[Commlist] Call for Papers | "Scandals in New Media Environments"

*Call for Papers | "Scandals in New Media Environments"*
**
*This call invites submissions for the 3**rd **International Conference 
in Scandalogy at the University of Bamberg from April 2**nd**to April 
4**th**2020.*
**
The conference will focus on “Scandals in New Media Environments”. The 
overarching theme serves a two-fold goal: On the one hand, we want to 
intensify research on mediated scandals(cf. Entman 2012; Burkhardt 2018) 
and substantiate our understanding of such forms of scandals and their 
impact on societies. On the other hand, we hope to connect the study of 
scandals with a larger scientific community in the broad field of 
digital communication research, be it in organizational communication, 
journalism studies, political communication research or other fields.

Even to the casual observer of media and society the conference theme 
appears timely because currently we seem to be living through an age of 
perpetual scandalization. Arguably, digital technologies are a catalyst 
in this respect. On an everyday basis, we can observe how social media 
offers new means to vent emotional attacks, spark outrage, or voice 
public discontent. Not only politicians, celebrities, and other 
individuals in the media spotlight are subject to such firestorms. 
Increasingly, ordinary citizens experience intensifying levels of 
digital slander and character attacks online as well. In many cases, the 
cause are simply gaffes or a careless public remark.

The increasingly low threshold by which such incidents become the 
subject of scandalous media coverage has been a matter of critique. It 
may be a significant feature of an overall trend in the tabloidization 
of culture and the rise of infotainment. Some authors even speak of 
“unleashed scandals” (Pörksen & Detel 2012) in such “hybrid media 
systems” (Chadwick 2013).

Such scandals typically have a rather short communicative half-life 
period, but may have gained a new quality through the rise of social 
media and digital technologies. In this respect, participatory digital 
publics can create a ‘spill-over’-effect so that the consequences of a 
public gaffe may incite a more substantiated discourse in the political 
system and in conventional journalistic mass media. On the other hand, 
the scandalizing potential of new media requires modified strategies of 
reputation management by politicians, celebrities, institutions and 
corporations.

Against this backdrop, we should inquire if we are witnessing a 
transformation of mediated scandals through digital communication 
practices. If so, what will be the consequences for dealing with future 
scandals and cultural affairs?

Yet, new media also offers a different perspective on journalism and 
scandals as technological infrastructure and digital tools give 
journalists new means to investigate hard scandals like substantial 
financial or political wrongdoings. One example is the work of the 
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the 
publication of the Panama Papers or the Paradise Papers respectively.

Such reporting can rely on data-driven analyses and may incite political 
change, if further actors like online news sites, whistleblower 
platforms or ordinary users comment such cases and share information. 
However, rather often these exposés do not substantiate a due process of 
scandalization and fail to bring reform. If so, we should ask why 
traditional reporting on scandals, despite new means of collaboration 
and research, may have lost its effectiveness.

To tackle these issues we believe that our conference theme should bring 
the practitioners’ perspective into the academic field as well: Often, 
journalists are limited to describing scandal cases and criticizing 
scandalized actors, instead of reflecting a potential lack of (or too 
much) response by the public. Possibly, academic research and journalism 
could alleviate this deficit, if both fields would be more sensitive to 
technological and social characteristics of new media in the process of 
scandalization. We assume that professional communicators could provide 
an important perspective to this as well. For example marketing- and 
campaign-experts who evoke scandals with strategic goals in mind, or 
media spokespersons who have to deal with online scandalization and 
mitigate its consequences. Therefore, we also invite contributions that 
are not limited to the academic field but deal with practical aspects of 
scandals and digital media.

/Therefore, possible submissions for this conference may focus on:/
·       scandals in Social Network Sites and their ‘spill-over’-effects, 
i. e. amplifications/ catalysts between online and offline media
·        users as opinion-leaders and scandalizers
·        tabloidization and scandals in online media
·        investigative journalism, whistleblowing and the datafication 
of scandals
·        pitfalls of crisis communication in digital environments and 
online firestorms
·        the power of algorithms (e. g. filter bubbles) in the reception 
of scandal cases

However, to understand scandals in new media environments, we also 
suggest broadening the scope of our scientific analysis. Arguably, 
scandals occur in every culture and at all times in human history, 
thereby constituting a part of our species’ social evolution. We would 
like to encourage submissions that cover the historical perspective as 
well. This can help us to understand how new media of the past (ancient 
theatre, early modern pamphlets, bourgoise mass media, cinema, 
television, etc.) allowed groups to effectively mediate social events 
which involved the breaching of certain moral or legal codes and helped 
to determine how to elicit a public response.

/Additional topics may include:/
·        theoretical implications of scandals and the emergence of new 
media technologies
·        historical case studies analyzing the relationship between 
scandalization and new communication channels and forums

*Information about paper submissions*
**
Abstracts should not exceed 300 words. Please include an additional 
short biographical note of no more than 150 words.

As the selection of abstracts will be peer-reviewed anonymously, we ask 
contributors to include a separate title page containing title, 
author/s, affiliation/s, and the address, phone, fax, and e-mail of the 
first author.

Peer reviewers will evaluate all submissions based on relevance and 
originality, clarity of research purpose, grounding of theoretical and 
methodological approach, focus, and organization.

We plan a publication of selected articles in a collected volume (most 
likely with the Herbert von Halem Verlag 
<https://www.halem-verlag.de/scandalogy-2/>)

Please email abstracts to (scandalogy.kowi /at/ uni-bamberg.de) 
<mailto:(scandalogy.kowi /at/ uni-bamberg.de)>by *September 30**th**2019*.

You will receive a notification by November 8th 2019.

*Keynote*

Confirmed keynote speaker is Jan Fleischhauer. It is a pleasure and an 
honor to welcome Jan Fleischhauer, one of the leading German columnists 
(FOCUS, DER SPIEGEL) and a regular guest in national talk shows. 
Fleischhauer is an engaged and stridently argumentative publicist. He 
will give personal insights how journalists can endure heated public 
debates, character attacks and scandals in digital media environments.

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