Hi, all. Apologies for cross-posting. CFP: Union for Democratic Communication 2012 International Conference "Climates of Change: Democracy Movements, Media, and Global Environments" Deadline: Submit your 500 word abstract to UDC2012@gmail.com by January 15, 2012, and join us in Tallahassee for the conference May 10-12, 2012. **The intersections of proliferating new media technology, economic inequality, and global environmental instability are producing new spaces for social and political agency, real and imagined. From astroturf campaigns of corporate sponsored populist outrage to the very real popular anger at the economic stagnation of the middle class, politicians and pundits are leveraging fear, doubt, and denial to advance old world agendas at the very moment when new media technologies are opening new pathways for social organization, information and fact checking. Further, in the face of economic restructuring and the continued dismantling of everything “public,” mainstream media outlets both celebrate the virtues of social media to liberate us from disinformation and domination and disseminate corporate ideology, misinformation, and distorted dichotomies in the name of objectivity. The 2012 Conference of the Union for Democratic Communications seeks submissions that address the pressing issues manifested by climates of change. For example, how are social media tools being used to liberate and/or enclose democratic participation? What forces are structuring contemporary debates about global climate change and the cultural and economic impacts of policy decisions shaped by these debates? What media and communication tools and strategies are social movements using to counter and confront obstruction, disinformation and denial? How are mainstream media news frames challenged and reconfigured by new media news sources – blogs, Twitter, podcasts and citizen media? Submit your 500 word abstract to UDC2012@gmail.com by January 15, 2012, and join us in Tallahassee for the conference May 10-12, 2012. Best, Nicole B. Cox, M.S. PhD Candidate School of Communication College of Communication & Information Florida State University UCC4413 nbg03@fsu.edu