[ecrea] International conference "The Influence of New Media on Consciousness and Behavior of Youth"

Dear colleagues!

The Department of Social Communication of National Research Tomsk State University
invites postgraduate students, doctoral candidates, lecturers, scientists,
and practitioners dealing with the problems of social communications
to take part in the International Scientific-Practical Internet-Conference
“Connect-Universum 2012” (29-30 May, 2012).

The theme of the conference is
“The Influence of New Media on Consciousness and Behavior of Youth:
Interdisciplinary Approach”

Our partners are: Siberian Department of Russian Association of PR, Tomsk Media Center “Russian Information Agency - News”, Tomsk regional non-profit organization “Strategy of Success”.

The Department of Social Communication of National research Tomsk State University has been holding the “Connect-Universum” conference since 2004. As the result the collection of materials has been published. In 2009 the event took place in the format of the Internet-conference.
The main idea of the “Connect-Universum” is providing the opportunity of the direct contact and connection. Therefore the Internet-format is the most suitable for the subject matter of the social communications. “Connect” is both a condition and a result of forming the modern “networks of intellectual communication” (R. Collins); “invisible colleges” – groups of scientists working in the new research area. Everybody can express their opinions about the object under consideration and be heard as in the information-communicative society every spot of the Earth, every city and every university can become an active Network cell, can be the initiator of communication. No matter how far the participants of the discussion are situated from each other. It is important that they have something to tell each other. This time the theme of the International scientific Internet-discourse is “The Influence of New Media on Consciousness and Behavior of Youth: Interdisciplinary Approach”.
 “New media”, being both the result and the conditions of the further development of digital technology and network communications, become extremely attractive to the young people and practically are one of the most effective ways of self-expression, “extension of the sense organs” (Marshall McLuhan) in the process of electronic communication. However their rising popularity, causing drawing into online communication a huge number of young people, has negative consequences for participants of the communication and for the whole society. The participants of the conference representing different spheres of scientific knowledge are to discuss the potential of the influence of “new media” on youth’s consciousness and behavior.

The participation in the conference and the placing of the materials on the site of the conference are free. At the moment the site of the conference is in the process of development, and you will be additionally informed of the site address. The working languages of the conference are Russian, English.

The programme of the conference includes the plenary meeting reports and the sectional meetings in such areas as philosophy, communication theory, humanities informatics, neuro-physiology,   psychology, sociology, political sciences, culturology, semiotics, philology, theory of journalism, marketing, PR and advertising theory, pedagogics, social work, organization of work with youth, new media practice.
The materials are supposed to be published in the special issue.

The following acknowledged specialists are among the key speakers and experts of the plenary meeting of the Сonference:

Kristian Bankov  - Ph. D., Professor of semiotics of the New Bulgarian University (Sophia), the Head of the Southeast European Center for Semiotics Studies; the Master of the Laboratory of Sociosemiotics. Kristian Bankov learned semiotics in Bologna State University (Italy) under guidance of the famous philosopher, culture and semiology expert Umberto Eco. He wrote many scientific articles and books. His publications include: “Semiotic Notebooks: Introductory Lectures in Semiotics”, “Sign Theories in Use”. Nowadays Kristian Bankov studies the influence of search systems (Google) on the cognitive capacity of young men.

Arthur A. Berger – Famous American scientist and writer, Ph. D, Professor Emeritus of San-Francisco State University in the sphere of television and electronic communications. Arthur A. Berger is the author of more than 100 scientific articles and more than 60 books concerning the problematic of the theory and practice of communication, sociology, culture theory and semiotics. His books are translated into 9 languages, including Chinese. His book “Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Visual Communication” is published in Russia.

Baroness Susan A. Greenfield – Leading British scientist, Ph. D, Professor of pharmacology in Oxford University, a neurophysiologist; Member of House of Lords, Cavalier of Order of Honorable Legion. Susan A. Greenfield is the author of more than 150 articles and a number of books including: “The Private Life of the Brain”, “Tomorrow's People: How 21st-Century Technology is Changing the Way We Think and Feel”, “ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century: The Quest for Meaning in the 21st Century”. She is one of the first scientists in the world, who paid serious attention to the necessity of studying social nets as technologies changing human`s mind and behaviour.

Christo Kaftandjiev – Ph. D., Professor of marketing communications and semiotics in Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sophia University, Bulgaria; Professor of Honor of IAAE (International Academy of the Authorized Education); Member of jury in numerous international contests; Lecturer on advertising, marketing communications and semiology on four continents. Christo Kaftandjiev is the author of popular books, translated into different languages. His publications include: “The Language of Advertising. Graphics and Text”, “Harmony in Advertising Communication”, “The Images of Woman in Advertising”, “Absolut Semiotics”, “Sex and Violence in Advertising”. Nowadays he studies the influence of new media marketing communications on the youth audience.

Martha G. Russell – Ph. D, Senior Research Scholar at the Human Sciences and Technology Advanced Research (H*STAR) Institute at Stanford University and a Fellow at the Institute for Innovation, Creativity and Capital (IC2) at The University of Texas; Associate Director of Media X. Dr. Russell is the initiator and leader of many interdisciplinary programs of national agencies and consortiums concerning the problematic of innovation ecosystems, mass and social media research. Martha G. Russell has a doctoral degree in Policy Analysis.

Currently the participation of other famous researchers on new media and its influence on human mind and behavior is being negotiated. The full list of key speakers and experts will appear in the follow-up information letters.


Conference programme:
Plenary session in the mode of Webinar will take place on May 29-30, 2012
Sectional meetings in different areas will be held in the format of the Internet-conference.
The materials provided by the participants will have been published on the forum of the conference by May 29, 2012. During two weeks the discussion on the reports will take place there.
Till June 18, 2012, every person can leave comments and questions to the reports on the site of the conference. It is kindly requested to specify the names and the surnames while placing questions and comments to the reports online. On June 18, 2012 the opportunity to place comments will be disabled.
According to the results of the conference the issue with the collection of scientific articles will have been published by the end of 2012. The conditions of the publication will be announced additionally.
Authors from other cities will get their copies of the issue by mail.

The organizing committee of the conference: The Department of Social Communication of Tomsk State University, Office 419, 8 Moscow tract, Tomsk.
Tel: 8 (3822) 529 537. http://pr.tsu.ru.


CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION IN THE INTERNET-CONFERENCE

In order to take part in the conference you should send your application and annotation to the report to the organizing committee of the conference to the e-mail address (connect-universum2012 /at/ yandex.ru) (with the subject of the letter “Application to the conference”) till March 30, 2012.

The full text of the report should be sent to the e-mail address (connect-universum2012 /at/ yandex.ru) (with the subject of the letter “Report to the conference”) till April 30, 2012:

The following application form should be filled:

Surname __________________________________________________________
Name ____________________________________________________________
Place of employment ________________________________________________
Position __________________________________________________________
Academic rank, academic degree ______________________________________
The title of the report________________________________________________
Tel., e-mail ________________________________________________________
Mailing address for the delivery of the issue__________________________

The text of the report in the format MS Word for placing on the site of the conference and following publication (in the author's edition) designed in accordance with the requirements;
The annotation to the report should be given in English (not more than 200 words);
The digital author’s photo must be attached to the sent materials. It is preferable that the report is accompanied with video presentation, illustrative materials.

REQUIREMENTS TO THE REPORTS

•	The volume of the presented materials is 2-8 pages in A4 format.
•	The formatting options:
-	font - Times New Roman, size – 12 pt;
-	single line spacing;
-	margins: top and bottom - 2 cm, left – 2,5 cm, right 1,5 cm;
-	justified alignment;
-	tables and pictures should be fit into the format of the page;
•	The title of the article is centered, in capital letters (medium-face font), without hyphenation and without a period in the end of the title;
•	The author’s surname and initials (the authors’ surnames and initials) with the evidence of academic degree and position must be placed below the title, with a gap of 1 line, lowercase letters, centered;
•	On the next line the name of the organization, city and e-mail are indicated, a comma-separated, centered;
•	Below, with the gap of 1 line, the text of the report.
•	The references are placed in the alphabetical order in the end of the text.

The organizers reserve the right to select the articles for publication in the issue of the conference materials.



Best regards,

Julia Stakhovskaya,
senior lecturer of
the Department of Social Communication,
Tomsk State University




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