CFP: Publicity and Transparency - Special Journal Issue

*PUBLICITY AND TRANSPARENCY*

*Special Issue -- Call for Abstracts*



In the contemporary era of “disrupted” public spheres (Bennett & Pfetsch
2018), “fractured” democracies (Entman & Usher 2018), and “networked”
disinformation (Ong & Cabañes 2018), it is time to rethink some basic
precepts of public communication. This special issue takes up the challenge
posed by these critics and others to rework concepts and develop methods of
research that can adequately account for the habits and systems of
contemporary politics. We focus here on the nexus of publicity and
transparency, two foundational concepts regarding the proper structure of
democratic communication, and solicit work addressing how these concepts
are being reshaped in our moment.



Rather than presuming a necessary symbiosis between transparency and
publicity, we invite proposals for papers that will investigate the
tensions between these concepts as they manifest within actually existing
democracies and through actually existing acts of promotion. What happens
when transparency is appropriated as a promotional tactic? Are there
situations in which transparency and publicity are present and vigorous,
yet together politically ineffectual? How do digital platforms or
interfaces affect the nexus of transparency and publicity in productive or
problematic ways? What types of transparency make publicity powerful, and
vice versa? To address these and similar questions, we invite contributions
to this special issue that examine the labor of publicity, investigating
promotional intermediaries operating between organizations and publics.
Articles may address the role of promotional work in government, political
parties, corporations, NGOs, loosely-knit online networks, activist
collectives, or other civil sphere groups, but will share an attempt to
better understand transparency and publicity as processes, not just
normative standards. We particularly encourage research attentive to the
ways publicity and transparency are harassed to either challenge or ossify
inequalities across lines of race, gender, class, nationality, or other
structuring identities.



We ask all interested contributors to send a short abstract of their
proposed paper (250-350 words) and a bio (~75 words) to *[email protected]*u
by *March 15, 2019*. We are currently in conversation with a journal about
publishing this special issue, and abstracts will be included in a final
proposal to the publisher. Inquiries regarding the scope, timeline, or
details of the proposed issue can be directed to the same address.



Tim Wood, Fordham University

Melissa Aronczyk, Rutgers University



Works Cited



Bennett, L., & Pfetsch, B. (2018). Rethinking Political Communication in a
Time of Disrupted Public Spheres. Journal of Communication 68, 2 43-253.

Entman, R., & Usher, N. (2018). Framing in a Fractured Democracy. Journal
of Communication 68, 298-308.

Ong, J. C., & Cabañes, J. V. (2017). Architects of Networked
Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News
Production in the Philippines. Newton Tech4Dev Network. University of Leeds.

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