[Commlist] Call for paper - Exploring flows and counter-flows of information along the New Silk Road

CFP
Exploring flows and counter-flows of information along the New Silk Road

The “New Silk Road”, or in the Chinese official discourse, the “Belt & 
Road initiative一带一路” was launched in 2013 to reconnect China with 
countries in Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa and to establish 
different levels of cooperation with new partners. The complexity of 
this initiative is reflected in the diverse definitions provided by 
different stakeholders such as:

-  The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious effort to improve 
regional cooperation and connectivity on a trans-continental scale. The 
initiative aims to strengthen infrastructure, trade, and investment 
links between China and some 65 other countries (The World Bank)

-  China's ambitious plan for linking Asia and Europe and Africa through 
new massive infrastructure projects (European Parliament)

-  The Belt and Road Initiative is a systematic project, which should be 
jointly built through consultation to meet the interests of all, and 
efforts should be made to integrate the development strategies of the 
countries along the Belt and Road. (Chinese Government)

Discussions about the New Silk Road and its relationship with all 
related regions had been mainly conducted in political and economic 
studies. Much less attention has been paid from the media and 
communication perspectives. This special issue is designed to fill in 
this gap by bringing scholars in media, communication, language and 
culture studies to analyse the ramifications of the “Belt and Road 
Initiative” for studies of transnational and cross-cultural communication.

The special issue is addressed to explore different public engagements 
and sentiments of the “Belt and Road Initiative” highlighting social, 
political and historical contexts. Framing the initiative also as a 
“social space generated in communicative action” (Habermas 1996, p. 
360), we welcome studies with a more general perspective to analyse the 
initiative as a co-constructed practice within which the public is 
actively involved.

In line with the goal of Communication and the Public, we expect this 
special issue to provide insights on different public discourse (by 
social actors or official narrative) that include analysis of local 
knowledge, concerns, modes of arguments, value schemes, logics, and the 
like shared among ordinary people” (Hauser, 2011, p. 164).

Furthermore, from a more theoretical perspective this special issue has 
other three aims:

-  It contributes to studies exploring past and present flows of 
information/communication along the ancient and new silk road;

-  It develops a discussion on the up-to-date dynamics of information 
flows on an international level between China and different regions 
involved in the initiative;

-  The third aim is to de-westernize communication research in search of 
new theoretical framework that offers richer cultural context to the 
present research framework.

We encourage submissions of topics include but are not limited to:

-  News flow and narratives through/among countries related to the New 
Silk Road;

-  Media production exchange or co-production between European and 
Chinese media companies;

-  Media infrastructure studies along the New Silk Road;Media linguistic 
studies, discourse analysis and translation issues related to New Silk Road

-  Media governance and media law across boarders;

This special issue is a follow-up publication from the 2018 ECREA 
Pre-Conference organized by China Media Observatory (CMO), Institute of 
Media and Journalism (IMeG), at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) 
in October 2018 thanks to the support of the Chinese Embassy in 
Switzerland and the City Government of Lugano.

Since 2006 CMO has been actively developing academic platforms to 
improve scientific dialogue between Europe and China such as 
Europe-China Dialogue: Media and Communication Studies Summer School.

Papers for consideration in this special issue should be 
submitted https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journal/communication-and-public#submission-guidelines ; 
and should indicate they are intended for inclusion in the special 
issue. For inquires, contact Gianluigi Negro at (gianluigi.negro /at/ usi.ch) 
 and Zhan Zhang (zhan.zhang /at/ usi.ch).

All manuscripts (6000-8000 words) should be submitted by March 31, 2019. 
All submitted manuscripts are subject to rigorous blind peer-review 
process. All accepted manuscripts will be published online first. The 
planned printed publication date is an issue of Communication and the 
Public in 2020. Submissions should conform to the editorial guidelines 
of the Communication and the Public found here 
https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/journal/communication-and-public#submission-guidelines 



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