[Air-L] CFP: Special Issue on BeReal and Platform Authenticities

[Jessica Rauchberg]

   Dear colleagues,

   Passing along a CFP for a special issue forum on BeReal and platform
   authenticities that I am guest editing with Tom Divon. Please reach out
   if you have any queries related to the call, CFP copied below.

   Most sincerely,

   Jess

   Call for Papers:

   Flow Volume 29 Special Issue 4:

     The Struggle Is (for) Real: Cultivating Authenticity in the “BeReal”
     age

   The viral popularity of BeReal prophesizes the next generation of
   social media and social sharing platforms. The image-centric sharing
   platform, launched in 2020 by Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau,
   promotes itself as a platform for people who hate social media. The
   platform’s 10 million active users receive a daily notification
   reminding them it is “time to BeReal” while allowing two minutes to
   snap their current moment. Already recognized as the “antidote to
   social media fakery” (Duffy & Gerrard, 2022), BeReal encourages
   authenticity through the platform’s logic and design while policing
   users' labor through its emphasis on capturing each post in a single
   shot. BeReal cultivates a return to simplicity with its minimalist
   interface and simple user experience flow (Boffone, 2022). In the wake
   of COVID-19 lockdowns, BeReal promotes a sense of digital
   collectiveness as users share their pandemic moments and build a
   digital community. With increased social media fatigue, BeReal promises
   a platform experience where creative work and posting practices neither
   center around advertisements nor influencers (McKoy & Scanlan, 2022).


   This special issue of Flow opens a space to discuss this platform. What
   do BeReal’s unique affordances provide for users? How do they catalyze
   certain user behaviors and practices over others? How will BeReal shift
   influencer and creative economies? Is BeReal just another social
   sharing fad, or will the platform have a more permanent impact on
   digital platform cultures? As one of the first scholarly forums about
   BeReal, we welcome scholars to grapple with this emerging critical
   conversation interrogating BeReal’s role in the following topics and
   beyond:
     * Methodological ethics and concerns for studying BeReal
     * Telecommunications law and media policy
     * The future of advertising on social platforms
     * BeReal’s user experience
     * Race, Gender, and BeReal
     * Cross-cultural and/or transnational analyses of platform use
     * Influencer economies and platform labor
     * Social sharing v. social media
     * Behind the scenes of BeReal: authenticity and curation
     * Social media fads
     * Slow social media
     * Gamification of social platforms
     * Abolitionist and anti-carceral analyses of surveillance on BeReal

   To be considered for this issue, please submit a completed column of
   1200-1500 words, along with at least three images (.gif or .png) or
   embeddable audiovisual materials with image sources. Please send your
   column, media files, sources/citations, and a short bio to Flow’s guest
   editors, Jess Rauchberg and Tom Divon,
   at [1]flowjournaleditors at gmail.com by January 13, 2023. This Special
   Issue will be published at [2]flowjournal.org in early February.

   Flow is a critical forum on media and culture published by the
   Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at
   Austin. Flow’s mission is to provide a space where scholars and the
   public can discuss media histories, media studies, and the changing
   landscape of contemporary media.

   References

   Boffone, T. (2022, September 29). You gotta be quick when it’s time to
   BeReal. Retrieved
   from [3]https://www.popmatters.com/bereal-social-media-gamification.

   Duffy, B.E. & Gerrard, Y. (2022, August 15). BeREal and the doomed
   quest for online authenticity. Retrieved
   from  [4]https://www.wired.com/story/bereal-doomed-online-authenticity/
   .
   McKoy, K. & Scanlan, K. (2022, November 15). Could BeReal be the first
   successful social media channel to grow without ad support? Retrieved
   from [5]https://digiday.com/marketing/could-bereal-be-the-first-success
   ful-social-media-channel-to-grow-without-ad-support/.

   ​Jessica Sage Rauchberg, M.A. (she/her)
   Ph.D. Candidate | Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant
   ABLE Project and Accounts Manager, Pulse Lab
   Department of Communication Studies and Media Arts
   McMaster University
   [6]www.jessrauchberg.com

References

   1. mailto:flowjournaleditors at gmail.com
   2. http://www.flowjournal.org/
   3. https://www.popmatters.com/bereal-social-media-gamification
   4. https://www.wired.com/story/bereal-doomed-online-authenticity/
   5. https://digiday.com/marketing/could-bereal-be-the-first-successful-social-media-channel-to-grow-without-ad-support/
   6. http://www.jessrauchberg.com/