It was during the early 1900s when processes of communication were for the first time acknowledged as constituent components of social relations in modern societies. Since then, communication studies have flourished and become one of the most active fields of scholarly research mainly due to its interdisciplinarity and its inherent association with everyday life. The past century has been marked by momentous discontinuities and changes – in societal structures, in political organizations, in markets and industries, in everyday technologies and in human thought and interaction in all its forms. All these discontinuities and changes have had an impact on the field, contributing in productive ways to the vibrant flux in communication research and creating ruptures, cleavages, offshoots, camps, and approaches within the discipline. So much so that today some areas of the field are all but unrecognisable. The rise of new forms of ICTs just over the last few decades, for instance, are forcing communication scholars to embrace enormous challenges. Today we are faced with new means of production and distribution in all forms of content; innovative narrative practices that span diverse media forms have become commonplace; we see novel producers and consumers that transform markets as we have known them; we tackle data in extraordinary sizes and novel manners. In short, in the age of digitalisation, unprecedented media and communication ecologies have come into being which demand new methods of analysis and intelligibility.

While change is ever-present, there are also many continuities. Many aspects of the social world and the processes of communication intrinsic to it endure. In fact, if the old saying can be trusted, “the more things change, the more they remain the same”. Our desire and concern for emancipation, equality, empowerment, freedom, justice and struggle for a better world unwaveringly prevail as our most impending challenges. Our deepest desires, fears, longings, and anxieties are still at the heart of the human condition. We know for a fact that the centrality of communication processes in modern democratic societies remains unchanged. In turn, despite vicissitudes in communication technologies and social life, there are many continuities in communication theory and practice. Many methods, models, approaches, theories and schools of thought are still highly relevant and applicable – perhaps more so than ever.

It is these continuities and discontinuities in both social life and the field of communication studies that frame the theme of this year’s Communication in the Digital Age Symposium. Hence, the symposium theme (dis)continuities aims to bring together different academic disciplines/approaches/issues represented within the field of communication studies. A better understanding of these continuities, discontinuities and changes will enable us to make better sense of the ways in which contemporary societies function and the role of communication in them. Driven by our belief in the importance of such a discussion, we invite communication scholars working in all related fields to contribute to the symposium with their work. We welcome abstracts for scholarly papers and themed panels related to the theme of the symposium.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Histories, theories and models
• Media, gender and LGBTQ+
• Children, youth and media
• Law, governance and politics
• Ownership, production and distribution
• Audience and reception
• Media and/of diaspora
• Global media studies
• Networks, clusters and minorities
• Old and new modes of cinematic narration
• Interactive media and digital platforms
• Media activism and social movements
• Ecology and sustainability
• Big data and digital humanities
• Corporate identity, image and reputation
• Brands, consumers and new markets
• Perception, persuasion and engagement
• New approaches in public relations and advertising
• Ethics, crises and community impact
• Intercultural/transcultural communication and diversity
• Mediatization and/of politics