ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Special Forum of Communication, Culture & Critique (Vol. 15, No. 3, September 2022)

Contribution Deadline: June 1, 2021

Contribution Length: 1000-2000 words inclusive of all notes and references

Editors: Jamie J. ZHAO (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) and Eve NG (Ohio U)

In the past decade, TV representations of female masculinity have proliferated and diversified worldwide. Notable examples include the white lesbian landowner Anne Lister in the historical drama Gentleman Jack (BBC/HBO, UK/USA, 2019-), the African American lesbian Denise in the web series Master of None (Netflix, USA, 2015-2017), the tomboyish participants of the girl group elimination shows Youth With You 2 (iQiyi, China, 2020) and Sisters Who Make Waves (Mango TV, China, 2020), the cross-dressing female protagonist raised as a boy in the drama Bromance (SETTV, Taiwan, 2015-2016), the butch lesbian beauty contest segment, “That’s My Tomboy,” in the Philippine daytime variety show It’s Showtime (ABS-CBN, Philippines, 2009-), and the Taiwanese-American K-pop girl band member, Amber Liu who has been famous for her gender-nonconforming persona and homosocial-natured group singing and dancing performances on Asian TV in the early 2010s.

Along with this surge in masculine female TV culture, there has been a growing body of scholarship on media and public imaginaries of female masculinity in different geo-locales since the late 1990s. J. Jack Halberstam (1998) famously noted that “far from being an imitation of maleness,” female masculinity is one of many “alternative masculinities” that manifests a continuum of various masculine traits and identities embodied or enacted by cis-females, such as tomboyism and butchness, the definitions and calibration of which are often socioculturally and racially modelled (p. 1). Moreover, the culturally specific understandings and imaginaries of female masculinity have been important threads in world gender studies and global queering theory, as research by Helen Leung (2002), Audrey Yue (2008), Todd A. Henry (2020), and others has discussed.

With a specific focus on global TV cultures in the 2010s, we intend this Forum of Communication, Culture & Critique to initiate a productive transnational, cross-cultural conversation about the variety of ways in which female masculinity has been imagined, idealized, troubled, deconstructed, and remodified on contemporary TV, and the relation of these representations to the sociocultural contexts from which they emerge. We aim to explore the following questions:

• How are TV images of female masculinity constructed through negotiation with local, transregional, and global media and public discourses?
• How and why can TV imaginaries of female masculinity in certain sociocultural contexts be linked to, or decoupled from, female heterosexuality/homosexuality?
• In what ways can ethnicity, class, and geopolitics complicate TV representations of female masculinity?

Entries dedicated to non-Anglo-American cultures from a de-Western-centric perspective are especially welcomed.

Potential forum entry topics may include but are not limited to:

• Gender-nonconforming or trans female celebrities on TV
• TV representations of masculine female athletes, warriors, spies, soldiers, or other forms of “heroic,” “aggressive,” or “rebellious” masculinity in women
• The ways in which gender non-conformity and class in women intersect in TV representations
• The intersectionality of female masculinity and non-Caucasian, non-Anglophone-speaking identities on TV
• Cross-dressing female characters and/or drag king culture on TV
• Televisual imaginaries of heterosexual-identified, masculine women
• TV framing of gendered differences and subjectivities of masculine and feminine women/lesbians

Submission Instructions:

The Forum section of the Journal of Communication, Culture & Critique aims to publish short, commentary pieces exploring contemporary issues in communication, media, and cultural studies for an international readership.

Please submit the full entry (1000-2000 words, including notes and references), in Word format, following the 6th APA style, as well as a short bio (max. 75 words, including current status, contact email, and affiliation), by June 1st, 2021 to the co-editors of this Forum section at jingjamiezhao@gmail.com and nge@ohio.edu.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by August 1st, 2021. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the co-editors at the above two email addresses.

NOTE: Accepted Forum submissions will be published in the same Communication, Culture & Critique issue as the related special issue topic of “Centering Women on Post-2010 Chinese TV.” There is a separate CFP for those full-length papers.

Special Issue Editors:

Jamie J. Zhao is a global queer media scholar and currently Assistant Professor of Communications at the Sino-UK collaborative institution, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and another PhD in Film and TV Studies from the University of Warwick. Her research explores East Asian media and public discourses on female gender and sexuality in a globalist age. Her academic writings can be found in a number of journals and edited volumes, such as the journals Feminist Media Studies, Celebrity Studies, Continuum, Critical Asian Studies, and Transformative Works and Cultures, and the anthologies Global Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and

Queer (LGBTQ) History (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019) and Love Stories in China (Routledge, 2019). She also coedited the anthology, Boys’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols: Queer Fan Cultures in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (HKUP, 2017).

Eve Ng is an associate professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Ohio University. Her research includes work on cultural production and viewer engagement around LGBTQ media, social media and participatory practices, and LGBTQ advocacy, and has appeared in Communication, Culture & Critique, Development and Change, Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Film and Video, New Review of Film and Television Studies, Popular Communication, Television and New Media, Transformative Works and Culture, and the Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights (2017).

International Journal of Communication

Deadline: February 15, 2021

The International Journal of Communication will publish a Forum timed to appear with the 120-year anniversary of Paul Lazarsfeld’s birth, in August 2021. We are inviting contributions of 1500- to 3000-word essays that reflect on the late sociologist’s legacy for communication research and for empirical social research more broadly.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Lazarsfeld and the institutionalization of social science research
• Lazarsfeld’s media research program, beyond the best-known studies of opinion leaders and personal influence
• Under-explored aspects of Lazarsfeld’s intellectual history
• Lazarsfeld as historian of empirical research methods
• The reception of Lazarsfeld’s research programs and methodological contributions around the world, including his native Europe
• Questions of credit and division of labor in Lazarsfeld-directed research projects
• Histories of lesser-known and uncompleted projects and proposals
• Lazarsfeld’s place in the remembered history of media and communication research

We aim to publish 4 to 5 open access essays in late summer 2021. Potential contributors should write to the Forum editors (Hynek Jeřábek and Jeff Pooley) with a 150- to 200-word abstract, by February 15, 2021. The deadline for completed drafts (1500 to 3000 words) is April 15, 2021.

Timeline

• February 15: Abstract (150 to 200 words) of proposed contribution
• April 15: Completed drafts (1500 to 3000 words)
• August: Forum publication in International Journal of Communication

Forum Editors

Hynek Jeřábek (Charles University) - hynek.jerabek@fsv.cuni.cz

Jeff Pooley (Muhlenberg College) - pooley@muhlenberg.edu

Special Issue of Communication, Culture & Critique (Vol. 15, No. 3, September 2022) Call for Papers

Paper Abstract Deadline (500 words): March 1, 2021

Complete Manuscript Deadline (6000-7000 words): August 1st, 2021

Editors: Jamie J. ZHAO (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) and Eve NG (Ohio U)

Since the beginning of China’s self-modernizing process and the birth of Chinese feminist movements in the first decade of 20th century, women’s bodies and desires have frequently been marshaled in service of male-dominated nationalistic and (post-)socialist discourses of China and Chineseness. The ideological-political mobilization of female gender, sexuality, and subjectivity has considerably transformed and complicated contemporary Chinese televisual representations of women. In the 21st century, Chinese cyberspace, along with its flourishing creative and media industries, has witnessed an unexpected “boom in women-oriented literature and culture” (Sun & Yang, 2019, p. 28). Notably, the rise of local media and literature produced by and/or for women, along with flows of feminist and LGBTQ movements within and beyond China in the new millennium, first nurtured the cyber literature genre of “matriarchal fiction.” Such fiction is often “set in a society ruled by women … [and] describes a woman’s ascent to power in the public arena, or her success at establishing and heading a happy domicile including one or more male sexual partners” (Feng, 2013, p. 85). This matriarchal narrative maneuver later led to the widely popular “big heroine dramas” of Chinese TV in the past decade, the narratives of which focus on the life trajectories, professional obstacles, familial relationships, and romantic lives of female protagonists living in either the contemporary era or a temporally and spatially remote world (Sun & Yang, 2019, pp. 26-28). At the same time, a growing number of reality shows, talk TV shows, dating programs, and lifestyle shows in the post-2010 years have addressed themes related to women’s socio-cultural roles in both professional and private milieus, such as parenting skills, same-sex friendships and homosociality, and marital-familial issues in contemporary China characterized by cosmopolitanism, post-feminism, digitization, (post-)globalization, and deterritorialization.

Situated within this intriguing context, this special issue of Communication, Culture & Critique explores images, imaginaries, and performances of women that have dominated the post-2010 Chinese televisual screen. Seeing televisual spaces as a locally, transculturally, and globally mediated ground for the subject formation of “Woman” during this digital, globalist age, the issue aims to consider the following questions:

• How have emerging TV genres, formats, aesthetics, temporalities, and platforms contributed to the “doing”/construction and “undoing”/deconstruction of womanhood in the contemporary Chinese-speaking context?
• In what ways have female gender and sexual subjectivities been in constant negotiation, if not entanglement, with the mainstream hetero-patriarchal, authoritarian, ethno-nationalistic cultures that remain prevalent in the televisual space and industry of post-2010 China?
• How does research on the women-centered TV culture in the past decade open up new analytical possibilities for interrogating existing understandings of China, Chineseness, and Chinese media and popular communication in general?

This call invites proposals concerning critical, interdisciplinary research dedicated to explorations of the mutually implicative relation between womanhood and television in post-2010 China. We conceptualize “China” in a critically expansive way, one that exceeds Mandarin-speaking, Han-Chinese culture. Thus, we especially welcome topics concerning Chinese TV representations of non-Chinese, and/or non-Mandarin-speaking, and/or non-Han women. We are also interested in representations of cross-cultural or transnational familial-marital relationships relating to women’s roles as daughters, mothers, and wives; non-heteronormative women; or male-to-female (MTF) or female-to-male (FTM) transgender and cross-dressing personas and performances. Thus, we seek studies of women’s TV culture from a decolonial, de-Euro-American-centric, and de-Han-centric perspective. The goal is to unveil the intricacies, possibilities, and controversies of identity and agency within a largely authoritarian, patriarchal party-state, thereby helping to establish new theoretical and methodological frameworks at the intersection of Chinese TV studies, China studies, and Chinese gender, feminist, and queer studies.

Potential topics examining TV in China may include but are not limited to:

• Portrayals of female friendship and sisterhood
• Narratives of middle- or high-class women’s professional and familial struggles
• The framing of female singledom and marital strife on reality TV and dating shows
• Historical and xianxia (“immortal hero”) dramas featuring female protagonists (such as “big heroine dramas”)
• Imaginaries of young women’s and schoolgirls’ gendered life experiences and romantic relationships (including childhood traumas, parent–child relationships, and female homoeroticism and homosociality)
• Representations of women who are ethnic and cultural minorities in the Chinese and Sinophone worlds (such as Tibetan, Uyghur, Taiwanese aboriginal, or foreign-born ethnic-Chinese women)
• The intersection of womanhood, ethnicity/race, nationality, and class on TV (such as images of Thai lesbian stars, Taiwanese and Hong Kong female celebrities, Euro-American Caucasian women, or Southeast Asian female migrant workers)
• Transgender and cross-dressing women on TV (including those appearing in music and operatic performances on TV and impersonation shows, and TV images of transgender subjects and bodies)
• The production, distribution, and consumption of online TV programs related to women’s self-representation and self-making, facilitated by the growing popularity of China’s cyber communicative platforms and digital media
• Representations and censorship of feminist voices and cultures
• China’s transcultural, transnational adaptation and appropriation of women-centered televisual genres, formats, and aesthetics (such as soap operas and gossip TV, which are traditionally considered feminine and appeal to predominantly female audiences)

Submission Instructions:

Please submit a 500-word abstract as well as a short (2-page) CV by March 1st, 2021 to the co-editors of the special issue at jingjamiezhao@gmail.com and nge@ohio.edu.

Authors whose abstracts are selected will be notified by April 1st, 2021 and asked to submit complete manuscripts (6000-7000 words, including notes and references), in Word format, following the 6th APA style, by August 1st, 2021.

Acceptance of the abstracts does not guarantee publication of the papers, which will be subject to double-blind peer review. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the co-editors at the above two email addresses.

NOTE: Accepted full-length paper contributions will be published in the same Communication, Culture & Critique issue as a Forum section on the related topic of “Global TV Images of Female Masculinity in the 2010s.” The Forum, which seeks shorter essays, has a separate CFP.

Special Issue Editors:

Jamie J. Zhao is a global queer media scholar and currently Assistant Professor of Communications at the Sino-UK collaborative institution, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and another PhD in Film and TV Studies from the University of Warwick. Her research explores East Asian media and public discourses on female gender and sexuality in a globalist age. Her academic writings can be found in a number of journals and edited volumes, such as the journals Feminist Media Studies, Celebrity Studies, Continuum, Critical Asian Studies, and Transformative Works and Cultures, and the anthologies Global Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019) and Love Stories in China (Routledge, 2019). She also coedited the anthology, Boys’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols: Queer Fan Cultures in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (HKUP, 2017).

Eve Ng is an associate professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Ohio University. Her research includes work on cultural production and viewer engagement around LGBTQ media, social media and participatory practices, and LGBTQ advocacy, and has appeared in Communication, Culture & Critique, Development and Change, Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Film and Video, New Review of Film and Television Studies, Popular Communication, Television and New Media, Transformative Works and Culture, and the Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights (2017).

Intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches to understand social impact and license to operate of media business around the globe

Eds. Franzisca Weder, Lars Rademacher, René Schmidpeter

Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler 2021

Management-series

“Corporate Social Responsibility”:

http://www.springer.com/series/11764?detailsPage=titles

Focus

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an established management focus of todays’ corporates and organizations of various kind, scope and size. This is supported by the book series on CSR by Springer Gabler, in which the planned volume is embedded in.

The social impact (SI) on the society and the key publics for which they function is lately debated in various fields of (mostly strategic) communication research (Rasche et al., 2018; Morsing 2018, Diehl et al., 2017; Allen 2006; Heath, 2018; Johnston et al., 2018; Saffer, 2019). Alongside, the idea that organizations need the permission, the license to operate (SLO) (Hurst & Ihlen, 2018), challenges all kind of business, but media corporations in particular. Unlike CSR initiatives in other industry sectors, CSR and Sustainability communication practices and related research in the media industry is still underdeveloped. This may be

- Firstly, due to the fact that until recently the media industry has not been challenged to introduce sustainable and responsible business models anyway.

- Secondly, the watchdog-role that media play in observing traditional businesses and politics has provided a general legitimacy for a long time.

- And thirdly, the debate about the media’s public value has covered questions about responsibilities towards the society and related impact so far.

However, in an era where fake news is constantly spread and algorithms co-decide the media agenda, the question about the impact on the public sphere, the public value of media products and the license to operate are becoming prevalent with a new normative framework of sustainability. In this book we will bridge the “former” debate on public value with the current debate about social impact and the social license to operate in the media industry. In the focus is the double nature of producing economic and cultural goods at the same time (Bracker et al., 2017; Karmasin & Bichler, 2017) which leads to the assumption that media companies have a double responsibility for the way they present reality (in their products) and with this controlling and criticizing economic and political developments and raising ethical concerns in the public debate on the one hand (SOCIAL IMPACT), and for their own activities as a CSR & Media Management 2 corporation on the other hand (LICENSE TO OPERATE).

The guiding question for contributions to this volume is the following: How do media corporations deal with their twin responsibility of holding society responsible and being responsible themselves? A second set of questions guides the inputs from various theoretical as well as cultural perspectives:

• What exactly do media outlets perceive as their responsibilities?
• Do media companies expend resources for CSR and, if so, what kind of resources and to what extent?
• What kind of resources (e.g., reputation, image, publicity) do media companies gain from Social Impact orientation and related CSR activities?
• How is responsibility allocated and taken along the media production process?
• What about the dimensions of responsibility like environmental responsibility, but as well gender, diversity and inclusion?
• What about the differences and overlaps between individual responsibility and morality and organizational ethics?

• Is there a difference between the walk and talk of media firms regarding their CSR practices?
• And, if so, what is the reason for this gap?
• What are elements of a sustainable business model when it comes to media outlets?
• What is the “social impact” of a media corporation?
• Which role do theories of engagement journalism and engagement communication play here?

We are seeking for global perspectives on the issue that will stimulate a conversation about innovative approaches in an industry where a stronger focus on sustainability as normative framework to discuss the public value is increasingly converging with economic goals. The European perspective with a historically strong role of public broadcasting should be contrasted with an Oceanian as well as US-perspective. Furthermore, there is a specific outlook to the challenges of cross-border management.

We are interested in “easy to read” contributions written in German and English from academics (on all levels) and practitioners in the areas of

We are interested in “easy to read” contributions written in German and English from academics (on all levels) and practitioners in the areas of

• CSR & CSR Communication
• Management/Media Management
• Communication Scholars,
• Business Scholars in related areas,

Schedule

• Submission of abstracts (250 w) and ideas 30.12.2020 -> send to f.weder@uq.edu.au
• Individual feedback of the editors 30.01.2020
• Submission of chapter 31.03.2021
• Feedback/corrections 15.05.2021
• Finalization Q3 2021

Evandro Oliveira: oliveira.evandro@gmail.com

COMPARATIVE CINEMA 17 (Fall 2021)

Deadline: April 30, 2021

https://www.raco.cat/index.php/Comparativecinema/announcement/view/88

The analysis of colour as a key component of cinema has particularly animated film studies scholarship in recent years, with interest in colour encompassing among other dimensions its connections with aesthetics, affect, history and politics. Research in this area has ranged across more than a century of the medium’s existence: from the manifold possibilities of colour in the silent era in Sarah Street and Joshua Yumibe’s 'Chromatic Modernity: Color, Cinema, and Media of the 1920s' (2019), to the most recent digital developments as captured in Carolyn Kane’s 'Chromatic Algorithms: Synthetic Color, Computer Art and Aesthetics after Code' (2014), colour is a property of the film image that has remained a constant even as it has undergone dramatic changes over time.

While colour has been mined by a number of scholars for its specific national, industrial and technological potentials, the 17th issue of 'Comparative Cinema' invites contributors to approach colour for its comparative possibilities, broadly conceived. The perspective of comparison encourages contemplation at the level of close analysis, but also gestures towards larger cultural-historical questions. Sergei Eisenstein (1957) once argued that specific hues do not have absolute correspondences with isolated values or meanings, but that the significance of a particular colour is relational, ‘dependent only upon the general system of imagery’ in a given film. But beyond the systemic relations of colours within a film, the importance of colour as an element on screen might also be viewed in comparison with colour outside of cinema altogether, in other media or in terms of the sundry ideological uses to which it has been put.

This issue of 'Comparative Cinema' will be devoted specifically to the uses, effects and experiences of colour with respect to comparative film analysis. Topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

• Colour and its absence: there has been a rise of late in the ‘colorization’ of black and white films, including Peter Jackson’s 'They Shall Not Grow Old' (2018). But a number of recent accessible works of art cinema – 'Roma' (Alfonso Cuarón, 2017), 'Ida' (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013) – have explored the absence of colour altogether. How do particular films, filmmakers, or cinematographers present colour in relation to black and white? How are certain historical ‘transitions’ from black and white to colour conceived?
• Colour and race: cinema has a vexed history of depicting people of colour, both owing to forms of systemic social and industrial exclusion, and to the racist structuring of film technologies in the reproduction of particular skin tones. What part has film colour played in this history? How have both black and white and polychromatic colour palettes constructed racial difference on screen?
• Colour and ‘reality’: in order to exert some control over the colours of the profilmic world, Michelangelo Antonioni famously painted grass, trees, buildings and roads in 'Red Desert' (1964) and 'Blow-Up' (1967). What can such examples tell us about the ambitions of colour cinema in portraying the world? How do colours on film compare with the colours of ‘reality’? What is the relationship between ‘natural colour’ and the colours of nature? How might colour be analysed in documentary filmmaking?
• Colour and nation: the historical development of colour film has varied widely in the different national film industries across the globe. How might the use of colour be tracked across different nation states? How has colour contributed to the exoticisation of certain territories throughout the history of cinema? How might relationships between global ‘centres’ and ‘peripheries’ be reconceived through the lens of colour film technologies?
• Colour and time: with the aid of such invaluable resources as Barbara Flueckiger’s Timeline of Historical Film Colors (filmcolors.org), there are many possibilities for the examination of colour over time. How do the early colourisation techniques associated with silent cinema – tinting, toning, handpainting – compare with the digital colour grading process today? How does colour in particular film prints change over time, due to vinegar syndrome, bleeding and other issues connected with the material degradation of analogue film?

'Comparative Cinema' invites the submission of complete articles addressing colour from a comparative perspective, which must be between 5500 and 7000 words long, including footnotes. Articles (in MS Word) and any accompanying images must be sent through the RACO platform, available on the journal website.

In addition to articles that respond to this particular topic, 'Comparative Cinema' is also accepting submissions for ‘Rear Window,’ a miscellaneous section of the journal that will include articles focusing on other aspects of cinema by using a comparative methodology. Please indicate in your submission if you wish to be considered for this section of the journal.

Timeline for Issue 17:

Deadline for submission of complete articles: 30/4/2021

Peer review: 30/4/2021-30/6/2021

Final copy deadline: 31/7/2021

Publication: Fall 2021

Contact: comparativecinema@upf.edu

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).