The Handbook of Internet Politics: Paperback edition now available

Just a quick note to say that the new paperback edition of The Handbook of Internet Politics (Routledge) that I co-edited with Phil Howard is now available for purchase. Bookstore links and cover description below. More about the book, including author details, contents listing, a look-inside preview, and some sample chapters, at the Handbook of Internet Politics website.

Amazon USA

Amazon UK

Routledge direct purchase

About the Book

The internet is now a mainstay of contemporary political life and captivates researchers from across the social sciences. From debates about its impact on parties and election campaigns following momentous presidential contests in the United States, to concerns over international security, privacy, and surveillance in the post-9/11, post-7/7 environment; from the rise of blogging as a threat to the traditional model of journalism, to controversies at the international level over how and if the internet should be governed by an entity such as the United Nations; from the new repertoires of collective action open to citizens, to the massive programs of public management reform taking place in the name of e-government, internet politics, and policy are continually in the headlines.

The Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics is a collection of over 30 chapters dealing with the most significant scholarly debates in this rapidly growing field of study. Organized in four broad sections: Institutions, Behavior, Identities, and Law and policy, the Handbook summarizes and criticizes contemporary debates while pointing out new departures. A comprehensive set of resources, it provides linkages to established theories of media and politics, political communication, governance, deliberative democracy, and social movements, all within an interdisciplinary context. The contributors form a strong international cast of established and junior scholars.

This is the first publication of its kind in this field; a helpful companion to students and scholars of politics, international relations, communication studies, and sociology.

Andrew Chadwick, Royal Holloway, University of London, & Philip N. Howard, University of Washington

Now published in a new paperback edition.

Paperback: 536 pages.
Publisher: Routledge, December 2009 (UK), February 2010 (US)
ISBN: 978-0-415-78058-2

Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher: Routledge, September 2008
ISBN: 978-0-415-42914-6

2010-02-11 7/7 Five Years on: Reflections on the Future of Counter-terrorism

Ben O'Loughlin (NPCU) and Andrew Hoskins (Warwick) will speak at Chatham House on 11th February 2010 to a closed meeting focusing on the future of counter-terrorism, ahead of the launch on 7 July - five years since the 7/7 London bombings - of a special issue of International Affairs.

The paper will focus on the role of media in counter-terrorism, especially the issue of how 'extremist' materials are translated and remediated for Western publics. Click here for their extended abstract. 

War and the Body - exhibition and conference, London, June 2010

Our colleagues at the War and Media Network are pleased to announce details of The War and Body Exhibition and Conference in June 2010.

The War and the Body Exhibition explores the intertwining of war and body in the sculpture, drawing, painting, photography and installation art work of contemporary artists. Artists will be discussing their work during a private view and networking evening on the 10th June.

How is the body in war transformed, classified, displayed, utilised, represented and produced through the visual art form? What do these visual forms show us about war and its transformative power? To what extent does the artist embody war through the lived creative process?

For more information about the exhibition please visit the website.

For those wishing to exhibit, please email Sarah Maltby providing the following: At least 3 examples of relevant works for the exhibition in email image format; A synopsis of why your work is appropriate for the exhibition; A brief CV and biog; Details of your availability between 8th and 13th June 2010. The deadline for submission of applications: March 26th 2010. Shortlisted applicants will be notified by April 9th 2010. All forms of artwork will be considered including photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, installation work.

The exhibition is organised by the War and Media Network and City University and is being run in coordination with the War and Body Conference. For more information about the exhibition or the conference please contact Sarah Maltby



Fourth International Conference on Online Deliberation (OD2010)

Andrew Chadwick is on the programme committee for this conference. Please direct all enquiries to the Institute for Communications Studies at Leeds (email at the bottom of the message).

--------------------------

** SUBMISSIONS DUE MARCH 1 ***


Fourth International Conference on
Online Deliberation (OD2010)
(http://www.od2010.dico.unimi.it/)

30 June  2 July, 2010

Leeds, UK

Sponsored by: The University of Leeds, the Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione Universit degli Studi di Milano, and the Public Sphere Project. discuss specific advances in online deliberation from a number of different disciplinary perspectives.

The widespread diffusion of the Internet and a growing trend towards democratisation worldwide have encouraged new modes, projects and visions of citizen participation in decision making and governance.

OD2010 aims to bring together researchers, developers and practitioners from a wide range of academic and applied backgrounds to provide a unique opportunity to better understand the notion of deliberation in a virtual environment and to discuss specific advances in online deliberation from a number of different disciplinary perspectives.

The conference is aimed at those who wish to update themselves on recent developments in online deliberation, understand how other groups are applying the tools and techniques and exchange ideas with leading international experts.

OD2010 follows the traditions of previous high-level scientific conferences. It is organized by key experts in the field and is supported by a multidisciplinary programme committee. This is the first time the conference has been held outside the USA.

The fourth OD conference focuses on, but is not limited to, the following topics:

   * current research on online deliberation;
   * research challenges which deliberation, and in particular online deliberation, pose for researchers, governments, communities and citizens;
   * socio-technical design of online deliberative spaces;
   * links between theories of deliberative democracy with experience with online deliberation;
   * descriptions of tools and techniques that are already being tested or fielded;
   * deliberative platforms using novel or unusual settings, technology or approaches;
   * experiences and findings related to relevant technological theories (such as Web 2.0) and/or relevant social theories of deliberation and governance (such as public sphere, government 2.0 and civic intelligence); and
   * case studies in applying and evaluating online deliberation in various formal and informal engagement domains.

Special Issue of Journal of Information Technology & Politics

Conference participants are invited to submit their papers to a peer-review process for publication in a special issue of the Journal of Information Technology & Politics (www.jitp.net) connected with the conference. The special issue will focus on the development of online deliberation research and the future directions of the field. Guidelines for papers and other submissions

The conference allows for four distinct types of submissions:

  1. Research papers
  2. Exploratory papers on ongoing research and innovative projects
  3. Technology demonstrators
  4. Panels on pertinent issues

Research papers

These papers should have a strong focus on scientific rigour and may be a maximum of 10 pages. Papers in this track will be peer reviewed for rigour, relevance, originality and clarity of presentation. Abstracts or incomplete papers will not be accepted.

Exploratory papers

These papers describe novel concepts, works-in-progress, reflections, manifestos or other ideas and issues that are not currently suitable for a complete research paper. They may be a maximum of 5 pages. Papers in this section will also be peer reviewed, but the focus is on relevance more than scientific rigour.

Technology Demonstrators

Proposals for technology demonstrators (two pages) should include a description, objectives, examples of testing and application and, if possible, a URL where the technology can be viewed.

Panels

Proposals for panels (two pages) should include motivation, objectives, expected outcomes, approach to audience interaction and panel members. Panels are currently planned to be 1.5 hours long.

All submissions must be made via the conference submission system web site. Submissions should be written in English and foreign speakers are encouraged to have their submissions reviewed for language prior to submission. Submissions should be formatted using 11 point Times-Roman font on A4 sized paper. Accepted research and exploratory papers should be revised according to reviewer comments and resubmitted by the deadline.

Important Dates (note new deadlines)

January 1, 2010 Submission system available
March 1, 2010 Early registration begins
March 1, 2010 Research paper submissions due
March 1, 2010 Exploratory papers due
March 1, 2010 Technology Demonstrators & Panel proposals due
March 31, 2010 Notices of paper acceptances
May 1, 2010 Completed research and exploratory papers due
May 1, 2010 Late registration begins
June 30-July 2, 2010 OD 2010

Conference Chairs

Stephen Coleman, Centre for Digital Citizenship, University of Leeds, UK
Ann Macintosh, Centre for Digital Citizenship, University of Leeds, UK
Fiorella De Cindio, Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione, Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Organising Chairs

Giles Moss, Deputy Director Centre for Digital Citizenship, University of Leeds, UK
Cristian Peraboni, Dipartimento di Informatica e Comunicazione, Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Previous Conference Chairs and on-going supporters

Robert Cavalier, Department of Philosophy and Digital Media Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Todd Davies, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University, USA
Douglas Schuler, The Evergreen State College, and The Public Sphere Project, USA
Peter Shane, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University and Knight Commission on the Internet Needs of Communities in a Democracy, USA

Programme Committee

Simon Buckingham-Shum, Open University, UK
Robert Cavalier, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Andrew Chadwick, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Fiorella De Cindio, Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy
Steven Clift, Publicus.net/E-Democracy.org
Stephen Coleman, University of Leeds, UK
Clelia Colombo, Generalitat of Catalonia, Spain
Todd Davies, Stanford University, USA
Peter Day, University of Brighton, UK
Simon Delakorda, Institute of Ecology, Slovenia
Thomas Erickson, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA
Marcus Foth, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Tom Gordon, Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communications Systems (FOKUS), Germany
Mary Griffiths, University of Adelaide, Australia
Andrea Kavanaugh, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
Brian Loader, University of York, UK
Euripides Loukis, University of the Aegean, Greece
Ann Macintosh, University of Leeds, UK
Giles Moss, University of Leeds, UK
David Osimo, tech4i2.com
Cristian Peraboni, Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy
David Price, Debategraph, UK
Paul Resnick, University of Michigan, USA
Warren Sack, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Peter Shane, The Ohio State University, USA
Douglas Schuler, The Evergreen State College, and The Public Sphere Project, USA
Stuart Shulman, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Jennifer Stromer-Galley, University at Albany, USA
Peter van den Besselaar, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Terry Winograd, Stanford University, USA
Scott Wright, University of East Anglia, UK

For further information please email: ics-conferences@leeds.ac.uk

OD2010 website: http://www.od2010.dico.unimi.it/

Links to previous OD conferences: http://online-deliberation.net

Haystack: US explicitly provokes Iran?

"Haystack is a new program designed to provide unfiltered internet access to the people of Iran. The software package is compatible with Windows, Mac and Unix systems, and specifically targets the Iranian government’s web filtering mechanisms." So begins the blurb at the website aimed at disseminating software to allow Iranians to access twitter, facebook, Western media, and whatever else they like. The creater, from the Censorship Research Center, said, "We believe everyone, everywhere should be able to freely communicate, and we began work that would guarantee this right for the people of Iran." But is it for US NGOs to unilaterally decide and implement a right to communicate upon a target population? And why is their logo a brain in a formaldehyde tank on wheels?

3 February @NPCU: Stuart Allan on The Future(s) of Photojournalism in Wartime

‘The Future(s) of Photojournalism in Wartime’ 

Stuart Allan

Dept. of Politics and International Relations, FW101

5pm - 6.30pm, Wednesday 3 February 2010

Visual imagery of warfare is a routine, everyday feature of our news media. For the photographer confronted with the challenge of bearing witness to conflict on our behalf, the effort to record its human consequences raises important issues of interpretation. This paper seeks to show how familiar assumptions about photojournalism’s capacity to represent violence in an impartial manner are being decisively recast by the ‘digital revolution’ in photographic technologies. In examining ‘our camera-mediated knowledge of war,’ to use Susan Sontag’s phrase, it explores a number of questions confronting the photojournalist – both professional and amateur alike – committed to ‘making real’ the horrors of human suffering. Evidence is drawn from several case studies in order to assess the implications of digitalization for the future of photojournalism in wartime, with particular attention devoted to photojournalism’s moral responsibilities where visual truth-telling is concerned.

Stuart Allan is Professor of Journalism at Bournemouth University, UK. His recent books includeDigital War Reporting (co-authored with Donald Matheson) and Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives (co-edited with Einar Thorsen). He is a book series editor, and serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals.

All welcome. For further information contact Ben.OLoughlin@rhul.ac.uk. 

Legitimising jihad now takes more than words

One of the findings of our recent ESRC-funded project on media and radicalisation is that a shift has occurred in the way violent extremist or 'radicalised' jihadists justify suicide bombings. Around late 2007, as we begun the research, the most credible and authoritative figures in the eyes of online jihadist members were those with impressive rhetoric, grasp of religious scripture, and a place at the top of the Al-Qaeda hierarchy. Bin Laden and Al-Zawarahiri were the big draws. But the lack of action from Al-Qaeda itself, particularly the failure to act against Israel during the conflict with Gaza in December 2008, undermined these leaders' support. By early 2009 we found popularity was shifting to jihadist members themselves who stopped posting, went 'offline' and swapped virtual, rhetorical warfare for the 'real' battle, dying in the field. A new article in Foreign Affairs gives some examples of this. Does this make counter-measures against jihadists more difficult? If credibility and authority now come from deeds rather than words then this creates a more diffuse threat because any of jihadist supporter around the world may see an opportunity for glory and superstardom. But is a more diffuse threat necessarily a greater threat? Is security policy going to be driven by (intelligence) data confirming there is a pool of people actually willing to blow themselves up, or will it be dictated by the possibility that there might be? 

Call for PhD applications

Royal Holloway’s Department of Politics and International Relations welcomes applications and enquiries from potential PhD candidates interested in research topics covered by our faculty. This includes those wishing to apply for doctoral study in a field of research relevant to the New Political Communication Unit. We have a number of funding opportunities for Home/EU students. The deadline for applications is 15 March 2010.  For further information please see:

 http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Politics-and-IR/studying/Postgraduate_Research.html#Apply

2010-03-29: Andrew Chadwick and James Stanyer presenting at UK Political Studies Association Annual Conference

Andrew Chadwick (Royal Holloway) and James Stanyer (Communication and Media, Loughborough University) will be presenting a paper, "Political Communication in Transition: Mediated Politics in Britain’s New Media Environment" at the UK Political Studies Association's 60th Anniversary Conference at Edinburgh, March 29-April 1, 2010.

The paper is part of a panel on "New Media and Democracy" sponsored by the PSA's Media and Politics Section.

The final schedule is due to be published in January 2010.