ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Media & Communication (special issue)

Deadline: June 15, 2026

https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/futureissues#i537

Over the past decade, emergent technologies have opened new avenues for political actors to shape public opinion, discredit rivals, and gain advantage—often by subverting established norms of political communication. Billionaires purchase media platforms to influence discourse, influencers are paid to spread covert political messages, and bots and trolls distort opinion and stoke discord to serve hidden agendas. Meanwhile, journalists, institutions, and the public struggle to respond in a chaotic, attention-driven environment where information is weaponised and trust eroded.

This climate has empowered malevolent actors who stage public spectacles to distract attention while operating behind the scenes to weaken democratic norms and concentrate power without scrutiny. While recent research on disinformation and “fake news” has focused on tracking problematic content and its effects, scholars now increasingly recognise that these are not external threats but systemic tools often wielded by elite actors. Yet, there remains a lack of understanding around how specific actors exploit new media to pursue anti-democratic goals.

This thematic issue brings together global scholars to explore how technological affordances are exploited to undermine political institutions, destabilise liberal democracy, and promote nativism, racism, and authoritarianism. By investigating these strategic communication tactics, we aim to identify the roots of political dysfunction and build resilience against these threats.

We welcome research on the communication practices of malign elites and extreme actors, especially from the Global South and East, and non-Western political systems. We also seek work examining intersections with colonial legacies, wealth inequality, and gendered harm.

Topics of interest include:

Strategic political communication in the attention economy, such as micro-targeting;

• How “culture war” topics and/or polarisation discourses are used to drive anti-democratic or anti-establishment sentiment;
  
• The strategic use of disinformation tactics and/or conspiracy theories for political advantage;
  
• Use of AI and automation by malign political actors;
  
• Media manipulation strategies, such as the relationship between political actors and hyper-partisan media outlets;
  
• Efforts to erode public trust in institutions and governance.
  

Instructions for Authors

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Open Access

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

Academic Editor(s): Stephen Harrington (Queensland University of Technology), Timothy Graham (Queensland University of Technology), Ella Chorazy (Queensland University of Technology), and Aljosha Karim Schapals (Queensland University of Technology)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2026

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2026

Publication of the Issue: January/June 2027

August 17-21, 2026

USI, Lugano (In presence)

Full Program & Registration: https://www.usi.ch/it/formazione/summer-winter-school/ssm

Patricia Prieto-Blanco and Katharina Lobinger from ECREA Visual Cultures section will be co-leading a week-long intensive workshop on Visual Data and Visual Methods in Social Sciences at the Università della Svizzera italiana. This workshop is part of the 30th edition of the Summer School in Social Sciences Methods—one of the largest methods schools in Europe! If you want to expand your knowledge (and practice) of visual research methods, consider joining our workshop :).

We have designed this course to be deeply hands-on. It isn’t just about looking at images; it’s about understanding how visuals can be used for research. We’ll be moving from the "why" to the "how," covering:

• Experimenting with visual ethnography, the visual essay, and photo elicitation.
  
• How to engage respondents as partners through drawing-based exercises and card sorting.
  
• Mastering both qualitative and quantitative content analysis to tackle the massive amounts of visual data in our digital world.
  
• We will spend significant time on the feminist ethos in research—discussing power, reflexivity, and the ethics of embodiment.
  

What makes this Summer School special is the modality. We are meeting in presence in beautiful Lugano. This allows us to engage in real-time experimentation, producing and analysing visual data together in an environment that encourages critical reflection and creative growth.

Whether you are just starting your PhD or looking to add a visual dimension to your existing research projects, Katharina and I look forward to welcoming you to the USI campus! If you are a supervisor, I would appreciate you sharing it with doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in your team. 

March 31-April 1, 2026

Online

Deadline: March 29, 2026

Registration: To register, please send a short email to warsensing@europa-uni.de by 29 March, expressing your interest to join the public programme.

Event description:

As part of an ongoing collaboration between the “War Sensing” project (European University Viadrina/CRC “Media of Cooperation”) , the Telegram Archive of the War (Center for Urban History, Lviv) and the School of Communications/Conflict Institute (Dublin City University), we are organising a 1,5 day conference and online data sprint “Witnessing and Justice in Data-Based Research”, which is scheduled for 31 March-1 April.

The conference and data sprint will reflect upon the practices and limits of war-related research based on digital, archived and other types of data. The urgent question here is how to address the ongoing tension between such data-based research of war and the injustices that persist. Despite the large volume of data and the variety of ways in which Russia’s war in Ukraine has been documented, represented and analysed in order to expose its unjust nature and practices, the destruction and attacks against Ukraine persist. Data-based investigations using “data for the good” (cf. Williams, 2022; Kazansky et al., 2019) form a small part of achieving transitional justice and maintain hope and demand accountability by using digitally derived evidence of war injustices and crimes. (How) do digital data archives and data-based investigations continue to counter war-related injustices, and what approaches have proved as successful? What are the various limitations of digital data-based witnessing of war in terms of experiential, juridical, political and other nature? How can the tension between the investigations and ongoing injustices tell us about the role and impact of contemporary war witnessing?  

The event consists of two sessions that are open for the general public. The first open session takes place on the morning of 31 March and features a keynote talk by Oksana Avramenko "Granting Access to War: Ethics and Accountability in the TG Archive", followed by a roundtable discussion "Limits of War Witnessing" with Jelnar Ahmad, Karina Buhaichenko, Yevheniia Drozdova, Oleksiy Radynski and Bohdan Shumylovych. 

The second session, which is also open to the public, will take place in the evening on 1 April and will consist of a roundtable discussion on "Digital Justice and Accountability" with Jenna Dolecek, Kaja Kowalczewska and Maryna Slobodyanuk. This will be followed by a screening of the film “A Home for Rita”, after which there will be a Q&A session with the director, Yulia Appen, and Sashko Protyah from the Freefilmers collective.

The event will also consist of a half-day closed data sprint on 31 March, during which participants from the previous data sprint will discuss their ongoing hands-on work with the Telegram Archive’s data. Due to the sensitive and ongoing nature of the research, this part will only be open to previous data sprint participants. 

The detailed event programme can be found on the event page here. The final programme, including the Zoom links, will be sent to registered participants. 

To register, please send a short email to warsensing@europa-uni.de by 29 March, expressing your interest to join the public programme.

On behalf of the CRC Media of Cooperation and the project teams “War Sensing” (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) with Prof. Dr. Miglė Bareikytė, Johanna Hiebl and Gregor Wörl, the Telegram Archive of the War (Center for Urban History, Lviv) with Oksana Avramenko and Maryana Mazurak and School of Communication (Dublin City University) with Prof. Dr. Tanya Lokot 

October 2-3, 2026

University of Oviedo (Historic Building), Spain

Deadline: May 15, 2026

The University of Oviedo, through the Department of Art History and Musicology, in collaboration with the R&D Project Music and Audiovisual Media: Intermedial Transits, Heritage and Cultural Dialogues (MUSIMA) (PID2023-147271NB-I00), announces the call for papers for the International Conference on Identities, Ideologies and Aesthetics in Subcultures, Music Scenes and Urban Tribes, to be held on 2–3 October 2026 at the Historic Building of the University of Oviedo.

The conference provides an interdisciplinary forum for the study of subcultures, music scenes, urban tribes, and related sociocultural formations within popular culture. It welcomes contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including Sociology, Cultural Studies, Musicology, Communication, Anthropology, Cultural Geography, and the Arts and Humanities.  

Full call for papers and further details: https://congreso-subculturas-2026.webnode.es/

Thematic areas include:

• Concepts, categories, and theorization
  
• Digital cultures, video games, media ecologies, and platforms
  
• Creativity, emerging technologies, and artificial intelligence
  
• Spaces, territories, and urban and rural studies
  
• Situated, mixed, collaborative, and visual methodologies
  
• Memory, musical heritage, nostalgia, and revival
  
• Political economy, cultural labor, and alternative media
  
• Bodies, gender, queerness, and political action
  
• Photography, fashion, and other artistic media
  
• Popular music
  
• Audiovisual media
  
• Film, photography, and music festivals and live events
  

Submission guidelines:

Proposals should be sent to: congresosubculturas@gmail.com

Subject line: “PROPUESTA DE COMUNICACIÓN UNIOVI 2026”

Submissions must include a single PDF file containing:

• An abstract (max. 250 words)
  
• A short biographical note (max. 150 words)
  
• Indication of up to three thematic areas

Proposals may be submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or any of the co-official languages of Spain. Only in-person presentations will be accepted.  

Deadline for submission: 15 May 2026

Contact:

congresosubculturas@gmail.com

March 30, 2026

Online

The ECREA Ukraine Task Force, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communication, invites media and communication researchers, as well as scholars from related fields, to a webinar on publishing in top-tier academic journals, with a specific focus on the United States.

Approaches and expectations in U.S. academic journals often differ significantly from publication practices in other regions. This webinar will explore key aspects of American academic culture and provide practical guidance on manuscript preparation, helping participants better understand the requirements that increase the chances of successful publication.

Speaker:

Jasper Fessmann, PhD, University of Memphis. Since 2023, he has served as a faculty member in the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media. Previously, he worked at West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media. Before entering academia, he gained over 15 years of experience in international PR agencies. His research focuses on public interest communications, international PR, disinformation, and crisis communication. He is also a member of the editorial boards of two US-based academic journals.

Date and time:

March 30, 2026, 17:00 (EET)

Webinar format includes two parts:

• A short presentation with practical advice on publishing in U.S. academic journals
  
• A discussion involving Roman Horbyk and other members of the ECREA Ukraine Task Force on the challenges faced by Ukrainian scholars in the publication process and possible ways to address them.
  

Duration: 45 minutes

Language: English

Participation is free and available through registration. Registered participants will receive the Zoom link and other details in advance. 

June 4, 2026, 8:30–12:00 (UTC+2)

Cape Town, South Africa (in person) 

We are delighted to announce that registration is officially open for the ICA 2026 pre-conference: https://www.icahdq.org/event/Childrens (deadline, 4 May 2026)

Why attend?

This half-day, workshop-style pre-conference will bring together scholars and practitioners to explore how research can inform policy, regulation and child rights-respecting design in digital environments.

Keynote Speaker – Professor Ann Skelton

University of Pretoria & University of Leiden, Former Chair, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

What to expect:

The programme encompasses an exceptional breadth of scholarship relating to children’s rights, ranging from AI governance, platform power and digital labour to youth activism, digital violence, age-based bans, family mediation, gaming ecosystems and data protection. The conference discussions will be grounded in rich empirical work from across Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia.

Registration Details

Fee: $35

Fee waivers available for students and participants from UN third-tier countries. If this applies to you, please email us to obtain a waiver: info@info@dfc-centre.net

ICA membership or main conference registration not required

About

We invite scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and civil society actors to join us for the preconference to discuss how research can guide policy, regulation, and digital design, and how Global South perspectives can strengthen and reshape international debates within the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General comment No. 25.

The pre-conference is organised by Digital Futures for Children, a joint research centre at LSE with 5Rights Foundation, in association with the ICA divisions Children, Adolescence and Media and Communication Law and Policy. For further information, visit https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/events/ica/preconference 

August 17-19, 2026

Vilnius, Lithuania

Deadline: April 20, 2026

The Nordic Network of Intercultural Communication (NIC) Conference 2026 will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, from 17 to 19 August 2026. 

The NIC Conference is an annual interdisciplinary event, held for the 32nd time in 2026. It brings together researchers, teachers, students, and practitioners from the Nordic and Baltic regions and beyond to discuss topics related to intercultural communication. 

The theme of this year’s conference is „Intercultural communication for change“. With this theme, we invite contributions that explore intercultural communication as a process of (ex)change of meanings, understandings, values, and knowledge, and examine its role in contexts of transformation and uncertainty. We particularly welcome work addressing intercultural communication as a response to change, a driver of change, or a means of anticipating, managing, and potentially preventing disruptive forms of change, including crises. We also encourage critical reflection on the relationship between intercultural communication research, practice, and policy, including possible mismatches between them and the ways research can (or should) contribute to changes in individual behaviours, professional practices, education, and public policy.

In addition to contributions addressing the conference theme, we also welcome proposals concerning other aspects of intercultural communication.

We invite submissions from researchers at all career stages, as well as practitioners, across the social sciences and humanities.

The deadline for abstract submissions is 20 April 2026.

For further details, including the full Call for Abstracts, important dates and submission guidelines, please visit the NIC Vilnius 2026 conference site: https://www.nicvilnius2026.kf.vu.lt/

Deadline: April 30, 2026

EBU & JOMEC RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP GRANT

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is partnering with the School of Journalism, Media & Culture at Cardiff University (JOMEC) to offer grants that support research in the EBU Ukraine Archive which opened in November 2025.

Launched by the EBU, the Ukraine Archive is a comprehensive, searchable database on the Russia-Ukraine War since February 2022. It brings together thousands of video and audio reports from EBU-member news teams, as well as verified social media clips. The Archive is a resource for journalists, documentary makers, and researchers. It currently comprises nearly 30,000 items and continues to grow as the war goes on. The EBU Ukraine Archive offers an enhanced and focused content search and, in addition, every item is tagged according to editorial and legal categories designed to document human rights abuses in armed conflict. 

JOMEC will offer three research fellowships of €500 each to current PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers (within three years of a successful PhD viva) working in a relevant field whose research would benefit from access to this vital resource. 

The EBU’s primary objective in supporting this opportunity is to encourage the use of the Archive in research on the Russia-Ukraine war. 

Terms of the fellowship: 

Successful applicants will consult the EBU Ukraine Archive as part of their research related to the Russia-Ukraine war, attribute the EBU if content from the Ukraine Archive is cited, and submit brief feedback to the EBU about the experience of using the archive.

The EBU Ukraine Archive will be accessed remotely. Half of the fellowship award will be paid at the start of the fellowship, the rest at the end. The fellowship program must be completed within two years of receiving the fellowship. 

Selected fellows will enter into a fellowship agreement with the EBU and must adhere to the terms and conditions governing access to and use of the EBU Ukraine Archive.  

Application:

This opportunity is open to current PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers (within three years of a successful PhD viva) working in a relevant field.

To apply, please submit a letter of motivation (500 words), a project outline (500 words) and a short CV (2 sides of A4) by email to EBU-fellowships@cardiff.ac.uk before Thursday 30 April 2026. 

Decisions will be announced in June 2026. 

If you have any questions concerning this fellowship opportunity, please contact EBU-fellowships@cardiff.ac.uk.

September 17-18, 2026

Aarhus, Denmark

Deadline: April 17, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

Keynote: Professor Debbie Ging

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

About the Nordic Manosphere Network:

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

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

Global Media and China

Deadline: May 20, 2026

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

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

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

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

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

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

Key dates

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

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

Guest Editors:

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

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