Stream Graduate Journal Special Issue CFP: Communication and Global Conflicts

The so-called global “war against terrorism” has been the geopolitical focus of academics, politicians and civic institutions in the global community for the last 8 years. Human rights, civic rights and societies on the whole continue to suffer in conflict-ridden regions of the world.

From Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka to Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as various freedom movements in the regions, South Asia has seen a surge in terrorism in the last two years. For example, Pakistan has been in the spotlight, especially in the last two years during which the country faced more than a 100 terrorism events claiming hundreds of civilian lives. Drone attacks by the American military on Pakistani territories, demands for Sharia laws by Islamic groups, and the Pakistani government’s peace deals with Taliban have made recent headlines. In Israel and Palestine, amidst the rhetoric of “change”, images of destroyed houses, hospitals, and university buildings and civilian casualties are being shown on media outlets. Similar devastating conflicts are taking place the world over as tensions between the Islamic world and the West, as well as tensions within diverse Islamic factions lead to rising violence and blur the lines between “terrorists”, “rebels”, and “freedom fighters,” while at the same time polarizing their popular perceptions.

This special issue of Stream broadly explores current issues in global conflicts and in particular, the war against terrorism, from a communication perspective. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• Effects of conflicts on culture, society and economy
• Political economy of the war against terrorism
• Media’s representation of Islam and Muslims in the war against terrorism
• Use of communication media by terrorist and extremist organizations (e.g. illegal FM radio stations in Pakistan used by extremist groups.
• Media’s role in wars and conflicts and comparative representations of both in media
• Peace journalism in the context of war against terrorism
• Religious & ethnic representations in media
• Exploring media’s relationship with war and conflict resolution as they relate to current international events

Related to the above topics, we invite academic articles, methodology papers (with early research findings), literature reviews, book reviews, critical essays, and interviews. Please see below for a detailed description of some of these categories.Academic (peer reviewed) articles: Academic articles should be 15-20 pages in length and offer a unique contribution to academic knowledge. In order to be considered for publication, the articles should already be in an advanced editing stage, having been meticulously proof-read by their authors. Articles with significant grammatical, typographical or citation errors should be returned to authors for correction prior to being sent out for peer review. Students are especially encouraged to submit revised chapters from their theses.

Critical Essays: Critical essays are a hybrid of criticism, academic writing, journalism, and creative writing, and reflect an older tradition of popular intellectual criticism as found in literary supplements, feuilletons, and editorial writing for newspapers. Critical essays should engage their topic with insight, creativity, and rigour, but are not required to elaborate on their methodology, sources, or theoretical frameworks to the depth that is expected of academic essays. Thoughtful, well- articulated and supported arguments are required in critical essays, which should be between 15 and 25 pages in length.

Interviews: We will accept interviews conducted by graduate students with academics or other public intellectuals who are working in the field of or are relevant to communication. Submissions should be no more than 5-10 pages in length, include a brief introduction to the interview (under 500 words), and the interviewer and interviewee's comments should be indicated with their initials. Any works referenced in the interview should be cited with endnotes, which should contain the information that is normally cited intext in brackets in the APA style (i.e. Author, year, page#). A reference list should follow in APA style (follow the guidelines for academic articles).
While Stream accepts articles on an ongoing basis, submissions for the special issue must be received by November 31, 2010.

For any other queries, please contact Arsalan Butt (ab@sfu.ca).