‘Political Communication in Times of Crisis: New Challenges, Trends & Possibilities’

Extended Deadline for abstract submissions: 10 March 2017

PLEASE NOTE: The correct email address for submissions is conference.zurich@gmail.com. Unfortunately, there was a wrong email address on our blog first. If you used any other email address for your submissions, we kindly ask you to submit it again to conference.zurich@gmail.com. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The Political Communication Section of ECREA welcomes the submission of abstracts for presentation at the next Interim Conference to be held in Zurich on 22 to 23 November 2017. The program schedule will allow participants to arrive on Wednesday morning and leave again on Thursday evening – should they wish to do so. Local host will be Frank Esser from the University Zurich.

The organizers call for proposals in all sub-fields of political communication research, but particularly invite conceptual, empirical, and methodological proposals on new challenges and trends in media, politics and society that we are witnessing at the moment in Europe and beyond and that political communication research can provide new insights on. We not only see the emergence of new forms and modes of political communication but also a crisis of political institutions in and across countries. Public debate has become more polarized, populist parties are on the rise, as are media skepticism and uncivil comments on social media, and new trends such as fake news have become a widespread matter of public concern in no time. What are the answers that political communication research can provide to make sense of these new trends and challenges? And what are the new possibilities and innovative approaches for political communication research to inform public debate regarding these ongoing developments? Do we need new methods and new approaches to answer new questions, and which are these – or how much (dis)continuity is there really in the developments we are witnessing at the moment? In which respects does the current situation differ from former crises, and which similarities can be found with former crises that might help to identify solution possibilities?

The conference will feature traditional papers and thematic panels. Paper submissions will be grouped in sessions of 4-5 papers by the conference program chair. A limited number of slots will be available for coherent panels where one topic is addressed in four to five presentations, followed by a respondent. Preference will be given to panels with presenters from diverse backgrounds and affiliations.

 SUBMIT:

• Submissions should be sent to conference.zurich@gmail.com no later than 10 March 2017
• Paper submissions: Please include in the email (a) the title of your paper, (b) an abstract of no more than 400 words, and (c) names and affiliations of the authors.
• Panel submissions: To submit a panel proposal, a 300 words rationale should be sent alongside a 150 words explanation per presentation, as well as the names and affiliations of presenters and respondent.

Submission will undergo scholarly peer-review. Only one proposal per first author can be accepted. Notifications of acceptance will be issued at the earliest appropriate time.