AMIC Conference Announcement

ASIAN MEDIA INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION CENTRE (AMIC)
23RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Communicating in an e-Asia: values, technologies and challenges

in partnership with
Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand
9th-12th July, 2014

Globally, the last decade has seen exponential growth in the use of mobile technologies and the Internet. From e-mail to e-governance, e-commerce to e-learning, Internet usage has changed the way the world communicates.

At the forefront of the electronic and digital revolution in Asia has been the mobile phone. Recent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) statistics indicate that in the period from 2005 to 2013, mobile (cellular) phone subscriber numbers in the Asia-Pacific region have soared from 833 million to 3,547 million users. The era of an e-Asia has dawned.

The benefits of instant, intranational and trans-border communication have impacted upon almost every aspect of life, with mobile phones and the Internet providing new pathways for inter-personal communication, business and commercial enterprise, community development, educational opportunity, governance and democratic reform. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an enabling factor in supporting marginalized societies to more beneficially interact with a broader citizenry, while the convergence of computers, media and telecommunications has created new platforms for entrepreneurship, education and political inclusion.

However, in the Asia-Pacific region, where cultural traditions and family values are hugely respected and deeply ingrained, the influences of a new ‘e-Asia literacy’ are impacting on social conventions, etiquette, language and community structures. In a homogenized international ‘knowledge society’ where communication processes transcend national boundaries, the retention of traditional values and ways of life are increasingly challenged.  

Conference streams (including):

• communication and society
• cultural impact of ICTs
• social media and society
• youth and the Internet
• e-learning, trends and possibilities
• media and a free press
• communication and marginalized communities
• ICTs and development
• the ‘knowledge society’
• future of communication technologies
• remote/island societies and new technologies
• media and gender
• society and new media
• education and new technologies
• development communication and social change
• broadcasting, past and present
• freedom of expression in transition societies
• media history
• communication theory and ethics
• environment, climate and communication
• print media, past and present
• socio-political development and media
• cross-cultural influences and developments
• policy and communication
• media empowerment

CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers will be selected on a competitive basis and all submissions will be screened by an expert panel.
Abstracts due:     4th April, 2014
Full papers due:  1st June, 2014
Abstracts and papers should be submitted via e-mail (conference@amic.org.sg). Please do not send papers to the personal e-mail addresses of conference organizers.
FORMAT FOR ABSTRACTS
Indicate your proposed “Conference Stream” in the subject line of your e-mail.
E-mail should include the following:

• paper title
• author name, position, institution
• short biography of author (100 words)
• paper abstract (500 words)

FORMAT FOR PAPERS
Indicate “Full Paper” and relevant conference stream in the subject line of your e-mail.
Papers:

• should be written in English.
• be of 5,000-8,000 words in length.
• have citation in APA style.
• should be Microsoft Word or RTF document. Font should be Times New Roman, 12 pts. Please use plain text and not formatting.

For more information, please contact Ms Sangeetha Madasamy at sangeetha@amic.org.sg or Assoc Prof Martin Hadlow at m.hadlow@amic.org.sg
Note to all authors: By submitting your paper, you agree that if your paper is selected, you will register for the conference and present the paper. All co-authors attending and/or presenting at the conference must register too.
CRITERIA FOR REVIEW
Abstracts
Criteria used to judge abstracts will include (but not be restricted to) the following:

• topic
• theoretical orientation
• research design
• results
• quality of writing and organization of the paper
• indications of potential contributions of the study to communication research in Asia

Full papers
Criteria used to judge full papers will include (but not be restricted to) the following:

• purpose of the paper
• organization of the paper
• literature review
• research methodology
• relevance of the paper to the conference
• subject of the paper representing a significant direction for communication research in Asia
• quality of writing
• evidence and conclusions relating to the purpose of the paper