Dear AOIR colleagues hope this message finds you well. Sorry for crossposting. I am glad to share with you this call for papers to the 2018 ECREA Preconferece - The ��New Silk Road���� Flow and Counterflow of Information between Europe and China? organized by our China Media Observatory. Best wishes Abstract Submission Deadline: March.31 2018 Conference Description: http://www.chinamediaobs.org/ecrea-preconferece-��new-silk-road����-flow-and-counterflow-information-between-europe-and-china-�C-nsr The ��New Silk Road��, or in the Chinese official discourse, the ��Belt & Road initiative�� (formerly called One Belt One Road һ��һ·) was launched in 2013 with a confirmed concrete interest from Beijing to reconnect China with Europe and to establish different levels of cooperation with European partners. It has been widely recognized by the West as the Chinese president Xi Jinping��s global ambition of centralizing China as the leading force for the World Economy and Globalization as well as China��s greater expansion of Soft Power. So far, discussions about the New Silk Road and its relationship with Europe (i.e. European Union) have been mainly conducted in the field of political (Casarini, 2015; var der Putten and all, 2016, Fardella, 2016) and economic (Aoyama, 2016; Chen, 2016, Lin, 2015) studies. Much less attention has been paid from the media and communication perspective, despite the increasing importance of a better mutual understanding between different European and Chinese stakeholders on different levels under the Belt & Road framework. This preconference is designed to fill in this gap by bringing scholars in media, communication and culture studies to join the discussion about the ��New Silk Road�� from Europe and China. On one hand, it recalls to the ancient Silk Road that initiated the first flow of communication and exchange in goods and culture between the Roman and Chinese empires. On the other hand, it opens windows for discussions on the current flow of a mix of acceptance��resistance, cooperation��dispute, and agreement��disagreement related to the New Silk Road between the two continents. If in 120 BCE the flow of information was launched in the West (Europe), at the present stage it starts from the East (China). We believe that this specific topic will contribute to the main theme of ECREA 2018 by providing a contribution to frame Centers (from Europe focus to China focus) and Peripheries. CMO is the ideal institution to host this preconference, it is one of the few research center in Europe to focus its studies on Chinese media system systematically. Moreover, CMO it is part of the Institute of Media and Journalism at USI, Faculty of Communication Sciences, the only faculty in Switzerland to provide an interdisciplinary education, which blends the humanities, the social sciences, economics, and technology. We encourage research submission from (and not limited to) European research centers with a specific interest on Chinese media and also Chinese institutions with a research interest on Europe. We are also open to evaluating studies with interdisciplinary approaches and developed by scholars at their first stage, with a particular reference to the YECREA network. We expect to host a total of 25-30 attendees including scholars and experts interested in the topic. Since 2006 CMO has been active to improve the academic dialogue between Europe and China also at the PH.D. level thanks to its Europe-China Dialogue: Media and Communication Studies Summer School. We plan to publish a special issue based on the best paper presented at the conference on the journal Communication and the Public published both in English and Chinese. We encourage submissions of topics to include (but are not limited to): * Media infrastructure studies along the New Silk Road * 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 * Digital media markets and the future of the ��Digital Silk Road�� * New media and cyber security cooperation along the New Silk Road * Media governance and Media law across borders Keynote speakers * Yang Guobin (Professor of University of Pennsylvania, co-editor of the journal Communication and the Public ) * Wang Yiwei (Professor of Renmin University, author of the book The Belt and Road: What Will China Offer the World in Its Rise) Key dates * Deadline for abstract (500 words) submission: 31.03.2018 * Notice of acceptance / rejection: 15.04.2018 * Deadline for full paper (8000 words) or extended abstract (1500 words): 01.09.2018 Budget In order to support the costs of the event, we plan to ask * 100 EUR for non-ECREA members * 50 EUR for scholars who will join ECREA main conference * 30 EUR for students. ALL SUBMISSIONS should be uploaded here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nrs2018 Organizers: Dr. Zhan Zhang and Dr. Gianluigi Negro China Media Observatory, Institute of Media and Journalism, Univerist�� della Svizzera italiana Contacts: zhan.zhang@usi.ch; gianluigi.negro@usi.ch Gianluigi Negro Ph.D �C Research Fellow Gianluigi Negro Ph.D �C Post Doc and Research Fellow Universit�� della Svizzera italiana Faculty of Communication Sciences Institute of Media and Journalism China Media Observatory