ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

July 6–9, 2021

Melbourne Australia 

Deadline: February 26, 2021

Hosted by the Media and Communications Program, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne

Abstract and panel proposal submission for the 2021 Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Annual Conference is now open! The Conference will take place from 6-9 July 2021 at the University of Melbourne, with the option for delegates to attend in person or virtually for those who are unable to travel.

This year’s conference, which begins with a one-day postgraduate pre-conference, will centre on the theme of ‘Community, Authority and Power’, focusing on the wide range of ways in which communication actors, industries, practices and technologies are implicated in how power is exercised, reproduced, resisted and transformed.

We welcome submissions for papers and panels on a wide range of topics in contemporary communication, digital media and cultural studies, as well as related areas such as journalism, political and historical studies, sociology and creative practice. Further information, including speaker details, is available on the ANZCA 2021 website, which will be updated regularly in the lead-up to the conference.

Information on the event can be found here.

To submit an abstract or panel proposal for the Conference, click here.

For abstract and panel submission information, click here.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 26 February 2021.

We look forward to your submission!

ANZCA Conference Team

conference@anzca.org

Co-organized with the ECREA CEE Network

April  12-16, 2021

IUC, Dubrovnik

BLENDEND IN PERSON & ONLINE

In Central and Eastern Europe it is 30 years since the socialist regimes collapsed, and democracy was introduced. The theoretical framework of the “transition” is no longer employed, even the “consolidation” discourse and approach is over. Can we pronounce the media systems in this region of the world to have acquired a settled shape, a form/character that is durable and stable?

The thirty years of transformation have been diverse. The same original critical juncture of the fall of socialism has been differently used and shaped by different actors, countries or institutions, to produce different results. Not only is there a division of CEE into those who are now members of the EU and those who are not, but there is also a division between those who have consolidated some level of democracy and those who have consolidated some degree of authoritarian regimes.

The authoritarian backsliding is a fact that can no longer be treated as a phase in the consolidation of democracy, but must also be recognized as one type of result of the transformations. A new critical juncture will be necessary in order to re-start developments along the road to consolidated democracy.

What shaped these diverse developments? Why did some countries consolidate democracy, and others have hybrid or authoritarian regimes? How do these changes compare to the changes of other European media systems? Should we compare media systems or media cultures? We will in this course and research conference examine conditions and variables of media change from modernization to socialism, and from socialism to post-socialism. We will explore ways to study change in media systems, focusing both on the temporal and spatial frames, and will examine transformations necessary in the political, economic and cultural fields. And we will examine which combination of historical conditions from the longue durée or more recently, are responsible for certain types of outcomes of media systems.

The course includes a one day hands-on methodological workshop on the design and implementation of fuzzy set QCA and the accompanying statistical analysis, held by Dina Vozab and Antonija Čuvalo from the University of Zagreb.

The course is organized by course directors from 7 European universities:

• Zrinjka Peruško, University of Zagreb, Croatia
• Carmen Ciller, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
• Steffen Lepa, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
• Paolo Mancini, Università di Perugia, Italy
• Snježana Milivojević, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Slavko Splichal, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Miklós Sükösd, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

This year’s lecturers include:

• Carmen Ciller, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
• Steffen Lepa, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
• Paolo Mancini, Università di Perugia, Italy
• Snježana Milivojević, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Helmut Scherer, Institut für Journalistik und Kommunikationsforschung of the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover
• Zrinjka Peruško, University of Zagreb, Croatia
• Miklós Sükösd, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Lenka Vochocová, Department of Media Studies, Charles University, Prague

This 9th "slow science" IUC-CMS is an interdisciplinary research conference & post-graduate course open to academics, doctoral and post-doctoral students in media, communication and related fields engaged with the issue of media and media systems, that wish to discuss their current work with established and emerging scholars and get relevant feedback.

Invited research conference participants will deliver keynote lectures with ample discussion opportunities. In this unique academic format, student course attendees will have extended opportunity to present and discuss their current own work with the course directors and other lecturers and participants in seminar form (English language) and in further informal meetings around the beautiful old-town of Dubrovnik (UNESCO World Heritage) over 5 full working days (Monday to Saturday).

The working language is English.

Participation in the course for graduate (master and doctoral) students brings 3,5 ECTS credits, and for doctoral students who present their thesis research 6 ECTS. The course is accredited and the ECTS are awarded by the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb (www.fpzg.unizg.hr). All participants will also receive a certificate of attendance from the IUC.

Enrolment

To apply, send a CV and a motivation letter to zrinjka.perusko@gmail.com Students who wish to present their research should also send a 300 word abstract. The course can accept 20 students, and the applications are received on a rolling basis. After notification of acceptance you need to register also on this web page https://iuc.hr/programme/1077

The IUC requires a small enrolment fee from student participants. Participants are responsible for organizing their own lodging and travel. Affordable housing is available for IUC participants. Stipends are available from IUC for eligible participants, further information at https://www.iuc.hr/iuc-support.php. For information on these matters please contact the IUC secretariat at iuc@iuc.hr.

Venue Information

The Inter-University Centre was founded in Dubrovnik in 1972 as an independent, autonomous academic institution with the aim of promoting international co-operation between academic institutions throughout the world. Courses are held in all scientific disciplines around the year, with participation of member and affiliated universities.

Additional Information

For further information about academic matters please contact the organizing course director: professor Zrinjka Peruško zrinjka.perusko@gmail.com, Centre for Media and Communication Research (www.cim.fpzg.unizg.hr), Department of Media and Communication, Faculty of Political Science (www.fpzg.unizg.hr), University of Zagreb (www.unizg.hr).

Daniela Jaramillo-Dent; Arantxa Vizcaíno-Verdú; Patricia De-Casas-Moreno; Carmen Baldallo-González.

In the last decade, Instagram has evolved from a mere repository of images to a widely recognized social network, becoming an important part of the new global digital cultures. The characteristics of this platform, its configurations, features and functionalities, have given rise to media and digital phenomena of great interest. In this sense, Instagram has redefined digital phenomena such as (self)representation, digital influence and online activism, through a constant adaptation to new generations and user needs. One of the keys to its success lies in the wide availability of communicative elements that encourage interaction and creativity, adapting pre-existing formats from other platforms. These characteristics, which cement a culture of user-generated content, also create a context in which problematic uses related to the possibilities of the platform for the manipulation of information or privacy, among others, are developed.

This work explores the singularities of this network, according to the way in which 21st century issues are constructed and disseminated. From an analysis of the trending topics on Instagram, the authors describe some of its social practices, whose implications go beyond the digital sphere. Because of the novelty of its subject matter, Instagramming. Themes, topics and trends is an emerging work of interest for students, academics and media professionals.

The book is in Spanish and is available here https://octaedro.com/libro/instagramming/

Marcos P. Dias

https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526135780/

The machinic city reveals the potential of performance art to create spaces for reflection and deliberation on contemporary urban living and to speculate on the future of cities. As social and spatial interactions in the city become increasingly mediated by machines, performance art can help us reflect on the new modes of subjectivity that emerge as human and machine agency become intermingled and digital media permeates the urban fabri

Several case studies of urban art interventions are analysed and discussed as examples of the potential of the aesthetic machine of performance art, as it assembles with media, Capitalist, human and urban machines. These case studies reveal the importance of acknowledging dissensus as a constitutive factor of urban life and as a means of countering machinist determinism in present and future conceptualisations of city life.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1 A Machine To See With

2 Probing the machine of performance art

3 Rethinking machines

4 The aesthetic machine

5 Participation in the machinic city

6 Future machines

Conclusion

Author bio:

Marcos Dias is an Assistant Professor at the School of Communications, Dublin City University. He completed a PhD in Media Studies in the University of Melbourne, Australia in 2015 and also holds a MSc with Distinction in Interactive Digital Media from Trinity College Dublin. His research investigates the social and spatial impact of digital technologies in the contemporary mediated city.

September 23 – 26, 2021

Gaborone, Botswana

Deadline: May 31, 2021

SMUS Conference

23 – 26.09.2021, 

We hereby invite you to submit an abstract for the “1st International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods” (SMUS Conference) and “1st RC33 Regional Conference – Africa: Botswana” in cooperation with ESA RN21 “Quantitative Methods” 23 – 26.09.2021, organised and hosted online by the University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana.

The “Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability” (GCSMUS) together with the Research Committee on “Logic and Methodology in Sociology” (RC33) of the “International Sociology Association” (ISA) and the Research Network “Quantitative Methods” (RN21) of the European Sociology Association” (ESA) will organize a “1st International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods” (“SMUS Conference”) which will at the same time be the “1st RC33 Regional Conference – Africa: Botswana” from Thursday 23.09 – Sunday 26.09.2021, hosted by the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana. Given the current challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will convene entirely online. The conference aims at promoting a global dialogue on methods and should attract methodologists from all over the world and all social and spatial sciences (e.g. area studies, architecture, communication studies, educational sciences, geography, historical sciences, humanities, landscape planning, philosophy, psychology, sociology, urban design, urban planning, traffic planning and environmental planning). Thus, the conference will enable scholars to get in contact with methodologists from various disciplines all over the world and to deepen discussions with researchers from various methodological angles. Scholars of all social and spatial sciences and other scholars who are interested in methodological discussions are invited to submit a paper to any sessions of the conference. All papers have to address a methodological problem.

Please find more information on the above institutions on the following websites:

“Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability” (GCSMUS):

https://gcsmus.org and www.mes.tu-berlin.de/spatialmethods

ISA RC33: http://rc33.org/

ESA RN21: www.europeansociology.org/research-networks/rn21-quantitative-methods

University of Botswana in Gaborone: www.ub.bw

If you are interested in getting further information on the conference and other GCSMUS activities, please subscribe to the GCSMUS newsletter by registering via the following website: https://lists.tu-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/mes-smusnews

Conference Sessions:

1. Decolonizing Social Science Methodology – Towards African Epistemologies

2. Decolonizing Social Science Methodology – Overcoming Positivism and Constructivism

3. Decolonizing Methodologies and Epistemologies: Discourse Analysis and Sociology of Knowledge

4. Culturally Sensitive Approaches for the Global South – Potential New Directions of Empirical Research

5. Critical Conversations on Bagele Chilisa’s Indigenous Research Methodologies

6. Policy Analysis and Political Economy

7. Researching the History of Postcolonial States with Qualitative Methods

8. Hermeneutics ‒ Interaction ‒ Social Structure

9. Interpretative and Multi-Method Approaches to Global-South-Migration

10. Process-Oriented Micro-Macro-Analysis

11. City Networks between the Structural and the Everyday: Methods that Bridge Macro- and Micro-Perspectives for a Better Comparative Understanding of Cities

12. Methodologies for the Investigation Spatial Transformation Processes

13. Human Centric Approaches on Urban Futures

14. Methods of Architectural Research

15. Art and Design Based-Research, Cross-Disciplinary Approaches for Material Knowledge Production

16. The Contribution of Urban Design to the Qualitative Methodology Discourse

17. Mapping for Change? Resituating 'Slow Time'. Craftwo/manship and Power

18. Applying Research Methods in Interdisciplinary Urban Sustainability Projects

19. The Role of ‘Productive Interactions’ between Researchers and Stakeholders in Creating Rigorous and Relevant Research for Urban Sustainability

20. Knowledge Creation in Informal Settlements: The Process, Ethics and Outputs of Co-Productive and Community-Led Research Methods

21. Fieldwork in the Global South – Shedding Light into the Black Box

22. Survey Data Quality in Interviewer-Administered Surveys in LMIC Contexts

23. Assessing the Quality of Survey Data

24. Digital Methods in Action: Use, Challenges and Prospects

25. Researching Climate Change Communication: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities in the Digital Era

26. Money and Digitalisation in the Global South

27. Methods in Food Studies Research

28. Locating the Religious/Secular in Africa: Methodological Challenges Conveners

29. Ethical and Methodological Dilemmas of Social Research in Violent Conflict Situations

Submission of Papers

All sessions have to comply with the conference organization rules (see below). If you want to present a paper, please submit your abstract via the official conference website: https://gcsmus.org between 20.02.2021 and 31.05.2021. You will be informed by 31.07.2021, if your proposed paper has been accepted for presentation at the conference. For further information, please see the conference website or contact the session organizers.

Conference Organizers:

Gabriel Faimau (University of Botswana, Botswana) and Nina Baur (TU Berlin, Germany)

Botswana Organizing Team: Gabriel Faimau, Sethunya Mosime, France Maphosa, Godisang Mookodi, Ikanyeng Malila, Gwen Lesetedi, Latang Sechele, Esther Nkhukhu-Orlando

Rules for Session Organization (According to GCSMUS Objectives and RC 33 Statutes)

1. There will be no conference fees.

2. The conference language is English. All papers therefore need to be presented in English.

3. All sessions have to be international: Each session should have speakers from at least two countries (exceptions will need good reasons).

4. Each paper must contain a methodological problem (any area, qualitative or quantitative).

5. There will be several calls for abstracts via the GCSMUS, RC33 and RN21 Newsletters. To begin with, session organizers can prepare a call for abstracts on their own initiative, then at a different time, there will be a common call for abstracts, and session organizers can ask anybody to submit a paper.

6. GCSMUS, RC33 and RN21 members may distribute these calls via other channels. GCSMUS members and session organizers are expected to actively advertise their session in their respective scientific communities.

7. Speakers can only have one talk per session. This also applies for joint papers. It will not be possible for A and B to present at the same time one paper as B and A during the same session. This would just extend the time allocated to these speakers.

8. Session organizers may present a paper in their own session.

9. Sessions will have a length of 90 minutes with a maximum of 4 papers or a length of 120 minutes with a maximum of 6 papers. Session organizers can invite as many speakers as they like. The number of sessions depends on the number of papers submitted to each session. E.g. if 12 good papers are submitted to a session, there will be two sessions with a length of 90 minutes each with 6 papers in each session.

10. Papers may only be rejected for the conference if they do not present a methodological problem (as stated above), are not in English or are somehow considered by session organizers as not being appropriate or relevant for the conference. Session organizers may ask authors to revise and resubmit their paper so that it fits these requirements. If session organizers do not wish to consider a paper submitted to their session, they should inform the author and forward the paper to the local organizing team who will find a session where the paper fits for presentation.

11. Papers directly addressed to the conference organising committee (and those forwarded from session organizers) will be offered to other session organizers (after proofing for quality). The session organizers will have to decide on whether or not the paper can be included in their session(s). If the session organizers think that the paper does not fit into their session(s), the papers should be sent back to the conference organizing committee as soon as possible so that the committee can offer the papers to another session organizer.

merzWissenschaft | medien + erziehung

Deadline: February 22, 2021

Supervising Editors:

• Prof. Dr. Oliver M. Reuter (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg),
• Wolfgang Neumann & Prof. Dr. Anja Hartung-Griemberg (Ludwigsburg University of Education)
• and the merzWissenschaft editorial team (JFF)

The weasel is said to be able to suck out the entire contents of an egg without leaving a single visible trace on the empty shell.

This peculiar ability brings to mind a phenomenon encountered in some forms of human activity. Weasel words pose more questions than they provide answers to. “Creativity” is a weasel word, one whose ubiquitous use is as casual as it is programmatic. One reason for this is certainly its positive connotation: A creative person is capable of performing well, someone who promotes creativity is working on behalf of something good. Creativity techniques expand the awareness of possibilities and mental freedom. Creative approaches help solve problems, generate ideas and develop visions. Free Creativity is the “driving power in times of crisis” (Muntschick 2020 [translation adapted]). It is thus no surprise that creativity is also ubiquitous in the context of media education and is anchored firmly in relevant media literacy definitions. The invocation of the creative subject has an emancipatory component. In creative acts the subject successfully achieves distance from central societal images and participates in deliberative processes with authentic expectations.

The current Maker movement put wind in the sails of those relying on the concept of creativity. Laser cutting machines and 3D printers inspire new forms of creative encounter and media-esthetic configuration. FabLabs and HackerSpaces provide new atmospheres for creative processes. Veni creator spiritus! On closer examination this anthem of creativity is based on several contradictions and ambivalences. Can Artificial Intelligence be creative? And what is the value of the creative, since it is subjected to capitalist compulsions? What values and added value does the creative subject bring forth?

If we ask what is specifically meant by the term creativity, we encounter confusion. An abundance of definitions characterizes the heterogeneous overall image of the term. The legacy of theories, for example those of Graham Wallas (The Art of Thought, 1926), may still inhere in the basic nuances of many creativity models (e. g. the distinction of various creative stages). But a wide variety of disciplines which see worthwhile substance in creativity for their respective fields results in an impenetrable thicket. The hodgepodge is intensified by popular-scientific usage which claims the glory of the term for itself, admittedly without providing an adequate basis for doing so.

In contrast to processes which whenever possible pursue a previously known objective along a linear path, creative processes cannot withdraw into the simple execution of a predefined or derivable plan. Much more it is absolutely prerequisite to generate something previously unknown in the mutual interaction of phases in which ideas freely unfold and phases of concrete realization. The central objective of creative processes is ultimately to develop something new, regardless of the nature of that novelty. The significance of originality is enough to give creative action a relevance exceeding a personal sense of purpose and the compensatory, which subjects the processes of esthetic education to political and structural demands. Creativity as a sensible and in some aspects crucial element in the use of media is not only relevant in the field of education in the broadest sense. Creative approaches are also obligatory in fields such as computer programming and in the development of applications.

In the current special issue of merzWissenschaft we would like on the one hand to discuss the subject of creativity in terms of its various theoretical relationships and reflective outlooks and on the other hand to provide impulses for scientific and practical educational work. The following focus areas and questions are for example conceivable:

Creativity and its theoretical-discursive constitution

• How is creativity understood in (media-)educational discourse?
• What positions, cognitive interests and research questions determine the shape of the current debate on the concept of creativity?
• Which analyses of the links between central societal images and creativity are essential to critical reflection on (media-)educational objectives and work methods?
• To what extent is creativity a normative term, what is the normative justification for this term and what are the associated consequences?
• What significance does creativity still enjoy as a central concept of art critique?

Creativity and media behavior

• What relationships between creativity and various media are to be observed? What is the specific significance of digital media in this context?
• What prerequisites do media generate for creative action? And to what extent do these prerequisites at the same time limit creative action?
• What is the significance of digital media which preclude options for their own deployment (as is the case in computer games) or which react adaptively to user behavior?
• How do creative processes (using media) become visible? What esthetics are manifested? How can observers participate?

Creativity and conditions for educational enablement

• What structural and temporal factors place conditions on and favor creative processes?
• How can creative processes emerge in a media landscape which already offers a surfeit of information and images?
• To what extent does a media landscape support or impede the creation of new ideas?
• How can creative approaches be made fertile, even as early as in the development of media products?
• What creativity-related perspectives are conceivable in contexts relating to personal development, societal-democratic and even economic-ecological aspects?
• What role does creativity play in the context of societal constellations of recognition?
• To what extent are alternatives to the creative imperative conceivable? To what extent can the original intention of art critique be mobilized to articulate and therefore undermine social grievances and political power structures, based on creative artifacts?

Note: There is no requirement to espouse and/or give scientific preference to a specific concept of creativity. Contributions are to explicitly explain their reference to a creativity concept formulated in the context of the investigation/presentation.

merzWissenschaft provides a forum advancing scientific analysis in media education and promoting progress in the theoretical foundation of the discipline. For this purpose qualified articles are called for from various relevant disciplines (including mediaeducational, communications sciences, media sciences, (developmental) psychological, legal fields and philosophical perspectives in the history of a given field), also with an interdisciplinary approach, for the continuing development of expert mediaeducational dialog. Of interest are original papers with an empirical or theoretical foundation, presenting new findings, aspects or approaches to the topic and which are explicitly related to one of the topic areas or questions outlined above, or which explore a separate topic within the scope of the overall context of the Call.

Abstracts with a maximum length of 800 words can be submitted to the merz-editorial team (merz@jff.de) until February 22, 2021. Submissions should follow the merzWissenschaft layout specifications, available at https://www.merz-zeitschrift.de/manuskriptrichtlinien/. The length of the articles should not exceed a maximum of approximately 7,000 words. Please feel free to contact Susanne Eggert, tel.: +49.89.68989.152, e-mail: susanne.eggert@jff.de

Summary of deadlines

• February 22, 2021: Submission of abstracts to merz@jff.de
• March 12, 2021: Final decision on acceptance/rejection of the abstracts
• June 14, 2021: Submission of papers
• June 15 to July 19, 2021: Assessment phase (double-blind peer review)
• August/September 2021: Revision phase (with multiple cycles, when appropriate)

Review of Communication Research

Deadline: August 1, 2021

Review of Communication Research invites the submission of literature reviews and meta-analyses relevant to audience and reception studies. Possible areas and issues to be covered include, but are not limited to:

- Critical/cultural approaches to audience/reception studies

- Political economy and audiences

- Journalism and audiences

- Entertainment and audiences

- Ethics in audience research

- Social media and audiences

- Audience and reception research in the Global South

- Universal and cultural differences in reception

- Methodological questions in audience/reception studies

- Theoretical questions in audience/reception studies

The manuscript submission deadline is August 1, 2021.

Paper proposals, questions, and comments should be addressed to Melissa Tully (melissa-tully@uiowa.edu) cc to editor@rcommunicationr.org.

Authors should submit their manuscripts through the RCR editorial management system: www.rcommunicationr.org.

Download a PDF of the Call for Papers: https://www.rcommunicationr.org/public/journals/1/Call%20for%20Papers%20or%20Proposals%20RCR_Audiences%20&%20Reception%20Studies

Review of Communication Research (RCR, www.rcommunicationr.org ) is an open-access academic journal that has become a reference for the publication of literature reviews for the field of Communication.

The articles we publish are highly cited. According to the SCOPUS SNIP indicator, RCR ranks in the top 2% journals in the Social Sciences, and #14/434 in Communication; Scopus SJR 2019: top 10%; Scopus CiteScore 2019: top 19%.

Special Issue of Media​ International Australia

Deadline: February 28, 2021

Editors: Luke Heemsbergen (luke.h@deakin.edu.au), Emiliano Treré​ (TrereE@cardiff.ac.uk) & Gabriel Pereira (gpereira@cc.au.dk)​

Check the full CfP here: tinyurl.com/1kcs2tzb​

What are the ways in which algorithms are​ being deployed tactically to provocative ends? And, just as​ importantly, are these sustainable as activist or political practice?​

This issue will consider these trends and surrounding issues in order​ to introduce new ways of thinking about algorithmic politics in​ tactical and discrete terms. It hopes to open critical data and​ algorithm studies in ways that might reconfigure how critical​ scholarship approaches the algorithm in tactical terms as networked​ media tools that are antagonistic. We ask for submissions that​ consider the design of algorithms not as finished solutions that​ structure the world, but as something troubling - in a meaningful and​ helpful way - that might better inform our understanding of the​ capacities and limits of algorithmic life.​

We are particularly looking forward to critical engagements with​ algorithmic practice, which may include feminist theory,​ de/post-colonial theory, critical race theory, queer theory,​ indigenous theory, perspectives from the Global South, and others.​

The issue looks to submissions including but not limited to…

-​ Agonistic and antagonistic algorithm design

- Algorithms as culture​ (and critical responses to algorithmic culture) - Algorithmic practice​ of the everyday

- Activist algorithmic science and practice

-​ Adversarial algorithmic externalities

- Standpoint data justice

-​ Tactical algorithmic media

- Forms of algorithmic resistance and​ antagonistic algorithm design in the Global South

- Applied​ evolutionary computation

- Feminist and antirracist algorithmic theory​ and practice

- Disaffected technologies and technologists

- Artistic​ forms of response to algorithmic culture

- Antagonism of digital,​ algorithmic, and tech labourers​

Proposed Timeline​

• 28 February 2021: Abstracts (400-500 words) due for submission to guest editors​
• 21 March 2021: Invitation to submit full papers sent to selected​ authors, with feedback on abstracts as applicable​
• 31 July 2021: Full papers sent by authors for Peer Review​
• 15 October 2021: Peer review returned to authors​
• (Up to) 30 Jan 2021: Final papers due for those papers that have​ passed/responded to review.​
• May 2022: Special Issue comes out on MIA

Edited by: Stefania Milan, Emiliano Treré and Silvia Masiero

Published in the Theory on Demand Series of the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam

The book features 75 authors writing in 5 languages in 282 pages that amplify the silenced voices of the first pandemic of the datafied society. It is a multilingual conversation that celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity but also de-centers dominant ways of being and knowing while contributing a decolonial approach to the narration of the COVID-19 crisis. It brings researchers, activists, practitioners, and communities on the ground into dialogue to offer critical reflections in near-real time and in an accessible language, from indigenous groups in New Zealand to impoverished families in Spain, from data activists in South Africa to gig workers in India, from feminicidios in Mexico to North/South stereotypes in Europe, from astronomers in Brazil to questions of infrastructure in Russia—and counting! The result is a heterogeneous, polycentric and pluriversal narration, which invites the reader to enact and experience the “Big data from the South(s)” approach as an interpretive lens to read the pandemic.

The book is proudly open access and available here in .pdf and .epub versions: https://tinyurl.com/1l28349d - While supplies last, we are also distributing printed copies for free. Enjoy and spread!

May 27-28, 2021

Online conference

Deadline: February 1, 2021

27th International Congress of the SEP

Spanish Society of Journalists (SEP), Faculty of Communication of the University of Seville (Spain) 

Under the title “Digital transformation. Challenges and expectations for journalism”, this edition establishes the necessary connection between the academic, business and professional worlds around the general theme of the activity and between the agents involved. It aims to advance the importance of the digital transformation as a strategy of the media and journalism companies, therefore, the term digital is assumes not as an end in itself, but as a central characteristic of the journalism industries.

The event will be attended by international professionals such as Charo Henríquez, Head of Newsroom Development and Support at The New York Times, and Alfred Hermida, professor at the University of British Columbia and a founding member of BBCNews.com website.

Participation has also been confirmed by renowned Spanish professionals such as Pepe Cerezo, professor at Carlos III University of Madrid and director of Evoca Media; Noemí Ramírez, Chief Product and Customer Officer at PRISA Noticias; Javier Martínez, Chief Digital Officer at La Vanguardia, and José Ignacio Álvarez Ortiz, director of the applicatons business area at Oracle Ibérica.

The abstracts, with the communication proposals, may be sent until 15 February 2021, through the form available on the Congress website: www.sepsevilla2021.com. All accepted abstracts will be included in the digital abstract book published by the Editorial of the University of Seville. The papers defended at the Congress, after peer review, may choose to be published in these reviews: Textual & Visual Media, Ámbitos. Revista internacional de Comunicación, IROCAMM or Anàlisi. Quaderns de comunicaciò i cultura, or as a chapter in a digital book edited by Gedisa and the SEP.

Abstracts with proposals for papers can be sent through the form available on the Congress website: www.sepsevilla2021.com. These are the 5 main thematic areas:

1. Evolution and adaptation of the journalistic profession to the new challenges.

2. Innovation of new business models and entrepreneurial niches.

3. Active audiences and distribution strategies.

4. Recent trends in content production and new narratives.

5. Teaching and research in journalism post Covid-19.

Accepted abstracts will form part of the digital book of abstracts with the seal of the Editorial of the University of Seville. Papers defended at the conference, after peer review, will be eligible for one of the following publication options:

- Textual & Visual Media Journal.

- Ámbitos. International Journal of Communication.

- IROCAMM Journal.

- Anàlisi Journal. Quaderns de comunicació i cultura. (Q2)

- Digital book chapter published by Gedisa (Ranking SPI-Comunicación- 2nd place) and SEP.

- Digital book chapter published under the seal of the Editorial de la Universidad de Sevilla.

REGISTRATION

Registration for the Congress closes on 3 May 2021. Those who register before or including 15 March 2021 can benefit from a reduced rate. Further information is available on the Congress website.

KEY DATES

• 3 December 2020: Call for papers and opening of registration.
• 15 February 2021: Deadline for submission of abstracts.
• 2 to 8 March 2021: Notification of acceptance of proposals.
• 15 March 2021: Deadline for reduced registration.
• 12 April 2021: Deadline for sending the video presentation of accepted papers.
• 24 May 2021: Publication of the Book of Abstracts on the conference website.
• 3 May 2021: Deadline for registration.
• 27 and 28 May 2021: Presentation of papers and holding of the Congress.
• 21 June 2021: Deadline for submission of articles to the following journals: IROCAMM, Anàlisi. Quaderns de comunicació i cultura (Q2) and for the book published by Gedisa and SEP (2022), according to the selected publication option.
• 1 to 15 September: Notification of evaluation and acceptance of chapters for the book edited by Gedisa and SEP.

*Those papers that are accepted after peer review and that are not selected in the previous options, will be published as book chapters with the seal of the Editorial of the University of Seville.

31 December 2021: Deadline for submission to Ámbitos. International Journal of Communication.

Open date: for submission of papers to the journal: Textual & Visual Media.

If you have any questions, please visit the Congress website: www.sepsevilla2021.com or contact sep2021@us.es (academic questions) and secretariaSEP2021@sepsevilla2021.com (other questions).