ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Christine E. Evans, Lars Lundgren

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262546904/no-heavenly-bodies/

The compelling and little-known history of satellite communications that reveals the Soviet and Eastern European roles in the development of its infrastructure.

Taking its title from Hannah Arendt's description of artificial earth satellites, No Heavenly Bodies explores the history of the first two decades of satellite communications. Christine E. Evans and Lars Lundgren trace how satellite communications infrastructure was imagined, negotiated, and built across the Earth's surface, including across the Iron Curtain. While the United States' and European countries' roles in satellite communications are well documented, Evans and Lundgren delve deep into the role the Soviet Union and other socialist countries played in shaping the infrastructure of satellite communications technology in its first two decades.

Departing from the Cold War binary and the competitive framework that has animated much of space historiography and telecommunications history, No Heavenly Bodies focuses instead on interaction, cooperation, and mutual influence across the Cold War divide. 

Evans and Lundgren describe the expansion of satellite communications networks as a process of negotiation and interaction, rather than a simple contest of technological and geopolitical prowess. In so doing, they make visible the significant overlaps, shared imaginaries, points of contact and exchange, and negotiated settlements that determined the shape of satellite communications in its formative decades.

About the authors

Christine Evans is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her first book, Between Truth and Time: A History of Soviet Central Television, received an Honorable Mention for the 2017 USC Book Prize in Literary and Cultural Studies.

Lars Lundgren is Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University. His work has been published in Media History, the European Journal of Cultural Studies, and the International Journal of Communication.

May 30 - June 1, 2024

University of Catania, Italy

Deadline: March 11, 2024

https://www.compol.it/eventi/convegno/convegno-2024/

One of the salient aspects in the recent dynamic transformation of public opinion is the process of integration between national and European communication spaces, which together increasingly converge on a scenario of complex global interdependencies. While this integrative trend was taking shape, itself a topic of debate and controversy, the European arena had to deal with new challenges, that mainly derived from a succession of global crises (economic, migratory, pandemic, war). These challenges, as well as generating geopolitical and economic instability, have highlighted a further and deeper impact of the transformations of the communication context, such as digitalisation, platformisation, polarization and the set of phenomena that cluster around the imprecise and debated concept of post-truth.

The crisis phases have highlighted the progressive shift towards the European sphere of many issues that previously featured in national contexts of debate and policy-making. This has made this process of Europeanization an object of persistent attention in flows of political communication, and given integration itself a structure of polarized politicization.

Due to the growing importance of the Union and the greater prominence of European-level issues in national political-media systems, it can be hypothesized that the phase of European elections as "second-order" elections in member countries has ended. One significant aspect is that they have become an object of interest for some foreign governments who, through the propagation of fake news and propaganda, attempt to influence the choices of citizens and governments to the point of undermining the integrity of the elections. At the level of individual states, we note the role of populist parties and their leaders, who are accused of spreading content of dubious veracity to influence electoral contests and referendums. These processes are considered a threat to the values of civil coexistence and public debate, and trust in democratic institutions.

The increased salience of the issues now found in European public space poses challenges to the agency of organized civil society. The structure of national public spheres has in fact changed, giving greater space to new actors with the ability to set agendas and influence public debate. In this context, a different methodological approach has made it possible to overcome the top-down/bottom-up dichotomy of participatory processes in the process of integrating the European communication space. It thus seems appropriate to pay attention to the communicative activities of social movements that operate at a trans-national level (e.g. environmentalists), and to those of interest groups that expand their activities towards the European dimension (trade unions, businesses and consumers). Worthy of interest are the movements of protest, sometimes labeled as populist, which mobilize simultaneously in various European countries, displaying networked transnational connections.

These processes are discursively articulated within a media ecosystem that is significantly influenced and distorted by phenomena of intolerance and incivility present in digital environments; communicative exchanges become radicalized and the very frames of the issues are influenced, causing the polarization of the arenas of debate.

The world of journalism has followed the process of Europeanization of national spheres and their politicization, often from a critical perspective, underlining the inadequacy of the Union's institutional responses and calling for their reform. This is accompanied by a crisis of journalism, characterized by loss of legitimacy of traditional media, which faces the affirmation of a framework of extreme fragmentation in information practices. It is necessary to deepen our understanding of the transformation of the news generation process, the impact on the role of journalists and editorial staff as gatekeepers and guarantors, and what adaptation and reaction strategies are in place, in the face of the complexity of the debate on information in European space.

On the basis of this framework, the call for papers solicits contributions that investigate the transformation of the national and European public sphere with particular attention to the challenges posed by crises, disinformation and manipulation phenomena. The areas investigated are those of electoral campaigns, strategies implemented by political actors and civil society and by traditional media, the impact of platformization processes on the fields of political communication, journalism and all other forms of communication.

Theoretical and empirical analysis papers are welcome, with research designs that include qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods methodologies.

Some possible relevant topics, though this is not intended to be an exhaustive list:changes that have occurred and new communication scenarios in the increasingly close and complex relationship between political communication and the public sphere;

• the restructuring of ideologies and propaganda practices;
  
• the redefinition of the public agenda in European space;
  
• the transformations and controversial nature of the international-European public debate with reference to processes of ideological and affective polarization, the use of incivility, and forms of discrimination online and offline, also with attention to gender issues;
  
• policies regarding political communication, information and the integrity of elections, formulated by European and national institutions (transparency of platforms and privacy; regulation of electoral campaigns, etc.);
  
• the emergence of new repertoires of extra-institutional political communication linked to protests, social movements and civil society actors, especially of a transnational nature;
  
• transformations and crises of contemporary journalism, with particular attention to the growth of new professional models and the role of the digital platform;
  
• trends that have emerged in the communication styles of leadership and parties in a hybrid and platformized communication ecosystem;
  
• from a discourse analytical perspective, linguistic and/or multimodal aspects of post truth communication;
  
• the technological infrastructure of political participation with particular regard to young generations (digital parties, networks, influencers, memes, UGC);
  
• methodological proposals and theoretical contributions to address the transformations of the public sphere, disinformation and new forms of conflict and political competition;
  
• (computational) propaganda techniques and mis/dis-information strategies in conflict scenarios.
  

Paper proposals must include: name, affiliation and email address, a title and an extended abstract with bibliographic references (600/800 words excluding bibliography), 3 key words. The proposers must also explicitly indicate whether they request the paper to be taken into consideration, after the conference, for publication in the magazine "Comunicazione Politica". In the event of an equal evaluation by referees, the authors who have indicated this option will have priority in selection for the conference.

Useful information on how to write an abstract for AssoComPol conferences is available in the “Abstract Instructions” section (https://www.compol.it/eventi/convegno/convegno-2024/ under construction)

Deadline for sending proposals: 11 March 2024

Acceptance notification: 25 March 2024

Complete papers must be sent by May 22, 2024 to the conference paper room (accessible after login)

Scientific committee: Cristopher Cepernich, Marco Mazzoni, Rolando Marini, Antonio Martella, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Melissa Mongiardo, Mariaeugenia Parito, Rossana Sampugnaro, Hans-Jörg Trenz, Douglas Ponton.

Local organizers: Rossana Sampugnaro, Francesca Montemagno, Mariaeugenia Parito, Martina Faia, Patrizia Santoro.

Secretaris: Melissa Mongiardo, Antonio Martella, Cesar Crisosto.

May 16-18, 2024

İstanbul Bilgi University İstanbul (Türkiye)

Deadline: February 15, 2024

https://futuresofcom.bilgi.edu.tr/#

Contact E-mail Address: futuresofcomm@bilgi.edu.tr 

Hosted by İstanbul Bilgi University, Faculty of Communication, the Global Communication Association invites you to submit your abstracts and panel proposals for the 16th annual convention to be held in İstanbul, Türkiye, between May 16-18, 2024.

A significant aspect of modernity enabled by media and communication technologies has been the collapse of time and distance. Global connectedness through social media platforms, flow of information through the internet, real-time communication through smartphones, and virtual meetings via Zoom have historically been credited for making the world a more connected place. However, unforeseen predicaments of new technologies have raised concerns about the lack of control over their use, the potential biases of machine visions and thinking, and their potential to facilitate crime as well as security and privacy breaches.

However, the contemporary technological assemblage does not allow time for such critical reflections. Paul Virilio suggests that ‘the faster the technology advances, the more accidents we will see’. He described the internet as ‘“the best and the worst of things…the advance of a limitless — or almost limitless — communication; and at some point, it is also the disaster — the meeting with the iceberg — for this Titanic of virtual navigation.’.’’

The Titanic metaphor refers to the disastrous nature of the contemporary technological assemblage and the gradual disappearance of the gap between the implementation of new technologies and the emergence of their adversary effects. The conference takes the increasing speed of technological development in the field of media and communication as its starting point and explores how and whether, if at all, the predicaments parallel and/or supersede the promises of the implementation of new technologies.

The GCA invites research papers exploring any aspect of issues related to the theme of the conference, including but not limited with the following topics:

• The risk society, uncertainties, and risk
  
• Re-thinking communication and communication theory
  
• Life after social media
  
• The future(s) of media industry and alternative media economies
  
• Reconsidering the methodologies of communication
  
• Revisiting the discussion on communication as a discipline or area?
  
• Crises of democracy and the media
  
• Pedagogy of communication and communication technologies as pedagogical tools
  
• Media archeology and revisiting the past
  
• Populism and the media
  
• Artificial intelligence tools & applications
  
• AI and the transformation of society
  
• Humanitarian crises and the media
  
• Climate change and the media
  
• Media persistence
  
• Migration, forced displacement, and the media
  
• Media worlds of terror
  
• Margins of communication – re-thinking the boundaries of interactions
  
• Multimodality and the media
  
• Search for alternative modalities of the media

Important Dates

Submissions due: February 15, 2024

Acceptance notification: March 1, 2024

Conference: May 16-18, 2024

May 10, 2024, Accompanying events: 9 and 11 May, 2024

Hybrid: Lublin & Online

Deadline: March 20, 2024

Organizers: Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, University of Wrocław , Polish Communication Association, Mediatization Section

To address mediatization we have invited the renowned keynote speaker Andreas Hepp (Universität Bremen) who will give a keynote speech on:Datafication, automation and communicative AI: Toward a redefinition of mediatization research (personal presentation; see the abstract here). We open our conference to a wide range of topics related to mediatization and media studies in general, and therefore welcome all papers that address the topics listed below:

• Mediatization and datafication – a conceptual dialogue and/or competition
  
• Datafication as a phase/layer of mediatization
  
• Mediatization research in times of datafication
  
• Datafication of interpersonal, organizational and institutional communication
  
• Data colonialism; colonial appropriation of social-personal data
  
• Digital infrastructures and platform economies
  
• Artificial intelligence as a tool of mediatization
  
• Algorithmization of public and interpersonal communication
  
• Platformization of interpersonal, organizational and institutional communication
  
• Automation of communication
  
• Mediatization of politics and electoral campaigns
  
• Mediatization of war and conflict
  
• Mediatization of sport, physical activity and recreation
  
• Mediatization of business and economy
  
• Mediatization of popular culture and fashion
  
• Mediatization of leisure
  
• Mediatization of religion and spiritual life
  
• Mediatization of daily and family life
  
• (De)mediatization, counter-mediatization and media de-saturation
  

DETAILS: https://www.umcs.pl/en/ms-cfp.htm 

June 30-July 4, 2024

Christchurch, New Zealand

Deadline: February 7, 2024

https://iamcr.org/christchurch2024/cfp-flow34 

The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) calls for academic audio/visual work to be presented at IAMCR 2024, which will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 30 June to 4 July 2024. 

The deadline for submission is 7 February 2024, at 23.59 UTC.

With this call, IAMCR aims to stimulate the use of a broader range of modes for the communication of academic knowledge, complementing conference papers and oral presentations with audio/visual work. In particular, we seek podcasts and videos that integrate academic and aesthetic dimensions, and that use sound and/or image creatively to communicate academic knowledge. This implies that we will not select audio/visual work that merely consists of recorded lectures. The selected works will be presented during the conference in Christchurch from 30 June to 04 July. Flow34 creators are not required to attend the Christchurch conference.

We call for audio/visual work with a maximum duration of 30 minutes, but shorter contributions are also welcomed. 

Submission guidelines

Proposals for the presentation of audio/visual work will consist of one abstract, which will have two parts, namely an academic description of the work and a (basic) script of the audio/visual work. The academic description describes the research communicated by the audio/visual work (its research question, theoretical framework, methodology, research design and corpus, …), while the script provides a chronological description of the form of the audio/visual work. The abstract (with its two parts) has a maximum length of 750 words. Abstracts must be submitted online by 07 February 2024.

The Flow34 evaluation team will review the submitted proposals and announce their decisions in March 2024. The audio/visual work itself will then need to be submitted by 7 June 2024.

Abstracts and scripts must be submitted in English. The final work can be in any language, but subtitles in English are appreciated (but not compulsory).

For further information about Flow34, please contact Mazlum Kemal Dagdelen at <mazlum@iamcr.org> (mazlum /at/ iamcr /dot/ org)

Comunicazioni Sociali — Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies

Deadline: March 1, 2024

Edited by: Paola Dalla Torre, Mariagrazia Fanchi, Elena Mosconi

To be published in December 2024.

Proposal should be sent by March 1, 2024 to the following addresses:  redazione.cs@unicatt.it;  mariagrazia.fanchi@unicatt.it; p.dallatorre@lumsa.it; elena.mosconi@unipv.it.

Acceptance will be notified by March 15, 2024.

If the proposal is accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit the full article in English by July 31, 2022.

Articles must not exceed 5’000/6’000-words (including references).

Further information can be found at: https://comunicazionisociali.vitaepensiero.it/news-call-for-papers-italian-cinemas-and-moviegoing-places-businesses-people-6405.html 

The new historiographical paradigms (Biltereyst, Malby, Meers 2019), the relevant boost of film audience studies provided by networks such as HoMER, and the convergence of an increasing number of disciplines around cinema history: geography (Hallam, Roberts 2014; Treveri Gennari, O’Rawe, Hipkins 2019; Celata, Simone 2023), ethnography (Treveri Gennari et al, 2020; Stokes, Jones, Pett 2022; Antichi, Fedele, Garofalo 2023; Wessels et al 2022; Kuhn 2023), phenomenology (Hanich 2017), have, in recent years, produced an important growth in historical knowledge about movie theatres, the public, and, more generally, cinema experiences.

Data-driven approaches and open science models (Deb Verhoeven’s work has been pivotal in this regard) have in addition contributed to deeply transforming the work of scholars, even in traditional fields, such as early cinema (Slugan, Biltereyst 2022), introducing new perspectives, encouraging to intersect many and different sources (Egan-Smith-Terrill, 2021), and developing longitudinal and comparative studies (van Oort, Whitehead, 2023).

The research on movie theatres and moviegoing in Italy has certainly benefited from this conjuncture. However, some aspects and periods have been investigated less (systematically) than others. For example, the long and non-linear phase of the decline of cinemas and cinema-going in Italy, from the 1960s to the 1980s and the subsequent revival, from the second half of the 1990s have been understudied; cinema-going in rural areas and Southern regions, despite being the subject of some pioneering research (Pinna et al, 1958), still largely needs to be investigated. Likewise, the history of entrepreneurs running cinemas in Italy – predominantly family-run enterprises – is a relatively unexplored field. The history of the professions that revolve around cinema (managers, projectionists, cashiers…), in turn need to be completely reconstructed. In the same way, the experience of moviegoers, their relationship with cinema and the role that the viewing experience has taken on in their lives continue to offer many opportunities for study and investigation, strengthened by new investigation techniques and methodologies.

Considering this landscape, this special issue aims to analyze how cinema and movie theatres shaped the history of territories, businesses, and people in the past and present, with a particular but non-exclusive focus on the case of Italy.

Special attention will be given to papers proposing new methodologies and perspectives, also using data-driven approaches, and/or papers involving comparative studies with the case of Italy.

Proposals on non-standard cinemas (such as small gauge cinemas, parish cinemas, drive-in cinemas, cinemas in hospitals) or ephemeral cinemas (Vélez-Serna 2020) (arenas, travelling cinemas…) are also encouraged.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

- Ephemeral cinemas (Vélez-Serna 2020);

- Cinemas and public fundings;

- Cinemas and public regulations:

- Geospatial analysis of cinemas;

- Cinemas in depressed areas;

- Cinemas in industrial districts;

- Cinemas in Northern and Southern Italy;

- Cinemas and tourist areas;

- Cinema exhibition: management models;

- Movie theatres as family businesses;

- History of male/female cinema exhibitors;

- Cinemas as a workplace: roles and professions;

- Cinemas and moviegoing: data, memories, ephemerals;

- Moviegoing in urban vs. rural areas;

- Cinemas and fragile audiences: Cinemas and minors, Cinemas and female audiences, Cinemas and disadvantaged audiences, Cinemas and ‘second-generation’ audiences.

Thematic section in SComS, edited by Gabriele Balbi, Berber Hagedoorn, Nazan Haydari, Valérie Schafer, & Christian Schwarzenegger

Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS) is a peer-reviewed journal of communication and media research with platinum open access: https://www.hope.uzh.ch/scoms/. The journal is edited by Jolanta Drzewiecka, Silke Fürst, Katharina Lobinger, and Thilo von Pape.

Issue 23(3) is published and can be accessed for free https://www.hope.uzh.ch/scoms/issue/view/375. It includes a Thematic Section on “Old media persistence. Past continuities in the brand-new digital world” as well as a General Section which is composed of two studies investigating into parasocial relationships with morally ambiguous media characters on the one hand and the COVID-19 discourse in politicians’ speeches in Iran on the other hand. Additionally, the issue contains a dissertation summary, a fact sheet on DOCA as well as two book reviews.

Wednesday 20 March 2024 , 09:00 to 17:00 GMT 

Online

We are delighted to open registrations (on this link), for the fully virtual and free 1 day conference on Emerging Directions in News Use Research on 20th March 2024. This day-long, international, virtual conference - brings together a global group of scholars involved with researching news use, news audiences and consumption, and news engagement and disengagement. We are looking forward to hearing from a range of empirical contexts, from projects using tried and tested as well as more creative and innovative methodologies, and to showcase the work of scholars across career stages in the fields of Sociology, Journalism, Media and Communication, and more.  

The event marks the launch of the Leverhulme Trust funded parents’ news use project - which runs from the fall of 2023 to the fall of 2025. The Leverhulme News Use project aims to examine how parents engage with and respond to news at critical moments of crisis. The project team includes Professor Ranjana Das, Dr Thomas Roberts, Dr Emily Setty and Dr Maria-Nerina Boursinou from the Department of Sociology (University of Surrey).

Keynote speakers at the event include Professor Brita Ytre-Arne, University of Bergen, Norway; Dr Jonathan Corpus Ong, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Professor Kim Schroeder, Roskilde University, Denmark; Professor Sahana Udupa, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany and Professor Lynn Schofield Clark, University of Denver, Colorado. 

The Full Programme: Please browse the conference brochure with the full programme on this link!

Register here:  Registrations are now open (on this link)!

Event date (fully online): Wednesday 20 March 2024 , 0900 to 1700* GMT 

Please email any question you may have about submissions to Dr Nerina Boursinou (m.boursinou@surrey.ac.uk).

University of Mannheim

The University of Mannheim, Germany, invites applications for a Professorship for Media and Communication Studies (permanent position, rank W3)

The successful candidate is expected to have demonstrable expertise in at least one of the following areas: political communication or media structures/media governance or social processes under the conditions of digitalization. A focus on communicative aspects of the latest media developments (e. g., algorithmic processes, artificial intelligence) and/or in the field of computational communication research is an advantage.

Please find the full job description with further information on the application procedure here: https://www.phil.uni-mannheim.de/en/institute-for-media-and-comm/institute-for-media-and-comm/englischvacancies-mkw/

May 2 (full day) - 3 (half day), 2024

AAU, Copenhagen, Denmark (on-site and online)

Deadline: February 2, 2024

Considering the recent climate developments and resulting socio-economic disparities, questions that address media and communication from a broader sustainability perspective have become increasingly urgent. Yet, they reside far too often at the periphery of media and communication research and practice. SMiD 2024 seeks to raise awareness and address these issues, fostering a critical discussion on the role of media and communication in relation to the notion of sustainability. We understand sustainability as defined by the United Nations Brundtland Commission in 1987, as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. We address the topic in its broadest possible sense, ranging from environmental, economic, and political Issues to social well-being. Contributions are invited through both the open call and the themed call. More information: https://www.foreningen-smid.dk/index.php/aarsmoede-2024/

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

1. News media: e.g., climate reporting and climate framing, sustainable news production, resilience journalism, news media, and political power.

2. The ”good” life and datafied living: e.g., balancing personal lifestyle choices and their environmental consequences, navigating environmental data and environmental practices.

3. Everyday practices and sustainability: e.g., upcycling practices, civil movements, and reimagining everyday practices for a sustainable future.

4. Organizational practices: e.g., authenticity vs. greenwashing, communication, AI, and digital sustainability.

5. Sustainable communication: e.g., new ways of explaining the impacts media habits induce on the climate and environment, communicating these challenges,

6. Politics and governance: e.g., communication practices of political parties, issues in climate governance, political and institutional decision-making. 

The special issue resulting from the themed call will be guest edited by Mikkel Fugl Eskjær, Aalborg University, Denmark, Sandra Simonsen, Aarhus University, Denmark, Henrik Bødker, Aarhus University, Denmark og Martina Skrubbeltrang Mahnke, Roskilde University, Denmark. 

Deadline for contributions: February 2nd, 2024 

Contact information: mahnke@ruc.dk