ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 4, 2026 (8:30)

CTICC | Cape Town International Convention Centre - 1.61

Contact: Prof Sonia Livingstone, s.livingstone@lse.ac.uk

Register HERE (Online registration is available until: 5/4/2026)

Objective: Children and young people are often the earliest to go online, arguably the "canaries in the coal mine" of digital innovation around the world. Early optimism that the internet would enhance the realisation of children's rights is giving way to concern that digital business models are driving problematic societal transformations that undermine children's rights. Simultaneously, the Global South seeks ever greater digital connectivity to overcome barriers of access and inclusion, while the Global North increasingly calls out the adverse effects of digital inclusion on children's wellbeing. Education and awareness-raising for a digital world are crucial, but they are insufficient on their own. Many now call for stronger regulation to rein in the power of big tech to commodify and reshape all aspects of daily life in the interests of profit. But this is proving hugely contentious, with rights seemingly in conflict -safety, speech, privacy, participation- and with stakeholders also arguing over the roles of government, business, civil society, families, educators and more in safeguarding children's rights in a rapidly changing and complex digital world. This pre-conference will bring together scholars across ICA divisions and interest groups to address urgent and intersecting questions such as: How can data governance and AI design respect children's rights? What do child influencers, digital labour and commercial platforms mean for children's possibilities to exercise their rights in a digital age? How are gender, disability, and intersectional vulnerabilities shaping digital childhoods? What roles do digital participation, climate justice, and youth activism play? Although the questions are diverse, a child rights focus is simultaneously integrative yet flexible. The objective is to bring together different perspectives, expertise and approaches under the umbrella of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's General comment No. 25 on Children's Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment. At the same time, we will seek to recognise and discuss questions of interpretation, application and contestation over children's rights, on the one hand, and the digital environment, on the other, especially as these are contextualised around the world.

Description:

An open call for short papers will allow inclusive participation from different parts of the world. These will be pre-circulated to ensure depth and informed discussion on the day. We will begin at 8.30 with a short welcome from the organisers, introducing the aims of the pre-conference and why children's rights in the digital world matter now. At 9.00, Ann Skelton, former Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, will give the keynote address. She will reflect on the significance of General Comment no. 25 and the challenges of realising children's rights in practice in rapidly changing digital contexts. From 9.30 to 10.30 we will discuss a set of short papers, in thematically-arranged groups around the banquet tables. These may cover themes such as child online safety, regulating for children's privacy, children's participation in digital governance, legal contestation over competing rights, young influencers and the platform economy, algorithmic childhoods, and the best interests of the child in digital environments. After a coffee break from 10.30 to 11.00, we return for a panel discussion. Scholars and practitioners will explore how research can inform policy, regulation and design, and how Global South perspectives can shape global debates. It will be a priority to build research capacity, to prioritise attention to research in the global South, and to develop a mutual research agenda to advance this field and its impact.

March 13, 2026 (10:00 AM - 4:00 PM)

Join us for the DFC Research Insights Day, a full-day hybrid event showcasing new research and evidence about children’s digital lives. The day brings together scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and young people to discuss what we know, what’s changing, and what’s next.

We will focus on children’s rights in the digital environment, as they relate to the rapid adoption of education technologies, online risks, resilience and mental health, and the real-world impacts of digital regulation. The day is designed to spark critical dialogue, cross-sector learning, and future collaboration grounded in children’s lived experiences.

10:00–10:30 | Arrival & Coffee

10:30–11:30 | Morning Session 1: Children’s Rights and the Digital Environment: General comment No. 25 - 5 years on

Panel: Beeban Kidron (House of Lords), Eva Lievens (Ghent University), Kim R. Sylwander (LSE)

Chair: Sonia Livingstone (LSE)

Session description:

Five years since the publication of UNCRC General Comment No. 25, we take stock of its influence on policy, regulation, advocacy, and research globally. Drawing on legal, policy, and civil society perspectives, the panel will reflect on what has changed for children online, where implementation has succeeded or stalled, and how children’s rights frameworks are shaping the next phase of digital governance.

11:30 - 11:45 Comfort break

11:45–12:45 | Morning Session 2: A Better EdTech Future for Children: Learning, Rights, and AI

Panel: Sandra El Gemayel (LSE), Colette Collins-Walsh (5Rights), youth representatives, Kasia Suliga (teacher)

Chair: Alison Powell (LSE)

Session description:

This session examines how educational technologies (EdTech), including AI tools, are shaping children’s learning experiences and rights. Bringing together research, policy, and lived perspectives, the panel will discuss equity, design, and governance in EdTech systems, highlighting best practices and rights-based approaches. Through engagement with children, educators, and civil society, the discussion will explore ways to create more inclusive, transparent, and accountable digital learning environments and stimulate public debate on the future of digital education.

12:45–13:45 | Lunch (provided)

13:45–14:30 | Afternoon Session 1: Designing New Research on Children’s Digital Lives, Mental Health and Resilience

Speakers: 

Kasia Kostyrka-Allchorne (Queen Mary University of London)

ORChiD – Online Risks and Resilience in Children’s Daily Lives

Damon De Ionno (Revealing Reality)

DigiPulse – Real-time Ecological Momentary Assessment of children’s smartphone engagement and mental health

Chair: Mariya Stoilova

Session description:

This session introduces emerging insights from new research projects that use real-time and child-centred methodologies to explore the relationship between children’s digital engagement, mental health, and resilience. Looking beyond simplistic narratives of screen time, the speakers outline how these studies aim to capture the ways online interactions, risks, and opportunities are embedded in children’s everyday lives and emotional experiences. The session looks ahead to how this work can deepen understanding of how mental health impacts are shaped by context, timing, and individual differences, while advancing innovative methods and frameworks for future research, policy, and practice.

14:30–15:15 | Afternoon Session 2: From Policy to Practice: Regulating Platforms to Benefit Children’s Digital Lives

Presentation & conversation: Steve Wood (PrivacyX Consulting), Beckett LeClair (5Rights), Jasmina Byrne (former Chief of Foresight and Policy, UNICEF)

Chair: Beeban Kidron

Session description:

Building on earlier work on the Impact of Regulation on Children’s Digital Lives, this session examines how recent regulatory and technological developments are shaping children’s online experiences. Combining academic research and civil society perspectives, the discussion explores what regulation is achieving in practice - and where gaps remain between policy intent and children’s lived realities.

The session will start with a brief presentation by Steve Wood, followed by a panel discussion.

15:15–16:00 | Wrap-up by Sonia Livingstone, Reflections & Coffee

Closing reflections: Key insights from across the day. Emerging research and policy priorities. Opportunities for collaboration across research, policy, and practice

March 2, 2026

Join us at the event Registration via Zoom

March 2026 marks five years since the adoption of UNCRC's General comment No. 25 (GC25), which states that children's rights, as outlined under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, extend to the digital environment. The comment was a milestone for children across the world: providing guidance on how to implement, embed and advocate for children's rights in the digital age.

To mark the fifth anniversary of GC25, the Digital Futures for Children centre and 5Rights are organising an online event, launching two new reports:

• 5Rights' best practices report, which will examine what good has looked like over the past five years. 
  
• DFC's second GC25 report, which will look at how to assess impact across the world. Access the first report.
  

By identifying what works, we can look forward to what must happen next to ensure GC25’s standards are realised globally. The event will reflect on lessons learned across different regions and sectors, and set out priorities for the next phase of implementation.

Join us to celebrate this milestone, share learning, and look ahead to the future of children’s rights in the digital environment.

Date: 2nd March 2026

Times: 08:00 Brazil | 11:00 London | 12:00 CET | 18:00 Indonesia

How to join? Register via Zoom 

Speakers

Baroness Beeban Kidron

5Rights Founder and President, Member of the UK House of Lords

Baroness Kidron is a leading voice on children’s rights in the digital environmentand a global authority on digital regulation and accountability. She has played a determinative role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across the world.

Baroness Kidron sits as a crossbench peer in the UK’s House of Lords. She is an advisor to the Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford, a Commissioner on the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, an expert advisor for the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, and Founder and Chair of 5Rights Foundation. She is a Visiting Professor of Practice at the London School of Economics, where she chairs the research centre Digital Futures for Children, and a Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford.

Before being appointed to the Lords she was an award-winning film director and co-founder of the charity Filmclub (now Into Film).

Prof. Dr. Sophie Kiladze

Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

X: @SophieKiladze, @UNChildRights1

Prof. Dr. Sophie Kiladze is a Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Prior to joining the UN CRC in 2021, she was elected Member of Parliament of Georgia, a Chair of Human Rights Committee as well as the Chair of the Child Rights Council. She is an author of comprehensive reforms in the field of child rights and social work in Georgia. She served as a Vice-Rector of the Police Academy. Since 2023 she is a member of the Council of Europe ECRI. Prof. Kiladze has an extensive academic experience, including the work at Max-Planck Institute for Public International Law in Heidelberg; teaching Public International Law, Constitutional Law and Child Rights Law at different universities, publishing books and articles. She is a graduate of the Law Faculty of the University of Heidelberg (Staatsexamen), Germany, holds PhD degree and is the Professor at Grigol Robakidze University.

Gina Bergh

Human Rights Officer at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

LinkedIn, X: @UNHumanRights

Gina Bergh is a Human Rights Officer at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), where she leads work on children's rights in the digital environment, including consultations on a global framework for the Human Rights Council and participatory research centering children's voices in digital governance. She recently joined the tech team after a decade in OHCHR's Child and Youth Rights Unit, where she worked on child participation, safeguarding, and support to the implementation of General Comment No. 25. She also contributed to consensus on the global Joint Statement on AI and the Rights of the Child. Before joining the UN, she led policy research on governance, accountability, and child rights at ODI in London, and worked on EU development policy at the UK Department for International Development. She holds an MA in International Relations from King's College London and a BA in Sociology from the University of Cape Town, with advanced training in international human rights law from Åbo Akademi University, Finland.

Dr. Kim R Sylwander

Postdoctoral Researcher at the Digital Futures for Children centre

Linkedin, X: @MediaLSE

Dr Kim R. Sylwander is a Postdoctoral Research Officer in the Department of Media and Communications at the . Kim’s research at the department focuses on children’s rights in digital environments.

Kim is interested in children’s everyday lived experiences in online environments. Much of her research has been devoted to exploring how youth culture is intertwined with digital technologies and affordances. Her research has further explored how norms regarding sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and age are practiced and exacerbated by platform design and algorithms.

Kim’s PhD research investigated girl’s exposure and engagement with sexualized and racialized hate on social media. Kim’s postdoctoral research investigated how young people practice and understand sexual consent in digital communication. The project explored themes such as intimate digital choreographies, the limits of consent in digital environments and sexual digital generationality. Kim has also headed research on the implementation of a new sexuality education curriculum through a practice based and collaborative research method in Swedish secondary school.

Kim has also worked on children’s rights for the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Violence against Children, at the Ombudsman for Children Sweden, ECPAT Norway and other civil society organizations, where she has headed various projects on children in online environments. Examples include government inquiries on the effects of pornography consumption on children and a number of reports on the online sexual exploitation of children. Kim has also held several expert positions in government inquiries in Sweden on sexual exploitation and the effects of digital media on children.

João Francisco de Aguiar Coelho

Child rights advocate and Lawyer at the Alana Institute

LinkedIn, X: @InstitutoAlana

João Francisco de Aguiar Coelho is a child rights advocate and lawyer for the digital axis of the Alana Institute (Instituto Alana). He is currently a master's student in human rights at the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo (USP).

Marie-Ève Nadeau

Head of International Affairs

LinkedIn and X: @MarieEve5Rights

Marie-Ève Nadeau is Head of International Affairs at the 5Rights Foundation, leading global efforts to advance children's rights in the digital environment. With a background in international law and human rights, she is a dedicated advocate working with governments, regulators, international institutions, civil society, and academic partners worldwide to embed children’s rights, safety and privacy by design and by default in AI, data protection, online safety, and technology governance more broadly.Based in Brussels, she has spent the last 5 years shaping policies and strengthening global frameworks, holding companies accountable across Europe, the African Union, and more than 15 countries, from Indonesia to Brazil.Before joining 5Rights, she advanced human rights with the EU delegation of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), supported UNDP projects on human rights and global supply chains, and volunteered with Québec without Borders in Peru to bolster community development initiatives.

Prof. Sonia Livingstone

Director of the Digital Futures for Children centre

LinkedIn and X: @Livingstone_S

Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at  LSE. Taking a comparative, critical and contextualised approach, her research examines how the changing conditions of mediation are reshaping everyday practices and possibilities for action. Much of Sonia’s time these days is concerned with Children’s Rights in the Digital Age.

Sonia has published 20 books on media audiences, especially children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment, including The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age (New York University Press, with Julian Sefton-Green) (view here). Her new book is Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children's lives (Oxford University Press), with Alicia Blum-Ross (view here).

Recipient of many honours, she has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU and UNICEF, among others, on children’s internet safety and rights in the digital environment. Sonia served as chair of the LSE’s , Special Advisor to the House of Lords’ Select Committee on Communications, Expert Advisor to the Council of Europe, President of the International Communication Association, and Executive Board member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety.

Sonia is Director of Digital Futures for Children, a joint LSE and 5Rights Foundation research centre. She has recently directed the Digital Futures Commission (with the 5Rights Foundation) and the Global Kids Online project (with UNICEF). She is Deputy Director of the UKRI-funded Nurture Network, contributes to the euCONSENT project, and leads work packages for two European H2020-funded projects: ySKILLS (Youth Skills) and CO:RE (Children Online: Research and Evidence). Founder of the EC-funded 33 country EU Kids Online research network, she is a #SaferInternet4EU Ambassador for the European Commission. She is a project lead for DIORA: Dynamic Interplay of Online Risk and Resilience in Adolescence as part of the MRC Digital Youth Programme.

Issue 16 – 2025 (2) 

https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/issue-16-2025-2/?lang=en 

With number 16, Tecmerin celebrates the eighth anniversary of the Journal of Audiovisual Essays. This issue is composed of four video essays that, quite by chance, have brought a warm note of colour to the cold office from which our modest publication is edited. 

In “What’s behind Kubrick’s characters?” Mariana Schwartz analyzes the role of production design in Stanley Kubrick’s cinema, focusing on a habitually ignored element: the walls. “AGON. Constructions of democracy” by Ali Minanto, Nico Carpentier and Jhon Sany Purwanto helps us reflect on the term “democracy” as a contested concept, in complex times for addressing such an idea. “haidh na hAithrise/ Nostalgia of imitation” by Nail Ó Muchu transports us to a beautiful montage about Irish cinematic representations of coastal labour history. The final note of colour is provided by “Satoshi Kon. Animation’s place in the cinematographic landscape,” where Sara Mai Ortiz de Manuel relates the director’s aesthetics to his industrial influence. 

The “From the archive” section features guest contributor Eva Vaca Carrión, whose work on actress Emma Cohen brings us closer to the RTVE archive and allows us to learn through her interviews about her struggles to assert herself as a creator. 

++++++++++ 

What’s behind the Kubrick’s characters? 

Mariana Schwartz (Beira Interior University) – 4:45 

Through the analysis of six films directed by Stanley Kubrick, this audiovisual essay invites reflection on the design of his sets, focusing on the question: what lies behind Kubrick’s characters? 

Keywords: film, digetic space, Kubrick, production design, walls 

https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/project/whats-behinf-the-kubricks-characters/?lang=en 

++++++++++ 

AGON. Constructions of Democracy 

Ali Minanto (Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, CharlesUniversity), Nico Carpentier (Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Charles University), Jhon Sany Purwanto (independent filmmaker) – 26:00 

The film essay AGON is a theoretical reflection on the political construction of democracy. It emphasizes the controversial nature of democracy, distinguishing between its fundamental defining elements, the arenas of political struggle for democracy, the conditions of possibility for democracy, and the threats to democracy. 

Keywords: democracy, art research, film essay 

https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/project/agon-constructions-of-democracy/?lang=en 

++++++++++ 

Cumhaidh na hAithrise/ Nostalgia de la imitación 

Niall Ó Murchú (Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western 

Washington University)– 7:00 

The video shows multi-screen compositions to compare three films shot on the Atlantic coast of Ireland: Man of Aran (Flaherty et al, 1934), The Secret of Roan Inish (Sayles et al, 1994), and Arracht/Monster. (Sullivan et al, 2019). The essay argues that Irish cinematic representations of coastal labor history are influenced by the pre-existing imaginative nostalgia of Irish-American filmmakers. 

Keywords: Atlantic Ocean, Ireland, Memory, Labor, Transtextuality 

https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/project/cumhaidh-na-haithrise-nostalgia-de-la-imitacion/?lang=en 

++++++++++ 

Satoshi Kon. The Place of Animation in the Film Landscape 

Sara Mai Ortiz de Manuel (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) – 12:45 

This video essay will analyze the relationship between Satoshi Kon and cinema as an industry, a reference point, and a concept, through three of his works: the films Perfect Blue (1997), Millennium Actress (2001), and Paprika (2006). 

Keywords: anime, Kon, animation, Japan, metacinema 

https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/project/satoshi-kon/?lang=en 

++++++++++ 

From the archive: 

Infantilisation and Sexualisation in Media Representation: Emma Cohen and the Recovery of the Television Archive 

In this section the archives of two interviews with Emma Cohen are shared. They were broadcast on TVE in the 1970s and 1980s, when her creative output was at its peak, have been recovered. Both archives reflect her multidisciplinary creative personality, but also the irony and infantilization with which the media treated her throughout her life. 

Section curated by Eva Vaca Carrión (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) 

https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/from-the-archive-16/?lang=en 

New EU Kids Online report on children’s use of generative AI across Europe.

Based on data from 20 countries, it explores risks, opportunities, and policy implications

Read the European children and generative AI press release

Over the past three decades, the internet and digital technologies have become deeply integrated in the everyday lives of children and young people across Europe. The EU Kids Online network (EUKO) has systematically studied these changes since 2006. This multidisciplinary research network was established to provide policymakers, educators, parents and other stakeholders with a robust evidence base on how children use digital technologies, the opportunities they encounter, and the risks they face. Through successive international surveys, most notably the 2010 and 2018 EUKO international comparative studies, EUKO has documented how emerging technologies, from personal computers to smartphones, from chatgroups to social networks, have become embedded in children’s everyday lives.

In recent years, children’s online environments have been reshaped by the rapid integration of AI-based tools into search engines, social media platforms, messaging services, creative applications, and educational technologies. These developments introduce new possibilities for learning, creativity and support, while also raising new concerns related to misinformation, synthetic content, privacy, automation, and manipulation. At the same time, regulatory frameworks such as the GDPR and the EU Artificial Intelligence Act seek to respond to these changes, underlining the need for timely, evidence-based knowledge about how children use and experience GenAI in their daily lives. 

Responding to the growing need to understand if and how children use GenAI across Europe, and its potential implications for risks and opportunities, this EUKO report is a thematic publication based on data from the EUKO 2025 survey. It is the first international report released from the new dataset and is published in connection with Safer Internet Day 2026 under its theme: 'Smart tech, safe choices – Exploring the safe and responsible use of AI'. The main aim of this report is to map children’s access to, use of and experiences with GenAI across Europe, and to examine if and how GenAI is becoming part of their everyday digital lives. 

The report draws on comparative data from 20 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. This includes data from the EU Kids Online survey with 25,592 children aged 9 to 16 in 17 countries and additional qualitative interviews with 244 children aged 13 to 17 years in 15 countries. The report identifies emerging patterns, differences between groups and countries, and key areas of opportunity and concern. In doing so, it provides an early and policy-relevant insight into how GenAI is reshaping childhood in Europe.

Read the report:  Staksrud, E., Mascheroni, G., Milosevic, T., Ní Bhroin, N., Ólafsson, K., Şengül-İnal, G., & Stoilova, M. (2026). European children's use and understanding of generative AI. EU Kids Online V.

Link to the EU Kids Online website.

Deadline: March 31, 2026

Editors:

• Tendai Chari, University of Venda, South Africa
  
• Ufuoma Akpojivi, Independent Researcher/Research Fellow, UNISA
  

Digital media technologies have become a key site upon which political meanings are produced, consumed and challenged. While politicians use digital popular cultural repertoires to ingratiate themselves with the electorate, the same technologies are being harnessed by ordinary people to speak truth to power, exposing abuses, mobilising protests and demanding accountability from authorities, often bypassing centralized traditional media. On the African continent, examples include the #EndSARS in Nigeria in 2020 when youth shared videos of police brutality via Twitter (formerly X) and Instagram, sparking nationwide protests, crowdfunding, and global solidity that pressured the government to dissolve the SARS unit. In 2024 during the Kenya Gen Z Protests against the Finance Bill, young people used TikTok, X and AI generated content under the hashtag #RejectFinance Bill2024 to educate, organize street actions and crowdfund transport, forcing parliamentary rejection of the Bill amid clashes. Similarly, in 2020 Zimbabweans used the hashtag #ZimbabweanLivesMatter during protests against human rights abuses, trending globally and attracting support of the global community. In all the cases highlighted above, the mutual amplification of politics and popular culture was on display signifying the enmeshment of politics and popular culture (Street et al, 2013). Increased “fluidization” of the border between politics and popular culture in the digital age demonstrates how popular culture is a crucial realm for shaping, performing and challenging political meanings (Chen, 2023). Digital technologies are enabling citizens to participate in the simultaneous production and consumption of content, highlighting the importance of popular culture in the production of politics (Hamilton, 2016). The intersection manifests at different levels. For instance, politicians are becoming more of digital icons while popular artists such as musicians, sports and media personalities, are venturing into politics using digital media (Street, 1997) either as participants or endorsers; a phenomenon referred to as “celebrification/celebritisation of politics” (Agyepong, 2016; Ahmad, 2020; Brooks et al, 2021). In Africa well-known artists who have vied for political office include the Democratic of Congo’s Rhumba maestro, Kanda Bongoman, soccer idol, George Weah who participated in the 2006 Liberian presidential elections and most recently South African musician Penny Penny (real name, Erick Nkovane), who became a councillor for the opposition MK party, to mention but a few. Despite online activism being criticized for being “vacuous and superficial” (Drumbl, 2012) resulting in pejorative descriptions such as “clicktivism” or “slacktivism” digital media has enabled citizens to perform political activism such as signing petitions online and sharing protest messages with virtual communities. Existing scholarship problematizes the intersection of popular culture and digital media in Africa as a double-edged force where digital media are lauded for their potential to democratize discourse through grassroots memes, hashtags and music remixes, yet derided for engineering fragmentation, misinformation, erosion of political trust and creating “multiple truths” as aiding vigilantism (Ajaegbu & Ajaegbu, 2024). Drawing on network society theory, studies highlight how platforms like WhatsApp and X enable networked publics to challenge elite control but amplify echo chambers and post-truth rhetoric. For instance, studies on Nigerian #EndSARS or election memes illustrate how digital popular culture subverts governance narratives through pidgin and Nollywood tropes (Ajaegbu & Ajaegbu, 2024), how online media have become veritable sites of youth cultures from which vulnerable young people negotiate the unstable landscape of a post-colonial state that has foisted on its vulnerable youth population (Imoka, 2023). Prior scholarship has examined the intersection of digital media and politics has predominantly focused on how digital media have been leveraged for political purposes in industrialised democracies of the West and “popular cultural manifestations” of politics in digital media (Hamilton, 2016:4) while very few studies have been devoted to understanding how digital media shape the production, consumption and contestation of political meanings and narratives. Consequently, this has left a lacuna on how everyday practices, the banal and the trivial, what Roland Barthes refers to as the “what-goes without-saying” (Barthes, 2009: 10) shape the production, consumption and contestations of political meanings and narratives in the African context. The proposed edited volume seeks to fill this gap by providing an expanded view of the digital popular culture-politics nexus from a global South, particularly an African perspective by examining politics in Africa through the prism of digital popular culture, and its potential to transform our perception of the “sights, sites and cites of power” (Hamilton, 2016:4). Taking after Hamilton (2016) we contend that studying politics through the prism of digital popular culture not only creates possibilities to illuminate the myriads of ways in which politics intersects with everyday lived experiences of citizens thus reclaiming the status of popular culture as an important site upon which political meanings can be constructed and deconstructed. Our goal is to foreground digital popular culture as a potent vehicle for contesting power. The volume seeks to demonstrate that contrary to perceptions that popular culture is ‘vacuous’, ‘trash’, ‘inferior culture’ ‘artificial’ or mere entertainment devoid of any substance (Englert, 2008; Fabian, 1997; Street, 2001; Marchart, 2008; Street, 2004; Street et al, 2013), digital popular culture can be an authentic source of knowledge about the way in which politics is understood, practiced, performed, and consumed in the African context. The volume illuminates how politics is substantiated through diverse digital popular cultural forms and artefacts. The volume explores the intertextuality between politics and popular culture, demonstrating how political discourse draws on references, or mixes prior texts, popular discourses, symbols or cultural narratives to create layered meanings, particularly in Africa’s digital arena through social media memes, videos, and posts. This manifests through citizens repurposing historical slogans, popular aphorisms, wise sayings, biblical allusions, or popular media to critique power, blending traditional rhetoric with digital formats or viral posts.

The book makes two important contributions. First, it  addresses the paucity of African focused studies on popular cultural manifestations of politics in digital spaces by systematically examining everyday practices and intertextual remixes of popular tropes that construct and subvert power – moving beyond Western-centric perspectives to foreground banal and everyday socio-political dynamics. Secondly, the book reclaims popular culture’s agency by challenging dismissals of digital popular culture and repositioning it as a potent, decolonial site for reclaiming political imagination – transforming perceptions of power through citizen authorship on digital platforms while problematizing risks like misinformation and vigilantism.

 The book addresses the following questions:

• In what way is digital media expanding our knowledge and understanding of politics in contemporary Africa?
  
• How do popular cultural artefacts stimulate and sustain political expression on digital platforms in the African context?
  
• How do politicians and political institutions discipline and co-opt digital media to manufacture consent through ordinary everyday practices?
  
• How are citizens leveraging the everyday cultural practices on digital media to subvert the power of powerful elites and institutions?
  
• How has the ubiquity of digital media shaped the production, performance and consumption of political meanings?
  
• In what ways are the borders between politics and popular culture collapsing in the digital age?
  

The book distinguishes itself from existing scholarship by foregrounding political significations embodied everyday practices in the digital sphere. It views digital popular culture as having the potential to influence politics and communication, thereby expanding perspectives on politics by exposing citizens to “different places, voices, views and experiences” (Hamilton, 2016:4). The volume offers a continent-wide exploration of everyday digital popular cultural practices in Africa, thus addressing existing knowledge gaps in the global South.

We invite contributions that engage with theoretical and empirical research that consider the socio-political and cultural factors shaping digital media and popular culture in Africa. We are particularly interested in original contributions that tackle the identified and related themes using a broad range of theoretical and methodological approaches.

Chapters may draw on interdisciplinary approaches from media studies, communication, political science, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, and related fields. The abstract must clearly state the objectives of the study, the theoretical framework and the methodological approaches to be deployed. Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following:

• Intertextuality of politics and popular culture in the digital age
  
• Sports and politics in the digital age
  
• Fandom and politics in the digital age
  
• Religion, politics and digital media
  
• Popular theatre and politics online
  
• Political advertising in the digital age
  
• Film, politics and digital media
  
• Popular Music and politics in the digital age
  
• Political satire in the digital media
  
• Celebrification/celebritisation of politics in the digital age
  
• Clandestine radio and politics in the digital age
  
• Intersection of food cultures, politics and digital media
  
• The politics of political party regalia, costume and national symbols in the digital era
  
• Popular theatre, politics and digital media
  
• Sculpture, politics and digitality
  
• Political propaganda online
  
• Avant-garde arts and politics
  
• Politics, hactivism, clictivism and slacktivism
  
• Memefication of politics
  
• Microcelebrities and influencers and politics
  
• Digital politics and celebrity activism
  
• Digitality and celebrity humanism in Africa
  
• Gamification of politics in Africa
  
• Digital media and political scandals
  
• Subversive digital artefacts and politics
  
• Digital political satire in Africa
  
• Fictional representations of politics in the digital media
  
• User-generated content and politics in Africa
  
• Podcasts as alternative public spheres
  
• Blog, vlogs and politics in Africa
  
• Popular entertainment and politics in the digital age
  
• Political cartoons in the digital era
  
• Mass culture and politics in the digital age
  
• Popular culture and politics in the age of Artificial intelligence
  

Abstracts and biographies

Abstracts of between 400 and 500 words should be send by the 31 March 2026.

Abstracts should be emailed as word to tendai.chari@univen.ac.za/cc ufuoma.akpojivi@gmail.com

Chapters (6000 -8000 Words) will be due by 30 September 2026

Biographies should not be more than 200 words

Reference Style: Harvard

Note: We do not require an article publishing charge (APC)

Important Dates

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 March 2026
  
• Notification for Accepted Abstracts:  15 April 2026
  
• Deadline for Full Papers: 30 September 2026
  
• Expected Date of Publication: 31 December 2026
  

Targeted Publisher: Routledge

References

Agyepong, L. (2016). Understanding the Concept of Celebrity Capital through an Empirical Study of the Role of Celebrity Endorsements in 2008 and 2012 Ghana Election Campaigns. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Communication. University of Leicester.

Ahmad, N. (2020). Celebrification of Politics: Understanding Migration of Celebrities into Politics Celebrification of Celebrity Politicians in the Emerging Democracy of Indonesia. East Asia, 37:63-79.

Ajaegbu, O.O. and Ajaegbu, C. (2004). The New Democratisation: Social Media Impact on the Political Process in Sub-Saharan Africa: Frontiers in Communication. 9:1394949. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1394949.

Barthes, R. (2009) [1957] Mythologies. Translated by Annette Lavers. London: Vintage.

Brooks, G., Drenten, J., and Piskorski, M.J. (2021). Influencer Celebrification: How Social Media Influencers Acquire Celebrity Capital. Journal of Advertising, 50(5) 528-547.

Chen, D. (2023). Seeing Politics Through Popular Culture. Journal of Chinese Political Science, 29: 185-205.

Driessens, O. (2013a). Celebrity Capital: Redefining Celebrity Using Field Theory: Theory and Society, 42(5): 543-560.

Driessesn, O. (2013b). Being a Celebrity in Times of Its Democratisation: A Case Study from the Flemish Region. Celebrity Studies, 4(2):249-253.

Drumbl, M.A. (2012). Child Soldiers and Clicktivism: Justice, Myths and Prevention. Journal of Human Rights Practice, 4(3): 481-485.

Englert, B. (2008) Popular Music and Politics in Africa. Some Introductory Reflections. Stichproben Wiener Zeitschrift fur Kritische Afrikastudien, 8(14): 1-15.

Fabian, J. (1997). Popular Culture in Africa: Findings and Conjunctures. In Karin Barber (eds). Readings in African Popular Culture. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Grayson, K. (2016). Foreword. In Caitlin Hamilton and Laura J. Shepherd (eds.) Popular Culture and World Politics, (x-xi). London: Routledge.

Hamilton, C. (2016). World Politics 2.0: An Introduction. In Caitlin Hamilton and Laura J. Shepherd (eds.) Popular Culture and World Politics, (pp3-14). London: Routledge.

Hamilton, C., and Shepherd, L.J. (2016). Understanding Culture and World Politics in the Digital Age. London: Routledge.

Imoka, C. (2023). Digital Media, Popular Culture and Social Activism Amongst Urban Youth in Nigeria. Critical African Studies, 15(2): 134-148.

Literat, and Kligler -Vilenchik (2021). How Popular Culture Prompts Youth Collective Political Expression and Cross-Cutting Political Talk on Social Media: A Cross-Platform Analysis. Social Media and Society, 7(2): 1-14

Marchart, O. (2008). Cultural Studies. Konstanz: UTB.

Patti, E. (2020). Popular Culture in the Digital Age. In Enrico Minardi and Paolo Desogus (eds.) The Last Years of Italian Popular Culture: “Andare al Popolo”, (pp1-8). New Castle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Storey, J. (2018). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. London: Routledge.

Street, J. (1997). Politics and Popular Culture. Pennsylvania: Temple University Press.

Street, J. (2001). The Politics of Popular Culture. In Kate Nash and Allan Scott (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Street, J. (2004) Celebrity Politicians: Popular Culture and Political Representation. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 6(4): 435-452.

Strinati, D. (1995). An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. London: Routledge.

Gothenburg, Sweden

June 8-11, 2026

Deadline: March 6, 2026

Dear community,

We would like to remind PhD students about the upcoming deadline for the ACM UMAP 2026 Doctoral Consortium, with paper submissions due on March 6, 2026 (AoE).

ACM UMAP brings together research in AI and HCI to support effective human-AI collaboration via interactive systems that can model, adapt and personalize to their users. The conference will take place on June 8-11, 2026 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Doctoral Consortium is a great chance to get direct mentoring from world-leading experts, connect with other students, and present work in a supportive, yet critical environment.

Key dates:

• Paper submission: March 6, 2026
  
• Notification: March 20, 2026
  
• DC Day: June 8, 2026
  

Call for DC papers: https://www.um.org/umap2026/call-for-doctoral-consortium-applications/

We look forward to your submissions.

Kind regards, 

The UMAP 2026 organizing committee

September 7, 2026

Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno

Deadline: March 31, 2026

Dear all, 

We are pleased to share the Call for Papers for the ECREA 2026 Pre-Conference “The Evolution of Election Campaigning on Social Media”, which will take place on September 7, 2026, at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno.

The pre-conference focuses on comparative perspectives on social media election campaigning, including campaign strategies, communication styles (e.g., negativity, populist rhetoric, personalization), the use of AI, the role of misinformation, voter engagement, and methodological innovations in studying digital campaign data.

Submission deadline: March 31, 2026

Submit a 300-word abstract (excluding references) to: DLilleker@bournemouth.ac.uk

Fee: €25 (coffee break and lunch included)

More information about the call can be found here.

We look forward to seeing you in Brno.

--

On behalf of the organizers,

Darren, Martina, and Alena

August 11-12

Malmö University Malmö, Sweden

Deadline: March 30, 2026

In collaboration with Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures, AoIR invites participants to its annual Flashpoint symposium.

For those interested in participating in the symposium, the deadline to submit an abstract of up to 300 words is March 30, 2026.

Confirmed keynote plenary speakers are

• prof. Annette Markham, Utrecht University, Netherlands
  
• prof. Susana Tosca, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  
• prof. Kat Jungnickel, Goldsmiths University of London, UK
  
• prof. Sarah T. Roberts, UCLA, USA

As technologies evolve, our relationship to the technological world changes, and so should our methods of studying the world around us. The methods we use to conduct research matter in understanding what can be studied, how the studies reflect the world, and how the groups we are studying (with) relate to academia. Internet research faces challenges in recruitment, data quality, practicality, and ethics, leading to questions about sampling bias, data truthfulness, and other issues that require creative solutions. We need to question and challenge many of the dominant approaches and find ways to reimagine methods that fit contemporary research challenges. Research methods need to evolve with the world, respect its diversity and be open to inventive ways to involve research participants in knowledge co-creation.

Creative research methods can be methods that draw on creative self-expressions of research participants or researchers, including visual, text, sound, and materials. They may also involve creative use of technologies as part of the research process and outcome – apps, mash-ups, data visualisations, APIs, etc. In addition, creative methods can encompass transformative approaches, including participatory, speculative, artistic, worldbuilding, decolonising, activist and community-based research approaches that are designed to reduce the power imbalances and include diverse voices in academic research. Mixed and hybrid methods that challenge researchers to question the paradigmatic assumptions of their work may also be understood as creative research practices. 

In the spirit of challenging established academic traditions, the symposium invites scholars interested in method-related discussions to join us in imagining and co-creating methods for a new era of internet research. 

We invite individual abstracts for papers, performances, spoken word pieces or artistic creations that highlight creative research methods or focus on the process of creating new methods. Please submit an abstract no longer than 300 words, five keywords and a short bio (including contact details) by March 25, 2026. 

The symposium will charge a fee of 500 SEK (~47 EUR/~56 USD/~41 GBP) that will cover lunches and coffee, and AoIR will also sponsor dinner for symposium participants. If you do not want to share any work but would still like to be part of the symposium, you can also sign up as a participant after March 15. PhD students and early-career scholars are particularly welcome, and AoIR will provide some fee waivers for the early-career scholars (available at a later stage when registration opens). 

Submit your contribution to the symposium: Imagining and Co-creating Methods for Internet Research AoIR Flashpoint Symposium at Malmö – Fill out form (https://forms.office.com/e/yzLEg9T0fb)

Important dates:

• Deadline for abstract submission: March 30, 2026
  
• Registration opens March 15, 2026
  
• Notification of acceptance: mid-April, 2026
  
• Deadline for registrations June 15, 2026
  
• Symposium in Malmö 11-12 August, 2026

More information about Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures: https://mau.se/en/research/research-centres/imagining-and-co-creating-futures/

The Symposium organiser is prof. Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt

(contact: pille.pruulmann.vengerfeldt@mau.se), The scientific committee includes Prof. Andra Siibak and prof. Julia Velkova.

The Global Media & Internet Concentration Project is delighted to announce the launch of its data dashboard.  This powerful tool provides an interactive view of global media and internet revenues, market structures and concentration by drawing on data compiled by the GMICP. 

The dashboard is designed to help researchers, policymakers, journalists, and the public explore trends in media ownership and digital platform dominance and to create customised, comparative visualisations, across 24 countries and 15 industry sectors.

We are hosting two sets of webinars to introduce this tool and its functionality.  Each set of webinars is tailored for particular stakeholder groups and is offered in duplicate for convenience across time zones.  Each session will be hosted by researchers from the GMICP and will last approximately 90 minutes.

Please email Guy Hoskins at ghoskins@torontomu.ca to request Zoom registration details.

Researchers/journalists/civil society organizations: 

• March 11th, 9.30pm EST
  
• March 12th, 8.30am EST
  

Policymakers & regulators: 

• March 25th, 9.30pm EST
  
• March 26th, 8.30am EST