CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue of Political Communication Special Issue Editor Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach Annenberg School for Communication University of Southern California 3502 Watt Way Los Angeles, CA 90089-0281 ballrok@usc.edu New and Old Media in Contemporary Urban Governance and Politics I am editing a special issue of Political Communication on the media in contemporary urban governance and politics. This theme draws attention to the newest and oldest of media as spaces of negotiation of the major political challenges of our time. Urban centers around the world are becoming more diverse at the same time as they are becoming more connected. Media audiences once bounded by the city or nation state are more segmented by taste, identity, and ideology, and more geographically unbounded. General interest or “mainstream” media are consolidating in a declining growth curve at the same time that ethnic and immigrant media expand and grow. Media can serve as the connective tissue between the grassroots and city government, but changes in the media system have threatened the bonds between local media, their audiences, and local governments. These changes include consolidated ownership, looser definition of public service obligations for broadcasters, and a variety of Internet-related changes in the way both the grassroots and city governments function. The new media of today, just as the new media of yesterday, prompt people to explore the potential for revitalization of governance structures. Amidst these social transformations, the media – new and old, big and small – are both part of the process and interpreters of the process. It is this nexus of media and urban governance/politics that will be explored in this special issue. Especially encouraged are submissions that deal with the following themes: ? civic engagement among urban dwellers – the roles of new and old, big and small media ? neighborhood voices in urban governance ? the role of local journalism in bridging citizens to their government ? theory-driven evaluations of community networking or community informatics ? the role of urban governments in the development of new media systems (e.g., wireless) ? media and urban politics in non-Western societies ? media, immigrants, and immigration – issues of identity in urban politics ? the roles of ethnic media in urban life and politics ? the challenges of diversity – media as bridge, media as boundary of urban spaces ? media constructions of urban places This is a call for two types of papers: (1) Theory based empirical contributions of a length suitable for Political Communication, up to 30 pages of 300 words a page. Studies that incorporate theories of mass media, new media, civic engagement, urban dynamics, urban change/dynamics, immigration, social movements, or related themes with either qualitative or quantitative methods will be considered. (2) Short (500 –1500 words) reports of urban governance experiments or innovations conducted through media (new, old, or both). Reports should include discussion of the implications of the specific case for more general issues of media, urban politics and governance. The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2006. Submit three hard copies of your manuscript to Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach and send as an e-mail attachment. Please use the standard paper format for Political Communication. Decisions about publication of your manuscript will be made in February, 2007.