Communications Education in the Digital Age - Call for Symposium Papers

International Communication Days is organized by Üsküdar University Faculty of Communication annually with a different theme each year. The seventh International Communication Days, titled “Communications Education in the Digital Age”, hosted by Üsküdar University Faculty of Communication, was scheduled to be held on 16-17 April 2020. However, due to the global coronavirus outbreak, the symposium could not be held at the planned date. Therefore, the symposium has been postponed to a later date and will be held online. Accordingly, the dates of the application process and information about participation fees are updated.

The symposium series, attracting great interest both nationally and internationally, have been held annually since 2014 with themes such as digital addiction, digital culture and digital transformation. International Communication Days meets YÖK (The Council of Higher Education) and TÜBİTAK's (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) international scientific activity criteria and attracts more participants each year. The fact that the sixth International Communication Days received TÜBİTAK support in the international scientific activity category last year is noteworthy.

The main title of this year’s international symposium is “Communications Education in the Digital Age”. In our age, digitalization has led to significant transformations in the media sector and it is inevitable that the educational institutions will develop an educational approach appropriate for this transformation. The accreditation processes initiated in the faculties of communication are indicative of efforts to adapt to the standards of excellence and requirements of the age in higher education institutions. It is important to update the curriculum which forms the basis of communications education in accordance with the requirements of digitalization. Furthermore, it is crucial to replan the educational tools, materials and techniques. It is significant both in terms of meeting the expectations of the sector and professional success of the students that the institutions providing communication education keep up with the times. In addition, due to the global pandemic around the world in the recent months, digital communication technologies have become more and more powerful and it is now clear that they will play a central role in the future of the world.

The 7th International Communication Days / Communications Education in the Digital Age Symposium aims to contribute to this process by evaluating all aspects of communications education, evaluating the current situation and developing suggestions for the future. The views and thoughts to be put forward in the symposium will be shared with the relevant academic and social circles and efforts will be made to turn these contributions into practice.

The 7th International Communication Days / Communications Education in the Digital Age Symposium will last for three days and will comprise esteemed scholars from both Turkey and abroad, including Prof. Peyami Çelikcan, Prof. Maureen Ellis, Prof. Erik Knudsen, Prof. Halil Nalçaoğlu, Prof. Oya Tokgöz, Assoc. Prof. Salvatore Scifo and Emre Kızılkaya. In addition, as in the previous year, distinguished academics in the field will be moderating the sessions at the symposium.

Communications Education in the Digital Age Symposium is an international peer-reviewed scientific event. At the symposium, oral and poster presentations are welcome. The scientific committee of the symposium includes esteemed academics from home and abroad.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Communications education and accreditation
• Rethinking communication sciences in the digital age
• Journalism education in the digital age
• Radio and television broadcast education in the digital age
• Film education in the digital age
• New media education
• Public relations education in the digital age
• Advertising in the digital age
• Visual communication design education in the digital age
• Digital arts education
• Communications arts education in the digital age
• Communications education and artificial intelligence
• Media sector in the digital age: requirements, expectations
• Pandemics and online learning
• Crisis communications in the digital age

Submitted abstracts will be peer reviewed by the referees of Scientific Committee and the accepted papers will be published in the abstract booklet. Full papers will be included in the Symposium Proceedings Book, which will be published online. Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and length of full papers must not exceed 7500 words. The paper submission rules of Etkileşim (Interaction) Üsküdar University Faculty of Communication Academic Journal should be taken into consideration. 

Abstracts should be submitted via the symposium website no later than June 30, 2020. Please note that abstracts sent by fax or e-mail will not be accepted. Accepted papers will be announced by August 31, 2020.

We look forward to your papers and posters. Thank you in advance for your contributions.

Prof. Nazife Güngör

Symposium Chair

Dean, Faculty of Communication

Üsküdar University