Call for Proposals: The IJDT invites submissions of papers to be considered in the Special Issue 10.1 (March 2019), on the occasion of the Journal’s 10th year.
- Deadline for submissions of abstracts: February 9th, 2018
- Decisions on acceptance of abstracts: April 9th, 2018
- Deadline for submissions of full papers (6-8,000 words including refs): August 31st, 2018
- Decisions on acceptance of full papers: November 17th, 2018
Media industries, media services and companies continue to evolve, creating important challenges for policymakers and regulators globally. Many traditional media are impacted, and some may be facing a bleak economic future. New, online networks are exploring new business models for producing news and entertainment. Main drivers for this transformation are globalisation, digitalisation and technological convergence. Socio-cultural media policy objectives, striving to safeguard pluralism, diversity and national culture are battling for prominence with the economic and industrial imperatives of a global free market and open competition. Free market media systems advocate freedom of expression, allowing consumers open market pricing. Critics argue that under a free market capitalist system there is concentration of power and information asymmetry, while public service content is scarce. Is intervention by government policy needed to address these concerns, or is media regulation a thing of the past in the converged digital era?
There is certainly a question of regulatory capacity and remit in the online world. The initial light-touch ‘network’ governance of the internet is under pressure from the tech giants Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. The size and internet presence of these firms has brought issuesof piracy and abuse of copyright to public attention. Do these corporations bear any responsibility for even inadvertently facilitating the increased ease of distribution of terrorist propaganda, hate speech, violence and harassment, and online bullying? Should the current regulatory policy continue? What new national and supranational policy measures might address these issues? Regulating Facebook and Twitter – something unthinkable a few years ago – is now openly discussed. Should policy-makers perceive these large multi-national conglomerates as internet intermediaries or media companies?
We invite works to reflect and critically investigate media policies for the future,in relation to both prevailing systems of communication and the systems now emerging around the application of online networks, the rise of cloud computing, and the internet of things. In exploring the implications of media and communication in an interconnected world, we also welcome analysis that reassesses and reimagines sustainability in relation to media openness, transparency, accessibility, and the re-composition of media power. We request submissions focussed on current and future policy topics in an open way, and seek many points of view.
The future facing theme of this Call for Papers signals the broadened scope ofthe /International Journal of Digital Television/that goes beyond digital television to incorporate emerging wider socio-cultural, technological, regulatory and political questions such as the role of ‘digital citizens’, the regulatory environment for the new platform industry, and the role of state regulation in an increasingly global media industry.
We invite you to celebrate the 10^th year of the Journal with us and to take a look into the future of media policy.
Submissions
Format: All proposals must include a title, up to 8 keywords, author name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and full contact information (mailing address, email address, and telephone number).
Applicants must submit a 300-500 words abstract by February 9th, 2018. The full paper of between 6-8,000 words (including references) should be submitted by August 31st, 2018.
Procedure: All proposals must be submitted through the online system of the Journal, or via email to the Journal’s Editor at P.Iosifidis@city.ac.uk.
