ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

University of Brighton

The University of Brighton, through the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP), offers ESRC-funded studentships in a range of social science areas and disciplines. These studentships comprise institutional projects and an open call in which we invite highly motivated applicants to suggest their own projects. The University of Brighton has a strong commitment to cutting-edge research and community engagement and there is a particular focus on trans- and interdisciplinary research. As an ESRC-funded student, you will join a vibrant group of PhD students who meet regularly to discuss their projects. You will be working with academics who have developed cutting edge approaches to research and will gain experience of how to influence policy and practice through academic research.

Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence

• Centre for Transforming Sexuality & Gender
• Centre of Resilience for Social Justice
• Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories
• Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics
• Centre for Spatial, Environmental & Cultural Politics
• Centre for Change, Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management (CENTRIM)
• Centre for Digital Media Cultures

Funding

SCDTP studentships cover the cost of programme fees and provide an annual stipend (UKRI rates). SCDTP students will also have access to a Research Training Support Grant for activities such as carrying out fieldwork within the UK, purchasing essential equipment and attending conferences. See the SCDTP funding page for details.

How to apply

Visit the University of Brighton website for full details and to submit your application. You can contact a project lead or potential supervisor directly. You can also email us if you have any questions.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Monday 04 January 2021

Interviews: 25 January – 05 February 2021

Applications from both Home and non-UK residents can be accepted.

Studentship Projects for October 2021

• Employee ethnicity as a risk factor for exploitative labour practices in the UK adult social care industry

Project lead: Anne Daguerre

• How social policy can inform green social prescribing as an instrument for social justice and inclusion

Project lead: Matt Adams

• The impact of migrant remittances on promoting small and medium-sized enterprises in home countries

Project lead: Eugenia Markova

• Improving community partnerships in local policy through enhanced participation for marginalised groups

Project lead: Phil Haynes

• Policy implications and design characteristics of smart, urban, digital ecosystems from a justice perspective

Project lead: Maria Sourbati

Studentship open call for October 2021

See our SCDTP open call and explore the range of supervisors interested in supporting applications in their research areas

University website

For more information, please visit our University of Brighton PhD programmes page or contact Phil Haynes at or Fiona Sutton.

www.massmediaculture.com

Your voices as subject matter experts on these issues are missing in the global stream of conversations. These and other questions and concerns elevate the power of the era in which we now live—The Turing Galaxy—the age of the networked computer.

Greetings, I trust you are well. I’m writing you because I am seeking a community of like minded co-curators and cocreators who are also change agents and are willing to share expertise and counsel. Together we will offer thought leadership and resolution to these and other questions concerning the Media and Culture industries.

My startup, www.massmediaculture.com, an Internet Protocol TV network, WebPortal and Advertising Medium is the forum to be operationalized. Based on my 20 years of experience directing public health communication science initiatives, we’ve developed a science-informed theory, framework and business model to offer solutions to the era’s consequential challenges and opportunities.

I’d like to know who in the MEDIA INDUSTRIES AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION SECTION is interested in joining me to help operationalize the platform. We aim to apply the powerful pedagogical approach where students and teachers produce work and learning together with the MassMediaCulture team including other private and public sector associates. The environment I seek is one where the professor is more of a mentor or coach helping students achieve the learning goal using real world examples in the classroom.

We will discuss next steps such as developing a concept paper; creating a global Cultural Big Data Research initiative; and operationalizing an Internet Protocol TV Network an interactive Webportal focused exclusively on all that matters in the Mass Media and Culture industries.

June 24-26, 2021

Online

Deadline: March 31, 2021

The Centre for Communication and Media Research (based at the Institute of Communication Studies in Lille) is pleased to announce its inaugural annual conference entitled “The Network Society: Re-evaluation and Applications of a Concept” set to take place on the 24th , 25th and the 26th of June, 2021.

Please submit your abstracts, in English or French, of no longer than 300 words as well as a short biographical note to Dr Mehdi Ghassemi (mehdi.ghassemi@istc.fr ) and Dr Camila Pérez Lagos (c.perez-lagos@ucolaval.net).

Deadline for abstract submission: March 31st , 2021. Post-conference paper submissions will be considered for publication. Announcements regarding this will follow.

https://www.istc.fr/…ch/

The Centre for Communication and Media Research (based at the Institute of Communication Studies in Lille) is pleased to announce its inaugural annual conference entitled “The Network Society : Re-evaluation and Applications of a Concept” set to take place on the 24th, 25th and the 26th of June, 2021.

2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Manuel Castells’ trilogy The Information Age that charts the social, economic and cultural transitions from industrial to network societies. The advent of the network as the dominant form of social structure, according to Castells, brings about a “new social morphology” that substantially modifies “the processes of production,

experience, power, and culture” where a “global information economy” and a “culture of real virtuality” underlie every aspect of human life. (Castells, 1996, 1998). Since then, Castells’ ground-breaking body of work has inspired many scholars to use The Network Society as both a powerful metaphor as well as a nuanced model for understanding the social, the cultural, and the political aspects of the digital age.

Our aim is to address not only the relevance and contemporary applications of the concept of the Network Society as it has been elaborated by Castells, but also to engage with its limits as an explanatory framework and to examine the ways in which other scholars have built upon Castells’ theory of The Network Society.

We are pleased to announce that the plenary talk will be given by Professor Manuel Castells himself. We hope that this will encourage colleagues from around the world to contribute to the discussions around The Network Society. We therefore invite scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to present papers related to any aspect of the conference theme.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to :

• Contemporary applications of the concept of The Network Society
• Communication power, politics and networked activism
• Networked spatiality and temporality (“space of flows and timeless time”)
• Cultures of real virtuality (especially in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic)
• Network perspectives on the media
• Networked communication
• Cultural representations of the network society

Submission guidelines

Please submit your abstracts, in English or French, of no longer than 300 words as well as a short biographical note to Dr Mehdi Ghassemi (mehdi.ghassemi@istc.fr) and Dr Camila Pérez Lagos (c.perez-lagos@ucolaval.net).

Deadline for abstract submission : March 31st, 2021

The conference will be held online using the platform Livestorm.

Post-conference paper submissions will be considered for publication. Announcements regarding this will follow.

Scientific committee

• Christine Barats, Université Paris Descartes – CERLIS
• Clément Mabi, Université de Technologie de Compiègne – EPIN
• Daniel Barredo Ibañez, Universidad del Rosario, Colombie.
• Emmanuel Marty, Université Grenoble Alpes – GRESEC
• Fernando Oliveira Paulino, Universidade de Brasília - UNB/Brasil
• France Aubin, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières - CRICIS
• Julien Péquignot, Université de Franche-Comté – CIMEOS
• Nikos Smyrnaios, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse – LERASS
• Tiphaine Zetlaoui, Université Catholique de Lille
• Tourya Guaaybess, Université de Lorraine – CREM
• Van Gorp Baldwin, Institute for Media Studies - KU Leuven
• Zineb Majdouli, Université Catholique de Lille
• Mehdi Ghassemi, Institute of Communication Studies (ISTC) – CCMR
• Camila Pérez Lagos, Université Catholique de l’Ouest (Laval – France) – CHUS-CIM.

On December 15th several ECREA members took part in the official launching of the book Research Traditions in Dialogue: Communication Studies in Latin America and Europe. This is one of the most remarkable outcomes of the long established collaboration between ECREA and ALAIC, the Latin American Association of Communication Researchers. The alliance set back in 2010 turned into an active joint task force between both associations between 2012 and 2018, with a constant presence in international conference, organized by ECREA, ALAIC or IAMCR.

This book is published in open access both in English and Spanish, and it presents a stimulating method based on the dialogue between European and Latin American experts discussing on six of the main research traditions in our field: functionalism, critical theory, cultural studies, alternativism, postcolonialism and feminism.

For the open access book in English, click here: https://www.alaic.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Research-Traditions-in-Dialogue.pdf

Para la versión digital en español del libro, pulse aquí: https://www.alaic.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Tradiciones-de-Investigacion-en-Dialogo-capa-3.pdf

Edited by: Fernando Oliveira Paulino, Gabriel Kaplún, Miguel Vicente Mariño and Leonardo Custódio

Editorial Team:

Fernando Oliveira Paulino, César Bolaño y Gabriel Kaplún (ALAIC)

Miguel Vicente Mariño, Leonardo Custódio y Nico Carpentier (ECREA)

A book published by: Media XXI (www.mediaxxi.com)

The book "Research Traditions in Dialogue: Communication Studies in Latin America and Europe" reflects on the following questions: What are the possibilities to establish bridges, comparisons and connections between/among Communication Studies in Europe and Latin America? How can we describe, and put into perspective, the research in these two regions? How are they connected, in particular ways, to functionalism, critical thinkings, culturalist currents, alternative reflexions, postcolonial studies and feminist perspectives about the Communication?

These are important issues that are relevant to Communication scholars and students – This new book aims to stimulate the debate on the roles of these research traditions, and on the similarities and differences in the two regions. In dealing with these questions, the book aims to connect Communication studies in Latin America and Europe through dialogues that involved important researchers who accepted the challenge of working together.

They are: Nico Carpentier, Miguel Vicente Mariño, Leonardo Custódio, Juana Gallego Ayala, Maria João Silveirinha Cláudia Lago, Mara Coelho de Souza Lago, Monica Martinez, Tanius Karam Cárdenas, Antonio Castillo Esparcia, Alejandro Álvarez-Nobell, Pedro Russi, Ruth de Frutos, Javier Torres Molina, César Bolaño, Leonarda García-Jiménez, Manuel Hernández Pérez, Filipa Subtil, Marta Rizo, Alejandro Barranquero, Emiliano Treré, Lázaro Bacallao, Sarah Anne Ganter, Félix Ortega and Erick Torrico Villanueva.

Digital versions of the book “Research Traditions in Dialogue: Communication Studies in Latin America and Europe” are available through the links above. The publication is the result of a collaboration between the Asociación Latinoamericana de Investigadores de la Comunicación (ALAIC) and the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), supported by the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 29, 2021

Proposals are invited for contributions to an edited collection titled The Sex Scene, the first book to be published as part of Edinburgh University Press’s new “Screening Sex” book series.

Screening Sex: The Sex Scene is intended to serve as a primer for the series. Taking the “sex scene” as a critical starting point for the series, the book will be a critical exploration of the significance of the depiction of sex on screen and in sexual cultures. This volume seeks a range of essays that will collectively consider histories and controversies (screen, legal, censorial, critical), industrial contexts and labour (writing, directing, performing and editing), the mise-en-scène of the sex scene (content, aesthetics, representation) and temporality and approach (in genres, form and style).

We are working with a purposefully wide remit to encourage a diverse collection of essays from a diverse range of writers and are keen to encourage a broad interpretation of “sex scene” – it could apply as much to a specific scene in a film as to a geographical scene or place in time.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION:

Chapters proposals should be submitted as a 300-400 word abstract to the editors Darren Kerr and Dr Donna Peberdy (screeningsex@gmail.com) by Friday 29 January 2021, using the subject line “The Sex Scene proposal”. Please include a proposed title and author bio (150 words). Acceptance notices will be sent out in February 2021. Completed chapters (5,000-6,000 words) will then be due Friday 3rd December 2021. Please feel free to email with any queries prior to the submission of abstracts.

A NOTE ON THE SCREENING SEX BOOK SERIES:

The series’ scope and approach encourages a broad range of critical, contextual and cultural methodologies relating to sex on screen, drawing on cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary research as well as encouraging intersectional observations and approaches. There will be a range of critical approaches covered across the series that will often be determined by theme proposed by the author/s. Approaches to queer theory, feminism and psychoanalysis will sit alongside genre studies, cultural studies and the social sciences. Besides analytical considerations of representational strategies, the series will also give space to examine the scope and change seen in industry practice, spanning production techniques, changing modes of exhibition and new strategies of distribution. The central argument throughout the series will be to address the importance of confronting, examining, challenging and re-framing social and cultural perceptions of sex in a meaningful and engaging way. While the series will include consideration of western, canonical, mainstream cinema, key features expected of the series will be to also account for non-western film cultures as well as marginal, alternative, underground, low-budget and independent films from a diverse range of voices, histories and material cultures beyond those that have been historically dominant. We are particularly keen to include previously unexplored/underexplored case studies. For more information see https://screeningsex.com/bookseries/ or contact Darren and Donna for more details.

SERIES EDITORS

DARREN KERR

darren.kerr@solent.ac.uk

Darren Kerr is Associate Professor of Sexual Cultures and Head of The School of Film and Television at Solent University, Southampton, UK. He has written on topics ranging from sexual perversion, celebrity auto-erotic asphyxiation and literature to film adaptations of sexual politics. Darren’s publications included Hard to Swallow: Hard-core Pornography on Screen (Wallflower) and Tainted Love: Screening Sexual Perversions (I.B. Tauris). He is series editor for EUP’s Screening Sex book series, co-director of screeningsex.com and a member of Routledge’s Porn Studies editorial board.

DONNA PEBERDY

donna.peberdy@solent.ac.uk

Dr Donna Peberdy is Senior Lecturer in film and television at Solent University, Southampton UK. She is the author of Masculinity and Film Performance: Male Angst in Contemporary American Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan) and co-editor of Tainted Love: Screening Sexual Perversion (I.B. Tauris). She is co-director of screeningsex.com and series co-editor of the Screening Sex book series (Edinburgh University Press). Her research on screen performance and the politics of identity has been published in the journals Celebrity Studies, Transnational Cinemas, The New Review of Film and Television, Men & Masculinities and edited collections American Television in the Trump Era (ed. Karen McNally), Acting (eds. Claudia Springer and Julie Levinson), A Companion to Film Noir (eds. Andrew Spicer and Helen Hanson), Film Dialogue (ed. Jeff Jaeckle) and Millennial Masculinity (ed. Timothy Shary).

Special Issue of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

Deadline for abstracts: March 7, 2021

Expected date of publication: April 2022

Guest editors: Daniela van Geenen (University of Siegen), Dr. Karin van Es (Utrecht University) and Dr. Jonathan Gray (King’s College London)

The criticism of knowledge technologies has a long tradition in science and technology studies (STS), feminist studies and media studies approaches often addressing the ways in which technologies frame epistemic processes in scientific and technical settings (e.g. Latour, 1987; Latour and Woolgar, 1979; Haraway, 1988 and 1997; Chun, 2011; Galloway, 2012; Manovich, 2013). Knowledge technologies are not just the preserve of natural scientists and engineers, but also present in a wide variety of everyday and professional settings – including social and cultural research, in particular, in critical approaches to ‘Big Data’ and algorithmic systems. Importantly, these tools frame how we approach our objects and sites of study; they are not neutral, but active mediators impacting the ways knowledge is produced and disseminated.

This special issue explores the contemporary relevance of the notion of ‘critical technical practice’ (Agre, 1997a) to digital research in the humanities and social sciences including internet studies, critical data studies (e.g. Iliadis and Russo, 2016), critical algorithm studies (Gillespie and Seaver, 2016), and software studies (e.g. Rieder, 2020). Philip Agre (1997a and b) coined the notion of critical technical practice (CTP) in his work on artificial intelligence, proposing the challenge of having ‘one foot planted in the craft work of design and the other foot planted in the reflexive work of critique’ (Agre, 1997b: p. 155). The issue aims to bring together, advance, and reflect on recent work on the relevance of critical technical practice(s) for scholarship, pedagogy, and public engagement around digital devices and computational tools in the context of social and cultural research. It takes up recent calls advocating the relevance of such approaches to tool development, research, and education in cultural and social studies in order to approach digital media as both objects and instruments of investigation (e.g. Dieter, 2014; Gray, Bounegru, Milan, and Ciuccarelli, 2016; Gray and Bounegru, forthcoming; Rieder & Röhle, 2012 and 2017; Van Es, Wieringa, Schäfer, 2018; Van Geenen, 2018 and 2020).

The editors welcome contributions from a range of disciplinary perspectives that explore questions such as:

• How can researchers organise critical inquiry with and about such digital tools, methods, and data collections?
• How can devices such as network graphs, spreadsheets, scrapers, APIs, machine-learning tools, and code libraries be repurposed in cultural and social research, with a critical sensibility towards their genealogies and sociocultural lives?
• How can methods be taken as sites of experimentation around the composition of collective life, between research and other areas of practice (e.g. activism, education, journalism, or policy)?

Deadline abstracts: 7 March 2021

Please send a 500-word abstract and a 100-word bio to the guest editors: daniela.vgeenen@unisiegen.de, k.f.vanes@uu.nl and jonathan.gray@kcl.ac.uk

Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to send full contributions by 2 August 2021.

University of Brighton

The School of Media, University of Brighton is inviting applications for AHRC-funded technē Doctoral studentships for October 2021 entry.

We are looking for motivated and engaged individuals to study across our research strengths in Media & Communications, Arts and Humanities. Applicants will be educated to Masters level or equivalent and meet AHRC eligibility criteria for funding.

Your application will go through a two-stage process, being considered first by the University of Brighton Doctoral College.

AHRC-funded technē Studentships

Technē is a Doctoral Training Partnership funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), aiming to create a new model for collaborative research skills training for research students across nine higher education institutions in London and the South East (Royal Holloway; Brunel University; University of Brighton; Kingston University; Loughborough University, London; Roehampton University; University of Surrey; University of the Arts London; and University of Westminster). Technē’s vision is to produce scholars who are highly motivated and prepared for academic, public or professional life.

Fully-funded studentships (stipends and fee waivers) will be awarded by technē to the best students put forward by its member universities. Successful applicants will benefit from a rich and diverse training programme with a focus on interdisciplinarity career development both in and beyond higher education and they will be able to draw on supervisory expertise from across the partnership. The technē training programme is enhanced by input and placement opportunities provided by 13 partner organisations, including the Barbican, Natural History Museum, Museum of London, BFI and the Science Museum.

The School of Media and Centres for Research Excellence

The University of Brighton’s School of Media fosters a thriving community of theorists and practitioners working on the development of new knowledge around media cultures, technologies and practices. Our research encompasses a broad range of media forms, from television and film to digital media, videogames, VR and AR and it focuses on different stages of media production, representation, distribution and reception. More specific areas include innovative research on the media and: identity politics (e.g. gender and sexuality); power and resistance (e.g. activism, democracy); memory and history; sustainability and environmentalism, among others

Research is supported through specialist centres and groups. Doctoral supervisors are active in research in the Centre for Digital Media Cultures, the Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics, the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender and the Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories. Additional Research & Enterprise Groups that provide further opportunities for networking, collaboration and support are the ones on Screen Studies, Photography in Practice; Photography in Theory, Creative Sound & Music and Cultural Informatics.

The City of Brighton and Hove gives our PhD students access to one of the UK’s most lively media economies. We foster research that takes advantage of these relationships with a history of community engagement and industry-based research projects.

For more information about the School research culture, please visit the School of Media research website.

For more information about the scheme, please visit the Technē website.

For more details and how to apply, please visit the relevant University page on Funding Opportunities and Studentships.

Important dates:

University of Brighton deadline: Monday 4 January 2021.

Interviews: Week beginning 20 January 2021

For further information please contact the Postgraduate Research Coordinator Aris Mousoutzanis

Coventry University

Coventry University's School of Media and Performing Arts, Faculty of Arts and Humanities is inviting applications, from interested 'hackademics' , for the post of Assistant Professor of Journalism. The deadline is 8th January 2021.

The successful candidate for this ‘senior lecturer’ level role is expected to contribute to both undergraduate and postgraduate journalism curricula, especially “within the frameworks of contemporary journalistic practice - and have a good knowledge of media law or have experience in television, online journalism/public relations, editing (e.g. Adobe Premiere) and/or be familiar with TV studio operations. This post will cover an array of specialisms in emerging forms of network media.”

For details, please see:

1. Jobs.ac link:

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/…ism

2. Coventry university jobs portal route ( https://www.coventry.ac.uk/…ty/ )

> ‘find current vacancies’ tab > search ‘journalism’ on keywords search window.

As indicated in the ad, those interested may contact Deputy Head of School Paul Smith for informal discussion.

Book chapters

Deadline: January 12, 2021

Introduction

This book is aimed to analyze the relationship among politics and communication in the current context of increasing polarization and their disruptive effects over democracy (Bennett & Pfetsch, 2018). From an interdisciplinary approach, the book is intended to offer an overview of the threats faced by traditional and stable democracies in a hybrid communicative scenario (Chadwick, 2013) in which disinformation (Guess, Nyhan & Reifler, 2018) reaches worrying levels.

Objective

The objective of this book is to address a relevant issue that involves a multidisciplinary approach, that is, the relationships between communication, politics, and democracy. It is aimed to offer a valuable contribution regarding the challenges and threats faced by contemporary democracies while disinformation, polarization and populism have a main role in the present hybrid communicative scenario. This is a relevant and current topic that makes the book suitable for scholars and professionals working in the areas of political communication, political sciences, journalism and media. One of the strongest features of the book is the multi-national approach to the topic.

Recommended Topics

• Political communication and democracy
• Leadership crisis and representative democracy
• Institutions and media credibility
• Polarization, skepticism, apathy and political cynicism
• Socio-economic crisis, pandemic and democracy

• Populism: discourses and strategies
• Disinformation, hate speech and citizens’ mistrust
• Emotions, emotional communities and adversaries
• Selective exposure and ‘News Find Me’ perception
• Infotainment, fiction productions and political institutions

Editors

• Dolors Palau-Sampio, University of Valencia, Spain
• Guillermo López-García, University of Valencia, Spain
• Laura Iannelli, University of Sassari, Italy

Submission Procedure

Researchers are invited to submit on or before January 12, 2021 a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter.

https://www.igi-global.com/…017

Authors will be notified by January 26, 2021 about the status of their proposals. Chapter guidelines will be sent in case of acceptance of proposal. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by May 12, 2021. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Contemporary Politics, Communication, and the Impact on Democracy. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process.

Important dates

• January 12, 2021: Proposal Submission Deadline
• January 26, 2021: Notification of Acceptance
• May 12, 2021: Full Chapter Submission

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), an international academic publisher. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit https://www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2022.

Please visit https://www.igi-global.com/…017 for more details regarding this publication and to submit your work.

Inquiries

• Dolors Palau-Sampio, University of Valencia: dolors.palau@uv.es
• Guillermo López-García, University of Valencia: guillermo.lopez@uv.es
• Laura Iannelli, University of Sassari: liannelli@uniss.it

Special issue of The Radio Journal

Deadline: January 20, 2021

Guest editors: Ellis Jones (University of Oslo) and Jeremy Morris (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

On 19 May 2020, Spotify announced they had secured worldwide rights to distribute The Joe Rogan Show – arguably the world’s most commercially successful podcast – exclusively through their streaming platform. This move, reportedly worth over $100m, follows a series of notable licensing deals and acquisitions by Spotify (e.g. Gimlet Media, Anchor, The Obamas, etc.). But the heavy investment in this emerging media format also puts podcasts and music in economic and cultural tension. Noting the paltry royalties Spotify distributes to musicians, jazz historian Ted Gioja scoffed that the Rogan deal shows ‘Spotify values Rogan more than any musician in the history of the world.’

So, while academic literature has positioned podcasts in relation to radio as the format they most resemble, outside of academia it is music and podcasts that are more frequently presented as in competition for listeners’ attention, and as generating different listening practices and distinct sets of socio-cultural values. This special issue of The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media (20.1, May 2022) seeks to put these two competing and complementary formats in dialogue. Topics for articles might include:

• Music and podcasts as participatory media. As a ‘home recording’ project, podcasting has potential parallels with the long history of ‘DIY’ and ‘alternative’ music production. What is the significance of being a ‘home’ podcaster, in relation to these politicised lineages of music production?
• Identity and political ‘voice’. Podcasts are accessible and ubiquitous, but some early structural features that made it a popular practice for white, educated men still persist. Who can speak through these different forms? How do music and spoken word give voice to different communities, and particular forms of expertise?
• Functions and uses. Recorded music and podcasts are distinct formats, yet they occupy similar roles in people’s lives: soundtracking commutes, chores, exercise, etc. How do music and podcasts compare as forms of ‘time’ or ‘mood’ management’?
• Music, podcasts, and well-being. How do music and podcasts provide similar or different experiences of comfort, immersion or distraction? Why are podcasts (more than music) categorized as habitual listening, or as addictive binge-listening?
• Platformization. What are the consequences of Spotify’s moves away from the open ecosystem podcasting was built on, and what can popular music learn from such changes? What is the relationship of music and podcasts to corporate surveillance and data capture? How has platformization placed pressures on the form, content, and structure of music and podcasts?
• Music in podcasts. Podcasts have not (yet) integrated the playback and publicizing of popular music in the same way that radio has, largely due to licensing issues. How might this change in the streaming era? How have licencing issues led to other uses of music in podcasts? How have musicians used podcasts to build audiences and develop alternative revenues amidst a purported ‘value gap’ in music streaming?

Please send abstracts (200-300 words) and short bio to podcastingandpopularmusic@gmail.com by Wednesday 20th January 2021. Completed commissioned articles (~7,000 words) will be due by 1 August 2021.

Authors selected for the special issue will also be invited to participate in a conference panel at the upcoming IAMRC conference (July 2021), in the Music, Audio, Radio and Sound working group, where they can share and comment on drafts of their works in progress.