The Transformation of Public Dissent: From Counter-Public Spheres and Alternative Media to Disinformation Ecologies?

Counter-public spheres are commonly regarded as discursive arenas that allow members of subordinated or marginalized social groups to incent counter discourses, circulate alternate narratives and to promote oppositional interpretations of social realities against a hegemony constituted by dominant publics. As such, counter-publics allow social actors to actively and autonomously bring visibility to their experiences, interests, and identities, to mobilize for their causes and not least to publicly voice dissent. In this regard, counter-publics help to reflect the societal status quo and can become indicative of existing social inequalities as well as the logics of inclusion and exclusion prevalent in dominant public spheres and to criticize their shortcomings. Counter-public spheres are of paramount importance both in liberal-democratic as well as in authoritarian societies. As a radicalization of normative theories of the bourgeois public sphere, the concept of counter-publics challenges liberal democracies by demanding the full realization of their constitutive ideals. While actors of counter-publics in democratic societies can refer to the ability to publicly voice a dissenting opinion and participate in public debate without fear of persecution as a fundamental norm, in non-democratic societies, these are often the only seeds in which the fragile blossoms of criticism and political defiance can take root. 

A bilingual pre-conference (English & French) sponsored by the Communication History Division, International Communication Association.

Organizers: Jade Montané (Agence France-Presse and Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), François Robinet (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), and Dominique Trudel (Audencia Business School)

Propositions are due January 15, 2022.

CALL FOR EXTENDED ABSTRACTS: ICA PRECONFERENCE 2022 Metz, France

Endorsed by the following ICA divisions: Journalism Studies, Political Communication. Deadline for Extended Abstracts: January 31, 2022, 23:59 GMT

THEME

The recent global resurgence of populism, most notably in countries with strong democratic traditions, has brought the issue of politics’ relationship to truth to the forefront of academic debates, firmly entrenching the notion that we have now entered an era of post-truth. As they effectively harness the affordances of unregulated social platforms and the potential of personal data commodification to advance their political agendas, populist leaders across the globe also exploit both the systemic flaws of media systems and the conditions that predispose part of the citizenry to believe in alternative narratives regardless of their factual accuracy. This preconference examines how the interplay between such dynamics severely challenges social ties and enables populism around the world.

The acceleration of innovation in communication technology and the increasing commodification of personal data have combined with the already hyper-segmented offer of legacy media to throw news media ecologies across the globe in a state of flux. Through selective exposure, users are provided with infinite opportunities to reinforce their pre- existing attitudes and engage with the political process affectively, a phenomenon further compounded by new challenges to journalistic authority that accelerate already existing trends and shake traditional informational hierarchies to their cores. The resulting audience polarization in turn jeopardizes the possibility of a common citizenship, as users are effectively barred from cultivating shared patterns of representation of the social world.

Read more in the call for papers

Authors should submit an extended abstract of 1000-1500 words to: crem-ica-preconference-2022-metz-contact@univ-lorraine.fr
by January 31, 2022.

Organizer Center for Research on Mediations (CREM), Université de Lorraine

Steering committee François Allard-Huber, Nicolas Hubé, Angeliki Monnier, Sebastien Mort, Jacques Walter, Sandrine D’Alimonte

Sponsorship This preconference has received endorsements from the ICA Journalism Studies Division, the ICA Political Communication Division, the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA), the French Society of Information and Communication Sciences (SFSIC), as well as the Association for the Study of Journalism (GIS Journalism, France).This preconference is made possible in part thanks to the generous support from the French National Research Agency (ANR, project M-Phasis) and the European Commission (Erasmus+ project Fact-checking and Media Literacy)