[Air-L] CFP: Image is the Text

[T. Towner]

 Call for Papers in Special Issue: "Image is the New Text: The Rise of
Digital Visuals in Communication" in
*The Electronic Journal of Communication*: http://www.cios.org/www/ejc/
calls/digvis.htm

Deadline for full manuscripts: June 1, 2018

Today, we have entered a post-text world where the written word is no
longer the principal mode of communication. Instead, a stream of digital
visuals, in the form of pictures, photos, GIFs, infographics, memes, and
videos, flood users? smartphones, iPads, laptops, and other digital
devices. Exposure to digital visuals happens everywhere? social media sites
(e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat), online
newspapers, emails, blogs, and digital messaging applications. Recent
reports indicate that by the end of 2018 a majority of all marketing
communication will be visual. Scholars have concluded that visuals are more
easily remembered, recalled, and recognized than words. In fact, on social
media, visual content is far more likely to be shared than any other
content. Despite the changing modes of communication, current communication
research continues to focus principally on textual content while
overlooking the role of digital visuals.

This special issue addresses the rising importance of digital images in
communications as citizens across the globe transition from a textual
communication landscape to a dawning visual era. We welcome research
drawing on all theoretical and methodological perspectives. Research on
newer and understudied social media platforms, such as Instagram and
SnapChat, is particularly encouraged.

Possible topics and questions for papers might include, but are not limited
to:

- The distribution of digital visuals on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
SnapChat, Tumblr, Reddit, and YouTube
- Who is creating and sharing digital visuals?
- Audience engagement with digital visuals (e.g., likes, shares, and
comments)
- How do digital visuals set the mass media agenda?
- What are the predictors of "viral" digital visuals?
- What is the impact of audience engagement and attention to digital
visuals?
- How do digital visuals represent gender, race, class, disability, and
age? How are social norms challenged with visuals?
- Analyses of the meaning of the digital visuals
- Construction of identity -- how do users visually present themselves
online?
- The rise and role of live digital video
- How do digital visuals influence social movements, policy, events, and
elite response?

Deadline: Submit manuscripts through EJC's online submission system at
http://ejcojs.cios.org by June 1, 2018, for consideration. Please be sure
to submit to the journal section entitled Special Issue: "Image is the New
Text: The Rise of Digital Visuals in Communication"

Format: Papers should be prepared in APA 6th Ed. Style. Remove all
author-identifying information from the main manuscript for blind review.
Manuscripts should be single spaced with tables/figures inserted where they
belong; double-space between headings, subheadings, and adjacent sections;
avoid breaking tables across pages. Please send manuscripts in .doc, .docx,
or .rtf formats (not HTML).

Questions: Please address any questions to the Special Issue Editor,
Professor Terri L. Towner, Oakland University, email: towner at oakland.edu
-- 
Associate Professor
Oakland University
Department of Political Science
Varner Hall, Rm 426
Rochester, MI 48309
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Co-Editor of *The Internet and the 2016 Presidential Campaign*
<https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498542968/The-Internet-and-the-2016-Presidential-Campaign>
(2017)
Editor of* The Pi Sigma Alpha Undergraduate Journal of Politics
<http://www.psajournal.org/>*
Faculty Advisor of the Nu Omega Chapter, the Political Science Honorary
<http://oakland.orgsync.com/org/psanuomega/>