Human beings with different cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds share the globe and communicate together on interpersonal, organizational, and international levels. Globalization, new communication technologies, media conglomerations, trade agreements, and even military treaties have virtually removed borders among nations. New media technologies, for example, have created new communicative spaces, forms, and strategies that transcend face-to-face and nation-to-nation communication barriers; yet, cultural, ethnic, and religious differences remain. This highlights the significance of the cultural, ethnic, and religious dimensions of human communication, as well as the interrelated relationship among them; culture usually arises from various ethnic groups, and each ethnic group does not necessarily follow one religious tradition (i.e., faith).
Communication is at the heart of any culture, ethnicity, and religion. People become more engaged in contexts where communication reflects on their cultural, ethnic, or religious identity. Hence, it is crucial to look deeply into, and compare, how people from differing cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds communicate among themselves, and across cultures, ethnicities, and religions. Cultural, ethnic, and religious differences are causing communication problems; hence, communicators should be careful, enduring, and forgiving, rather than imprudent, intolerant, and hostile. Discussions about culture, ethnicity, or religion can be empowering, but can also at times be disturbing.
Many contemporary societies are proud of their diversity in culture, ethnicity, and faith; however, cultural, ethnic, and religious communication forms have not been yet sufficiently or effectively embraced in such societies. It is evident in many of such societies that cultural exclusivity, ethnic stereotyping, racial discrimination or xenophobia, and religious intolerance are prevalent. There have also been various biases and crimes/violence against those perceived as "others” in such societies. Recent global debates demonstrate the extent to which communication, including traditional and new media, can be a disruptive force when focusing only on the most negative aspects of certain cultural, ethnic, or religious practices, particularly those related to fundamentalist views. However, communication can also be powerful in bringing people of different cultures, ethnicities, and faiths together in mutual understanding and cooperation.
Communication can help avoid inter-cultural, inter-racial, or inter-religious clashes; it can promote peace, patience, tolerance, and understanding, deepen public knowledge about religious traditions and practices, promote dialogue and mutual understanding among different religious traditions and between religious and secular visions of the world, and shape public perceptions of cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity. This issue will focus on the role of multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-faith communication in contemporary societies, covering a variety of themes and cases from global perspectives. It welcomes analytic, critical, empirical, or comparative submissions that discuss the most recent debates and discourses about, but not limited to, the following topics:
- forms of cultural, ethnic, and religious communication
- theories and concepts in cultural, ethnic, and religious communication
- effective or ineffective multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-faith communication
- traditional or new media and culture, ethnicity, and religion
- social integration and multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-faith communication
- rights and freedoms of ethnic and religious groups in contemporary societies
- inter-cultural, cross-cultural, and multi-cultural communication
- ethnic and religious media
- intercultural, interethnic, and interfaith dialogue
- multiculturalism, pluralism, and diversity
- media representations of culture, ethnicity, and religion
The Global Media Journal -- Canadian Edition (http://www.gmj.uottawa.ca/) welcomes high-quality, original submissions on related topics to the above theme. Submissions are expected to develop communication and media theories, report empirical and analytical research, present critical discourses, apply theories to case studies, and set out innovative research methodologies. The Journal is bilingual (English and French) open-access online academic refereed publication that aims to advance research and understanding of communication and media in Canada and around the globe.
Deadline: March 15th, 2011
Submissions: Papers (5,000 to 7,500 words), review articles of more than one book (2,500 to 3,000 words), and book reviews (1,000 to 1,200 words).
Method: All manuscripts must be submitted electronically as Word Document attachments, directly to Dr. Mahmoud Eid (gmj@uottawa.ca).
Guidelines: Available at: http://www.gmj.uottawa.ca/for-authors_e.html
Decision: May 15th, 2011
Publication: June 15th, 2011 |
