Call for Papers : Media Watch January 2014 Inevitable Social Media and Technological Determinism in a Wired World

Following from Deepak Ranjan Jena, the Publisher, Media Watch: 

Call for Papers : Media Watch January 2014

Inevitable Social Media and Technological Determinism in a Wired World

Arab springs to the jasmine revolution, mars exploration to unmanned drones, instant messaging to live tweets, tumbler to instagram, and robotics to cybernetics the rare nexus of technology and the tools of communication are making far reaching influence and impacts in our daily routines. Started with a cool notion of connecting and networking in a community or a society, social media now paves the wide paths of withering away of the states and nations. Proved to be a power centre of unifying and disseminating information social media became the inevitable presence on our daily rhythms. Content and apps are competing in a world were data always proved to be the undisputable king. The communication circles of social media, technology, content and application software’s are in a dynamic flux and is evolving. The traditional concept of reach, access, noise, feedback, reception are improvised every now and then on the emerging communication circle. The new players in the evolving communication circles are already proven complimentary and contributory to each other but still there exist hegemony for the power structure in determining each variables importance.

Digital revolution and technological upgradationshave placed mankind at anamazingly challenging juncture, where they are made to take the way that the technologies are chasing for them. Though the proponents of sociological theory, mainly those who still uphold the human-centric models like ‘Social Construction of Technology’ and ‘Actor-network Theory’, denounce the medium-oriented theory, the recent social media explosion unquestionably shows the capacity of a medium in defining and characterising the cultural of a society from the inherent properties of these technologies. This never means that human will surrender to technology, neither does it mean technology seizes the power from mankind, but mankind is slipping into a dependency level on technology where they are left with no choice, but to accept and incorporate the media-specifies in their daily life.

On one side, when scientists are busy replacing man power with digital human machines and robots, one the other side is the proliferation of social media platforms that more or less makes humans a self-developed android-robot dancing with the tune of technology. In the initial stage of the development of a social media, social constructivists claimed this as a mechanism developed by the society’s need and action. However, as social media platform became cluttered the positions of these proponents are taking a back seat, and there is a strong wave of a social-media culture, where people are in a constant search of personalisation and ubiquitousness for such a platform. Social media platform have reached such a point that they have detached themselves from the static computer and laptop, to mobile devices which enhances their connectivity and reach. Mobile phone marketing and research are based on these social-connectivity mechanisms, and made decision-making a process based on incessant connectivity with the fellow-beings. Paradoxically, when a group of people complain the detachment of man from social life with the inflow of technology, these same technology are determining them to be social in a cyber-world, unravelling from the worldly life. From ‘Facebook’ to ‘Wats app’, people are seeking to connect and converse with the world in an anonymous and self-proclaimed identity. As the characteristics of these social media goes – connected throughout the world – the main aim of the users also is to connect and converse with as many as possible, with least botheration about context and reason for conversing.  The most radical aspect of this medium-centred theory is that is this impact of technology on the characteristics of the user.

This volume of the Journal of Media Watch invites papers on this contemporary issue of social media and technological determinism. The issue is not limited to the below but can cover the board spectrum of human and social communications.

• Social media and cultural change
• Technology and community engagement
• Cultural impact of social media
• Social media and activism
• Technological intervention and human society
• Public and private space in a social media world
• Personalization of social media – from computer to mobile phones
• Medium theory – does it substitute the social constructivist theory
• Technology and Culture – who rules who?
• Social media, public sphere and technology
• Diversity, race, sexuality, ethnicity and social media
• Pedagogy and the social media
• Market forces and communication technology
• Social media and organisation communication

Contributors are encouraged to query the editors (sonyjraj@gmail.com, mediajournal@ymail.com, mediawatchjournal@gmail.com) in a short e-mail describing their paper to determine suitability for publication. Journal of media watch will only accept true, original and pure fundamental and empirical research papers which were not published before in any publications. Media Watch will not accept book review, commentary without any proper referencing and citations.

Abstract: The abstracts should define objectives, theoretical framework and methodological approach, as well as possible contributions for the advancement of knowledge in the field. As a length measure, each submission should have an abstract of 150-200 words. All abstract must be accompanied with key words from 5-8. All abstract submissions must be submitted in advance, preferably before August 15, 2013 through e-mail. Early submission is strongly encouraged.

Length: As the journal is primarily print-based, we encourage articles or manuscripts, including references, tables, and charts, should range between 20-30 pages (7000-8000 words).

Deadlines:  Once the Abstract is reviewed and if it is found suitable, you will be asked to submit a completed manuscript by September15, 2013. Review of the papers will be completed before October 15, 2013.

Style: References should also follow APA style (6th Edition).
Visit: http://www.mediawatchglobal.com/information-for-author/

Guidelines for submission are available at:
http://www.mediawatchglobal.com/instructions-for-authors/

Review Process: Authors are informed when manuscripts are received. Each manuscript is pre-viewed prior to distribution to appropriate reviewers. Manuscripts are anonymously reviewed. Once all reviews are returned, a decision is made and the author is notified. Manuscripts should consist of original material, and not currently under consideration by other journals. Author(s) have to submit the copyrights declaration permission to Media Watch before final consideration of the paper.

Cover Page: (for review purposes): Include title of manuscript, date of submission, author’s name, title, mailing address, business and home phone number, and email address. Please provide a brief biographical sketch and acknowledge if the article was presented as a paper or if it reports a funded research project.

Software Format: Submit papers in both Word (.doc) and Pdf.

Information: For further information and inquiries about the proposed issue and journal, in case of need, please do not hesitate to contact the co-editor of the journal, Dr. Sony Jalarajan Raj via e-mail: sonyjraj@gmail.com

Indexing & Citations: Journal of Media Watch is indexed and citied in 15 international database, citation and indexing agencies including Ulrich, Ebscos, J-Gate, Proquest, Google Scholar etc. Journal of Media Watch is subscribed in major university library data base in Asia, Europe and USA. Journal of Media Watch is considered for inclusion by the famous database such as ISI, Thomson Reuters, Dove Jones, and Nature.

Plagiarism Check: All the submitted papers will undergo mandatory online plagiarism check through plagiarism software’s such as Turnitin and Safe Assign. Contributors are encouraged to do plagiarism check before they submit for the publication. Any submitted paper with more than 7 % match will be rejected without any feedback from the editorial board.

Submission & Acceptance: Any paper published in any journals, book chapters, monograms or abstracts presented in any conference or published in any conference proceedings will not be published. We strongly discourage on the submission of any such.

We strongly recommend you share this call for papers among researchers who you think may be interested in submitting papers for the issue of the journal.

If any organizations and institutions are interested to associate with Media Watch journal, please write to the Publisher: deepakranjanjena@yahoo.com

• Visit the journal website: www.mediawatchglobal.com

Dr. Sony Jalarajan RajEditor-in-Chief, The Journal of Media Watch
Graduate Coordinator
St. Thomas University, Florida, USA
Email: sonyjraj@gmail.com
Tel: 001-786-204-1031