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[Commlist] Call for Papers - Regulating African Digital Media Conference

Tue Jan 04 11:33:04 GMT 2022







*Conference on theRegulationof Old and NewMediaFormsinAfrica *

*Birmingham Centre forMediaand Cultural Research*

*Birmingham City University, UK*
*May 2022**
**Location: Zoom *

*Conference Theme: RegulatingAfrican DigitalMedia*

The call for papers below can also be viewed using this link: https://bcmcr.org/call-for-papers-regulation-of-old-and-new-media-forms-in-africa/ <https://bcmcr.org/call-for-papers-regulation-of-old-and-new-media-forms-in-africa/>. Please share widely with your networks.


Increasingly moreAfrican countries areinstituting laws, procedures, and policies, seeking to regulate themediaecosystem. Governments typically justify such approaches toregulationas a way to combat the negative consequences of onlinemediausage, such as hate speech and mis/disinformation. This trend generally reflects the historical application of censorship laws that have targeted the critical press and journalistic autonomy (Obijiofor et al., 2016). The implications of this are considerable. What we are witnessing is theintegration of two regulatory paradigms – for the traditional and digitalmedia–into one, with the potential for state authorities to expand blanket censorship frommediato citizen expressioninways that mirror the politics ofregulation. A central issue at play here is the struggle over the appropriation and exercise of power over collective voices, with consequences for democracy, plurality,independence, dissent, and freedom.

No doubt,mediaand digitalregulationhaveintensifiedinrecent years across the globeinwhat has been described as the “regulatory turn” (Flew et al., 2021, p. 208). The aim, it seems, is to manage the disruptive effects of the usage ofmediatechnologies. What has been largely overlooked, however, is an overarchinginvestigation of this trendinAfrica. This isinspite of the reality that stateinterventions such as socialmediabans, which are becoming common on the continent, are disruptiveinthemselves. Meanwhile, the few scholarly collections which have examined separate angles of the subject have done so predominantly from the traditionalmedialens only (Chan-Meetoo, 2013; Sampaio-Dias et al., 2019). Forinstance, Chan-Meetoo’s (2013) edited collection considers howAfrican journalists negotiate regulatory and ethical requirements demanded of them. Other works have looked at regional or linguistic peculiaritiesintraditionalmediaregulationon the continent (de la Brosse and Frére, 2012; Limpitlaw, 2021). What has also been neglected is the fact that newmediaplatforms are mainly domiciledinthe West, bearing implications for digital sovereigntyinAfrica.

Furthermore, research centred onAfricahas barely considered emergent regulatory practices that cover the traditionalmedia, online harms, socialmedia, blockchain technologies, privacy concerns, virtual reality, artificialintelligence, and the widerinternet of things. This conference thus creates a space for researchers to build on previous scholarly work and to share, discuss and debate contemporary regulatoryinterventionsinmediatechnologies acrossAfricainattempts to regulate disruption, and their impact on societies. Topics mayinclude, but are not limited to:

  * Press and broadcastingregulation
  * Socialmediaregulation and online harms
  * Online broadcastingregulation
  * The politics ofregulation
  * Internet and socialmediabans
  * Regulationas disruption
  * Regulating/regulated disruption
  * Platform governance and self-regulationinAfrica
  * Regulatory frameworks, methods, and methodologies
  * Online privacy and data concerns
  * Regulation, the balance of power, and digital sovereignty
  * Punitivemediaregistration
  * African Union, multi-stakeholderism, andmediaregulation
  * Regulating artificialintelligence and other
    newmediatechnologiesinAfrica
We alsoinvite conceptual papers and reflections on alternative, and perhaps homegrown approaches that can be exploited at the national and/or regional level on the continent to address the challenges ofmediaand digitalregulation.

*Keynote Speaker: *Dr Hayes Mabweazara, University of Glasgow


*Abstract Submission*

Please send a 300-word abstract proposal for a 20-minute presentation by*14 January 2022*(toregulationafrica /at/ protonmail.com) <mailto:(regulationafrica /at/ protonmail.com)>.

Proposers will be notified of the outcome of the selection by*7 February 2022*.

Abstracts should beinMS Word format and shouldinclude name, position,institutional affiliation, email address of proposer(s), and a 150-word biography.

*Conference Details *

Conference registration will openinearly*April 2022*and the conference schedule will be released afterwards. The conference will be held on*Zoom*and will be organised weeklyina panel formatin*May 2022*. To make this work, a single panel (90 minutes long) will be scheduled for each of the Tuesday afternoons (UK time)inMay 2022. Further details on timing will be confirmed to selected participants.

*Special Issue Publication*

Shortly after the conference, we willinvite full papers based on the presentations for publicationina journal special issue to be announced.Inyour abstract submission, pleaseindicate whether you would like your contribution to be considered for the special issue publication.Interested contributors should please note that full papers will be requested by*September 2022*.

**

*About BCMCR*

The Birmingham Centre forMediaand Cultural Research (BCMCR) was establishedin2009 to develop excellent research as a core activity within the Birmingham School ofMedia. Our team ofindependent researchers at Birmingham Centre forMediaand Cultural Research (BCMCR) generates work ofinternationally excellent standard. BCMCR aims to produce distinctive, collaborative work within the field ofmediaand cultural research.


For enquiries, please contact Vincent Obia ((Vincent.Obia /at/ mail.bcu.ac.uk)) and Sulayman Bah ((Sulayman.Bah /at/ mail.bcu.ac.uk))


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