[Air-L] CFP: Science and health controversies in digital media

[An Nguyen]

Dear Colleagues,

Apologies for crossposting. I would like to invite you to contribute to the following special issue of Media and Communication, a Q2 open-access journal indexed on ISI, Scopus and many other databases. https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/nextissues#ScienceHealth.


Volume 8, Issue 2

Title:
Science and Health Controversies on Digital Media: News, Mis/Disinformation and Public Engagement


Editor(s):
An Nguyen (Bournemouth University, UK)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 August 2019
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2020
Publication of the Issue: June 2020

Information:

Digital media open a vast array of avenues for lay people to engage with news, information and debates about the science and health issues that shape their private and public life. Many of these are innovative and effective in providing users with the voices to go with their eyes and ears about science issues. At the same time, however, recent climate-change-denial, anti-vaccination, pro-creationism and other campaigns show that digital media could become a fertile land for vested interests to spread mis-and dis-information, stimulate uncivil discussions and engender ill-informed, dangerous public decisions. On social networking sites, for example, people’s values, beliefs and emotions are often brought to the forefront—with the substantial aid of algorithms—and/or skillfully deployed for political, commercial and/or religious gains, at the expense of scientific evidence.

This thematic issue invites scholarly investigations—critical, interpretive or empirical—into the above and their implications for public engagement with scientific evidence. We welcome contributions on the pros and cons of digital media in science debates and how they might impact public understanding, attitudes and actions regarding science and health issues. Topics might include, but are not limited to, issues around the following broad questions:

  1.  How is mis/disinformation around science controversies produced, distributed and redistributed in digital environments?
  2.  In what ways do laypeople use social media to obtain news, gain knowledge and/or engage with science controversies—and with what effects?
  3.  How do factual knowledge and scientific evidence interact with emotions and values/beliefs in the fast-moving digital world to shape public engagement with science controversies?
  4.  Is the authority of the scientific expert declining faster in social platforms than other media environments? Why or why not?
  5.  What techniques and strategies can the news media employ to tackle the dark sides of digital technologies in public communication of controversial science issues?
  6.  What are the potential mechanisms for the news media, the science establishment and the civil society to cooperate in the fight against science mis/disinformation online?

Instructions for Authors:
Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac at cogitatiopress.com<mailto:mac at cogitatiopress.com>).


Open Access:
The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation.
Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/about/editorialPolicies#publicationFees>.

Please note that the article-processing fee has NO intervention in the very strict peer-review and independent editorial decision-making process of this journal. A fee, which is to cover the publisher’s back office costs, only incur if/after a paper is fully accepted.

Authors from institutional members of M&C<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/institutionalmembers> can publish without the fee. A fee waiver can be considered for authors who can demonstrate the need for it.


Many thanks.

An


Dr An Nguyen
Associate Professor of Journalism
Associate Director, Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community
Faculty of Media and Communication, Bournemouth University
Editor, Anthem Studies in Emerging Media and Society<http://www.anthempress.com/anthem-studies-in-emerging-media-and-society>, Anthem Press

Recent books:
News, Numbers and Public Opinion in a Data-Driven World<http://bloomsbury.com/uk/news-numbers-and-public-opinion-in-a-data-driven-world-9781501330353/> (Bloomsbury, 2018)
Developing News: Global Journalism and the Coverage of "Third World” Development <https://www.routledge.com/Developing-News-Global-Journalism-and-Coverage-of-the-Third-World/Lugo-Ocando/p/book/9780415621823>  (Routledge, 2017)

Web page: https://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/anguyen

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