[Commlist] Cfp: Decoding Artificial Sociality - New Media and Society special issue

Cfp: Decoding Artificial Sociality - New Media and Society special issue

Decoding Artificial Sociality: Technologies, Dynamics, Implications
Call for Papers for Special Issue in New Media and Society

Special Issue Editors:
Iliana Depounti, Loughborough University, United Kingdom, 
(i.depounti /at/ lboro.ac.uk) <mailto:(i.depounti /at/ lboro.ac.uk)>
Simone Natale, University of Turin, Italy, (simone.natale /at/ unito.it) 
<mailto:(simone.natale /at/ unito.it)>

Deadline for Abstract Submission: 30 September 2023

The emergence and development of technologies enabling communications 
between humans and machines sparked a rethinking of the scope and 
implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this context, software 
that mimics social interaction is becoming available to vast masses of 
users around the world. Yet we still lack interpretative frameworks and 
conceptual tools that go beyond the analysis of specific platforms to 
capture new kinds of social experiences and engagements that these 
technologies facilitate. This special issue aims to fill this gap. We 
invite contributors to interrogate the implications, dynamics, 
opportunities and risks of “Artificial Sociality,” i.e. technologies and 
practices able to sustain the impression of social competence and 
behavior in machines. These may include tools and software such as large 
language models like ChatGPT, voice assistants, virtual influencers, 
social bots and companionship chatbots such as Replika.

The special issue invites empirical as well as theoretical contributions 
that provide stronger foundations to define, understand and critically 
analyze emerging modalities of social interactions with AI technologies. 
Featured articles will address questions such as:
- How do specific platforms, interfaces and computer programs build an 
impression of sociality, and how do users respond to this? How do 
algorithms and interfaces  in the design of communicative AI 
technologies stimulate social appropriations and projections in users?
- What are the ethical, social, and cultural implications 
of artificial sociality?
- What are the risks associated with the application 
of artificial sociality to areas including marketing, political 
communication, news media, and social media?
- How do technologies that automate sociality reproduce or create 
cultural and social  bias for issues including gender, race, class?
- How do national, linguistic, cultural, religious contexts inform 
how artificial sociality technologies are employed and appropriated by 
different kinds of users?
- What are the ethical implications of assigning social roles to machines?
- What are the implications of mobilizing data about users’ social 
behaviors to implement artificial sociality technologies?

Timeline
30 September 2023: Abstract submission deadline
31 October 2023: Decisions out to authors invited to submit full paper
31 March 2024: Deadline for full papers
2025: Tentative special issue publication

Submission
Proposals should include an extended abstract of up to 1,000 words 
(references included) including a short explanation of how the paper 
relates to the special issue theme, as well as a 100-150 words bio note 
of the author(s). Please submit your proposal via email no later than 30 
September 2023 to special issue editors Iliana Depounti, 
(i.depounti /at/ lboro.ac.uk) <mailto:(i.depounti /at/ lboro.ac.uk)> and Simone 
Natale, (simone.natale /at/ unito.it) <mailto:(simone.natale /at/ unito.it)>, with the 
subject line “New Media and Society Special Issue: Artificial Sociality.”

Invited paper submissions of 8,000 words will be due 31 March 2024 and 
will be submitted directly to the submission site for New Media and 
Society https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nms 
<https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nms> where they will undergo peer 
review following the usual procedures of New Media & Society. Therefore, 
the invitation to submit a full article does not guarantee acceptance 
into the special issue.

No payment from the authors is required to publish in New Media & Society.


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