Moral Media Conference Call for Papers
We are excited to announce the eighth meeting of the Moral Media conference to be held April 11-13, 2025, in Buffalo, NY.
This meeting is jointly sponsored by the University at Buffalo’s Office of International Education, Department of Communication, and the Media Psychology & Morality Lab.
Drs. Helena Bilandzic (University of Augsburg), Morteza Dehghani (University of Southern California), Allison Eden (Michigan State University), and Frederic Hopp (Leibniz Institute for Psychology) will deliver keynote addresses.
We invite scholars from across the globe to contribute research that advances understandings of media and morality, broadly defined. Two submission tracks are offered, each with a particular emphasis on global research. We especially welcome (1) works in progress, with particular interest in empirical projects in non-US, multinational comparative contexts, and (2) completed manuscripts proposing or testing theoretical advancements that improve our ability to predict, explain, and control phenomena related to media and morality in a global setting.
Submissions:
Works in Progress: For submissions to the works-in-progress track, we welcome projects at any stage of development prior to journal submission. When submitting, authors will be prompted to select the stage of research their project is in and indicate whether they are open to collaborators on their project. We hope that scholars will consider submitting early-stage projects (e.g., those that may still be in the idea/planning phase prior to data collection), with the goal of forming inter-lab collaborations during the conference. Of particular interest are projects that examine media and morality in non-US contexts, as most social scientists acknowledge culture’s influence on morality and (yet) a vast majority of work in the area has been conducted in the US (or Western Europe) with domestic content. To be clear: US-based projects will also be considered for inclusion in the conference, but we will prioritize high-quality international projects. Also, completed projects may be submitted to the works-in-progress track, but we will prioritize earlier stage projects so that we can encourage collaborations, hopefully among international attendees. Submissions for this track may include (but are not limited to):
- Ideas for addressing problems or gaps in existing media and morality research
- Proposals for replications of “foundational” studies to be conducted in non-US contexts
- Proposals for new theories capable of explaining, predicting, and controlling moral media phenomena
- Pitches for examinations of novel moderators to well-established moral media theoretical processes
- Ideas for multinational comparisons of existing theories’ processes
Global theoretical advancements: For submissions to the global theoretical advancements track, we welcome submissions of completed theoretical manuscripts (both conceptual and data-supported) in non-US or multinational comparative contexts. The top accepted papers in this submission track will receive (1) travel funding for the presenting author to partially offset the cost of attending, and (2) an automatic revise and resubmit decision at the Journal of Media Psychology for potential inclusion in a special collection of articles focused on advancing theories in global contexts. Accepted papers for this track will be presented during a plenary panel of the conference, allowing conference attendees to hear about cutting-edge global theoretical developments in media and morality, hopefully catalyzing conversations and collaborations among all. Submissions will be reviewed according to the extent of theoretical contribution they offer. For this track, submissions could include (but are not limited to):
- New theories capable of explaining, predicting, and controlling moral media phenomena in global contexts
- Empirical multinational comparisons of existing theories’ processes
- Replications and extensions of foundational theoretical or empirical work in non-US contexts
- Meta-analyses examining foundational media and morality relationships in US compared to non-US populations
- Investigations of well-established moral media theoretical processes in non-WEIRD, historically understudied populations
For the JMP special collection, initial peer review feedback from Moral Media ’25 will be incorporated into the revise and resubmit process.
About the Conference: The conference generally attracts a range of scholars interested in media portrayals of morality and/or how morality in media (construed broadly) can affect media users. This includes but is not limited to social scientific inquiries into media psychology, cognitive science, communication, psychology, and sociology.
Submission Format:
- Work in Progress Track
- Submit your work as an abstract.
- 500-word limit for submission text (excluding title page, abstract, references, tables/figures).
- Please include any supplemental information in an OSF.io project, and include a link to the OSF repository in your submission.
- Global Theoretical Contribution Track
- Submit your work as a full paper
- 4000-word limit for submission text (excluding title page, abstract, references, tables/figures).
- Please include any supplemental information in an OSF.io project, and include a link to the OSF repository in your submission.
Submission Portal: Link to submission portal is here.
Submission Deadline: The submission deadline is 5pm, February 2, 2025.
Link to full Call for Papers is here
Questions: email info@moralmedia.org