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CfP: Innovative methods in measuring political polarization in the age 
of hybrid media

Conference: 11th Central and Eastern European Communication and Media 
Conference (CEECOM 2018)
Dates and place: May 1 – June 1 2018, Szeged, Hungary
Panel: Innovative methods in measuring political polarization in the 
age of hybrid media
Panel chairs: Svetlana S.Bodrunova (St.Petersburg State University)
               Gabriella Szabó (Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian 
Academy of Sciences)
Deadline: February 15, 2018

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Polarization in politics has recently acquired great importance as a 
subject of discussion in Central and Eastern Europe. The panel aims to 
bring media and communication scholars together and examine the 
application of new analytical tools in measuring political 
polarization in the media spaces. Inspired by the thesis of hybridity 
and the networked publics, we create forum for academic dispute in 
which we recognize the media sphere (incl. social media) as spatial 
imagination of representations and narratives on politics that carry 
the potential to make the invisible publicly visible and maintain 
connection between the key communicators. It is argued that today’s 
media ecosystem is more than a convergence of offline and online 
spaces: it is the transcendence into a new form of interactions by 
allowing for a rapid conversation on politics across multiple 
platforms with virtual proximities and distances between the actors.
  
The body of scientific thinking depicts polarization as the divergence 
of politics, which highlights the creation and stabilization of 
political blocs, separate political communities. Speculations began to 
rise that there has been no such thing called mainstream media sphere 
in CEE countries, but distinctive group of media outlets have evolved 
to create ideological ‘bubbles’. In this ‘bubble’, the lines between 
audiences, journalists and politicians are blurring: instead of being 
neutral carrier of messages, media have become a focal point of 
politically relevant communities. Nowadays, the key question to be 
addressed is whether the fragmented and heavily partisan media sphere 
is inclusive enough for connecting divergent journalistic opinions or 
there has been a gradual emergence of political polarization because 
of the media instrumentalization of political agents.

There is however pressing need for refreshing the methodological 
apparatus for innovative examinations of political polarization in 
media. With this in mind, we invite empirical contributions to 
investigate the different aspects of the widened and widening 
discursive gap between media outlets having left and right, or liberal 
and conservative political orientations. The panel promotes the 
relational approach to study polarization meaning that architecture of 
the media space can be defined through the relations among the media 
platforms. Qualitative and quantitative researches, single case 
studies and cross-case comparisons form the body of this panel. We pay 
special attention to the use of mixed methods such as the combination 
of content-oriented examinations and network analysis. Particular 
attention will be devoted to the cross-country comparability of the 
datasets and to the regional specificities, therefore the contributors 
are encouraged to discuss the potential common framework for the 
analysis of the forthcoming 2019 European Parliamentary election 
campaign during the panel.

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A special issue is planned to be published based on the best papers 
collected for the panel.

Please submit your individual paper proposal abstract through the 
conference official submission platform 
(https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ceecom2018.hu_index.php_call-2Dfor-2Dpapers_&d=DwIDaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=uXI5O6HThk1ULkPyaT6h2Ws3RKNKSY__GQ4DuS9UHhs&m=bhzNl9LZQ-IA8kKPLGYvBdwbhZcdd0hDjcDLkftrUBQ&s=wa5fG060oJTUVTea41Xw_OChQoyStA-sqrr6IjIbBlE&e= ) until February 15, 
2018.

More information on the 11th Central and Eastern European 
Communication and Media Conference is available at 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ceecom2018.hu_&d=DwIDaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=uXI5O6HThk1ULkPyaT6h2Ws3RKNKSY__GQ4DuS9UHhs&m=bhzNl9LZQ-IA8kKPLGYvBdwbhZcdd0hDjcDLkftrUBQ&s=tPuwJQ7Gu6snj7RDLSxAQrVE0vHW1E7_-T_RbS3n128&e= 

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