ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

KU Leuven

The fulltime professor position (open rank) will be held at the Leuven School for Mass Communication Research, a research unit within the Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven (Belgium). KU Leuven represents a leading academic institution in Europe that is currently the largest university in Belgium in terms of research funding and expenditure. The university’s mission is to provide excellence in academic education and research and to offer a distinguished service to society. Owing to KU Leuven’s cutting-edge research, KU Leuven is a charter member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) and is consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in Europe. Within KU Leuven, the Leuven School of Mass Communication Research (SMCR) represents a pioneering institution for media effects research. The research focus of SMCR lies on the use of information- and entertainment media (including social media, ICT, television, games, mobile devices), and on how these uses may harm or enhance various components of individuals’ wellbeing and social cohesion. We have a strong expertise in explaining the processes through which various forms of media use affect physical, psychological and social wellbeing in the long run, and the conditions under which these processes occur. Therefore, a series of advanced methods are applied, including longitudinal survey studies, daily diary studies and content analysis. Issues studied in recent years include, for example, alcohol and drug use, (positive) sexuality and sexism, risk taking, depression, self-harm, (positive) body image, and mental and physical wellbeing. The School adheres to the highest academic standards and strives towards publishing its research in top academic journals (e.g., Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, New Media & Society, Media Psychology). SMCR staff is involved in various national and international multidisciplinary research projects, primarily of fundamental nature but also with societal relevance.

Unit website

Research

You will be expected to develop an international research program, to aim at excellent scientific output of international level, and support and promote the School for Mass Communication Research in national and international research collaborations. These research efforts should be situated in the broad field of digitalization and society. Digital natives grow up in a world in which digital media technologies influence all spheres of individual development, social life and society. Relatedly, adults are increasingly governed by digital media platforms to which they seem endlessly connected. Accordingly, digitalization intersects with human challenges associated with staying healthy, developing advanced cognitive structures and building meaningful social ties. Digitalization brings along risks but can simultaneously also empower (young) individuals in their health, education, social and romantic relationships, political participation and managing their overall day-to-day lives. 

The role of digitalization in individual’s life and, more generally, society at large, is expected to be central in the research of the applicant. More precisely, your research focuses on the development of innovative theory and advanced research techniques in this field. You have a strong background in predominantly quantitative research methods and have demonstrated research excellence in various ways (e.g., top ranked ISI publications, awards, societal impact etc.).

With this vacancy we aim to further strengthen the research and complement the expertise at SMCR. We are looking for a candidate with a strong experience in the understanding of the mechanisms that underlie transformations in individuals and broader human culture as a result of digitalization. 

Specifically, with this position we aim to further strengthen and expand the research at SMCR. Consequently, your research is expected to relate to the aforementioned lines of research of SMCR and to complement this research in one or more ways.

We welcome excellent scholars who complement SMCR research lines on digitalization in terms of (1) themes (e.g., (but not limited to) education (e.g., digital skills, disinformation, misinformation, creativity, digital divide..), artificial intelligence (algorithmic awareness, chatbot interactions, …), civic engagement (e.g., political self-efficacy), social capital (e.g., parental and peer communication and ties, …), health (e.g., digital well-being, health communication…)  and/or (2) quantitative methods (e.g., (but not limited to) ESM research, the development and testing of mediated promotion and intervention campaigns, computational and digital social science methods, statistical modelling, data visualization, or psychophysiological research), and/or (3) audiences (e.g., (but not limited to) minorities, people with addictions). In close collaboration with SMCR staff, you contribute to the existing lines of research and set up your own program through the acquisition of research funding.

Teaching

The Department of Communication Science, consisting of two research groups SMCR and IMS, organizes the Bachelor and Master of Communication Science, and the (English) Masters in Digital Media and Society and Journalism. Your teaching will contain several courses at the Bachelor’s and Master’s level and will include theoretical and methodological courses on communication science. You supervise students working on their master thesis and PhD students.

Your teaching is expected to meet the KU Leuven standards regarding academic program level and orientation and to be in keeping with the educational vision of KU Leuven. Commitment to the quality of education as a whole is naturally expected.

Service

You provide scientific, societal and internal services. This is reflected, among other things, in a constructive contribution to education and research, as part of a team's collective projects (e.g. through participation in meetings, teacher days, information sessions, recruitment activities, exchange programs), and service to the academic community (e.g., service to academic associations such as ICA and journals (reviews)), education (e.g., participation in program committee meetings), and faculty (e.g., participation in faculty council etc.) You have an elaborate network of important stakeholders in the field, and have collaborated with these stakeholders to create societal impact and disseminate research.

Profile

Applicants hold a Ph.D. degree in communication sciences, social sciences, psychology, or an equivalent diploma. We seek a scholar with a broad theoretical- and interdisciplinary interest and a strong background in quantitative research methods, whose research both relates to and complements the current research lines at SMCR. The successful candidate has an excellent research record as evidenced by more than one dimension, e.g., the quality of their PhD research, high-level publications in the important journals of our field (i.e., ICA journals) and related fields, research impact (e.g., citations) and acquired research funding. We attach great importance to professional and value-driven behavior, an attitude of sharing, mentoring and inclusivity, and collegiality, and will encourage the candidate to collaborate with SMCR researchers as well as with interdisciplinary research groups and centers within KU Leuven. The candidate has a large international network and is eager to further develop this within the context of SMCR.

Applicants have demonstrated excellent teaching skills (including when teaching for large groups) and have a broad employability due to in-depth and detailed knowledge about the social sciences, media sociology and media psychology. In addition, the candidate has demonstrated excellent leadership skills (e.g., through the (current) supervision of PhD students), and is a strong team player.

The official administrative language used at KU Leuven is Dutch and there is a legal requirement to become proficient in Dutch up to a certain level. If you do not speak Dutch (or do not speak it well) at the start of employment, KU Leuven will provide language training to enable you to take part in administrative meetings and over time to teach in Dutch. A thorough knowledge of English is required.

Offer

We offer a full-time employment in an intellectually challenging and international environment. You will work in Leuven, a historic and lively city located in the heart of Belgium, within 20 minutes from Brussels, and less than two hours from Paris, London and Amsterdam.

Depending on your experience and qualification, the position will be at one of the levels of the senior academic staff (Tenure Track Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor). Junior researchers are appointed as assistant professor on the tenure track for a period of five years; after this period and a positive evaluation, they are permanently appointed (or tenured) as  an associate professor. For professors without substantial other funding (e.g., ERC),  a starting grant of 110.000 euro is offered to facilitate scientific onboarding and accelerate research in the first phase. 

The expected starting date is 1 January 2025.

Immediately upon starting you will be able to independently develop your own line of research, serve as a supervisor of dissertations, and raise your own research funding.

KU Leuven welcomes international scholars and their family and provides practical support with regard to immigration and administration, housing, childcare, learning Dutch, partner career coaching,…

Interested

For more information please contact:

Prof. Dr. Laura Vandenbosch (Research director School for Mass Communication Research), mail: Laura.Vandenbosch@kuleuven.be. 

Prof. Dr. Stef Aupers (Program director Communication Sciences), mail: Stef.Aupers@kuleuven.be 

Prof. Dr. Steven Eggermont (Dean Faculty of Social Sciences), mail: Steven.Eggermont@kuleuven.be 

You can apply for this job no later than August 01, 2024 via the online application tool.

KU Leuven strives for an inclusive, respectful and socially safe environment. We embrace diversity among individuals and groups as an asset. Open dialogue and differences in perspective are essential for an ambitious research and educational environment. In our commitment to equal opportunity, we recognize the consequences of historical inequalities. We do not accept any form of discrimination based on, but not limited to, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, ethnic or national background, skin colour, religious and philosophical diversity, neurodivergence, employment disability, health, or socioeconomic status. For questions about accessibility or support offered, we are happy to assist you at this email address.

Job application procedure

Working conditions

Career opportunities

Do you have a question about the online application system? Please consult our FAQ or email us at apply@kuleuven.be

Charles University (Czech Republic)

Charles University  will make a limited number of Post-Doctoral Fellowships available, financed through its JUNIOR Fund. Post-Doctoral Fellows will be engaged to work on a project taking no longer than 2 years (24 months) of full-time employment. The scholarship will be around 2400 Euro per month. 

Scholarships will be awarded for projects in different thematic areas, one of which is the "discursive construction of peace", with Nico Carpentier as its supervisor, who is affiliated to Charles University's Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism (ICSJ) and in particular to the Culture and Communication Research Centre (CULCORC). 

This call is for candidates who wish to work within the domain of discursive construction of peace (from a post-structuralist perspective), and who want to submit a credible proposal in this thematic area. More information about the exact nature of this theme can be found below. 

Potential candidates are strongly recommended to consult with the supervisor, Nico Carpentier (at nico.carpentier@fsv.cuni.cz), before submitting their final application to him. 

Time table: 

* Deadline for final applications sent to Nico Carpentier: July 24, 2024 

* Deadline for these applications to be submitted to the Faculty: July 26, 2024 

* First selection (nomination by the respective Faculties): August 5, 2024 

* Second selection (University Committee): September 2024 

* Decision by Rector: September 2024 

* Position available from (if selected): January 1, 2025 

Prerequisites (https://cuni.cz/UKEN-178.html#10): 

* The applicant must be a resident of a country different than the Czech Republic. 

* Applicants of Czech and Slovak nationality are also eligible to apply for financial support from the Fund if they have successfully completed their doctoral studies at a non-Czech/Slovak university. 

* At the time of submission the applicant must have completed Ph.D. studies outside the Czech Republic. 

* No more than 5 years must have elapsed since the completion of the applicant’s Ph.D. at the time of filing the application. The time-limit may be extended by the time spent on maternity or paternity leave. 

* The applicant can not be qualified for an associate professorship (habilitation) prior to the application deadline. 

Charles University reserves the right not to select any candidate. 

Required application documents: 

(see https://cuni.cz/UKEN-178.html#10 for templates) 

* Application Form (use template 1) 

* Letter of Reference: written even by the supervisor in the PhD programme or by a researcher/head of establishment, where the applicant completed the doctoral study (use template 2). 

* Professional Curriculum Vitae, including the commented list of up to 5  most important publications. Please specify your research contribution and input to each publication (all together max. 2 pages A4) 

* Copy of University Diploma or Provisional certificate of completion of PhD studies or another official confirmation, that the applicant has been awarded PhD Degree. 

More information: 

* About JUNIOR Fund: https://cuni.cz/UKEN-178.html 

* All thematic areas at the Faculty of Social Sciences: https://fsv.cuni.cz/en/exchange/academics/incoming-academics/junior-post-doc-fund 

* Nico Carpentier: http://nicocarpentier.net/ 

* ICSJ: https://iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/ 

* CULCORC: https://culcorc.fsv.cuni.cz/ 

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Theme: The discursive construction of peace 

Short summary: 

With Europe being more and more confronted with armed conflict at (and within) its borders, peace has become materially, but also conceptually elusive, often only negatively defined—as war’s opposite—without much substance. This project is embedded in the discursive-constructionist approaches to war (e.g., Jabri 1996) in order to study a particular conflict-related setting to better understand how peace is defined, as, for instance, an unreachable utopia or a legitimation of war. 

Description and intellectual context: 

Although the materialist perspectives on war dominate the field of conflict studies, Keen (1986), Jabri (1996), Mansfield (2008) and Demmers (2012) have recognized the importance of the discursive dimension of violence, conflict and war (Carpentier, 2017, p. 160-162). These authors have pleaded for taking this discursive dimension seriously, because, as Keen (1986, p. 10) wrote: “In the beginning we create the enemy. Before the weapon comes the image. We think others to death and then invent the battle-axe or the ballistic missiles with which to actually kill them.” Or, as Jabri (1996, p. 23) wrote: “[…] knowledge of human phenomena such as war is, in itself, a constitutive part of the world of meaning and practice.” Of course, the psychological and linguistic dimensions of war have received considerable attention, even in some of the key theoretical conflict models, as is exemplified by Galtung’s conflict triangle model (Galtung, 2009). But the discursive – used here in the macro-textual and macro-contextual meaning it receives in discourse theory (Laclau; Mouffe, 1985, p. 105; Carpentier, 2017, p. 16-17) – argues for the importance of a broader dimension, which is located at the epistemological level. 

The previous paragraph also highlights the significatory relationship between war and peace. In particular, peace has proven to be difficult to be conceptualized without reference to war. Biletzki raises this point in the following terms: "'War and Peace' is the ultimate posit which grounds the concept of peace in a dichotomous definition. In the effort to define, explain, explicate, illustrate and finally understand peace it is natural to ask what peace is not. […] This binary, even exclusionary, use of both terms, ‘war’ and ‘peace’, constitutes their meaning, almost of necessity […]" (Biletzki, 2007, p. 347). Although it is possible to construct a language-game of peace without the signifier war, we need to acknowledge that the signifier war is often used in peace discourses (and the other way around). Basic definitions of war and peace, also used in academic literature, often set up these two signifiers in an oppositional relationship, allocating a primary defining role to war, defining peace as “the absence of war” (or, of armed conflict) (Matsuo, 2007, p. 16). Still, in the field of peace studies, ample attention has been spent on developing a more autonomous definition of peace, where, for instance, Galtung (1964; 1969) – one of the founders of this field – uses the concept of structural violence, which includes such conditions as poverty, humiliation, political repression and the denial of self determination that limits the human potential for self-realization. ‘Positive peace’ then becomes defined as the transcendence of these conditions to assure non-violence and social justice. 

Post-structuralist approaches allow us to argue that we construct knowledge about peace (and war) through discursive-ideological frameworks, that are not so much located at the individual-interactional level, but at the social level. Discourses of peace are frameworks of intelligibility – ways of knowing peace – which are available to individual subjects for identification (or disidentification), but that are also inherently contingent and fluid. This does not mean that there is a multitude of ever-changing discourses, with meanings neurotically floating around. It means that there are several, always particular, ways of thinking peace, which are in themselves never perfect copies of the Real, but imperfect representations, bound to always somehow fail. In some cases, this failure to represent – to incorporate events or ideas – can threaten the integrity of discourse, and can, to use a discourse-theoretical term, dislocate it. Moreover, these discourses also engage with each other in struggles, and sometimes become dominant (or hegemonic) and sedimented through these discursive struggles. Even then, no hegemony is total and necessarily lasts forever; hegemonic discourses can become politicized again and dragged into a new political-discursive struggle, that might alter or destroy them. 

This call focusses on projects that study a particular conflict-related setting to better understand how peace is discursively constructed. This implies that project proposals will need to (1) highlight the exact theoretical framework (within the post-structuralist tradition) that will be used, (2) specify and contextualize the conflict-related setting that will be studied, (3) specify the types of signifying machines that will be studied (e.g., news media, popular culture, memorials, art, museums, ...), (4) describe and motivate the research questions, corpus and research design, and methodology that will be used, (5) include a time plan, allocating sufficient time to the academic dissemination of the results, (6) and motivate the collaboration with ICSJ and CULCORC. 

(Text from: CARPENTIER, NICO, KEJANLIOĞLU, D. BEYBIN (2020) The Militarization of a Public Debate: A Discourse-Theoretical Analysis of the Construction of War and Peace in Public Debates Surrounding the Books of Three Turkish Military Commanders on the “1974 Cyprus Peace Operation”, Revista de Comunicação Dialógica, 3: 107-139.) 

Workplace: Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism (Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University) 

Supervisor: doc. Nico Carpentier, Ph.D. 

E-mail: nico.carpentier@fsv.cuni.cz 

Applicants must submit all required documents to nico.carpentier@fsv.cuni.cz 

Revista Comunicando 

Deadline: July 10, 2024

In recent decades, journalism has been shaken by a series of technological, social, cultural, and economic transformations that imply renewed challenges not only for editorial projects and professionals, but also for the sustainability of journalism's role and place in society. This new paradigm also represents a series of challenges for journalism teaching, giving rise to new debates and new concerns. This thematic section of Revista Comunicando aims to contribute to this debate.

https://revistacomunicando.sopcom.pt/index.php/comunicando/announcement/view/15

Revista Comunicando

Deadline: permanently open

invites you to submit papers in the different areas of Communication Sciences. The call for papers is permanently open for articles, interviews, reviews, and experience reports.

https://revistacomunicando.sopcom.pt/index.php/comunicando/announcement

Media and Communication

Deadline: September 15, 2024

Editors: Silke Fürst (University of Zurich), Florian Muhle (Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen), and Colin Porlezza (Università della Svizzera italiana)

• Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2024
  
• Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2025
  
• Publication of the Issue: July/September 2025
  

Information:

Digitalization has not only changed the ways journalism is produced, disseminated, used, and financed, but it has also challenged the central position of journalism in the public sphere, making it one communicative form competing for attention and authority among others (Carlson et al., 2021). We now live in a complex media ecosystem where human and algorithmic actors, legacy and alternative media, as well as newer and older media observe, compete, influence, and interact with each other (Fürst & Oehmer, 2021; Reese, 2022). This leads to blurred boundaries, raising questions about the societal function, relevance, and value of journalism, how users discern and experience journalism and its actors, and how journalists distinguish themselves, their practices, and their products from non-journalistic modes of content production (Edgerly & Vraga, 2020; Splendore & Iannelli, 2022).

In his seminal book The Hybrid Media System, Chadwick (2017) moved scholars to understand the changing logics of attention and news production, as well as shifting power dynamics within the public sphere, through the lens of a networked media environment (Russell, 2020). This thematic issue takes up this invitation and aims to bring together theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contributions which reflect on the role of journalism in hybrid media systems. Single-country studies and comparative research using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches are all welcome. Given the prevailing “presentism” (Hallin et al., 2023) in research on hybrid media systems, we also particularly welcome historical and long-term analyses.

Lines of inquiry can include, but are not limited to:

• Key features and patterns of hybrid media systems and their implications for the role, function, societal importance, and funding of journalism;
  
• Changes in the diffusion of power, journalist-source relationships, and news quality;
  
• Interactions, competition, and attention dynamics between legacy news media and online platforms;
  
• The role of algorithms, (social) bots, and usage data in cross-platform dynamics and news practices;
  
• Changing journalistic norms, role conceptions, and practices, as well as changing actor constellations in hybrid media systems;
  
• International comparisons, historical studies, and long-term analyses of journalism in hybrid media systems;
  
• Trust in news and audience perceptions of journalism in the hybrid media system;
  
• Methodological challenges and approaches to studying journalism in the hybrid media system.
  

Further information: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/nextissues#Journalism

University of Zurich

Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich (IKMZ, Prof. Dr. Nadine Strauss).

Applications deadline: 8 July.

Further information is available here.

MDPI (special issue)

Deadline: November 30, 2024

Dear colleagues,

The MDPI journal Information is inviting submissions for a Special Issue on “Beyond detection: disinformation and the amplification of toxic content in the age of social media”.

The increasing rise of disinformation and the amplification of toxic content (hate speech, polarization, harassment…) on social media initially created a momentum for fighting such information disorders, with fact-checkers and debunkers in the frontline. Increasingly a shift is occurring, intent on re-inventing digital spaces immune to toxic content, with developers of alternative tools and structures (using blockchain, OSINT, etc.). The role of social media has also undergone a lot of scrutiny, renewing the interest in social media analysis beyond Social Network Analysis (SNA), to include innovative methodologies to trace and monitor amplification phenomena, including via alternative social media. Such methods and tools point to solutions aimed at fostering sound digital spaces, safe from information disorders and opinion manipulation, intent on avoiding the amplification of toxic contents.

This Special Issue aims to provide presentations of the latest advances concerning social media analysis in the context of disinformation detection, platform design and mitigation of toxic content amplification. Articles using theoretical perspectives on the properties required for a digital environment to maintain sound information spaces are welcome, as are innovative perspectives suggesting means to dis-amplify toxic content. A special attention will be paid to critical analyses that consider the dysfunctional organisations of early social media platforms and open vistas on the design and implementation of information-sound spaces, their structures and the actors that promote them.

Topics of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Social media and opinion mining
  
• Opinion dynamics
  
• Fake news amplification, detection and fact-checking solutions
  
• Innovative tools and techniques for detecting online disinformation
  
• Design of sound information systems and how they are proffered to users
  
• Embedded algorithmic bias and toxic content
  
• Shaping/reshaping sound information spaces
  
• Impacts of recommender systems (including AI systems) on digital spaces and social groups
  
• alternative social media infrastructure design
  

Divina Frau-Meigs and David Chavalarias. Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click to go to the submission form https://www.mdpi.com/journal/information/special_issues/OB69Y2A7X1

Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Information encourages authors to submit comprehensive “Articles” and “Reviews”. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Information is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI’s English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

• social media analysis
  
• disinformation
  
• fake news
  
• amplification
  
• fact-checking 
• toxic content
• dis-amplification
  
• detection tools and strategies
  

October 16-18, 2024

Berlin, Germany

Deadline: July 7, 2024

Global conflicts and challenges to international security are among the most pressing issues of our time. Artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping the ways in which warfare is conducted, adding both complications and urgency to the issues caused by the current major geopolitical shifts. AI is one of the driving factors of technological change in warfare in general, with its major effects mainly related to new degrees of complexity in automation and new forms of human-machine interaction. On the one hand, this change introduces new capabilities in weapons systems, in particular in the fields of processing information, generating knowledge and the automation of decision-making. Most prominently, this results in a decreasing level of human intervention and control, thereby reshaping the relationship between human operators and autonomous weapons systems. On the other hand, AI-related developments do not only concern the kinetic dimension of warfare but also expand into what military theory calls the ‘information domain’. Shaping and controlling narratives has been an integral part of conflicts and warfare for a long time, with disinformation and propaganda campaigns utilising the most recent (media) technologies for this purpose. The functionality of AI applications will increasingly be integrated in these efforts, as can already be observed with the dissemination of manipulated content on social media. AI-based technologies are also deployed in cyber warfare, which is not limited to the singular hacking of a system, but rather targeted to directly affect whole digital military infrastructures or civilian entities in politics, the economy or research.

The objective of the conference is to explore these domains of modern warfare in order to develop a more accurate picture of the various effects of AI in military contexts. Another goal is to broaden the perspective of the military deployment of AI beyond questions of weapon systems and their control, by particularly looking at adversarial uses of AI in hybrid forms of warfare in the information domain. The conference particularly aims to develop and establish a dialogue between the research on these two domains that are often explored separately. 

Against this background and in this spirit, we invite contributions along the following lines of inquiry:

(1) AI in military technologies and the relationship between humans and machines

The developments of machine learning and automated decision-making in networked and data-rich environments do not simply change weapons systems but rather have to be modelled as elements in complex systems of humans and machines. Military applications of AI, for example, pose various kinds of problems at the level of human control over these systems which can exert potentially lethal effects. They are also at the core of networked information processing (for example to select targets) and decision-making based on complex forms of synthesising data. Information superiority, situational awareness and electronic warfare are crucial issues for an understanding of the contemporary forms of military applications of AI-based weapons systems.

Talks in this section may address historical or contemporary examples for AI-based information processing in military systems and decision making such as target selection, including various forms of cyber liabilities of military networks and infrastructures (for example communication infrastructure as well as logistics or energy supply). It may also explore current technologies based on concepts of human-machine interaction, with questions on the role of interfaces, including battlefield management systems, or human-machine teaming in the interactions between manned and unmanned systems. Relevant contributions in this section may also analyse how research and development of military technologies are informed by larger cultural narratives of AI-enabled weapons.

(2) AI and the relationship between political processes and information warfare

Automated and autonomous forms of information generation and processing also extend deeply into the media systems of societies, its respective militaries, civil institutions and political systems. Corresponding questions concern various forms of automated manipulation of public opinion, via bots or targeted misinformation (including deep fakes) on social media platforms. This domain particularly addresses the political decision-making processes in an information and media environment that is increasingly influenced by AI technologies. 

Talks in this section may address topics such as the use of AI in efforts to manipulate public opinion or political processes as part of hybrid attacks or warfare in the information domain. Besides the use of generative AI in producing manipulated content, phenomena also include AI-enabled mass surveillance, as well as the targeting, profiling and tracing of individuals in exerting power or with manipulative intentions (particularly evoking emotional responses). Other issues concern the question of how these developments challenge the idea of democratic legitimacy or mechanisms of regulation and accountability (e.g. democratic control of autonomous decision-making in military contexts). 

We welcome contributions from scholars of diverse disciplines such as computer science, cultural studies, political science, international relations & security studies, media and communication studies, military studies, psychology, sociology and science and technology studies. Interdisciplinary approaches as well as perspectives from practitioners and developers are also encouraged.

Submission process

Abstracts of approximately 2,500 characters in length (excl. references) should be submitted no later than 7 July, 2024 to ai-warfare@hiig.de.

Speakers will be notified at the latest by 31 July, 2024.

More information is also available at www.hiig.de/events/ai-warfare/.

Television & New Media (special issue)

Deadline: June 28, 2024

Dear colleagues, 

We would like to draw your attention to a special issue of Television & New Media on streaming production cultures.

Over the past two decades, major tech companies like Netflix and Amazon have become central players in the screen industries. The special issue explores the practices and beliefs of above- and below-the-line workers who create audiovisual content for streamers and/or online platforms. 

Crucially, the special issue aims to broaden a conversation which has primarily been dominated by US-based services (Netflix in particular) and English-language markets. This special issue encourages proposals that also consider other major streaming services, online video platforms, and local/regional streamers. By focusing on a range of geographic contexts, this special issue aims to shed much needed light on the broad spectrum of production experiences in the online screen industries. 

We invite production studies that offer both empirical and methodological findings. Our goal is to provide a kaleidoscope of research on different production cultures in order to significantly advance this critical field of research. No payment from the authors will be required.

Deadline for abstracts: 28 June 2024

Deadline for full papers: 9 December 2024

Expected date of publication: December 2025

Link to submission form and additional details here: https://forms.gle/wawgdqAz3ZhRiZUK6 

If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with the guest editors of this special issue:

Daphne Rena Idiz, University of Amsterdam (d.r.idiz@uva.nl) and Nina Vindum Rasmussen, London School of Economics and Political Science (n.v.rasmussen1@lse.ac.uk)

September 23, 2024

Two Method Workshops are part of the series of pre-conferences organised within 10th European Communication Conference (ECC) in Ljubljana. The aim of these full-day meetings of ECREA members is to discuss various ways how to do research. The workshops consist of three sessions, each is dedicated to one particular method and run by a different speaker. However, we kindly ask you to participate in all three parts.

These workshops are intended for ECREA members. Please register as soon as possible, the number of places is limited. 

REGISTER HERE: https://form.jotform.com/241572783119057

Fee: 25 EUR - covering 2 coffee breaks and a lunch (sandwiches)

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS:

1) Research methods workshop: Methods for studying society-technology relations

• Using vignettes and scenarios in user-centric algorithm studies - Prof. Ranjana Das (University of Surrey)
  
• "When I tried to use ChatGPT in my work": deconstructing affective entanglements in society-technology relations with mind scripting – Dr. Doris Allhutter (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
  
• Making monsters as methods for studying data work – Prof. Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt  (Malmö University)

https://ecrea.eu/event-5736311

2) Methods for studying platforms, apps and online content

• Appscapes method – Dr. Signe Sophus Lai and Dr. Sofie Flensburg (University of Copenhagen)
  
• The walkthrough method for visual platforms – Dr. Daniela Jaramillo Dent  (University of Zurich)
  
• Developing quanti-quali approaches to study social media visual content – Dr. Stefania Vicari  (University of Sheffield)
  

https://ecrea.eu/event-5736309