Media Ethics: Human Ecology in a Connected World (MEA2019)

The Media Ecology Association invites paper and panel proposals for presentation at its 20th Annual Convention, taking place on 27-30 June 2019 in Toronto.

We welcome submissions that encompass the broad array of disciplines focusing on the study of media as environments, technology and techniques, modes of information, and symbolic codes of communication that constitute media ecology.

We also invite submissions exploring this year’s theme “Media Ethics. Human Ecology in a Connected World”.

In our current hyper-connected era, information and communication technologies are increasingly forming the infrastructure of a new digital human ecosystem which is larger and quicker to evolve than any prior.
This continually transforming and evolving planetary habitat connects all of humanity into, what Marshall McLuhan’s prescient mind termed, a “Global Village”.

Technology and new media’s impact on this ecosystem has a profound effect on every aspect of the human ethos – self-expression, education, values, beliefs, needs, livelihood, enjoyment – and society at large.
Over the past few years, these emerging technologies and unforeseen digital media practices have also given rise to ethical issues, political and societal questions of critical importance to our evolving future.

The countless unintended implications – current or potential – of today’s rapid technological developments have largely come from socio-technical systems and emerging digital, robotic, artificially intelligent, or biomedical technologies. These advances have led to an unprecedented need for new ethical perspectives and frameworks to underpin the building blocks of our new digital ecosystem.

General areas of interest related to this year’s theme include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Internet of things
• Robotics and automation
• Bioengineering
• Virtual/augmented reality
• Data ethics, privacy, surveillance, cyber security, and data protection
• Big data and cloud computing
• Social media algorithms
• Internet policy
• Misinformation on social media
• Propaganda, censorship, and free speech
• Net Neutrality, openness, and digital inclusion
• Media integrity in journalism, advertising, public relations
• Digital citizenship, social and political engagement
• Entertainment media, digital and media arts
• Digital literacy and media pedagogy
• Civil discourse, human dignity, diversity, and individual expression in the media ecosystem
• Wellbeing sustainability and prosperity in the media environment
• Innovative interpretations and new ethical perspectives emanating from the Media Ecology intellectual tradition