News

During the conference in Ljubljana, ECREA invites you to participate in the ECREA Interventions that will be held on September 26, where experts will explore the evolving landscape of academic publishing. The discussion will begin with participants sharing their experiences in publishing and getting published, focusing on both the successes and the obstacles they’ve encountered. The panel will then delve into critical issues such as identifying predatory journals, the impact of new open-review models on journal publishing, and the future of print and digital formats in book publishing. The session will also consider how ECREA can further support its members and contribute to the broader academic community.

In addition to the ECREA Interventions, the conference offers a diverse program featuring plenary sessions, special panels, and special workshops. For more details, please visit: https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/ecrea-interventions/ 

Keynote speaker and renowned scholars Vesna Leskošek and Jelena Kleut will address critical issues in their keynote lectures at the upcoming ECREA 2024 conference, offering insights into the challenges facing contemporary societies, their social and media systems.

On Tuesday, September 24, Vesna Leskošek will delve into the precarious state of the welfare system in her keynote lecture titled “Communicating the Welfare State through a Discourse on Welfare Fraud,” held at Cankarjev dom’s Gallus Hall. Leskošek will explore the subtle dismantling of the welfare state, driven by campaigns against alleged benefit fraud. She argues that these campaigns, which stigmatize welfare recipients and spread mistrust, threaten the very fabric of social order by undermining the redistributive role of the state and fuelling populist ideologies.

On Thursday, September 26, Jelena Kleut will discuss “The Interplay of Uncertainties in Transitional Media Systems” at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her lecture will examine the growing uncertainties in media environments shaped by institutional failures, global platforms, and structural inequalities. Drawing from research conducted with students in the Western Balkans and local Serbian communities, Kleut will highlight how both top-down and bottom-up uncertainties shape the public’s trust in media and their ability to navigate information in an era of disinformation and crisis.

Read more about the keynote speakers’ lectures

We are glad to announce that ECREA Ethical Code of Conduct has been approved in June 2024 by General Assembly. The Ethical Code of Conduct was discussed and drafted by Ethics Committee and approved by Executive Board (Governing Body). To see the Ethical Code of Conduct, as well as Procedure for Addressing Violations of the Ethical code of conduct, click here: https://ecrea.eu/Ethical-code-of-conduct .

It is one month before the ECREA ECC 2024, which will be held 24-27 September at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Note that 23 August 2024 is also a regular fee registration deadline. If you are not registered yet, please follow the Registration Guidelines.

To help you plan your trip and your stay in Ljubljana check the useful information about time zone, currency, weather etc. as well as important information how to reach Ljubljana.

During the 2024 conference, ECREA members will elect management teams of Sections, Temporary Working Groups and Networks (S/TWG/N).

The elections will take place during the business meetings.

All ECREA members irrespective of the type of their membership can participate S/TWG/N elections if they are members of respective S/TWG/N (members can manage their S/TWG/N membership in your profile on ECREA intranet).

THE LIST OF CANDIDATES CAN BE FOUND HERE.

The ECREA ECC 2024 conference integrates several sustainability goals into the conference planning: we want to minimise environmental impact, promote responsible practices and inspire positive change within the conference community. We hope that transparent communication about the conference’s sustainability efforts will build confidence among participants and demonstrate the conference organiser’s commitment to responsible event management.

We aim to address sustainability issues in several areas:

• Energy efficiency,
  
• Paperless approach,
  
• Eco-Friendly travelling,
  
• Water conservation and reduction,
  
• Local sourcing of goods, services and food,
  
• Vegan meals,
  
• Education initiatives.
  

In order to create a favourable environment for sustainable diet, the ECREA LOC 2024 together with conference organising team joins the efforts of the Faculty of Social Sciences to seek solutions for a more sustainable and healthier diet at the University and thus make the greatest possible contribution to tackling the climate crisis.

Read more about the Conference Spotlights and ECREA LOC 2024 Food-related statement.

During the 10th European Communication Conference, ECREA members with voting rights will elect a new Executive Board (Governing Body) of the association. The results of online elections will be approved during physical General Assembly. The elections will take place online between 23 and 26 September 2024. Members with voting rights (members with individual membership and coordinators of institutional memberships) will receive links to the online voting tool in a separate email. Members with voting rights can participate in the elections, notwithstanding if they are registered for the conference or not.

The list of 14 candidates and their position statements are available HERE.

The final searchable programme is now published and available for planning your time in Ljubljana during and before or after the Conference.

To get more out of the programme, log in with your registration details to:

• access restricted content such as abstracts
  
• create your personal programme, favourites, notes
  

The new programme is operated by the same platform as the ECREA 2024 Mobile App, allowing you to log in to both with your registration account, bringing benefits such as:

• live sync between the web and mobile platforms – any changes in your personal programme, favourites, and notes are synced from the web to mobile and vice versa, keeping all platforms up to date
  
• use the same predefined filters to find what you want in the Mobile app or your computer
  

Get to know our keynote speakers before the conference and read the interviews with Vesna Leskošek and Jelena Kleut. In short interviews, they explain their research interests and views on the biggest challenges currently facing communication research and give a sneak peek into their keynote lectures at ECREA ECC 2024.

The General Assembly of ECREA will convene at the 10th European Communication Conference in Ljubljana. The General Assembly will take place on Thursday, September 26th at 16:30 - 18:00 in FDV Grand Hall, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kardeljeva ploščad 5,1000 Ljubljana.

During the previous General Assembly, the Statutes amendments were approved. However, as the General Assembly didn‘t reach the quorum of two-thirds of its full members, ECREA members will be asked to approve the Statutes amendments again (for more information, see ECREA Statutes, Title V., Article 19: https://www.ecrea.eu/Statutes).

Agenda

1. Approval of the minutes of the previous General Assembly (17-21 June 2024)

2. ECREA Executive Board Report on state of Association and activities 2021-2024

3. Statutes amendments - second vote (for more information, see ECREA Statutes, Title V., Article 19: https://www.ecrea.eu/Statutes)

4. Vote on the dissolution of the existing ECREA Executive Board

5. Announcement of the results of the ECREA Executive Board Elections

6. Information about Sections, Networks and Temporary Working groups elections

7. Any other business

Who can vote?

Following our Statutes (see: https://ecrea.eu/Statutes) each individual member has one vote, and each coordinator of an institutional member has one vote that counts for five votes.

The General Assembly election desk, where the voting members can collect their voting cards, will open at 15:00 on 26 September 2024 in front of FDV Grand Hall, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kardeljeva ploščad 5,1000 Ljubljana. Please collect your voting cards as soon as possible to avoid the cues and delays.

Since the Assembly will meet in a physical space, there will be no online voting.

If you are an institutional coordinator, you should reach out to the members covered by your institutional membership and coordinate with them.

If you are an ECREA member through an institutional membership and you are not the institutional coordinator, you cannot vote, but need to communicate with your institutional coordinator. If you do not know who your institutional coordinator is, please ask Andra Siibak, the General Secretary of ECREA (generalsecretary@ecrea.eu) and ECREA Administrator in cc (info@ecrea.eu).

How to vote if you cannot attend this General Assembly?

If you, as coordinator of an institutional member, or as individual member cannot attend the assembly, you can mandate another ECREA member to vote on your behalf, by proxy. This also applies to institutional coordinators who will be represented by another member of their institution.

Please keep in mind that an ECREA member can only represent one other ECREA member.

For the proxy you will need to use the form. Fill it out, sign it and send it to Andra Siibak, ECREA’s General Secretary, and to ECREA Administrator by Thursday, 19 September 2024 by email to: generalsecretary@ecrea.eu and info@ecrea.eu in cc.

You can download this form here (log in is required):

https://ecrea.eu/resources/Documents/Document%20archive%20-%20general%20assembly/GA_Sept_2024_proxy_form.docx

The quorum

Please note that the ECREA Statutes (art. 10a) stipulates that “the General Assembly votes and elects by a simple majority of those present and represented. In the case of a tie, the vote of the President or of the Board member replacing the President will be decisive.”

Amendments to agenda

If you wish to amend the agenda of the General Assembly, please, contact ECREA Administrator at info@ecrea.eu no longer than 11 September 2024 (15 days prior the General Assembly).

ECREA has become a member of the Advisory Committee of the European Audiovisual Observatory, a decision which was greenlighted by the Observatory’s Executive Council in its Tbilisi meeting on 13 June this year.

ECREA represents a community of media and communication scholars across Europe, bringing together researchers and educators from a broad spectrum of universities, research, and educational institutions throughout various European regions. A significant portion of ECREA’s membership is devoted to exploring the audiovisual communication sector, including television, radio, film, post-broadcast television, video streaming platforms and podcasts, for example. This focus is particularly relevant to the work conducted by members of several ECREA sections, including Audience and Reception Studies, Digital Culture and Communication, Film Studies, Media Industries and Cultural Production, Radio and Sound, Television Studies, and Visual Cultures.

The Strasbourg-based Observatory is part of the Council of Europe. It functions as a clearing house for information about the audiovisual sector in Europe, covering film, television and on demand services from an economic and legal point of view. The information it produces is available in the form of publications, on-line reports, databases, and newsletters, almost all available free-of-charge at: www.obs.coe.int. The Observatory also shares its information via numerous conferences and conference presentations throughout the year. The Observatory’s Advisory Committee currently brings together 41 different European and international professional organisations representing the various branches of the audiovisual industries. Sectors such as film production, distribution, exhibition, public and private broadcasting, and the press are represented within this body. The Advisory Committee meets twice a year in order to inform the Observatory on the information needs and concerns of the various different branches of the audiovisual industries.

John Downey, ECREA president, stated that “an enriching and mutually beneficial exchange of academic data and research would now be possible between the members of ECREA and the Observatory.”

The European Audiovisual Observatory expressed enthusiasm about ECREA’s membership. "We welcome ECREA to our community," said Susanne Nikoltchev, Executive Director of the European Audiovisual Observatory. "ECREA’s membership of our Advisory Committee is in line with the Observatory increased efforts to reach out to academic communities working within the audiovisual sphere.” She added that future exchanges could potentially “support our work to understand and make more transparent the general legislative and market structures that frame the European audiovisual sector."

Read the original post here: https://www.obs.coe.int/en/web/observatoire/-/ecrea-joins-the-advisory-committee-of-the-european-audiovisual-observatory