Track Chairs
Dr. Zeeshan Ahmed Bhatti, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Email: zeeshan.bhatti@port.ac.uk
Dr. Tahir Abbas Syed, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Email: tahirabbas.syed@manchester.ac.uk
Dr. Hina Mahboob Yasin, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Email: hina.yasin@port.ac.uk
Dr. Cristina Trocin, Católica Porto Business School, Portugal
Email: ctrocin@ucp.pt
Track Call
Digital communication has entered a new phase shaped by artificial intelligence, platform governance, and algorithmic mediation. The rapid rise of generative AI, hybrid human–machine interaction, and data-driven content ecosystems is fundamentally transforming how individuals, organisations, and societies communicate, collaborate, and construct meaning in a networked world, particularly in the IS context (Hajli et al., 2022). Social media platforms and digital communication technologies now play a central role in shaping information flows, influencing behaviour, and structuring social, organisational, and political life.
The widespread adoption of these technologies has redefined communication practices, enabling new forms of self-expression, digital collaboration, and civic engagement, while simultaneously raising critical concerns around misinformation, privacy, digital well-being, and ethical governance (Appel et al., 2020; Feng et al., 2024; Miller et al., 2024; Olan et al., 2024). Increasingly, communication is co-created between humans and intelligent systems, introducing new dynamics of trust, authenticity, and accountability. In particular, the increasing integration of generative AI into social media and communication platforms raises important questions regarding authorship, agency, and the boundaries between human and machine-generated content (Ågerfalk, 2020). These developments call for deeper inquiry into how AI reshapes communication processes, decision-making, and power dynamics across digital ecosystems.
Following the successful delivery of this track at UKAIS 2026, this track aims to further develop a platform for advancing interdisciplinary research on digital communication and emerging technologies. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions that explore the evolving role of social media, AI, and digital platforms in shaping communication practices across individual, organisational, and societal contexts.
We particularly encourage submissions that offer interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing from information systems, communication studies, sociology, business, marketing, media studies, and related fields.
Track Areas
• The role of social media in political communication, public discourse, and elections
• Digital activism and the mobilisation of social movements
• Generative AI and synthetic media in digital communication (e.g., chatbots, deepfakes)
• Human–AI interaction and hybrid communication practices
• Algorithmic influence, recommender systems, and content visibility
• Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news in digital environments
• Platform governance, regulation, and digital policy (e.g., AI regulation, online safety)
• Privacy, security, and ethical issues in digital communication
• Trust, authenticity, and transparency in digital ecosystems
• Digital well-being, online harms, and responsible platform use
• The impact of influencer culture and digital creators on consumer behaviour
• Crisis communication and reputation management in the digital age
• Social media analytics, big data, and computational approaches
• Comparative and cross-cultural studies of digital communication
• Emerging technologies (e.g., AR/VR, metaverse) in communication contexts
• The future of digital communication technologies and societal transformation
References
Ågerfalk, P. J. (2020). Artificial intelligence as digital agency. European Journal of Information Systems, 29(1), 1-8.
Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R., & Stephen, A. T. (2020). The future of social media in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing science, 48(1), 79-95.
Bhargava, V. R., & Velasquez, M. (2021). Ethics of the attention economy: The problem of social media addiction. Business Ethics Quarterly, 31(3), 321-359.
Feng, Y., Sun, Y., Wang, N., & Shen, X. L. (2024). Co-owned information disclosure and collective privacy calculus on social network platforms: the moderating role of information ownership. Internet Research.
Hajli, N., Saeed, U., Tajvidi, M., & Shirazi, F. (2022). Social bots and the spread of disinformation in social media: the challenges of artificial intelligence. British Journal of Management, 33(3), 1238-1253.
Leong, C., Pan, S. L., Bahri, S., & Fauzi, A. (2019). Social media empowerment in social movements: power activation and power accrual in digital activism. European Journal of Information Systems, 28(2), 173-204.
Miller, S., Menard, P., Bourrie, D., & Sittig, S. (2024). Integrating truth bias and elaboration likelihood to understand how political polarisation impacts disinformation engagement on social media. Information systems journal, 34(3), 642-679.
Olan, F., Jayawickrama, U., Arakpogun, E. O., Suklan, J., & Liu, S. (2024). Fake news on social media: the impact on society. Information Systems Frontiers, 26(2), 443-458.
Thompson, P., McDonald, P., & O’Connor, P. (2020). Employee dissent on social media and organizational discipline. Human relations, 73(5), 631-652.
