[Commlist] Call for Papers - Regulating African Digital Media Conference

*Conference on theRegulationof Old and NewMediaFormsinAfrica *

*Birmingham Centre forMediaand Cultural Research*

*Birmingham City University, UK*
*May 2022**
**Location: Zoom *

*Conference Theme: RegulatingAfrican DigitalMedia*

The call for papers below can also be viewed using this link: 
https://bcmcr.org/call-for-papers-regulation-of-old-and-new-media-forms-in-africa/ 
<https://bcmcr.org/call-for-papers-regulation-of-old-and-new-media-forms-in-africa/>. 
Please share widely with your networks.


Increasingly moreAfrican countries areinstituting laws, procedures, and 
policies, seeking to regulate themediaecosystem. Governments typically 
justify such approaches toregulationas a way to combat the negative 
consequences of onlinemediausage, such as hate speech and 
mis/disinformation. This trend generally reflects the historical 
application of censorship laws that have targeted the critical press and 
journalistic autonomy (Obijiofor et al., 2016). The implications of this 
are considerable. What we are witnessing is theintegration of two 
regulatory paradigms – for the traditional and digitalmedia–into one, 
with the potential for state authorities to expand blanket censorship 
frommediato citizen expressioninways that mirror the politics 
ofregulation. A central issue at play here is the struggle over the 
appropriation and exercise of power over collective voices, with 
consequences for democracy, plurality,independence, dissent, and freedom.

No doubt,mediaand digitalregulationhaveintensifiedinrecent years across 
the globeinwhat has been described as the “regulatory turn” (Flew et 
al., 2021, p. 208). The aim, it seems, is to manage the disruptive 
effects of the usage ofmediatechnologies. What has been largely 
overlooked, however, is an overarchinginvestigation of this 
trendinAfrica. This isinspite of the reality that stateinterventions 
such as socialmediabans, which are becoming common on the continent, are 
disruptiveinthemselves. Meanwhile, the few scholarly collections which 
have examined separate angles of the subject have done so predominantly 
from the traditionalmedialens only (Chan-Meetoo, 2013; Sampaio-Dias et 
al., 2019). Forinstance, Chan-Meetoo’s (2013) edited collection 
considers howAfrican journalists negotiate regulatory and ethical 
requirements demanded of them. Other works have looked at regional or 
linguistic peculiaritiesintraditionalmediaregulationon the continent (de 
la Brosse and Frére, 2012; Limpitlaw, 2021). What has also been 
neglected is the fact that newmediaplatforms are mainly domiciledinthe 
West, bearing implications for digital sovereigntyinAfrica.

Furthermore, research centred onAfricahas barely considered emergent 
regulatory practices that cover the traditionalmedia, online harms, 
socialmedia, blockchain technologies, privacy concerns, virtual reality, 
artificialintelligence, and the widerinternet of things. This conference 
thus creates a space for researchers to build on previous scholarly work 
and to share, discuss and debate contemporary 
regulatoryinterventionsinmediatechnologies acrossAfricainattempts to 
regulate disruption, and their impact on societies. Topics mayinclude, 
but are not limited to:

  * Press and broadcastingregulation
  * Socialmediaregulation and online harms
  * Online broadcastingregulation
  * The politics ofregulation
  * Internet and socialmediabans
  * Regulationas disruption
  * Regulating/regulated disruption
  * Platform governance and self-regulationinAfrica
  * Regulatory frameworks, methods, and methodologies
  * Online privacy and data concerns
  * Regulation, the balance of power, and digital sovereignty
  * Punitivemediaregistration
  * African Union, multi-stakeholderism, andmediaregulation
  * Regulating artificialintelligence and other
    newmediatechnologiesinAfrica
We alsoinvite conceptual papers and reflections on alternative, and 
perhaps homegrown approaches that can be exploited at the national 
and/or regional level on the continent to address the challenges 
ofmediaand digitalregulation.

*Keynote Speaker: *Dr Hayes Mabweazara, University of Glasgow


*Abstract Submission*

Please send a 300-word abstract proposal for a 20-minute 
presentation by*14 January 2022*(toregulationafrica /at/ protonmail.com) 
<mailto:(regulationafrica /at/ protonmail.com)>.

Proposers will be notified of the outcome of the selection by*7 February 
2022*.

Abstracts should beinMS Word format and shouldinclude name, 
position,institutional affiliation, email address of proposer(s), and a 
150-word biography.

*Conference Details *

Conference registration will openinearly*April 2022*and the conference 
schedule will be released afterwards. The conference will be held 
on*Zoom*and will be organised weeklyina panel formatin*May 2022*. To 
make this work, a single panel (90 minutes long) will be scheduled for 
each of the Tuesday afternoons (UK time)inMay 2022. Further details on 
timing will be confirmed to selected participants.

*Special Issue Publication*

Shortly after the conference, we willinvite full papers based on the 
presentations for publicationina journal special issue to be 
announced.Inyour abstract submission, pleaseindicate whether you would 
like your contribution to be considered for the special issue 
publication.Interested contributors should please note that full papers 
will be requested by*September 2022*.

**

*About BCMCR*

The Birmingham Centre forMediaand Cultural Research (BCMCR 
www.bcmcr.org) was establishedin2009 to develop excellent research as a 
core activity within the Birmingham School ofMedia. Our team 
ofindependent researchers at Birmingham Centre forMediaand 
Cultural Research (BCMCR) generates work ofinternationally excellent 
standard. BCMCR aims to produce distinctive, collaborative work within 
the field ofmediaand cultural research.


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