ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Ines Drefs

Berlin, 2021

DOI 10.48541/dcr.v7.0 (SSOAR) | ISBN 978-3-945681-07-0

The value of online user comments is a much-debated issue. In journalism, the newly arising possibility for readers and viewers to easily and instantaneously share their views on journalistic output was welcomed at first. Compared to the conventional letter to the editor it represented a democratized form of audience feedback. News organizations increased their presence in the social web and gained more and more experience with user comments. Over time, however, discontent towards the quality of online user comments seemed to grow. But what is the responsibility of journalism in this respect? How do news organizations use the social web? How do they handle online user comments? To what extent do they tap the dialogical potential of the social web for facilitating exchange and understanding between different viewpoints? This study pursues these questions by investigating the case of Germany’s international public service broadcaster Deutsche Welle with its explicit dialogical mandate. It provides an in-depth examination of a transition period in which the news organization is grappling with its self-conception as a serious news provider in the casual social web environment, in which social media editors struggle for recognition from their established colleagues, and in which “stepping back and letting the discussion unfold on its own” serves as a strategy to avoid censorship accusations from users. Based on a specially developed analytical grid the study offers a democracy-theoretical evaluation of the user comments and their handling by Deutsche Welle.

November 24-29, 2021

Online

Deadline: September 24, 2021

The Media Literacy and Civic Cultures (MeLCi Lab) Autumn School “Science bootcamp to improve research hands-on skills”, to be held 24th to 29th November 2021, aims to capacitate PhD students with a set of hands-on research skills that help them in their projects, supporting their professional development. By adopting an integrative and multidisciplinary approach, the School will bring together several scholars for a set of workshops and communications to foster research skills related to scientific writing and innovative methodologies. We will address topics about civic engagement, arts-based research, participation, citizen science, datafication, and ethics research. Moreover, the school also intends to be a space for the production of tangible outcomes, through its “72h Paper Development Marathon”. MeLCi Autumn School intends to be an inclusive space, and three equity grants will be available for students from underrepresented communities.

MeLCi Lab is currently looking for proposals of PhD students who want to apply for the Autumn School. These applications can be submitted until the 24th of September.

More information and application: https://cicant.ulusofona.pt/agenda-news/news-events/396-melci-lab-autumn-school

Editors: Irena Reifová, Martin Hájek

The key concepts of the book are media, class, poverty, and shaming. The contributors to this book examine how certain social relations and their cultural meanings in the media, namely class and poverty, are transformed into factual or moral attributes of people and situations. Class and poverty are not understood as certain things and actions, or concepts and numbers; both class and poverty are assumed to be, above all, particular social relationships or a set of relations between people, things and symbols.

Without denying that contempt for the destitute Other is an affect found throughout history and in various socioeconomic contexts, the chapters in this book – through their concern with the mediated gaze on class – narrate predominantly the challenges brought about by the media’s spectacular take on poverty and low status as they (at least) coincide with the neoliberal era.

This volume will be essential reading for the scholars specialising in the study of media and social inequalities form the vantage points of Media Studies, Sociology, Anthropology or European Studies.

https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030735425?fbclid=IwAR2N6kYQ7sQ6y5ov_I5Y6UQ0AGOUyH4IlG6Lrw2sMDI7ieqo4oGEICVB_u0

University of Bern

At the Institute of Communication and Media Studies (ikmb) of the University of Bern, a position is available as a Phd-Student / Post-doc researcher(80-100%).

The position will be available from October 1st, 2021 (or by appointment) for an initial period of three years. It is intended to serve the purpose of scientific qualification.

Tasks:

• Research in existing SNF-sponsored project:
• • Processing and analysis of large sets of web tracking data (html files)
  • Designing mechanism for identifying sensitive information in large text-based datasets
  • Developing automated text classification models for political / online communication research
  • Conducting various forms of statistical analyses (e.g. regression / cluster models)
• Writing of outstanding publications
• Contribution to the general tasks of the Institute
• Teaching (starting mid 2023)

Requirements:

• Outstanding PhD (for Post-doc position) / Master (for Phd position) in communication science, a related social science discipline and/or in informatics, data science, computational linguistics
• Strong skills in computational methods, especially data cleaning and processing, as well as automated content analysis and text classification (Python). Experience with parallel programming / multi-threading and deep learning (transformers / RNNs) is beneficial.
• Strong interest in political communication and/or online communication
• Very good skills in the methods of empirical social science
• Ability to work in a team

We offer:

An attractive working environment awaits you at the Institute for Communication and Media Science 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.

The University of Bern strives to increase the proportion of women in research and teaching and therefore urges qualified female candidates to apply.

Applications (letter of motivation including research interests / ideas, CV, publication list, certificates; for Phds: one central chapter of the MA-thesis or another publication; for Post-docs: 1-2 central articles) should be mailed as a pdf file by September 2nd, 2021 to Prof. Dr. Silke Adam (silke.adam@unibe.ch). For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Silke Adam. The job interviews will take place on the 10th / 13th of September.

Comparative Cinema (issue 18)

Deadline: October 1, 2021

https://raco.cat/index.php/Comparativecinema/announcement/view/92

Guest Editor: Lourdes Monterrubio Ibáñez

Born out of modern cinema, the essay film departed from the dominant forms of fiction and documentary cinema in order to explore an unknown territory defined by subjectivity, hybridization and reflection, evolving to become “a form that thinks,” as Jean-Luc Godard defined it. The final decades of the 20th century witnessed the consolidation of the essay film, which was enabled by postmodern thought and culture, as well as by the development of video recording technology. In this mode, works by Chris Marker, Roberto Rossellini, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jonas Mekas, Harun Farocki, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, Guy Maddin, Peter Watkins, Chantal Akerman, Alexander Kluge or Johan van der Keuken, among many others, developed a practice of audiovisual thinking for which Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998) could be considered the epitome, marking a turning point that also took place at the century’s end. Over the last twenty years, this essayistic practice has proliferated due to the digital revolution, facilitating diverse experiences of subjectivity and intimacy, and multiplying the possibilities of audiovisual editing; that is, of the very thinking process that defines this filmic form. Taking this itinerary into account, the 18th issue of Comparative Cinema proposes to address the specificities of the audiovisual thinking process in the contemporary essay film.

The most notable studies devoted to the essay film have established its key traits – the audiovisual expression of the thinking process and the self-reflexiveness of subjectivity – and its specificities – issues related to its genealogy, historical path and bond with the literary essay – allowing for the consolidation of this research area. Several edited volumes have been decisive in this regard, including: L’essai et le cinéma (Liandrat-Guigues and Gagnebin, 2004); La forma que piensa (Weinrichter, 2007); Jeux sérieux. Cinéma et art contemporains transforment l’essai (Bacqué et al., 2015); and Essays on the Essay Film (Alter and Corrigan, 2018). Beyond these collections, numerous authors have studied the growing corpus of essay films from various perspectives, producing key monographs such as: Laura Rascaroli’s The Personal Camera: Subjective Cinema and the Essay Film (2009) and How the Essay Film Thinks (2017); Timothy Corrigan’s The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker (2011); David Montero’s The Essay Film as a Dialogic Form in European Cinema (2012); Josep Maria Català’s Estética del ensayo. La forma ensayo, de Montaigne a Godard (2014); and Nora N. Alter’s The Essay Film After Fact and Fiction (2018), among others. The most recent collections already show the breadth of approaches through which contemporary practices of the essay film can be analyzed: The Essay Film: Dialogue, Politics, Utopia (Papazian and Eades, 2016), World Cinema and the Essay Film (Hollweg and Krstic, 2019), and Beyond the Essay Film: Subjectivity, Textuality and Technology (Vassilieva and Williams, 2020) number among a growing field.

The 18th issue of Comparative Cinema invites contributors to analyze the manifestations of the contemporary essay film in relation to its audiovisual thinking process from a comparative perspective, which addresses the comparative analysis of different essay films, in search of the connotations, tendencies, specificities and evolution of this audiovisual form in the 21st century. Analyses may include, among other aspects:

- Subjectivity: the inscription of subjectivity in the essay film has been an issue of key concern during the 20th century, partly as a discursive need for the consolidation of this audiovisual form. Does the contemporary essay film present new tendencies, needs, or methods in this respect? Are new expressions of subjectivity emerging, such as multiple or collective subjectivities?

- Materials and procedures: the hybridization of materials in the essay film mostly included analogue, digital and photographic supports, as well as the relevant presence of found footage. With regard to audiovisual procedures, the voice-over, for instance, has been a common element of the essay film of the 20th century. Does the contemporary essay film introduce new materials or generate new hybridizations? Are animation or infographics incorporated to a greater extent in the essay film today, and do they serve specific aims? Are new procedures appearing to replace the voice-over and to what purpose?

- Subject matter: the essay film has covered a range of topics during the 20th century, suggesting an evolution from the social and political to the personal and intimate. Are new trends or hybridizations of subject matter emerging in contemporary essay films, as for instance in terms of emotional reflection?

- Artistic practices: by the end of the 20th century, the essay film had been consolidated in the museum space. Which specificities does audiovisual thinking present in these expanded practices? Has there been an evolution in this regard over the last two decades?

- Dialogism and critical thinking: the essay film has been defined by its dialogic characteristics and its capacity for critical thinking both on the part of the author and of his/her spectator. Have contemporary practices seen an evolution or greater depth in these aspects?

Comparative Cinema invites the submission of complete articles addressing the audiovisual thinking process in contemporary essay films from a comparative perspective, which must be between 5500 and 7000 words long, including footnotes. Articles (in MS Word) and any accompanying images must be sent through the RACO platform, available on the journal website.

Timeline:

Deadline for submission of complete articles: 01/10/2021

Peer review: 01/10/2021-15/11/2021

Final copy deadline: 31/01/2022

Publication: Spring 2022

Lourdes Monterrubio Ibáñez currently develops the research project EDEF – Enunciative Devices of the European Francophone Essay Film, at the Institut ACTE, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement No 896941. Author of the monographic book De un cine epistolar. La presencia de la misiva en el cine francés moderno y contemporáneo (Shangrila, 2018) and editor of the monographic issue Epistolary Enunciation in Contemporary Cinema (Área Abierta, 2019), her publications on the essay film include: “Correspondências by Rita Azevedo Gomes. The Complex Hybrid Image of Contemporary Epistolary Cinema and Contemporary Essay Film” (Visual Studies, 2020), “Enunciative Devices of the Contemporary Spanish Essay Film. Evolution of the Essayistic Subjectivity and its Thinking in Act” (Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas, 2019) and “La Morte Rouge (soliloquio) by Víctor Erice. From trauma to fraternity: the interstice between reality and fiction” (book chapter in Itinerarios y formas del ensayo audiovisual, 2019).

Contact:

• comparativecinema@upf.edu
• lourdes.monterrubio-ibanez@univ-paris1.fr

Journal of Radio & Audio Media Symposium

Deadline: October 1, 2021

Editor: Nelson Ribeiro

The emergence of radio introduced profound changes in public communication, changing patterns of information dissemination at local, national and international levels. In the case of the Imperial nations this role was extended overseas with radio becoming the most important medium for uniting the home countries with the expats living in the far reaches of the empires, though not unproblematically.

A growing body of literature on the history of imperial and colonial broadcasting, as well as of sound, have been contributing to the understanding of the role of radio technologies, broadcasting and music in the 20th century in forging audible and sonorous empires. However, the ways in which different imperial countries used radio to create a sense of nation and colonial identities among those living in different geographies remains an open question. On the other hand, in the last decades works dealing with the media during decolonization have called attention to the significant role played by the audio medium in promoting independence from colonial powers and giving visibility to forms of culture that would become part of national identities of the new-born countries. What research has also revealed is that much is still to be understood about the relation between radio and decolonization practices and processes. Thus, this special issue seeks to publish manuscripts dealing with how broadcasting was incorporated and appropriated within different colonial and decolonial settings.

Hence, papers dealing with the following topics will be highly appreciated (non-exhaustive list):

• Radio and national identities;
• Imperial and colonial broadcasting institutions;
• Radio professionals in imperial and colonial broadcasting contexts;
• Programming in international broadcasts;
• Reception of Imperial and colonial broadcasts;
• Technologies used for international broadcasting;
• Radio, ethnicity and race;
• Radio and practices of resistance;
• Broadcasting and colonial subjectivities;
• Radio and colonial independences;
• Radio and decolonization;
• Intermedial approaches to radio history in colonial contexts;
• Radio and music market in imperial and colonial contexts;
• Radio in postcolonialism.

The topics above are merely suggestions. We welcome submissions that explore other aspects of colonial and imperial broadcasting. Submissions for this symposium are due by October 1, 2021. Submitted manuscripts undergo a blind peer review. Manuscripts should be submitted through Manuscript Central link on https://www.beaweb.org/wp/?page_id=571 or https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hjrs

Documents prepared in Microsoft Word are preferred and should APA for style and citation. Manuscripts should not exceed 6500 words and should include an abstract of no more than 100 words. In addition to the manuscript with no reference to the author(s), the author(s) should include a separate attachment with contact information. Please fill in the manuscript information as directed on the site.

For more information on the Journal of Radio & Audio Media, click here.

Please direct any questions in advance of your submission to the symposium editor: Nelson Ribeiro (nelson.ribeiro@ucp.pt) subject line JRAM Colonial Broadcasting.

Lund University

We are looking to recruit a Professor in Media and Communication to strengthen and extend the existing research in the department in media, culture and democracy. MKV at Lund is in the top 100 communication and media departments in the world as ranked by the QS World University Subject Rankings 2021.

The professor will contribute to the intellectual life of MKV by taking a leading role in the research subject, conducting and publishing outstanding quality international research, engaging in research led teaching as instructed by the Head of Department, and participating in the wider activities of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Candidates should have recognition of outstanding research contribution in chosen fields in media and communication, a track record of excellent international publications, and extensive experience of leadership in research and teaching. The candidate should have high level expertise in curriculum design, teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, doctoral and post doctoral supervision in media and communication. In addition, expertise in media, culture and democracy is needed as part of the research strategy.

MKV’s research strategy is connected to four themes: media engagement, democracy and cultural citizenship; media industries and creativity; gender, health and society; audiences, popular culture and everyday life. Researchers working across these themes are committed to theory driven, mixed methods research. Our strategy focuses on quality outputs, in line with the overall international research strategy for Lund University. See website https://www.kom.lu.se/en/research/mkv/

MKV’s teaching portfolio includes undergraduate level courses, primarily taught in Swedish, with some English language courses. The MSc in Media and Communication is taught in English, with courses connected to our research themes, e.g. Media Audiences, Media and Diversity. See https://www.kom.lu.se/en/education/media-and-communication-studies/international-master-programme-in-media-and-communication-studies/

The post comes with a competitive salary, pension scheme, research time (50 per cent), a collegial departmental culture and excellent support, training and development opportunities.

The person specification for this post includes other criteria used when shortlisting candidates, located on the LU online recruitment portal. For further information about the post please see https://lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:419017/

The International Journal of Film and Media Arts

Deadline: January 9, 2022

Editor: Manuel José Damásio Guest Editors: José Bragança de Miranda, Célia Quico, José Gomes Pinto, Luís Cláudio Ribeiro

The International Journal of Film and Media Arts welcomes a selection of high-quality papers for an edition dedicated to CIIA 2021 - 8th International Congress of Audiovisual Researchers, held at Lusófona University (Lisbon, Portugal), from 23th to 25th June 2021. This special issue is aligned with the CIIA 2021 edition, in which the theme was “Audiovisual and Creative Industries - Present and Future”. Alongside recognizing the importance of thinking and debating the challenges the audiovisual industry is facing today, mainly in the broader context of the creative industries, we also aim to promote the construction and consolidation of links between different sectors in the creative industries.

Thus, the present issue of the International Journal of Film and Media Arts invites full papers that deal in particular with: - Audiovisual ecosystems in local, regional, national and international level - New formats and languages in audiovisual media and on the internet - Transmedia narratives - Second Screen and the impact of the multitasking viewer - Analysis and semiotics of audiovisual and multimedia discourses - New theories, new concepts, new paradigms and new approaches in audiovisual communication - New audiovisual research methods and techniques

All submission will be select by double-blind peer review. The author must provide separate files: a) The title page should include the title, author’s name and affiliations, email address, acknowledgements (optional) and conflict of interest statement (if necessary).

b) The author should ensure the anonymised manuscript is correctly prepared for double-blind peer review, by removing any kind of identification or affiliation. Author’s name, profile, ranking and institutional affiliation should only be mentioned in the appropriate submission fields. Revised articles will also be treated confidentially until the date of their publication.

c) Attachments: Manuscripts may be accompanied by attachment files. In the case of materials produced by others, these are accepted under the condition that all applicable permissions were obtained by the author(s). Attachments should be numbered in order of appearance in the article. Graphics should be in JPEG, GIF, PNG, or TIFF format. Audio excerpts should be in MP3, or WAV format. Video excerpts should be in MPEG, AVI, or WMV format.

Please submit to: anna.coutinho@ulusofona.pt or https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ijfma/about/submissions

Please, check the author guidelines here: https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ijfma/about/submissions

Timeline for publication:

• Submission Full Papers – 9th January 2022
• Feedback (peer review) on Full Paper – 22nd April 2022
• Final Revisions – 10th June 2022
• Publication Date – October 2022

Reflections on Fashion Design and Media

Deadline: September 15, 2021

CICANT is a Research Centre where both solid theoretical work and rigorous applied research at the cross-section of media, society, literacies, arts, culture and technologies is developed. Critical to its research mission are knowledge creation activities that are oriented towards expanded research on two main subject areas. In CICANT those areas are organised in Research and Learning Communities (ReLeCo).

The research group on Media Arts, Creative Industries and Technologies (MACIT) is focused on the socio-cultural and artistic uses of media technologies (visual, performative, photographic, cinematographic and sonic) at the intersection with the creative industries, both from a historical and contemporary perspective. The group has a robust research in the field and fosters a media practice-based artistic research in several areas and with a long and solid track on them.

In this sense, we open a call for Chapters for the 1st volume of the series Reflections on Fashion Design and Media with the subtitle “Synergies between Fashion and the Media Arts”.

The fashion industry is increasingly in constant change and evolution, an evolution which requires multiple reflections on the present, past and future. The quest to keep in touch with the consumer has led it to adapt to the new emerging reality translated in the digital format.

If we observe the fashion system, we will become aware that, since its origin, it has had a close relation with the media, among which we can highlight cinema. It was via the great American film stars that fashion gained a prominent position, dressing them or being influenced by what they wore, following the known path as regards the definition of fashion trends.

With the development of the new digital technologies, fashion faces new challenges and new possibilities, in production, in creation, communication, advertising and trade, among other areas where it operates and has a place.

The digital revolution has had a very significant impact on the different areas where fashion plays a role, and the digital technology will keep its fast evolution pace. Increasingly, fashion will resort to digital developments to remain at the forefront.

This series seeks to be accessible to a broad range of readers, publishing several volumes and chapters with interest for the debate on Fashion Design and the Media, looking for results or revolutionary and decisive visions for the success of the field.

All the chapters proposed must reveal high capacity for critical and reflexive analysis on the topic addressed while submitting ideas, solutions or examples of good practices in the field under discussion.

Research topics:

• Fashion Shows and Technologies
• Fashion Film
• Curatorship and Digital Fashion Exhibitions
• Fashion Brand Campaigns
• Fashion Photography
• Digital Aesthetics and Fashion
• Fashion and Videogames
• Graphic Design for Fashion, Technologies
• Fashion and Film
• Fashion and Technology Interfaces

Editors:

• Alexandra Cruchinho
• Manuel José Damásio
• José Gomes Pinto
• José Carlos Neves

Submission:

The chapter proposals to be submitted must be original and unpublished. Interested authors must follow the norms for submitting chapter proposals.

The proposals must be submitted in an editable text file (DOC. or DOCX.) with identification and numbers of the images to be inserted.

Photographs, graphs, tables or other figures that complement the text must be submitted in a separate folder with the following features: 16cm width, 300PPI resolution, JPEG format (quality: 12/maximum).

All submissions of chapter proposals will be forwarded to at least two members of the Editorial Review Board of the Book Series for Double Blind Review.

The final decision on acceptance / revision / rejection will be based on the assessments received from the reviewers.

Extended Deadline for submission: 15 september 2021

Submissions & Informations: cicant@ulusofona.pt – Ref: Cfc- Design & Media Book Series

October 21-22,2021

Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany)/online

Deadline: August 15, 2021

Dear list members,

we are pleased to announce and invite you to our practical Autumn School titled „Disrupted Ethnography - Building Trust, Telling Stories, Unpacking Concepts and Reporting from Within", taking place on October 21/22, 2021, both at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany and online.

Check out our website (https://disrupted-ethnography.org/) to find more information about the four workshops and the application process.

We invite advanced Master students, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers as well as media practitioners, journalists, and activists to apply, deadline is August 15, 2021 (anywhere on earth).

Together, we want to dismantle challenges of ethnographic fieldwork related to disruption such as travel restrictions, gaining and maintaining field access, finding contacts and forging cooperation, as well as ethical questions of representation of social life and scenes of conflict and injustice.

Participation is free of charge.