Studies in Symbolic Interaction, a research bi-annual, edited by Norman K. Denzin (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), invites submissions for a special issue on symbolic interaction and new social media, to be edited by Shing-Ling Sarina Chen and Laura Terlip (University of Northern Iowa).
While the works of George H. Mead, Georg Simmel, Erving Goffman and other leading symbolic interactionists have been integral to the study of social interaction, researchers from this tradition have been somewhat hesitant to engage in the study of mediated communication. It is critical that symbolic interactionists move boldly forward to study what has become for many a dominant form of communication in their everyday life.
Symbolic interactionism, a powerful perspective in studying social interaction, seemingly lacks readily available conceptual tools to help researchers fully grasp the nuances of mediated communication. For instance, Mead’s works are full of conceptual tools for studying mind, self, and society yet obviously void of specific tools to study social interaction made possible by advances in communication technology and mediated communication.
The prevalence of new social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc. has made it impossible for symbolic interactionists to ignore the effects of mediated communication when they study social relationships in everyday life. Whether we research identities, emotion, memory, family, work, career, presentations of self, deception, love, loss or other areas, the impact of mediated communication is felt by those interacting within it.
C. Wright Mills advised that we live in a second-hand world, one mediated by culture, language, and communication. Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and Carl Couch argued that information technologies fundamentally changed the way we form relationships with one another. Stuart Hall further advocates that a politics of representation mediates our relationship to reality, as we no longer confront the world directly.
The new social media build on and further complicate all of the issues and processes of symbolic interaction. This special issue provides an arena for researchers to build on and expand the existing symbolic interactionist perspective to include the study of social interaction made possible by the use of new social media. This special issue offers researchers an opportunity to demonstrate the interface between willful social interaction and structured technological features—how social media are defined by social interactions, as well as how social interactions are dictated by the use of social media.
There is no shortage of topics that offer insights into the investigation of the relationships between social interaction and social media, such as, but not limited to:
Avatars, digital bodies, and identity
Gaming communities
Facebook and Twitter in education
Facebook and Twitter in Congress
Microblogs and relationships building
Online dating research
Self-representation online
Social media and deviance
Social media and divorce
Social media and elections
Social media and fan communities
Social media and grieving
Social media and health/illness
Social media and homelessness
Social media and immigrants
Social media and privacy
Social media and religion
Social media and social capital
Social media and social movements
Social media and the elderly
Social media network analysis
Social media journalism
Wikileaks and secrecy
Wireless and mobile media studies
SUBMISSIONS
Interested scholars should submit an abstract of no more than 500 words for consideration. Submissions should be e-mailed to Shing-Ling Sarina Chen at sarina.chen@uni.edu by January 31, 2012.
IMPORTANT DATES
Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2012
Author notification deadline: February 15, 2012
First-draft manuscript deadline: May 15, 2012
Final manuscript deadline: August 15, 2012
Issue Publication: December 1, 2012
Blog de Octavio Islas 