[ecrea] Call for chapters -- ‘Social media and political communication in Central and Eastern Europe’.

CALL FOR CHAPTERS
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Contributions are solicited for an edited volume on ‘Social media and 
political communication in Central and Eastern Europe’.
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Within the national and transnational field of politics in Central and 
Eastern Europe (CEE) political actors – political parties, interest 
groups, NGOs, think-tanks, social movements and campaigners - have been, 
with various degrees of enthusiasm, adapting social media (Twitter, 
Facebook, Google +, Youtube, or blogs etc.) as part of their media 
management and communication strategies. Within the CEE region, social 
media have become buzzwords facilitating and defining digital 
revolutions in political communication, which policy-makers have been 
advancing to facilitate relationships between governments, state 
institutions and citizens. Also individual politicians in CEE have been 
building political capital thanks to their engagement with social media 
in their everyday political communication practices. For examples, Radek 
Sikorski, the Polish Foreign Affairs Minister, conducts ‘Twitter 
diplomacy’ and engages in lively tweet-chats with David Cameron and 
other European pol
itical leaders on issues not exclusively reserved to foreign affairs.

Social media in Central and Eastern Europe have been pervading political 
elites, but what does it mean in terms of political participation among 
citizens in the part of the world defined by the heritage of the 
socialist/authoritarian past and maturing media systems? Do social media 
platforms encourage greater political participation? Do social media, if 
at all, reshape the quality of relationships between citizens and 
political elites and state institutions? Can social media facilitate 
change of power relationships within political economies among CEE 
states or do they perpetuate political status quo(s)? We raise those 
questions to examine the role of social networking sites (SNS) as social 
spaces in which diverse forms of political participation can take place. 
Identifying what forms of political participation occur, understanding 
the patterns of participation and the motivations for participating 
offers insights into how, if at all, SNS drive participation within the 
conte
xt of a nation’s democratic culture. We are looking to examine if 
political participation online translates into civic participation and 
agency enhancing or hindering qualities of democracy in the region of 
Europe in which democratization has been one of the biggest priorities 
since the end of the Cold War.

The aim of this edited volume is to present state of the art research on 
political communication and social media in the CEE region. The 
scholarship at the crossover of political communication, social media, 
and civic participation has been one of the most dynamic research areas 
in political and media studies, but so far, little attention has been 
paid to the analysis of the role of social media in transforming 
political communication in this part of the world. With the rise of 
digital platforms and advancement of the digital revolution among CEE 
states, political elites and political parties have been adopting social 
media to reach out to electorate, citizens, and stakeholders alike. The 
tense relationship between the media and democracy in CEE has emerged as 
a result of the political economy transformation which post-1989 has 
been further complicated by media convergence, Internet technologies, 
and the use of social media platforms in political processes. This book 
aims to
 fill this gap and analyse the complex relationship between forms of 
political communication, social media, and civic participation. By 
accounting for research avenues in the field of political communication, 
this book aims to consider transformational and cultural features 
accompanying the use of social media in the fields of politics in CEE.


The aim of this book is to bring together innovative and current 
research on the role of social media in transforming the dynamics of 
political communication, that not only explores the types of tensions 
between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media, but accounts for economic and cultural 
forces driving those changes. A diversity of empirical national-case 
studies is welcome.
We particularly encourage comparative studies featuring political actors 
in the CEE region.
We also encourage contributions from various contexts in which social 
media platforms are used in political communication (e.g. political 
parties, activist groups, social movements, the EU institutions). 
Chapters might include, but are by no means limited to the following themes:

-social media users and their characteristics in the context of 
political communication;
-adoption of social media strategies and tactics in political communication;
-the role of social media platforms in national and European election 
campaigns;
-relationship between ‘old’ and ‘new media’ including the role of social 
media in reporting political news stories in CEE;
-the relationship between political participation on SNS, civic 
participation and community action, ‘new’ versus ‘traditional’ forms of 
political participation;
-social media as drivers of political participation in activist/issues 
campaigns in CEE (e.g. the LGBT movement; environmental and human right 
groups; pressure groups);
-social media, the state surveillance practices, transparency and 
democratic accountability in CEE;
-social media platforms as mediators of political and social change in CEE.


We are seeking contributions from researchers exploring the above themes 
in the following national settings or in comparative research studies: 
the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, 
Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, and Russia.
Keen interest in the proposal has already been expressed by Routledge to 
include this volume into their on-going and successful 'BASEES\Russian 
and East European Studies.' The collection will be comprised of 
approximately 10-12 chapters of around 7,000 words. Publication has been 
scheduled for 2016.
The deadline for a 400 words abstract and short (3-4 line) biography of 
author/s is 31 October 2014. Abstracts should be sent to the editors of 
this volume, Dr Pawel Surowiec (Bournemouth University, United Kingdom, 
(psurowiec /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk)) and Dr Vaclav Stetka (Charles University, 
the Czech Republic, (stetka /at/ fsv.cuni.cz)). The editors welcome preliminary 
expressions of interest and encourage potential authors to contact them 
for further information.



Dr. Pawel Surowiec
Lecturer in Propaganda Studies

Bournemouth University
The Media School
Fern Barrow, Poole
Dorset, BH12 5BB, UK
Tel. 01202 965236
Email: (psurowiec /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk)




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