[ecrea] CFP - Normative Theory in Communication Research ICA pre-conference

Call for Papers - Normative Theory in Communication Research ICA 
pre-conference

2017 International Communication Association Annual Conference
May 25, 2017 – 8:00am-4:30pm

Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego

Extended abstracts (up to 4,000 characters including spaces) should be 
submitted via the Normative Theory in Communication Research website by 
January 15, 2017.

https://democratictheorycommresearch.wordpress.com/

Normative theories of democracy in communication research across its 
various subfields rarely receive explicit treatment. Often, researchers 
simply imply their normative standpoints through the research questions 
they ask about ‘participation,’ ‘civility,’ ‘two-sided information 
flows,’ ‘knowledgeable citizens,’ ‘rational debate and deliberation,’ 
‘polarization and partisanship,’ ‘interactivity,’ and ‘quality information.’

The normative implications of many of these concepts rest on implicit 
assumptions about democracy, how it works, and more importantly, how it 
should work. When communication scholars explicitly discuss their 
normative models of democracy, they tend to be deliberative, following 
the guiding theorist of the field, Jurgen Habermas, and rich veins of 
deliberative research work by scholars such as James Fishkin. More 
common, however, is research that implicitly holds up rational debate 
among disinterested, non-partisan citizens premised on quality 
information as the normative ideal. Meanwhile, when scholars do not 
explicitly embrace deliberation, they tend to hold up an ill-defined, 
procedural idea of participation as the ultimate democratic value, often 
without any consideration of the ends towards which it is directed.

While deliberative theory and vague ideas of participation continue to 
hold significant appeal in communication research, are they the only 
models? And, indeed, should they be? In the past two decades there has 
been a tremendous flowering of normative work in other fields that casts 
new light on democracy itself. Social movement scholars have argued 
forcefully for the importance of contentious politics, emotion, 
identity, and culture to the practice and promise of democracy. 
Sociologists have argued that ‘civility’ often serves to cut-off 
critique and frankness should be valued as an alternative. Political 
theorists have embraced the normative importance of spectatorship in 
contrast to deliberation and participation, invoking communication 
research around media events. Others have worked to reclaim the value of 
partisanship in an era of extremist, single-issue civil society 
organizations. Meanwhile, some scholars have sought to re-establish the 
value of representation, while others have argued strongly for the value 
of agonism as the proper domain of the political.

With few exceptions, communication research has not explicitly engaged 
with its underlying normative models of democracy. In this 
pre-conference, we seek to bring communication scholars together to 
spark a conversation on the normative foundations of scholarship and 
move the field towards more sophisticated models of democracy. Through 
invited speakers, peer-reviewed papers, and critical discussants, we 
seek to make democracy and normative theories our object of analysis.

Confirmed participants include Cherian George (Hong Kong Baptist 
University), Claes de Vreese (University of Amsterdam), Michael Schudson 
(Columbia University), Jennifer Stromer-Galley (Syracuse University), 
Talia Stroud (UT Austin), Silvio Waisbord (George Washington 
University), and Barbie Zelizer (University of Pennsylvania).

Call for Extended Abstracts

We are looking for submissions that interrogate the democratic 
foundations of communication research across its various subfields. 
These can include articles on the history of normative models of 
democracy in the field, original theoretical papers that propose 
democratic frameworks or synthesize work in adjacent fields, or 
empirical papers that made a significant theoretical contribution to 
democratic theory in the field of communication.

Extended abstracts (up to 4,000 characters including spaces) should be 
submitted via the Normative Theory in Communication Research website by 
January 15, 2017.

The organizers - C.W. Anderson (CUNY), David Karpf (George Washington 
University), Daniel Kreiss (UNC-Chapel Hill), Rasmus Kleis Nielsen 
(Oxford University), and Matthew Powers (University of Washington) - 
will make decisions on accepted papers by February 15th. Full papers 
will be due in advance of the pre-conference on May 25, 2017.

There is no cost to attend this pre-conference and lunch and 
refreshments will be provided. Registration is required.

Sponsors
Department of Communication, University of Washington
Department of Media Culture, CUNY-CSI
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford
School of Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University
ICA Communication and Technology Division
ICA Journalism Studies Division
ICA Political Communication Division

Draft Schedule

8:00 – 8:15am
Arrival and coffee
8:15 – 9:30am
PANEL 1: Reviewed Submissions, Paper Presentations
9:45 – 11:00am
PANEL 2: Reviewed submissions, Paper Presentations
11:15 – 12:30pm
PANEL 3: Reviewed Submissions, Paper Presentations
12:45-1:45pm
Lunchtime Journal Editors Panel on the Role of Normative Theory in Research
2:00 – 3:15pm
PANEL 4: Reviewed Submissions, Paper Presentations
3:30-4:30pm
Plenary Panel on Democratic Theory in Communication Research


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