Moment Journal

Deadline: September 1, 2019

http://www.momentjournal.org/index.php/momentdergi/announcement/view/22

The emergence of new media and its affordances have generated an increasing interest not only in resurgence of centralized structures and surveillance, but also in their participatory potential. Such interest is, in fact, not historically distinctive; each time the society is introduced to a new medium of communication, its potential of being used for the broader social good or harm becomes a matter of debate. Then again, where the rise of authoritarianism in the world today is considered, enabling more citizen participation in social and political debate is regarded as a progressive contribution of new media in general.

In Turkey’s context, participation is generally associated with practices that are limited to efforts to sustain electoral democracy and politics. However, looking at the increasing international scholarly calls for contribution on participation issue by numerous journals and books, one can see the diversity in the ways in which participation as a concept is understood as a very broad category, which may imply “interaction”, “engagement” or merely a social, political or cultural “joining”. For instance, Nico Carpentier (2013) defines participation in a much broader way than it is used in the academic lexicon of Turkey, but also with a narrower political signification than many others assume since he considers participation as an equalization of power relations in decision-making processes. Communication as a “practice” and media as an “institution” play a crucial role in strengthening or changing social power relations in such processes. The definition of participation by Henry Jenkins (2013), on the other hand, is closer to the broader meaning when he refers to "participatory cultures" of youth, including fan clubs, blogs, popular videos, online activism, etc.

Within the framework outlined above, we invite submissions for Moment Journal’s issue on participation and the media, on topics including, but not limited to:

• theoretical explorations on participation and the media,
• methodological perspectives on participatory communication research,
• electoral processes, participation and media performance,
• citizenship, media participation and public sphere,
• alternative, radical or community media, activism and participation,
• gender, ethnicity, age and equality in participation,
• new media, technological challenges and possibilities for participation,
• breaking the institutional production-consumption chain via participatory practices,
• new media and participatory practices at global and/or local levels,
• participatory practices in social media apps,
• youth cultures, fan clubs, new media and participation,
• participatory art practices via communication media,

The manuscripts should be submitted to the Moment Journal via Dergipark between June 1 and September 1, 2019. Submissions both in English and Turkish will be accepted.

Publication Date: 15 December 2019.

For details, see submission guidelines

Theme Editors: Oğuzhan Taş (Ankara University, Turkey) & Emre Canpolat (Hacettepe University, Turkey)

References

Jenkins, H., & Carpentier, N. (2013). Theorizing participatory intensities: A conversation about participation and politics. Convergence, 19(3), 265–286.