Cfp – Reshaping of politics and international relations

About the theme

(Dis)information and media discourses are reshaping politics and international relations in a more global and faster way than they used to. On par with the expansion of the digital realm in today’s societies, recent events, such as the Covid crisis or the war in Ukraine, have profoundly affected relations and perceptions of security and politics across Europe. As many authors state “Information has been weaponized” (Gerrits, 2018), a process further increased by social media and digital communication. Within this context, the ‘entanglement of technology with politics’ (Edwards; Hecht, 2010) and the centrality of emotions (Hutchison; Bleiker, 2014) have been particularly important. In these dynamics, the media, considered legitimate social actors to communicate current events to the public, have been adjusting to two key factors: firstly, the rise of social networks where media discourses are exposed to fast spreading, global reaching and users’ opinions (Couldry et al., 2007); and, secondly, the change in the communication paradigm that has led to a different communication between the different actors: media, governments, politicians, institutions and citizens

The discourse of public opinion and emotional appeal using social networking tools as resources points to how the ‘collective dimension of emotions shapes social and political processes’ (Hutchison; Bleiker, 2014), and to the many new issues that have been nurtured, such as highlighted by Munger (2020): clickbaiting, filter bubbles, eco chambers, personalization of information, virality, reactivated more than ever by the role of disinformation and propaganda. Digital literacy (or the lack of it) is increasingly appreciated by academics as a significant factor to explain or avoid these issues (Guess; Munger, 2022). This communication context has altered the nature of communicating itself, of how issues are framed and potentially manipulated and reinterpreted, with huge impact on international relations (Barnett et al., 2017). This has created a new state of affairs in which media and political discourses have been merged progressively in a digital and online scenario in which new agents have taken advantage of the different rules addressing the communicative ecosystem and altering international relations and the democratic sphere.

Topics

• The shaping of international relations in/by media discourses.
• Social media replacing media as gatekeepers of public opinion.
• Polarization processes fostered by media reaching international relations.
• Citizenship perception of the mediatization of international relations.
• Digital literacy as a catalyst in polarization / democratization processes.
• Digital literacy as key aspect in the interpretation of international relations.
• Media discourses shaping citizenship perceptions on political issues.
• Improving digital literacy from the study of hate speech and polarization.
• Power and technopolitics.
• Political discourses and media discourses in the digital sphere.
• Disinformation, fake news and propaganda as a major challenge for international relations.
• Actors in media or social media discourses representing international relations.
• The role of emotions in foreign policy and their framing in media discourse.

References

Barnett, George A.; Xu, Weiai-Wayne; Chu; Jianxun; Jiang, Ke; Huh, Catherine; Park, Ji-Young; Park, Han-Woo (2017). “Measuring international relations in social media conversations”. Government information quarterly, v. 34, n. 1, pp. 37-44.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2016.12.004

Couldry, Nick; Livingstone, Sonia; Markham, Tim (2007). Media consumption and public engagement. Palgrave McMillan. ISBN: 978 0 02324738 3

Edwards, Paul N.; Hecht, Gabrielle (2010). “History and the technopolitics of identity: The case of Apartheid South Africa”. Journal of Southern African studies, v. 36, n. 3, pp. 619-639.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2010.507568

Gerrits, André W. M. (2018). “Disinformation in international relations: How important is it?”. Security and human rights, v. 29, n. 1-4, pp. 3-23.
https://doi.org/10.1163/18750230-02901007

Guess, Andrew M.; Munger, Kevin (2022).“Digital literacy and online political behavior”. Political science research and methods, Online first.
https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2022.17

Hutchison, Emma; Bleiker, Roland (2014). “Theorizing emotions in world politics”. International theory, v. 6, n. 3, pp. 491-514.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1752971914000232

Munger, Kevin (2020). “All the news that’s fit to click: The economics of clickbait media”. Political communication, v. 37, n. 3, pp. 376-397.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2019.1687626

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