[Commlist] Call for papers & abstracts: New Perspectives on News: Theoretical and Empirical, Challenges to Contemporary News Research

  * Call for papers: New Perspectives on News: Theoretical and Empirical
    Challenges to Contemporary News Research


*Call for papers*

Conference, 28-29 May

Södertörn University, Stockholm

*New Perspectives on News: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges to*

*Contemporary News Research*

News, for a long time considered a distinct commodity produced by 
journalists and established media organisations, is currently often 
considered a concept in flux. This

is prompted by changes in news production, including altering practices 
of journalists

and the opportunities for media users to produce and share their own 
content, but it is

equally a result of novel forms of news distribution, where social media 
platforms, micro-celebrities and alternative and viral news sites have 
gained a prominent role in news dissemination.

Alongside transformations in the production and distribution of news 
have followed changing use patterns, leading to renewed questions about 
participation, trust and civic engagement in the public sphere. It is 
arguable, furthermore, that the altered context for news consumption 
interlinks not only with new behaviours around news, but also with more 
varied understandings of the concept itself – with a range of different 
sources of information competing for what is to be considered ‘news’.

While these developments have been widely discussed as impacting on 
democracy and the public sphere, they seem to necessitate a further 
re-thinking of the features and functions of news today, in relation not 
only to technological developments and the digitized media landscape, 
but also with regard to different kinds of societies and geo-cultural 
contexts for news.

The overall aim of this conference is to make a contribution to ongoing 
scholarly debates about news and democracy in digitized society, by 
providing a rethinking of the concept and societal role of news, from a 
range of analytical and geo-cultural perspectives. The conference aims 
to bring together researchers from different academic disciplines and 
geographical areas, with expertise that could bring new perspectives to 
the inherently Western field of news research, as well as advancing the 
research agenda around news both theoretically and empirically.

Papers may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  * Considerations of news as a concept, in relation to theoretical or
    empirical areas of investigation, and in connection to news
    production, content or audiences
  * Empirical studies of news outside of the Western world
  * The role of social media, viral news sites and apps as platforms for
    news
  * Algorithmic news selection
  * The relationship between news journalism and social media
  * Alternative and populist news sites and their role in the public sphere
  * Transforming news audiences and emerging practices around news
  * Micro-celebrities and ‘influencers’ as disseminators and sources of 
news
  * Global, local and hyperlocal news contexts
  * News in relation to different cultural and geographical contexts
  * Current developments around journalism and journalists
  * Historical perspectives on news
  * Issues of truth and trust in news
The conference will entail a combination of keynote speakers, research 
dialogues with invited speakers and parallel papers sessions. Confirmed 
speakers include:

Tamara Witschge, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Co-author 
of/Beyond Journalism/ (2020).

Natalia Roudakova, McGill University. Author of /Losing Pravda: Ethics 
and the Press in Post-Truth Russia / (2017).

Thomas Pettitt, University of Southern Denmark. Author of “The 
Parenthical Turn in Journalism Studies: The Role of the News Ballads” 
(2015).

Marcel Broersma, University of Groningen. Co-editor of /Re-Thinking 
Journalism Again: Societal Role and Relevance in a Digital Age/ (2016).

Jonathan Mair, University of Kent. Author of “Post-Truth Eras” (2018).

Abstracts for presentations are to be submitted by *the 15th of March*, 
for the selection of conference contributions to be confirmed by the 
27th of March. Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, submitted 
alongside a short presenter’s bio of no more than 100 words.

Submit abstracts to: (sofia.johansson /at/ sh.se) 
<mailto:(sofia.johansson /at/ sh.se)> and (stina.bengtsson /at/ sh.se).

Conference registration will be open between the 30th of March to the 
15th of April. Registration is free.

Hosted by the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn 
University, with funding by the university’s Centre for Baltic and East 
European Studies. For more information, please see: 
https://www.sh.se/english/sodertorn-university/calendar/events/2020-01-28-international-conference-new-perspectives-on-news-theoretical-and-empirical-challenges-to-contemporary-news-research


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