[Commlist] CFP: Global Media and China_Special Issue: Platforms for Social Good

*Global Media and China CFP *
(Follow us at: https://twitter.com/GCHjournal 
<https://twitter.com/GCHjournal>; 
https://www.facebook.com/Global-Media-and-China-110136464998539/ 
<https://www.facebook.com/Global-Media-and-China-110136464998539/>)

**** NO PAYMENT FROM AUTHORS
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*Special Issue: Platforms for Social Good*
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*Guest Editors: *

*Leanne Chang, Hong Kong Baptist University* ((leannechang /at/ hkbu.edu.hk) 
<mailto:(leannechang /at/ hkbu.edu.hk)>)

*Xinzhi Zhang, Hong Kong Baptist University* ((xzzhang2 /at/ hkbu.edu.hk) 
<mailto:(xzzhang /at/ hkbu.edu.hk)>)


*Time Schedule:*

*_—01 August 2022:_ *a 1,000-1,500-word abstract and a 100-word bio, 
mentioning the title of the special issue in the subject line, to the 
guest editors: (leannechang /at/ hkbu.edu.hk) 
<mailto:(leannechang /at/ hkbu.edu.hk)> and (xzzhang2 /at/ hkbu.edu.hk) 
<mailto:(xzzhang /at/ hkbu.edu.hk)>

*_—15 September 2022:_ *authors of accepted authors will be notified

_—30 November 2022:_**full paper submission

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*Overview: ***
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China formally joined the Internet in 1994. Since then, Chinese internet 
technologies have flourished at a startlingspeed. China has become the 
world’s largest internet market by several measures. It casts a great 
impact on individual and collective life at the domestic, regional, and 
global levels. After more than two decades of development, it is time to 
investigate the Chinese internet’s potential to foster communication for 
social good in digital environments and the benefits it can provide to 
different populations in different ways.

Scholars have argued that the Chinese internet has entered a “platform 
society” (Van Dijck, Poell, & De Waal, 2018). Various types of digital 
media platforms—from the decade-long social networking sites like Weibo 
and Douban, to the emerging, algorithmic-driven multimedia platforms 
like Bilibili, RED, and Douyin—have been thriving.These platforms enable 
professional communicators (such as government and public sectors, 
journalists, and non-governmental and professional organizations) to 
promote and disseminate their work and engage the audience. The 
platforms also help ordinary people with information seeking, 
entertainment, and interaction with other stakeholders. Critical 
reflections argue that these platforms may not always nurture social 
good. Professional communicators’ over-dependency on platforms may 
reinforce the dominant role of platforms in the communication 
infrastructure, mirror existing social disparities, and harm a diverse 
and inclusive digital public sphere (Lewis & Molyneux, 2018; Nielsen & 
Ganter, 2022). How ordinary people can avoid the dark side of platforms 
also becomes a pressing research agenda, such as how to overcome the 
digital divide and reduce the harmful effects of misinformation, echo 
chambers, and algorithm-driven fragmentation (Bail et al., 2016; Cinelli 
et al., 2021; Walter et al., 2021).

The theme of this special issue is“*Platforms for Social Good.*”In this 
special issue, scholars from China and around the world shared their 
theory-driven observations, explanations, and forward-looking works on a 
wide range of issues associated with the development of the Chinese 
Internet and the potential of Chinese digital media platforms to foster 
communication for social good and bring tangible and intangible benefits 
to different populations. Their intellectual debates about the public 
implications of Chinese digital media platforms and reflections on the 
digitalization of communication processes shed light on the future 
development of Chinese internet technologies and their potential impacts 
on different parts of everyday life.

This special issue focuses on interdisciplinary intellectual debates 
about the advancement of various Chinese digital media platforms and the 
potential of these platforms to support communication for social good. 
The scholarly work inquiries into the relationship between emerging 
Chinese internet technologies—such as social networking sites, 
platforms, and algorithms and their capacity to offer tangible and 
intangible benefits to different populations in Chinese contexts. In 
this special issue, authors take different empirical approaches to 
interrogating how Chinese internet technologies re-define communication 
processes and how communication taking place in Chinese digital 
platforms yields impacts on different populations’ lives.

*References:*

Bail, C. A., Argyle, L. P., Brown, T. W., Bumpus, J. P., Chen, H., 
Hunzaker, M. F., ... & Volfovsky, A. (2018). Exposure to opposing views 
on social media can increase political polarization.Proceedings of the 
National Academy of Sciences, 115(37), 9216-9221.

Cinelli, M., Morales, G. D. F., Galeazzi, A., Quattrociocchi, W., & 
Starnini, M. (2021). The echo chamber effect on social media.Proceedings 
of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(9).

Gamer, B. A. (2019).Black’s law dictionary (11th ed.). Thomas Reuters.

Lewis, S. C., & Molyneux, L. (2018). A decade of research on social 
media and journalism: Assumptions, blind spots, and a way forward.Media 
and Communication, 6(4), 11-23.

Nielsen, R. K., & Ganter, S. A. (2022).The power of platforms: Shaping 
media and society. Oxford University Press.

Van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & De Waal, M. (2018).The platform society: 
Public values in a connective world. Oxford University Press.

Walter, N., Brooks, J. J., Saucier, C. J., & Suresh, S. (2021). 
Evaluating the impact of attempts to correct health misinformation on 
social media: A meta-analysis.Health Communication, 36(13), 1776-1784.

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