May 7-8, 2026

Roskilde University, Denmark

Deadline: February 28, 2026

SMiD 2026 – 50 Years Anniversary Conference

Generative AI (GenAI) fundamentally reconfigures the very processes that lie at the core of media and communication scholarship. Recent estimates show that ChatGPT alone processes approx. 2.5 billion prompts daily, which illustrates the unprecedented speed and scale at which GenAI tools are adopted and integrated into everyday practices. This development raises not only critical questions about the changing conditions of communication and media practices but also knowledge work, journalism, organisational structures and cultures, agency, authenticity, transparency, accountability, labour, bias, power relations, etc. In addition, GenAI sparks fundamental methodological debates and challenges the status quo of academic teaching and learning.

Current GenAI developments echo, mirror and build upon previous technological innovations and are deeply embedded into and shaped by societal and cultural transformations. Over the past five decades, such transformations have continuously redefined the study objects of media and communication scholarship, leading to an expansion of the field from its early focus on mass media, radio, print journalism and television to encompass a wide array of social media, digital cultures and datafied infrastructures.

The SMiD 2026 anniversary conference wishes to mark 50 years of media and communication research in Denmark, the Nordics and beyond, as well as 45 years of MedieKultur. It aims to provide a forum for critical reflection that situates current GenAI developments and disruptions within broader historical trajectories and transformations in media and communication studies. Scholars and educators are invited to engage in discussions on how media and communication research can provide adequate responses to the pressing questions contemporary societies are facing in the era of GenAI. Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Changing communication and media practices, e.g., transformations in everyday communication practices, shifting norms, cultures, human-machine communication, health communication.
  
• GenAI in relation to news production, journalism and data, e.g., how GenAI reshapes journalistic routines, newsroom work, GenAI as epistemic authorities.
  
• Platform materiality and environmental communication, e.g., critical examinations of the material and environmental demands of GenAI and how these are communicated, justified and/or obscured, narratives of resistance on the inevitability of GenAI.
  
• Historical, ethical and philosophical perspectives on GenAI, e.g., historical trajectories, philosophical and ethical implications, and changing human-machine relations.
  
• Audience and user studies, e.g., how users and audiences make sense of, interpret, and co-create GenAI output, shifting forms of agency, engagement, trust, and literacy across various contexts.
  
• Methodological explorations, e.g., opportunities and challenges for research design, data collection, and analysis, as well as ethical considerations.
  
• Academic teaching and learning, e.g., innovative pedagogical approaches to using/resisting GenAI in media and communication education.
  

The conference’s aim is to bring together academic scholars, from PhD candidates to professors, and practitioners within the broader field of media and communication research.

We welcome traditional academic formats in the form of abstracts and presentations, and we encourage creative and/or experimental, alternative contributions. In connection to the conference, participants are invited to submit a full paper for peer-review to MedieKultur.

As in the previous years, SMiD 2026 is open to all researchers and practitioners with connections to the media and communication research and/or practice environment in Denmark and/or having the wish to connect to the community. If your work is not related to the overall conference theme, you are still welcome to submit an abstract and present your work.

Abstract submissions and other contributions should be between 300 and 500 words (excluding references and a short bio). Please submit no later than February 28th via email to smid@foreningen-smid.dk.

For further information please visit: https://www.foreningen-smid.dk/

Conference costs (including lunch, dinner and refreshments, excluding transportation and lodging):

• Conference participation and full SMiD membership: 2000 DKK
  
• Conference participation and reduced SMiD membership (e.g., PhD students and emerita): 1700 DKK
• Conference attendance only: 1500 DKK
  

In special circumstances it is possible to waive the conference fee, e.g. if you are an independent researcher. Please write a short informal application stating your current situation via e-mail to smid@foreningen-smid.dk.