IAMCR 2012 - Crisis Communication Working Group Call for Papers

Theme: ‘South-North Conversations’

The Crisis Communication Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites submissions for the IAMCR 2012 conference to be held in Durban, South Africa, July 15-19, 2012. The conference will be held at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN).

Deadline for submission of abstracts and panel proposals (300-500 words) is February 14, 2012.

Announcement of acceptances and start of conference registration is March 12, 2012. Full papers (around 7 500 words excluding notes and references) must be uploaded via IAMCR OCS June 10, 2012.

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 South-North dialogues on crisis communication will include:

• War, Civil War, Terrorism and Crisis Communication
• Financial Crisis and Poverty
• Political Mistrust and Political Scandals
• Environmental and Climate Changes
• Health, Pandemics and Crisis Communication

Contemporary crises, as well as the communication about them, are increasingly transnational. Therefor we want to encourage research panels aimed at comparing crisis communication cross-culturally and thereby taking part in a South–North dialogue. 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 let us know if you are interested – or we 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, end 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 opened on 1 December 2011 and closes on 14 February 2012.

We normally expect only one abstract per person for consideration – and under no circumstances should there be more than three abstracts bearing the same name of a proposer either individually or as part of any group of authors. 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.

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 Durban!

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