Call for Papers
Special Issue of Publizistik
“Human-Machine Communication”
https://www.springer.com/journal/11616/updates/19728790
Guest Editors: Katrin Etzrodt (TU Dresden), Peter Gentzel (Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nürnberg), Sonja Utz (Tübingen University), Sven Engesser (TU Dresden)
Submission deadline: 30 April 2022
Smart AI-powered machines such as virtual agents, chatbots, and social robots are increasingly pervading everyday lives. They are increasingly able to perceive their environment and act autonomously. As a result, we are witnessing a profound change in which communication through technologies is extended by communication with technologies—machines turn into interlocutors. This implies several theoretical, empirical, and methodological challenges for communication and media research, such as applying, changing, or reconceptualizing approaches.
To address these challenges, a systematic review of empirical findings, theory, and methodology in the field of human-machine communication (HMC) is necessary. However, research on HMC is characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity, which is reflected in a diversity of definitions, terms, research objects, topics, theories, and methods. The relevant literature is scattered and inconsistent, and synopses are scarce. Therefore, it is difficult to gain an adequate overview of the state of research on communication between humans and machines. Thus, the classification, critical discussion, and development of analytical concepts for the study of HMC are required.
The aim of this special issue is to bring together HMC scholars and to contribute to the systematization of and reflection on this emerging field of research. We particularly welcome contributions that take a systematic perspective on HMC in terms of theoretical, empirical, and methodological approaches. Contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following areas:
1. RESEARCH OBJECTS AND TOPICS
Machines as interlocutors and social actors are discussed within a variety of contexts. These include artificial intelligence, (social) robotics, digital assistants and chatbots (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri), things (e.g., Internet of Things), environments (e.g., ambient intelligence), homes (e.g., smart homes), and cities (e.g., smart cities).
HMC research has focused on short term, individual effects of communication with machines in the past decades. Of particular importance were social reactions of humans toward non-human or hybrid entities (e.g. Sundar et al. 2015) and humans’ inferences about the actorness or agency of such entities (cf. Reeves and Nass 1996). More recently, the role of machines as interlocutors as well as related conceptual and ethical issues (cf. Guzman 2018; Gunkel 2020) have come to the fore. Further issues of HMC, such as contents, forms, and dynamics of HMC and humans’ perception and responses to HMC have been studied in specific domains (e.g., healthcare, pedagogy, labor, or journalism), mainly in robotics (e.g., Zhao 2006). This special issue aims, on the one hand, to build on existing traditions and, on the other hand, to explore further perspectives.
1.1 EXEMPLARY QUESTIONS
- What research subjects does HMC encompass? Which ones should it encompass?
- What kind of “interlocutors” are machines?
- What are the types and contents of HMC?
- What are the effects of HMC?
- What dynamics and practices emerge in HMC?
- What (social) contexts play a role in HMC?
2. THEORETICAL DEFINITIONS, TERMS AND APPROACHES
HMC aims at the construction and renegotiation of technologies as communicators. This renegotiation occurs against the backdrop of a disciplinary paradigm that focuses on human communication. Moving forward thus requires a twofold approach: To move forward, we thus have to expand the range of phenomena, the definitions of problems, and enhance the critical and analytical capacity of classical anthropocentric communication and media theories—which, from the perspective of conceptual development, are already densely intertwined with technical artifacts, mathematical assumptions, and engineering (e.g., information transmission, stimulus-response models, or the Shannon–Weaver model of communication) (cf. Guzman 2018; Guzman and Lewis 2020; Schäfer and Wessler 2020).
Thus, the extent to which classical theories such as those of usage, reception, and effects, or interpersonal and computer-mediated communication can be applied to the analysis of HMC or need to be adapted has to be determined. In addition, the extent to which HMC can be enriched by approaches from other disciplines, such as those related to social contexts, to identity, to the construction of meaning, or to the negotiation of meaning, needs to be discussed.
2.1 EXEMPLARY QUESTIONS
- When does “use of machines” become “interaction with machines” and when does interaction become “communication with machines”?
- Which terminologies for communication between humans and machines have been established? How do these differ from classical anthropocentric conceptualizations of communication and the media?
- How can theories of communication and media science be adapted to the new research object?
- Can concepts such as interactivity, agency, and customizability from research on interactive media contribute to the analysis of HMC?
- How do news construction, information processing, social coordination, and perceptual processes contribute to HMC?
- What are the long-term implications of HMC from a societal and cultural perspective (e.g., with regard to tensions such as reproduction and change, complexity and simplification)?
- How do the above-mentioned issues relate to different levels (micro, meso, and macro)? And how can these phenomena be reconciled for HMC?
3. METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES
Expanding the scope of HMC research from effects to causes, dynamics, and actors, coupled with the diffusion of complex technologies into an increasing number of social contexts, requires an enlarged methodological repertoire. In addition, challenges such as the transferability of human- and technology-specific scales to HMC and the inclusion of humans and machines in studies must be addressed.
We therefore welcome contributions that systematize previous methodological approaches of HMC and address the methodological challenges of data collection and/or their analysis in HMC.
4. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND SCHEDULE
Colleagues interested in contributing to this special issue are invited to send their manuscript for review as an open Word file (in .docx format) and as a PDF to the editorial office of Publizistik (or gunter.reus@ijk.hmtm-hannover.de) by April 30, 2022 at the latest.
Submissions are accepted in German and English. They should not exceed 70,000 characters for research papers and essays and 35,000 characters for short contributions (including spaces and reference list). Please ensure that the submitted manuscripts are completely anonymous. Furthermore, the author’s notes and manuscript guidelines [translated via Google –ML] of Publizistik for citation (citation style “Springer-APA”) must be followed.
The acceptance of manuscripts will be decided based on a double-blind peer-review. Authors will likely receive feedback on the results of the review process in early August 2022. The special issue will presumably be published in issue 4/22 (November 2022).
If you have any questions, please contact Katrin Etzrodt.
Feel free to download the Call for Papers here .
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