[Commlist] Call for Papers: HMC Special Issue: “Mediatization and Human-Machine Communication”

HMC SPECIAL ISSUE: “MEDIATIZATION AND HUMAN-MACHINE COMMUNICATION”

Editors
-Göran Bolin (Södertörn University)
-Andreas Hepp (ZeMKI, University of Bremen)
-Wiebke Loosen (Leibniz Institute for Media Research)

Description:
Mediatization research has long been concerned with the 
interrelationship between the transformation of media and communication 
on the one hand, and culture and society on the other (Bolin & Hepp 
2017; Couldry & Hepp 2013; Ekström et al. 2016; Hjarvard 2013; Krotz 
2009). With the spread of “communicative AI” (Guzman & Lewis 2020) – 
understood as AI-based systems whose function is to communicate with 
humans (Esposito 2022) – we are currently experiencing the beginning of 
yet one more change to our media environment. The foundations of this 
change can be seen in the emergence of “social bots” (Gehl & Bakardjieva 
2016) on various platforms, the spread of “artificial companions” such 
as Apple Siri or Amazon’s Alexa (Thorne 2020), the algorithmic response 
suggestions (Hancock et al. 2020), or the “work bots” (Hepp 2020) that 
produce automated journalism (Diakopoulos 2019; Loosen 2018). A further 
technical boost to all this is the recent development of ChatGPT and 
GPT-3.5. The increasing success of machine learning and other AI 
technologies suggests that this is merely the first step toward the 
automation of communication (Gunkel 2020; Taipale & Fortunati 2018).

Against this background, it seems obvious that research into 
mediatization and human-machine communication enters into a dialogue 
that, in the best case, mutually enriches empirical research and the 
theoretical discussion, helping us to better understand the current 
changes to media and communication and their consequences. This Special 
Issue aims to create a starting point for just such a dialogue. The 
objective is to discuss the following questions based on empirical 
studies and theoretical considerations:

•To what extent do current phenomena of automated communication 
represent mediatization re-asserting itself?
•How can approaches to and theories of HMC and mediatization research 
mutually relate to and enrich one other?
•What will be the consequences to theorizing media and empirical research?

For more information or questions, please contact Andreas Hepp 
((ahepp /at/ uni-bremen.de)).

Deadline:
Submissions are due March 15th, 2023, and the publication will be in 
September, 2023. All manuscripts should be submitted via the journal’s 
online submission system (https://hmcjournal.com) with the remark, 
“Special Issue” in the cover letter. In the online submission system, 
there will be a drop-down menu under Document Type. Please choose 
“Special Issue Submission.” For formatting and length specifications, 
please see the journal’s Instructions for Authors. No payment from the 
authors will be required.
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