Track Chairs 
Dr. Zeeshan Ahmed Bhatti, University of Portsmouth, UK 
Dr. Tahir Abbas Syed, University of Manchester, UK 
Dr. Hina Mahboob Yasin, University of Portsmouth, UK 
Dr. Cristina Trocin, Católica Porto Business School, Portugal 

Track description
Digital communication refers to the transmission of information, ideas, and messages via electronic and digital platforms. It is defined by its immediacy, interactivity, and increasingly multimedia-rich content, making it essential to personal, organisational (Thompson et al., 2020), and societal communication (Bhatti et al., 2021) in today’s interconnected world. The widespread adoption of social and digital communication technologies has reshaped how individuals, organisations, and communities engage with one another (Bhatti et al., 2020). These platforms now play a pivotal role in everyday life, influencing everything from personal expression and professional collaboration to civic participation (Leong et al., 2019). This track seeks to explore the diverse impacts of digital and social media technologies on communication practices. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions that examine how these tools affect the dissemination of information, self-expression, social interaction, political discourse, organisational communication, and marketing (Appel et al., 2021; Feng et al., 2024; Miller et al., 2024; Olan et al., 2024). We also encourage research that interrogates the ethical, cultural, and societal implications of these technologies (Bhargava & Velasquez, 2021). We particularly invite submissions that offer interdisciplinary insights, drawing from technology, communication studies, sociology, business, marketing, media studies, and related fields.  

Track areas include but are not limited to:

  • The role of social media in political communication and elections.  
  • Digital activism and the mobilisation of social movements.  
  • The influence of algorithms and AI on content visibility and user engagement.  
  • Privacy, security, and ethical issues in digital communication.  
  • Comparative studies of social media use across different cultures and regions.  
  • The impact of influencer culture on consumer behaviour.  
  • Virtual reality and augmented reality in digital communication.  
  • Crisis communication and reputation management in the digital age.  
  • Social media analytics and big data.  
  • The future of digital communication technologies. 

References
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.

Bhatti, Z. A., Arain, G. A., Akram, M. S., Fang, Y. H., & Yasin, H. M. (2020). Constructive voice behavior for social change on social networking sites: A reflection of moral identity. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 157, 120101.

Bhatti, Z. A., Arain, G. A., Yasin, H. M., Khan, M. A., & Akram, M. S. (2021). The role of integrated offline/online social activity and social identification in Facebook citizenship behaviour formation. Information Technology & People, 34(5), 1419-1438.

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.

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.