Please note: The deadline for the special issue on media and democracy for the Taiwan Journal of Democracy has been extended until Monday, April 18. The complete call follows below and is attached.
Taiwan Journal of Democracy
Call for Papers: Media and Citizenship Special Issue
Scholars have long noted the need for a well-informed electorate to maintain healthy democracies. Media performances, in many instances, have implications for the quality of democracies and their societies. An established body of scholarship in media studies and elsewhere has addressed such issues as media contribution to democratic governance. Much less empirical research examines connections among media, media systems and citizenship, including the rights, responsibilities and privileges associated with belonging to particular nations or communities, as well as associated values, identities and processes working to reinforce or transform them.
This special issue of the Taiwan Journal of Democracy is an invitation to bridge that gap. As many countries move toward more democratic forms of governance, the articulation of various dimensions of citizenship has import for the quality of democracies, but has not been fully explored in studies of democracy and democratization, as Guillermo O’Donnell has noted (See his lead article in Taiwan Journal of Democracy, Vol.3, No.2, December 2007). We use citizenship in a broad sense here, including formal rights and accompanying responsibilities in terms of a nation-state, but also dimensions reaching into often-overlooked dimensions of citizenship-including civil, social, cultural or environmental, among others-as well as what some have termed the emergence of a global civil society, or post-national citizenship following the spread of globalization.
This call for papers is intended to explore the interface of citizenship with media, building on other work on media and political engagement. Papers here may explore conceptual and analytical bridges to such key notions as agency, identity, deliberation, practice, civic interests and expression, or civic culture, among others. Please note this call is not region specific.
Key questions remain regarding interactions of dimensions and conceptualizations of citizenship with society, including regarding the formation, erosion or transformation of citizenship and citizens. How do media work to explore the limits of citizenship, of belonging or exclusion, of public and private spheres, of diversity among citizens, or in the transformation from non-citizen to citizen, and vice-versa? As Manuel Castells and Silvio Waisbord have asked, as demarcations between states, civil society and their citizens shift, what are the implications for our understandings of citizenship and the role of communication? Peter Dahlgren discussed media’s key roles in terms of shaping components of civic agency and culture; what are the observed cases of those formulations? How do citizens’ encounters with mediated content shape identity formation, public opinion, civic awareness, among others? As citizens struggle to resolve conflicts in democratic, non-democratic or democratizing societies, how does media performance connect? In rapidly transforming technological contexts, what are the implications for articulation or realization of citizenship at various scales?
Guidelines & Timeline
Full-paper proposals of empirical research (maximum 10,000 words, including references, footnotes, tables and figures) will be considered for the special issue. Papers should follow the Journal’s style and writing guidelines and editorial policies, which can be found on its website here (http://www.tfd.org.tw/english/tjd.php). Because of deadline considerations, only English-language manuscripts will be considered. The extended deadline for paper submission is April 18,, 2011. Authors will be notified by July 15, 2011, regarding the outcome of peer reviews. Final revised manuscripts for publication will be due Sept. 15, 2011. The tentative publication date for the issue will be December 2011.
Documents should be sent via email to co-editor Juliet Pinto. A title page including a 150-word abstract, relevant contact information and a brief biological sketch should be sent as a separate file. Manuscripts should include only the working title as a header on each page, and all identifying information should be removed.
Special Issue Co-Editors
Dr. Juliet Pinto
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Journalism & Broadcasting, SJMC
Florida International University
North Miami, FL 33181
(305) 919-4404
juliet.pinto@fiu.edu
Dr. Sallie Hughes
Associate Professor
Dept. of Journalism
School of Communication
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL 33146
(305) 284-8163
shughes@miami.edu
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 