European Communication Research and Education Association
May 14, 2026 (6:30 - 8:00 PM, followed by drinks)
LSE & online
A public lecture by the DFC
Major online safety regulations and legislation are now in force across the UK and EU. Platforms have new duties, regulators have new powers, and expectations are high. But what has actually changed for children?
Bringing together leading voices from regulation, legal scholarship and child rights, as well as new research evidence, the event will reflect on how regulation reshapes platform design, governance and accountability in practice.
Speakers:
Chair: Sonia Livingstone, Professor at the Department of Media and Communications, LSE and Director of the Digital Futures for Children centre
Steve Wood: “The research shows that regulation has yet to drive systemic change in safety and privacy by design for children. Instead, platforms are investing more in parental controls than in default protections. At the same time, we observe a rise in age assurance measures and early regulatory effects on AI services used by children.”
More information & free registration: https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/events/child-rights-regulation
Recent from the DFC in case you missed it:
African children's rights in relation to the digital environment: child-informed provocations to guide digital policy and practice - https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/our-work/African-childrens-rights
The impact of General comment No. 25 in the UNCRC monitoring process and around the world: https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/our-work/impact-gc25
DFC annual research insights day blog overview: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/medialse/2026/04/14/childrens-rights-in-the-digital-environment-have-been-defined-now-they-need-defending/
Edited volume (Anthem Press) by Ester Cristaldi
Deadline: June 30, 2026
Chapter proposals are invited for the edited volume Artificial Intelligence and Cultural Meaning: Language, Images and Interpretation in the Digital Age, under contract with Anthem Press.
The volume examines artificial intelligence as a cultural, semiotic, social and media phenomenon. Rather than approaching AI only as a technical system or computational tool, the book investigates how AI participates in the production, circulation and transformation of meaning in contemporary digital culture.
The central premise of the volume is that AI does not simply process information. It increasingly mediates how people write, read, see, classify, imagine, remember and interpret the world. AI systems generate texts and images, organise visibility, shape public attention, classify social subjects, predict behaviour and participate in the construction of cultural narratives.
The book is grounded in semiotics and linguistics, but it also welcomes interdisciplinary perspectives from cultural studies, media and communication studies, media sociology, digital sociology, digital humanities, visual culture, platform studies, critical data studies, journalism studies, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, and related fields.
Topics
Possible topics include:
Submission Guidelines
Interested contributors are invited to submit:
Full chapters will be expected to be approximately 6,000–8,000 words, including references.
Timeline
Submission
Chapter proposals should be sent to:
Maria Pia Ester Cristaldi
Üsküdar University
mariapia.cristaldi @uskudar. edu.tr
Please include “Chapter Proposal – Artificial Intelligence and Cultural Meaning” in the subject line.
Contact Information
Ester Cristaldi, Üsküdar University, mariapia.cristaldi @uskudar.edu.tr
Contact Email: mariapia.cristaldi@uskudar.edu.tr
May 13, 2026
This webinar aims to provide a much-needed focus on disability studies and media in Africa and to share critical insights from the works of various scholars and practitioners who focus on disability and media in Africa while introducing and centering important voices from African scholarship on disability and media.
Speakers will focus on topics such as “Between Tragedy and Miracles: Personal reflections on encountering blindness narratives in media and the development of authentic identity”, “Community Media as a Tool for Disability Empowerment in Rural Africa”, “The role of the media in shaping attitudes about albinism in Sierra Leone” as well as “Disability, Normalcy, Difference, and Eugenic Thinking”.
Sponsored by the Inclusive Communication and People with Disabilities (ICO) Working Group, this webinar creates a space to share work, identify gaps and spotlight important contributions in African disability studies and media scholarship.
When: Wednesday, 13 May 2026 @ 11:00 UTC / 12h00 London / 13h00 Paris / 14h00 Nairobi / 16h30 Kolkata / 19h00 Beijing / 21h00 Brisbane. The event will last 2 hours.
Pre-registration is required by 11 May. Register at https://iamcr.org/webinars/register-media-and-disability
Sponsored by: IAMCR's Inclusive Communication and People with Disabilities (ICO) Working Group
Organisers
Moderator
Ngozi Marion Emmanuel, Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, Birmingham City University, UK
For more, see at https://iamcr.org/webinars/media-and-disability
Register at https://iamcr.org/webinars/register-media-and-disability
A Call for Book Chapter Proposals
Deadline: May 15, 2026
We are pleased to share this call for book chapter proposals for Teaching AI, to be published open access by EdTech Books. Abstracts (250 words) are due May 15, 2026. Authors will be notified no later than May 29, 2026. Accepted chapters will be due by July 1, 2026. The book will be published in Fall 2026. Full details are below, but please feel free to contact us with questions or to submit your proposal at rferdig@gmail.com.
We recognize this is an ambitious timeline. However, because each chapter follows a structured template and draws directly from courses you are already teaching, we believe the turnaround is manageable. Accepted authors will receive the full template upon notification and can expect chapters to run approximately 4,000-6,000 words.
Best, Richard E. Ferdig (Kent State University), Richard Hartshorne (U. Central Florida), Enrico Gandolfi (KSU), Laurie O. Campbell (UCF), and Jennifer Petit (KSU)
Purpose
Artificial intelligence is not new. Faculty across computer science, cognitive science, information systems, engineering, and related fields have been teaching AI for decades, building courses, developing pedagogical approaches, and preparing students for a world increasingly shaped by intelligent systems. What has changed in recent years is not the existence of AI but its visibility, its accessibility, and its reach. AI is now part of nearly every discipline and nearly every conversation about the future of education, work, and society.
And yet, despite this breadth, we do not always share what we know. Syllabi go unread beyond individual institutions. Pedagogical decisions made through years of trial and error stay locked in one classroom. Faculty building new AI courses, often under significant institutional pressure and with little time, are reinventing wheels that their colleagues across campus or across the world have already built.
The goal of Teaching AI is to fix that. This edited collection brings together faculty who teach AI (in any discipline, at any level, in any context) to share their syllabi, their teaching strategies, their hard-won best practices, and their vision for where AI education is headed. The result will be a single, rich, open-access resource for anyone teaching AI or thinking about doing so.
This is not a collection about AI in the abstract. It is a collection about the concrete, practical, and deeply human work of teaching AI to students. We are as interested in the instructor who has been teaching machine learning since the 1990s as we are in the instructor who launched an AI literacy course last semester. Both have something essential to contribute.
Each chapter follows a shared template and includes multiple components: course purpose and objectives, disciplinary context, pedagogical approach, AI ethics and academic integrity, course texts and technologies, assignments, an expanded course outline, best practices, and future directions. Chapters will be organized by content area, and that organization will emerge from the submissions themselves.
For a sense of what this format looks like in practice, we encourage prospective contributors to review our related collection, Teaching the Game (Volumes 1 and 2), available free of charge at Volume 1 and Volume 2. While that collection focuses on gaming education, the chapter format, voice, and scope are directly analogous to what we are building here.
Areas We Especially Welcome
Any standalone AI course (i.e., discipline-specific or designed for a general audience) is eligible for consideration. We welcome submissions from institutions around the world and across every level of instruction within higher education.
To ensure the collection reflects the full breadth of how AI is being taught, we are particularly interested in courses that represent the following areas. This is not an exhaustive list but rather an invitation. If your course does not appear here, that is not a reason to hesitate. It may be exactly what this collection needs.
One important note: we are specifically seeking standalone AI courses. These are courses in which AI is the primary subject. Courses that include an AI module or unit within a broader curriculum are outside the scope of this collection.
Details
To be considered, please submit a 250-word abstract by May 15, 2026, that includes:
Full chapters will be due July 1, 2026. Accepted authors will receive a complete updated chapter template. The book will be published open access with Creative Commons licensing by EdTech Books.
Please send proposals and any questions to rferdig@gmail.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 China, or adopt comparative and transnational perspectives.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Key dates
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
We would greatly appreciate it if you could circulate this call among colleagues, research groups, and academic networks who may be interested.
Thank you for your attention, and we look forward to receiving your submissions.
June 4, 2026, 8:30–12:00 (UTC+2)
Cape Town, South Africa (in person)
Deadline: May 4, 2026
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
Alongside the academic program, participants are invited to take part in a carefully curated program of guided tours and cultural events, designed to offer a deeper and more distinctive engagement with Brno. Extending beyond standard sightseeing, the program provides access to experiences that are rarely available to visitors: the tours cover key highlights of the city, but they also offer a unique look at some of Brno's architectural marvels, including the functionalist Villa Tugendhat or the city water tanks. Cultural events include English-friendly theatre performance, film screenings in a functionalist church, and a workshop on sustainable analog photography. These events are designed to offer not only cultural insight but also access to spaces and experiences that are often not easily available, even to local residents.
Participants can sign up for these activities during the conference registration process. As capacity is limited and many of these events tend to fill up quickly, we strongly encourage you to secure your spot early, before 31 May 2026.
More information about the program is available here: https://ecrea2026brno.eu/tours-culture-workshops/
September 14, 2026
Utrecht University (the Netherlands)
Deadline: May 29, 2026
Organized by Karin van Es (Utrecht University), Ramon Lobato (Swinburne University), and Mike Wayne (Erasmus University).
Powered by Special Interest Group Streaming Video.
This workshop explores media distribution in connected vehicles. Planes, trains and automobiles have been electronically mediated environments since the appearance of car radios in the 1930s. Yet recent developments in connected and autonomous transport have introduced an expanded array of media experiences, interfaces, and streaming integrations. This prompts new questions for media research: Who controls vehicular screens? What content is available–or restricted? What user experiences are offered and normalised? How are such screens regulated, and to what effect? In addressing these questions, the workshop approaches digital media as mobile and context-dependent rather than primarily domestic or platform-bound. Our aim is to relocate television, radio and other media within infrastructures of mobility, where viewing practices, technologies, and meanings are reconfigured.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
We welcome theoretically grounded and empirically oriented contributions from media studies, law, design, sociology, mobility studies and related fields that critically engage with the workshop’s themes.
Submission details:
Abstracts of 350 words are due by 29 May 2026 along with a 100 word bio and should be sent to mediainmotionworkshop@gmail.com
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 5 June, and accepted authors will be invited to submit extended abstracts of 1,500 words by 5 September. The workshop will be held on 14 September at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. A special issue is planned following the workshop. We also welcome expressions of interest from scholars who cannot attend the workshop but would like to be considered for the special issue. Please feel free to reach out to the organisers by email: mediainmotionworkshop@gmail.com
History of Media Studies
Deadline: September 15, 2026
History of Media Studies solicits proposals for a special section on the histories of publishing in the media, communication, and film studies fields. The focus of the special section is on the role of publishers—both commercial and nonprofit—in these fields’ development. We are keen to highlight the contributions of publishing houses and publication initiatives from around the world, including those beyond the Anglophone North Atlantic.
Most existing histories of the media, communication, and film studies fields take the publication context of the works they survey for granted. The premise of the special section is that specific publishers—and the wider world of academic publishing—have made a difference in the development of local, national, and subfield traditions of scholarship. Very few works of dedicated history have attended to these publishing ventures. The special section will provide a forum for new accounts, in conversation with these fields’ intellectual and institutional histories.
Proposals of around 1000 words, including references, should be sent to hms@mediastudies.press, with the subject line: Histories of Publishing. The deadline for submitting proposals is September 15, 2026. Please reach out if you have any questions or ideas.
Proposals may be submitted in English or Spanish, the two languages that History of Media Studies publishes.
We expect most contributions to be research articles (generally 14,000 words or fewer), but we will also consider other formats, including research notes, commentaries, interviews/oral histories, overlay re-publications, and contextualized archival materials; please see our Author Guidelines for more details: https://hms.mediastudies.press/author-guidelines
Suggested approaches include, but are not limited to:
Please reach out to hms@mediastudies.press with any questions.
History of Media Studies is a peer-reviewed, scholar-run, diamond OA journal dedicated to scholarship on the history of research, education, and reflective knowledge about media and communication—as expressed through academic institutions; through commercial, governmental, and non-governmental organizations; and through “alter-traditions” of thought and practice often excluded from the academic mainstream. The journal publishes high-quality, original articles, reviews, and commentary on the history of this inter- and extra-disciplinary area as it has intersected with other fields in the social sciences and humanities—and with social practices beyond the academy.
University of St. Gallen
The Media and Culture Research Unit at the MCM Institute, University of St. Gallen is hiring:
We are seeking two highly motivated PhD candidates to join an exciting new SNSF-funded research project investigating the persuasive power of communicative AI (comAI) in the everyday lives of adolescents and families across Europe.
The Project
Chatbots, virtual assistants, and AI writing tools are becoming a normal part of daily life for young people across Europe. Yet we know surprisingly little about how these technologies actually influence adolescents - their attitudes, decisions, and relationships - in the context of everyday family life. This four-year cross-national ethnographic study investigates the persuasive power of comAI among adolescents aged 13–18 and their families across Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy. It examines AI influence along three dimensions: the interpersonal dimension, exploring how young people perceive AI as a social actor and navigate questions of agency and relationship; the social and cultural dimension, focusing on how families respond to AI-generated disinformation, bias, and errors; and the technical dimension, examining how families understand emotional design, data profiling, and manipulative by-design features in comAI. Findings will inform AI regulation and digital literacy programmes across Europe.
The DOK Programme
Successful candidates will be enrolled in the PhD Programme in Organisation Studies and Cultural Theory (DOK) at the University of St. Gallen. The DOK programme integrates the university's core and contextual subjects in an interdisciplinary form of doctoral studies, bringing together organisational research and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS). The programme is particularly suited to research that engages with complex social, cultural, and technological questions from multiple disciplinary perspectives, making it an ideal home for this project.
What We Offer
Your Profile
How to Apply:
Application must be submitted by 4 May. In person interviews will be held by 15 June, with decisions communicated by the end of that month.
Please send along:
APPLICATION LINK: https://jobs.unisg.ch/offene-stellen/two-fully-funded-phd-positions-m-w-d/53f14753-3d80-4877-acfe-1acc0b62e409
For information about the job opening or general questions, please contact philip.disalvo@unisg.ch (applications must be submitted through the application link, applications coming via email won't be considered).
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