERS*

Sheila Coronel, Columbia Journalism School

Duncan McCargo, Department of Political Science, Columbia University

Jonathan Corpus Ong, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Margaret Scott, New York University

*OVERVIEW*

A recent series of elections in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, 
the Philippines and indeed across Asia has highlighted the salience of 
digital media in political campaigns and insidious modes of electoral 
manipulation. This two-day workshop aims to gather evidence into the 
operations and impact of digital disinformation in the context of recent 
Asian elections. The conference approaches Asia as a site in which 
disinformation in various digital and analog forms have not only deep 
local histories but also radical acceleration and innovation the likes 
of which have little to no precedent in advanced liberal democracies in 
the West. Many Asian countries lead in both scale and intensity of 
technological adoption and use while serving as “laboratories” for 
testing and experimentation by Big Tech firms, with minimal oversight 
and accountability to the potentially grave consequences of algorithmic 
tweaks, the dispersed labor of content moderation, and new platform 
rollouts. Thus we seek to develop a framework that examines the social 
and political ramifications of this process beyond the region.

The two-day event aims for interdisciplinary and collaborative 
approaches to thinking through issues of disinformation that draw from 
areas of sociology, politics, media and communication studies, 
journalism studies, critical legal studies, information science, and 
anthropology.

The format will consist of workshop sessions open to the public 
organized around four main themes: 1) Elections and Disinformation, 2) 
Winning the Digital War: The Transformation of Political Campaigns, 3) 
Digital Populisms and Constructions of 'the Other', and 4) Confronting 
Facebook: Platform Regulation, Information Control, and Local Interventions.

In addition, the event will include an open, public evening session to 
which members of the New York and national journalism and policy 
communities will be invited.**

*CALL FOR PAPERS. We invite participants to submit a title, 300-word 
abstract and 150-word author bio that address any or several of these 
topics:*

*media manipulation and disinformation in election campaigns

*production processes and labor arrangements of networked disinformation 
campaigns

*ethnographies of citizen engagement and "voter rationalities"

*Asian populisms in online communities

*regulation of campaign finance and big tech in comparative perspective

*shadow economies of creative and digital work related to elections

*digital influencers and trolls for hire in elections

*election integrity interventions

*fact-checking in relation to elections

*Deadline for proposal submissions is April 8, 2019. *

*Some travel and hotel funding may be available for selected participants.*

The workshop will aim to produce a special journal issue on the impact 
of disinformation on democracy in East and Southeast Asia. To be 
eligible for inclusion in the planned special issue, please submit a 
full paper of 6000 words by September 8, 2019.

Please send your queries, abstracts, and papers to: 
*(disinfo.columbia /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(disinfo.columbia /at/ gmail.com)>*


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------