CFP: International Conference on Social Media and Society (#SMSociety)2020
Theme – “Diverse Voices: Promises and Perils of Social Media For Diversity”
Join us on July 22–24, 2020 for the 11th annual International Conference on
Social Media and Society (#SMSociety)
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=7c50e93645&e=bbbf230fcc>.
The conference is an interdisciplinary gathering of leading social media
researchers, practitioners, and analysts from around the world. The 2020
conference is hosted by the College of Communication
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=9124de812f&e=bbbf230fcc>
, Studio Chi
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=315ecbc111&e=bbbf230fcc>
and
the College of Computing and Digital Media
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=88c7973fcd&e=bbbf230fcc>
at DePaul University
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=acddcdde44&e=bbbf230fcc>
in
Chicago, USA.
Until a decade and a half ago, large media companies and governments lorded
over an oligopoly controlling the means for communicating with the masses.
That oligopoly was (temporarily?) broken by the introduction of social
media with its revolutionary promise to democratize civil discourse and
civil society. It has offered diverse groups the opportunity to connect to
one another and form communities of practice that ultimately can serve to
strengthen their voice. However, in recent years, we have also discovered
that connecting the world via social media leads to new challenges. When so
many diverse voices are brought together on a massive scale, conflict is
common. Interpretation of this conflict is itself diverse: do we see a rise
of incivility or freedom from moral policing? Extremism or idealism?
Distrust or critique? The very same digital tools that amplify voices of
the marginalized can also be used to silence diverse voices online through
online harassment, doxing, trolling, and other measures.
In this context, the *International Conference on Social Media & Society*
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=455462fc73&e=bbbf230fcc>
invites
scholarly and original submissions that explore key questions and central
issues related (but not limited) to the 2020 theme of “*Diverse Voices:
Promises and Perils of Social Media For Diversity**.*” We welcome research
from a wide range of methodological perspectives employing established
quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods as well as innovative
approaches that cross disciplinary boundaries and expand our understanding
of the current and future trends in social media research, especially
research that seeks to explore questions such as:
- Can human society handle the connection of diverse and divergent
(often conflicting) voices on social media? Is empowering every voice via
social media a net good?
- Under what conditions can social media build bridges across
difference? When does social media reinforce division?
- What social media affordances are good or bad in terms of supporting
diversity, including but not limited to: race, class, gender, sexual,
cultural, political and linguistic diversity?
- What is the role of government regulation? Should social media be
limited to activities that help to build strong societies?
- Is it naive to think that giving everyone a voice will result in
increased democracy?
- And what is the role of social media in all of these? And how can
social media platforms be used to empower marginalized voices?
- Can AI and other automated tools help social media consumers and
producers to overcome these challenges and provide online spaces for
engagement with diverse voices? If so, how?
*IMPORTANT DATES*
- *Full papers** (6-10 pages) Due: *Jan. 27, 2020*
- *WIP papers* (1000-word extended abstract) Due: *Jan. 27, 2020*
- *Panels, Workshops, & Posters* Due: *Mar. 16, 2020*
*Full papers presented at the Conference will be published in the
conference proceedings by *ACM International Conference Proceeding Series*
(ICPS)
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=ac4c3de425&e=bbbf230fcc>
and
will be available in the ACM Digital Library.
*SUBMISSION DETAILS*:
https://socialmediaandsociety.org/submit/
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=321b8aa3b1&e=bbbf230fcc>
*ABOUT THE CONFERENCE*
The International Conference on Social Media & Society
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=c110c1d801&e=bbbf230fcc>
(#SMsociety)
is an annual gathering of leading social media researchers from around the
world. It is the premier venue for sharing and discovering new
peer-reviewed interdisciplinary research on how social media affects
society. Organized by the Social Media Lab
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=0352cc7aa4&e=bbbf230fcc>
at Ted Rogers School of Management
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=3311c6a078&e=bbbf230fcc>
at Ryerson University
<https://socialmediaandsociety.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b32270f9582f39e884a4e953b&id=1eeecc4aec&e=bbbf230fcc>,
#SMSociety provides participants with opportunities to exchange ideas,
present original research, learn about recent and ongoing studies, and
network with peers.
The conference’s intensive three-day program features hands-on workshops,
full papers, work-in-progress papers, panels, and posters. The wide-ranging
topics in social media showcase research from scholars working in many
fields including Communication, Computer Science, Education, Journalism,
Information Science, Management, Political Science, Psychology and
Sociology.
*TOPICS OF INTEREST (Not Exhaustive)*
SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT ON SOCIETY
- Privacy
- Trust & credibility
- Political mobilization & engagement
- Extremism & terrorism
- Dis/Mis/Mal-information, aka…”Fake news”
- Politics of hate and oppression
- Health and well-being
SOCIAL MEDIA & BUSINESS
- Brand communities
- Influencers and consumer engagement
- Consumer behavior & social media marketing
- Public & customer relations
- Cybervetting and HR
SOCIAL MEDIA & PUBLIC SECTOR
- Government regulations of social media
- Government social media management
- Adoption, use, strategies and policies
- Citizens’ engagement
- Citizens’ privacy & security concerns
- Public opinions on environmental issues
SOCIAL MEDIA & ACADEMIA
- Alternative metrics
- Learning analytics
- Teaching with social media
- University branding
- Knowledge Translation/management
ONLINE/OFFLINE COMMUNITIES
- Online community detection
- Influential user detection
- Identity and anonymity
- Case studies
THEORIES & METHODS
- Qualitative approaches
- Quantitative approaches
- Mixed methods
- Opinion mining & sentiment analysis
- Social network analysis
- Theoretical models
BIG & SMALL DATA
- Value of small data
- Data mining and analytics
- Sampling issues
- Visualization
- Scalability issues
- Ethics
- Data Access/Scraping
- Data Biases
*ORGANIZING COMMITTEE*
- Anatoliy Gruzd, Ryerson University, Canada – Conference Chair
- Philip Mai, Ryerson University, Canada – Conference Chair
- Raquel Recuero, Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), Brazil – Full
Paper Chair
- Ángel Hernández-García, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain –
Full Paper Chair
- Chei Sian Lee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – WIP Chair
- James Cook, University of Maine at Augusta, USA – WIP Chair
- Jaigris Hodson, Royal Roads University, Canada – Poster Chair
*HOST COMMITTEE at DePaul University*
- Bree McEwan, Communication Studies, Communication & Technology
- Jill Hopke, Journalism
- Hamed Qahri Saremi, Management Information Systems
- Juan Mundel, Advertising
- Paul Booth, Digital Communication & Media Arts
- Enid Montague, Human Computer Interaction
- Samantha Close, Digital Communication & Media Arts
- Nur Uysal, Public Relations