[Air-L] CFP: Workshop on New Media, Old Money, Elections and Democracy

[Richard Denny Taylor]

Colleagues,

 

I am pleased to share with you this CFP for a Workshop in Washington,
D.C., Sept. 27-29.

 

Richard

 

 

New Media, Old Money: Digital Technology, Social Media

and the New Challenges to Campaigning and Democracy

 

A by-invitation experts' workshop to be held at

The Embassy of Switzerland in the United States of America

Washington, DC, September 27-29, 2015

 

Electronic media have played a central role in politics almost since their
introduction. The role of media in election campaigns is often seen as the
origin of media and communication studies. The variety of political
systems worldwide, the wide range of media systems that operate within
them, and the extensive array of regulatory schemes that govern this
association raise thought provoking questions about the role of media in
democracy. The media-politics-capital triad has raised concerns about the
effect of money on the health and fairness of political and media
structures. The use of digital technologies and collaborative media has
now become a critical part of these complex relationships. 

 

Increasingly, political campaigns are built around digital strategies
rather than on traditional broadcast ad buys. The internet offers many
additional groups cheap access to the public sphere and new possibilities
for information and discussion. Accordingly, much of the most "impactful"
money is spent "online," calling on expertise in building networks,
conversations and communities using social networking platforms, combined
with applications designed to amplify messaging as well as volunteers and
users generating their own content. In addition, the ability to find,
analyze and apply personal information from "big data" is becoming more
important than market research and the focus has shifted to the
development of comprehensive social media strategies for young, ethnic,
gendered and special interest groups. Finally, legacy media and their
traditional business models are affected by change as well, raising
questions about implications of the internet for journalism and democracy.


 

As a result, any current understanding of campaign spending and political
communication must incorporate not just traditional advertising, but
equally spending on internet and social networking platforms and the use
of information technologies to identify and reach voters through multiple
platforms. The same "Old Money" is being used to try to gain influence,
but new media offer new approaches both to enhance and conceal its
effects. Moreover, the same media brands with the same powerful owners
prevail online as well.

 

The Institute for Information Policy at Penn State, the Department of
Communication and Media Research DCM at the University of Fribourg and the
Journal of Information Policy, are pleased to announce this call for paper
proposals. Authors of selected papers will be invited to present them
during a two day (September 28th and 29th, 2015) by-invitation workshop
designed to bring together up to a dozen American and international
experts and to be held at the Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, DC.
The workshop will open with a reception on September 27th. Presenters at
the workshop will be invited to submit their completed papers for review
by the Journal of Information Policy ( <http://www.jip-online.org/>
www.jip-online.org). By focusing on the media-politics-capital triad, and
taking place a year before the presidential elections in the US and only
weeks before the national elections in Switzerland, the workshop is
ideally suited to provide important insights not only for scholarly
research but also for policy-makers in both countries.

 

Invited topics include, but are not limited to: 

 

*	The role of media in election and referendum campaigns
*	The (democratic) need for regulation of media and campaigns
*	The role of money in campaigning and political communication
*	The role of money in media policy and regulation
*	Commercialization of the media and its effect on political
coverage
*	Ownership structures of new and old media and their implications
for democracy, political communication and media policy
*	Changes of political communication and journalism due to
digitization
*	The strategic use of social media by political actors
*	Comparative studies of media regulation, political communication
and campaigns
*	New metrics for campaign expenditures in the digital age
*	Political campaign money spending in online campaigns
*	Limitations on campaign spending 
*	Limitations on contributions; on sources of contributions;
requirements for disclosure; regulation of spending by advocacy groups; by
political parties; and by individuals
*	The challenge of diversity of views and voices in the digital age
*	Applying broadcast political speech rules be applied on the
Internet 
*	Should social media, blogs, listserves and websites be subject to
political speech rules?
*	How have the larger changes in the economics of media affected
political news and commentary?

 

Abstracts of up to 500 words and a short bio of the author(s) should be
submitted to  <mailto:pennstateiip at psu.edu> pennstateiip at psu.edu by July
10, 2015. Please write "IIPFUWS: Your Last Name" in the subject line.
Accepted presenters will be notified by July 25, 2015.