[Commlist] CfP: Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS) - "Historizing international organizations and their communication – Institutions, practices, changes"

Thematic Section on “Historizing international organizations and their 
communication – Institutions, practices, changes”

Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS)

Deadline: January 30, 2022

Edited by Erik Koenen (University of Bremen), Arne L. Gellrich 
(University of Bremen), Christian Schwarzenegger (University of 
Augsburg), Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz (University of Bremen) and Astrid 
Blome (Institute for Newspaper Research Dortmund)

We are seeking contributions for a thematic section of Studies in 
Communication Sciences (SComS)exploring international organizations and 
their communication from a historical perspective. SComS is a 
peer-reviewed journal of communication and media research with platinum 
open-access (no article processing charges).

The Thematic Section will focus on a topic that has thus far received 
little attention from communication and media researchers: the history 
of international organizations and their communication. Since the second 
half of the 19th century, for numerous and diverse areas of social life, 
globally active international organizations of varying degrees of 
institutionalization and scope, both non-governmental and 
intergovernmental, have been founded and have dedicated themselves to 
the global challenges of the first modern age. The most famous of these 
is certainly the League of Nations (LON), which was established in 1919 
as the predecessor institution of the United Nations.

 From a media-historical perspective, international organizations 
played a highly visible role in the transnational intertwining and 
consolidation processes of journalism, culture, media, politics, 
technology, and the public sphere in the 19th and 20th centuries. 
Against the background of the much-discussed boundaries between secret 
diplomacy and public diplomacy, especially after the First World War, 
such organizations contributed to the development of the first arenas 
and forms of international and transnational public spheres whose 
orientation was toward global governance. To spread their concerns and 
goals globally, they: constantly used the latest communication 
technologies and the growing diversity of the media for their 
communication; organized and professionalized their information work; 
and developed specific information-policy instruments and strategies for 
that purpose. Woodrow Wilson’s idea of “open diplomacy” (in fact, the 
early forerunner of today’s public diplomacy), for example, was the idea 
on which the LON based its information policy.

Effects of the differentiation and organization of international 
organizations’ communication, such as the emergence of institutionalized 
public relations in these specific contexts, the development of 
international summit and conference journalism, the creation of 
publicity for international politics and, in parallel, the genesis of 
structures of inter- and transnational public spheres conveyed by the 
media, are issues and topics within this field of research, which from 
the perspective of media history has been by and large neglected.

To illuminate and discuss issues, research perspectives and the thematic 
spectrum of the history of international organizations and their 
communication, the guest editors request submissions which, using 
concrete international organizations as examples, address one or more of 
the problem areas and thematic focuses outlined below:

1. Communication and communication management of international organizations

How did non-governmental and intergovernmental international 
organizations design their communication to reach and inform the media 
and the public? Which actors and groups of actors did they address and 
how? What were the expectations regarding media and public attention? 
What ideas existed about the relationship between media and politics? 
What forms, infrastructures, instruments, concepts, and strategies were 
developed to generate public and media visibility of international 
organizations? How and by whom was information and public relations work 
institutionalized and standardized? How were relations with individual 
media and their representatives organized and professionalized?

2. International organizations, media, and journalism

What influence have international organizations had on trends in 
globalization and in the inter- and transnationalization of journalism 
and media communication? How did new forms of foreign journalism such as 
summit and international conference journalism develop? What position 
did journalistic and media practices occupy within the context of 
international organizations? Which international media policy agenda 
developed in the interaction between international organizations and 
media institutions, for example, with respect to: ensuring the free 
movement of global news; tendentious reporting and dissemination of 
false reports; unimpeded activity of correspondents; and international 
standards of press freedom and copyright? Which international 
organizations were established, especially in the media context?

3. International organizations in the public sphere

What notions of a global or inter- and transnational public sphere were 
generated in the context of international organizations? How were 
conferences involving international organizations publicly staged? What 
public image did international organizations have? On which topics and 
with which objectives did international organizations try to address and 
reach the public (e.g., disarmament, gender justice, health, nature, and 
environmental protection)? How were international organizations 
perceived beyond the mass media (e.g., in film, photography, caricature, 
art, literature, and posters)?

Submission guidelines
The journal welcomes submissions in English, German, French, or Italian, 
but the abstracts must be in English. All submissions should be uploaded 
on the SComS platform: https://www.hope.uzh.ch/scoms/about/submissions 
<https://www.hope.uzh.ch/scoms/about/submissions>.

Paper submissions will be due 30 January 2022. Final acceptance depends 
on a double-blind peer review process. The expected publishing date of 
this special issue is May 2023.However, early submissions that 
successfully pass the review process will also be immediately published 
online first. Contributions that receive positive reviews but are not 
accepted for the Thematic Section may be considered for publication in a 
subsequent SComS issue within the General Section.

For any further information please contact Erik Koenen 
((ekoenen /at/ uni-bremen.de) <mailto:(ekoenen /at/ uni-bremen.de)>).

Timeline:

  * Submission of full papers closes on January 30, 2022.
  * The first review will be provided no later than April 15, 2022.
  * The revised manuscript should be submitted by June 30, 2022.
  * The second review and notification of acceptance will be provided no
    later than September 15, 2022.
  * Final papers should be submitted by November 30, 2022.
  * Online first publication of accepted manuscripts up until February 
2023.
  * Publication of the Thematic Section is scheduled for May 2023.

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