Joint Call for Video Presentations

Photo: (cc) flickr user stevekeiretsu

Several IAMCR sections and working groups (S&WGs) are participating in an experimental initiative to call for video presentations for the IAMCR 2020 conference. These sections and working groups are: The Participatory Communication Research Section (PCR), the Popular Culture Working Group (POP), the Media, Communication and Sport Section (MCS), the Environment, Science & Risk Communication Working Group (ESR), the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN), the Comic Art Working Group (COA) the Global Media Policy Working Group (GMP), the Audience Section (AUD), the Community Communication and Alternative Media Section (CAM) and the Media Education Research Section (MER).

This initiative is driven by the need to make headway towards virtual conference participation. The participating S&WGs, supported by IAMCR’s Executive Board, believe that the association must provide alternatives to address the environmental impact that our conferences have, and the exclusions that characterise current conference models. As IAMCR members, we all have an ethical-ecological responsibility here. Moreover, the participating S&WGs believe that we should also acknowledge and stimulate the creative opportunities that video presentations can offer to conference presenters.

This is why these S&WGs call on IAMCR members to submit proposals for video presentations. As this is an experiment, proposals for video presentations can only be submitted to participating S&WGs. Non-participating sections and working groups will not accept them. Each participating S&WGs will accept a maximum of 10% video presentations of the total number of accepted conference presentations, based upon a regular review of the submitted abstracts. They will each program maximum one video presentation per conference panel.

Submissions of proposals for video presentations will follow the regular procedures for submitting proposals to the IAMCR conference. This means that abstracts must be submitted from 1 December 2019 through 10 February 2020 or during the extraordinary reopening from 17 February to 2 March. We ask you to kindly submit proposals in good time at the abstract submission site.

Submissions must address the themes proposed by the given section or working group in its own call for proposals.

If you are submitting a proposal for a video presentation, consult the "Technical note for IAMCR conference video presentations". The technical note must be read in conjuncture with this call for video presentations.

Specific requirements

Please keep the following specific requirements for video presentations in mind:

  • The call for video presentations is only open to IAMCR members. These are members of the organization that are in good standing, with all their membership fees paid, at the moment of the abstract submission deadline.
  • In addition to the elements that should be included in a regular abstract (such as a research question, theoretical framework, methods, etc.), submitted abstracts will also have to contain a clear description of the format of the video presentation. The length of the entire abstract should be between 300 and 500 words.
  • The general rule of the maximum number of submissions still applies: 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.

General requirements

Authors of accepted video presentations will have to keep the following in mind.

  • Authors of accepted video presentations will be required to pay a conference registration fee set at 50% of the normal fee for participants in the same category and country income level, if the presenter doesn’t attend the conference. If the author of the video presentation also attends the conference, the full conference fee will have to be paid.
  • Video presenters will be responsible themselves for uploading their videos, and for providing a download link, before the regular “full papers” submission deadline, which is 5 June 2020. There will be one feedback loop for submitted videos, with a maximum duration of one week, which means that acceptance is conditional, and poor-quality videos can still be rejected.
  • Video presentations will have a maximum duration of 12 minutes.
  • Presenters are requested to do more than producing a “talking heads video”. Creativity is, in other words, welcomed.
  • Presenters are requested to consider subtitling their video in one of the working languages of IAMCR (English, Spanish or French) other than the main language used in the video.
  • Video presentations will have to follow the technical guidelines produced by the participating S&WGs.
  • At least one of the authors is required to be available (live, on Skype or an alternative endorsed by the relevant S&WG) immediately after their video presentation screening, in order to answer questions from the audience.

Consult the detailed Calls for Proposals of the participating sections and working groups at the links below:

Consult the Technical note for IAMCR conference video presentations