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  • 17.05.2021 12:29 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    ECREA Election Committee consisting of Alenka Jelen and Miguel Vicente invites candidacies for members of ECREA Executive Board for the upcoming election period.

    The candidacies should include:

    1) a brief position statement,
    2) a short CV,
    3) a statement specifying if you wish to become a candidate for one of the statutory positions (President, Vice-President, Treasurer or General Secretary), and
    4) the scan or photograph of passport or identity card.

    The deadline for sending your candidacy and all documents is 9 July 2021.
    The documents should be sent by email to: info@ecrea.eu.

    The candidacies (position statements, CVs and candidacy statements) will be made public by the election committee one month prior the elections at the latest.

    The General Elections will take place during online General Assembly organised at 8th European Communication Conference on 9 September 2021. The new Executive Board will be elected for the period 2021 – 2024.

    How do ECREA elections work: Elections of ECREA Executive Board take place in two stages. During the first stage, ECREA members are invited to nominate themselves for Executive Board positions. During the General Assembly at an ECC conference, ECREA members (individual members and institutional co-ordinators) elect up to 12 members of ECREA Executive Board.

    The elected Executive Board members then organise a vote for positions of the President, the Vice-President, the Treasurer and the General Secretary.

    In the second stage, the call for representatives of Sections, Networks and Temporary Working Groups is organised. The candidates come from management teams of Sections, Networks and Temporary Working Groups and are elected by members of respective management teams.

    Legal provisions: For detailed information and procedures concerning ECREA elections you can consult Title III and Title IV of ECREA Statutes (https://ecrea.eu/Statutes) and Title I of ECREA Bylaws (https://ecrea.eu/Bylaws). If less than 3 candidacies will be submitted, the Call for ECREA Executive Board Members will be repeated and the election period of the existing Executive Board will be extended by 6 months to organise the elections.

    More information: Should you have any questions concerning the Executive Board elections send your inquiries to info@ecrea.eu.

    Alenka Jelen, ECREA Election Committee member
    Miguel Vicente, ECREA Election Committee member


  • 21.04.2021 18:37 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The ECREA Young Scholars Network (YECREA) and ECREA invite applications for:

    • 35 ECC 2021 view wavers for young scholars who are ECREA PhD members and are accepted to present at ECC (the PhD fee for members would be €75)
    •  Deadline for application: 29th of April 2021

    Receiving the ECC 2021 grant means that you can join the conference for free. The grants are intended for YECREA members (visit yecrea.eu/membership to learn how to become a YECREA member) in order to support access to the academic community of media and communication scholars by attending ECREA’s first online conference from 6th to 9th September 2021. The number of grants is exceptionally high this time as a reaction to the challenging situation during the pandemic. YECREA and ECREA are aware of problems like uncertain employment and isolation that especially young scholars are currently facing. Therefore, we want provide free conference access to 35 PhD members to reconnect with colleagues.

    Grant awards will be made based on several criteria, of which the most important is the applicants’ access to financial resources (e.g. from your home university, third-party funded projects or national funding institutions). The grants will be awarded only to young scholars whose presentation has been accepted to the programme of the conference. The applications will not be reviewed in terms of academic quality. However, applicants should preferably submit abstracts as first authors to the ECC conference programme.

    The grants will be provided on the basis of waived registration fee.

    Application & Timeline ECC Grants 2021

    Applicants are expected to complete and submit the following Application Form: https://www.ecrea.eu/event-4277087.

    If selected for a grant, you will be asked to send a proof of acceptance to the conference (forwarding e-mail of acceptance of your presentation) as well as some evidence of your PhD or post-doctoral research status (e.g. prove of enrollment or link to your home university profile).

    To apply, please complete the form no later than by 29th of April 2021. We will notify the applicants by 3rd of May 2021. All grantees should confirm their attendance till 6th of May.

    Timeline ECC 2021

    Important dates are:

    • 13th of April registration process opens
    • 6th of May: Participants need to confirm their participation at the ECC (deadline updated)
    • 2nd of August: Early bird registration closes (check the https://www.ecrea2021.eu/ for updates)

    For further information, please contact the YECREA management team (Johan Farkas, Corinna Lauerer and Norbert Šinković): yecreanetwork@gmail.com.


  • 07.04.2021 14:45 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    We are happy to announce that the 8th European Communication Conference - Communication and Trust, scheduled for 6-9 September 2021, will take place as an online conference.

    The conference, initially scheduled for October 2020, was postponed to September 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the current state of the pandemic and the rather grim outlook for being able to organise a major international physical event in September, the International Organising Committee has decided to organize the event in an online format.

    Since we strongly believe that ECREA conferences are more than merely occasions for the unidirectional broadcast of research findings, the conference will take place as a live online event. We will not rely on pre-recorded presentations – all panels will be organised as live sessions, with presentations given in real time. The format of the plenary sessions will also be adjusted to the new digital reality. Only a small number of special sessions, such as poster sessions, will be pre-recorded.

    Read more here: https://www.ecrea2021.eu/letter-from-ecrea-president/

  • 15.03.2021 08:28 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School 2021 that will take place at the University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain, mainly from 20-24 September 2021 (with activities before and after these dates). Because of the pandemic situation, it is impossible to plan a physical meeting, so this Summer School will be an online event.

    ECREA will be awarding 30 grants to doctoral candidates participating in the 2021 ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School. The grants are intended to encourage and support PhD candidates with limited economic support and with limited opportunities to participate in international academic events. The grant will cover the Summer School fee.

    The deadline for both Summer School application and grant application is March 23, 2021.

    Apply and read more here: https://ecrea.eu/page-18213

  • 24.02.2021 08:48 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    We are happy to invite you to participate in the ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School 2021 hosted by University of Cádiz (Cádiz, Spain) from September 20-24, 2021 (with activities before and after these dates). Because of the pandemic situation, this Summer School will be an online event.

    The summer school is open to the full variety of academic work in the broad field of communication and media studies. All PhD projects within the field of communication and media studies are welcomed.

    The deadline for applications for the Summer School is March 23, 2021 (midnight CET).

    APLLY HERE.

    READ THE FULL CALL HERE.

  • 16.02.2021 07:06 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Death of a gentle giant

    Almost a quarter of a century ago, I had a lively and some would say rather heated exchange-in-writing with Jay Blumler, that giant of communication studies, who has died on the 30th of January this year at the respectable age of 96. The European Journal of Communication had published my article Who’s Afraid of Infotainment? (1998), in which I argued that the use by TV news media of entertainment formats and the popularization of political communication was not necessarily downgrading political information as dramatically as some academics at the time claimed. To illustrate this so called ‘information scare’ I quoted extensively (if not only) from Blumler’s exemplary works. With his evocative style, he probably was the most outspoken and certainly the most repetitive in his critical assessment of a ‘commercial deluge’ where ‘slogans, images and racy soundbites take precedence over substance, information and dialogue’, inundating Europe, while ‘hardening our civic communication arteries’ and producing a ‘crisis of public communication’. I enjoyed his metaphors but thoroughly disagreed with his pessimism, and thought I had strong theoretical and empirical arguments to downplay his assumed ‘crisis of communication for citizenship’.

    I had not realised that Jay, whom I had met a few times before, would be triggered to take up my arguments and begin a debate, which was subsequently published in later EJC issues. His Response to Kees Brants was as eloquent as it was critical, very critical. More than discussing the data I presented and challenging the logic of my argumentation, he blamed me for being unhelpful and belittling his concerns and complacent about the dangers to public broadcasting. I wasn’t taking stock of the overwhelming evidence of ‘communication trivialization’ that was increasingly challenging the role, function and quality of communication and, hence, was threatening democracy. En passant, he threw me in with those ‘popular culturalists’ for whom reading a detective novel is in itself an element of citizenship. In my Rejoinder I left my original ironic undertone and, in turn, blamed him for too unilinear and too final an argumentation, too much based on cross-cultural generalizations from one single country, the UK.

    I had mixed feelings about our exchange: proud to discuss with such a pillar of our academic field at such a forum, but disappointed that he more or less ignored the empirical substantiation of my arguments, and taken aback by the tone of his critique (and that of my Rejoinder, for that matter). A former international master student recently reminded me how many years ago I had used the texts in class, where he asked whether the Response wasn’t ‘a horrible experience’: being ‘put on the spot like that by such a titan and heavyweight in the field?’ But later, he added, it had made him understand that that is how academia works. How it essentially is about this sort of scholarly exchange and debate and how this moves science forward. I wasn’t sure about that, but didn’t tell him that, nor how much I had been taken aback.

    Days after publication of my Rejoinder, Jay wrote me how much he had enjoyed the discussion, which he felt was friendly and empathic. It got us somewhere, he thought. And, by the way, he was not so much afraid of infotainment but worried of the consequences (which I sensed was the same). He ended the machine-typed letter by proposing that we do a comparative research testing of both our claims and write a paper, arguing it out with empirically substantiated arguments to find out who was right. This is how from then on I came to know Jay and to enjoy his company: friendly, open and critical, inviting and challenging. Sometimes harsh, may be, but not hard. The paper never materialized, but we became good friends and collaborators in many another research. I came to appreciate him as a gentle giant and as the homo universalis that he was.

    Born in the USA but with his academic career and his heart mostly in the UK, in his work he married politics in and by media (political communication) with politics of and for media (communication policy). Politics was in his arteries, so to speak. In 1964 he introduced his new found land to the role and importance of media in modern election campaigns, collaborating with his then young and new colleague Denis McQuail, to publish Television in Politics. Its Uses and Influences (1968). With his fellow American Michael Gurevitch he wrote many a seminal article, most notably when in 2001 they described and labelled the start of the 21st century as The Third Age of Political Communication (2001). (More recently he lectured about a fourth age but wasn’t convinced of its value and dropped the idea).

    His interest in media policy was inspired by his care and fear for democracy, and what he saw as the necessity of media and the state to safeguard and enhance it. After researching in 1986 with Tom Nossiter The Range and Quality of Broadcasting Services, he went on to advise different Royal Commissions on the media. In 1992 he realised that with Television and the Public, Vulnerable Values were at Stake. More and more his take on media’s role in and for society became a normative one. Which did not prohibit him from setting up and editing what I see as the first truly comparative study of mass communication: media’s role in the first European elections, Communicating to Voters.

    But next to a strong researcher, an original theoretician and an eloquent author (who at occasion would also burst into song with his beautiful baritone voice), Jay has always been a breath taking and entertaining orator. I now realise that he probably was the quintessential infotainer. His lectures were a joy and a learning experience to listen to and until very recently at conferences, seminars and workshops he would be the first to ask that penetrating question you wished you had thought of yourself (always beginning with a compliment and then followed by a sharp, to the point and sometimes mischievous comment).

    I also remember how he saved a small, specialist seminar in Hamburg, sponsored by the Bertelsmann Foundation. It was, if my memory does not fail me, about what we can learn from different media systems. But the presentations and discussions were chaotic, exceptionalistic, inward looking, not analytical, and neither focused nor comparative. In short: the meeting was a balls-up and a shame. Jay kept quiet, his role was to summarise our discussion or, as most of us hoped for, bring some order in the chaos we had produced. And he did, in his usual eloquent way. In fifteen minutes, he introduced the systemacy and depth that had lacked so painfully in our contributions. He brought in the comparative dimension, the similarity and differences in democratic, moral, and tricky issues that were overriding the European picture, and presented it as if that was what we had said. I remember how we looked at each other in a mixture of surprise and pride. Was this us? Had we been that analytical and clever? Bertelsmann’s top brass present were as happy as we were, bathing in Jay’s glory and proud of what we supposedly had said but really was Jay’s.

    On the sad occasion of his death, these are now fading memories. One of the last times I met Jay was at another sad occasion, in 2017, at Denis McQuail’s funeral. After the church service and during sandwiches on the lawn (and his proverbial song), Jay reminded me that during the war, as Denis had done later, he had worked as a Russian interpreter - Denis for the British, Jay for the US Army. I said I thought old soldiers never died, but Jay only smiled. Now I realise even gentle giants do.

    Kees Brants
    (emeritus professor of political communication at the universities of Amsterdam and Leiden)

  • 07.02.2021 17:39 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    We are deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Jay G. Blumler (†30 January), a globally renowned scholar of communication, and one of the most distinguished figures of our field. Having started his academic career over seven decades ago, his pioneer research, teaching and mentorship have benefited and inspired many generations of political communication students and scholars. Based at the University of Leeds for the most part of his career, Jay made significant contributions towards the development of both the international and European academic community, having served as President of the International Communication Association (1989-1990) and being among the founders of the European Journal of Communication in 1984. His retirement in 1989 did not hinder him from further pursuing his scholarly work and remaining an active participant in academic life in the UK and internationally. Many of us hold precious memories of encountering him at conferences, which he kept attending until his very last years, and which were enriched not just by his sharp and witty comments in the discussion, but also by his warmth, optimism and candid support for the younger scholars. He will be greatly missed.

  • 19.01.2021 08:28 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    ECREA Doctoral Summer School 2020, which has actually turned out to be the winter school 2020-21, is in the full swing. Under the auspices of Tartu University (Estonia) and thanks to wonderful colleagues Andra Siibak and Pille Prullmann-Vengerfeldt and their perseverance, the ECREA Doctoral Summer School was redesigned for the pandemic conditions and moved to the online environment. 

    Conceived as an intermittent event, it has started with get-together of more than 50 PhD students and lecturers before the Christmas 2020, it continued with feedbacks to dissertation projects, round tables, Q&A sessions, and lectures and in mid-January 2021 and will conclude with the series of live workshops in the second half of February 2021.

    ECREA is thrilled to see the summer school flourish in the difficult times and wants to thank to all students, lecturers and, of course, organisers for making it possible. 


  • 15.01.2021 10:44 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The ECREA Temporary Working Groups (TWGs) are fora for discussing topics and disseminating knowledge in sub-fields of media and communication research. TWGs have the same remit as ECREA sections but TWGs will only be established for a term of 4 years in the first instance. After the end of the 4 year term and upon request of the Chair of the TWG, they can be renewed by the Executive Board for a maximum of 4 more years, or they can be granted the status of a Section.

    WHAT NEEDS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE PROPOSAL? 

    A proposal needs to have the following elements: 

    1/ an accompanying letter (2 pages), which explains why a new TWG is desirable. The following issues need to be addressed in this accompanying letter: 

    a/ the significance of the subfield covered by the proposed TWG for the field of communication and media studies; 

    b/ the indicators of the importance of the subfield (the existence of journals, courses, degrees, learned societies etc.); 

    c/ the expertise of the proposed chair and two vice-chairs within the subfield covered by the proposed TWG. 

    2/ the name of the proposed chair; 

    3/ the names and agreement of 2 proposed vice-chairs; 

    4/ an aims and objectives document, describing the formal objectives of the proposed TWG (examples can be found at the ECREA website in Thematic sections, TWGs and networks area); 

    5/ the modus operandi document, stipulating its internal rules (see also https://www.ecrea.eu/Sections for examples).

    Incomplete proposals will be rejected automatically.

    WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT? 

    The full list of requirements is available on the ECREA website, in the Bylaws.

    This is the summary of requirements:

    • a TWG needs to have one chair and two vice-chairs; 
    • the chair and at least one of the two vice chairs need to have a PhD; 
    • all need to be (or willing to become) ECREA members; 
    • regional and gender balance needs to be respected; 
    • they need to agree to organize as a TWG one panel at the ECC (from 2022 onwards) and another event in the years when there is no ECC; 
    • they need to agree to send in a yearly activity report to the ECREA section, TWG and network coordinator; 
    • they must agree to collaborate with other S/TWG/N and the Executive Board; 
    • they need to accept that TWGs are always an inseparable part of ECREA.

    WHAT TWGs AND SECTIONS ALREADY EXIST? 

    The overview of the Sections and TWGs can be found on the ECREA website: see Sections and TWGs.

    A significant overlap with existing Sections and TWGs needs to be avoided. It is suggested that proposers contact existing Sections and TWGs for advice if they feel there might be an overlap.

    WHAT ARE THE RULES TWGs MUST ABIDE BY? 

    An overview of ECREA’s rules on TWGs can be found in the ECREA Bylaws (especially Title IV), accessible online here.

    WHAT IS THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS? 

    Proposals for new TWGs need to be sent to the ECREA Section, TWG and Network coordinator (sections@ecrea.eu) and ECREA Administrator (info@ecrea.eu) before 16 April 2021.

    WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE FOR APPROVAL? 

    The proposals will be evaluated by the ECREA Bureau and Executive Board, after consultation with the existing ECREA Sections, TWGs and Networks. The approval procedure is expected to last 6 months. Because of the high volume of proposals it is not foreseen that feedback on proposals will be available.

    TO WHOM SHOULD THE PROPOSAL BE SENT? 

    Proposals for new TWGs can be sent by e-mail (attachment in .rtf, .doc or .pdf format) to the ECREA Section, TWG and Network coordinator, John Downey, at sections@ecrea.eu and to ECREA Administrator, Marketa Broumova, at info@ecrea.eu in cc .

    Questions related to the call can be sent to John Downey at sections@ecrea.eu and j.w.downey@lboro.ac.uk and to Marketa Broumova at info@ecrea.eu.


  • 16.12.2020 10:11 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    On December 15, ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School 2020 organised by University of Tartu (Tartu, Estonia) had its first kick-off session. With 49 doctoral students and more than 30 senior scholars attending from various parts of the world (24 countries altogether). In many ways it will be "the first-ever" doctoral school:

    1) first-ever ECREA doctoral school to take place remotely during its 28-year long history;

    2) the biggest doctoral school in terms of the number of participants and

    3) the longest doctoral school (with various workshops, feedback-sessions, roundtables, Q&A's and many other activities running from December 15 till mid-February).

    Students will meet again on January 11-15, 2021.

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