The 13th EACA Annual Conference (2023), will be hosted by the University of Rwanda, School of Journalism and Communication (SJC), from 29th to 31st, August 2023 at Lemigo Hotel, Kimihurura KG 624 Street, in Kigali – Rwanda’s capital city.
This year’s deliberations will be centered around the theme: “Media, Communication and Social Justice”. The notion of ‘social justice’ has been defined as “the engagement with and advocacy for those in society who are economically, socially, politically, and/or culturally under resourced” (Carragee & Frey, 2016 p.110).
Hence, the above theme is motivated by the thesis that while media and communication rank high among the approaches to social justice, the current shifts and wider trends around these domains in many parts of the world, particularly the global south, haveimpacted (both positively or negatively) on their roles in democracy, development and broadly on social justice. The transition to digital media across the globe, for example, has transformed both media operations and audiences in ways that do not favor the inclusion of perceptions, experiences, knowledge and interests of minority groups in media content, hence, excluding their contribution to policymaking, planning and decision-making processes. As technology continue to facilitate faster and efficient communication of news and other forms of information, enabling cheap accessibility to wider sections of societies, it has also disrupted the form and quality of information and, in some cases, led to social injustices in society.
These developments require media and communication scholars/researchers to be at the forefront of efforts to understand the developments and changes within media and communication and their impacts on social justice. The EACA 2023 conference
therefore, seeks to, among other objectives, create an understanding of the perception and personal experiences of the changing media and communication functions in social justice, development and democracy in relation to current social, political and economic environments in the global south.
Call for Abstracts
The developments described above require media and communication scholars/researchers to be at the forefront of efforts to understand the developments and changes within media and communication and their impacts on social justice.
The EACA 2023 conference therefore, seeks to, among other objectives, create an understanding of the perception and personal experiences of the changing media and communication functions in social justice, development and democracy in relation to current social, political and economic environments in the global south.
Sub-themes
Abstracts for conference papers can focus on theoretical and epistemological
considerations for media, communication and social justice, and related topics under
the following sub-themes:
1. Shifting roles of media and communication and their impacts on democracy,
development and social justice;
2. Media, gender, identity, representation and participation;
3. Conceptualization and theorization of media, communication and their relation
to social justice;
4. Health Communication;
5. Science Journalism and Communication
6. Environmental Journalism and Communication;
7. Sustainable Journalism
8. The current global climate and political crises or relevant counterpoints;
9. The Political Economies of Media and Communication industries;
10. Social and Behavioural Change Communication;
11. Qualitative and Quantitative methodologies for studies on media,
communication and social justice (research ethics, studying vulnerable
groups, engagement, etc.);
12. Media, Communication and collective identity;
13. Mobilization for social justice in different forms (e.g., manifestos, slogans,
cartoons, memes);
14. Media and Communication education in the global south
15. Media, communication and post-colonialism4
16. Critical engagement with scholarship and social justice activism;
17. Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms and data-driven journalism, media and
communication: education, practice, processes, policy, scholarship.