ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Comunicação e Sociedade, Estudos em Comunicação, Media & Jornalismo,  Observatorio (Special issue)

Deadline: September 30, 2026

Four Portuguese free-to-read and free-to-publish journals in the field of Communication Studies (published by public universities) – Comunicação e Sociedade, Estudos em Comunicação, Media & Jornalismo, and Observatorio (OBS*) – have decided to jointly launch a special issue with the aim of fostering reflection on the policies and logics of sharing scientific knowledge.

With the aim of charting a counter-trend path (and within an unprecedented collaborative initiative), we seek submissions that interrogate the material and institutional conditions of conducting research in Communication Studies, including the role of digital platforms in the circulation of knowledge, the limits and potential of open access, and the tensions between quantitative evaluation and the substantive quality of reflection and critical thought.

Suggested Topics

• Marketization of science and academic capitalism;
  
• Academic freedom and university autonomy;
  
• Forms of cultural and organizational resistance;
  
• The nature and reconfiguration of scientific reputation;
  
• Science and language policies;
  
• Academic and scientific rankings;
  
• Oligopolies and scientific publishing;
  
• Metrics, quantification, and impact;
  
• Open access policies and repositories;
  
• The impact of AI on scientific writing and review;
  
• Invisibility, bias, and inequality in scientific citations;
  
• Big Tech, platformization, and publishing ecosystems;
  
• Algorithmic regimes of visibility and classification;
  
• Research independence and innovation agendas;
  
• Research assessment, DORA, and alternatives.
  

Full manuscripts may be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.

Submission Period: April 20 to September 30, 2026.

Publication Period: 1st Semester of 2027.

More information here:

https://obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/announcement/view/3 

https://impactum-journals.uc.pt/mj/announcement/view/352 

https://revistacomsoc.pt/.../revist.../announcement/view/128 

https://ojs.labcom-ifp.ubi.pt/ec/announcement/view/99 

Ariadna Moreno Pellejero

The book analyses the cinematographic oeuvre of the Belgian director Chantal Akerman, seeking to address a fundamental question: in what way does Akerman’s cinema reach the spectator’s body, activating something that did not exist prior to the encounter with the image? Situated at the intersection of aesthetics, film studies, and contemporary feminist film theory, the book proposes an engagement with the ritual dimension of cinema and intimacy, capable of connecting with the audience’s bodily experience. Furthermore, the essay establishes a correspondence between Akerman’s work and that of other filmmakers operating within the personal realm, where experimental, documentary, and fictional modes hybridise.

Please find attached links with further information and a preview of the text: https://puz.unizar.es/3207-de-la-forma-ritual-a-la-experiencia-corporal-el-cine-de-chantal-akerman.html

The Spring 2026 list of books available to review in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television has been updated on the IAMHIST website: https://iamhist.net/journal/#books-review

Should you be interested in reviewing a particular title, please contact the book review editor at Veronica.Johnson@outlook.ie giving details about your own research and why you are interested in reviewing the book you have chosen.

August 18-21, 2026

Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil

Deadline: April 30, 2026

ALAIC Holds its 12th Summer School

Continuing a long-standing partnership, the organization counts on the participation of ECREA researchers in the activities.

From August 18th to 21st, the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (https://www2.ufjf.br/international/), Brazil, will host the 12th edition of the Summer School promoted by the Latin American Association of Communication Researchers (ALAIC).

The activities bring together undergraduate and graduate students in communication who can participate in person or online. The working languages are Portuguese and Spanish. In the coming weeks, a Call for Papers will be published with more information at www.alaic.org.

Continuing the long-standing relationship since the first edition of the ALAIC Summer School, the Latin American organization counts on the participation of at least one representative from ECREA in the program. The name of this researcher will be selected by the ECREA Governing Body. 

If you are interested, please send us an email at info@ecrea.eu by April 30, 2026.

In addition, ALAIC offers 500 euros to support the participation of ECREA postgraduate students who are selected. 

ECREA also supports the 1st World Summer School (WSS), scheduled to take place virtually from October 21st to 24th, resulting from a partnership between scientific associations and universities. The selection of postgraduate students will take place in May.

University of Fribourg, Switzerland 

We are seeking to fill a senior teaching and research assistant position (“maître-assistant”) in Communication and Media Research (teaching in French).

Workload: 40–50% (with the possibility of additional teaching responsibilities)

Location: Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Application deadlinee: April 30, 2026

Start date: September 1, 2026, or to be agreed upon

More information and applications: https://jobs.fr.ch/job/Fribourg2C-CH-MaC3AEtre-assistant-e-en-Sciences-de-la-communication-&-des-mC3A9dias-Sari/1356507857/

Academic Quarter | Akademisk kvarter

Deadline: April 15, 2026

Guest Editors

• Jens F. Jensen, Aalborg University
  
• Kenneth Holm Cortsen, University College Northern Denmark
  

Esports has rapidly evolved from a niche pastime into a global phenomenon that intersects with multiple dimensions of contemporary life. As a form of competitive gaming, it embodies elite performance, strategy, and digital dexterity. As an industry, it drives innovation, sponsorship, and media engagement, constituting a dynamic sector with substantial economic impact. As part of the experience economy, esports further offers immersive entertainment and community-driven events that redefine audience participation and co-creation.

Beyond its commercial and competitive aspects, esports is increasingly recognized as a powerful medium for learning, fostering competencies such as collaboration, problem-solving, and digital literacy. It also constitutes a vibrant cultural field, shaping identities, narratives, and social practices within digital leisure. Participation in esports—whether as players, spectators, content creators, or organizers—reflects broader transformations in how individuals engage with technology, play, and social interaction.

The approaches to esports as both an empirical field and an analytical object are highly diverse. T.L. Taylor’s work examines the cultural practices of esports and the aspirations associated with professional gamer identity (Taylor 2012). Svensson and Pargman analyse the sportification of esports, exploring how esports legitimizes itself as a sport (Svensson & Pargman 2024). Andy Miah investigates the olympification of esports, addressing whether and how esports may become an Olympic discipline. While these studies are interested in the practices and the potentials of esports, scholars such as Brett Hutchins link the emergence of esport to the sociocultural conditions of second, or reflexive, modernity (Hutchins 2008).

Lately Lu Zhouziang has documented “A History of Competitive Gaming” (2022) presenting an overall historical approach to esports. Further Anne Tjønnedal has edited “Social Issues in Esports” (2023) as a comprehensive research publication identifying important issues such as gender, mental health and integrity, diversity and inclusion.

Even though these approaches do not share the same theoretical or methodological framework, it is possible to understand esport both as a particular circuit of culture and as part of a broader circuit of culture (du Gay, 1996). This approach facilitates the analysis of how esports are represented, what identities are negotiated, what modes of consumption and production are currently dominant or marginal, and what regulatory frameworks are established and which regulations need to be formulated, realized, and policed.

This call invites interdisciplinary contributions that examine esports through lenses including, but not limited to, media studies, education, business, cultural studies, sociology, and game studies. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and practice-based papers that explore esports as a site of innovation, interaction, and influence in the digital age. This volume intends to explore issues such as:

• How can the esports gaming experience be conceptualized and described?

• What is the significance of multimodal representation in shaping the esports experience?

• How does gender influence the cultural practices of esports?

• What are the elements in esports that contribute to toxicity and exclusion?

• What role can esports play in teaching and learning?

• What role does esports play in the continuity/discontinuity of the history of sport in general?

• What are the challenges of future esports practices in relation to game design, organization, economic structures, and regulation?

• What are the constituent elements of esports ecosystems?
  

• How does match-fixing challenge esports?

• What key issues related to health and training are relevant to current as well as future esports practices and research studies?

• How are cross-media interactions and convergent media prac- tices relevant to the study of esports?

References

Crawford, Garry, Victoria K. Gosling & Ben Light. 2011. Online Gaming in Context. The social and cultural significance of online games. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

du Gay, Paul. 1996. Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman. London: Sage.

Hofmann, Annette R. & Pascal Mamudou Camara. 2024. Critical Perspectives on Esports. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003383178

Hutchins, Brett. 2008. Signs of meta-change in second modernity: the growth of e-sport and the World Cyber Games· New Media & Society Vol. 10 (6), p. 851-869. Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444808096248

Miah, Andy. 2017. Sport 2.0. Transforming Sports for a Digital World. Cambridge: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/7441.001.0001

Rogers, Ryan ed. 2019. Understanding Esports. An Introduction to the Global Phenomenon. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Lexington Books. https://doi.org/10.5771/9781498589819

Svensson, Daniel & Daniel Pargman (2024). Esports and Sportification. A View From Sweden. Hoffmann & Camara, eds.: Critical Perspectives on Esports. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003383178-6

Taylor,T.L. 2012. Raising the Stakes. E-sports and the professionalization of computer gaming. London: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8624.001.0001

Tjønndal, Anne, ed. (2023). Social Issues in Esports. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003258650

Zhouxiang, Lu (2022). A History of Competitive Gaming. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003095859

Practical information

• Abstracts: 150 words
  
• Full article: 3,000-3,500 words
  
• Video essays: Max 7-12 minutes, accompanied by an academic text (1,000-1,500 words) that explicitly reflects on the scholarly/academic contribution. Videos must be original.
  

Abstracts and articles should be submitted to Annemette Helligsø (anhe@ikk.aau.dk). Detailed author guidelines and further information are available on the journal’s website: https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/ak

Video Essays

You are welcome to take the opportunity to produce a video essay following these guidelines:

Video essays must be a maximum of 7–12 minutes long and accompanied by an academic guiding text of between 1,000–1,500 words that clearly reflects on the publication’s scientific/academic contribution. Video essays must be original works of publishable quality within a strict scientific context and can take argumentative, expository, explanatory, documentary, performative, essayistic, poetic, symbolic (metaphoric), or artistic forms—or a combination of these. The guiding text must clearly explain the argument in the video essay and/or the insight the viewer can gain by watching and listening to it. This guiding text must follow the instructions in the article stylesheet.

Note: The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires audiovisual media broadcasters to incorporate features such as closed captions and audio descriptions to make content accessible to people with hearing or visual impairments. Contributors to video essays are therefore obligated to include closed captions in all video essay submissions to meet these access requirements.

Video essays must be final and submitted as a separate mp4 video file. Academic Quarter supports only the publication and not the technical development of video essays, but contributors are welcome to discuss video essays in progress with the editors.

Video essays and the guiding text are reviewed together. The criteria for reviewing submissions are:

a The clarity of the argument (cogency).

b The technical and stylistic execution of the video material.

c The clarity of the guiding text.

Deadlines

• Submission/review of abstracts: April 15, 2026
  
• Response to authors on abstracts: May 1, 2026
  
• Submission of articles/videos for peer review: July 17, 2026
  
• Peer review returned to authors: September 15 2026
  
• Resubmission of articles/videos after peer review: October 20, 2026
  
• Layout/copy-editing: November 21, 2026
  
• Publication: December 15, 2026
  

Journal of Environmental Media (Special Issue)

Deadline: June 21, 2026

Guest Editors: Luciano Frizzera, Mónica Humeres, and Fenwick McKelvey.

Big AI’s demands for this world are becoming clearer. In 2023, Microsoft announced plans to build new data centers powered by nuclear energy to fuel energy-hungry models (Calma, 2023). Google and Amazon made similar announcements subsequently (da Silva, 2024; Olick, 2024). Plans to build nuclear-powered AI data centers clearly illustrate the scale and consequences of AI as a social blueprint – rendering clear “the choices (implicit or explicit) made in the course of technological innovation” and demanding reflection on “the grounds for making those choices wisely” (Winner, 1986, p. 18). This special issue invites interventions against the growing cyberphysical project of “Big AI” (van der Vlist et al., 2024) or “AI as platform” (Mahnke & Bagger, 2024).

This special issue questions the imbrication of AI and digital sovereignty at work in new articulations of technological nationalism (Charland, 1986; Couture & Toupin, 2019; Grohmann & Costa Barbosa, 2025; Medina, 2011). Theories of the digital sublime and charismatic technologies have long been used to legitimate technologies as social blueprints (Ames, 2019; Carey & Quirk, 1970; Mosco, 2004), but AI arrives at a moment of critical duress for social epistemologies usually found in journalism seem incapable or unable to counter the sociotechnical futures produced by big AI (Bareis & Katzenbach, 2021; Dandurand et al., 2023; Liebig et al., 2024; Valderrama Barragán et al., 2025). We encourage contributions that unite fragmented scholarship as a counterpoint to Big Tech’s global, competitive cyberphysical project (Lai et al., 2026; Salamanca, 2025).

AI’s social blueprint has a ghastly environmental toll that threatens environmental justice (Hogan, 2015; Pasek et al., 2023; Velkova, 2016). We welcome contributions that share findings and digital methods that expose AI’s global technological footprint with an emphasis on the Americas (South and North). Whereas the AI industry itself seeks to bound AI’s toll as merely another technological problem that becomes another benchmark (Jegham et al., 2025), we seek to push media studies, science and technology studies, and communication studies to develop new accounts of AI’s hold on the world.

We hope to move from nationalistic sovereignties to global solidarities. AI’s social blueprint has not developed unopposed; across the world, social movements have turned to fight the spread of toxic data centers and reimagine AI (Halper, 2026; Murphy, 2025; Pasek, 2023). These movements are important sites to theorize the articulations of new political movements and media activism (Baumann et al., 2025; Dunbar-Hester, 2009; Renzi, 2020). We also welcome engaged and speculative research on alternative AI infrastructures that may include local or regional infrastructure, the fediverse, frugal AI infrastructures, decentralized, and/or distributed infrastructures (Coleman, 2021; Gehl, 2025).

Finally, we welcome discussion of what public interest infrastructure would look like for AI. Public interest AI refers to “support those outcomes best serving the long-term survival and well-being of a social collective construed as a ‘public’” (Public Interest AI, n.d.). The Paris Charter on Artificial Intelligence in the Public Interest (2025), published after the Paris AI Summit, aims to “encourage a more comprehensive and inclusive design of AI in the public interest, in terms of technology, organization and institutions that serve different jurisdictions and communities in attaining similar success.” Public interest AI, however, is already a contentious term and not dissimilar to other terms, such as “AI for Good” or “Responsible AI,” that can act as ethics washing (Bourne, 2024; Wagner, 2018). Scholarly attention is required to define public interest AI as a critical concept advancing social and environmental justice.

Key Dates

• 13 April 2026 – Call for Papers
  
• 21 June 2026 – Deadline for abstracts submission
  
• 20 July 2026 – Notification of selected Proposals
  
• 18 October 2026 – Full paper submission deadline
  
• Fall 2027 – Special issue publication
  

Submission Details

We aim to produce a diverse and balanced edition that includes researchers from Latin America. We encourage submissions in Spanish and Portuguese, as well as in English, for this special edition.

Please send a 300-words abstract with bibliographic references and a short biographical note to Luciano Frizzera (luciano.frizzera@me.com) by June 21, 2026.

If accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit a full article by October 18, 2026.

Accepted articles must not exceed 6000 words (including bibliography) and must be accompanied by 5 keywords, author name(s) and a 100-word max bio, institutional affiliation(s) and contact details.

Authors guidelines and further information about the journal are available here: intellectbooks.com/journal-of-environmental-media.

Articles will be submitted to double blind peer review. Submission of a paper will be taken to imply that it is unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

The publication of this special issue is scheduled by fall 2027.

No payment required.

For any queries do not hesitate to contact the special issue co-guest editors.

Editors

Luciano Frizzera (luciano.frizzera@me.com) is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Guelph. He has a PhD in Communication Studies from Concordia University and an MA in Digital Humanities from the University of Alberta. His primary research discusses the political economy of subjectivation driven by AI and digital platforms. He is also an experienced UX designer and web developer.

Mónica Humeres (monica.humeres@uchile.cl) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Communication at the University of Chile. She is also an Adjunct Researcher at the Millennium Nucleus for the Future of Artificial Intelligence (FAIR), an interdisciplinary research and creative group focused on the cultural, social, and environmental implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Fenwick McKelvey (fenwick.mckelvey@concordia.ca) is an Associate Professor in Information and Communication Technology Policy in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. He leads Machine Agencies at the Milieux Institute. He has successfully organized a number of conferences and preconferences, including (un)Stable Diffusions: A two-day international symposium on AI’s publics, publicities, and publicizations at Milieux Institute, Tiohtià:ke/Montréal.

Global Media and China

Deadline: May 20, 2026

We are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for a forthcoming special issue titled “AI, Algorithmic Media, and Digital Governance: Power, Control, and Technological Transformation,” to be published in the journal Global Media and China.

The accelerating integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into digital infrastructures represents a profound transformation in contemporary media environments and governance systems. AI-driven platforms, algorithmic recommendation systems, and automated content moderation increasingly shape how information circulates, how public discourse is structured, and how political authority is exercised across different societies. These developments raise important questions about algorithmic governance, digital sovereignty, media regulation, and the broader political implications of AI-mediated communication.

This special issue seeks to advance interdisciplinary scholarship examining the evolving relationships between AI technologies, media systems, and governance practices. We welcome contributions that critically explore how algorithmic systems influence media production, platform governance, public communication, and political power across diverse institutional and geopolitical contexts.

We invite empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions from scholars working in communication and media studies, political science, digital governance, sociology, science and technology studies, and related disciplines. Submissions may focus on specific national or regional contexts, or adopt comparative and transnational perspectives.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Algorithmic governance, digital statecraft, and political authority
  
• AI-driven propaganda, information manipulation, and computational misinformation
  
• State-led AI governance and digital surveillance regimes
  
• Platform politics and the political economy of algorithmic systems
  
• Public perceptions of AI and the politics of digital rights
  
• AI infrastructures, technological sovereignty, and global asymmetries in digital power
  
• Smart cities, Internet of Things systems, and algorithmic governance in public administration
  

Key dates

• Abstract submission deadline: 20 May 2026
  
• Notification of invitations for full papers: 1 June 2026
  
• Full paper submission deadline: 30 October 2026
  

Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words to the guest editors with the subject line “GMAC Special Issue Submission.”

Guest Editors:

• Dechun Zhang, University of Copenhagen (dezh@hum.ku.dk)
  
• Weiai Xu, University of Massachusetts Amherst (weiaixu@umass.edu)
  
• Han Lin, Soochow University (linhan741@gmail.com)
  

Full details of the Call for Papers can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/GCH/Algorithmic%20Media_CFP-1773117974170.pdf

September 17-18, 2026

Aarhus, Denmark

Deadline: April 17, 2026

The abstract submission deadline for the Inaugural Symposium of the Nordic Manosphere Network is fast approaching. We invite prospective contributors to submit their proposals promptly to ensure consideration.

Although research on the manosphere is expanding globally, Anglo-American perspectives remain dominant. Research into the manosphere in the Nordic countries is currently dispersed and somewhat under-researched. The Nordic Manosphere Network aims to change this by creating a collaborative, interdisciplinary space that brings manosphere researchers together to share and create future collaborations. The purpose of the Network is also to reflect on the Nordic specific cultures and societies that situate and influence Nordic manospheres in different ways, e.g. the Nordic welfare states, gender equality, state feminism and other cultural and societal issues that are specific to the region.

We invite submissions engaging with any aspect of the Nordic manosphere, including but not limited to:

• Incel communities
  
• Red-pill narratives
  
• Tradwife discourses
  
• Digital masculinities
  
• Platform dynamics
  
• Manosphere financing and business models
  
• Anti-gender discourse
  
• Overlap with the far-right
  
• Feminist or intersectional approaches to these digital cultures

We especially encourage early-career scholars to contribute. For this, the NMN is able to facilitate limited traveling financial support via application.

Following the symposium, accepted abstracts will be published in a digital booklet, and participants will be invited to join regular online meetings designed to foster collaboration, peer support, and long-term research development. The Network seeks to connect isolated researchers, strengthen Nordic scholarship on gendered digital cultures, and develop regionally grounded frameworks for studying this increasingly influential online phenomenon.

Keynote: Professor Debbie Ging

Debbie Ging is Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities. She teaches and researches on gender, sexuality and digital media, with a focus on digital hate, online anti-feminist men's rights politics, the incel subculture and radicalization of boys and men into male supremacist ideologies. Debbie’s research also addresses youth experiences of gender-based and sexual abuse online and educational interventions to tackle these issues. 

About the Nordic Manosphere Network:

The NMN is a newly established network that aims to bring together individuals researching the Manosphere within a Nordic context, with the goal of facilitating discussions and collaboration across borders and boundaries. Our inaugural symposium will bring together different scholars from the Nordics (and beyond) and unite the different strands of work to better facilitate ongoing work with the Nordic Manosphere.

More information on the call and how to apply here: https://nordicmanospherenetwork.com/

May 5, 2026, 5pm-7.30pm (UK time)

Registration: This event is FREE to attend, but registration is essential. To book your place, please email: a.zsubori@lboro.ac.uk

About the event:

Various digital media platforms in illiberal contexts function as a complex double-edged sword. In Hungary, they often act as additional channels for illiberal attitudes, amplifying state-sponsored negative sentiments. Yet, these same spaces remain vital for the expression of liberal views and resistance. This session explores this tension, focusing on how social media spaces have become sites of both systemic hostility and profound resistance for LGBTQ+ communities in Hungary.

We will be joined by Hungarian guest speakers who will discuss the lived reality of navigating this digital environment. The discussion will cover the online and offline consequences of the regime’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, as well as the state-encouraged harassment. Beyond victimisation, our speakers will highlight the diverse strategies of resistance, exploring how marginalised groups utilise digital media to build counter-narratives, maintain community safety, and challenge the illiberal status quo.

The session features a panel of individuals at the forefront of this struggle, including activists, journalists, and individuals with direct lived experience of digital victimisation. By bringing together those who document these harms and those who experience them, this webinar aims to provide a nuanced understanding of how political communication in an illiberal regime translates into real-world harm, and how resistance persists in the face of structural exclusion.

This webinar will be of interest to academics across communication, digital media, gender and LGBTQ+ studies, human rights, and political science, as well as non-academic audiences interested in the lived realities of LGBTQ+ minorities and their digital experiences.

The event is supported by the British Academy and Loughborough University.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Also, feel free to circulate this invitation!