Religion, Communication & Culture Working Group

Grupo de trabajo sobre Religión, comunicación y cultura

The Religion, Communication & Culture working group invites proposals for papers to be presented at the annual conference for the International Association for Media & Communication Research to be held from 16 -20 July, 2017 in Cartagena, Colombia. The deadline to submit abstracts is 9 February 2017.

Proposals for consideration by the Religion, Communication & Culture working group must be submitted via the IAMCR Open Conference System at http://iamcr-ocs.org

The overall theme of the 2017 conference is “Transforming Culture, Politics & Communication: New media, new territories, new discourses“. All over the world communication and media are being transformed by complex and often unpredictable dynamics, tendencies and trends.

So has the world map of religion has changed. Religions and trends in spirituality are emerging, defined, for example, by theological debates, religious identities, religious lifestyles, religious customs and practices, or religious institutional interests. Contemporary religion is being transformed and new religious  movements are emerging and growing, taking various forms, sizes, and shapes. All this has ramifications for the academic study of media and religion.

Against the background of the  theme of the 2017 conference, the working group will explore and discuss the link between these religious and spiritual changes, on the one hand, and on the other, changes in communication, media, and their processes.

We will examine whether the notion of transformation is applicable to religions in the context of mediatization? Is there a place for covering religion in new media discourses? Who is the preacher in all-to-all communication model?

Some themes that may provoke reflection among working group participants include

• Profanations of the sacred and the sacralization of the profane: religion in the public sphere.
• Transforming or adjusting? Traditional religions and new media
• Competing for the authority: religion and media impact on the audiences
• From lingua Latina to ‘lingua franca’: looking for a common language in covering religion
• Limits in the times of openness and transparency: journalistic taboos
• From vertical to horizontal communication: preaching in a digital age
• Social networks as a new missionary territories
• Written, published, understood? The encoding/decoding problems in communication on religion
• New media, new discourses… – new ethics? Religious initiatives on media regulation

Given the epochal changes underway globally, is it time to rethink communication and relocate it, with all of its nuances, within a new understanding of media and religion that speaks to the times we now live in?

But papers across the broad spectrum of research on the relationship of religion, media and communication are equally encouraged. There is hardly an established canon of research in this wide field of religion, communication and culture, although some nuclei in the current research agenda can be identified. These include:

• Images of religion in mass media; news coverage of religion.
• Religious communities and the media.
• Impact of media on religious practices whether personal or institutional.
• Theological approaches to the mass media.
• New media and religion.
• The emergences of the religious according to new mediatic conditions.
• Film and religion.
• Religious media.
• Religious public relations.
• The specificity of communication practices in religions given their singular content and claims.
• Religious communication processes.
• Media expression of faith and spirituality.

Theoretical, methodological, empirical – all approaches are welcome for proposed papers, provided they offer good quality and interesting, novel perspectives in their respective methodological nature.

It is intended that decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to individual applicants by the Religion, Communication & Culture no later than April 3rd 2017.

Please share this notice with other academic researchers on media and religion.

We look forward to seeing old and new participants in the working group in Cartagena.

Languages

This Working Group accepts abstract submissions and presentations in English only.

 Submission of Abstracts

Abstracts should be submitted via the IAMCR Open Conference System at http://iamcr-ocs.org from 1 December 2016 – 9 February 2017. Both individual and panel submissions are welcome. Early submission is strongly encouraged.

Deadlines

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 9 February 2017. Please note that this deadline will not be extended.

Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to applicants by their Section or Working Group Head no later than 3 April 2017.

For those whose abstracts are accepted, full conference papers are to be submitted by 26 June.

Guidelines for Abstracts

Unless otherwise stated by a Section or Working Group, abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words in length.

All abstract submissions must be made via IAMCR Open Conference System at http://iamcr-ocs.org. There are to be no email submissions of abstracts addressed to any Section or Working Group Head.

It is expected that for the most part, only one (1) abstract will be submitted per person. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same author either individually or as part of any group of authors. Please note also that the same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to more than one Section or Working Group. Such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected by the OCS system, by the relevant Head or by the Conference Programme Reviewer. Authors submitting them risk being removed entirely from the conference programme.

Technical guidelines, if any, are defined by the individual Sections and Working Groups. If you have questions, consult the Section or Working Group’s specific CfP or contact the head of the Section and Working Group that interests you.

For further information, please consult the conference website or contact the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) by email at cartagena2017@iamcr.org.

Criteria for Evaluation

Submitted abstracts will generally be evaluated on the basis of:

• theoretical contribution
• methods
• quality of writing
• literature review
• relevance of the submission to the work of the Section or Working Group
• originality and/or significance

Sections and Working Groups may use additional criteria and may assign different weights to the above criteria. Consult the specific CfP or contact the head of the Section and Working Group you want to submit to if you have questions.

All proposals must be submitted only through the online Open Conference System (OCS) at http://iamcr-ocs.org from 1 December 2016 – 9 February 2017. Early submission is strongly encouraged. There are to be no email submissions of abstracts addressed to any Section or Working Group Head.

As a general rule, only one (1) abstract will be submitted per person for consideration by the Conference. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same applicant either individually or as part of any group of authors.

General IAMCR Conference Call >>>

Key dates >>>

Religion, Communication and Culture Working Group

Co-Chairs:

Professor Yoel Cohen
School of Communication Ariel University
Ariel, Israel
ysrcohen(at)netvision.net.il

Professor Victor Khroul
Faculty of Journalism
Moscow State University
Moscow, Russia
amen(at)mail.ru

Contact us

• Email cartagena2017@iamcr.org

• Phone +57 1 291 6520 Ext. 6239

• Fax +57 1 291 6520