Call for paper MEDCOM2020+1

Communication and digital media: New scenarios and future changes

You are welcome to send your abstract to the 6th World Conference on Media and Mass Communication – (MEDCOM 2020+1) which will be held from 17th – 19th June 2021 under the theme “Communication, digital media and future: new scenarios and future changes”.

Medcom2020+1 wants to enhance Medcom2020 conference (which has not yet been held due to the COVID-19 outbreak).

Indeed, Medcom2020+1 includes the topics (and the relative accepted abstracts) of Medcom2020 and widens the gaze, embracing reflections on the experiences after-pandemic, that had a strong impact and many changes on communication and society. Therefore, the CfP Medcom2020 welcomes new keywords and new themes, on which we invite scholars of communication, media and languages to participate.

Communication is the other side of representation and knowledge. All we know about the world we live by is mediated by symbols, languages, technologies, and media. The perception of reality is not objectively mirrored by our cognitive processes and artifacts, but it is a negotiation among reality, languages and us (our body, minds, and social relationships).

This is why communication is so important in all aspects of our lives (social and behavioral). However, the strategies that are in place when we communicate are clear with regard to how we understand each other, persuade, make alliances to change a culture. In this conference, we will explore the cognitive, emotional, and social processes involved in communication and in particular in the social communication area.

The new keywords integrate the theme of communication and cultural change with a look at how communication, technologies, digital media have contributed to define the new scenarios and how they will contribute to the construction of future scenarios.

The call for papers includes 10 sessions/panels, each one with a specific point devoted to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anyone who has already submitted an abstract that has been accepted, can submit an updated version, which will not be revised and will be automatically accepted.

Those who want to submit a new abstract have to follow the template downloadable at the following link: https://mediaconference.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/new_Abstract_Template.doc

All the updated and new abstracts must be sent by January 3, 2021 to the email address: medcom2020@kamaeventi.com

New payment deadlines are:

Early bird: March, 30

Due to the difficulties due to pandemic issues, registrations for scholars who submitted the (accepted) abstracts will be open until May, the 15th, 2021. Thank you for your interest and understanding

Social media: impact, future, issues

Social media have revolutionized the ways of communicating and the ways of interacting among individuals. Their impact on daily lives is evident. In this track we call for an in-depth study on the use of social media and the impact they have on everyday routine, but also on the interactions both among individuals and between individuals and companies. In particular this session will favor the abstract proposals focused on the analysis of the future development of social media and its complexity, especially after the pandemic experience.

  • Social media
  • Social media use: promises and expectations
  • Social media between equality and inequality
  • Social media and civic participation
  • Social Media: what future?
  • Communication and Multi-Media Campaigns
  • Digital activism and alternative media
  • New Technologies and Innovation
  • During and after the COVID-19 lockdown: the role of social media in worldwide emergency

Public sector communication

Public communication has considerably changed in recent years. The arrival of new media has opened up new scenarios and thrown down new challenges. Public communication can now really be citizen-friendly. The session will favor the abstract proposals which examine what challenges are likely to be experienced and what kind of future we have ahead of us, especially by verifying how the new media can help with public communication, also with respect to the crisis management, and which kind of issues may arise, including the legal ones.

  • Public service media: what future?
  • Communication Policy and Regulation
  • Public sector Communication
  • Communication and Multi-Media Campaigns
  • Law and Policy
  • Crisis communication
  • Media Law and Regulation
  • Public sector communication in the COVID-19 emergency.

Health communication, emergency and environmental studies

Health, crises and the environment have in common a communication capable of preventing, managing emergencies and crises and, finally, managing situations of normality and / or post-problem / crisis / emergency. For these topics new media give a great opportunity to increase attention on topics that have been filtered or ignored in the past. Furthermore, they changed some specific communication, like that one among doctors and patients, or scientists and common people about climate change. The session will favor the abstract proposals that report empirical research on topics in relation with the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Communication of Prevention
  • Risk, Stigma and Health Communication
  • Disaster Coverage in the Media
  • Metaphor and climate change
  • Doctor-patients communication
  • Media, Climate Change and Environmental Studies
  • Disaster communication
  • Communication and violence
  • Health Communication, Emergency, Prevention, Crisis Communication, and Environmental Studies in the COVID-19 pandemic

Multiculturalism, cultural studies, youth and gender communication

Relations between different cultures (national, ethnic, generational, gender) are the present and future of the media in hybrid, fragmented and complex societies. These panel welcome discussions on different aspects of the communication among groups in which different nationality and language define different identities, with particular attention to migration. Another focus will be on gender issues: equality in society, discrimination in language, gender equality and media. The session will favor the abstract proposals reporting experiences, case studies or empirical research, especially (but not only) in relation with social inequalities caused or highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • International Communication
  • Asian Perspectives on Communication
  • Critical and Cultural Studies, Youth, Gender and Communication
  • Media and Globalization
  • Media and Migrants
  • Media & Different Cultures
  • Gender equality and language
  • Gender equality and media
  • Gender equality and communication
  • Media coverage of migration and solidarity networks
  • Mass Communication, Society and Globalization
  • Social inequalities and COVID-19 urban life

Media and corporate

Economic development in a global society acts through and with the decisive support of digital media and mainstream media. In this panel the proposal can afford many different issues in which media, business, industries etc. are involved and related with communication. The session will favor the abstract proposals reporting empirical research about corporate communication facing the COVID-19 outbreak.

  • Work in media and communication industries
  • Communication Policy and Regulation
  • Media as a Global Business
  • Media and Sport (also, Olympics Coverage)
  • Media Management
  • Media Management and Economics
  • Telecommunications
  • Advertising
  • Corporate communication facing the COVID-19 outbreak

Theory of Communication, languages and media

Theoretical issues on communication, language and media, also from a historical point of view, will be welcome in this session. More specifically, we expect proposals on the relationship between language and media, semiotic and sociological perspectives on symbolic processes, cognitive and pragmatic processes in communication. In particular, the session will favor those abstract proposals focused on new perspectives that can help to understand philosophical issues on comprehension processes and human relationships in communication.

  • Emotions and communication media
  • Cognitive processes and communication
  • Contemporary communication and media representations
  • Language and representation
  • Communication theory and social change
  • Communication Theory and Methodology
  • History of linguistic theory
  • Mass Communication, History and Society
  • Communication and Culture
  • Media narratives and social realities
  • Narratives in contemporary communication
  • Media Audiences
  • Metaphors, stereotypes, and framing effect
  • Languages and symbols in communicating COVID-19

Politics, ethics and communication

Political participation, social participation in movements and democratic and political participation are closely linked to the opportunities and problems of digital media and, in particular, of social media. While the communication between politicians and citizens is (or can be) more direct, the social responsibility of communicator is still relevant for democracy. The session will favor the abstract proposals that tell about empirical research carried out with a particular focus on how political and ethical issues have been involved in COVID-19 pandemic communication.

  • Political Communication and Media
  • Media politics
  • Media and Democracy
  • Media Ethics
  • Political discourse and mediatization of politics
  • Alternative and Community Media
  • Grassroots movements and communication
  • NGO’s and communication
  • Political communication in the COVID-19 emergency

Journalism

Journalism and publishing have radically changed in the last fifty years: first the television, then the internet and, lastly, the social media have modified the way of working in the newsrooms and the language used. We passed from a “newsroom” journalism to a “widespread” journalism and even the sources, as well as the public, have become potentially unlimited. In this session it will be of interest to discuss about how journalism, whether print, television or radio, has changed and which role it played in the COVID-19 pandemic/emergency.

  • Journalism Research and Education
  • Media & Journalism
  • Magazine
  • Web-based Journalism
  • Scholastic Journalism
  • Newspaper
  • Radio-TV Journalism:
  • Radio, Television, and Entertainment Studies:
  • COVID-19 in newspaper and journalism

Media Education

Teaching and learning process are always affected by the cognitive artifacts, which mediate the world understanding process. Some of them are classical and independent by historical evolution of media and technology; many of them change a lot the way in which we comprehend contexts and communicate knowledge (whether scientific or not). In this session all these issues can be discussed and abstract proposals reporting empirical research will be very welcomed. A special focus of this panel will be the education activity that schools and universities held online through the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Media Education Research
  • Media & Literacies
  • Research and Education
  • New technologies and education
  • Gamification in education
  • Media, Information and Communication Literacy
  • Media Education
  • Explaining COVID-19 and Media education
  • Online education activity during the COVID-19 lockdown/emergency

Screen cultures

After the “turning points” that marked the theories of the late twentieth century in visual culture, many interesting themes need today to be reconsidered. We have more genre and formats and the entire range of production, consumption and circulation modes interact and create new forms of hybridization. The spectrum goes from films, TV formats, serial forms, digital storytelling to photography, social media, videogaming, digital platforms, etc. The session will favor different types of proposals: abstracts, posters, but also short movies, screenplays, showcases. This panel will also have a specific focus on catastrophes and dystopias related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Documentary Production
  • Media Industry Trends and Dynamics
  • Visual Arts & Visual Communication
  • Contemporary Theatre and Performance
  • Radio, Cinema, Television and Entertainment Studies
  • Metaphors, concepts and imaginary
  • Content: image and representation
  • Communication Technology and Digital Media
  • Mediation, Disintermedition, Remediation
  • Utopia, Dystopia
  • Data, Algorithms, People
  • Screen cultures, catastrophes and the pandemic of COVID-19