ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 22-26, 2020

Zurich, Switzerland

Deadline: March 1, 2020

The Doctoral Program Democracy Studies at the University of Zurich is pleased to announce the 7th Swiss Summer School of Democracy Studies 2020 on „Frontiers of Democratic Innovations”. The 2020 Summer School will be held in Zurich from 22 to 26 June 2020.

The School will bring together young scholars from all over the world with a common interest in the topic of democratic innovations, i.e. institutions and practices that increase and deepen citizen participation in political decision-making. During the Summer School participants will:

• gain theoretical, empirical, and methodological know-how on democratic innovations in various contexts, such as: in mini-publics, e-democracy, direct democracy, or participatory budgeting
• discuss their own research and receive feedback on their work from both international experts and peers in their field of research
• meet and exchange with international experts and scholars working on similar topics during networking sessions and social events

The Summer School is open to doctoral students, advanced master students and postdoctoral researchers worldwide from the social sciences, such as political science, media and communication science, political theory, sociology and related disciplines. The Summer School is limited to 20 participants. A certificate will be awarded for participation in the full academic program.

The deadline for submission is 1 March 2020. Please find the application instructions online, together with further information on fees and grants.

For more details on the program, please visit the official website of the Swiss Summer School of Democracy Studies and refer to the attached flyer. For any other enquiry, please contact Sofia Bollo in Summer School Office at democracyschool@ipz.uzh.ch.

May 6-7, 2020

Loughborough University

Deadline: February 28, 2020

A two-day interdisciplinary symposium hosted by the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture (CRCC), Loughborough University

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

Prof Gunn Enli (University of Oslo), Author of Mediated Authenticity: How Media Constructs Reality

&

Prof Sarah Banet-Weiser (London School of Economics) Author of Authentic™: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture

Topic of the Symposium

A widespread fascination with the authentic is said to have emerged as a response to the processes of homogenisation, rationalisation and standardisation at the heart of modernity. The concept of authenticity arose historically at a time of rapid social change and has again come to the fore where social, political, cultural and technological upheavals give rise to feelings of distrust, detachment and alienation against which supposedly authentic people, places and things are sought out for their reassuring certainty and value. Yet, there are huge contradictions and inequalities in who can make claim to authenticity and its construction and communication invariably involves competing narratives and oppositional assertions about what is authentic and how and why the authentic gains its value.

Thus, while the concept of authenticity has a long history, in recent years it has emerged as a prominent theme in many of the most pressing debates about contemporary communication and culture. In political communication there are ongoing concerns about misinformation and fake news, while the success of populist parties is often tied to their claims to be a more authentic representative of ‘the people’ than a detached and dispassionate elite. Similarly, the increasingly fractious debates around migration that are taking place across the globe often centre on the desire to protect ‘authentic’ national cultures from globalising forces and the perceived threat of ‘other’ people, products, ideas and images. In the area of culture, economy and policy, copyright, privacy and authorship remain central issues for the major media industries, while for smaller-scale content and craft producers, authenticity may operate as a key selling point and a marker of cultural distinction for both producers and consumers. Likewise, many parts of the tourism and heritage industries see the provision of authentic experiences as their raison d’etre, offering re(creations) of the past and access to ‘real’ cultural communities and traditions.

We therefore invite paper proposals from any disciplinary background for this two-day Symposium hosted by the Centre for Research in Communications and Culture at Loughborough University. We are interested in a broad range of papers exploring authenticity and abstract submissions addressing authenticity in relation to, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Authenticity, politics and political communication
• Consumption and the use of authenticity in branding and marketing
• Authenticity, the internet and the rise of social media
• Authenticity in subcultures, fan cultures and celebrity culture
• Authenticity in tourism, heritage and memorialisation
• Authenticity, literature and authorship
• Authenticity in sports, lifestyle and leisure pursuits and practices

Submissions

Abstracts of up to 250 words for presentations of 20 minutes are invited to be submitted by Friday 28th February. Abstract, title, author(s) name and institutional affiliation should be sent to m.skey@lboro.ac.uk.

Registration

Registration rates are the following:

• Delegate £60
• Concessionary Delegate £40

Key Dates

• Abstract submission deadline: Friday 28th February 2020
• Abstracts notification: Friday 13th March 2020
• Presenter booking deadline: Friday 10th April 2020
• Initial programme sent to participants: Friday 17th April 2020

Conference

6th & 7th May 2020

Event Organisation Team

• Dr Michael Skey, Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies
• Dr Thomas Thurnell-Read, Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Special issue Palabra Clave

Deadline: March 31, 2020

Emiliano Treré (Data Justice Lab, Cardiff University) and Stefania Milan (DATACTIVE, University of Amsterdam) are inviting contributions for consideration in a Special Issue on “Latin American Perspectives on Datafication and Artificial Intelligence" to be published in 2021. The Special Issue will be hosted by Palabra Clave, a top-ranked, open-access and multilingual journal: https://palabraclave.unisabana.edu.co.

Deadline for proposals (in English, Spanish and Portuguese) is March 31, 2020.

The call for papers (including guidelines and key dates) can be accessed at the following links - Español: http://bit.ly/Pacla-CFP-2021-2-ES; English: http://bit.ly/Pacla-CFP-2021-2-EN; Portugués: http://bit.ly/Pacla-CFP-2021-2-PT.

April 15-16, 2020

Unisinos University / Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos Porto Alegre, Brazil

Deadline: February 3, 2020

Submit: an abstract in English, Portuguese or Spanish (300 words) and short bio to digilabour@gmail.com

https://digilabour.com.br/brazilian-conference-on-digital-labor/

Confirmed speakers include Niels van Doorn (Universiteit van Amsterdam) and Ludmila Costhek Abilio (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), and more to be confirmed. The conference will also host roundtables of policy makers and worker-led organizations.

The conference encourages submissions that explore one of the following issues or another related to digital labor research.

• Digital labor from various perspectives/fields/dimensions;
• Theories, methodologies and epistemologies of digital labor;
• Algorithms, data, platforms and work;
• Artificial intelligence and human work;
• Platformization of labor;
• Platform cooperativism;
• Surveillance, control and digital labor;
• Algorithmic control;
• Narratives and representations about digital labor;
• Race, class, gender and territory in digital labor;
• Entrepreneurial rationality and digital media;
• Regulation of work on digital platforms;
• Collective organization of workers in platform context (worker collectives, labor unions…);
• Platform capitalism and sharing economy;
• Health and work in digital contexts;
• Digital Labor in Latin America
• Education and work in context of platformization;
• Alternative platforms;
• Action research on digital labor;
• Gamification/games and work.

​Results will be announced on February 17, 2020.

Brazilian Conference on Digital Labor is a pre-conference of AoIR Flashpoint Symposium. It will be held on April 17th, also at the Unisinos University, Porto Alegre. More information: https://aoirflashpoint20.home.blog/

Organizing Committee

• Rafael Grohmann (Unisinos)
• Adriana Amaral (Unisinos)
• Alberto Efendy Maldonado (Unisinos)
• Jiani Bonin (Unisinos)
• Mario de Conto (ESCOOP)
• Daniel Abs (UFRGS)

Scientific Committee

• Ana Claudia Moreira Cardoso (UFJF)
• Arturo Arriagada (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez)
• Bianca Tavolari (INSPER/CEBRAP)
• Carlos D’Andrea (UFMG)
• Cláudia Nonato (CPCT/ECA-USP)
• Claudia Rebechi (UTFPR)
• Claudiana Guedes (UFRRJ)
• Danila Cal (UFPA)
• Enda Brophy (Simon Fraser University)
• Graciela Natansohn (UFBA)
• Helena Martins (UFC)
• Janaína Visibeli Barros (UEMG)
• Jean-Paul Van Belle (University of Cape Town)
• Karin Fast (Karlstad University)
• Leonardo Foletto (LabCidade – FAU-USP / BaixaCultura)
• Luci Praun (UFAC)
• Mark Andrejevic (Pomona University)
• Mark Graham (University of Oxford)
• Mary Gray (Microsoft Research)
• Mayo Fuster (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
• Natalia Vinelli (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
• Nathalie Fragoso (InternetLab)
• Rafael Bellan (UFES)
• Rafael Evangelista (Unicamp)
• Ricardo Antunes (Unicamp)
• Ricardo Festi (UnB)
• Rodrigo Carelli (UFRJ)
• Rodrigo Moreno Marques (UFMG)
• Roseli Figaro (USP)
• Rudimar Baldissera (UFRGS)
• Ruy Braga (USP)
• Sarah Abdelnour (Université Paris-Dauphine)
• Sergio Amadeu (UFABC)
• Thaiane Oliveira (UFF)
• Vander Casaqui (UMESP)
• Veena Dubal (University of California)
• Willian Fernandes Araújo (UNISC)

Please send any inquiries to rafaelgrohmann@unisinos.br or digilabour@gmail.com

April 30 - May 1, 2020

Moore Institute, National University of Galway, Ireland

Deadline: February 10, 2020

What constitutes acts of resistance in today’s era of digital surveillance and algorithmic determination? How can artists and other creative makers introduce new modes of engaging with digital technologies that reveal and challenge increasingly uninhabitable conditions? And how do challenges related to digital platforms and networked media environments intersect with pressing societal issues, including economic and social inequality, or the environmental crisis?

Submissions are invited for 20-minute presentations or creative contributions, pertaining to different methods of resistance in relation to or using digital technology and culture, or related topics addressing acts of resistance. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Tactical media and technology
• Hacktivism
• AI/machine learning and algorithms of resistance
• Human rights and the posthuman
• Privacy and surveillance
• Computer vision, facial recognition, biometrics
• Borders and migration
• Climate change and climate justice
• Occupation
• Gender: fluid, nonbinary, trans
• Radical passivity and creative spaces of refusal
• Obfuscation

Keynote speakers:

• Conor McGarrigle (TU Dublin)
• Nora Madison (Chestnut Hill College / University of Bergen)

Deadline for abstracts: 10 February, 2020. Please submit abstracts to resistanceconference@gmail.com

For any questions or queries, please contact el.putnam@nuigalway.ie or anne.karhio@nuigalway.ie

May 12, 2020

Palais du Pharo, Marseille, France

Submission Deadline: February 14, 2020

https://www.clarin.eu/ParlaCLARIN-II

Submission page: https://www.softconf.com/lrec2020/ParlaCLARIN2

Parliamentary data is a major source of socially relevant content. It is available in ever larger quantities, is multilingual, accompanied by rich metadata, and has the distinguishing characteristic that it is spoken language produced in controlled circumstances which has traditionally been transcribed but is now increasingly released also in audio and video formats. All these factors require solutions related to structuring, synchronization, visualization, querying and analysis of parliamentary corpora. Furthermore, approaches to the exploitation of parliamentary corpora to their full extent also have to take into account the needs of researchers from vastly different Humanities and Social Sciences fields, such as political sciences, sociology, history, and psychology.

A successful first edition of the ParlaCLARIN scientific workshop held at LREC 2018 (https://www.clarin.eu/ParlaCLARIN) and a follow-up developmental ParlaFormat workshop held by CLARIN ERIC in 2019 (https://www.clarin.eu/event/2019/parlaformat-workshop) resulted in a good overview of the multitude of the existing parliamentary resources worldwide as well as tangible first steps towards better harmonization, interoperability and comparability of the resources and tools relevant for the study of parliamentary discussions and decisions.

The second ParlaCLARIN workshop therefore aims to bring together developers, curators and researchers of regional, national and international parliamentary debates that are suitable for research in disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. We invite unpublished original work focusing on the compilation, annotation, visualisation and utilisation of parliamentary records as well as linking or comparing parliamentary records with other datasets of political discourse such as party manifestos, political speeches, political campaign debates, social media posts, etc. Apart from dissemination of the results, the workshop also aims to address the identified obstacles, discuss open issues and coordinate future efforts in this increasingly trans-national and cross-disciplinary community.

Objective

Due to Freedom of Information Acts that are supported by the United Nations and set in place in over 100 countries worldwide, parliamentary debates are being increasingly easy to obtain, and have always been of interest to researchers from a wide range fields in Humanities and Social Sciences both for the potential influence of their content, and the specificities of the formalized, often persuasive and emotional language use in this context. As a consequence, there are many initiatives, on the national and international levels, that aim at compiling and analysing parliamentary data. CLARIN-PLUS survey on parliament data has identified over 20 corpora of parliamentary records, with over half of them being available within the CLARIN infrastructure (https://www.clarin.eu/resource-families/parliamentary-corpora).

Given the maturity, variety, and potential of this type of language data as well as the rich metadata it is complemented with, it is urgent to gather researchers both from the side of those producing parliamentary corpora and making them available, those making use of them for linguistic, historical, political, sociological etc. research as well as those linking or comparing them with other datasets of political discourse such as party manifestos, political speeches, political campaign debates, social media posts, etc. in order to share methods and approaches of compiling, annotating and exploring parliamentary and other political language data in order to achieve harmonization of the compiled resources, and to ensure current and future comparability of research on national datasets as well as promote transnational analyses.

Keynote

The keynote talk will be devoted to the Manifesto Project (https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu)

Topics of interest

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Creation and annotation of parliamentary data in textual and/or spoken format
• Annotation standards and best practices for parliamentary corpora
• Accessibility, querying and visualisation of parliamentary data
• Text analytics, semantic processing and linking of parliamentary and other datasets of political language data
• Parliamentary corpora and multilinguality
• Studies based on parliamentary corpora
• Studies comparing parliamentary corpora with other types of political discourse

Submissions & Publication

We accept submission of long papers (up to 8 pages), short papers (up to 4 pages) and demo papers (up to 4 pages) to be presented as a long or short oral presentation at the workshop. The papers of the workshop will be published in online proceedings.

When submitting a paper from the START page, authors will be asked to provide essential information about resources (in a broad sense, i.e. also technologies, standards, evaluation kits, etc.) that have been used for the work described in the paper or are a new result of your research. Moreover, ELRA encourages all LREC authors to share the described LRs (data, tools, services, etc.) to enable their reuse and replicability of experiments (including evaluation ones). For contact data, stylesheets, up-to-date details on submission and the workshop itself, please consult the workshop website.

Submission page: https://www.softconf.com/lrec2020/ParlaCLARIN2

Important Dates

• Paper submission deadline: 14 February 2020
• Notification of acceptance: 13 March 2020
• Camera-ready paper: 2 April 2020
• Workshop date: Tuesday 12 May 2020

Organizing Committee

• Darja Fišer, University of Ljubljana and Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
• Franciska de Jong, CLARIN ERIC, The Netherlands
• Maria Eskevich, CLARIN ERIC, The Netherlands

The workshop is supported by the CLARIN research infrastructure. To contact the organizers, please mail clarin@clarin.eu (Subject: [ParlaCLARIN@LREC2020]).

Programme Committee in alphabetical order:

• Kaspar Beelen, The Alan Turing Institute, UK
• Andreas Blätte, The University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
• Francesca Frontini, Université Paul Valéry - Montpellier, France
• Maria Gavriilidou, ILSP/Athena RC, Greece
• Henk van den Heuvel, Radboud University, The Netherlands
• Klaus Illmayer, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
• Bente Maegaard, CLARIN ERIC, The Netherlands
• Monica Monachini, National Research Council of Italy, Italy
• Laura Morales, Sciences Po, France
• Jan Odijk, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
• Maciej Ogrodniczuk, Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
• Petya Osenova, IICT-BAS and Sofia University "St. Kl. Ohridski", Bulgaria
• Maria Pontiki, ILSP/Athena RC, Greece
• Sara Tonelli, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy
• Simone Paolo Ponzetto, University of Mannheim, Germany
• Stelios Piperidis, ILSP/Athena RC, Greece
• Tamás Váradi, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
• Tanja Wissik, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
• Tomaž Erjavec, Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
• Identify, Describe and Share your LRs!

Describing your LRs in the LRE Map is now standard practice in the submission procedure of LREC (introduced in 2010 and adopted by other conferences). To continue the efforts initiated at LREC 2014 about “Sharing LRs” (data, tools, web-services, etc.), authors will have the possibility, when submitting a paper, to upload LRs in a special LREC repository. This effort of sharing LRs, linked to the LRE Map for their description, may become a new “regular” feature for conferences in our field, thus contributing to creating a common repository where everyone can deposit and share data.

As scientific work requires accurate citations of referenced work so as to allow the community to understand the whole context and also replicate the experiments conducted by other researchers, LREC 2020 endorses the need to uniquely Identify LRs through the use of the International Standard Language Resource Number (ISLRN, www.islrn.org), a Persistent Unique Identifier to be assigned to each Language Resource. The assignment of ISLRNs to LRs cited in LREC papers will be offered at submission time.

Edited by Hilde C. Stephansen and Emiliano Treré

Bringing together contributions from leading scholars in sociology, media and communication, social movement and critical data studies, this book stimulates dialogue across separate traditions of research on citizen and activist media practices and stakes out future directions for research in this burgeoning interdisciplinary field. Framed by a foreword by Nick Couldry and a substantial introductory chapter by the editors, contributions to the volume trace the roots and appropriations of the concept of media practice in Latin American communication theory; reflect on the relationship between activist agency and technological affordances; explore the relevance of the media practice approach for the study of media activism; and demonstrate the significance of the media practice approach for understanding processes of mediatization and datafication. Offering both a comprehensive introduction to scholarship on citizen media and practice and a cutting-edge exploration of a novel theoretical framework, the book is ideal for students and experienced scholars alike.

Purchase here (paperback, hardback and eBook editions available from Routledge): https://bit.ly/2tkh6kX

Access book abstracts, endorsements and download a free PDF version of Chapter 1: http://citizenmediaseries.org/published_volumes/citizen-media-and-practice/

Hilde C. Stephansen is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Westminster, London.

Emiliano Treré is Senior Lecturer in Media Ecologies and Social Transformation in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University. He acts as the vice-chair of the 'Communication and Democracy' section of ECREA.

York University

Discipline/Field: Diasporic Media

Home Faculty: Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Home Department/Area/Division: Communication Studies

Affiliation/Union: YUFA

Position Start Date: July 1, 2020

Department of Communication Studies, Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

The Department of Communication Studies invites applications for a professorial stream tenure-track appointment in Diasporic Media at the Assistant Professor level, to commence July 1, 2020. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. All York University positions are subject to budgetary approval.

A PhD in Communication Studies or cognate fields is required. Candidates must show excellence or promise of excellence in teaching, scholarly research and publication and service.

Applicants should have an ongoing program of research and specialize in one or more of the following areas: immigrant, migrant and/or refugee experience; forced movement of populations; global, translocal and/or local diasporic media practices and/or communities; community activism; decolonial and anti-racist approaches; and/or multicultural media policy. Candidates with a social justice and equity approach are preferred.

The successful candidate must be suitable for prompt appointment to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The position will involve graduate teaching and supervision, as well as undergraduate teaching. Pedagogical innovation in high priority areas such as experiential education and technology enhanced learning is preferred.

York University has a policy on Accommodation in Employment for Persons with Disabilities and is committed to working towards a barrier-free workplace and to expanding the accessibility of the workplace to persons with disabilities. Candidates who require accommodation during the selection process are invited to contact the Chair of the Search Committee at comnsrch@yorku.ca.

York University is an Affirmative Action (AA) employer and strongly values diversity, including gender and sexual diversity, within its community. The AA Program, which applies to women, members of visible minorities (racialized groups), Aboriginal (Indigenous) people and persons with disabilities, can be found at http://acadjobs.info.yorku.ca/ or by calling the AA line at 416.736.5713.

Applicants wishing to self-identify as part of York University's Affirmative Action Program can do so by downloading, completing and submitting the form found at: http://acadjobs.info.yorku.ca/affirmative-action/self-identification-form/.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens, Permanent Residents and Indigenous peoples in Canada will be given priority. No application will be considered without a completed mandatory Work Status Declaration form which can be found at http://acadjobs.info.yorku.ca/affirmative-action/work-authorization-form.

Applicants should submit their application package, including a signed letter of application, an up-to-date curriculum vitae, a statement of research and teaching interests, teaching evaluations and three confidential letters of reference, through the online application system at apply.laps.yorku.ca beginning on Friday, January 17, 2020.

Applicants may direct questions to Professor Anne MacLennan, Chair of the Department of Communication Studies, Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, comnsrch@yorku.ca.

The deadline for receipt of completed applications is February 14, 2020.

Posting End Date: February 14, 2020

Charles University in Prague

The Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Charles University in Prague calls for candidates for the following PhD projects (each supported by a scholarship), for its English-language PhD programme in Media and Communication Studies:

• Leadership in the 21st century – failing political leadership and decline of traditional political parties, permanent campaigning, politics, and marketing tools

The Ph.D. project should focus on these topics, methodologically it can be approached from different angles. Theoretically, it should be rooted in the political marketing theory and political communication theory. The research can either focus on a specific case study or do a more comparative approach. This PhD project can also be submitted to the Czech-language PhD programme in Media Studies.

Proposed supervisor: Anna Shavit, anna.shavit@fsv.cuni.cz

• Social constructions and representations of homelessness

This PhD position involves research related to the social construction of homelessness. Research in this area is expected to be driven by a post-structuralist approach and can focus on the social/discursive construction of identities, practices and affects, around homelessness. The research can be located in a variety of social fields and actors, such as mainstream and/or alternative media, the state and its institutions, civil society, the arts, and homeless individuals.

Proposed supervisor: Vaia Doudaki, vaia.doudaki@fsv.cuni.cz

• Discourses and practices of othering

This PhD position involves research in the broad area of othering. It is expected to be driven by a post-structuralist approach, focussing on the construction and practices of othering through, e.g. the media, the arts, politics, or activism. Projects in this thematic area can examine, for instance, the discourses and practices that create (old and new) ethnic, political, cultural others, in specific contexts and/or at different times, or how these practices can relate to social struggle and resistance.

Proposed supervisor: Vaia Doudaki, vaia.doudaki@fsv.cuni.cz

• Discursive constructions of the environment

This PhD position consists out of research into the discursive construction of the environment, climate and/or human-nature relationships, driven by a discourse-theoretical (or other post-structuralist) framework, that allows for attention for the workings of contingency, hegemony, materiality and discursive struggle. The research can be located in variety of social fields, including media, the arts and/or museums.

Proposed supervisor: Nico Carpentier, nico.carpentier@fsv.cuni.cz

• Alternative constructions of the home

This PhD position consists out of research into alternative and counter-hegemonic constructions of the home, driven by a discourse-theoretical (or other post-structuralist) framework, that allows for attention for the workings of contingency, hegemony, materiality and discursive struggle. The research can, for instance, focus on anti/non-sedentarist constructions, mobile home constructions, involuntary homes (e.g., prison), or lost homes (e.g., after disaster or displacement).

Proposed supervisor: Nico Carpentier, nico.carpentier@fsv.cuni.cz

APPLICATION

Interested candidates should submit their applications, using in the online application system, which will be open from 1st January to 30th April 2020. Interest in a particular PhD project should be mentioned in the motivation letter, together with a more developed proposal on the PhD project.

All relevant information, including the link to the online application system, can be found at here and here.

For general questions, please contact for the Centre of PhD Studies cds.iksz@fsv.cuni.cz. For questions about particular projects, please contact the proposed supervisors.

Doors Open Day for PhD Study in Media Studies - 10. March (Tuesday) at 16:00 at the Institute of Communication Studies (Smetanovo nabrezi 6, Praha 1, 110 00).

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new report on the broadcasting of the Paralympics in the UK.

Free to download from: http://pasccal.com/pasccal-project-report/ or direct download: http://pasccal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/BU-3-Paralympic-Report-6.4.pdf

This report details the findings of the AHRC project entitled ‘Re-presenting Para-sport bodies: Disability and the cultural legacy of the Paralympic Games’. The project explored media constructions of disability through Paralympic sport and the impact on public attitudes and perceptions of disability. This report provides data and recommendations drawn from the first funded academic project to examine the implications of the rapid commercialisation of the Paralympic Games and the increasing visibility of disability in the media; influenced by the success of Channel 4’s entry as the United Kingdom’s official Paralympic broadcaster in 2012.

Through an integrated methodological approach, we provide a joined-up evidence base that captures the intentions and practices of Channel 4’s (C4) broadcasting of the Rio 2016 Paralympics; the influence of this on the content of Paralympic coverage and mediated forms of disability representation; and the wider impact on public attitudes toward disability. This approach allowed us to examine the important and influential relationship between Paralympic production practices, progressive social change and cultural legacies.

The report demonstrates the important cultural impact of the Paralympic Games and the extent socially progressive forms of disability representation can and do effect positive social change with respect to disability awareness. We argue that both the quality and quantity of Paralympic coverage by C4 has been an important vehicle in progressive forms of disability representation marked by greater inclusion, education, and visibility of disability. Here, we highlight some of the complexities and contradictions in the Paralympic legacy with respect to issues of inclusion and exclusion, empowerment and disempowerment, and forms of marginalisation. Through the report we provide a number of empirically-driven insights for progressive and sustainable Paralympic cultural legacies.