[Commlist] Call for abstracts, ECREA Pre-conference TEMTC

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS (deadline extended to 15 June 2022)
The Trajectory of Emerging Media & Technology Companies:
Transnational Businesses, Transcultural Communications
ECREA Pre-conference:
Communication History section & International and Intercultural
communication section

Date: 19 October 2022
Venue: TBA, Aarhus University & Beijing Foreign Studies University
Format: Hybrid
Language: English

The growth and influence of emerging transnational media and technology
corporations are transforming global communication. Various
international scholars have developed different analytical instruments
in order to account for the rise of these companies, focusing especially
on the powerful home governments of these firms, the
country-specific-advantages, media system models, and the transcultural
implication for such business expansion and content distribution (e.g.
Thussu, 2000; Halin & Mancini, 2012; Nordenstreng & Thussu, 2015;
Panibratov, 2015; Teer-Tomaselli et al., 2019; Tang, 2020; Thussu &
Nordenstreng, 2020).

In global media history, the term of “emerging” embodies both relativist
and transformative implications as the opposition to the dominant
powers. From early Japanese companies’ digital disruption in the United
States on manufacturing specialized devices (like digital cameras) to
Chinese and South Korean telecommunication companies’ competence in
mobile devices and network services worldwide; from the Bollywood and
Brazilian media conglomerates’ competition with predominant media
counterparts in the region to the Korean Wave impact in global
entertainment consumption; from Russian and Chinese internet companies’
alternative growth in the domestic and regional markets to the South
African Naspers Group becoming the parent company of Europe’s largest
consumer internet firm, the fast development, business relocation and
strategic capital move of emerging transnational companies is
changing—visibly and invisibly—the landscape and infrastructure base of
global media and communication industry.

On the one hand, such changes nourished business and cultural diversity
and further transcend national and cultural boundaries. On the other
hand, it also raised critical questions towards intercultural conflicts
and the fragility and resilience of the global cultural ecosystem. The
technology competition between the United States and China, for example,
signals the “securitization” trend of policymaking in the communication
industry and rising concerns over risks in data protection, information
security and democracy. It also illustrates fundamental constraints of
emerging companies to challenge US hegemony in the field of media and
communication and extends discussions about cultural imperialism
following the technology and culture decoupling in related societies. A
new dimension of transcultural communication is in great need to
understand the characteristics and ambitions of transnational media and
technology corporations: their rising influence on the global
(commercial) media system, their future move in the global race to
dominate information technology, their impact on international and
intercultural communication and relations, and their promises for the
responsibilities to the nature, community, and world society for the
next generations.

This conference welcomes research papers that try to understand the rise
of emerging media-technology power from interdisciplinary perspectives,
with a special focus on the trans-nationalization process of these media
and technology firms and the transcultural communication challenges they
have been facing in their business development, expansion,
concentration, implementation, legitimization, and related
(organizational, institutional, and societal) discourses. Topics include
but are not limited to:
·       The politics, economy and culture of emerging media and tech
companies.
·       The transnational growth & influence of emerging media and tech
companies in the regional markets, mature markets, and third-party markets.
·       Transcultural implications of the rise of emerging media and
tech companies (e.g., their impact on transcultural protest movements,
or on everyday communication)
·       The relevance, roles, and implications of alternative movements
and/or counter-movements in media and tech industries.
·       Transcultural communication formats and content by emerging
media and tech companies.
·       Global public discourse around emerging media and tech
companies, and their business strategies applied for brand building or
rebuilding.
·       The technology and culture decoupling amid the US-China power
competition, and its impact on (lessons to) transnational corporations
in other countries.
·       Theoretical reflections on the changing paradigm of cultural
imperialism, transcultural communication, technology diffusion and soft
power in the case of media and tech companies (e.g., their role in
cultural homogenization, uni-channelization, and monopolization processes).

A selection of papers accepted to the pre-conference will be published
in a Special Issue of Journal of Transcultural Communication (De
Gruyter) in Spring 2023.

Keynote roundtable discussion (confirmed speakers):
Daya Thussu, Hong Kong Baptist University
Dwayne Winseck, Carleton University
Stephen Croucher, Massey University
Delia Dumitrica, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Fei JIANG, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Gabriele Balbi, Università della Svizzera italiana

Abstract submission: 15 June 2022 (300-500 words for individual abstract;

1,200 words for panel proposal):
https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=ecreaprecon2022temtc
Notification of accepted abstracts: 1 July 2022
Submission of extended abstracts for Special Issue: 30 September 2022
Conference contact: (zhan.zhang /at/ usi.ch)

For more details of the conference and journal publication 
call-for-paper, please visit:
http://www.chinamediaobs.org/ecrea-pre-conferencethe-trajectory-emerging-media-technology-companies-transnational-businesses
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jtc/html

Organizer Committee:
Gabriele Balbi, Università della Svizzera italiana
Zhan Zhang, Università della Svizzera italiana
Romy Woehlert, Kindervereinigung Leipzig e.V.
Fei Jiang, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Deqiang Ji, Communication University of China


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