ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

University of Rostock

The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Rostock is filling the following position as of October 1, 2026, subject to budgetary regulations.

This tenure track professorship is funded by the Lola Zahn Professorinnen Program, which aims to increase the proportion of women among professors at the University of Rostock.

The successful candidate is expected to represent a wide spectrum of media and communication studies in research and teaching by the end of the Junior Professorship. The main focus will be on empirical (quantitative and/or qualitative) media research in the context of digitalization with a view to gender, diversity, and inequality. In addition, teaching methodological skills in the field of empirical media research is a central component of the teaching duties.

Participation in the dual bachelor's program in Communication and Media Studies and in the master's programs in Communication and Media Studies (dual master's) and Media Education and Media Culture (single master's) is expected.

The professional focus of the position holder should be compatible with the profile of the Institute for Media Research at the University of Rostock. The Institute for Media Research at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Rostock sees itself at the interface between empirical social science communication studies and humanities oriented media studies. The social science oriented Junio Professorship for communication and media studies should be embedded in this tradition. Relevant experience in university teaching and a willingness to contribute to the interdisciplinary faculty of the University of Rostock are expected.

This call is aimed at scholars in the early stages of their careers who are expected to gain national and international visibility in the field of communication and media studies with a focus on gender, diversity, and inequality research.

A corresponding research concept must be submitted with the application. Special skills and achievements in teaching, scientific organization, and academic self-administration will be taken into account. To this end, applicants should outline their ideas for future teaching, including the didactic design of courses, and describe their experience in scientific management.

Requirements:

For further inquiries, please contact:

Prof. Dr. Nicola Hömke, Chair of the Search Committee

Fon: +49 381 498 2781

E-Mail: nicola.hömke@uni-rostock.de

****

Qualifications are as per § 62 (1) of the Higher Education Act of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (LHG MV).

So far as there has been a period of employment as a member of scientific staff or as a scientific assistant in Germany, before or after completion of the doctorate, it is required that the doctorate period and the employment period combined have not exceeded nine years.

The professorship is to be filled according to § 62 (2) LHG M-V as a position with civil servant status of time or as a regular state employee. The employment relationship is extended for a further three years in the event of probation as part of an interim evaluation after the third year. Pursuant to § 62a LHG M-V, the appointment to the junior professorship is linked to the promise that a professorship in the civil service status for life or as a regular state employee will be accepted if the individual defined performance requirements are met during the junior professorship. Before the end of the second phase of the junior professorship, a tenure track evaluation is carried out in order to check the prerequisites for taking on the permanent W3 professorship.

A special focus is placed on academic achievement and teaching qualifications as well academic organization and administration. For this reason, candidates should describe previous teaching results, ideas regarding future teaching (including didactic lesson planning) and their prior experience in academic and scientific management. In addition, candidates are expected to have experience and interest in developing programs that can attract and maintain external funding.

The University of Rostock is committed to their university management guidelines.

Equal opportunities are part of our personnel policy. The announcement is therefore aimed at all persons regardless of their gender. Disabled applicants will be given preference if all other qualifications are essentially equal.

The University of Rostock is especially interested in promoting women within the context of § 7 (3) of the Gender Equality Act, and therefore specifically encourages applications from qualified women. Women will be given priority if their qualifications are essentially equivalent, unless reasons attributable to the person of the competitor predominate.

Applications with the usual documents (full CV, certificates, a complete list of academic and professional background, publications, teaching experience, any additional qualifications, a summary of grants and sponsored research activities and a description of future research plans) should be sent no later than 5th September 2025 to the Universität Rostock, Dekan der Philosophischen Fakultät, August-Bebel-Straße 28, 18055 Rostock or by e-mail to berufungen.phf@uni-rostock.de. We would like to point out that your e-mail will be sent to us unencrypted.

The protection of your personal information is very important to us. Therefore, the data collected during the application process will be collected, processed and used in accordance with the relevant data protection rules.

Application costs cannot be reimbursed by the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. We ask you to submit applications only in copy, as they will not be returned after the procedure has been completed.

January 15-16

Rome, 2026 IULM, University

Deadline: September 30, 2025

Keynote speakers

• Tiziana Terranova, University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’
• TBC

Description

The audience regards a “large number of unidentifiable people, usually united by their participation in media use” (Hartley 2002, p. 11), yet it is always already plural, diverse, fragmented, fluid and in many ways “ungraspable”, both everywhere and nowhere (Carpentier & Wimmer, 2023, p. 38). In the age of data capitalism, audiences become users and creators, seemingly blurring the division between the official and the vernacular, the elite and popular. Yet the vast majority of audiences remain in a subordinate position vis-à-vis the owners of the platform or elite audience members (e.g., influencers) insofar as platforms control their creativity, interaction, and usage. In this regard, although analytically helpful, terms such as “creators” and “users” may be romanticizing the division between the few and the many.

The discussion above echoes tensions between two critical yet seemingly opposing, if not contradictory, audience roles discussed in critical media studies. The political economy approach, argues that by exploiting audience time, attention, data and sociality, digital media treat audiences as commodities (Smythe, 1977), labourers (Terranova, 2001) and subjectify them in the lifeworld of surveillance and platform capitalism (Zuboff, 2019; Andrejevich, 2020; Srnicek, 2017; Fuchs, 2015). Developed in the 1970s by Dallas Smythe and later guided critical political economy approaches in media and communication (e.g., Mosco, 2009), the audience-commodity thesis became again relevant after 2010s with the blatant commodification of media and the rise of smartphones and digital platforms; it has been reflected in critical works, including that of Evgeny Morozov (2020), Mark Andrejevic (2013), Jodi Dean (2010), Christian Fuchs (2015; 2020) and has been popularized beyond academic with the theses of “surveillance capitalism” (Zuboff, 2017) and platform capitalism (Sadowski, 2020). On the other hand, there is the “active audience”, a figure clustered around cultural studies and ethnography, where audiences casually and routinely do things with social media, exercising their voice, agency and empowerment. The active audience prioritizes the uses of media over the structures determining usage (Ambercombie, 1998), partaking of the enthusiasm that characterized the early days of internet research in media and communication studies, including the idea of a new and booming participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006). There have been attempts to bridge these approaches, such as in Nick Couldry’s concept of the “media manifold” (2016), Ytre-Arne’s and Das’ unpacking of “communicative agency” in datafication (2021) or the “duality of media” by James G. Webster (2011). The spread of deepfakes complicates this media landscape, contributing to a wider movement of communicative polarization and geopolitical deglobalization (D’ Eramo, 2022).

The shift from singular to plural, from top-down to bottom-up processes as well as the high customization of contents is then not necessarily a “positive” or emancipating aspect. As a consequence of the postfordist organization, it represents a problematic transformation of power through a democratizing narrative.

The concept of the “audience” is then useful for critical scholarship insofar as it intertwines concerns around participation and engagement with commodification and exploitation — yet to what extent are we also “beyond” it? How can we think of concepts like participation and power in the context of data capitalism through and beyond the figure of the audience? How can in turn figures like users, participants and communities be thought within the critical tradition of both political economy and cultural studies in a landscape dominated by algorithmic data extraction?

This conference invites contributions studying audiences through the lens of critical media research. The latter questions positivistic paradigms of social research, highlighting issues from commodification and exploitation to resistance and alternative forms of world- building. We look for abstracts thinking through agency, everyday contexts and socializations together with political economy, commodification and value creation.

We welcome both theoretical and case studies driven papers and seek contributions in the following indicative topics:

• The audience commodity and its contemporary applications
• The audience as worker in the digital age
• Questioning the term ‘audience’
• Content creators, bloggers and influencers
• Algorithmic audiences
• Datafied audiences
• Generative AI and audience replacement
• Clickification of news and information
• The effectiveness of media literacy in the context of data societies
• Activism, hashtags and platforms
• Audience exploitation
• Mobile audiences
• Media lifeworlds and everydayness
• Film and music audiences
• Data journalism and news audiences
• Social listening and feedback
• Cybernetic audiences
• Audience polarization
• Fans in data-driven contexts
• Streaming audiences
• Audiences in Video on Demand (VOD), Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) and Over the Top (OTT) Platforms
• Audiences and piracy
• Audiences as publics and communities
• Deepfakes and Gen-Z

Please send an abstract of max 500 words and a short bio at the following address: conference@medemap.eu

Deadline: September 30, 2025

Organizing board

Giulia Ferri, Andrea Miconi, and Elisabetta Risi (IULM University)

Scientific board

Nello Barile (IULM University), Nico Carpentier (Charles University in

Prague), Panos Kompatsiaris (HSE), Andrea Miconi (IULM University),

Elisabetta Risi (IULM University), Josef Seethaler (Austrian Academy of

Sciences), Tiziana Terranova (Orientale University, Naples).

This conference is organized in the framework of MEDEMAP, a Horizon

Europe research project (www.medemap.eu).

References

Abercrombie, N., & Longhurst, B. (1998). Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination. Sage Publications.

Andrevich, M. (2013). The Digital Infoglut: How Too Much Information Is Changing the Way We Think and Know. Routledge.

Carpentier, Nico and Wimmer, Jeffrey (2023) Democracy and Media: A Discursive-Material Approach. MEDEMAP, Deliverable 2.1.

Castells, M. (1999). The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Volume 1: The Rise of the Network Society. Blackwell Publishing.

Castells, M. (2009). Communication Power. Oxford University Press.

Couldry, N., 2016. Life with the media manifold: Between freedom and subjection. In Kramp, Leif, Nico Carpentier, Andreas Hepp, Richard

Kilborn, Risto Kunelius, Hannu Nieminen, Tobias Olsson, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Ilija Tomanic Trivundža, and Simone Tosoni, R. Kilborn, (eds.) Politics, Civil Society and Participation: Media and Communications in a Transforming Environment. Bremen: Edition Lumière, 25-39.

D’Eramo M. (2022), Deglobalization, Newleftreview, 3/29.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press.

Livingstone, S. (2005). Audiences and Publics: When Cultural Engagement Matters for the Public Sphere. Intellect Books.

Livingstone, S. (2019). Audiences in an age of datafication: Critical questions for media research. Television & New Media, 20(2), 170-183.

Livingstone, S., & Das, R. (2013). The end of audiences? Theoretical echoes of reception amid the uncertainties of use. A companion to new media dynamics, 104-121.

McGuigan, L. (2023). Selling the American people: Advertising, optimization, and the origins of adtech. MIT Press.

Smythe, D. W. (1977). Communications: Blindspot of Western Marxism. Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory, 1(3), 1-27.

Terranova, T. (2000). Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy. Social Text, 63(18), 33-58.

Webster, J. G. (2011). Duality of Media: A Structurational Theory of Public Attention. Communication Theory, 21(1), 44–474.

Ytre-Arne, B. and Das, R., 2021. Audiences’ communicative agency in a datafied age: Interpretative, relational and increasingly prospective. Communication Theory, 31(4), pp. 779-797.

Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Public Affairs.

Minos-Athanasios Karyotakis

In Populism, Territories, Name Disputes, and Hyperreality: Greek Nationalism and the Macedonian Case, Minos-Athanasios Karyotakis examines how and why societal actors may use different names to refer to the same territory. Karyotakis demonstrates the enormous symbolic power that the names of places can hold through a study of the Macedonian name dispute (MND), arguing that territorial names can be symbolic and crucial for constructing nation-states through imbued influential meanings affecting citizens' hearts and minds. These symbolic name disputes (SNDs), he posits, offer societal elites the opportunity to further their own personal ambitions, which can include winning electoral power and spreading hatred against non-supporters. Karyotakis then delineates how some disputes have maintained a seemingly improved version of reality that strongly attaches the conflict to a dogmatized dominant narrative which exploits the nationalistic ideas of the nation-state and blurs territorial borders (hyperreal symbolic name disputes), while other disputes are firmly attached to actual territorial claims that arise from a disagreement over control of a well-defined physical territory (referential symbolic name disputes). Pointing to several persistent territorial name disputes - such as the Arabian/Persian Gulf, Kurdistan, the Kuril Islands/Northern Territories, Macedonia, Navasa Island/La Navase, and Western Sahara, among others - this book provides a model for a novel categorization that broadens our understanding of these conflicts.

Reviews of the Book

Minos-Athanasios Karyotakis investigates a heated international dispute, not over land or resources, but over the symbolic power of a country’s name. His richly detailed and theoretically groundbreaking study has global, cross-disciplinary relevance in an age of identity wars, when populists inflate enmities for political gain.

Cherian George, author of Fighting Polarisation (Polity, 2025)

Theoretically innovative and empirically rich, this book ably analyses a hitherto neglected field: media narratives surrounding the politics of naming, supported by a compelling case study.

Daya Thussu, Professor of International Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University

Dive into a compelling exploration of territorial name disputes through the lens of the Macedonian Name Dispute (MND) in this insightful book by Dr. Minos-Athanasios Karyotakis. Combining rigorous historical analysis with contemporary political discourse, Karyotakis conducts a novel categorisation of territorial name disputes and reveals how names and identities shape national narratives and political power dynamics. With a keen focus on the interplay between populism and identity politics, this work examines the MND’s impact on Greek political actors, the media’s role in shaping public perception, and the existential threats perceived by citizens. Readers will gain a nuanced understanding of how hyperreality influences societal divisions and the implications for democracy.

Dionysios Stivas, Professor of International Studies, Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University

Publisher’s page: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/populism-territories-name-disputes-and-hyperreality-9781666950069/

Deadline: July 31, 2025

mediastudies.press, the scholar-led and nonprofit OA publisher, is happy to announce that our annual proposal window, which opened on 1 June, closes on 31 July, 2025. Authors are encouraged to submit a proposal for review.

mediastudies.press welcomes submissions from scholars across media, communication, and film studies. We currently publish in four series:

• Media Manifold series — monographs and other book-length works of contemporary media scholarship
  
• Public Domain series — reprints of neglected classics, in new critical editions anchored by framing introductions
  
• Open Reader series — themed collections of openly licensed, public domain, and linked materials curated and introduced by leading experts
  
• History of Media Studies series — monographs and other original scholarly works centered on history of media, communication, and film studies
  
• Goffman in the Open series — public domain texts, monographs, translations, and other original scholarly works centered on the Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman
  

We are small and artisanal by mission, and aim to publish just five books a year. Given the volume of proposals that we receive—and with our production schedule in mind—we maintain an annual proposal window (1 June to 31 July), for the review of manuscripts slated for publication in the following calendar year. You are welcome to send informal queries outside these dates, but our general practice is to only consider proposals within the annual window. Each year, we review proposals with an initial reply by August 30, with the aim to conduct peer review of proposals of expressed interest by the end of September. 

mediastudies.press is an open-access publisher for the media and communication studies fields. The press is nonprofit and scholar-led. We publish living works, with iterative updates stitched into our process. And we encourage multi-modal submissions that reflect the mediated environments our authors study. 

Publishing with mediastudies.press is free on principle. Our aim is to demonstrate, on a small scale, an open-access publishing model supported by libraries rather than author fees, via the Open Book Collective. Open access for readers, we believe, should not be traded for new barriers to authorship. 

All our published works are rigorously peer-reviewed, and receive unusual editorial attention. We prioritize discoverability through careful metadata, library records, and directory listings. As a scholar-run operation, our publicity outreach is uncommonly informed by the fields’ intellectual contours. 

We kindly ask that proposals be submitted as a single PDF. Proposals should include the following elements, in addition to at least one draft chapter:

1. Proposed title and subtitle
   
2. A 500- to 1000-word narrative description of the book
   
3. Short bios of author(s) and/or editor(s)
   
4. Proposed series (see above)
   
5. Tentative table of contents, preferably annotated
   
6. Estimated word-length
   
7. Multi-modal components, if any
   
8. Status of the book (i.e., expectation of completion date, the portion now complete)
   
9. At least one draft chapter
   

To submit your work to mediastudies.press please follow our submission link. 

If you have any questions at all about the proposal process for books, please contact us at press@mediastudies.press

Jeff Pooley, co-director of mediastudies.press

Dave Park, co-director of mediastudies.press

October 15, 2025

Madrid and Salamanca, Spain

Early bird submission deadline: September 10 (inclusive)

Late submission deadline: October 15 (inclusive)

https://eventos.us.es/138341/detail/ai-children-and-youth-transforming-media-play-and-social-interaction.html

Artificial intelligence (AI) is (re)defining the way children and teenagers relate to media, play, as well as their social interactions. Through chatbots and voice assistants, applications (storytelling, language learning, emotional recognition, etc.), and virtual/interactive educational games, AI-driven tools are becoming essential companions in their digital experiences. This conference aims to explore the cultural and social impacts of these changes, focusing on AI’s influence on digital self-expression, play-related experiences, intergenerational relationships, and audio-visual production. Rather than perceiving AI merely as a neutral instrument, our goal is to explore its role as a cultural force that guides the ways in which young individuals relate to media and the world surrounding them.

From this standpoint, we seek submissions that examine the role of play (both physical and digital) within artificial intelligence: as a medium for literacy development; to personalize the learning experience by adapting activities based on a child’s responses; to simulate and create virtual realities where children can establish forms of communication with one another (e.g., Animal Crossing); for narrative construction and image generation; to explore their environment through a dual modality of discovery (e.g., Pokemon Go); and in instances where the user is required to engage physically, among other aspects. How do these factors shape the way youngsters learn, play and interact with each other? 

In this sense, AI driven tools present new creative opportunities for young people, yet they may also limit these opportunities due to algorithmic biases and the lack of autonomy in children’s decision-making. AI tools for content creation, such as story generation or character illustration may be configured to reinforce biases related to race or gender (e.g., “create a character” and the image generated is a white male). Simultaneously, algorithmic personalization, which depends on user data (e.g., likes, previous choices, etc.), has an impact on the construction of media referents and the identities of young individuals. As AI customizes content according to “preferences” and responses, children and adolescents are presented with specific representations that either reinforce stereotypes or, conversely, exclude them from certain categories. Such exposure can significantly influence the identity that youth develop.

Furthermore, contributions exploring the influence of AI on intergenerational relationships are also encouraged. Children’s exposure and  engagement with AI-based content can sometimes exceed the understanding of parents and caregivers. However, AI also presents opportunities for fostering intergenerational connections. For instance, AI-driven educational games may create a collaborative environment where both children and adults can jointly explore the ethical, creative, and social ramifications of emerging technologies.

Ultimately, as audiovisual media remains central to Communication Studies, AI is also transforming the practices of content creators who produce for young audiences. The increasing use of generative AI in the creative industries has raised concern among screenwriters and animators, triggering debates around authorship, ethics, and creative ownership, as evidenced by recent writers’ strikes and the controversy surrounding AI- generated images that imitate established artistic styles. Simultaneously, children’s media also incorporates these issues into its narratives, often oscillating between utopian promise and dystopian threat, as seen in films like The Mitchells vs. The Machines (Mike Rianda, 2021) or The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders, 2024). These representations are key in shaping how youth think about and relate to technology, trust, and agency, highlighting the need to analyze both the production and depiction of AI in contemporary storytelling and animation.

Key topics (included but not limited to):

• Definitions and fundamentals of AI related to childhood context.
  
• Regulations and norms on AI in media for children and teenagers.
  
• Ethical and social concerns regarding AI in youth media.
  
• AI-driven play based on child responses.
  
• AI games that promote movement and interaction with the environment.
  
• Interactive AI games for narrative building and image generation.
  
• Digital literacy in children through AI-based play and ethical considerations.
  
• Content mediation and parenting in the age of AI.
  
• Transformations in children’s communicative practices in AI.
  
• Role of algorithmic recommendation in the shaping of children’s media identities.
  
• AI and the reinforcement of cultural stereotypes in visual and narrative constructs.
  
• Ideological discourses present in AI-driven media narratives for children and youth.
  
• Role of AI in creating shared learning experiences across generations.
  
• Representations of AI in film and television for children and youth.
  
• Authorship, consent, and the aesthetics of appropriation in AI-generated art.
  
• Intersection of AI and artistic labor exploring the challenges faced by animators and writers.
  

Format and participation 

This CYM Mid-Term Conference 2025 will be held over three days, divided into different thematic blocks.

PhD Workshop - Wednesday, November 19

This workshop is aimed at PhD students, and its main objective is to promote networking among participants before the start of the congress. It will be a meeting place to share lines of research, explore possible forms of collaboration, and encourage the creation of academic networks.

In addition to the open discussion and the opportunity to ask questions in an informal setting, the meeting will include a couple of talks focused on the use of artificial intelligence in relation to some of the key topics of the congress, which will be detailed in the program soon.

Conference - Thursday, November 20 and Friday, November 21

During these two days the congress will be held in its usual format, with parallel round tables dedicated to different thematic lines. We will have the participation of keynote speakers specialized in children's content and/or artificial intelligence. Also, there will be video essay projection sessions in the Home Cinema room, in order to give visibility to this format as a legitimate form of research and creation in academia.

The conference prioritizes face-to-face participation. The hybrid modality will only be considered in exceptional cases that justify it. In the case of video-essays, the physical presence of the author will not be mandatory, although it is recommended in case the audience wishes to ask questions after the screening.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions may consist of either individual presentations or panel proposals comprising no more than five contributors or co-authors. Proposals that are inter or multidisciplinary in nature are encouraged, and submissions from early-stage researchers are welcomed. We also consider the possibility of including video essays  as a format of participation. A video essay is a short audiovisual piece that develops an argument, theory or critical analysis using the expressive tools of audiovisual language (editing, voice-over, music, or the use of images, including clips from films, series, animations, etc.). Video essays should be between 4 and 10 minutes long and must include English subtitles if the audio is in Spanish.

The individual proposal should include the following information:

● Title of the proposal

● Abstract (max. 300 words)

● Author name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and short bio (max. 100 words)

The panel proposal should include the following information:

● Panel abstract (max. 300 words)

● A maximum of 4–5 papers, each with:

      1. Paper title

      2. Abstract (max. 150 words)

      3. Author’s name and affiliation

      4. Short bio (max. 100 words)

Note: All participants must register individually once the panel is accepted.

The abstract should clearly state the topic of the research, the main arguments or research questions, its relevance to the conference theme, the theoretical framework and/or methodology used, as well as the expected findings or contributions.

Abstracts must be submitted in English. However, the registration form includes an option to indicate a preference for presenting in Spanish. Should a significant number of proposals be submitted in Spanish, a dedicated session in Spanish will be organized within the conference program.

The organizing committee is currently in contact with academic journals and publishing houses to explore potential publications arising from the conference. Additional details will be provided communicated in due course.

Here on the website, you’ll find a language selection tab at the top right corner. In the “Proposal Submission” section, you can fill out the form and submit your abstract. To do so, you will need to log in through your university or create an account as an external user — only then will the submission form become available.

For any questions, please contact us through the “Contact” section or by email at ecrea.cym.2025.sevilla@us.es.

Submission and Registration Deadlines

Early bird submission deadline: September 10 (inclusive)

              ● Notification of acceptance: by September 25

Late submission deadline: October 15 (inclusive)

              ● Notification of acceptance: by November 1

Please note: Abstracts will be reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis as they are received, aiming for the shortest possible turnaround time. If you submit an abstract after the early bird notification deadline (September 25), we may still be able to provide an acceptance decision by October 5 to allow registration at the early bird rate. However, this cannot be guaranteed, and the time available to complete payment will be shorter. Same applies for the late registration dates.

*To view the fees and deadlines for early and late registration, please visit the "Registration" section.

Organizers

This conference is a Mid-Term Conference of the Children, Youth and Media (CYM) Section of ECREA, supported by Universidad de Sevilla (Spain).

November 11-14, 2025

Lusófona University, Portugal

Deadline: September 26, 2025

The Media Literacy and Civic Cultures Lab – MeLCi Lab (Lusófona University, CICANT) is organising its V Autumn School from 11 to 14 November 2025 in the form of a bootcamp to boost research hands-on skills. 

The MeLCi Lab Autumn School invites applications from PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career scholars for a four-day intensive online program focused on innovative research methods at the intersection of AI, Communication, and Media Studies.

The School combines practical workshops and keynote lectures, allowing participants to develop hands-on skills with classical and AI-driven methodologies.

In 2025, the school’s AI tracks are specifically designed to meet the needs of media studies and PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and early-career scholars. Participants will explore case studies and practical examples directly relevant to media analysis, digital journalism, and content curation. The sessions will address unique challenges in media-related research, such as bias in content classification, audience segmentation, and the interpretative complexity of multimedia annotation. Interactive workshops and tailored exercises will enable participants to apply AI tools to media-specific datasets, ensuring immediate applicability and facilitating deeper understanding through experiential learning.

In this sense, contributions for the following tracks (not exclusively) will be considered.

Track 1: AI in Research Practice: Foundations, Methods, and Ethics

1. Foundations of current AI tools → Recent natural language processing (NLP) breakthroughs, particularly through large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini, have significantly transformed research methodologies across disciplines. The unprecedented accessibility and effectiveness of zero- and few-shot prompting techniques have led to widespread adoption, sometimes even replacing traditional human coders (Gilardi et al., 2023; Grossmann et al., 2023; Ziems et al., 2024). Yet, these powerful tools introduce critical concerns regarding reproducibility, transparency, and ethical use. Prompt stability and variability in LLM responses—affected by minor prompt adjustments—can challenge the replicability and accountability of research (Barrie et al., 2025). This subtrack equips researchers in communication science with essential knowledge of the theoretical foundations of contemporary AI tools, highlighting methodologies and best practices for their ethical and accountable use.

2. Accountable Literature Search Using AI Tools → AI-powered tools such as SciSpace and Litmaps have radically improved the efficiency and comprehensiveness of literature searches. However, the convenience of these tools requires heightened researchers’ accountability. This subtrack guides participants through strategies to validate AI-generated results, critically assess literature coverage, and maintain transparent documentation practices, ensuring methodological rigour and reliability in AI-assisted literature reviews.

3. AI-Assisted Data Annotation in Research Pipelines → Data annotation is a cornerstone in research pipelines, traditionally relying heavily on human coders. However, AI-based annotation tools are emerging as viable and highly effective alternatives, particularly for large datasets. Barrie et al. (2025) highlight that prompt stability—the consistency of AI-generated annotations across multiple semantically similar prompts—remains a significant challenge. This subtrack introduces participants to AI-driven annotation, focusing on practical approaches to enhancing annotation consistency through frameworks like Prompt Stability Scoring (PSS). Participants will gain hands-on experience in assessing and improving the reliability of AI annotations, integrating responsible AI practices into their research workflows.

Track 2: Communication, Audiences, and Civic Cultures in the Age of AI

1. Civic Cultures and Artificial Intelligence → AI can play a crucial role in how citizens engage with the digital world in contemporary times, and a set of opportunities and challenges emerge from it (Sarafis et al., 2025). This subtrack explores the impact of AI-driven platforms and recommendation algorithms on civic engagement, activism, and media literacy.

2. Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy in an AI-Mediated World → Leveraging AI and overcoming its challenges requires the development of broad and critical skill sets, the definition of which is still fuzzy (Chiu et al., 2024). This subtrack intends to explore critical media literacy skills in the era of misinformation, deepfakes, and algorithmic personalisation.

3. Data Ethics, Equity, and Inclusivity in AI Research → Different biases can emerge from the use of AIs, and the ethical implications of using different tools for knowledge production are still unclear. While AI is frequently represented as either a magical solution or a looming threat, our Autumn School aims to demystify AI, exploring its realistic capabilities, limitations, and responsible use (Ferrara, 2024; Ntoutsi et al., 2020). This subtrack will focus on responsible research practices, equity grants, and inclusive research design for underrepresented communities.

Participants do not require previous experience with AI or data science, as introductory modules will provide a foundational understanding.

The Autumn School will be conducted online and in English.

For inquiries, please contact: melci.lab@ulusofona.pt

Call for proposals deadline

Deadline: 26th September  2025

Notification of Acceptance: 13th October 2025

Registration: 27th October

See details about how to submit a proposal at the bottom of this page.

Format

Online

Dates

11 to 14 November 2025 – V MeLCi Lab Autumn School

TIME (Lisbon time zone)

V MeLCi Lab Autumn School Schedule

Check the website for details. 

How to apply 

Interested participants must send their application (in English) by 26 September 2025, including:

• Updated Curriculum Vitae (máx. 3 pages); 
  
• Candidate’s research statement that includes a description of their doctoral dissertation, research questions and methods (máx. 2 pages);
  
• Motivation letter describing your current perspective on AI, specific concerns or interests regarding AI’s role in media practices, and your preferred track/subtrack(s) máx. 1-2 pages;

Please send your application as a ZIP file to melci.lab@ulusofona.pt with the subject “Application for the V MeLCi Lab Autumn School”.

Target-group

PhD Students

Early Career Researchers (with a PhD obtained in the last five years)

Fee *

Lusófona University, CICANT PhD Students 70 euros

PhD students from other Institutions 100 euros

Others 150 euros

*The best participant will not pay the fee

Keynote Speakers

Joana Gonçalves Sá, Researcher at LIP – Laboratory of Particle Physics and at NOVA-LINCS

Massimo Ragnedda, Associate Professor/Reader in Media and Communication Studies at both Sharjah University (UAE) and Northumbria University, Newcastle (UK)

Mustafa Can Gursesli, Postdoctoral Researcher, Gamification Group, Tampere University

Saul Albert, Lecturer in Social Science (Social Psychology) in Communication and Media at Loughborough University

Simone Natale, Associate Professor in Media Theory and History, University of Turin

Tutors

Carla Cerqueira – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Carla Sousa – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Fábio Ribeiro – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Lúcia Mesquita – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Pedro Costa – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Rita Grácio – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Sofia Caldeira – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Sónia Lamy – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Teresa Sofia Castro – Profile | Ciência Vitae | ORCID

Vanessa Rodrigues – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Organisers

Bruno Saraiva – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Carla Sousa – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Lúcia Mesquita – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Manuel Marques-Pita – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Maria José Brites – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Zuil Pirola – Profile | CienciaVitae | ORCID

Södertörn University

Apply here

Reference number AP-2025/293

Södertörn University is a higher education institution in Stockholm that conducts education, research, and collaboration for sustainable societal development. We have around 14 000 students, 80 programmes and 300 courses, and we conduct education and research in the humanities, social sciences, technology and natural sciences. The university also offers police education and teacher education with an intercultural profile. A great deal of our research relates to the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe. We combine subjects, perspectives, people and experiences, and are worldminded, curious and questioning, searching for surprising syntheses, challenges and development.

Södertörn University welcomes doctoral proposals in Media and Communication Studies, to be conducted within the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanity and Society (WASP-HS). The successful applicant will write their thesis as part of the AI Welfare State cluster, which is an interdisciplinary collaboration between several universities and is led by researchers at Södertörn University, Lunds University and Karlstad University.

The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanity and Society (WASP-HS) is a national research program in Sweden. The vision of WASP-HS is to foster novel interdisciplinary knowledge in the humanities and social sciences about AI and autonomous systems and their impact on human and social development. WASP-HS enables cutting edge research, expertise, and competence building in the humanities and social sciences. The WASP-HS graduate school trains promising young researchers to understand the challenges and implications of autonomous systems and AI in society. A complement to students’ doctoral studies, the graduate school offers courses, a summer school, a winter conference, a semester abroad, and study visits both within Sweden and internationally. Students work collaboratively to solve real-world problems and are equipped with the theories, methods, and background critical for investigating questions on the consequences of AI and autonomous systems for humanity and society. 

Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University is one of Sweden’s leading environments for media research and education. Research and education are focused on the contemporary digitised media landscape and founded on a historically informed understanding of new communication technologies and their contexts. The research environment currently comprises around 30 researchers/teachers including full professors, associate professors, assistant professors and nine doctoral students. All our doctoral students have an international profile, and the working language of the doctoral programme is English. For more information, please click here (English version) or see www.sh.se/mkv (Swedish version).

Doctoral education at the Department of Media and Communication Studies is part of the research area of Critical Cultural Theory. This is an interdisciplinary research environment which consists of seven subjects in the humanities. Research focuses on critically motivated studies of cultural artifacts and human practices. For more information, please click here. For a Swedish version click here.

Description of the doctoral position

The AI Welfare State cluster addresses the vulnerabilities that arise with the introduction of artificial intelligence into our welfare systems for better service and control. As AI technologies become increasingly embedded in public services, new potential harms are materialising; these imperil both the technical infrastructure and the individuals affected by the systems. The cluster is developing an understanding of emerging AI vulnerabilities, which include the generation of false information, dependence on Big Tech, misuse by malicious actors, disclosure of sensitive data, and bias in automated decision-making. By examining AI vulnerabilities in three research streams, which focus on imaginaries, governance and practices, the cluster will provide a comprehensive analysis of how AI impacts society. It combines infrastructural analysis with an analysis of how citizens relate to AI in welfare in terms of meaning-making, feelings and perceptions. This multidisciplinary effort aims to develop a new theory of the AI welfare state to ensure that AI technologies support, rather than undermine, public values such as justice, transparency, and social cohesion. Through its ambitious empirical and theoretical research as well as a well-integrated outreach programme, the cluster aspires to highlight AI vulnerabilities for policymakers and the public, facilitating a well informed and sustainable AI welfare state.

For more information about the graduate school and the doctoral position, please contact the cluster leader, Anne Kaun (see below).

Entry requirements

All credits are ECTS credits.

The general entry requirements are:

1. a second-cycle qualification, or

2. fulfilled requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second-cycle, or 

3. substantially equivalent knowledge acquired in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

The Faculty Board may permit an exemption from the general entry requirements for an individual applicant, if there are special grounds. (Ordinance 2010:1064)

Specific entry requirements

The specific entry requirements are met by someone who has at least 90 credits in Media and Communication Studies, including an independent work of at least 15 credits. The ability to assimilate academic material in English and a command of the language necessary for work on the thesis are prerequisites for admission to the degree programme.

Admission and employment

This position includes admission to third-cycle education, i.e. research level, and employment on a doctoral studentship at the School of Culture and Education at Södertörn University. The intended outcome for admitted students is a PhD. The programme covers 240 credits, which is the equivalent of four years of full-time study. The position may be extended by a maximum of one year due to the inclusion of departmental duties, i.e. education, research and/or administration (equivalent to no more than 20% of full-time). Other grounds for extension could be leave of absence because of illness or for service in the defence forces, an elected position in a trade union/student organisation, or parental leave.  Provisions relating to employment on a doctoral studentship are in the Higher Education Ordinance, Chapter 5, Sections 1-7.

Date of employment: 19 January 2026

General Syllabus for third-cycle programmes in Media and Communication Studies:  English version or Swedish version

Information about admission regulations including selection criteria, and third-cycle education at Södertörn University: English version or Swedish version

Application procedure

For more details, see this website under FAQ. Please use Södertörn University’s web-based recruitment system “ReachMee”. Click on the link "ansök" (apply) at the bottom of the announcement.

Your application should be written in English and must include:

- an application letter

- curriculum vitae

- degree certificate and certificates that demonstrate eligibility to apply for the position (if not written in English or Swedish/Norwegian/Danish, you must enclose a version that has been professionally translated)

- Bachelor’s essay and Master’s dissertation in the field in accordance with the entry requirements (if not written in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or English, you must enclose summaries of approximately 2500 words each, in addition to copies of the essay and the dissertation in the original language)

- a research plan (project plan) of between 1000 and 1500 words. The project’s relevance to Media and Communication Studies, Critical and Cultural Theory and the Graduate School must be clear.

- name and contact details for two reference persons, and a short note on their relationship to the applicant (for example supervisor).

If available, a maximum of three publications may also be attached.

Incomplete applications will not be processed.

Application deadline: 18 August 2025 at 23:59

Further information

Anne Kaun, Cluster Leader, Professor, Media and Communication Studies, anne.kaun@sh.se

Göran Bolin, Director of Studies (third cycle), Professor, Media and Communication Studies, goran.bolin@sh.se

Martina Sundström, Human Resources Officer, School of Culture and Education, martina.sundstrom@sh.se (questions about employment as a doctoral student)

Welcome with your application! 

Publications referred to must be attached to the application.

An application that is not complete or arrives at Södertörn University after the closing date may be rejected.

The current employment is valid on condition that the employment decision becomes valid.

Union representatives:

SACO: info.saco@sh.se

ST: st@sh.se

SEKO: Henry Wölling tel: +46 8 524 840 80, henry.wolling@ki.se 

Södertörn University has made strategic advertisement choices for this recruitment. Therefore, we decline all contact with advertisers and other salespersons of advertisement.

URL to this page

https://www.sh.se/english/sodertorn-university/meet-sodertorn-university/this-is-sodertorn-university/vacant-positions?rmpage=job&rmjob=8996&rmlang=UK

October 15-17, 2025

Madrid and Salamanca (Spain)

Deadline (EXTENDED): August 20, 2025

ECREA CYM Mid-Term Conference

Children’s play is undergoing a profound transformation in a world increasingly shaped by algorithmic infrastructures. No longer confined to physical spaces or open-ended exploration, today’s play journeys are routed through opaque recommendation systems that curate stories, games, and peers according to commercial logic. What once fostered imagination and serendipity is now entangled in platforms that gamify interactions, influence tastes, and weave childhood experience into data-driven ecosystems.

At the heart of this transformation lies the architecture of algorithmic infrastructures. Research with young users shows how platforms like TikTok or YouTube Kids not only mediate choices but actively shape habits, preferences, and social bonds. Feeds become curated playgrounds where children’s agency is subtly engineered—reflecting not neutrality, but corporate interests.

Compounding this, we confront the datafication of childhood. Connected toys, wearables, and apps turn children into both data subjects and profitable data sources. Echoing Shoshana Zuboff’s concept of surveillance capitalism, children’s playful interactions now feed predictive analytics systems that anticipate and monetize their desires, reinforcing asymmetries of power and diminishing spaces for genuine, autonomous play.

Meanwhile, gamification strategies—such as points, badges, and infinite scroll designs—blur the lines between play, work, and consumption. Although they boost engagement, they also risk creating compulsive loops and fostering exploitative forms of participation, raising urgent ethical concerns around persuasive and addictive technologies.

In parallel, algorithmic personalization fosters polarization rather than just entertainment. Personalized feeds often create “echo chambers” that isolate children in homogeneous bubbles of opinion and taste. Surveys across Europe and North America show increasing parental concern about how these dynamics challenge civic dialogue, empathy, and coexistence, leading regulatory bodies like Ofcom to recommend interventions to mitigate divisive content exposure.

This algorithmic environment also heightens risks of exposure to hate, misogyny, and bias. Empirical studies reveal how quickly recommendation systems can escalate from benign content to extreme narratives, amplifying harmful discourses among adolescents. Simultaneously, the automated systems designed to moderate hate speech often replicate biases of race and gender, creating a double bind where marginalized voices are silenced even as harms proliferate.

The impact on mental health and privacy is equally profound. Teenagers themselves report links between heavy social-media use and challenges such as sleep disruption, anxiety, and declining self-esteem. Efforts by schools and parents to monitor and mitigate these risks—often through AI surveillance tools—introduce further tensions, raising fresh questions about trust, autonomy, and digital rights in educational and domestic spaces.

In response to these complex challenges, scholars call for a shift towards critical algorithmic literacy and reparative digital design. Instead of merely protecting young users through surveillance or restrictions, participatory approaches aim to empower them to interrogate and reshape the very infrastructures that mediate their digital lives. Such frameworks advocate for inclusive, plural, and rights-respecting online spaces that children and youth can co-create alongside educators, caregivers, designers, and policymakers.

This mid-term conference invites contributions that engage with these intertwined issues—algorithmic infrastructures, datafication, gamification, polarization, hate, mental health, critical literacy, and participatory design. We seek to foster a rich, interdisciplinary dialogue that advances our understanding of how play, pleasure, and participation are being fundamentally reconfigured under algorithmic conditions. We welcome submissions from scholars, educators, activists, designers, and practitioners working across media studies, childhood and youth studies, education, digital culture, AI, and ethics.

Key Topics (include but are not limited to):

• Algorithmic influence on play, imagination, and autonomy
• Media and information literacy in algorithmic environments: challenges and pedagogies
• Artificial intelligence and data: ethical tensions, transparency and children’s rights
• Platform design and children’s play behavior
• Branded content in youth media cultures: commercial influence and participatory formats
• Gamification and its educational/ethical implications
• Surveillance and datafication of children’s leisure
• Creative resistance: how children subvert algorithmic norms
• Play, inclusion and marginalization in digital spaces
• Digital well-being and psychological implications of algorithm-driven play
• Educational tools to foster critical play and media literacy
• Regulation, parental mediation and institutional responses

Format and Participation 

This CYM Mid-Term Conference 2025 will take place over three consecutive days, each with a distinct thematic and structural focus.

On 15 October, the event will open at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid with a day centered on youth participation and industry-academia dialogue. This first day aims to foreground the voices of children and to explore the intersections between research, media practice and policy through collaborative sessions and a special roundtable.

On 16 October, hosted at Universidad Villanueva (Madrid), the conference will feature the core parallel paper sessions, alongside two keynote lectures and an expert roundtable discussion on artificial intelligence and children’s media use. This central academic day will highlight critical perspectives on digital infrastructures, algorithmic mediation and well-being.

Finally, on 17 October, a Doctoral Colloquium will be held at Universidad de Salamanca, exclusively dedicated to PhD students working on topics related to children, youth and media in digital environments. This session offers a supportive space for doctoral researchers to present their research projects, conceptual frameworks, and methodological approaches, whether they are in early or advanced stages of development. Each participant will receive constructive feedback from senior scholars in the field, as well as input from peers, with the aim of strengthening their academic work and expanding their research networks. The colloquium is designed to foster dialogue, mentoring and scholarly exchange, and to provide visibility for emerging voices within the CYM and ECREA communities.

This conference prioritizes in-person participation. All accepted presentations will be delivered onsite, fostering direct interaction, collaboration and networking. However, the Doctoral Colloquium on 17 October will exceptionally offer a hybrid participation option for PhD students, allowing for remote presentations in justified cases.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit an abstract of 300–400 words, clearly stating:

• Research question and relevance to the theme
• Theoretical framework and/or methodology
• Key findings or expected insights

For the Doctoral Colloquium taking place on October 17, participants are invited to submit 300-400 words text clearly stating:

• Title of the research project
• Research context and relevance (why is this topic important?)
• Main research questions or objectives
• Theoretical and/or methodological approach
• Current stage of the research
• One or two specific aspects you would like to receive feedback on

Submissions must be in English. Authors can only submit 2 proposals as first author.

Abstracts must be submitted exclusively via the following form:

https://forms.gle/kCMiFVbZ3eyAyvqAA

Submissions sent by email will not be considered.

Deadline (EXTENDED): August 20, 2025

Notification of acceptance: July 29^th, 2025/ September 10th, 2025

For any questions related to this call or the submission process, please write to us at: ecrea.cym.2025.madsal@gmail.com

Organizers

This conference is a Mid-Term Conference of the Children, Youth and Media (CYM) Section of ECREA, supported by Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad Villanueva and CÁTEDRA RTVE USAL (Universidad de Salamanca).

Chairs:

• Patricia Núñez Gómez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• Beatriz Feijoo, Universidad Villanueva (Spain)
• Teresa Martín García, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain) / Cátedra RTVE-USAL (Spain)

Organizing Team:

• Patricia Lafuente Pérez, Universidad Villanueva (Spain)
• Jose Alberto Irarrázaval, Universidad de Navarra (Spain)
• Isabel Rodrigo, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)
• Luis Rodrigo, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)
• Maciej Wysokinski, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• William González Baquero, Universidad Salamanca (Spain)
• Álvaro Núñez, Universidad Salamanca (Spain)

Scientific Committee

This CYM Mid-Term Conference 2025 is supported by a diverse and interdisciplinary Scientific Committee, composed of international scholars and experts in the fields of media, communication, childhood and youth studies and digital culture.

• Félix Ortega, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain)
• Ana Filipa Oliveira, Lusófona University (Portugal)
• Patricia Núñez Gómez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• Beatriz Feijoo, Universidad Villanueva (Spain)
• Teresa Martín García, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain)
• Carlos Arcila Calderón, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain)
• Tomás Atarama Rojas, Universidad de Piura (Perú)
• Erika Fernández Gómez, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (Spain)
• Jonathan Hardy, University of the Arts London (United Kingdom)
• Viera Kacinová, Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnave (Slovakia)
• Herminder Kaur, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (United Kingdom)
• Patricia Lafuente Pérez, Universidad Villanueva (Spain)
• Kepa Larrañaga, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• Iain MacRury, University of Stirling (United Kingdom)
• Mónica Mongui, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
• Pedro Moura, University of Minho (Portugal)
• Sara Pereira, University of Minho (Portugal)
• Clarisse Pessôa Universidade Europeia (Portugal)
• Isabel Rodrigo, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)
• Luis Rodrigo, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)
• Sandrina Teixeira, Instituto Politécnico de Oporto (Portugal)
• Arantxa Vizcaíno Verdú, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (Spain)
• Maciej Wysokinski, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)

Fees (registration September 30^th)

15, 16, 17 of October 2025

• ECREA Members (regular): €100
• ECREA Members (Junior scholars*): €50
• Non-ECREA Members (regular): €150
• Non-ECREA Members (Junior scholars*): €70

*Junior Scholars (PhDs, early career up to a year after finishing their PhD)

October 17-19, 2025

Cairo, Egypt

Deadline: July 20, 2025

In today’s high velocity digital media markets and accelerating AI revolution, competence in management and leadership are critical success factors. It is especially important to develop mastery in leveraging creativity as a strategic resource for strengthening competitive advantages in company processes, products, market relationships, and business models. The complexity of digital disruption makes innovation and creativity a necessity for long-term sustainability. Company success requires competencies in emerging digital technologies and fostering organizational cultures that encourage experimentation, agility and respect for ethical responsibilities. Strategic managers are challenged with demands to rethink orientations, practices, and structures, to redesign business models, and to boost productivity by improving efficiencies that can be gained by harnessing AI technologies. Doing so raises ethical and legal issues pertaining to intellectual property rights and managing human creativity.

The International Media Management Academic Association (IMMAA) invites submissions for its 19th Annual Conference, hosted by The American University in Cairo (AUC), October 17–19, 2025. Join global scholars and industry leaders to explore “Managing Innovation and Creativity for Sustainability in Media Companies” in the dynamic setting of Cairo, Egypt. Read full call for papers here (www.immaaegypt.com) 

KEY THEMES

Topics include (but are not limited to):

• Innovation in media management theory/practice
  
• AI-driven business analytics & ethical frameworks
  
• Leadership for creativity and organizational agility
  
• Evolving media business models & market strategies
  
• Cross-cultural management challenges
  
• Media policy, regulation, and sustainability
  
• Advances in advertising, marketing, and digital tech

IMPORTANT DATES

• June 20, 2025: Abstract/panel proposal deadline
  
• July 7- August 7, 2025: Acceptance notifications
  
• July 7 – Sept 15: Early registration
  
• Oct 17–19: Conference dates

Keynote Speakers:

Charlie Becket: Director of Polis and the Polis/LSE JournalismAI project, London School of Economics; 

Edson Tandoc: Associate Chair, Research and Strategy; Professor, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Noha Mellor: Media Professor at the University of Sharjah, UAE.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Papers: Extended abstracts (750–1,000 words) outlining focus, methods, and relevance to media management.

Panels: 300-word proposal + 300-word abstracts per presentation + panelist bios.

Submit via email to: immaaegypt2025@aucegypt.edu (Double-blind peer-reviewed).

REGISTRATION FEES

Early registration:

• Faculty/Researcher: €70–270
  
• Grad Student: €50–150
  

Late registration:

• Faculty/Researcher: €120–320
  
• Grad Student: €100–200
  

Discounted rates for global participation. Full details on conference website.

WHY ATTEND?

• Engage with cutting-edge research and industry insights.
  
• Network in Cairo—home to the Pyramids, Nile cruises, and a vibrant cultural scene.
  
• Hosted by AUC, a leading MENA institution with world-class facilities.
  

LINKS & CONTACT

• Conference website: https://immaaegypt.com
  
• IMMAA website: www.immaa.org
  
• Questions? Email: immaaegypt2025@aucegypt.edu
  

Join us to advance media management scholarship amid Cairo’s historic wonders!

Journal of Media Business Studies (Special Issue)

Submission Deadline: October 24, 2025

Guest Editor: Eylem Yanardagoglu, Macromedia University

Inspired by the European Media Management Association’s (EMMA)  “emmahub workshop” held in Berlin (November 13-15, 2024), this special issue in the Journal of Media Business Studies addresses the intersection of media management and migration.

Diasporic communities, defined as groups of individuals who maintain cultural, social, or emotional ties to their country of origin while living abroad, present unique opportunities and challenges for the media industry. Despite their growing presence in Europe’s diversifying societies, the media needs of these communities are often inadequately addressed: they typically remain underrepresented or misrepresented in mainstream media coverage, and their specific interests are often not catered to. However, diasporic audiences also contribute significantly to media innovation through their entrepreneurial efforts to develop media offerings targeting their needs and fostering integration into their host societies. They also contribute to diverse consumption patterns.

This special issue aims to improve academic understanding and inform industry practice by focusing on the economic conditions and managerial as well as business consequences of effectively serving and representing diasporic communities. It will explore the creative and economic potential tapped by new media entrepreneurs, content creators, and established media companies from both the countries of origin and the host countries.

Scope and Possible Topics:

This special issue invites submissions that examine topics such as:

• Diasporic Audiences and Consumption Patterns:
  
• • How do diasporic communities/audiences engage with mainstream and alternative media?
  • What are the emerging trends in content preferences and distribution platforms among diasporic audiences?
  • How and why do diasporic media consumption patterns differ from those of the general population in the host country?
• Media Entrepreneurship and Innovation by and/or for Diasporic Communities, explaining:
  
• • Case studies of successful media startups founded and led by members of the diaspora.
  • Business models that effectively cater to the unique needs and preferences of diasporic audiences.
  • The role of technology and digital platforms in facilitating media entrepreneurship within diasporic communities.
• Representation and Inclusivity in Legacy Media:
  
• • Analysis of the barriers to equitable representation of diasporic voices and perspectives in traditional media institutions (e.g., news outlets, television networks).
  • Strategies for fostering inclusivity through diverse hiring practices, content development, and partnerships with diasporic communities.

Submission Guidelines:

• Submission deadline: 24 October 2025. Submissions will be handled on a rolling basis.
  
• Authors of selected submitted papers will be invited to a paper development workshop hosted at the Media, Management and Transformation Centre, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden, 20-21 November 2025.
  
• Submissions follow the author guidelines for the Journal of Media Business Studies (Submit to Journal of Media Business Studies).
  
• Submission Process: Submit manuscripts electronically through the journal's online submission system. The system can be accessed from the journal’s webpage (Journal of Media Business Studies | Taylor & Francis Online).
  
• Peer Review: All submissions will undergo an initial check by the editor-in-chief and the special issue editor. Submissions of high quality and a good fit with the special issue topic will undergo a double-blind peer-review process.
  

Expected Contributions:

This special issue aims to:

• Advance scholarly understanding of the economic and cultural contributions of diasporic communities to the media industry.
  
• Provide actionable insights for media managers, policymakers, and industry professionals to foster inclusivity and innovation.
  
• Highlight best practices for balancing commercial and ethical imperatives in media production and management within the context of diasporic communities.
  

Contact:

For any inquiries regarding the special issue, please contact the special issue editor Eylem Yanardagoglu (e.yanardagoglu@macromedia.de) or the editor-in-chief Leona Achtenhagen (acle@ju.se).

NB: No payment from the authors will be required.