CALL FOR PAPERS
The global communication landscape is undergoing far-reaching transformations driven by rapid media and technological change, shifting geo-political power relations, intensifying climate pressures, and evolving cultural and religious narratives. These transformations do not unfold uniformly across regions. In Africa, they intersect with colonial legacies, uneven development, youthful demographics, gendered power relations, religious pluralism, and heightened vulnerability to climate change. As a result, Africa is not only embedded within global communication flows but also constitutes a critical site where global communication shifts are negotiated, contested, and redefined (Chakravartty et al., 2018; Cope, 2024; Soulé-Kohndou, 2024; Wasserman, 2018).
The ICA Nigeria National Conference 2026, themed Global Communication Shifts and Implications for Africa, seeks to examine how contemporary changes in communication technologies, media systems, and symbolic power affect African societies, institutions, and identities. The conference foregrounds African perspectives in interrogating how communication shapes political participation, governance, gender relations, religious influence, climate responses, knowledge production, and development pathways across Nigeria and the continent at large. It also considers the opportunities these shifts present for inclusion, innovation, and social transformation, alongside the structural inequalities they may reinforce.
The conference programme will include a keynote seminar, panel sessions, and collaborative workshops aimed at fostering dialogue among scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and the global ICA community. This engagement is particularly significant as it precedes the ICA 2026 International Conference in Cape Town, marking a historic moment of increased scholarly attention to African communication contexts.
The conference welcomes original papers that address the theme from theoretical, methodological, empirical, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Contributors are encouraged to critically evaluate, examine, explore, and measure the implications of global communication shifts for Africa. Authors should clearly indicate the relevant sub-theme(s).