International Moscow Readings Conference 2021 Dates: 18-19 November 2021
Organizer: Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Co-sponsor: International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)
In partnership with:
- IAMCR Digital Divide Working Group
- IAMCR Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group
- IAMCR Journalism Research and Education Section
- UNESCO chair in communication
- European Journalism Training Association
- The Global Risk Journalism Hub
- National Association of Mass Media Researchers
Local organizing and program committees are headed by Professor Elena Vartanova, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, President of the National Association of Mass Media Researchers
Today, historical transformations affecting media industries and production such as digitalization, consolidation, deregulation and related trends identified by scholars long ago (Hamelink, 1998) amplify and accelerate due to new disruptive processes influencing media work on a global scale. This includes the rapid growth of platform power and platform convergence, the emergence of telecommunications giants as competitors in the content market, and growing concerns about sustainability of the news industry and journalism as a profession in this context (Deuze, & Prenger, 2019; Meese, 2021). It is not just media practitioners who are facing a rapidly and profoundly changing context: people's lives around the world have become agitated by the compounding effects of digital shifts and social upheaval, especially considering deepening digital inequalities and algorithmic divides (Ragnedda, 2020). An increasing dependence on Internet and computing technologies became evident during the global coronavirus crisis and triggered a discussion about the stability – or liquidity – of the world around us.
A crucial change of institutions we observe today is clear: media and policies are changing, legacy linear media are giving floor to non-linear new media, user engagement and participation through social media platforms, including what is perceived today as dark participation (Quandt, 2018) are growing. Everything becomes in a way blurry, liquid and uncertain: professional routines, practices, roles, perceptions, possibly even norms and values. As a result, we find ourselves living in a liquid society where uncertainty, flux, change, conflict, and revolution become permanent conditions of everyday life (Bauman, 2000; Deuze, 2004). This feeling of uncertainty has been intensified in recent pandemic times, when people, companies and institutions had to quickly migrate to online, re-structure their professional and personal routines, and learn to live in the new pandemic/post-pandemic world.
At this year's conference we welcome discussions about uncertainty as a new challenge for journalism and the society, and the new opportunities uncertain/liquid modernity can offer to people, media, institutions, and industries. We will discuss the impact Covid-19 pandemic had upon all spheres of our life – social, economic, cultural, political, academic and others, looking at how journalism in different countries reacted and adapted to these new challenges and risks. We will also discuss new digital gaps and inequalities that arose in the pandemic and post-pandemic world in terms of journalism education, unequal access to information, digital/social inclusion, information security, among other things. Theoretical and empirical papers are both welcome, with preference during selection process being given to papers with solid methodological base and original approach.
Questions for discussion - Communication in the times of uncertainty: practices and tendencies
- Journalism and the Covid-19 pandemic: new challenges and risks
- Digital individuals, groups and organizations
- The rise of new digital cultures
- New players and actors in digital communication
- New journalistic roles in the times of uncertainty and change
- Media and communication policies in the digital age
- Liquid journalism and liquid modernity
- Risk journalism in the times of the global crises
- Digital inclusion / social inclusion: correlations and interdependencies
- Digital journalism: new practices, forms, methods, audiences
- Information security in the digital age
- Mediating conflicts: the role of mass media
Special sections: - IAMCR Digital Divide Working Group
- IAMCR Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group
- IAMCR Journalism Research and Education Section
- UNESCO chair in communication
- European Journalism Training Association
- The Global Risk Journalism Hub
- National Association of Mass Media Researchers
Abstracts (between 300 and 500 words) in .doc or .docx in English or Russian, including author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s) should be sent to
moscow.readings@mail.ru before
18 October 2021 Submissions to the special sections should be sent as regular submissions. Please add a note in your abstract saying that this submission should be considered by a particular special section (title).
Registration fee Moscow Readings conference does not have conference registration fee, although all costs will have to covered either by the home institution or by the presenters themselves.
Publishing opportunities Best papers will be considered for publication in peer-reviewed
Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika (Scopus, Web of Science) and
World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies (Scopus). The 13th Moscow Readings conference will be organized as a live virtual conference. We are looking forward to meeting you at the virtual platform in November 2021.
Contact details Contact email:
moscow.readings@mail.ru Phone number : +7 (495) 629 52 76
Contact person: Anna Gladkova, secretary of the Moscow Readings conference organizing committee