We are happy to announce a call for papers:

 

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Call for Papers for the

Special Issue on Social Media in Conflicts and Crises

 

Behaviour & Information Technology

An international journal on the human aspects of computing

(Taylor & Francis, Impact Factor 1.388)

 

Important Dates:

2018 June 1st – Abstract (about 1500 words) and intention to submit letter (e-mail)

2018 July 1st – Full submission of manuscript

 

Special Issue Editors

- Christian Reuter*, Technische Universität Darmstadt 

- Stefan Stieglitz, University of Duisburg-Essen

- Muhammad Imran, Qatar Computing Research Institute

*corresponding guest editor: reuter@peasec.tu-darmstadt.de

 

Details and Submission Instructions:

https://peasec.de/2018/cfp-bit-conflicts-crises  

 

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Introduction:

Social media is used in crises and conflicts for different reasons and by several actors, such as affected citizens, bystanders, media as well as emergency service agencies. On the one hand, social media can help to share useful information that might help to overcome the crisis. However, examples also show that terrorists use social media to recruit new members and disseminate ideologies, and social bots influence economic and political processes. Therefore, researchers need to investigate how to better exploit the potentials of social media during conflicts and crises. At the same time academics need to develop countermeasures, such as fake news detection and counter narratives.

 

The aim of this special issue is to showcase current research on social media in conflicts and crises. This includes the investigation of the dynamics of participation and interaction enabled by social media, which includes both good sides (participation, volunteerism) but also bad sides (fake news, rumours, suppression, political persecution). We invite papers that provide rich description and/or evaluation of the design and/or actual use of social media for collaboration and/or widespread participation in any phase of a conflict or crisis. Papers may be conceptual, theoretical and/or empirical in nature, with a preference for empirical-based theoretical work.

 

Sample Topics:

- Studies of the use of social media in conflicts and crises including aspects like rumours, fake news, manipulation, cyber deception, information warfare

- Innovations in design or use of social media that solve potential problems such as issues of information overload, assessment of information trustworthiness, or ethical issues such as privacy.

- Issues and techniques for mining and near-real-time processing of social media data to enable early decision-making or detection of misinformation.

- Innovative human-computer interaction techniques and methodologies relevant to the design, analysis, and evaluation of applications useful for social media in conflicts and crises. 

 

 

 

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Prof. Dr. Christian Reuter, Technische Universität Darmstadt,
Science and Technology for Peace and Security (PEASEC), www.peasec.de