ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

September 8-10, 2025

University of Sheffield, UK

ECREA Radio and Sound Section

We are pleased to announce that registration for the ECREA Radio and Sound Section Conference to be held at the University of Sheffield is now OPEN.

Please click on this link to register: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ijc/events-index/ecrea-radio-and-sound-2025

For further information, please contact the organising committee at: radioandsoundconference@gmail.com

University of Bern

The Institute of Communication and Media Studies (icmb) at the University of Bern is part of the Department of Social Sciences. It focuses on political communication in all its dimensions, exploring, for example, how digitalization, algorithms, but also social and psychological mechanisms shape communication.

Tasks

• (potential for) collaboration in an SNF-sponsored cross-national research project about how the feeling of being left-behind by society influences political information usage and effects. Our project draws on the role of social identity and identity threats for political information behavior.
  
• development and implementation of own research ideas
  
• teaching of courses in the BA Social Sciences and supervision of BA thesis
  
• contribution to the general tasks of the institute
  

Requirements

• above-average degree in communication science, a related social science discipline and /or psychology
  
• strong interest in political communication
  
• very good skills in quantitative (surveys & experiments) and/or qualitative (interviews) methods of empirical social science
  
• willingness to present research at (inter-)national conferences and to publish in top journals
  
• ability to work in a team
  
• very good command in English (German and French is a plus)
  

We offer

An attractive working environment awaits you at the Institute of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Bern: a collegial team, cooperation and exchange, as well as the freedom to develop your own ideas. Employment adheres to the regulations of the Canton of Berne.

Applications, should be mailed as a PDF file by July 7th, 2025, to Prof. Dr. Silke Adam at silke.adam@unibe.ch

The application should include:

• letter of motivation including research interests and ideas
  
• CV including a list of publications
  
• certificates
  
• a central chapter of the thesis or another publication
  
• recommendation letter

The talks will take place on Monday, July 21 and Tuesday, July 22.

Apple HERE.

To defend democracy, ensure security and guarantee prosperity, Europe must understand the societies it aims to serve

An article by the EASSH Director Gabi Lombardo for Science|Business (read also HERE).

As Europe transitions into summer, the heat is rising in the debate about the next cycle of its flagship research and innovation Framework Programme. A fundamental question looms: in what kind of future are we investing?

Since 1945 Europe’s research priorities have revolved around a simple formula: technological innovation equals economic growth, equals social progress. That logic made sense in the ashes of World War II, but the world – and Europe – have changed.

Today, we face a very different landscape, with rising inequality, fractured societies, erosion of trust in democratic institutions and geopolitical uncertainty. In this context, a research strategy focused solely on economic output and tech-driven competitiveness is not just outdated, it is recklessly insufficient.

If Europe wants to remain globally competitive and strengthen its social model, it must reimagine what progress means for research and innovation investment and must place questions of citizens’ needs, human rights and ethics at the heart of its vision. 

For decades, GDP has dominated the political and economic discourse. It measures what economies produce, but not what societies achieve. It says nothing about whether citizens are healthy, educated, safe, free or happy.

In contrast, the Social Progress Index (SPI) assesses how well countries provide for people’s needs: healthcare, education, housing, rights and access to opportunity. The latest SPI data is sobering. Four out of five people globally live in countries where social progress is stagnating or declining.

This isn’t just a social crisis, but an alarm to encourage new strategic choices. Societies that can’t meet their people’s needs, including their sense of wellbeing, become breeding grounds for instability, populism and illiberalism.

A social model built on research

Europe today enjoys some of the highest living standards in the world. That success was not automatic. It was built on decades of deliberate investment in public goods such as healthcare, education, social protections, cultural infrastructure and academic freedom.

Critically, these policies were shaped and refined by insights and ideas from scholars addressing critical social questions and assessing policies, indicators of inequality and the hard work of those working in the humanities and social sciences. These disciplines identified gaps, mapped disparities and offered insights that led to public policies that made systems more inclusive and sustainable and drove economic growth. 

But that legacy is now being tested. As budgets tighten and political rhetoric hardens, the role of the humanities and social sciences in shaping our collective future is at risk. And that’s a mistake we can’t afford.

The narrative around the next EU Framework Programme suggests a focus on three keywords: competitiveness, defence and democracy. These are the right priorities, but they are being approached in the wrong way.

Competitiveness is still framed almost exclusively in terms of technological innovation and markets. Yet reports from Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta show that Europe’s problem is weak policy integration and limited technology transfer. Without understanding the human, cultural and institutional barriers to adoption, innovation cannot deliver its full benefits.

Defence, meanwhile, is often reduced to militarisation. But true peace demands deeper insight. We must monitor how the forces that drive instability, including nationalism, marginalisation, misinformation, propaganda cultural alienation lead to conflict. 

These are issues about which political scientists, historians, psychologists and anthropologists can inform the diplomats who are on the frontline for peacebuilding. We cannot just rely on generals and engineers. And the cost of this research is minuscule compared to militarisation and weapons development.

And democracy, perhaps the most urgent pillar of the next Framework Programme, must be more than a checkbox. Europe is still a stronghold of liberal democracy, but cracks are appearing. Abroad, efforts such as the Project 2025 agenda in the US, have shown how easily and quickly democratic norms can be eroded from within. Funding to monitor our democracies’ progress is critical.

This erosion doesn’t start with tanks. It starts with silence. With the threats to, and defunding of, academic research. With attacks on data transparency, gender equality and diversity initiatives. With the attacks on, and withdrawal of support for, disciplines that educate on critical thinking, ethical reasoning and historical context. 

Does Europe want to slide down a similar path? Funding to protect our democracies is critical.

Resilience isn’t enough

Early glimpses of the next Multiannual Financial Framework offer little comfort that policymakers will take the social dimension into account. The humanities and social sciences are still treated as peripheral, tasked with helping people become “resilient” rather than helping shape the kind of society we are building in the first place.

But resilience is just survival. What Europe needs is ambition: to prevent crises, to imagine better systems, to nurture democratic values, to foster growth and to sustain cultural vitality. That means moving beyond token support for the humanities and social sciences and making mainstream and critical investments in both fundamental and cross border research. 

It means including social knowledge into the design of all major initiatives, from green transitions to artificial intelligence governance, from healthcare policy to security and peacebuilding. Not as an afterthought, but as a dedicated investment in this research so that it becomes a guiding principle for pro-social policymaking.

The evidence is clear: Europe cannot meet the challenges of this century with a research strategy designed for the last one. And it certainly cannot defend democracy, ensure security or guarantee prosperity without understanding the societies it aims to serve.

Social scientists, historians, artists and philosophers are not a luxury. They are Europe’s competitive edge in a world where values, meaning and legitimacy matter more than ever.

The next Framework Programme is not just a funding instrument. It is a political signal. It is a statement about what we believe, what we value and what kind of Europe we are committed to building. Let’s ensure it reflects the full complexity, and humanity, of that task.

Gabi Lombardo is the director of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities.

January 6-9, 2026

Lisbon, Portugal

The Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication takes a comparative and global approach to the study of media and courage. Jointly organized by the Faculty of Human Sciences (Universidade Católica Portuguesa) and the Center for Media@Risk (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania), the Lisbon Winter School offers an opportunity for doctoral students and early career post-doctoral researchers to strategize around the study of media and courage together with senior scholars in the field. It is held in coordination with the Annenberg Schools of the University of Southern California & University of Pennsylvania, the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Journalism and Communication, the University of Helsinki’s Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, and The Europaeum.

Call for Applications

As uncertainty and disruption settle in as central features of contemporary democracies, the media are faced with rewriting the rules by which they are allowed to operate. New limitations are constraining how the media portray a wide range of topics, from wars and international alliances to human rights and knowledge formation, from immigration and social marginalization to the economic and cultural policies implemented by those in power. While in the past, dire threats to the media were mostly associated with authoritarian regimes, the autocratic turn taking place in liberal democracies has forced those involved with media environments to deal with intimidation and punishments once considered taboo in democracies. With the distinction between liberal and illiberal media systems rendered more or less irrelevant by today’s realities, engaging with the media everywhere now requires a kind of strength not typically seen in democratic settings: courage. 

Courage calls for beliefs, values and actions that have not tended to need articulation for those living under democracy, largely because their viability was normalized long ago as part of its default setting. And yet, the capacity today to sustain one’s beliefs, commit to one’s values and act boldly in the face of adversity have become a golden rule for surviving democratic backsliding. Drawing on confidence, persistence, initiative and adaptability, courage can be physical, emotional, moral, social, spiritual and/or intellectual. With institutions central to democracy no longer able to accomplish their mission by following the rules that once governed their actions, courage is needed to persevere in the face of danger, intimidation and uncertainty. Because it involves a choice to confront risks that might otherwise seem unsurmountable, courage is crucial for developing ways of thinking and acting that are better attuned to the cobbled state of today’s institutions.

Perhaps nowhere is this as much the case as with the media. It takes extraordinary strength for media practitioners, activists and scholars to sustain their previously normalized roles and avoid falling into the traps set by those in power. Being courageous means not accepting what George Orwell defined as the “truth of the leader,” and it comes at a high price, where daring to question official narratives is no longer assured. Not only is the survival of media corporations being put on the line, but all those involved with the media face a myriad of risks and dangers. These circumstances call upon media practitioners, activists and scholars to imagine alternative tools to express dissent. 

In these challenging and dangerous times, the Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication proposes to discuss the interconnections between Media and Courage. Courage can be addressed from a wide range of perspectives, understood as an ontological but also as an ethical concept in which one “affirms his own being” (Tillich, 1952: 3). 

While the consequences of challenging those in power may be better-known for those living in dictatorial states, in contemporary times expressing disagreement and dissent also demands courage from many living in democratic settings. So, what lessons are there to be learned from media courage and resistance in non-liberal countries? Which strategies have been used by scholars, filmmakers, photographers, journalists and social activists to denounce malpractices in autocratic regimes? How can such strategies be adopted in countries whose democratic institutions are being challenged? How can the media but also individuals use different platforms to denounce wrongdoings and expand the perspectives being debated in the public arena? How can the media avoid falling into the trap of being used as tools at the service of those who aim to promote fear and hate? How is dissidence being silenced through online and offline shaming, book bans, financial and physical threats? And how can communities support those who show courage to report on issues that challenge the official narratives? We welcome proposals by doctoral students and early career post-doctoral researchers from all over the world to discuss the intertwined relations between media and courage in different geographies and temporalities. The list below illustrates some of topics for possible consideration. Other topics dealing with media and courage are also welcomed:

-       Courage in news reporting 

-       Witnessing war and tragedy

-       Courage on social media

-       Media activism

-       Denouncing hate speech and aggression against gender, racial and religious minorities

-       Alternative and underground media 

-       Threats and intimidation

-       Opposing anxiety and irrationality

-       Courage and Resistance 

-       Countering disinformation and misinformation 

-       Courage, populism and the media

-       (Self-)censorship

-       Courage and identity formation

-       Algorithms, AI and social trust

-       Expressing courage in the public arena in specific national or regional contexts

-       …

PAPER PROPOSALS

Proposals should be sent to lisbonwinterschool@ucp.pt no later than 5 September 2025 and include a paper title, extended abstract in English (700 words), name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation and a brief bio (max. 100 words) mentioning ongoing research. Applicants will be informed of the result of their submissions by late September. 

FULL PAPER SUBMISSION 

Presenters will be required to submit full papers (max. 20 pages, 1.5 spacing) by 10 December 2025. 

ORGANIZERS

Nelson Ribeiro

Barbie Zelizer

CONVENORS

Sarah Banet-Weiser 

Risto Kunelius

Francis Lee

For more information visit lisbonwinterschool.com

September 16-17, 2025

Brussels, Belgium 

The closing event of the Public Service Media in the Age of Platforms Conference (PSM-AP) marks the conclusion of a three-year collaborative research project. We invite media professionals, scholars, and policymakers to reflect on our findings and the insights gained throughout this journey, while also looking ahead to the future of public service media (PSM) and its implications for various stakeholders.

The conference will focus on the platformisation of public service media and its reinvention, as it adapts to ongoing developments in technology, industry, and politics. We welcome researchers, policymakers, and industry experts to join us in Brussels on 16-17 September 2025 to share insights, present new research, and engage in thoughtful dialogue on key themes that have emerged from the project.

More info and preliminary programme: https://psm-ap.com/redefining-public-service-media-in-the-age-of-platforms-values-strategies-and-organisations/ 

Registration is free but mandatory at: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=qHxbaagtRUWi2kLQN4TlhR9lwXSFoedNqs3SHMv8ziRUQzhFTTNEUjRLM1hHOUpTRkE4SzI1OEw1SS4u&route=shorturl

September 19, 2025 

University of Leeds, UK

Deadline: July 4, 2025

Dear colleagues, 

We are delighted to share the call for papers for a one day symposium at the University of Leeds. 

Please find details below.  

The AHRC What's On? Project Team: Beth Johnson, Dave O'Brien, Laura Minor, Anna Viola Sborgi 

Keynote: Philip Ralph, award-winning writer of screenplays for television and film and plays for stage and radio  

Closing plenary panel  

A One-Day Symposium as part of the What’s On? Rethinking Class in the TV Industry research project – funded by the AHRC  

From the working-class characters we see on screen to the systemic barriers behind the scenes, class has never been more central to debates about the British TV industry.  

Recent data from the Creative Industries Policy Evidence Centre (PEC) reveals a stark picture: just

8% of the Film, TV and Radio workforce come from working-class backgrounds - the lowest figure in over a decade (McAndrew et al. 2024; Stephenson 2024). Studies show that individuals from these backgrounds are systematically excluded at every stage of their careers (Carey et al. 2021; O’Brien et al. 2016; Oakley et al. 2017; Brook et al. 2018). In response, the Creative Diversity Network (CDN) has committed to better tracking socio-economic diversity by adding class-focused questions to its 2024 Diamond survey.  

Class is also increasingly visible in public and industry discourse. In 2024, James Graham used the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival to deliver a powerful critique of the industry’s class inequalities, calling for structural change.  

On screen, television is engaging with class in more complex and intersectional ways. Alma’s Not Normal (BBC Two), Help (C4), Derry Girls (C4),  Dreamers (C4) and Sherwood (BBC One) all portray class alongside gender, race, disability and place - reflecting shifting cultural conversations and the urgent need for scholarly engagement with these representations.  

This one-day symposium invites new perspectives on class and television as both a site of cultural meaning and a structure of exclusion. While the central focus of the What’s On? research and this symposium is on television drama, we also welcome proposals that engage with other genres where class is a significant concern. Inspired by the What’s On? research project, we draw on the Circuit of Culture model developed by the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), which highlights five interlinked moments in cultural production: representation, identity, production, consumption, and regulation. This framework helps us ask: how can we rethink class in TV from the inside out?  

We’re especially interested in work that:  

• Analyses how class is represented on screen - whose stories are told, and how are classed experiences shaped by race, gender, disability, and other intersecting identities? 
  
• Explores how class, in conjunction with other social positions, shapes identities and career trajectories within the industry.  
  
• Examines the structures of production - from hiring to commissioning, from freelancing to gatekeeping - with a focus on how intersecting inequalities of class, race, gender and disability are embedded in industry norms. 
  
• Investigates patterns of consumption - asking how classed experiences, alongside factors such as cultural background, language, and access, shape how audiences interpret and relate to television content. 
  
• Critiques regulatory frameworks - including policy, data collection, funding and diversity schemes – through the lens of class and its intersections with other structural inequalities.  
  

While academic work has made valuable contributions - especially in reality TV and class representation (Wood & Skeggs 2011, 2012; Biressi & Nunn 2005, 2008; Munt 2008; Deery & Press 2017; Minor 2023) - important gaps remain. We need deeper intersectional analyses (Rice et al. 2019) and more focus on how class interacts with other forms of marginalisation (Malik 2013; Conor et al. 2015). We also need to connect industry practice, policy shifts, viewer experience and scholarly critique.  

We welcome proposals from scholars, early career researchers, industry practitioners, activists, and creatives across disciplines and sectors.  

Key questions include:  

• What is the impact of class and its intersections on contemporary TV production?  
  
• How is class represented, misrepresented, or silenced on screen, and how do these depictions intersect with race, gender, disability, and other identities? 
  
• How do audiences engage with classed narratives, and how are these experiences shaped by other aspects of identity and lived experience? 
  
• How do current policies, data practices, and regulatory frameworks address or overlook the intersecting inequalities of class, race, gender, and other identities in TV production? 
  
• How can scholarship and industry practice work together to address intersecting inequalities and create meaningful change? 
  

Join us in Leeds for a critical and creative day of discussion, collaboration, and reimagining the future of British television - on and off screen.  

We invite proposals for 15–20-minute papers. Please submit a 250-word abstract along with a short biography (maximum 80 words) to whatsontvclass@gmail.com by 4th July 2025. 

Applicants will be notified of the outcome during the week beginning 21st July 2025.  

Registration is free.           

We are pleased to offer a limited number of UK travel bursaries (2–3) for PGRs, ECRs, or independent scholars presenting at the event. If your paper is accepted and you are eligible, you will be invited to complete a short application form.  

Edited By: Susan Aasman, Anat Ben-David, Niels Brügger

The Routledge Companion to Transnational Web Archive Studies explores the untapped potential of web archives for researching transnational digital history and communication. It covers cross- border, cross- collection, and cross- institutional examination of web archives on a global scale.

This comprehensive collaborative work, emerging from the WARCnet research network, presents an exploration of the ways web archive research can transcend technological and legal challenges to allow for new comparative, transnational studies of the web’s pasts, and of global events. By combining interdisciplinary work and fostering collaboration between web archivists and researchers, the book provides readers with cutting- edge approaches to analyzing digital cultural heritage across countries. The book contains concrete examples on how to research national web domains through a transnational perspective; provides case studies with grounded explorations of the COVID- 19 crisis as a distinctly transnational event captured by web archives; offers methodological considerations while unpacking techniques and skill sets for conducting transnational web archive research; and critically engages the politics and power dynamics inherent to web archives as institutionalised collections.

The Routledge Companion to Transnational Web Archive Studies is an essential read for graduate students and scholars from internet and media studies, cultural studies, history, and digital humanities. It will also appeal to web archiving practitioners, including librarians, web curators, and IT developers.

Read more at https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Transnational-Web-Archive-Studies/Aasman-Ben-David-Brugger/p/book/9781032497785?srsltid=AfmBOop890V82kavR13fuITr-sDpj3aLI1QmhP6qEjFn7-VMt-5j2aYm

November 6, 2025

Online conference

Deadline: August 15, 2025

The ECREA Visual Cultures Section invites scholars to examine the entanglements of visual cultures with power, identity, technology, and truth-making. We seek contributions that analyse visual cultures through lenses attentive to epistemologies and ethics. In particular, we are interested in questions that reflect on research objects, methods and teaching practices in visual social research.

Authors may submit to one of three conference streams: the general conference stream, the methods, or teaching streams. Submission deadline: 15th August 2025.

More information: https://visualculturesecrea.wordpress.com/2025/05/20/call-for-papers-online/

Susanne Janssen, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Nete Nørgaard Kristensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Marc Verboord, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

2025, Routledge

Website, open access: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003460497

Against the backdrop of globalisation, digitalisation, growing diversity and social inequality, the book offers timely and critical insights into the role of culture and cultural participation in the daily lives of Europeans from different social groups and countries. In fifteen thematic chapters, it explores how residents of nine European countries engage with and experience culture, with particular attention given to the perspectives of migrants. The book is based on extensive empirical research conducted as part of the EU-funded Horizon 2020 INVENT project (European Inventory of Societal Values of Culture as a Basis for Inclusive Cultural Policies). Fieldwork was carried out in nine countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The collaborative work of the INVENT consortium has provided a rich empirical foundation for cultural research, policymaking, and practice.

Ramírez Plascencia, D., & Alonzo González, R. M. (Eds.). (2025)

This book analyzes the potential benefits of using artificial intelligence to surpass traditional social and economic problems in Latin America, but it also looks to understand the perils and barriers derived from the adoption of this technology. This volume is divided in Section 1. “Considering AI in the private sphere” that debates about the employment of artificial intelligence from the citizen’s perspective. It embraces topics related with the introduction of AI in the media and the labor market, and how Latin Americans perceive, engage and mobilize before the rising presence of AI in their daily lives. Section 2. Challenges and promises of AI in the public sector centers on the ethical and legal controversies triggered by the incorporation of artificial intelligence in the public sphere. It focuses on the promising benefits of introducing AI in the public administration, education and public security, but also the latent impacts on human rights.

TOC

1. The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Latin America  

David Ramírez Plascencia, Rosa María Alonzo González  Pages 1-18 

Considering AI in the Private Sphere  

2. Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, and Media: An Analysis of Journalism in Latin America from an International Perspective  David Ramírez Plascencia  Pages 21-39  

3. From Epistemological Foundations over Futuristic Speculations to Fact-Based Concerns: Evolving Discussions on Artificial Intelligence in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico (2014–2024)  Fátima Ávila-Acosta, Lucía Morales-Lizárraga, Jan Nehring  Pages 41-65  

4. The Algorithmic Tyranny in the Gig Economy: National Strategies and Policy Implications in the Latin American Context  Alisa Petroff  Pages 67-83  

5. Mapping the Future of AI Regulation in Latin America: Civil Society Perspectives on Brazil’s Pilot AI Regulatory Sandbox  Kenzo Soares Seto  Pages 85-104  

Challenges and Promises of AI in the Public Sector  

6. Ethical and Legal Dilemmas of National AI Policies in Latin American Countries  Rosa María Alonzo González  Pages 107-124  

7. The Use of Biometrics and AI for Border Control and Its Impact on Human Rights  Jezabel Pérez Yáñez, Natalia Brzezinski Ramírez  Pages 125-141  

8. Ethical and Educational Dilemmas of AI in Latin American Higher Education Institutions: Persistent Challenges and Inquiries  

Jairo Alberto Galindo-Cuesta, Rubén Yáñez Reyna, Paola Mercado Lozano  Pages 143-164  

9. The Quest for a Responsible Use of AI in Latin America  Rosa María Alonzo González, David Ramírez Plascencia  Pages 165-177