Twitter and Microblogging: Political, Professional and Personal Practices

Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom 10 - 12 April 2013

Twitter and other micro-blogging platforms, with their short messages, in some cases circulated to millions of followers, were at first viewed with condescension and amusement: famously David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, opined, "Too many tweets make a twat." Other media initially treated Twitter as offering platforms for celebrities, pools of banality, streams of dumbed-down opinions. But people using Twitter quickly found an enormous range of diverse uses, revelling in opportunities for creativity that microblogging and associated applications offered. People involved Twitter in organising revolutions, disseminating scientific findings, promoting brands, communicating with friends and crafting new forms of artistic endeavours and communications. Where Twitter is not allowed, as in China, other microblogging platforms have taken on similar functions.

This conference brings together a range of researchers doing detailed analyses of the discourse, practices, and social interactions of microblogging communities.

Possible topics for submission may include:

• Microblogging and political activism
• Constructing knowledge in short messages
• Identities and relationships in contact and conflict
• Studying multimodality in microblogging
• Tweeting in action beyond Twitter
• Negotiating the information flow
• Affordances, emerging practices and creativity
• Studying the discourses of professional microblogging use
• Wit and humour

We will be inviting presentation in three formats:

• Single paper spoken presentations - 20 minutes
• Visual presentations (posters, videos, slide shows, etc.)
• Colloquia of three or more linked presentations

We expect there to be a lively social media backchannel during the conference. Twitter feeds relating to the conference as a whole and individual sessions will provide the basis for regular discussion sections linking the various strands and sessions.

Submission Guidelines for Abstracts

Submissions must contain the following information:

1. Email address and contact details
2. Presentation title
3. Presentation format (Single paper, Visual presentations, Colloquia)
4. The name(s) of the author(s) and their affiliation(s)
5. Abstract should be 300-400 words (for Colloquium include one abstract for each paper)
6. For Colloquium, include the number of papers and an overview summary 100-150 words
7. Keywords

The submission deadline is 10 December 2012. Authors will be notified of their acceptance by 10 January 2013.

For information: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/events/twitter_and_microblogging/