[Commlist] Call for abstracts, ECREA Pre-conference TEMTC

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

The Trajectory of Emerging Media & Technology Companies:
Transnational Businesses, Transcultural Communications

ECREA Pre-conference:
Communication History section & International and Intercultural 
communication section

Date: 19 October 2022
Venue: TBA, Aarhus University & Beijing Foreign Studies University
Format: Hybrid
Language: English

The growth and influence of emerging transnational media and technology 
corporations are transforming global communication. Various 
international scholars have developed different analytical instruments 
in order to account for the rise of these companies, focusing especially 
on the powerful home governments of these firms, the 
country-specific-advantages, media system models, and the transcultural 
implication for such business expansion and content distribution (e.g. 
Thussu, 2000; Halin & Mancini, 2012; Nordenstreng & Thussu, 2015; 
Panibratov, 2015; Teer-Tomaselli et al., 2019; Tang, 2020; Thussu & 
Nordenstreng, 2020).

In global media history, the term of “emerging” embodies both relativist 
and transformative implications as the opposition to the dominant 
powers. From early Japanese companies’ digital disruption in the United 
States on manufacturing specialized devices (like digital cameras) to 
Chinese and South Korean telecommunication companies’ competence in 
mobile devices and network services worldwide; from the Bollywood and 
Brazilian media conglomerates’ competition with predominant media 
counterparts in the region to the Korean Wave impact in global 
entertainment consumption; from Russian and Chinese internet companies’ 
alternative growth in the domestic and regional markets to the South 
African Naspers Group becoming the parent company of Europe’s largest 
consumer internet firm, the fast development, business relocation and 
strategic capital move of emergingtransnational companies is 
changing—visibly and invisibly—the landscape and infrastructure base of 
global media and communication industry.

On the one hand, such changes nourished business and cultural diversity 
and further transcend national and cultural boundaries. On the other 
hand, it also raised critical questions towards intercultural conflicts 
and the fragility and resilience of the global cultural ecosystem. The 
technology competition between the United States and China, for example, 
signals the “securitization” trend of policymaking in the communication 
industry and rising concerns over risks in data protection, information 
security and democracy. It also illustrates fundamental constraints of 
emerging companies to challenge US hegemony in the field of media and 
communication and extends discussions about cultural imperialism 
following the technology and culture decoupling in related societies. A 
new dimension of transcultural communication is in great need to 
understand the characteristics and ambitions of transnational media and 
technology corporations: their rising influence on the global 
(commercial) media system, their future move in the global race to 
dominate information technology, their impact on international and 
intercultural communication and relations, and their promises for the 
responsibilities to the nature, community, and world society for the 
next generations.

This conference welcomes research papers that try to understand the rise 
of emerging media-technology power from interdisciplinary perspectives, 
with a special focus on the trans-nationalization process of these media 
and technology firms and the transcultural communication challenges they 
have been facing in their business development, expansion, 
concentration, implementation, legitimization, and related 
(organizational, institutional, and societal) discourses. Topics include 
but are not limited to:


·       The politics, economy and culture of emerging media and tech 
companies.

·       The transnational growth & influence of emerging media and tech 
companies in the regional markets, mature markets, and third-party markets.

·       Transcultural implications of the rise of emerging media and 
tech companies (e.g., their impact on transcultural protest movements, 
or on everyday communication)

·       The relevance, roles, and implications of alternative movements 
and/or counter-movements in media and tech industries.

·       Transcultural communication formats and content by emerging 
media and tech companies.

·       Global public discourse around emerging media and tech 
companies, and their business strategies applied for brand building or 
rebuilding.

·       The technology and culture decoupling amid the US-China power 
competition, and its impact on (lessons to) transnational corporations 
in other countries.

·       Theoretical reflections on the changing paradigm of cultural 
imperialism, transcultural communication, technology diffusion and soft 
power in the case of media and tech companies (e.g., their role in 
cultural homogenization, uni-channelization, and monopolization processes).


A selection of papers accepted to the pre-conference will be published 
in a Special Issue of Journal of Transcultural Communication (De 
Gruyter) in Spring 2023.

Keynote roundtable discussion (confirmed speakers):


Daya Thussu, Hong Kong Baptist University

Dwayne Winseck, Carleton University

Stephen Croucher, Massey University

Delia Dumitrica, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Fei JIANG, Beijing Foreign Studies University

Gabriele Balbi, Università della Svizzera italiana



Abstract submission: 15 May 2022 (300-500 words for individual abstract; 
1,200 words for panel proposal): 
https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=ecreaprecon2022temtc
Notification of accepted abstracts: 1 June 2022
Submission of extended abstracts for Special Issue: 30 September 2022
Conference contact: (zhan.zhang /at/ usi.ch)

For more details of the preconference and journal publication 
call-for-paper, please visit:
http://www.chinamediaobs.org/ecrea-pre-conferencethe-trajectory-emerging-media-technology-companies-transnational-businesses
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jtc/html

Organizer Committee:
Gabriele Balbi, Università della Svizzera italiana
Zhan Zhang, Università della Svizzera italiana
Romy Woehlert, Kindervereinigung Leipzig e.V.
Fei Jiang, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Deqiang Ji, Communication University of China



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