ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Call for Chapters

Deadline: June 30, 2021

Editors: CarrieLynn D. Reinhard (Dominican University), Ben Abelson (Mercy College) and Allison R. Levin (Webster University)

Before the concretization of fan studies as an academic discipline, fans would routinely be labeled and treated as “fanatics” -- people with excessive love for something or someone that could lead them to engage in maladaptive, even dangerous, behavior. Over time the term mental health disorders developed to mean a condition that affects a person’s behavioral, and emotional well-being. As both fanaticism and mental health are framed as being all about how people think, feel, and behave, public discourse framed fandom as a mental health issue. Along with being problematic due to class, racial, gender and other issues, this positioning meant that fandom was not well understood until the recent couple decades.

Now, scholars return to this idea of mental health and fandom, but for the purposes of understanding how being a fan relates to their own mental health. This collection explores what fans learn about mental health from their fandoms and how their fandoms can impact their own mental health, for better or worse. Discussing these issues and intersections will further our understanding of the complex ways in which fandom weaves into people’s lives.

Fans experience and express issues with mental health in various ways. The theoretical and empirical essays intended for this collection demonstrate the importance of neither deriding nor lauding fans and fandom. Instead, they engage with fans to understand how their fandom operates as another component of their lives, which can have positive and negative impacts on their mental health. Such examinations can further reduce any lingering stigma associated with fandom as well as highlight true areas of concern that fans and their communities would benefit from better understanding.

We are looking for empirical essays that consider the mental health issues experienced by fans, within fan communities, and/or related to fandom. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Prevalence of mental health issues within fan communities
• How fans negotiate mental health issues
• How fandoms cause mental health issues
• Using fandom as a therapeutic tool
• Representation of fans’ mental health issues
• Fan activity as therapy
• What causes mental health issues within fans, fan communities, fandoms
• How fandom helps people cope
• How fans learn about mental health issues
• How fans talk about mental health issues
• Negative aspects of mental health issues in fandom
• Positive aspects of mental health issues in fandom

Chapter guidelines

Seeking empirically-based essays of 6000-7000 words, inclusive of references (APA citation style)

Current timeline:

• First chapter drafts due June 30, 2021
• Peer reviews due by July 31, 2021
• Final chapter drafts due by September 30, 2021
• Final manuscript submitted by October 31, 2021 for consideration

Contact CarrieLynn Reinhard with any questions: creinhard@dom.edu

Tetyana Lokot

This book examines how citizens use digital social media to engage in public discontent and offers a critical examination of the hybrid reality of protest where bodies, spaces and technologies resonate. It argues that the augmented reality of protest goes beyond the bodies, the tents, and the cobblestones in the protest square, incorporating live streams, different time zones, encrypted conversations, and simultaneous translation of protest updates into different languages. Based on more than 60 interviews with protest participants and ethnographic analysis of online content in Ukraine and Russia, it examines how citizens in countries with limited media freedom and corrupt authorities perceive the affordances of digital media for protest and how these enable or limit protest action.

The book provides a nuanced contribution to debates about the role of digital media in contentious politics and protest events, both in Eastern Europe and beyond.

Link to book: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786605962/Beyond-the-Protest-Square-Digital-Media-and-Augmented-Dissent

Networking Knowledge

I am guest-editing a special issue on mediatization during the COVID-19 pandemic for Networking Knowledge - journal of the UK's Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association Postgraduate Network, and am looking for PhD researchers working in cognate areas.

The journal is run by doctoral and early career researchers, and is a great opportunity to cut your teeth at all aspects of the editorial process - peer review, publishing, copyediting and production.

The articles in the special issue I'm guest-editing are currently at peer review stage, but I would like to open this opportunity to colleagues who might want to get involved. For example, I would welcome anyone with expertise in mediatization to approach me about joining me as co-editor. I'd also invite special issue commentary, interview and book review contributions.

For example, I would welcome anyone with expertise in mediatization to approach me about joining me as co-editor or a reviewer. I also specifically invite special issue commentary, interview and book review contributions. 

If this sounds appealing, let's talk!

You can reach me on bissie.anderson@stir.ac.uk or @bissieanderson on Twitter.

Special issue of "Transformations: Journal of Media, Culture and Technology", in collaboration with Medea research lab, Malmö University, Sweden

Deadline: February 5, 2021

http://www.transformationsjournal.org/calls-for-papers/

Guest editors are Dr. Bojana Romic and Dr. Bo Reimer, Malmö University, Sweden.

This special issue (#36) of “Transformations” entitled “Artificial Creativity” aims to stir a discussion about the cultural, societal, and ethical aspects of robots or AI engaged in creative production.

Machines engaged in creative activities can be traced back to Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s automata 'The Writer' and 'Musical Lady' (1770s), which involved calligraphic writing and the performing of music respectively. In the 1950s, Jean Tinguely’s 'Méta-matics' produced generative artworks, in response to the long-standing questions about the role of the artist.

Most recently, a number of artworks have featured robots that draw (Robotlab), paint (Moura), or make music (Weinberg, 2020). It has been announced that the 10th Bucharest Biennale in 2022 will be “curated” by Jarvis, an AI system created by Spinnwerks, Vienna (FlashArt, 2020).

These tendencies provoke at least two lines of inquiry. On one hand, what are the possibilities and potential pitfalls of AI technologies in the cultural sector? For example, AI makes its recommendations and choices based on its exposure to large databases, and yet worries pertain about the “increasing automation of the aesthetic realm”, that might, over time, reduce cultural diversity (Manovich, 2017).

On the other hand, AI technologies encourage debate about the meaning and purpose of human creativity (Gunkel, 2017). The title of this special issue is a playful rendering of the term artificial intelligence, which also serves as a reminder that technological innovations are often ripe with organismic language (Jones, 2017; Boden, 2004).

The call for papers invites researchers from different areas of expertise, including but not limited to: creative arts research, science and technology studies (STS), media and communication studies, critical cultural studies, humanities, human-robot interaction (HRI), ethics of technology, design anthropology, social sciences, gender studies, posthumanism, architecture, game studies, and voice interface design.

We especially encourage submissions rooted in the humanities, with a focus on robots (i.e. embodied AI) invested in creative/artistic labour. We also welcome submissions that critically address the contested terms “artificial intelligence” and “creativity”.

“Transformations” in an independent, open-access, blind-peer review journal, with no author charges (APCs).

Abstracts (400 – 500 words excluding references) are due 5 February 2021, with a view to submit articles by 31 May 2021.

 Abstracts should be forwarded to: bojana.romic@mau.se

Bibliography:

Boden, Margaret. The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms. Routledge, 2004.

Flash Art Feed. “The 10th Bucharest Biennale: the first biennial curated by Artificial Intelligence in VR.” May 27th 2020

Gunkel, David. “Special Section: Rethinking Art and Aesthetics in the Age of Creative Machines: Editor’s Introduction.” Philosophy and Technology, vol. 30, no. 3, 2017, pp. 263–265.

Jacquet-Droz, Pierre. The Musical Lady. 1770s, Musée d’art et d’histoire de Neuchâtel.

Jacquet-Droz, Pierre. The Writer. 1770s, Musée d’art et d’histoire de Neuchâtel.

Jones, Raya. “What makes a robot ‘social’?” Social Studies of Science, vol. 47, no. 4, 2017, pp. 556–579.

Manovich, Lev. “Automating Aesthetics.” Flash Art, vol. 50, no. 316, 2017, pp. 85-87

Moura, Leonel. Swarm Painting 08. 2002, Courtesy of Robotarium, Alverca / Sao Pãulo.

Robotlab. The Big Picture. 2014, Courtesy of Robotlab. ZKM, Karlsruhe.

Weinberg, Gill. “Shimon: Now a Singing, Songwriting Robot: Marimba-Playing Robot Composes Lyrics and Melodies with Human Collaborators.” 25 Feb. 2020, www.news.gatech.edu/2020/02/25/shimon-now-singing-songwriting-robot.

Galactica Media: Journal of Media

Deadline: November 15, 2021

Galactica Media: Journal of Media invites you to participate in a special issue entitled "Visual Rhetoric in Traditional Media".

Link: https://galacticamedia.com/index.php/gmd/visreth

Description:

“Only the media techniques of the 19th century, that is, photography, gramophone and film, had saved the sensuous reality from the absolutism of the book – however, one could formulate more radically: before the absolutism of language”, – N. Bolz writes in the book "Das ABC der Medien". The proposed opposition between writing as an "informational" media (which was most interesting to McLuhan) and "sensory" media needs critical reflection. This is especially important in conditions when a person's immersion in the media space implies that not only the information brain memory should be involved, but also various performative practices of experience and memory of the body. The mutual transfer of medial practices between writing and the visual arts creates a distinctive situation where the emphasis is not on the image itself, but on its perception. This aspect is especially relevant after and within the framework of the iconic turn in the sciences of culture and art. In particular, various artistic practices and visual culture objects are considered more often in the visual rhetoric context. The difficulty is to avoid the blind (automatic) borrowing of this concept from the linguistics and classical rhetoric sphere. The visual image as the most exact way of expression is not only the usual practice of our everyday culture, overflowing with phenomena that have a visual (more broadly – sensual) nature, but also is a key to understanding the social and cultural practices of the past.

In this issue of Galactica Media we invite the authors to explore the traditional media, in particular, writing and spatial arts, in mutual relation to each other, since, as we know, "the meaning of a media can only be understood from its interaction with other media" (N. Bolz). The interdisciplinary nature of rhetorical studies allows us to place image theory in the context of visual anthropology and media theory, thereby revealing the complex relationships associated with a work of art and its interpretation, the stages of its creation and perception, as well as the relationships between different media. We suggest to the authors of the issue basing on the material of various arts to turn to the problems of combining rhetoric and imagery.

Also, the possible topics might include following (but are not limited to) themes of:

- Visual techniques for text constructing

- Rhetorical figures in musical pieces

- Visual rhetoric and the using of tropes in the visual arts

- The using of visual rhetoric in architecture and design

- Theatricality as a combination of media practices

- Visual rhetoric: between logic and expression

- Rhetoric as an external extension of the image (similar to "extension of man" in the media)

The Deadline for submission of manuscripts for specialized issue is November 15, 2021. You can send your manuscripts through the electronic manuscript submission system marked “For the thematic issue ‘Visual Rhetoric in Traditional Media’” – Manuscript submission system (please read manuscript requirements carefully) – https://galacticamedia.com/index.php/gmd/about/submissions or by email: admin@galacticamedia.com

All papers are first reviewed by the Guest editors, then peer reviewed by two experts, and only then the editorial board makes the final decision to include the article in the issue.

Guest Editor: PhD, Anna A. Troitskaya, Institute of Philosophy of St Petersburg State University. St Petersburg, Russia

February 1, 2021

Online

The Institute for Media and Creative Industries of Loughborough University London, in collaboration with the School of Journalism, Media and Culture of Cardiff University, invites for:

IMCI Speaker Series: Freire's mindprint on participatory communication and civil society development

Launch of the Special Issue: The legacy of Paulo Freire in civil society Development (Revista Commons Vol.9, N.2)

Guest Speakers: Cássia Ayres (Universidade Lusófona do Porto, Portugal) and Leonardo Custódio (Åbo Akademi University, Finland)

It will be the occasion for the launch of the Special Issue: The legacy of Paulo Freire in civil society Development (Journal Commons Vol.9, N.2), that is the second special issue coming from the Brazil Seminar, that gathered around 30 scholars at Loughborough University London in 2018 to discuss the legacy of the Brazilian educator in the fields of participatory communication and civil society development in Brazil and beyond.

We’ll be happy to have you with us the 1st of February from 2pm to 4.30pm (UK time).

Registration required, please: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/freires-mindprint-on-participatory-communication-and-civil-society-dvlp-tickets-135997192263

Participants registered will receive a link to join the meeting close to the date.

The special issue, with articles in English and Spanish, can be downloaded in Open Access here: https://revistas.uca.es/index.php/cayp/issue/view/432

Charles University, Prague

We are seeking two PhD students to develop projects aligned with the grant “Developing Theories and Methods for Game Industry Research,” starting in 2021, headed by Dr. Jaroslav Švelch, and located at Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism.

Project Description:

Following the rising interest in the study of game industries and the advances in game production studies, the dissertation should focus on digital game production in a specific country or region, based on the student’s preferences. The project can investigate the production routines, design patterns, the content of locally produced games, values and discourses of industry practitioners, or reception of local productions by players and journalists. The project may but does not have to include a historical perspective. Theoretically, it is expected to draw from game studies (especially game production studies), the theory of cultural industries, and/or cultural studies. Interdisciplinary perspectives are welcome. The methods may include ethnography (including interviews), textual analysis/close readings of game titles, discourse analysis, or content analysis. The student will be working on the project within a team that includes senior researchers Vít Šisler and Jaroslav Švelch and postdoctoral researchers Tereza Krobová and Jan Švelch.

Candidate requirements:

Candidates must complete their Master’s degree by August 30, 2021. They are expected to be well-versed in the theory and methods required to study game industries or cultural industries in general. While the program can be studied in either English or Czech language, we require fluency in English. The candidates are expected to present papers at academic conferences and produce publications in international peer-reviewed journals.

Practical arrangements:

Starting in the Fall semester of 2021, the successful applicants will enroll into the Media and Communication Studies PhD program. The standard duration of the program is 4 years. For the duration of the grant project (that is until December 2023), the student will participate in the project as a paid researcher (please enquire for details). For the whole duration of 4 years, they will also receive a doctoral stipend. Successful applicants are eligible for a relocation fee from the project budget. The student(s) are generally expected to physically attend doctoral classes and research meetings, but remote participation is possible in case of continuing pandemic-related restrictions.

Application submission:

The deadline for the application is APRIL 30, 2021. To apply, the candidate must submit a structured CV, a dissertation project (1,500–2,000 words including references) and a list of literature they wish to discuss at the admission interview. We strongly encourage prospective applicants to get in touch earlier to consult the application. The admission interview will focus on the dissertation project and the selected literature and can be conducted remotely.

More information about the admissions process, along with a link to the online application form are available here: https://iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/admissions/phd-programme-media-and-communication-studies

For more information about the positions and the grant project, please contact Jaroslav Švelch at Jaroslav.Svelch@fsv.cuni.cz.

To learn more about the doctoral program, please check this webpage: https://iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/study/phd-studies.

Review of Communication Research (RCR) invites the submission of systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses. We have three open calls listed below. Please, feel free to send a proposal before writing the article or consulting any doubt with the editors:

EMPATHY AND PROSOCIAL OUTCOMES IN COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES

https://www.rcommunicationr.org/index.php/rcr/announcement/view/3

Contact: Benjamin Li Junting (benjyli@ntu.edu.sg) cc editor@rcommunicationr.org.

EMOTION IN HEALTH COMMUNICATION

https://www.rcommunicationr.org/index.php/rcr/announcement/view/2

Contact: Nathan Walter (nathan.walter@northwestern.edu), Jiyoung Lee (jlee284@ua.edu), cc editor@rcommunicationr.org.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE SELF-CONCEPT

https://www.rcommunicationr.org/index.php/rcr/announcement/view/1

Contact: Giorgio De Marchis (editor@rcommunicationr.org)

Moreover, we invite you to publish your best literature reviews in RCR. Please, consult us (editor@rcommunicationr.org) or upload your manuscript to the submission site (www.rcommunicationr.org). Thank you for considering RCR as a potential venue for your best work. With kind regards.

About the journal

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 and meta-analyses 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%.

Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) at the University of Zurich

The position is based in the division "Strategic Communication & Media Management" headed by Prof. Dr. Nadine Strauß. This division is part of the Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) at the University of Zurich (UZH).

Your Responsibilities

• Completion of a dissertation in three to four years
• Collaborating in existing projects and developing new projects with members of the team "Strategic Communication & Media Management”
• Research and teaching in innovative areas of media management and related areas
• Teaching in German at BA level
• Conference participation, publications, further academic qualifications, academic service

Your Profile

• Excellent Master's degree in Communication Studies or related areas
• Strong interest in research of media management, sustainable business models (media enterprises), innovation and user-oriented content
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative methods and data analysis (e.g. content analysis, surveys, experiments, interviews); interest and first experiences in computational methods
• Fluent in English (spoken and written)
• Advantageous: Familiarity with the Swiss and/or German media systems

What We Offer

• The department offers an outstanding research and teaching environment, a wide range of work areas and an inspiring intellectual climate.
• The division "Strategic Communication & Media Management" fosters a culture of cooperation and mutual support towards new recruits. It offers new members excellent opportunities for national and international networking.

Place of Work

• Andreasstrasse 15, 8050 Zürich

Start of Employment

• From 1 April 2021 onwards or, in coordination with the candidate, at a later date.

Documents for Application:

• A letter of motivation addressing the match between your profile and the position
• Curriculum Vitae
• 1-2 page outline of potential dissertation idea that could fit the division's profile
• Copies of transcripts, degrees, relevant certificates
• A full text example of a representative academic work (e.g. MA thesis)

Deadline: 16 February 2021

More info: https://jobs.uzh.ch/offene-stellen/research-and-teaching-assistant-in-media-management/ba86ff14-d653-403e-bfbf-d071b04735c9

Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) at the University of Zurich

The position is based in the division "Strategic Communication & Media Management" headed by Prof. Dr. Nadine Strauß. This division is part of the Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) at the University of Zurich (UZH).

Your Responsibilities

• Completion of a dissertation in three to four years
• Collaborating in existing projects and developing new projects with members of the team "Strategic Communication & Media Management”
• Research and teaching in innovative areas of strategic communication, sustainable/environmental communication and neighboring areas
• Teaching in German at BA level
• Conference participation, publications, further academic qualifications, academic service

Your Profile

• Excellent Master's degree in Communication Studies or related areas
• Strong interest in research of strategic communication, organizational communication, corporate communication and sustainability
• High affinity towards the topics: sustainable business models, sustainable finance, climate change and sustainable development
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative methods and data analysis (e.g. content analysis, surveys, experiments, interviews); interest and first experiences in computational methods
• Fluent in English (spoken and written)

What we Offe

• The department offers an outstanding research and teaching environment, a wide range of work areas and an inspiring intellectual climate.
• The division "Strategic Communication & Media Management" fosters a culture of cooperation and mutual support towards new recruits. It offers new members excellent opportunities for national and international networking.

Place of Work

• Andreasstrasse 15, 8050 Zürich

Start of Employment

• from 1 April 2021 onwards or, in coordination with the candidate, at a later date.

Documents for Application:

• A letter of motivation addressing the match between your profile and the position
• Curriculum Vitae
• 1-2 page outline of potential dissertation idea that could fit the division's profile
• Copies of transcripts, degrees, relevant certificates
• A full text example of a representative academic work (e.g. MA thesis)

Deadline: 16 February 2021

More Info: https://jobs.uzh.ch/offene-stellen/research-and-teaching-assistant-in-strategic-communication/ba3f48d9-636d-4db8-ae3d-82df1041fcdd