Please excuse any unavoidable cross-postings...
--------
CFP: Union for Democratic Communication 2012 International Conference
"Climates of Change: Democracy Movements, Media, and Global Environments"
Deadline: Submit your 500 word abstract [log in to unmask]  by January 15,
2012, and join us in Tallahassee for the conference May 10-12, 2012.

**The intersections of proliferating new media technology, economic
inequality, and global environmental instability are producing new spaces
for social and political agency, real and imagined. From astroturf campaigns
of corporate sponsored populist outrage to the very real popular anger at
the economic stagnation of the middle class, politicians and pundits are
leveraging fear, doubt, and denial to advance old world agendas at the very
moment when new media technologies are opening new pathways for social
organization, information and fact checking. Further, in the face of
economic restructuring and the continued dismantling of everything ³public,²
mainstream media outlets both celebrate the virtues of social media to
liberate us from disinformation and domination and disseminate corporate
ideology, misinformation, and distorted dichotomies in the name of
objectivity.

The 2012 Conference of the Union for Democratic Communications seeks
submissions that address the pressing issues manifested by climates of
change. For example, how are social media tools being used to liberate
and/or enclose democratic participation? What forces are structuring
contemporary debates about global climate change and the cultural and
economic impacts of policy decisions shaped by these debates? What media and
communication tools and strategies are social movements using to counter and
confront obstruction, disinformation and denial? How are mainstream media
news frames challenged and reconfigured by new media news sources ­ blogs,
Twitter, podcasts and citizen media?

Submit your 500 word abstract [log in to unmask]  by January 15, 2012, and
join us in Tallahassee for the conference May 10-12, 2012.