ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 1-2, 2026

Cardiff University in Cardiff, UK

Deadline: December 31, 2025

Host: Data Justice Lab

Although contested and multifaceted, the field of data justice continues to engage critical debates on the societal implications of datafication in all its iterations, from social media to platform capitalism to the current hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI). Much of this focus has been on the potential harm of such technologies on different communities and on the societal shifts associated with their uses by a diverse range of actors. Less focus, perhaps, has been on the way the advent of data-driven technologies has intermingled with and transformed the state. From high-stake uses, such as those revealed in the Snowden leaks, to crisis management as evidenced during the Covid-19 pandemic, to the mundane and everyday delivery of public services, platforms and AI systems are now deeply embedded within roles and functions associated with the state. At the same time, the state has been instrumental in the advancement of datafication and the role that technology, and its providers, now play in society. At a time when governments and technology companies are seen to be closer than ever, examining their relationship and its consequences seems pivotal for our understanding of data justice. 

This two-day conference will therefore explore the role and transformations of the state in an age of datafication and what this means for social justice and resistance. It will examine the interrelations between data-driven technologies and government, the changing role of corporations, emerging popular responses, and efforts to democratise datafication. Hosted by the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC) in the UK, it will bring together international scholars, practitioners and community groups to discuss the nature and implications of the datafied state.

Keynote Speakers include:

• Oriana Bernasconi, UC Chile, Chile
  
• Sarah Myers West, AI Now, US
  
• Nick Srnicek, King’s College London, UK

Submission of abstracts of max 500 words to DataJusticeLab@cardiff.ac.uk

Deadline for submissions of abstracts: 31st of December, 2025

Conference registration fees:

• Regular: £175  (£150 early bird)
  
• Students: £125 (£100 early bird)
  

Conference registration deadlines:

• 6th of March 2026 – early bird
  
• 17th of April 2026 – final deadline

Conference attendance:

Data Justice 2026 will be an in-person conference. After previous Data Justice conferences were held in-person (2018), online (2021), and hybrid (2023), the next conference should allow participants to come together physically to discuss their work. We have tried to keep registration fees as low as possible in order to enable attendance for as many of you as possible. This will unfortunately not allow for meaningful hybrid participation, but we will try to provide online streams or recordings of keynotes and major events.

University of Copenhagen

The Department of Communication, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen is inviting applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in empirical communication research starting on June 1, 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter.

The Department is seeking a new colleague with strong qualifications in quantitative communication research as demonstrated through the application in research projects and teaching activities. In addition, competencies in qualitative and mixed-methods studies of communication are an advantage. It is a further advantage, if the candidate has experience from collaborations with organizations outside the university in research and/or teaching.

The deadline for applications is 23:59 [CET] on 26 January 2026.Read more

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September 23-25, 2026

Vienna, Austria

Deadline: February 27, 2026

The conference “Comparison as Method and Heuristic in Communication Research” takes place against the backdrop of rapid technological, media, and societal change. It focuses on innovations, trends, challenges, and solutions in comparative research within the field of media and communication studies.

Back in November 2006, the former Commission for Comparative Media and Communication Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Department of Communication at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, organized a workshop on this topic (Melischek et al., 2008). That workshop examined the state of comparative media and communication research in Germanspeaking countries, addressing core questions: What is comparative communication research? What are its objects of study? And what is the scientific value of comparison? At the heart of the discussion was comparison as a method and methodological principle.

The workshop was held at a time when comparative approaches in media and communication studies were not yet systematically established. However, they had been gaining increasing relevance since the 1990s (Livingstone, 2003; Pfetsch & Esser, 2004) and have since matured into a more consolidated area of inquiry (Esser & Hanitzsch, 2012; Esser, 2016; Chan & Lee, 2017; Holtz-Bacha, 2021; Volk, 2021).

Today, the Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies (CMC) brings together key perspectives on public discourse, media change, and transformations in mediated public communication through its Research Groups on Media Accountability & Media Change, Media, Politics & Democracy, and Science Communication & Science Journalism. These Research Groups focus on questions of ethics and responsibility, democracy and participation, as well as truth and factuality—unified by a common methodological foundation: the comparative approach (see also: Melischek & Seethaler, 2017).

This conference revisits the comparative paradigm with fresh urgency. It addresses the pressing need to reflect on methodological innovation, technological transformation, and shifting global contexts from an international perspective. By bringing together scholars working across global regions, the event aims to critically assess the role of comparison as both method and heuristic in contemporary communication research—and to chart pathways for its future development.

Call for Papers (Themes)

1. Innovations, New Developments, and Approaches in Comparative Communication Research

We welcome submissions that explore methodological developments, discuss the use of new digital and technological tools, examine the challenges and potentials of comparative approaches, or present innovative proposals for advancing comparative methodology.

Questions might include:

• How can emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, or natural language processing enhance comparative research designs in communication studies?
  
• In what ways do automated content analysis and large-scale digital datasets (e.g., news archives, digital platforms) reshape the scope and scale of comparative research?
  
• How can comparative methods be adapted to address new forms of digital and hybrid media, such as influencer communication, platform governance, or algorithmic curation?
  
• How can mixed-method approaches strengthen comparative communication research?
  
• How can we ensure that long-term panel designs evolve methodologically in response to technological developments without compromising their scientific rigor and comparability?
  
• What are best practices for ensuring transparency, replicability, and ethical integrity in technologically mediated comparative studies?
  

2. Methodological Reflection and Critique

Comparative methods offer many advantages: they are context-sensitive, contribute to theory-building, help identify causal relationships, and have high heuristic value. Nevertheless, this conference also invites critical perspectives. What are the blind spots, limitations, and epistemological or methodological challenges associated with comparative methods? How can we overcome these issues?

Questions might include:

• What are the methodological implications of using computational tools for comparability—do they introduce new biases or overcome traditional limitations?
  
• How can we make comparative research more participatory, inclusive, or decolonial—both in design and in interpretation?
  
• How can comparative research contribute to the de-Westernization of communication studies?
  
• How should comparative research reflect upon the concept of national states?
  
• How relevant is historic comparison to understand current developments? What are the obstacles and potentials we have to consider?
  
• How do comparative approaches manage the demand for replicability, the tension between internal and external validity, or generalizability?
  

3. After Comparison: Making Use of Comparative Results

Comparative methods help identify patterns, uncover similarities and differences, and advance theory. They contribute to a deeper understanding of complex social phenomena. This section asks how comparative findings can be used productively—both within academia and in broader societal contexts.

Questions might include:

• How can comparative results be theoretically integrated or related back to existing frameworks?
  
• What generalization strategies (e.g., typologies, model building) are especially fruitful in comparative research?
  
• How can comparative insights be made productive across interdisciplinary contexts?
  
• In what ways can comparative findings inform methodological innovation or open new research perspectives?
  
• What is the value of comparative results for policy-makers and other stakeholders—and how can we rethink discursive science-to-policy or science-to-public processes?
  

Submission Guidelines

We welcome regular and student-led submissions. The conference language is English. All submissions must contain a separate cover page and an extended abstract. The cover page should provide the title of the submission, author information, 3–5 keywords and, if applicable, a note identifying the submission as a student-led paper. Extended abstracts must be fully anonymized for peer review. They should be 800–1.000 words long (excluding references, tables, and figures).

Please send your submissions containing separate PDF files for cover page and anonymized extended abstract to cmc@oeaw.ac.at.

The deadline for submissions is February 27, 2026. Submissions will undergo peer review, and acceptance notifications will be sent out no later than March 30, 2026.

Date

The conference will open with a keynote and panel discussion on the evening of September 23, 2026.

Authors of accepted extended abstracts will present their papers in person in Vienna on September 24 and 25, 2026. The conference will conclude around noon on September 25, 2026.

Organizers

Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies (CMC)

Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt

Bäckerstraße 13

1010 Vienna, AUSTRIA

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/cmc

Contact

cmc@oeaw.ac.at

Conference Venue

The conference will be held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), located in the heart of Vienna at Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, AUSTRIA.

Conference Registration

Registration will be open from March 30, 2026. Conference attendance is free.

Publication

The organizing team aims to publish selected contributions and results of the conference in an academic context.

References

Chan, J. M., & Lee, F. L. F. (Eds.). (2017). Advancing comparative media and communication research. Routledge.

Esser, F. (2016). Komparative Kommunikationswissenschaft: Ein Feld formiert sich [Comparative communication science: A field takes shape]. Studies in Communication Sciences, 16(1), 54-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scoms.2016.03.005

Esser, F., & Hanitzsch, T. (Eds.). (2012). The Handbook of Comparative Communication Research. Routledge.

Holtz-Bacha, C. (2021). Comparative media research. European Journal of Communication, 36(5), 446-449. https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231211043179

Livingstone, S. (2003). On the challenges of cross-national comparative media research. European Journal of Communication, 18(4), 477-500. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323103184003

Melischek, G., Seethaler, J., & Wilke, J. (Eds.). (2008). Medien & Kommunikationsforschung im Vergleich: Grundlagen, Gegenstandsbereiche, Verfahrensweisen [Media and communication research in comparison: Foundations, areas of study, methods]. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Melischek, G., & Seethaler, J. (2017). Die Institutionalisierung der Kommunikationswissenschaft an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften: Geschichte und Aufgabenbereiche des Instituts für vergleichende Medien- und Kommunikationsforschung [The institutionalization of communication science at the Austrian Academy of Sciences: History and areas of responsibility of the Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies]. Geistes-, sozial- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Anzeiger, 152(1), 65-98. https://doi.org/10.1553/anzeiger152-1s65

Pfetsch, B., & Esser, F. (Eds.). (2004). Comparing political communication: Theories, cases, and challenges. Cambridge University Press.

Volk, S. C. (2021). Comparative communication research: A study of the conceptual, methodological, and social challenges of international collaborative studies in communication science. Springer VS.

By/For: Photography & Democracy is a collaborative partnership between three photographic historians, Dr. Tom Allbeson, Dr. Colleen O’Reilly, and Helen Trompeteler.

We are delighted to announce that our second season of programs will begin in February 2026. Please join leading thinkers Anne Cross & Matt Fox-Amato, Vindhya Buthpitiya, Leigh Raiford, Jeehey Kim, Zahid R. Chaudhary, and Tiffany Fairey for a year of thought-provoking conversations on photography and democracy. Explore season two and register for all events.

We’d also like to announce that at the end of our inaugural 2024/2025 season, we convened a reflective roundtable conversation with Shawn Michelle Smith, Brenna Wynn Greer, Thy Phu, Darren Newbury, Ileana L. Selejan, and Patricia Hayes. Together, they examined the stakes of photography in our contemporary moment and explored its complex entanglements with power structures and systemic injustice. Read the transcript of the conversation.

May 27-28, 2026

Virtual

Deadline: January 20, 2026

Scholars and practitioners at all career levels are invited to join the inaugural virtual summer intensive on Theorizing Communication in, of, and from the Balkans, May 27-28, 2026. The summer intensive will offer opportunities to learn about borderlands and culture-centered theorizing and envision future research and applied collaborations. We hope to foster a multinational, interdisciplinary, and intercultural scholarly community around shared interests in questions of communication in the region. We welcome scholars and practitioners of any academic background who are actively engaged in analyzing, creating, and/or theorizing from and with Balkan (Southeastern European) perspectives and experiences. See the attached document (opens in a new window) for more information and application instructions (deadline to apply is January 20, 2026) or contact Dr. Lily Herakova (liliana.herakova@maine.edu) if you have questions. 

Link to full call: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14u8ypZVlUHszXwWnwROWQaLVi5e3FmMD/view?usp=sharing 

Media and Communication (special issue)

Deadline: September 15, 2026

We are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for a forthcoming Special Issue of the open-access journal Media and Communication, titled “Revisiting the Nexus of Science, Politics, Media, and Publics Amid Digital and Societal Transformations.”

This Special Issue invites contributions that explore how digitalization, political dynamics, and societal change reshape the relationships between science, politics, media, and diverse publics.

The guest editors are Silke Fürst (University of Zurich, Switzerland), Lars Guenther (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany), and Lili Rademan (Stellenbosch University, South Africa). Researchers from all disciplines are encouraged to submit abstracts. 

The abstract submission deadline is 15 September 2026. The full details of the call can be found here: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/futureissues#i572

We look forward to receiving your contributions!

May 21-26, 2026

TU Braunschweig, Germany

Deadline: December 17, 2025 (papers), January 9, 2026 (Workshops & Tutorials), EXTENDED, February 18, 2026 (posters, PhD symposium)

Dear Research Community,

Just a quick reminder that Wednesday, Dec. 17, is the final deadline for paper submissions! More details about submission format and topics can be found here: Call for Papers

The deadline for Workshops & Tutorials submission has been extended to January 9, 2026!!!

Call for Posters - Submission deadline: February 18, 2026

Call for PhD Symposium - Submission deadline: February 18, 2026

About the ACM Web Science Conference

Web Science is the study of the most complex artifact, entangling technology, humans, and information ever created. Today, the World Wide Web has evolved into billions of technical and human components operating globally, with each piece subtly influencing the others. To gain a deep understanding of the complex and multifaceted impacts the Web has on the daily lives of individuals, organizations, and society as a whole, a strong interdisciplinary approach is essential.

Establishing a prime venue for Web Science as a dedicated research focus, the Web Science Conference has been held annually since 2009 and has been an ACM conference since 2011. The series has produced over 800 publications, which have been downloaded more than 400,000 times. The Web Science Conference series is sponsored by the Web Science Trust (WST), the ACM Special Interest Group on Hypertext and the Web (SIGWEB), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The theme for 2026 is Managing Risks in the Era of Generative AI - How 20 Years of Web Science Research Can Help.

Web Science 2026 invites interdisciplinary research exploring the Web’s societal impacts — from AI and misinformation to inclusion, governance, and online behavior. 

All the best,

Sierra Kaiser, Publicity Chair WebSci’26

Digital Journalism (special issue)

Deadline: April 17, 2026

Special Issue Editors: 

• Jonathan Hendrickx, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  
• Jorge Vázquez Herrero, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  
• Cruz Negreira, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  
• Sherwin Chua, PhD, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
  

This special issue aims to bring together cutting-edge research that contributes to a better understanding of the audiovisual turn in digital journalism. Said turn builds on earlier forms of multimedia journalism and digital longform storytelling, and ties in within the previously acknowledged audience, emotional and labour turns in journalism.

We invite scholars to submit empirical and theoretical contributions that critically engage with the notion of the audiovisual turn, including how it has been effectuated and can evolve over time. In addition to diverse quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods study designs, we particularly encourage submissions from the Global South, as well as cross-national comparisons that reflect platform-specific and regional differences. Focus areas may include, but are not limited to:

•  The de-institutionalisation of audiovisual journalism and news production by considering non-journalistic interloper actors, including influencers and content creators.
• The infrastructural platform dependency, algorithmic ambiguity and/or the ownership of audiovisual journalism in the platformisation era.
• A historical evolution of audiovisual journalism from the formats of traditional media to current platforms, considering both common and differentiating elements in journalistic practice.
• The production, contents and reception of audiovisual-centric digital journalism, e.g. shortform, vertical videos and/or audio across news outlets’ proprietary as well as social media platforms.
• The epistemology and/or ontology of audiovisual journalism.
• The news experience and audience interaction through shortform videos and other audiovisual formats.
• The production and publication of AI-generated audiovisual news or news-like content and its disinformation effects in a context of algorithmic curation and consumption.

Submission instructions:

Extended abstracts of 500-750 words, not including references, as well as a full list of authors, affiliations, and abbreviated bios for each author. 

Please submit your proposal to this Google Form as one file (PDF) with your names clearly stated on the first page: https://lnkd.in/gNxUZJj7

Full manuscripts, if invited, should be between 7,000-9,000 words.

Timeline:

• Extended abstracts submission deadline: 18:00 CET on April 17, 2026
• Notification on submitted abstracts: May 8, 2026
•  Article submission deadline: October 30, 2026

September 2-4, 2026

University of Leicester, UK

Deadline: February 20, 2026

 MeCCSA Annual Conference 

We welcome submissions to the MeCCSA Annual Conference that align with the conference theme and / or any areas covered by MeCCSA, its sections and networks.  This includes submissions of abstracts for scholarly papers, themed panels, posters, film screenings, performances, installations, and other practice-based or artistic research contributions.

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From mainstream to margins: Capturing developing practices, publics and persuasion 

The media have been operating against the backdrop of recent large-scale developments and within unsettled times. But with what consequence? In seeking to capture the moment, the conference will take stock of the present configuration of media developments and showcase our growing understanding of prevalent aspects of continuity and change found within the mainstream and margins of media systems. It seeks to cast light on the changing situation of media institutions, practitioners and practices (deprofessionalisation / precarity of established media workers among them) and the assumed agile creativity and fluidity characterising modern media work. It proposes to explore the evolving ‘publics’ (or audiences) to which the media shape, speak and listen at these times, observing both changing relationships and evidence of substantive responses and challenges. Recognised, likewise, is a need to re-examine our understandings of media persuasion, including the newfound forms these are assuming, from public messaging to disinformation and propaganda, and related concerns of cohesion, power and control.  All of which, this suggests, must be situated in context of increasingly interconnected ‘hybrid’ media systems which as entities are evolving amid prevalent forms of both global and domestic politics, economics and policy at this time.  

This conference invites research insights from the full range of the specialisms of MeCCSA colleagues.  

Themes for this conference include - but these will not be limited to:   

• Media pasts, presents and futures
  
• Media developments within, and outside, the nation 
  
• Technologies and evolving cultural practices/content
  
• Cultural work, professional cultures and (the value of) human ‘creativity’ 
  
• Media presence and evolution in the mainstream and margins
  
• Publics / audiences and everyday interactions
  
• Representations and issues, crises and conflicts 
  
• Media hybridity and the interconnectedness of media forms and flows
  
• Cultural policy, regulation and change
  
• Mediated interactions between institutions, groups and individuals
  

Submission 

Individual Papers: Please submit abstracts for individual papers (max 250 words) with presentation title, up to 5 key words, your name, affiliation, and email address 

Practice-as-research: We actively support the presentation of practice-as-research and have a flexible approach to practice-based papers and presentations. This includes opportunities to present papers, screenings, etc, in the same session or as part of a separate strand. 

Panels:  Panel proposals should include a short description and rationale (200 words) together with abstracts for each of the 3-4 papers comprising the panel (150-200 words each including details of the contributor/s), and the name and contact details of the panel proposer with up to 5 key words. The panel proposer should integrate the separate abstracts to comprise a single proposal 

We particularly welcome submissions from early career and postgraduate researchers. 

Use the following link for all submissions: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=meccsa2026 

For any queries, please contact the chair of the organising committee: Julian Matthews  (jpm29@leicester.ac.uk),  cc’ing the conference comms team (meccsa2026@leicester.ac.uk)

Edited by: Aynur Sarısakaloğlu and Martin Löffelholz | Technische Universität Ilmenau

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape the media landscape, The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Journalism provides the first comprehensive academic exploration of the intersection between AI technologies and journalism. Edited by Aynur Sarısakaloğlu and Martin Löffelholz, this foundational volume brings together 37 leading scholars from six continents to examine how AI is redefining the structures, practices, and epistemologies of journalism.

Organized around key thematic areas, the Handbook investigates the driving forces propelling the algorithmic transformation and unveils emerging trends in journalistic practice and journalism research, moving beyond Western-centric perspectives to incorporate diverse global experiences and knowledge production. 28 original chapters address systemic shifts such as evolving structures of media organizations, changing roles of actors, transformations in news production routines, and shifting patterns of news consumption. By integrating theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented perspectives, the Handbook sets the stage for a new research agenda that deepens and expands the understanding of the sociotechnical developments transforming AI-driven journalism in a global context.

The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Journalism is ideal for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students in journalism, communication, and media studies programs. It also serves as a vital reference for researchers, educators, media professionals, and policy advisors engaged in digital journalism, journalism research, media innovation, and public communication.

More details about the Handbook here: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394250424

Contact:

PD Dr. phil. habil. Aynur Sarısakaloğlu (aynur.sarisakaloglu@tu-ilmenau.de)

Prof. Dr. Martin Löffelholz (martin.löffelholz@tu-ilmenau.de)