ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 17-18, 2021

Lublin, Poland

Deadline: May 16, 2021

Institute of Social Communication and Media Science - Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin

Institute of International Studies - University of Wroclaw

Research section: Mediatization – Polish Communication Association

Mediatization research offers some of the strongest and most influential social science perspectives on current societal transformation. It has been widely discussed and further developed in many regards. The explanatory power of mediatization lies in its capability to catch media related transformations, taking place in almost every domain of private and public life. While explaining the specificity of the mediatization (meta)processes it is claimed that media communication becomes increasingly advanced (in terms of media technology and the number of communication channels), takes place continuously (in different forms) and encompasses more and more research questions. Consequently, the goal of this discussion is to .deepen and widen our understanding of mediatization processes in different national contexts.

Suggested topics:

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• Theory of mediatization – conceptualizations and operationalizations – the constructivist and systemic/institutional approaches;
• Investigating the (meta)process of mediatization - the methodological challenges;
• New manifestations of mediatization in different cultures, as well as in various societal, political and technological contexts;
• Mediatization of political communication – automatization, platformization, algorithimization;
• Mediatization of communication, and culture;
• Mediatyzation of journalistic practices;
• Idiosyncrasies of different domains of mediatization – education, religion, arts, music, literature, sport, consumption and other fields of private and public life;
• The deepening of mediatization process – digitalization and datafication, supersaturation of private and public life.

The goal of this academic event is to provide a forum for discussion and cooperation among mediatization scholars, as well as to give the space to deliberate on key problems of mediatization research, including new phenomena of deep mediatization.

Confirmed keynote speakers include, among others, professor Rita Figueiras (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Vice-chair of Mediatization Section ECREA), professor Goran Bölin (University of Södertörn, Executive Board Member of ECREA)

Form: hybrid, direct and online participation, depending on the pandemic conditions.

Publication:

Selected papers will be published in international journal: Mediatization Studies (ERIH+; 20 p. MEiN): https://journals.umcs.pl/ms/

Languages of the conference: English, Polish

Abstract submission: May 16, 2021.

Full paper submission: December 30, 2021.

Detailed information and submission form:  www.umcs.pl/en/registration,18647.htm

April 23-24, 2021

We are happy to announce the programme for our forthcoming conference reflecting on 200 years of the Guardian. This will take place online on 23/24 April and you can now register for free at https://hopin.com/events/liberalism-inc-200-years-of-the-guardian . We have keynotes from Alan Rusbridger (former editor of the Guardian), Mark Curtis (founder of Declassified UK), Gary Younge (former editor-at-large, the Guardian) and Ghada Karmi (Exeter University) together with eight panels on a range of topics.

Friday 23 April

3-4pm Keynote: Mark Curtis (founder, Declassified), ‘The Guardian, the establishment and the security state’ (chaired by Hilary Wainwright)

4.10-5.30pm First set of panels

Foreign news (chaired by Omega Douglas)

• Giora Goodman and Tony Shaw: Guardian and Israel from both sides – Suez
• Victoria Brittain: ‘Third World Review’
• Christian Christensen: 'The Guardian Covers Social Democracy: Swedish Utopia or Dystopia?'

The open, liberal newsroom (chaired by James Curran)

• Colleen Murrell: Australia and the “dance with philanthropy”
• Dan Jackson, Todd Graham & Scott Wright: Open journalism
• John Holmwood: Liberal orthodoxy and religious rights

6-8pm Keynote: Gary Younge, ‘Race and Class at the Guardian’ (respondent: Richard Seymour) (chaired by Des Freedman)

Saturday 24 April

10-11am Keynote: Alan Rusbridger, ‘More than a business: the 200 year history of a newspaper which put purpose before profit’ (chaired by Natalie Fenton)

11.10-12.30 Second set of panels

Liberalism (chaired by Clea Bourne)

Alexander Zevin: Liberalism and empire
Aaron Ackerley: The Interwar years
Carole O’Reilly: The sturdy strength of traditional liberalism

Des Freedman: The Founding of the Guardian

Regulation and the state (chair TBC)

• Julian Petley: press campaign against the Guardian
• Natalie Fenton: Guardian and press regulation
• Simon Dawes: Media freedom, power and the public
• Brian Cathcart: The Guardian and Press Reform: A Wheel Come Full Circle

1.30-2.50pm Third set of panels

The Guardian and feminism (chaired by Becky Gardiner)

• Hannah Hamad: Madeline Linford, Mary Stott and the early years of the women’s page
• Lynne Segal: Reflections on feminism
• Jilly Kay and Mareile Pfanebecker: The Guardian and neoliberal femininism

Empire (chaired by Mirca Madianou)

• Richard Smith: Pan Africanism and anti-colonial struggle
• Kathy Davies: Irish war of independence
• Priya Gopal: On empire

3-4.20pm Fourth set of panels

Liberalism's others (chaired by Anamik Saha)

• Mike Wayne: The Guardian and Brexit
• Katy Brown, Aurelien Mondon & Aaron Winter: Guardian and populist hype
• Cinzia Padovani: Guardian’s coverage of the ultra-right

Bias and balance (chaired by Kate Morris)

• Tom Mills: A liberal echo chamber
• Justin Schlosberg and Mike Berry: The curse of Corbynism
• Laura Basu: The Guardian and austerity

4.30-5.30pm Keynote: Ghada Karmi, ‘Reporting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Guardian’s fatal ambivalence’ (chaired by Gholam Khiabany)

Please do circulate to your networks and students and remember that you can register now for free at https://hopin.com/events/liberalism-inc-200-years-of-the-guardian

April 1, 2021

The webinar Preparing your communications team to handle Social Media manipulation will be presented by Jonathon Morgan on Thursday 1 April 2021 at 13.45 GMT/UCT (14.45 British Summer Time). Jonathon is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Yonder.

What is the webinar content?

The webinar will cover the following themes with plenty of time for a Q&A.

• Manipulative social media activity is becoming increasingly common, brands are being targeted, and traditional social analytics tools can't answer these questions.
• Communications teams are now expected to show up with answers to questions such as: Why is our brand suddenly trending? Why is our spokesperson under fire? Why are we being boycotted? Who’s behind it? How did this happen? Why didn’t we see it coming? What happens next?
• Wayfair had to deny conspiracy theories about child trafficking on its site. Peloton's valuation plunged $942M in one day after an ad went viral. GameStop stocks soared 400% when investors coordinated a short squeeze via Reddit.
• We'll look at how modern comms teams are using social intelligence so they don't get surprised by social media manipulation, and can make strategic decisions that mitigate risk and keep your team in control of the brand's story.

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 Jonathon

Jonathon Morgan is co-founder and chief executive officer at Yonder. Yonder is a Social Intelligence platform that uses machine learning to analyze how narratives spread across fringe and mainstream social platforms and influence public opinion. Prior to Yonder, he published research about extremist groups manipulating social media with the Brookings Institution, The Atlantic, and the Washington Post, and presented findings at NATO's Center of Excellence for Defense Against Terrorism, the United States Institute for Peace, and the African Union. Jonathon previously served as an adviser to the US State Department, developing strategies for digital counter-terrorism. For more see https://www.yonder-ai.com

Contact

International Public Relations Association Secretariat

United Kingdom

secgen@ipra.org

Telephone +44 1634 818308

October 22-23, 2021

Online conference

Deadline: March 30, 2021

We invite abstracts of papers and panel proposals for the 13th Central and East European Communication and Media Conference (CEECOM) to be held in Cracow, Poland, October 22 and 23, 2021. The theme of the conference is the new communication revolution – a timely and rich topic due to many ongoing changes in the field of media and communication. The conference will address a diverse set of issues and will cover a wide spectrum of ideas related to the concept of communication revolution and ongoing communication and social changes. The new communication revolution may refer to various aspects of people’s social, political, economic or technological activities. We are inviting conceptual, empirical, and methodological proposals reflecting on changes related to communication itself, but also on relations between the media and mediatized communication, and the new ways of thinking, working and spending leisure time. The contributions considering the advantages and drawbacks of current trends in communication will be of special value.

The new communication revolution can be pondered at different levels. It can be explored at the macro-level, where the changes in the modes of communication impact the relationships between media institutions and political institutions. The comparative studies within the CEE region are particularly valuable in this respect. The latest works comparing media systems in Central, East and Southeast Europe may serve as a reference point here. The relations between media and politics in this region have been widely analyzed to date, and many attempts have been made to map the most characteristic features of CEE media systems, journalist autonomy, and the state of media freedom.

Still, the conference contributions may be a good opportunity to revisit these questions with regard to the issue of hybridization, digitalization, automation, algorithmisation, of the information ecosystems where the tech giants play a particular role, and contemporary trends such as dis- and misinformation, leading to the audiences’ exposure to contradictory, ideologically-charged, emotion-influenced, manipulative or highly polarizing messages, or dissemination of various kinds of deception.

The new communication revolution can be also observed at the institutional level. In the past, we used to deal mainly with public and mass communication featuring organized actors. Today's mediasphere is characterized by a mix of broadcast and narrowcast, interactive media, and established and non-established communicators, which results in the co-existence of public and personalized messages therein. This situation, in many ways, challenges the traditional institutional approach. Last but not least, the micro-level can be considered. Constant use of social networking sites and instant messaging platforms changed our lives in an unprecedented manner. The particularly relevant aspect of the new communication revolution seems to be the rise of participatory culture, enabling citizens to actively co-create media content in ways that have not been seen before. It is, therefore, important to assess and analyze the individual user experience.

The conference will feature both presentations of individual research papers and thematic panels.

Paper submissions will be grouped in sessions of 4-5 papers.

A limited number of slots will be available for specialized panels, where one topic would be addressed in four to five presentations, followed by responses. Preference will be given to panels with presenters from diverse backgrounds and affiliations.

Please, note that all proposals will undergo a peer-review process, and will be accepted or declined accordingly.

Only one proposal per first author can be accepted.

The contribution fee for the conference participants includes:

(1) on-line participation in all conference sessions

(2) presentation of the conference paper

(3) the book of abstracts (online version),

(4) review of a full paper,

(5) publication (if the text is accepted/depending on reviewers’ recommendations),

(6) certificate of participation in the conference.

Fees:

Early bird registration

Early bird registration opens on May 15th and ends on June 30th, 2021. (10 per cent discount applies to the PCA members.)

• 70 EUR (315 PLN; PCA: 283 PLN) for participating scholars
• 50 EUR (225 PLN; PCA: 202 PLN) for doctoral students
• 30 EUR (135 PLN; PCA: 121 PLN) for graduate students

Standard registration

Standard registration opens on July 1st and ends on September 30th, 2021. (10 per cent discount applies to the PCA members.)

• 100 EUR (450 PLN; PCA: 405 PLN) for conference participants
• 80 EUR (360 PLN; PCA: 324 PLN) for doctoral students
• 60 EUR (270 PLN; PCA: 243 PLN) for graduate students

Online submission of paper and panel proposals starts on January 18th, 2021 and ends on March 30th, 2021

https://idmiksuj.edu.pl/ceecom2021/

Contact: ceecom@uj.edu.pl

April 9, 2021- 3pm

Online via Zoom

register here: https://yorku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nf57kdxuSySuOPKe2NIRdg

Please join us for a roundtable discussion about design justice and community-led initiatives engaged in practices for reshaping the future.

We are pleased to host a conversation about design justice with Sasha Costanza-Chock, Denise Shanté Brown, and Wesley Taylor, members of the steering committee of the Design Justice Network, an organization at the forefront of community-led design for social justice. The DJN is made up of designers, advocates, educators, and researchers, and is dedicated to reshaping existing practices and collaborative approaches to addressing injustices based on race, class, gender, and ability.

The roundtable will explore the work of the organization and the presenters as well as challenges and opportunities posed by designed inequalities disproportionately impacting on already marginalized communities. It will include remarks from Professor Alison Harvey and responses from York and Ryerson graduate students Mina Momeni, Brianna I. Wiens, and Dayna Jeffrey.

This event will include ASL interpretation.

This roundtable is co-presented with the Wendy Michener Memorial Lecture and Design Justice Dialogue Series, and with the generous support of the Division of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation, the Principal’s Office at Glendon College, the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies, Sensorium, Center for Feminist Research, the Digital Media program in the Department of Computational Art, the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at York University and Ryerson University, the Department of Design in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, the Department of Communication Studies at Keele campus, the Communications Program at Glendon College and the Department of Social Justice Education, OISE at the University of Toronto.

Presenter bios:

Sasha Costanza-Chock is a researcher and designer who works to support community-led processes that build shared power, move towards collective liberation, and advance ecological survival. They are known for their work on networked social movements, transformative media organizing, and design justice. Sasha is a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Senior Research Fellow at the Algorithmic Justice League (ajlunited.org), and a Faculty Affiliate with the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Sasha is the author of two books and numerous journal articles, book chapters, and other research publications. Their new book, Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, was published by the MIT Press in 2020. Sasha is a board member of Allied Media Projects (alliedmedia.org) and a member of the Steering Committee of the Design Justice Network (designjustice.org).

Wesley Taylor is a graphic designer, fine artist, musician and curator. He has spent many years “scene building” in the Detroit hip-hop community as both an emcee and graphic designer. He is co-founder of Emergence Media, along with Invincible. Taylor’s most recent body of work revolves around the promise of the future; he imagines that “the future” is his client and he is in charge of marketing for “the future” and branding its many possibilities. Taylor holds a graduate degree in 2-D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also manages a five-person artists’ studio collective in Detroit called Talking Dolls.

Denise Shanté Brown is a holistic design strategist living in Baltimore whose life’s work centers the wellbeing and brilliance of Black womxn and folx who hold marginalized identities. Wholeheartedly and with no apologies. As the Founding Director of Black Womxn Flourish and creator of Design for the Wellbeing of Black Womxn, she has dedicated her holistic practice to actualizing liberating and vibrant futures through design. She believes that creative, hands-on healing experiences can shape possibility and embolden communities to develop the tools and strategies we need for collective wellbeing. Her processes and practices are grounded in design justice and healing justice principles, emergent strategy, nature, womanism, and the feminine economy. She holds a Masters of Arts degree in Social Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has designed unique health interventions, community engagement strategies, and listening session models, facilitated creative dialogue on self-compassion and mindful social practice, and conducted design-led research that emphasizes the lived experiences of the people behind the data.

Respondent bios:

Dayna Jeffrey is a PhD candidate in the Science & Technology Studies program at York University. Dayna received an MA in Communication and Culture from a joint program between York and Ryerson University and an Honors BA in Social Anthropology with a minor in Religious Studies from York University. Dayna’s academic passions surround techno-utopian ideology or super-intelligence. Dayna’s current work focuses on the implications of techno-utopian ideology, or transhumanist visions of the future, on the design of artificially intelligent technologies. Dayna considers how does past, present, and future inform technological design. Her theoretical approach focuses on the sociology of technological expectations and ideologies surrounding innovative technology. This builds on her MA work focusing on the controversies surrounding the development of strong AI, specifically by analysing how socio-political and economic issues are seemingly erased and yet transpire in contemporary techno-utopian discourses.

Brianna I. Wiens (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in Communication and Culture at York University and co-director of the qcollaborative (http://www.qcollaborative.com/), a feminist design lab. Her SSHRC-funded research draws on her experience as a mixed-race queer activist-scholar to analyze and apply feminist theories and practices, considering the possibilities and constraints of technologies and feminist methods for digital activisms. Wiens’s collaborative work has recently appeared in Feminist Media Studies, Digital Studies/Le Champ Numérique, and Leisure Sciences, and she is a co-editor of the forthcoming collection Networked Feminist Activisms (Lexington Press 2021).

Mina Momeni is a doctoral candidate in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University and a sessional lecturer at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Guelph-Humber. Her research focuses on digital media, visual culture, human-computer interaction, philosophy of technology, and political activism. Momeni is also an interdisciplinary artist, and her artwork explores the relationship between ancient culture, symbology, monuments and memories. Momeni's artwork, such as photographs, videos, multimedia and installation art have been shown in numerous group and individual exhibitions in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

Call for chapters for an edited volume, “Advances in Teaching and Teacher Education” series (Brill/Sense)

Deadline: March 31, 2021

The aim of this edited volume is to provide thorough discussions on visual approaches to teaching along with examples of practical application of the discussed activities or educational interventions.

The proposed chapters can focus on activities from across disciplines, or on specific visual approaches/methods of teaching in higher education. However, instead of describing a sole teaching/learning activity or an exercise, contributors are invited to situate it in a wider theoretical and conceptual context. The chapters may focus on educational experiments or interventions, or elaborate on the projects that aim to develop students’ visual competency, or to advance the general practices in visual education in culturally or disciplinary specific contexts.

The theoretical background of each chapter should be outlined in a clear manner, providing short elaboration of the key concepts, considering the differences between the terms, such as, visual literacy, visual pedagogy, visual communication, visual competency, etc. The book is intended for an international audience, and thus, each chapter has to be situated in a particular educational context, bringing its key characteristics to the reader. Contributors are also asked to write in a manner accessible to readers outside of their respective fields.

REVIEW PROCESS

This publication project will be conducted in a collaborative manner, including two or three rounds of the rigorous review process that can result in either acceptance or rejection. By submitting your chapter manuscript for this edited volume, you agree to participate in the review process and to act as both the prospective author and a peer-reviewer.

TIMELINE

• abstract submission (200 words, and 100 words bio) — 31 March 2021
• full chapter submission — 30 June 2021
• review process (2-3 rounds): editorial screening, external review and peer-review
• final revised chapters’ submission — October 2021
• book manuscript submitted to the publisher — Nov./Dec. 2021
• envisioned publication date — May/June 2022

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION GUIDELINES:

• submit only original work, not previously published elsewhere in the same or similar form;
• maximum length of the manuscript is 5.500-6.000 words, including references and footnotes, excluding abstract and keywords;

• include an abstract of about 200 words and 6-8 keywords,
• include a short bio (100 words) intended for the ‘Notes on Contributors’;
• use a Word editor for submission (at the later stage you will be asked to convert your chapter using Brill publication style);

• consider visually rich submission (you can include up to 4-6 figures in your chapter);
• apply APA reference style; all in-text references should be included in the Reference list at the end of your manuscript;

• use footnotes instead of endnotes;
• use American spelling throughout your manuscript;
• conduct language-editing and/or language-check before submitting your manuscript — it always helps to get the reviewers on your side; neither the publisher nor the editor can cover the language editing costs;

• carefully prepare your submission, considering that we all do voluntary work when reviewing each others papers;

• send your chapter manuscript to Joanna Kedra: joanna.kedra@jyu.fi

You are welcome to discuss with the editor your ideas for the chapter before submitting the full manuscript. You can contact the editor, Joanna Kedra, via email: joanna.kedra@jyu.fi

About the editor:

Dr. Joanna Kędra works in the Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Joanna is a Vice-Chair of the ECREA Visual Cultures Section, and Chair of the International Presence Committee for the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA). Her research interest is in visual culture, photography and visual research methods as well as in visual literacy and visual pedagogy in a higher education context.

University of Antwerp

The University of Antwerp's Research Group MIOS and Research Group Government and Law are seeking to fill the following full-time (100%) vacancy for a Doctoral Grant (starting September 1st, 2021) in the framework of the project: Cyberviolence on social media: a research on hate speech and image-based sexual abuse

More information on the project, job description and requirements, can be found on: https://tinyurl.com/pymj3n2d

Deadline for online submission of the candidatures is April 18, 2021.

Technische Universität Ilmenau

The Faculty of Economic Sciences and Media offers a position at the Research Group on Public Relations and Communication of Technology to be filled by May 1, not later than June 1, 2021 (full time, for three years) as research associate (f/m/d) to fulfill research tasks within the DFG-funded project "Deciphering the 'pandemic public sphere': Government communication, (social) media discourses on and citizens' responses to Covid-19 in Europe and the USA", subject to funding approval by the funding body. The position can also be combined with pursuing a PhD.

Remuneration is in accordance with the provisions of the collective agreement for the public service of the Länder (TV-L).

Your tasks

• Literature research and elaboration of the state of research on relevant topics of risk, crisis and health communication
• Conceptualization and implementation of comparative quantitative media content analyses (development of codebooks, implementation of coder trainings with international coders, reliability tests, etc.)
• Data cleansing and data analysis in the project (SPSS / R)
• Collaboration in the preparation of research reports, conference submissions and publications
• Participation in the international research team to develop models, methods, approaches to data analysis and coordination
• Participation in administrative tasks

Your profile

• Qualified academic degree (Master, Diplom (Univ.) or equivalent) in communication science, journalism, public relations, or similar
• Very good knowledge of statistics and research methods (primarily quantitative methods); in particular knowledge of quantitative content analysis
• very good command of written and spoken English

above-average commitment and willingness to perform, a cooperative and independent working style, didactic and organizational skills

Advantageous, but not mandatory, are

- Good to very good knowledge of the German language

- Knowledge of one or more of the following topics: Risk and crisis communication, health communication, data analysis with R or SPSS, experience with working in international teams, other foreign language skills (e.g. Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Dutch).

We offer you

• an exciting, interdisciplinary and international scientific environment
• collaboration in an open and motivated team
• flexible working time models (partially also home office solutions)
• task-related further training opportunities
• use of employee discounts in the refectories of the Studierendenwerk Thüringen as well as use of the sports facilities of the university sports center

About the project

This large-scale international project analyzes how governments and public health institutions in six European countries and the USA have communicated the Corona pandemic, what role (social) media have played in co-constructing discourses about Covid-19, and how citizens have responded to the respective state and media communications.

https://jobundkarriere.tu-ilmenau.de/jobposting/423f27eb6004e55c4e9be1880ee0b3285248b7cd0

NECSUS, Spring 2022

Deadline: April 30, 2021

Guest edited by Nicholas Baer (University of Groningen) and Maggie Hennefeld (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

Did you hear? Rumor has it that the Spring 2022 issue of NECSUS will be devoted to the topic of gossip as a prolific yet contested form of media discourse. Spread the word!

As Mladen Dolar has recently argued, rumors are undignified in the history of philosophy, falling under the ancient Greek category of doxa (belief, opinion) rather than episteme (knowledge, logos). Concerning people who are absent or at a remove, rumors are often authorless and unfounded, and yet they can gain enormous traction, authority, and staying power. In this regard, they play a significant and highly complex role in what Erving Goffman called ‘impression management’ as part of the dramaturgy of everyday social interaction.

This special section invites consideration of the non-traditional sources of knowledge that have gained increasing currency in film and media studies, challenging the empirical standards of evidence that informed the discipline’s ‘historical turn’. We encourage topics and modes of engagement that might be deemed speculative, unsubstantiated, or otherwise unscientific, confronting elisions and erasures in the archive. Of particular interest is work in Black, feminist, queer, and trans media studies as well as scholarship on celebrity, fandom, and counterpublics.

The topic of rumors and gossip is also lent vital urgency by the #MeToo movement. Existing outside of official accounts and professional historiography, whisper networks have served as key sites for communicating stories of rape and abuse, even as their truth-claims pose a crisis of documentation and verifiability. Here we are interested in the ambivalence and political promiscuity of gossip in relation to the Foucauldian power/knowledge complex: while rumors serve as a crucial resource for the vulnerable, they can also be a means of baseless, malevolent slander, leaving power structures in place and contributing to an often-exploitative, profit-driven culture of scandal and outrage.

Finally, this special section will examine rumors and gossip as linguistic utterances and modes of address that are transmitted and often amplified through historically variable media forms. Gossip has repeatedly been ignored or dismissed by linguists and philosophers, reduced to what Martin Heidegger deemed Gerede (idle talk). Yet various thinkers have argued that it serves an essential function in social interaction, involving group membership, moral judgment, and relations of trust and confidentiality. Building on existing scholarship, this section hopes to reassess rumors and gossip in relation to current issues in film and media studies, including digital networks, the viral spread of (mis)information, and renegotiations of the distinction between publicity and privacy.

Contributions may focus on but are not limited to the following topics:

# Conceptual clarifications: What are the relations and differences between terms such as rumors, gossip, hearsay, slander, calumny, and scandal?

# Historiographical challenges: How does one research and write the history of film and media in the face of informal networks, material gaps, irreducible ambiguities, and unverified or unauthorised information?

# Theories and methods: Which theoretical and methodological approaches are especially generative for the epistemology of rumors and gossip?

# Stardom and reception studies: What role does the rumor mill play in celebrity and fan communities as well as in the formation of alternative histories, identities, and public spheres?

# MeToo: How do rumors and gossip serve as sites for sharing stories of sexual violence and abuse, and what are their potentialities, limitations, and dangers as means of resistance to hegemonic narratives and institutional power structures?

# Media figurations: How have film and other media visualised, thematised, and participated in the production and circulation of knowledge and (mis)information?

# Democracy and civil society: What insights can film and media scholars contribute to ongoing debates about social media, the viral spread of falsehoods and conspiracy theories, and other challenges to democracy and civil society?

Please send abstracts of 300 words, 3-5 bibliographic references, and a short biography of 100 words to g.decuir@aup.nl by 30 April 2021. On the basis of selected abstracts, writers will be invited to submit full manuscripts (6,000-8,000 words, revised abstract, 4-5 keywords) by 1 February 2022. Manuscripts will subsequently go through a double-blind peer review process before final acceptance for publication.

March 26-27, 2021

Online

We are excited to announce that the program of ECREA's Political Communication Section Interim Conference on “Communicating crisis: Political communication in the age of uncertainty” is out!

It is organized by Prof. Nicoleta Corbu and her team at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest and takes place digitally from March 26th-27th, 2021.

The Keynote lecture will be provided by Prof. Darren Lilleker (Bournemouth University, UK) on Friday March 26th, 10:30-11:30 and is entitled "Understanding crises and the role of political communication". The (online) Business Meeting will be open for all section members, regardless if you participate in the conference or not, and will take place on Saturday March 27th, 10:00-11:00.

Please find the program attached. The conference fee is 40 EUR. For more information please check the conference website: http://comunicare.ro/en/index.php?page=ecrea-2021