--Apologies for potential cross-posting-- 7th International Conference COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES IN TODAY’S WORLD (CMSTW’2019) CALL FOR PAPERS Time: April 16–18, 2019 Place: St.Petersburg, Russia Working language: English Theme for 2019: COMMUNITIES. AUDIENCES. PUBLICS In the recent decades, proliferation of communicative channels, including digital ones, has led to fragmentation of mass communication and its overarching audiences. Digitalization, on one hand, has brought on stage new audience constellations aligned along new societal cleavages – the process that is often framed negatively in academic literature, as it potentially contributes to social disintegration in the absence of common information denominators. On the other hand, the boom on the market provides numerous opportunities to rethink relations between media and their audiences, focusing on constructing consumer, political, and/or cultural communities in media on all levels, from hyperlocal to transnational. If we, indeed, face the fundamentally new, fragmented, redefined communicative groupings, how do we describe them? Can we actually measure ‘a public’ similar to the way we measure audiences – and how do we measure the latter, too? Do social media represent publics, and with what limitations? Is community equal to a platform? And can we draw parallels with the recent and no-so-recent past of the media systems when calling a constellation of people a community, an audience, a public? The conference seeks contributions that deal with describing, measuring, and assessing the deliberative quality and consumer behavior of communicative communities, audiences, and publics, both today and in the past. The aim of this conference is to bring together sociological, economic, psychological, communicative, and technological perspectives in rethinking the relations between social groups, media markets, and communicative technologies. We especially welcome contributions of comparative nature, while single-case studies are also welcome if they state how the method may be expanded to involve comparisons. CONFERENCE TRACKS In 2019, the conference will have four tracks that feature various aspects of the questions posed above. The submissions might orient to but are not limited to the following sub-topics: THEORY track Chairs: Silvio Waisbord, George Washington University, USA Florian Toepfl, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany • (Re)defining communities, audiences, publics: academic vs. industrial definitions of communicative groupings • Today’s grounds of formation of audiences and publics: towards multi-dimensional assessment of group communication • Group communication and its role in social change: national to regional to global • New types of democratic and authoritarian publics and their social and political roles • Public sphere(s): old, new, (non)existent • Communicative affordances and their roles in community building • Media effects in fragmented communication POLITICAL AND SOCIAL track Chairs: Svetlana Bodrunova, St.Petersburg State University, Russia Anna Litvinenko, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany – St.Petersburg State University, Russia • New socio-economic order and communication in the post-recession world • Personal vs. group communication: the borders of the social in public discussions • Social gaps and political publics • Communicating ideology in today’s world • The state and co-optation of platforms: free speech, communicative authoritarianism, and computational propaganda • Communities communicating: practices in comparative perspective • Minority, ethnicity, and migration as communicative triggers MEDIA INDUSTRY AND JOURNALISM track Chair: Federico Subervi, University of Leeds, UK • Communication as belonging: media consumption as community builder/destroyer • Business models for newspapers and beyond: is there an audience? • Group interests and media content: new rituals of audience involvement • Online journalism and the blurred borders of media consumption • Personalized or mass journalism? Decisions for today’s fragmentation of media use • Community media and their resources for survival • Measuring audiences: media metric industries of today • The visual: representing communities and creating audience involvement TECH AND METHODS track Chair: Olessia Koltsova, National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Russia • Platform affordances and community formation • Media and their audiences on social networks • Communities and computationals: bots, trolls, and their real impact tested • Detection of communities and publics: automated and semi-automated methods • Measuring publics: conceptualization and instruments • Approaches to comparisons in online community detection When submitting to the conference, please start your title with naming the track, e.g. ‘THEORY A new definition of community building on Twitter’. ABOUT THE CONFERENCE Since 2013, the conference has gathered experts in a wide range of topics within comparative media research, from media systems studies and transformations in communication to the rise of platform-based communication to emotions and rationality in mediated discussions. In 2019, the 7th conference will include a plenary podium discussion, four keynote speeches, special ‘guest country’ events, panels for presenting papers, book presentations, and a range of workshops (subject to submissions). The cultural program of the conference will include excursions to the State Hermitage and the Russian Museum that holds one of the best collections of Russian fine art in the world. The conference is an integral part of the 58th Russian-speaking ‘Media in Modern World’ Annual Forum. Thus, interested audience is ensured, and you may wish to take part in the Plenary Session (with simultaneous translation into English), as well as other sessions and panels at the Annual Forum on April 18-19. INVITED GUESTS Jean Burgess (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) Barbara Pfetsch (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska (University of Wroclaw, Poland) Florian Töpfl (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) FORMS OF PARTICIPATION Individual submissions Full papers: 9 to 15 pages, Springer formatted, anonymized Short papers: 5 to 8 pages, Springer formatted, anonymized Extended abstracts: 300 words, free form (pdf), anonymized All submissions must be uploaded via the conference EasyChair account (will be available starting from November 15, 2018; please see the address on the conference website). Full and short papers will be considered for publication in the conference proceedings. Group submissions Panel submissions: a 300-word panel rationale plus 3 to 5 abstracts of max 200 words, free form (pdf), anonymized. Full and short papers may be submitted as parts of the panels to be included in the proceedings, but panels may also be accepted without full paper submission. Workshops: 2 to 4 pages, Springer formatted, de-anonymized All submissions must be uploaded via the conference EasyChair account (will be available starting from November 15, 2018; please see the address on the conference website). Workshops Workshops are a special group form of participation in the conference. They are dedicated to detailed in-group discussion of a collection of papers (up to ten). Workshop proposals are submitted by the general conference deadline; workshop papers are submitted by a later deadline, but are subject to blind peer-review just as the conference submissions. Accepted papers will be published in the second volume of proceedings after the conference. The initial payment for the workshop includes all the papers by workshop organizers; also, external individual submissions may be included in a workshop. Workshop chairs organize the reviewing process together with the conference organizers. PUBLISHING OPPORTUNITIES AND AWARDS Springer International Publishing The conference has applied to Springer International Publishing to publish its proceedings in one of its series (SCOPUS). We ask all the authors of full, short papers, and workshop proposals, to use the Springer templates. The templates and the guidelines for authors: www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines?countryChanged=true&countryChanged=true Special issue at SOCIAL MEDIA + SOCIETY The conference will feature its best papers at Social Media + Society, a leading journal in the field (SCOPUS Q1). The journal focuses on research upon social media and their roles in social and political life. While submitting via EasyChair, please tick the box ‘I want my paper to be considered for the special issue’ if you wish so. Note that the issue is regarded ‘invited content’, which makes this open access publication free of charge. DIGITAL JOURNALISM publishing opportunity The conference steering committee will identify (based on the reviews) the best conference paper on issues that relate to digital media and online journalism. This paper will be suggested for publication in Digital Journalism (SCOPUS Q1), another distinguished journal in communication studies. Prof. Svetlana Bodrunova, the CMSTW program chair and Digital Journalism board member, will advise on how to make the paper fit the standards of the journal before submitting it to the journal peer review. Katrin Voltmer’s prize for the best PhD student paper In 2018, Katrin Voltmer established a prize for the best PhD student’s paper of the conference; this prize is equal to 10,000 RUR. The prize will be handed in at the closing ceremony. DEADLINES AND OTHER DATES Individual submissions January 14, 2019 – main submission deadline (papers and extended abstracts, including papers that belong to panels) February 5, 2019 – notifications of acceptance February 15, 2019 – camera-ready papers deadline February 10, 2019 – deadline to confirm participation March 1, 2018 – early-bird registration deadline April 1, 2018 – regular registration deadline Group submissions January 14, 2019 – main submission deadline (panel and workshop proposals) January 20, 2019 – notification of acceptance and announcement of workshops on the website February 5, 2019 – deadline for individual workshop submissions to EasyChair February 20, 2019 – notification of acceptance for workshop papers March 1, 2019 – registration deadline for group submissions March 15, 2018 – early-bird registration deadline for individual workshop submissions April 1, 2018 – regular registration deadline Please note that there will be no on-site registration payment procedures; please ensure your participation by paying the participation fee before April 1, 2018. Visa support St.Petersburg University provides visa support for the conference participants. Visa invitation letters will be sent out on request. Please note that, for the USA and UK citizens, preparation of an official invitation may take up to 5 weeks, while for the EU citizens it takes 1 to 2 weeks. PARTICIPATION FEES Presenters: UN Tier 1 country: 150 euro (early-bird: 120 euro) UN Tier 2 country: 120 euro (early-bird: 100 euro) UN Tier 3 country: 80 euro (early-bird: 60 euro) Student/PhD student presenter – 50 euro Individual workshop submission: 100 euro (early-bird: 80 euro) Panel (up to 5 papers): 250 euro (early-bird: 200 euro), individual submissions included in payment Workshop (up to 10 participants): 250 euro for the initial group submission Non-presenting participant – 30 euro Please note that the price for the entrance tickets to the State Hermitage is to be paid extra at the museum and is currently 10 euro, or 700 roubles. Conference venue, website, and email: The conference venue is School of Journalism and Mass Communications, St.Petersburg University, 26, 1st line of Vasilievsky island, St.Petersburg 199004 Russia The conference website will be cmstw2019.org (opens November 12, 2018). Those interested in learning of previous conferences and general information may wish to visit cmstw2018.org. In case of any queries, please send us your questions to cmstw2019@spbu.ru. We’re looking forward to welcoming you in St.Petersburg! -- Svetlana S. Bodrunova, Prof., D.Polit.Sci. Head, Center for International Media Research School of Journalism and Mass Communications, St.Petersburg State University +7 921 933 02 14 spasibo-tebe@yandex.ru