Digital Media Ecologies in the New Normal: Challenges and Opportunities

February 17-18, 2021

Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi

The continuous evolution of digital media ecologies presents both intricate challenges and simultaneous opportunities, necessitating a shift in humanity's attitudes, approaches, and skills. In this dynamic milieu, contemporary challenges in media and communication markedly differ from the past. Digital media ecology, delving into ecosystems within technological, political, economic, social, and cultural contexts, extends beyond traditional boundaries, entering the digital realms of a borderless world. Its inclusive, humanistic, holistic, and empathetic conceptualization spans various disciplines, influencing and being influenced at micro and macro levels. These impacts, intensified in the COVID and post-COVID "new normal" world, alter human perspectives across all aspects of life. The rise of tech giants, digital empires, and the growing digital hegemony necessitates novel thinking, accompanied by challenges like ethical concerns over fake news, data security, transparency, and abuse, impacting both developed and developing countries amidst the escalating vulnerabilities, uncertainties, complexities, and ambiguities of the world, further shrouding these concerns in opacity.

To address these issues, academia and professionals across disciplines collaborated with a participatory spirit, drawing liaisons from pure and social sciences, industry, governments, and NGOs. The goal was to tap the potentials of digital media for a better future, with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of life for society. The focus shifted towards devising consensual solutions through mutual dialogue for a more humanistic digital media ecology.

The AMCAP-FJWU International Media Conference 2021 aimed to transcend a media-specific approach, adopting a holistic strategy to address common concerns related to digital media ecologies. The conference invited empirical and conceptual papers from various disciplines, encouraging interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches. Plenary and working group sessions covered topics such as a transdisciplinary approach to challenges faced by humanity, public health challenges in the new normal, emerging ethical concerns in digital media ecologies, and the role of academia and professionals in media education and research within digital ecologies. Additionally, a special session focused on standing up for human rights, promoting recovery through the efforts of the Human Rights Chair at the University of the Punjab, while the closing session addressed the role of digital media in good governance and leadership.

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

• Association of Media & Communication Academic Professionals (AMCAP)
• Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Click here for the Proceedings Book 2021