ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Edited by: Neil Thurman, Seth C. Lewis, Jessica Kunert

This book examines the growing importance of algorithms and automation—including emerging forms of artificial intelligence—in the gathering, composition, and distribution of news. In it the authors connect a long line of research on journalism and computation with scholarly and professional terrain yet to be explored.

Taken as a whole, these chapters share some of the noble ambitions of the pioneering publications on ‘reporting algorithms’, such as a desire to see computing help journalists in their watchdog role by holding power to account. However, they also go further, firstly by addressing the fuller range of technologies that computational journalism now consists of: from chatbots and recommender systems to artificial intelligence and atomised journalism. Secondly, they advance the literature by demonstrating the increased variety of uses for these technologies, including engaging underserved audiences, selling subscriptions, and recombining and re-using content. Thirdly, they problematise computational journalism by, for example, pointing out some of the challenges inherent in applying artificial intelligence to investigative journalism and in trying to preserve public service values. Fourthly, they offer suggestions for future research and practice, including by presenting a framework for developing democratic news recommenders and another that may help us think about computational journalism in a more integrated, structured manner.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Digital Journalism.

https://www.routledge.com/Algorithms-Automation-and-News-New-Directions-in-the-Study-of-Computation/Thurman-Lewis-Kunert/p/book/9780367567521

There's a 20% discount available until 30th June if you order via the Routledge website and enter this code FLY21 at checkout.

Call for Book Chapters

Deadline: May 30, 2021

This edited volume aims to address the complexity of the media war taking place in Palestine/Israel (May 2021). Various international news media organisations have been covering the outbreak of the dramatic events, which started with the eviction attempts of Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah area in Jerusalem by the Israeli army and Israeli settlers. Covering the Arab-Israeli conflict remains one of the hot yet controversial issues on the international news agenda. It has generated more attention as well as complaints about media coverage than any other conflicts in other parts of the world. The region has one of the highest concentrations of journalists in the world, reflecting the intense worldwide interest in the conflict.

But how have local, regional and global media outlets been covering the on-going conflict?

To what extent have citizen journalists challenged the propaganda war?

This edited book attempts to unpack the media management of this war by the different players. It looks at the stance Israeli as well as Western media have taken in covering the conflict as compared to the Arab media?

How does the Al-Jazeera’s coverage compare with other regional and international channels?

What alternative news from both sides have social media networks been providing in covering this war? How much does the media coverage resonate into public opinion formation and, hence help influence policymakers' actions and decisions? What should be the role of a responsible journalism vis-à-vis the conflict? What repercussions can there be freedom of speech after the bombing of Al-Jazeera’s broadcasting centre in Gaza as well as the offices of Associated Press and other local Palestinian channels.

Chapters based on original empirical studies or works based on theoretical discussions are invited regarding (and not necessarily limited to) the following areas of enquiry:

• Arab vs Western media: are we watching the same war?
• Media coverage as a propaganda war.
• Digital media and the competing media narratives.
• Mediating the conflict: cross-countries comparisons
• Reporting the war by the Israeli media.

• Al-Jazeera’s news reporting the target again in the midst the war.
• Israeli media management and the international public opinion?

• Palestinian and Arab diaspora and the mediation of the conflict?
• Social media wars and the mediatisation of the conflict.
• Resistance/citizen journalism and the Palestinian narrative.
• Media coverage and policy-making: What implications?
• Social media and social activism in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

Deadlines for submission:

• Abstracts of about 300 words, author’s bio (100 words) and full institutional contact details (Full address and e-mail): by 30th May 2021.
• Accepted abstracts notification: 15th June 2021.

Authors whose abstracts get accepted will be provided with the full details of publishing guidelines and full chapter submission.

• Full papers: by 15th December 2021.
• Expected publication of the edited book: 2022

Submissions:

Initial abstracts and full manuscripts to be considered for publication should be submitted via e-mail to Noureddine Miladi (Editor) on: noureddinemiladi@amcn.online .

October 21-23, 2021

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Deadline: July 1, 2021

2021 Literature/Film Association Conference

Keynote: Vicki Mayer, Tulane University

Holding the annual conference of the Literature/Film Association in New Orleans raises questions of labor and leisure in relation to adaptation in the study of literature, film, and media. Not only has the city served as the home to writers and filmmakers, but it also has become a major media capital in its own right, enticing television and film production with tax incentives and its distinctive culture. As “work” and “play” have motivated a good deal of recent scholarship across literature, film, and media studies, we invite presentations that put these concerns in conversation with adaptation, broadly defined. While we welcome papers on any aspect of film and media studies, we are especially interested in presentations that address one or more of the following concerns regarding work or play:

• the work behind adapting into a different medium
• labor and cultural production
• authorship and adaptation
• the workplace as cultural intersection/metaphor in literature, film, and media
• production studies and below-the-line labor
• play in cultural production
• teaching adaptation and adapting teaching
• labor, social change, and adaptation
• adaptation as textual play
• game play as adaptation
• games as adaptations or adapting games
• play in analyzing and interpreting text
• plays as adaptations or adapting plays into a different medium
• performance as adaptation

We also have significant interest in general studies of American and international cinema, film and technology, television, new media, and other cultural or political issues connected to the moving image. In addition to academic papers, presentation proposals about pedagogy or from creative writers, artists, and filmmakers are also welcome.

Vicki Mayer is Professor of Communication at Tulane University. Her research encompasses media and communication industries, their political economies, infrastructures, and their organizational work cultures. Her publications seek to theorize and illustrate how these industries shape workers and how media and communication work shapes workers and citizens. Her theories inform her work in the digital humanities and pedagogy, most recently on ViaNolaVie and NewOrleansHistorical. Her books include Producing Dreams, Consuming Youth: Mexican Americans and Mass Media; Below the Line: Producers and Production Studies in the New Television Economy; and Almost Hollywood, Nearly New Orleans: The Lure of the Local Film Economy.

Please submit your proposal via this link by July 1, 2021. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Pete Kunze at litfilmconference@gmail.com. Accepted presenters will be notified by July 15, and the conference program will be available by August 1. We anticipate being in person, but we will follow CDC guidelines accordingly.

The conference hotel rate of $199/night is available at the Four Points Sheraton French Quarter. Limited travel grant support is planned to be available for select graduate students, non-tenure-track faculty, and/or independent scholars and artists. We also will award Best Graduate Student Paper. Details for an added application process for such support will be shared following proposal acceptances in July.

The conference registration fee is $200 ($150 for students and retirees) before October 1, 2021 and $225 ($175 for students and retirees) thereafter. All conference attendees must also be current members of the Literature/Film Association. Annual dues are $20. To register for the conference and pay dues following acceptance of your proposal, visit the Literature/Film Association website at http://litfilm.org/conference and use our PayPal feature.

Presenters will be invited to submit their work to the Literature/Film Quarterly for potential publication. For details on the journal’s submission requirements, visit here.

November 15-17, 2021

Online conference

Deadline: July 31, 2021

The Scientific Committee of the XIII International Conference on Online Journalism is pleased to invite you to the Conference that will take place on the 15th,16th and 17th of November 2021, under the title “Information and Big Data in the Hybrid Media System”.

Proposals / abstracts that meet the objectives and themes of the Conference may be submitted for presentation until July 31, 2021 to the address ciberpebi.csc@ehu.eus. Notification by the Scientific Committee of accepted proposals will be made within a maximum period of one week.

• All accepted abstracts will be published in the Conference Abstract Book, with ISBN.
• Authors who wish to publish the full text of their communication must send it before October 31, 2021 and must adapt it to the style guidelines available on the Conference website. For the publication of the full texts, the authors may choose one of these two options:
• • Conference Proceedings Book, edited by the UPV / EHU, with ISBN.
  • Send the texts to the journals Mediatika (ISSN: 1988-3935) or Hipertext.net (ISSN: 1695-5498), to evaluate their possible publication, after peer review. The Editorial Board of both magazines has planned a maximum of six texts in their respective editions that will come out coinciding with the celebration of the Conference.

The presentation of communications will be done online. In this case, the communicants must present their presentation live through the Blackboard Collaborate platform and send a video of a maximum of 10 minutes in length that will be shared on the Conference website.

Given the situation generated by COVID-19, the plenary presentations will be carried out virtually through the Blackboard Collaborate platform, following the same program and schedule.

Likewise, in view of these circumstances, and to favor the opportunity for all researchers who wish to participate, the prices of the inscriptions have been reduced compared to previous editions.

We appreciate all the collaboration you can give us for the dissemination of this XIII International Conference on Online Journalism, and we will gladly give any additional information you may need.

More information on the Conference website: http://www.ciberpebi.info

Sheffield Hallam University

Applications are invited for a PhD scholarship in the area of Film Festival Studies, commencing 1st October 2021. Full details here: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/a-critical-cultural-history-of-sheffield-doc-fest-1986-2019/?p132643

The PhD will examine the cultural history of Sheffield Doc/Fest from its origins in the early 1990s through its evolution and growth in the early 2000s, through to its recent obtainment of charity status. Doc/Fest is a major annual international media event, which is central to the UK’s creative industries, to the international documentary community, and to the economy and cultural life of Sheffield and the wider Yorkshire region. The aim of the project will be to research the political economy of the festival to understand how it has operated as a transitional platform between the local, regional, and (inter)national.

You will investigate the relationship between Doc/Fest, the city, and the documentary community. The project will ascertain what the festival meant to stakeholders in the early 1990s and how this evolved over the subsequent decades. Sheffield and Doc/Fest are deeply interconnected. Doc/Fest was marketed as being ‘internationally’ focused, but Sheffield has always been at its centre. The festival has operated from the start as a brand promoter for the city, influencing the perception of stakeholders beyond Sheffield (delegates, filmmakers, policy makers). Major national broadcasters have sponsored the festival and, in return, expected the programming to reflect their own institutional and commercial priorities, thus shaping the cultural evolution of Doc/Fest. These issues are currently overlooked in existing histories and studies of Sheffield’s cultural industries and creative economy.

The student will make use of newly deposited archival papers, analysing and cataloguing the documents. They will also interview previous board members, company executives, festival directors, administrators, filmmakers, and festival delegates. In addition, the student will co-organise a critical history public engagement event in collaboration with Doc/Fest reflecting on the festival’s cultural evolution, key films and speakers from its past, and reflections on its future.

The PhD candidate will be supported by two external advisors at Doc/Fest: Cíntia Gill, the current festival director, and Melanie Iredale, the deputy director.

You will be joining a vibrant PhD programme in the Centre for Culture, Media & Society (CCMS). CCMS is an exciting interdisciplinary research environment with a particular concern to recognise culture as a key interlocutor for social and political change and pursues work capable of delivering critical insight and real-world impact.

You will have opportunities to learn at a range of seminars, workshops and conferences. We offer training on specific research methods via modules on the M. Res in Social Science and access to specialist media and film.

Funding

Scholarships are available to Home and International students for 3 years of full-time or 5 years of part-time funding to include:

• University tuition fees at Home levels. If you are required to pay tuition fees at the International rate you will need to fund the difference between Home and International fees.
• An annual maintenance stipend at UKRI national minimum doctoral stipend rates: £15,609 per annum for 2021/22 full-time study; £7,805 per annum for part-time study.
• £500 per annum project costs

For more information visit: Tuition fees for EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals

How to apply

We strongly recommend that you contact the project supervisors Dr Fenwick and Dr Cere before submitting an application. You will need to submit a personal statement of up to 1000 words detailing:

• Your skills and experience relevant to this project.
• Why you want to undertake this specific project.
• A brief discussion of the challenges you foresee in conducting this research.

Applicants will ideally have a master’s degree and a background in film, media, or cultural studies, with a focus on documentary, or equivalent experience. Desirably, you will be familiar with archival methods and interviews. We encourage applicants from underrepresented backgrounds, communities, and identities to apply.

Where English is not your first language you will need to submit evidence of English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS 7.5 (or equivalent).

Sheffield Hallam welcomes applications from all candidates irrespective of age, pregnancy and maternity, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or belief, or marital or civil partnership status.

For more information about how to apply and an application form please visit https://www.shu.ac.uk/research/degrees/apply

Submit your application to culture-creativity-admissions@shu.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is 23:30, 14th June 2021.

Selection process

Interviews will take place week beginning 12th July by videoconference.

September 30-October 1, 2021

Online conference (Zoom)

Deadline: June 30, 2021

Conference by the Methods Division of the German Communication Association (DGPuK)

Description

The pandemic has generated enormous research endeavors from all scientific disciplines including the social sciences. In the field of communication, researchers studied, for instance, the diverse effects of the crisis with respect to social media and smartphone use (e.g., Huckins et al., 2020; Ellis et al., 2020), online misinformation (e.g., van der Linden et al., 2020), media exposure and psychological effects of the pandemic (e.g., Garfin et al., 2020), or communication strategies and health behaviors (e.g., Muselli et al., 2021). Besides influencing the topics of communication research, the pandemic has also led to significant changes in how we do research, as for instance, regarding our research settings as well as methods (Gruber et al., 2021), our research environments, our standards and procedures, or the interaction between researchers. Against this background, the overall question of this call is “How does COVID-19 affect communication research?”. The online conference aims to address this question in all its possible facets and dimensions. More specifically, the call for papers is open to diverse perspectives regarding how the pandemic has affected research designs, settings, instruments, standards, logics, or productivity. This involves, but is not limited to, the development of new data collection procedures, measures, or analysis techniques as well as the various ways in which research has been conducted during the pandemic covering issues such as gender diversity, research ethics, participant health, research productivity, quality and rigor, lab designs, or issues related to replicability, open science, and meta-science. We also welcome submissions focusing on methodological questions relating to research on communication and COVID-19. The call is open to all epistemological perspectives. In addition to the conference topic, there is also an “Open Call”. Detailed Call: https://methods-conference.univie.ac.at/

Guidelines

Extended Abstracts in English (max. 1.200 words including references and tables) should be submitted as an anonymized pdf-file including the topic designation (“Thematic Call” or “Open Call”). The submission site will open on June 1, 2021 at https://methods-conference.univie.ac.at/. Submissions will be administered with ConfTool.

Contact

Alice Binder (alice.binder@univie.ac.at) and Jörg Matthes (joerg.matthes@univie.ac.at), for the organizing Department

Marko Bachl (marko.bachl@uni-hohenheim.de) and Emese Domahidi (emese.domahidi@tu-ilmenau.de), for the Methods Division of the German Communication Association

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Salary from £36,647 to £44,140 pa inclusive with potential to progress to £47,456 pa inclusive of London allowance

Based in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

This is a fixed term appointment for one year, starting from 1 September 2021, with a possibility of extension for one further year.

Applications are invited from outstanding candidates in the field of Media and Communications. The successful candidate will join an established and successful Department which graduates 300+ MSc students a year and is ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in our field (2021 QS World University Rankings).

The Department is seeking to appoint an LSE Fellow who can make important contributions to its teaching and research. This post presents an excellent opportunity for the successful candidate to expand on their teaching experience while developing their research career.

Candidates will have a completed PhD in Media and Communications or a closely related field (PhD in hand without revisions pending by date of application). Candidates must demonstrate evidence of high-quality teaching at graduate level, and an interest in contributing to teaching on methods of research in Media and Communications. Candidates will have a developing research record in the field of Media and Communications with evidence of a commitment to critically assessing theories and empirical research. Candidates must demonstrate excellent communication and presentation skills and have a commitment to equality and diversity.

We offer an occupational pension scheme, generous annual leave and excellent training and development opportunities.

For further information about the post, please see here: https://jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/3725/0/299048/15539/lse-fellow-in-media-and-communications

If you have any technical queries with applying on the online system, please use the "contact us" links at the bottom of the LSE Jobs page.

Should you have any queries about the role, please email Professor Lee Edwards, mailto:L.Edwards@lse.ac.uk.

The closing date for receipt of applications is Sunday 13 June 2021 (23.59 UK time). Regrettably, we are unable to accept any late applications.

An LSE Fellowship is intended to be an entry route to an academic career and is deemed by the School to be a career development position. As such, applicants who have already been employed as a LSE Fellow for three years in total are not eligible to apply. If you have any queries about this please contact the HR Division.

June 9, 2021

Online conference

The University of Surrey invites you to join Crises - one of the final events in the Keywords in Technology and Society series hosted by the research theme Technology and Society at the University of Surrey. Crises will consider the role of digital societies in moments of crises, with this particular edition focusing closely on the COVID19 pandemic. Each talk will address a facet of data/digital technologies in relation to the ongoing pandemic.

Speakers include

• Dr Ranjana Das, Theme Champion for Technology and Society, Department of Sociology will talk about an agenda for stronger digitally-supported mental health during and beyond the pandemic.
• Prof Caroline Scarles, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Centre for Digital Transformation in the Visitor Economy will talk about virtual experiences of art and heritage in times of crisis.
• Dr Itziar Castello, Department of Digital Economy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation will talk about fake news, vaccination, and the strategic management of emotions in times of crises.

Please sign up here: Crises Tickets, Wed 9 Jun 2021 at 14:00 | Eventbrite

Please note that this event, and the entire series is fully public and open to anyone to attend, so please feel free to circulate this email to anyone in your wider external networks who may be interested in either this event or the wider series. 

June 17, 2021

Webinar

I am pleased to invite you to the next in the series of IPRA Thought Leadership webinars. The webinar One platform for all: the INEOS in Cologne intranet case study will be presented by the communications team from INEOS Cologne comprising Dr Anne-Gret Iturriaga Abarzua, Maite Enfedaque and Johanna Pauly on Thursday 17 June 2021 at 12.00 GMT/UCT (13.00 British Summer Time).

What is the webinar content?

Informing and engaging staff internally by enabling them to act as ambassadors in their community is crucial for the sustainable and long-term success of a company. This webinar is about a best practice example, which won the IPRA Golden World Award 2020 in the category Internal Communications, using the out-of-the box technology Office 365 to keep staff up-to-date.

How to join

Register here at Airmeet.

A reminder will be sent 1 hour before the event.

Background to IPRA

IPRA, the International Public Relations Association, was established in 1955, and is the leading global network for PR professionals in their personal capacity. IPRA aims to advance trusted communication and the ethical practice of public relations. We do this through networking, our code of conduct and intellectual leadership of the profession. IPRA is the organiser of public relations' annual global competition, the Golden World Awards for Excellence (GWA). IPRA's services enable PR professionals to collaborate and be recognised. Members create content via our Thought Leadership essays, social media and our consultative status with the United Nations. GWA winners demonstrate PR excellence. IPRA welcomes all those who share our aims and who wish to be part of the IPRA worldwide fellowship. For more see www.ipra.org

Background to the INEOS team

Dr Anne-Gret Iturriaga Abarzua is the Head of Communications for INEOS in Cologne. She is an IPRA board member. Next to her communication and anthropology studies in Vienna, she worked as a freelance journalist for Austrian and German media as well as for PR agencies. As a consultant in a PR agency in Vienna, she helped clients of the plastics and wood industry shaping their reputation. Before arriving to INEOS in Cologne, she was the Communications Manager for EVC (now INOVYN) in Germany.

Maite Enfedaque is the Communications Officer for INEOS in Cologne. With a bachelor’s degree in advertising and public relations and a master's degree in strategic management in global communications, she has her work experience in advertising agencies as a producer, where she was responsible for the development and execution of BTL campaigns as well as the organization of events for global consumer brands.

Johanna is Junior Communications Manager for INEOS in Cologne. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and corporate communications and is a local graduate at INEOS in their graduate programme for young professionals. She has experience in event management, is responsible for donation and sponsoring activities and organises multi and cross channel communications via intranet and internet, social media and printed media.

Contact

International Public Relations Association Secretariat

United Kingdom

secgen@ipra.org

Telephone +44 1634 818308

September 3, 2021

Online workshop

Deadline: May 21, 2021

YECREA Pre-Conference (ECC 2021)

The Young Scholars Network of ECREA (YECREA) is happy to invite students and early-career scholars to a workshop right before the 8th European Communication Conference (ECC) in September.

The workshop will be held online. The number of participants is not limited.

This workshop is designed for postgraduate and early-career researchers to develop practical coping mechanisms for the various expectations placed on them, such as (but not limited to): publishing pressures (while writing their PhD); getting grants and funding; teaching; getting recognition for their work in competitive environments; dealing with imposter syndrome; searching for stable employment. We will provide input by YECREA representatives as well as senior scholars and have a roundtable discussion, in which all participants can share their experiences, with a special focus on the new issues brought about by the COVID19 pandemic.

How to apply

Submissions should be sent via this digital form: https://forms.gle/Nc2SozPKiGVoXi198

All applicants should include a brief description of their motivation for participating and expectations (max 200 words) .

Applicants do not have to be members of YECREA or ECREA.

Evaluation process

Applications will be processed by the YECREA pre-conference organizers.

Registration

Participation at the event is free of charge.

If you have any questions, please contact: norbert.sinkovic@ff.uns.ac.rs