Call for Papers: NewsQ/SSRC News Quality in the Platform Era

Hi folks,
apologies for crossposting, but as we've been discussing NewsQ in our
calls, sending along this call below, feel free to forward as well!
Best,
Connie

*How do we define and measure news in the platform era?* Defining “the
news” has never been a straightforward proposition, but in the era of
platform media, a number of factors complicate this task further. Beyond
legacy media, today's news is transmitted by mobile phones, tablets, smart
home devices such as Amazon’s Alexa, and algorithmically driven news feeds
by many of the major platforms. In addition to the influence of the feeds,
the content of news is increasingly produced by individuals without
professional training, from dedicated bloggers monetizing content for niche
audiences, to impromptu citizen journalists livestreaming to social media
feeds. Mixed in is an ever-expanding cohort of websites that present
themselves as traditional news organizations, but skirt journalistic norms,
producing content ranging from opinion posing as fact to outright
disinformation.

For better or worse, what has counted as news in the Western tradition—and
what made its way to news consumers—has historically been determined by a
professional elite: news editors. Today, however, the gatekeeping role of
editors is increasingly appropriated by technology: the search and
recommendation algorithms that suggest content to ever greater proportions
of news consumers. The result is that we rely heavily on technology, but
lack a precise understanding of how that technology operates.

How have ubiquitous content production, rampant opinion and disinformation
presented as fact, and plummeting trust in expertise complicated the
task—imperative in a democracy—of defining the news and measuring its
quality? What counts as “news quality,” and can we imagine improvements or
remedies to algorithmic or semi-automated recommendation and ranking
systems?

The Social Science Research Council <https://www.ssrc.org/> (SSRC), in
collaboration with the NewsQ Initiative <https://newsq.net/>, invites
proposals for research about the nature and quality of news. In particular,
we invite theoretical, conceptual, empirical, or applied research that
suggests new approaches to—and actionable critiques of—algorithmic news
dissemination. The workshop is tentatively scheduled to be held in New York
City on November 12-13, 2020 (COVID-19 contingency details in the call),
and will be chaired by Philip M. Napoli
<https://sanford.duke.edu/people/faculty/napoli-philip-michael> (Duke
University) and Regina Lawrence
<https://journalism.uoregon.edu/people/directory/rgl> (University of
Oregon). Funding will be provided for participant travel and accommodations.

Further details can be found on the SSRC website:
https://www.ssrc.org/programs/component/media-democracy/news-quality-in-the-platform-era/

To apply, please send the following materials to mdapplications@ssrc.org by
Monday, June 15, 2020 with “Application for News Quality Research
Development Workshop” in the subject line:

   - Current C.V. of the author who will participate in the workshop
   (maximum two pages).
   - An abstract of up to 500 words. The abstract should clearly outline
   the main theoretical and/or empirical contribution of the proposed paper.
   - A short statement (up to 300 words) detailing your interest in the
   workshop and how it will advance your research agenda. If you have
   publications or projects that are related to the research detailed in your
   abstract, please feel free to list up to three citations in this document.


-- 
connie moon sehat
connieimdialog@gmail.com
https://linkedin.com/in/connieatwork
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