Education

Call for Papers

Prague Media Point conference 2018

Prague, 15-17 November 2018

In an increasingly unstable world, independent media are facing unprecedented challenges. Journalism’s crucial role to represent the public interest is being actively undermined by declining audiences, upended business models, and the emergence of alternative sources of content. The net result is disturbingly low levels of trust among consumers who complain about political and business agendas, fake news, and low-quality media overall.

All these challenges are, in some form, connected to recent and rapid technological developments that have altered the way information is spread. Social media, in particular, has helped blur the lines between fact-based journalism, disinformation, and outright propaganda, as individuals sink deeper and deeper into their own echo-chambers.

Despite these challenges, digital technology still holds untapped potential and opportunities for the media. Across the world, media entrepreneurs are working on creative start-ups, innovative business models, and new ways of both reporting and delivering that content to their audiences.

What are the leading examples of sustainable media strategies successfully incorporating digital technology? Is a more innovative use of digital technology combined with editorial diversity the answer to bridging the polarization of society? How can digital tools be used to help build trust and champion the public interest in this contested political space? Has technology been a boon or bane to journalism overall, and where does the future lie?

In this latest addition of the Prague Media Point, we will look at those questions in one of the few international conferences that bring together scholars, media professionals, and press freedom activists to discuss and debate the pressing issues of the day.

Possible topics include but are by no means limited to:

• Digitally aided journalism practices and all the trends that affect content production. Proposed papers in this area may cover new forms of data journalism, experiments in virtual reality/immersive story-telling, mobile reporting investigation, reporting, and visualization, such as automation, augmentation, and AI in the newsroom. This area also includes the use of digital tools in overcoming the lack of gender diversity, political polarization, and other problems.
• Digitally aided entrepreneurial practices in media and audience engagement. This area will focus on innovative and disruptive business models and issues affecting revenue streams. This includes the role of big tech companies, membership/subscription strategies, and aggregation platforms. Additionally, this topic will explore, for example, the issues of personalized user experience, new ways of audience engagement and reaching neglected target groups, and tactics for overcoming the digital divide.
• Policy and governance issues in media and technology. This area will center on regulations affecting the work of digital media outlets such as legal norms, censorship, net neutrality, and policy responses to the avalanche of fake news and disinformation. This area could also address the role of public service media.

We welcome proposals from scholars from any discipline, inter-discipline, or scholarly field. Please submit your 500-word abstracts and a short bio by June 15th, 2018 to: caspe@keynote.cz    Download our abstract template.

You can also follow the conference on Facebook and Twitter at #PragueMediaPoint.

The Steering Committee includes the following members:
Tony Curzon Price, openDemocracy, Associate Editor
Jeremy Druker, Transitions, Director
Christian Christensen, Stockholm University, Professor
Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel, CISS/ISA, President Emeritus
Alenka Jelen Sanchez, University of Stirling; ECREA Advisory Board Member
Jakub Klepal, Forum 2000 Foundation, Executive Director
Jiří Pehe, New York University in Prague, Director
Václav Štětka, Charles University in Prague, Senior Fellow Researcher
Gavan Titley, National University of Ireland, ECREA Diaspora, Migration and the Media, Chair
Christopher Walker, National Endowment for Democracy, Vice President for Studies and Analysis