Dear AoIR members, apologies for potential cross-posting. Let me share a call for papers in the area of communication studies, including computational research in online communication and social media. The 8th international conference 'Comparative Media Studies in Today's World' (CMSTW'2020) will gather the scholars from a wide range of disciplines to discuss the topic of the growing importance: 'Back to context? Media and communication research between big data and contextual meanings'. It will take place in St.Petersburg, Russia, on April 21 to 23, 2020. Today, in the time of disruptive public spheres and loss of common reference fields based on mass communication, contextualization may be viewed as both the goal of public media and a freeze of hierachies and hegemonies. The national contexts are challenged by regional dynamics, transborder online diasporas, and superplatforms that unite communication and services. Understanding contexts becomes more and more of a challenge, also due to the fact that many of them are closed for exploration, like (partly) China or (almost completely) North Korea. While big data studies seemed one of the responses to this challenge, there is growing understanding that, without context, 'data lose its meaning and value' (boyd&Crawford, 2012). How do we recreate context in actual communication - and also in our research? What are the rigorous procedures of involving contextual knowledge into the research designs, without destroying the replicability of the studies? And, overall, what do we consider 'the relevant context'? We offer a great lineup of keynote speakers, among them Mark Deuze (the Netherlands), Mark Graham (OII, UK), Kai Hafez (U of Utrecht), Claudia Mellado (Chile), and Natalia Zubarevich (Russia). Also, we will have a range of round tables on China/India, Arab countries, and Russia/post-Soviet states as contexts of public and online communication, with invited guests from Hong Kong, Germany, Poland, Russia and other countries. Publishing opportunities include a collection of papers in the Routledge Advances in Internationalizing Media Studies (SCOPUS) and a best paper publication in Digital Journalism (SCOPUS Q1). Also, subject to submissions, a thematic issue in Digital Journalism may be considered for publication. The forms of participation include individual papers (full papers, short papers, extended abstracts), panels (up to 4 papers), and workshops (up to 10 people). The submission guidelines will be published on cmstw2020.org on November 15, 2019. THE DEADLINE FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS IS JANUARY 15, 2020; the notification of acceptance will come on February 10, 2020. The organizing committee will help with housing and visa invitations. We also pre-order weather for you :) Please follow us on cmstw2020.org and send your queries to cmstw2020@spbu.ru - - yours, Svetlana Bodrunova -- 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 s.bodrunova@spbu.ru, spasibo-tebe@yandex.ru