Media Education Research Section - Call for Proposals 2023

The Media Education Research Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites proposals for IAMCR 2023, to be held in Lyon, France, from 9 to 13 July (Lyon23) with an Online Conference Papers (OCP23) component from 26 June to 5 July.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 9 February 2023 at 23h59 UTC.

See the CfPs of all sections and working groups >

Conference themes

IAMCR conferences have a main conference theme that is explored from multiple perspectives throughout the conference in plenaries and other moments, including the programmes of the thematic sections and working groups. Additionally, each section and working group also defines some of its own themes, which are described in their individual calls for proposals. Proposals for contributions to the conference are submitted to the sections and working groups and may focus on an aspect of the main conference theme as it relates to the concerns of the section or working group, or address a theme identified by the section or working group.

Main theme – Inhabiting the planet: Challenges for media, communication and beyond

The main theme for IAMCR 2023, “Inhabiting the planet: Challenges for media, communication and beyond”, is concerned with possibilities for rethinking communication research agendas at a time when the irreversible effects of climate change are compounded by stark geopolitical, sociocultural, and religious tensions in human communities. At this juncture, urgent reflection and research are needed on how we can hope to flourish today and in the future, and also how media and communication tools and environments can be positive forces and spaces for change.

Five sub-themes of this central theme have been identified: Humanity and progress; democracy; media, information, and communication; cities and territories; and environmental accountability.

Consult a detailed description of the main theme and its sub-themes

Education, in the broadest sense, plays a key role in developing societies, cultures, and a global forum that are inclusive, respectful, and reciprocal. Educational spaces, whether formal (schools, universities, etc.) or informal (libraries, NGOs, community projects, DIY initiatives, journalism, and media productions), are intended as sites of empowerment that potentially address burning issues of the day, but also provide practical means to groups and individuals to make change in their daily lives. Working at the seams of educational, cultural, and social spaces, educators, librarians, community activists, media makers, journalists, and communications researchers are positioned in a unique manner to address central, challenging global issues of the day, while also toiling alongside individuals and groups to help develop and nurture media competencies, conceptual frames, and ethical comportments.

The Media Education Research Section (MER) is calling for papers related to the conference's main themes from the perspective of ongoing empirical research or theoretical developments.

The abstracts can follow a range of directions such as:

Is media education addressing new cultural, political, technological, and ethical challenges?
Is media education keeping pace with the ecological crisis?
How is media education research addressing the rise of authoritarianism and conspiracy theories?
How are neo-colonial and global South approaches contributing to media education?
How are algorithms, datafication, and platforming taken up in media education research?
What is the place and role of children’s media in media education? How is children’s media pedagogical?
What is the place and role of media education in Higher Education?
What does media education offer the digital classroom? Has media education become absorbed into Ed Tech?
What critical media education research is needed today, locally and/or globally?
What research are you working on and how does it fit into the conference themes?

Contributing to the conference: Lyon23 and OCP23

There will be two ways of joining IAMCR2023:

If you are not able to or don’t want to join the face-to-face conference in Lyon but do want to submit an online-only paper, submit your abstract to OCP23 only. If accepted, you’ll later submit your full paper to the online platform, which will be open for discussion from 26 June to 5 July.
If you do want to join the face-to-face event, submit your abstract to Lyon23 and OCP23. If accepted you’ll submit your paper to the online platform and present it at the face-to-face conference.

Guidelines for abstracts

Abstracts submitted to the Media Education Research Section should have between 300 and 500 words and must be submitted online here. Abstracts submitted by email will not be accepted.

The deadline to submit abstracts is 9 February 2022 at 23h59 UTC.

It is expected that authors will submit only one (1) abstract. Under no circumstances should an author submit more than two abstracts as a single author or as the lead author of a co-authored paper and no author will submit more than one abstract to the Media Education Research Section. The same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to more than one section or working group. Any such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected.

Proposals are accepted for both single Papers and for Panels with several papers (in which you propose multiple papers that address a single theme).

Proposals for panels can only be submitted to Lyon23 and OCP23. Panel submissions must include an abstract for each paper submitted here and a description & supplemental information submitted via this form on the conference website

See important dates and deadlines to keep in mind