2022 BEA Mini-Research Symposium:

Media and Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities

 

2022 BEA Mini-Research Symposium Media and Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities will take place during the

BEA2022 On-Location-Conference in October.

 Submission Deadline: June 20, 2022

Research Symposium co-Chairs:
Travis Dixon, University of Illinois; tldixon@illinois.edu
Dana Mastro, University of California-Santa Barbara; mastro@comm.ucsb.edu 

BEA continues to expand its research presence by sponsoring a Mini-Symposium at BEA On Location in Ft. Collins, Colorado this coming October. The theme of the Mini-Symposium is Diversity and Media, mirroring the topic of the national BEA Symposium in April 2022. Our goals for the Mini-Symposium include promoting the national Symposium and expanding research opportunities about diversity and media. We hope you will participate in the Mini-Symposium by submitting full papers and research-in-progress that examine and explore diversity and media.

The demographics of both the United States and the world continue to shift and diversify, with people of color and other traditionally marginalized groups increasingly becoming the majority in many regions. These changes have profound implications for media production and consumption, as historically these populations have either been ignored by the mainstream media or negatively stereotyped and maligned by dominant group representations. Alongside these longstanding norms in mass-produced media, social media has emerged as a forum with the potential to reinforce or challenge these patterns. This environment is further complicated by the rise of extremism and repression that relies on media dissemination but also may be disrupted by the use of social media for organization against such oppression. These remain ripe topics for media scholars. Given this backdrop, the goal of this symposium is to fully illuminate the role of diversity in media representation, dissemination and effects across various platforms, including social media.

The symposium welcomes quantitative social scientific research from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Potential contributions can include, but are not limited to:

  • Media stereotyping in various contexts including news and entertainment
  • Counter-stereotyping efforts deploying various social media tools
  • Understanding how misinformation proliferates using social group identity (e.g., race/ethnicity, age, gender, sexuality, and ability)
  • The relationship between political communication, social group identity, and media
  • Critical media effects across platforms
  • Media diversity and threats to democracy
  • Media trust and social group identity
  • Understanding how media and diversity influence health campaigns
  • The role of media and diversity in supporting democracy
  • The role of diversity and media in creating and sustaining community

Submissions to this research symposium can be:

(1) full research papers, which typically run between 5000-7,000 words, excluding references, tables and appendices; and

(2) extended abstracts, which typically run 1500-2,000 words and include a clear presentation of the study’s theoretical foundation, hypotheses, methods, and (potential) results. Extended abstracts must note the (actual/anticipated) dates of data collection. Feasibility of project completion will be considered in evaluations of extended abstracts.

All submissions will be peer-reviewed and, if accepted, will be considered for inclusion in Routledge’s Electronic Media Research Book Series. In addition, the 2022 BEA Mini-Research Symposium will sponsor a paper competition for which faculty and students are eligible.

The Mini-Research Symposium paper competition is BLINDLY REVIEWED. Do NOT include a cover page with author and contact information and remove ALL author information from internal pages. Judges need to blindly review your papers. Your paper information will be directly linked to your profile. Authors will be notified about decisions by early August, 2022

Research Submission Information:

  1. Please indicate the author(s) status: (faculty, graduate student, undergraduate student)
  2. You may submit different papers; however, conference organizers reserve the right to select papers to ensure greater representation in published proceedings.
  3. Papers must be written using APA Style.
  4. Papers accepted and presented are eligible for publication in the BEA Routledge book series, contingent on standard revision procedures.

 

Paper Submission Process:

BEA Members will be able to upload papers to the On-Location submission site with their BEA membership login and password.

If you forgot your BEA membership password or need to create an account, please follow the steps on the login page.  Once you login simply follow the steps on the submission site.

Click here to submit your research.