ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Anna Zsubori

Since the creation of the franchise in 2000, Disney Princesses have become a ‘phenomenon’ receiving international attention, admiration as well as criticism from both consumers and scholars. Although audience research has seen growing recognition recently, the investigation of audiences in Central and Eastern Europe and those of Disney animated features is greatly neglected by academics. Within the framework of audience research and by employing Disney Princess animations as the object of study, Anna Zsubori’s book examines the verbal and visual identity constructions of tweens in illiberal Hungary.

Through Hungarian tweens’ ambivalent and sometimes even contradictory ideas of identity, this research reveals the heterogeneity of both the ‘Princess Phenomenon’, by highlighting that its local negotiation is profoundly impacted by cultural and societal characteristics, and of the diverse audiences, who are multifarious in their understandings that often incorporate antithetical and dynamic discourses. Combining textual, thematic and semiotic, analyses of the conversations, tweens’ drawings and building blocks, and broader contextual examinations of the sessions with Hungarian children, this book offers original contributions on both theoretical and methodological levels. Its findings demonstrate the novelty of this project, and its relevance to audience, communication, cultural, feminist media, film and tweenhood studies, and sociology.

Praise:

“In this absorbing and thought-provoking text, Zsubori deftly explores the complex position that Disney Princesses inhabit within the lives of Central and Eastern European tweens. Exploring the inbetweenness of age, geography, and culture, this book offers a nuanced reading of Hungarian tweens as intelligent and critical viewers of Disney media, drawing on rich empirical data to give voice to this under-researched group. Through its interdisciplinary approach Zsubori contributes to our understanding of the limits of Western theories in non-Western contexts, and what it means to do gender-specific field work in an anti-gender environment.”

— Victoria Cann, University of East Anglia

“The Walt Disney Company is one of the oldest and most complex global entertainment empires today, engaging with and influencing our lives in various ways regardless of age, race, gender, or geographical location. This book provides a powerful lens inviting the reader to look at Disney not only at the global, macro level, but also the micro-level: in our daily lives, around the family dinner table, in the classroom setting and elsewhere. While the focus is on the Disney Princess phenomenon, and tweens negotiating self-representation and identity in the small Central European nation of Hungary, the insights and conclusions are, in many ways, rather universal, often surprising and paradoxical. The reader will not only see the Disney Princess Franchise but the Disney Company from a more nuanced and informed perspective after reading this influential and well-researched book.”

— Katalin Lustyik, Ithaca College

“What unfolds when a Princess from the West claims her throne in Eastern and Central Europe? Is she a colonial ruler or a feminist icon? Anna Zsubori's insightful book explores the interpretation of Disney Princesses by Hungarian tweens, examining reception of their gender roles and racial identities within the context of Hungary's increasingly patriarchal, racially intolerant, and illiberal society. This exploration delves into the "in-betweenness" of Hungarian tweens, a concept that captures not just their transitional age but also Hungary's delicate balance between East and West.”

— Irena Reifová, Charles University

About the Author:

Anna Zsubori is a media sociologist and film studies scholar, presently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Loughborough University. She specialises in conducting audience research with marginalised and vulnerable participants in Central and Eastern Europe. Her research explores the heterogeneity of Hungarian tween audiences through the participants’ ambivalent and sometimes even contradictory ideas about their identity, while her latest project, funded by the British Academy, examines social media usage among Hungarian LGBTQ+ citizens. Dr Zsubori’s articles have been published in prestigious journals such as the European Journal of Cultural Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Children and Media and Studies in Eastern European Cinema.

Module Reading Lists:

Please do consider requesting a copy of Disney Princesses and Tween Identity: The Franchise in Illiberal Hungary for your university library. It should be relevant to reading lists for various gender, media and film modules/studies, including:

• Audiences, Users and Producers
  
• Children, Culture and Cinema
  
• Culture and Media
  
• Cultural Studies
  
• Disney Studies
  
• Feminist Approaches to Media Analysis
  
• Feminist Media Studies
  
• Film Studies
  
• Gender and Representation
  
• Gender, Identity and Media
  
• Global Audiences
  
• Media Audiences
  
• Media, Identity and Diversity
  
• Popular Media
  
• Researching the Audience
  
• Society and Representation
  
• Texts and Audiences
  
• Tweenhood Studies
  
• Youth Culture and the Media
  

Availability:

Disney Princesses and Tween Identity: The Franchise in Illiberal Hungary is now from Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield) for £92 (Hardcover) and £38 (Ebook). For more information, please visit: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793647115/Disney-Princesses-and-Tween-Identity-The-Franchise-in-Illiberal-Hungary

September 4-7, 2024

Como, Italy

Deadline: May 24, 2024

Find out more

Apply

The TCS organising group is pleased to announce the third edition of its summer school.

Applications are now open!

The spectre of digital capitalism is haunting the world.

The so-called “AI boom” of the past few years has now taken centre stage in the public debate, scientific research, and in the political agendas of international institutions.

As the Global North seems to have embarked on a relentless journey towards the digital restructuring of our societies, the digital transition has given rise to new problems regarding the societal and political implications of new technologies.

Is a new form of digital capitalism emerging from the interplay of digital technology and pre-existing social relations? What is the direct impact of digital technology on human labour? How does this affect our life as a whole? And how is it revolutionising the public sphere? More urgently, what is the role of emancipatory politics in this scenario?

These are some of the questions that tech enthusiasts and technophobes alike are ill-prepared to address.

The third edition of the Lake Como Summer School in Critical Theory of Society will gather scholars of renowned reputation to discuss these issues from different perspectives.

Application deadline: Friday, 24 May 2024 at 11:59 p.m. CET (UTC + 01:00)

Keynote speakers

Gavin Mueller

Rachel O’Dwyer

Tiziano Bonini

Emiliano Treré

Workshops

Philip Di Salvo 

Gala Hernández López

August 18-25, 2024

Jönköping University Sweden

Deadline: May 17, 2024

Democracy depends on engaged citizens. And yet, the most powerful discourses surrounding engagement are strategically designed to drive commercial markets. As a counterpoint to this horizon, the main purpose of this PhD residential course is to understand theories and methods of media engagement not as a metric but as a marker of power relations.

This 7.5 credit course offers an international platform for PhD researchers to write, present and receive feedback on work in progress from global experts on theories and methods for media engagement. The course will cover key concepts for engagement, including political and public spheres, digital media and AI related technologies, social movements and mobilisation, transmedia engagement, and cultural citizenship and popular culture.

Key Highlights: Mentoring and networking with world leading scholars and international doctoral researchers; slow thinking, with time to write thesis chapters and peer reviewed journal articles; residential setting of Gränna Campus, overlooking the great lake of Vättern, with easy access to local food and crafts, clear water swimming, nature walks and mountain views; social events, including trips to the historical island of Visingsö.

Teaching Team: course leader Annette Hill (co author with Dahlgren of Media Engagement Routledge 2023), and Peter Dahlgren (author of Media and Political Engagement 2009), Renira Rampazzo Gambarato (co-author of Theory, Strategy, and Development in Transmedia Storytelling 2020), and Joke Hermes (author of Cultural Citizenship and Popular Culture 2023).

Website and application: for information on the course, application process, fees, and key dates (deadline soon!) see https://ju.se/mediaengagement. Contact Annette Hill (Annette.hill@ju.se)

September 26-28, 2024

Piedmont (Italy)

Deadline: May 18, 2024

This is to let you know that we are now accepting abstract proposals for the stream on Food Media and Communication in the congress of the International Society for Gastronomic Sciences and Studies (ISGSS) titled Shaping Gastronomy: Regenerating Food Systems and Societies. The deadline is the 18th of May. If you wish you can associate your abstract to the panel Taste Experience and Media in Contemporary Society or send it as an independent oral contribution. Here is the link to the call: https://www.internationalgastronomicsociety.org/calls/food-media-and-communication

The congress takes place in Piedmont (Italy) between the 26th and the 28th of September 2024. For details on our organization, on the congress and its beautiful locations, please follow this link: https://www.internationalgastronomicsociety.org/congress-overview

Contact (stream): Luca Antoniazzi, l.antoniazzi@unisg.it

Media and Communication researchers, please consider taking part in the study “Affecting research in media and communication”, which aims to map and quantify emotional risks and emotional labour of conducting research in our disciplines, its impact on job stress, burnout and satisfaction, as well as best practice in supporting researchers’ well-being.

The survey is in English, anonymous, takes around 10 minutes to complete, and is open to media and communication researchers from across the world.

Survey link: https://eu.surveymonkey.com/r/KHGGDF2

As we are increasingly working in precarious environments, investigating the emotional toll of media and communication production and consumption, as well as studying distressing content, we should also be acknowledging our own experiences of working in these fields and ways in which we can be best supported.

If you need any further information about participation in the study then please contact Dr Maja Simunjak (Middlesex University London) - M.Simunjak@mdx.ac.uk

mediastudies.press

mediastudies.press, the scholar-led and nonprofit OA publisher, is happy to announce our annual proposal window from 1 June to 30 July, 2024. During this date window, authors are encouraged to submit a proposal for review.

mediastudies.press welcomes submissions from scholars across media, communication, and film studies. We currently publish in four series:

• Media Manifold series — monographs and other book-length works of contemporary media scholarship
  
• Public Domain series — reprints of neglected classics, in new critical editions anchored by framing introductions
  
• Open Reader series — themed collections of openly licensed, public domain, and linked materials curated and introduced by leading experts
  
• History of Media Studies series — monographs and other original scholarly works centered on history of media, communication, and film studies
  

We are small and artisanal by mission, and aim to publish just five books a year. Given the volume of proposals that we receive—and with our production schedule in mind—we maintain an annual proposal window (1 June to 30 July), for the review of manuscripts slated for publication in the following calendar year. You are welcome to send informal queries outside these dates, but our general practice is to only consider proposals within the annual window. Each year, we review proposals with an initial reply by August 15, with the aim to conduct peer review of proposals of expressed interest by the end of September.

mediastudies.press is an open-access publisher for the media and communication studies fields. The press is nonprofit and scholar-led. We publish living works, with iterative updates stitched into our process. And we encourage multi-modal submissions that reflect the mediated environments our authors study. 

Publishing with mediastudies.press is free on principle. Our aim is to demonstrate, on a small scale, an open-access publishing model supported by libraries rather than author fees, via the Open Book Collective. Open access for readers, we believe, should not be traded for new barriers to authorship. 

All our published works are rigorously peer-reviewed, and receive unusual editorial attention. We prioritize discoverability through careful metadata, library records, and directory listings. As a scholar-run operation, our publicity outreach is uncommonly informed by the fields’ intellectual contours. 

We kindly ask that proposals be submitted as a single PDF. Proposals should include the following elements, in addition to at least one draft chapter:

1. Proposed title and subtitle
   
2. A 500- to 1000-word narrative description of the book
   
3. Short bios of author(s) and/or editor(s)
   
4. Proposed series (see above)
   
5. Tentative table of contents, preferably annotated
   
6. Estimated word-length
   
7. Multi-modal components, if any
   
8. Status of the book (i.e., expectation of completion date, the portion now complete)
   
9. At least one draft chapter
   

To submit your work to mediastudies.press please follow our submission link.

If you have any questions at all about the proposal process for books, please contact us at press@mediastudies.press

Jeff Pooley, director of mediastudies.press

Dave Park, associate director of mediastudies.press

September 23, 2024

Ljubljana, Slovenia

The registration for the ECREA preconference 'Exploring the Dynamics of Digital Disconnection - Disruption, Inequalities, and Norms' is now open.

Date: September 23rd, 2024

Full-day, in-person conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

There is no registration fee. 

To register, visit the conference website using the following link: https://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/projects/digital-disconnection/events/conferences/ECREA-preconference-ljubljana.html

Please note that acceptance notifications for presenters have already been sent out. This is invitation directed towards non-presenting attendees who may be interested in participating.

October 26-28, 2024

Cairo, Egypt

Deadline: May 30, 2024

The Twenty-Eighth Annual Conference of the AUSACE-Arab-US Association for Communication Educators will be held at Ahram Canadian University (ACU) in Cairo, Egypt on October 26-28, 2024. 

Theme: Media Coverage and its Effects in Times of Crisis

Special topics panels are also available for submission

Important Deadlines:

1. Abstract Submission:

Abstract submission deadline: May 30th, 2024.

2. Acceptance Letter:

Acceptance letters to be sent to participants: June 30th, 2024.

3. Full Paper Submission:

Full papers must be submitted by participants: September 30th, 2024.

For the submission deadlines and other details, please check the updated call for papers in both English and Arabic:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1maYeTvXocvP55IMhwY4xdYTZy-U93OkN?usp=drive_link

Send abstracts and questions to:

A conference-designated email: ausace2024@acu.edu.eg

We are pleased to announce the publication of a free downloadable report on young audiences (16-34) in the Netherlands (2024) and their engagement with British screen entertainment. This adds to previous AHRC-funded reports on Germany and Denmark. Please download and share with colleagues, students and whoever else might be interested. 

Netherlands:  Esser, A., Hilborn, M., & Steemers, J. (2024). Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Netherlands: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture? . King's College London. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-177

Link here: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/252948260/FINAL_Netherlands_Interim_Report_April_5_2024.pdf

Germany: Esser, A., Hilborn, M., & Steemers, J. (2023). Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Germany: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture?. King's College London. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-139

Link here: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/229064486/FINAL_Germany_Interim_Report_Sept_4_2023.pdf

Denmark: Esser, A., Hilborn, M., & Steemers, J. (2023). Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Denmark: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture?. King's College London. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-118

Link here: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/229063246/Final_Denmark_Interim_Report_Revd_Sep_4_2023.pdf

EEMC – www.electionsmonitoringcenter.eu - is an international research centre in studies and monitoring of European elections and electoral campaigns. Its research projects, backed by national and European institutions, have seen participation from over 100 researchers representing more than 40 European universities.

Among the achievement of EEMC's activity is the creation of the biggest archive of European electoral campaigns, housing over 10,000 materials that are freely accessible online.

For the 2024 European elections, as for those of 2014 and 2019, EEMC is promoting an international research on the EU electoral campaign in the 27 member countries.

The research involves collecting and analysing the electoral materials (posters, TV ads, and Social network content) produced by the main political parties in the 27 EU Member States.

The main objectives of the research are:

• the comparative analysis of the media, communication styles and formats of the electoral campaign;
  
• the investigation of the different communication cultures and traditions and their political or geographical origins;
  
• the analysis of the contents and issues of the campaign and their ideological and political roots;
  
• update the European elections archive with the 2024 electoral campaign materials
  

EEMC is selecting the National Research Groups eager to join a dynamic international research team at the forefront of political communication studies for the following EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Each National Research Group, must be led by a senior scholar, and will play a pivotal role in this research. Tasks of national teams are: to research, collect, and analyse the electoral materials produced in their nation by the main political parties. For these activities, the research tools and IT applications developed by the EEMC will be made available. At the end of the research, the national data set will be made available to the National Research Groups.

Researchers and research groups interested in participating in the project can send their application including their CVs and participation in international projects to: eemc@uniroma3.it.