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Call for Papers: Journal of Environmental Media 

ISSN 2632-2463 | Online ISSN 2632-2471 

2 issues per volume | First published in 2020

‘Environmental Media Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic’ 

Call for papers for open access supplement of Journal of Environmental Media 

Guest editors: Becky Alexis-Martin, Adi Kuntsman and Liu Xin 

While immediate global efforts are focused on containing the devastating spread of Covid-19, important conversations are also emerging regarding the immediate and long-term social, political, cultural and environmental implications of the current crisis. Among them are two widely addressed, but rarely intersecting topics. The first is environmental – for example, noting the positive impact of global lockdowns on carbon emissions due to reduced flights and motor travel; or addressing the future of ecological resilience and climate change based on lessons learned during the coronavirus pandemic. The second regards the role of digital media – the rise of remote working, teleconferencing, online education, and in the immediate tackling of the epidemic via contact tracing. Digital media has proven central to sustaining the social fabric of everyday life, accentuating the importance of digital access at times of restricted movement and physical contact, as well as substantially expanding digital surveillance. 

While each of the two topics – digital media and the environment – are receiving their due media and scholarly attention, they are rarely examined together, leaving unchallenged crucial questions regarding the relations between digital knowledge and technologies, environmental justice and the global pandemic. This special, open access section of the Journal of Environmental Media aims to facilitate a collection of ‘rapid response’ reflections on these questions, by inviting short (2000–3000 words) contributions. 

The format is flexible and can include reflections on preliminary findings; policy recommendations; commentary; theoretical interventions; or auto-ethnographic accounts to consider one or several of the questions below: 

• What are the hidden environmental challenges and damages of the rapid digitization of healthcare (in and beyond the pandemic monitoring), education, work and everyday life? How do they relate to global inequalities (both digital and environmental)? 
• What psychological reactions and changes in digital behaviour (such as use of carbon capture apps) have manifested in reaction to quarantine life? 
• What techno-scientific environmental myths and fake news (5G as culprit of coronavirus; dolphins in Venice etc) have proliferated through social media since the start of the pandemic? 
• How do we construct virtual environments in an age of a global lockdown? What new modes of care for nature and for each other can they facilitate? What are the relations between ‘virtual green spaces’ and mental health during the pandemic? 
• How can we rethink the relations between death, digital technologies and the environment?

All contributions will be peer reviewed and prepared for the fast-track publication with the support of the guest editors. All accepted pieces will be published in the special supplement to JEM’s 1:2 issue. For consideration, email 200-word abstracts to Adi Kuntsman (a.kuntsman@mmu.ac.uk) by 30 April. If selected, contributors must submit their full pieces by 5 June.

For more information about the Call for Papers, click here >> https://www.intellectbooks.com/asset/47350/1/JEM_CfP_april_20.pdf