CFP – SACOMM 2019: August 28-30, University of Cape Town

Inside | Outside

CALL FOR PAPERS

Current communication debates are increasingly dominated by polarities and conflicts. On closer inspection, these polarities are not always defined by antagonism or opposing ideologies, but are also informed by power imbalances in terms of race, class and gender, technological access, education, age, geospatial factors, and mobility.

This year’s theme looks at the positions of communications specialists, media producers and users as being inside or outside media systems; from being inside the echo chamber to being shut out by censorship; from speaking as an inside whistleblower to being left outside the frame. Who has and who controls access to creative technologies and distribution? Who speaks, who is being followed, who is being listened to and whose voices are being amplified? What is heard on air, or edited out? How does one’s position (either inside or outside) make one vulnerable, empowered, educated or misinformed?

Themes may include, but are not limited to the following:

Content platforms and gatekeepers

Film, media and marginality

Media networks and ecologies

Film and media censorship

Citizen journalism, community media and media corporations

Television beyond the box

Media scholarship and inclusion

African media scholarship in the world

Media platforms and questions of access

WhatsApp and citizen witnesses

News writing and news aggregation

Threats to media freedom

Social media

Corporate communication, crisis communication, strategic communication, organisational communication

Development communication

Election coverage

ABSTRACT CATEGORIES

There will be three categories of presentation:

Category 1: Full 20-minute conference paper presentations

Category 2: Panel discussion sessions and/or roundtable/workshop proposals

Category 3: Poster presentations

Best Paper Prizes

There are two paper prizes: a student award and an open paper prize. To be eligible for the awards, full papers must be submitted by 5th of August.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

All abstracts must be submitted to the email address: sacomm2019@gmail.com, using the correct abstract submission form. Submissions not submitted on the correct form will not be accepted. Incomplete submissions will not be accepted. Submission of one abstract per person is encouraged to keep the programme manageable. No more than two abstracts per person (for different streams) will be allowed.

The Abstract Submission form can be downloaded here: Abstract Submission Form

Key dates:

Abstract: 30 April 2019

Notification of acceptance: 31 May 2019

Full paper submission: 5 August 2019

This year’s theme looks at the positions of media producers and users as being inside or outside media systems; from being inside the echo chamber to being shut out by censorship; from speaking as an inside whistleblower to being left outside the frame. Who has and who controls access to creative technologies and distribution? Who speaks, who is being followed, who is being listened to and whose voices are being amplified? What is heard on air, or edited out? How does one’s position (either inside or outside) make one vulnerable, empowered, educated or misinformed?