The call for papers below is an extraordinary reopening of the original Beijing call for papers for authors who did not submit to the Beijing conference but want their work considered for Tampere.
The Environment, Science and Risk Communication Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites the submission of abstracts of papers and proposals for panels for the 2020 Congress of the Association, which will be held from 12 to 16 July, 2020 at Tampere University in Tampere. Submissions for this extraordinary reopening will be accepted from Monday 17 February, 2020 until Monday 2 March 2020 at 23:59 UTC.
The conference will be held under the general theme, ‘Reimagining the Digital Future: Building Inclusiveness, Respect and Reciprocity’. In line with this theme, the ESR WG encourages the submission of papers that focus on respect for diversities and shared values: respect for local cultural experiences and developmental models, respect for human dignity and international law and institutions, respect for ethics in the development and implementation of digital technologies, and respect for the safety and security of personal data and privacy. Exploring these issues requires us to reconsider to what extent the current global communication and technological landscapes have facilitated these dimensions of respect for diverse voices, experiences and models; and to ask how we can guarantee what communicative values and goals in the future.
However, papers from the full range of environment-science-risk-communication topics and perspectives will be welcomed and considered.
Key themes for the Tampere sessions of the Working Group will include:
- Science, the environment and climate change in popular culture
- Media, advocacy and local/global environmental change
- Environmental and science activism and new media
- Feminist and postcolonial political ecology
- Smart technologies and everyday life
- Media and NGO communication of climate migration
- Democratic debate and citizenship in risk politics
- Public/political engagement in science and environment communication
- Social and political uses/constructions of science, nature and the environment
- Science/environmental journalism and the political
- Inequalities of discursive control/influence in the public sphere
- Visual environmental communication
- Science and health-related media panics
- Scientific controversies/environmental crises, spin and news management
- Media-communication roles in environmental crises and disasters
- Media and public understanding of science/environment issues
- Media/social media and counter-factual environmental discourses
- Science, evidence and credibility in the new (post-factual) media environment
Guidelines
We welcome both individual abstracts and panel presentations. All abstracts must be submitted at https://iamcr2020.exordo.com. Abstracts sent by email will not be accepted.
Abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words and will generally be evaluated on the basis of: 1) theoretical contribution, 2) methods, 3) quality of writing, 4) literature review, 5) relevance of the submission to the work of the working group, and 6) originality and/or significance. Each proposal must include a clear title, name(s), affiliation, institutional address and email address of the author(s). Bibliographies and author profiles are not required.
Panel proposals consist of a panel description (title + framing text) and the individual abstracts of the panel which are submitted separately. Please check carefully the IAMCR guidelines for panel proposals.
It is expected that authors will submit only one (1) abstract. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same author, either individually or as part of any group of authors. No more than one (1) abstract can be submitted to any section or working group. Please note also that the same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to more than one section or working group. Any such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected. Authors submitting them risk being removed entirely from the conference programme.
The ESR WG will also welcome abstracts for video presentations, as part of an initiative to allow for remote participation. If you wish to submit an abstract for a video presentation, please carefully read the "call for video presentations", and follow the procedures explained there.
Languages
The Working Group accepts abstracts, panel proposals and full papers in English, Spanish and French. If you are planning to present in Spanish or French, you are expected to have an English powerpoint.
Deadlines
The deadline to submit abstracts is 23:59 GMT on 2 March 2020.
Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to applicants by the Working Group Heads no later than 7 April 2020.
See important dates and deadlines to keep in mind
Environment, Science and Risk Communication Working Group: https://iamcr.org/s-wg/working-group/esr
WG Heads: Pieter Maeseele (Chair), Joana Diaz-Pont, Kerrie Foxwell-Norton, Maitreyee Mishra (Vice-Chairs)