In recent years, the world has witnessed the flourishing of what has come to be known as social media. This media is created and consumed socially in response to the collective nature of user actions. This is a clear shift from traditional communication schemes to establish a new approach in terms of content creation, distribution, access and utilization. Content which used to be created by one individual and consumed by many is now created by many individuals and consumed by many others. The collaborative aspect of social networks aims to alter the principal of a single individual being responsible for content creation. The new approach focuses the efforts of many individuals to create content that can influence societies in social, political cultural and economic aspects. So far, social media has taken various forms including blogs, wikis, forums, social networking websites, social-bookmarking tools, photo-sharing websites, video-sharing websites, music-sharing websites, and game-sharing websites. There was also a notable increase in the numbers of developers as well as users of social media. The group work required to create social media has invigorated social interactivity. This has fostered creative thinking among individuals and groups to develop creative methods of expressing and distributing the knowledge required to tackle local and international challenges. Social networks have not only addressed the needs of connecting and interacting among like-minded individuals. They also alerted advertisers, marketers and decision-makers to the influential capacity of this new form of communication. As such, politicians and statesmen realized the potential of social media to influence public opinion just as the intellectuals and talented realized their presence on a new creative frontier. The controversy brought upon by social networks has stirred up a number of critical concerns such as privacy, content security, knowledge democratization, credibility, the decline of professionalism and the rise of amateurism. Nations across the globe have devised different strategies to address their varied experiences with this new form of media. The Second Conference on New Media is going to focus on social media due to the complex nature of this phenomenon. This event is going to be a platform for fostering discussions about the spectrum of issues revolving around identifying un-tackled research opportunities and discovering novel applications.

Theories that explain social media

• Social networks and the concept of free information flow and freedom of communication and content
• Testing traditional communication in terms of what is allowed within social networks Testing traditional communication in terms of how we act within social networks
• Research methodology in social media The challenge of using concepts and terminology in researching social media
• New directions in researching social media

Social media content

• Categories of social media
• Development tools of social media content and methods
• Analyzing and evaluating the content of social media
• Developing / designing methods and tools to facilitate access to information in social media

Social media technologies and applications

Innovative applications in social media

Application in the following areas:

• Culture (social networks and cross-cultural communication / social media and participation in a collective act / cultural and linguistic diversity in the social networking environment)
• Society (digital public space and freedom of expression / the impact of social and cultural variables on adopting the use of social networks / the use of social networks by minorities / social networks and issues impacting marginalized individuals / the social and psychological impacts of consuming social media contents / communication behavior for users of social media / the Internet and social participation / the technologies of new media and social networks / the technologies of new media and knowledge management at local levels)
• Politics (policies for adopting digital technology at national levels / e-democracy, civil society and pressure groups / social media in the context of democratization / electronic political opposition / use of social media networks in election campaigns / social media and political participation)
• Economics, Marketing and Advertising (the use of social networks in work environments / social networks as a medium for marketing activities / direct advertising through social networks / the use of social networks in institutions and organizations)

 Problems and challenges of social media

• Problems with privacy, credibility and transparency of information
• Content / news credibility
• Problems with information security
• Ethical issues
• Acculturation and identity issues
• The decline of professionalism versus amateurism
• Intellectual property
• Absolute freedom against absolute censorship: the challenges facing transitional democracies

Conference Date

April 6 & 7, 2011

Conference Location

University of Bahrain

Conference Languages

Arabic, English and French

Research Papers

• Research proposals should include
• Research title
• Name of author / authors and contact information
• Affiliation; Name of the institution that the author / authors is associated with and contact information
• Synopsis in 500 words
• The main theme of research
• Proposals should be sent (in MSWord or *. Rtf formats) to the following address: E-mail : newmedia2@arts.uob.bh and/or newmediabahrain@gmail.com

Important Dates

• Abstract Submission : November 30th, 2010
• Notification of Acceptance : November 15Th, 2010
• Final Deadline for Research Submission : February 1st, 2011
• Notification of Final Acceptance : March 1st, 2011

Scientific comitee

• Jamal Abduladheem (université de Bahreïn- Royaume de Bahreïn)
• Abdulnasser Fattahallah (université de Bahreïn- Royaume de Bahreïn)
• Kamel Gharbi (université de Bahreïn- Royaume de Bahreïn)
• Samaa Hachmi (université de Bahreïn- Royaume de Bahreïn)
• Amani Halwaji (université de Bahreïn- Royaume de Bahreïn)
• Pascal Lardellier (université de Bourgogne- France)
• Ridha Methnani (université de la manouba- Tunisie)
• Hatem Sridi (université de Bahreïn- Royaume de Bahreïn)

Participation Fees

• Participants from the University of Bahrain : Free
• Participants from the Kingdom of Bahrain : 150 USD
• Participants from outside of the Kingdom of Bahrain : 150 USD
• Masters and PHD students : 50 USD

Contact Information

Department of Communication

University of Bahrain

P.O Box : 32038 – Kingdom of Bahrain

Website: http://www.newmedia2.uob.edu.bh

e-mail: newmedia2@arts.uob.bh / newmediabahrain@gmail.com

Tel.: +973 1743 8413 /+973 1743 8404

Fax: +973 1744 9103