[Commlist] ICA post-conference China's media going global

Join us on 31 May 2022 in Paris (or online) for our ICA post-conference:
A Decade of China's Media Going Global: Issues and Perspectives.

Please send us your 500-word abstracts by 15 February 2022.
A selection of accepted papers will also be published in a special issue 
of the International Communication Gazette.

Full details of the conference and the call for abstracts are below, and 
also online here:
https://ica-gcsc.org/activities/chinas-media-going-global-conference/

ICA Post-Conference
A decade of China’s media going global: issues and perspectives
Date: May 31, 2022 (9:00 am to 5:00 pm)
Venue: Campus Condorcet (Place du Front populaire, 93322 Aubervilliers)
Format: Hybrid

Call for Abstracts
The year 2012 stands as a significant milestone in China’s 
government-led external communication activities. It was in early 2012 
that Beijing launched television broadcasting and production centers in 
Washington, DC, USA (CCTV America, now CGTN America) and Nairobi, Kenya 
(CGTN Africa). Later in the year, it began publishing an African weekly 
edition of the English-language newspaper China Daily -- European and 
Asian weekly editions launched in 2010. Set in motion under the 
leadership of President Hu Jintao, China’s global media expansion, part 
of a larger “going out” policy for the economy in general, sought to 
improve the country’s image overseas, and to give Beijing a larger say 
in global information flows.

Ten years on, Chinese media’s global engagement has not only grown, but 
diversified. Today, Chinese media companies are engaged in content 
production and distribution, direct investment in foreign media 
ventures, infrastructure development, training and media development 
efforts, and “managing” public opinion overseas. The growth and 
diversification of communication strategies can be partly explained by 
the fact that the global political and economic context under which Hu 
Jintao set out to improve China’s international image through external 
media expansion has changed. The rise (and fall) of Donald Trump in the 
United States, the use of social media for public diplomacy by “Wolf 
Warriors” in Xi Jinping’s China, and the debates about the coronavirus 
pandemic have encouraged a proliferation of polarised narratives. This 
is reflected in the global communicative strategies of the Chinese 
government.

Over the last decade, academics, diplomats and commentators have 
struggled to identify the most suitable constructs to understand China’s 
re-engagement with the global media system, and Beijing’s presumed aim 
of influencing global public opinion through the media. Debates around 
nomenclature have seen the rise (and, for some, fall) of concepts such 
as soft power, smart power, sharp power and discursive power. Academic 
fields as diverse as global communication, international relations, 
public diplomacy and strategic communications have all contributed to 
these debates, but more often than not, with limited dialogue between them.

After ten years of China’s “going out” strategy in the media sector, 
this post-conference asks: how should we think about and conceptualize 
China’s external communication in the 2020s? Are China’s external/global 
media still fulfilling the role envisaged for them a decade ago, and - 
if not - what are they now for? Do Chinese media present the threat to 
media freedom that many have envisioned, especially in countries where 
democratic institutions are fragile? What is the state of scholarly 
understanding of Chinese global media, and what key nerw strands of 
research and theory have emerged?

This post-conference invites submissions (500 word abstracts) that 
address any of the following topics/issues (additional areas may also be 
considered):

Reflecting on the current state and future direction of research on 
China’s external communications (e.g. What are the shortcomings of 
current studies on China’s global communications? What should a future 
research agenda for the study of China’s external communication look 
like? Are concepts such as soft, smart, sharp or discursive power useful 
constructs to understand China’s external communication?)

Contextualizing and historicizing China’s external communication (e.g. 
How have Chinese understandings of South-South communications changed 
over time? How do stakeholders in different world regions (from Africa 
to the Americas, Europe, South East Asia and beyond) conceptualize 
China’s global media efforts? How have Chinese media strategies evolved 
over the last decade in developed and developing nations?)

Comparing China’s media strategies to those of other global powers (e.g. 
Has there been an “RT-ization” of Chinese international broadcasting? 
How have long-established global media actors such as VOA and BBC 
responded, if at all, to Chinese global information flows? Are there 
differences in how China communicates with foreign audiences across 
languages?)

Reflecting on the current state and future direction of research on 
China’s external communications (e.g. What are the shortcomings of 
current studies on China’s global communications? What should a future 
research agenda for the study of China’s external communication look 
like? Are concepts such as soft, smart, sharp or discursive power useful 
constructs to understand China’s external communication?)

To submit an abstract, please fill in this form [available online - see 
link above].

Tentative Schedule
09:00 - 09:15      Welcome remarks
09:15 - 10:00       Keynote Address
10:00 - 10:15        Coffee Break 10:15 - 11:30         Panel One 11:30 
- 12:30        Lunch 12:30 - 13:45       Panels Two
13:45 - 15:00       Panel Three
15:00 - 15:15        Coffee Break 15:15 - 16:30        Panel Four 16:30 
- 17:00       Closing remarks and disccussion on publication plans

Publication Plans
A selection of papers accepted to the post-conference will be published 
in a Special Issue of the International Communication Gazette in 
February 2023. More details about the format and length will be 
published here in the coming months.

Key dates
Abstract submission: February 15, 2022

Notification of accepted abstracts: March 1, 2022

Submission of full papers for Special Issue: June 15, 2022


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