IAMCR 2013 - Crisis Communication Working Group - Call for Papers

altThe Crisis Communication Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites submissions for the IAMCR 2013 conference to be held in Dublin, Ireland, June 25-29, 2013. The conference will be held at the Dublin City University.

Deadline for submission of abstracts and panel proposals (300-500 words) is January 28, 2013.

Announcement of acceptances and start of conference registration is February 28, 2013. Full papers (around 7 500 words excluding notes and references) must be uploaded via IAMCR OCS May 28, 2013.

The Crisis Communication Working Group aims at providing a forum for scholars researching the mediation of political and economic crisis, wars and terrorism, disasters, catastrophes and risks, combining global and local perspectives. We adopt a broad understanding of crisis communication with theoretical contributions from different perspectives and disciplines and hope to stimulate fruitful discussions about threat-image constructions and the consequences for democracy and civil rights. This means that we want to avoid a more narrow-eyed public relations perspective concerned with offering “best practice” advice for commercial corporations.

Key themes with focus on the main conference topic “Crises, ‘Creative Destruction’ and the Global Power and Communication Order” will include:

  • War, Terrorism and Crisis Communication
  • Economic and Financial Crisis Communication
  • Crisis Communication related to Disasters, Pandemics, Environmental problems and Climate Changes
  • Crisis Communication related to Political Scandals
  • Crisis Communication related to Immigration, Ethnicity and Racial Discrimination

Contemporary crises, as well as the communication about them, are increasingly transnational. Therefore we want to encourage research panels aimed at comparing crisis communication in different areas cross-culturally. A proposal for a panel should provide a panel title, a framing text (with the overall idea of the panel in maximum 500 words) and short abstracts for the included papers with titles and authors. A panel chair and a discussant can also be proposed. The panel framing text and the individual paper abstracts need to be submitted separately.

The Working Group encourages senior scholars to take part in moderation of panels and chairing sessions. Feel free to let us know if you are interested. We also might contact you.

Submission information

We welcome proposals for papers on the above or related issues by submitting an abstract of 300 to maximum 500 words. Abstracts should state the author(-s) name, address, university affiliations, telephone, and e-mail, followed by the title, the theoretical perspectives and methods used (in short), the questions asked and the empirical research presented. IAMCR accepts papers in English, French and Spanish, but it is requested that abstracts and panels proposals are submitted in English.

Submissions as well as full papers (once they are accepted) can only be done online by using the IAMCR Open Conference System (OCS). The OCS system at http://iamcr-ocs.org is open from 15 November 2012 and closes on 28 January 2013.

We normally expect only one abstract per lead person for consideration – and under no circumstances should there be more than two abstracts bearing the same name of a proposer either individually or as part of any group of authors to a single IAMCR conference. The same abstract or version of an abstract with minor variations must not be submitted to other IAMCR sections or Working Groups. Such submissions will be rejected by the OCS system and by the heads of Sections and Working Groups.

Prior to the conference, a completed paper must be submitted to the Working Group via the OCS system, by 28 May 2013.

Papers and panel proposals will be reviewed by the two heads of the Working Group and by further specialists, named by the heads.

If a proposal is accepted, you also have to register for the conference in order to be included in the final conference program.

Very welcome with paper and panel proposals, we are looking forward to seeing you in Dublin!

For general information on the program for the Crisis Communication Working Group, contact:

Working Group Chair:
Ester Pollack
Stockholm University, Sweden
Department of Media Studies
pollack [at] jmk.su.se

Working Group Vice-Chair:
Sigurd Allern
University of Oslo, Norway
Department of Media and Communication
sigurd.allern [at] media.uio.no

Deadlines to keep in mind are:

9 November 2012
First call for abstracts (for papers, panels or posters)

15 November 2012
Open Computer System (OCS) available for abstract submission at http://iamcr-ocs.org

28 January 2013
OCS closed

28 February 2013
Notification of acceptances of abstracts

28 March 2013
Confirmation of participation deadline

15 April 2013
Final conference programme

28 May 2013
Deadline for full paper submission

25-29 June 2013
IAMCR Conference