ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

December 4-5, 2020

Virtual conference

Deadline: November 25, 2020

Since the mid-nineties researchers have developed a monumental theory of information and communication technologies, within the conceptual framework of the network society – an ideal type transcending economic, cultural and political changes that took place in the 20th Century. Communication networks enabled by the internet are rapidly expanding along various codes and values.

In the global context of networked society the problematic of community and locality are again on the researchers’ agenda, due both to the loosened traditional ties, and to the emergence of new communities, furthermore, the question rises, whether the issue of locality is worth discussing in the context of global networks. Our relationships regain their value in a networked world, either as real or virtual togetherness. Issues worth exploring are the impact of global knowledge on local practices, mediated by online networks, just as the formation of specific local social processes influenced by the globalization and the phenomenon of online networks.

We started the discussion of these questions in our 2019 conference. This year, restricted into the online space in the context of pandemic, we would like to dedicate our conference to the further discussion of the above issues.

This year’s conference is aimed at exploring the changes of our communities and localities in the era of the networked world: innovative practices, new lifestyles, local social responses to global challenges. How does the internet affect the real and virtual community formation, and which are the factors contributing to the emergence of new types of groups of consumers and users?

Topics proposed for discussion:

• Local consumer and producer practices: glocalized worlds
• New consumer cultures and subcultures
• Local discourses in the online space
• Inequalities in the age of global networks: localities lagging behind
• vs. catching up localities
• Our digital worlds: social challenges for technology
• The effects of pandemic on local societies

We expect papers from the fields of social sciences and cultural studies, in Hungarian or English language.

Papers may be presented in one of the following ways:

15 minutes online oral presentation inHungarianorEnglishlanguage, or An English language poster uploaded to the Conference website. The conference organizers will offer prizes for the most original three posters uploaded to the English language poster section (coherence and creativity of the dissemination, visual representation of data). Prizes will be Amazon Kindle books of speciality literature

The conference is open for MA and PhD students as well.

No registration fee.

Short abstracts in Hungarian or English including the type of the prospected presentation (paper or poster) should be sent to Laura Nistor at nistorlaura@uni.sapientia.ro by 25 November 2020.

Organizer: Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, SocioHuman Sciences and Engineering – Department of Social Sciences / Applied Social Sciences Research Centre

http://csik.sapientia.ro/en

Carolijn van Noort

This book demonstrates how infrastructure projects and the communications thereof are strategized by rising powers to envision progress, to enhance the actor’s international identity, and to substantiate and leverage the actor’s vision of international order. While the physical aspects of infrastructure are important, infrastructure communication in international relations demands more scholarly attention.

Using a case-study approach, Carolijn van Noort examines how rising powers communicate about infrastructure internationally and discusses the significance of these communication practices. The four case studies include BRICS’s summit communications about infrastructure, Brazil’s infrastructure promises to Africa, China’s communication of the Belt and Road Initiative in East Africa, and Kazakhstan’s news media coverage of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Van Noort highlights the fact that the link between infrastructure, identity, and order-making is arbitrary and thus contested in practice, with rising powers operationalizing infrastructure communication in international relations in varied ways. She argues that both communication organization and the visuality of strategic narratives on infrastructure influence the international communication of infrastructure vision and action plans, with different levels of success.

Infrastructure Communication in International Relations is a welcome and timely book of interest to students and scholars in the fields of international relations, global communications, and the politics of infrastructure.

Table of Contents

1. Strategic Narratives on Infrastructure 2. BRICS and Infrastructure 3. Brazil, Africa, and Infrastructure 4. China, East Africa, and the Belt and Road Initiative 5. Kazakhstan, China, and the Belt and Road Initiative 6. Conclusion

Author(s)

Carolijn van Noort is a Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy in the School of Education and Social Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland, UK. In 2018, she obtained her PhD from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her research interests include strategic narratives, rising powers, and the politics of infrastructure.

https://www.routledge.com/Infrastructure-Communication-in-International-Relations/Noort/p/book/9780367557362

February 8-13, 2021

Online conference

Deadline: November 20, 2021

Keynote: Sally Stein, Professor Emerita, University of California, Irvine

This conference is designed as a sequel to our 2015 event/Turning the Page: Digitization, movie magazines and historical audience studies/.

That conference focused on the development of the study of historical fan magazines in recent decades, with a particular emphasis on the impact of increased digitization (by the Media History Digital Library, among others) on this development. In this context, we particularly emphasised the importance of “reclaiming” the fan magazine – an ephemeral and often academically neglected object – as an important research tool for the study of stars, fans, Hollywood and non-Hollywoodfilm industries and cultures, and more.

The purpose of this follow-up event is two-fold. Firstly, we wish to investigate the ways in which the field of historical fan magazine studies has evolved over the past five years. Secondly, we wish to focus, for this event, specifically on the design of the magazines and the relationship between the visual aspects of the publications and their contents. This choice is partly motivated by the online nature of the conference: since we will all be consuming the conference papers on a small screen, this format is excellently suited to an in-depth and detailed study of magazines’ visual elements.

With this focus, we particularly want to emphasise the importance of talking about the fan magazine holistically, as a complete and multi-layered object often consumed by its original readers in unorthodox and non-linear ways. As Sally Stein noted in the context of Ladies Home Journal in 1985:

"Studies of magazines have usually treated literary texts, or editorial images, or ads, as independent entities, and have proceeded to analyze their meanings divorced from their original context. This strategy flattens our conception of the way magazines came to be assembled and then received. For these elements are certainly not apprehended in isolation; rather images and texts, ads and editorial matter, are each designed to work off each other within the larger ensemble of the magazine." (Stein, 1985: 7)

While some scholars have appreciated this importance of taking a holistic approach, we believe that much coverage of the fan magazine as a research object still tends to treat the visual and textual elements as easily separable from each other, failing to appreciate the holistic reading experience these periodicals offered their readers, who often consumed them in their available “scraps of time.” (Stein, 1985: 6)

The organisers are delighted to announce that an online exhibition devoted to movie magazines will be held at the same time as the conference. “Design and Desire: The Glamorous History of the Movie Magazine” relates the history of the movie magazine from its modest beginnings in New York in 1911, via its global spread and glamorous heyday in the 1930s, to its decline and absorption into the celebrity gossip publications we know today. In their heyday in the 1930s, there were more than twenty movie magazines released every month in the USA alone. Providing information on new releases but even more on their stars, movie magazines purveyed more than - often dubious - facts: primarily they sold dreams, just as movies themselves did. This exhibition relates the story of these glamorous publications through displays, maps, music, films and interactive features.

We welcome abstracts of 350 words for recorded PowerPoint presentations, as well as video essays or other digitally shareable innovative approaches. The conference, which is free to attend, will make selected presentations available asynchronously, while a number of scheduled live sessions will also be organised via the Zoom platform, including a roundtable focusing on archives and digitization.

We encourage colleagues to consult the excellent online collections of movie magazines at https://lantern.mediahist.org/ and www.archive.org, amongst others, in preparing their submissions.

Presentation topics may include but are not limited to:

* Visual analysis of a historically significant single magazine

* Synchronic or diachronic investigation of multiple magazines

* Comparisons of different magazines’ treatment of specific stars, films or products

* Assessments of magazines’ different reading strategies

* Consideration of the dominance of Photoplay in recent scholarly work on movie magazines

* Approaches to studying the fan magazine in the age of the pandemic

* Examinations of the importance of the magazine cover

The closing date for submissions is midnight (BST) on 20 November, and authors will be notified of acceptance by 4 December 2020. Recorded presentations will be due by mid-January 2021. Please submit your abstract to normma.network@gmail.com.

Conference organisers: Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Lies Lanckman and Sarah Polley

Twitter: @design_desire

Instagram: design_desire2020

www.normmanetwork.com

Special issue of Animation: an interdisciplinary journal

Deadline: March 31, 2021

Guest Editor: Professor Paul Ward, Arts University Bournemouth

The study of animation has grown enormously in the past two decades. Historical and theoretical research, along with teaching the practice of animation in a variety of settings – from schools and colleges, to universities and other contexts – is now commonplace. One area that has been overlooked to date, however, is explicit/critical discussion/of/how and why/we teach animation in the ways that we do. There are a number of ‘traditions’ at play here: the teaching/training/inducting of people into the/craft/of making animation; courses that educate people whose goal is to work in more mainstream studio animation; courses that examine animation as an artistic practice overlapping with other areas such as Fine Art or Experimental Film/Video. There often appears to be a bifurcation into ‘animation education’ on the one hand and ‘animation training’ on the other: part of the point of this Special Issue would be to challenge and interrogate such a simplistic binary way of thinking.

The recent turn to ‘production studies’ (e.g. the work of John Caldwell) and critical examination of media industries (e.g. the work published in/Media Industries/online journal) ties in with a more detailed exploration of animation production pipelines, and how these ‘normative models’ are taught and passed down to future practitioners is part of the next stage of important research that needs to be done. Likewise, the role of animation in learning more generally – animation as a potentially radical pedagogic tool – also needs further critical examination.

The Special Issue welcomes submissions on any aspect of animation and education, including but not limited to:

• Animation in the university, school and other formal educational settings;
• Animation’s ‘interdisciplinary’ status;
• Animation Studies/animation practice as a recognizable ‘knowledge area’;
• Animation education’s relationship with industry (mentoring, industry liaison);
• Formal and informal modes of animation education;
• Communities of practice, on-the-job training, continuing professional development;
• Fostering diversity via animation education (e.g. issues of race, class, gender, dis/ability);
• The relationship between animation practice, animation theory, and animation professional discourses;
• The ways in which animation can be used to educate about other things – e.g. History, issues in healthcare, social care, etc;
• Case studies of specific examples of animation pedagogy;
• Animation and the philosophy of education.

As well as welcoming articles of 6-9000 words, we also welcome shorter ‘critical reflections on animation education’ (2-3000 words), where educators can share examples of best practice.

Deadline: Submissions to reach the Guest Editor (pward@aub.ac.uk) by 31 March 2021.

All submissions will be subject to the journal’s peer review processes.

Please refer to the journal's Submission

Guidelines: https://journals.sagepub.com/…ANM

March 2-3, 2021

Online conference

Deadline for abstracts: January 5, 2021

A two-day virtual conference on the diversity of film audience experience in the UK

Full details: https://www.beyondthemultiplex.net/…pdf

‘Audiences beyond the multiplex: understanding the value of a diverse film culture’ marks the final event for the AHRC-funded project ‘Beyond the Multiplex: Audiences for Specialised film in English Regions’.

For more information on the project see: https://www.beyondthemultiplex.net/

Pawel Surowiec, Ilan Manor (editors)

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-54552-9?fbclid=IwAR3B8sdP9OjaE7bu96Yh3d1mug3sx9ppHxFsqH_pWFmAFI3BAt0Ve2Gtksk#about

This edited book explores the multi-layered relationships between public diplomacy and intensified uncertainties stemming from transnational political trends. It is the latest wave of political uncertainty that provides the background as well as yields evidence scrutinised by authors contributing to this book. The book argues that due to a state of perpetual crises, the simultaneity of diplomatic tensions and new digital modalities of power, international politics increasingly resembles a networked set of hyper-realities. Embracing multi-polar competition, superpowers such as Russia flex their muscles over their neighbours; celebrated ‘success stories’ of democratisation – Hungary, Poland and Czechia – move towards illiberal governance; old players of international politics such as Britain and America re-claim “greatness”, while other states, like China, adapt expansionist foreign policy goals. The contributors to this book consider the different ways in which transnational political trends and digitalisation breed uncertainty and shape the practice of public diplomacy.

Paweł Surowiec is a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Communication at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Ilan Manor is a Digital Diplomacy Scholar at the University of Oxford, UK.

Keywords: post-truth politicsPublic DiplomacyUncertaintysoft powerilliberal trends

November 2, 2020

Online

We're thrilled to share with you the GigaNet symposium program, happening next week!

The GigaNet Annual Symposium will take place on Day 0 of the IGF, this year due to the pandemic it will be remote via Zoom.

Please notice that you have to register to the conference - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0apZyD5ca71xKOWDeVO-NL-eJ6rsy-z_64HqzdlCX7nT0Xg/viewform

AND the IGF website as well to be able to participate - https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/igf-2020-registration

To check out the full program go to this link -> https://www.giga-net.org/2020-annual-giganet-symposium-program-katowice-poland-remote/ but we wanted to give you a teaser of what's on->

GigaNet Symposium at IGF – Monday, 2nd November, 2020

Join the debate on our live tweeting-> @Giganetr #GigaNet

13:40-13:55 UTC – Welcome and Introductory Remarks

Dmitry Epstein, GigaNet Chair

Roxana Radu, GigaNet Program Chair 2020

14:00-15:15 UTC – parallel sessions 1

panel A1: Platform governance

Panel B1: Internet governance and the Covid-19 pandemic

15:20-16:35 UTC – parallel sessions 2

Panel A2: Data Governance

Panel B2: Stakeholders and their role in internet governance

16:40-17:55 UTC – parallel sessions 3

Panel 3: Governing standards and infrastructure

Panel B3: Cyberconflict and Cybersecurity

18:00-19:00 UTC – GigaNet meeting

Tallinn University

Tallinn University is looking for a Professor of Documentary Film (Tenure Track Associate Professor)

The elected candidate commences work on the first career level of the position (associate professor) with the aim of supporting their development into a leader of the relevant study and research field in Tallinn University, and moves to the second career level of the position (professor) by way of evaluation.

Position: Associate Professor of Documentary Film (career level I of Tenure Track Professorship)

Academic unit: Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (BFM - https://www.tlu.ee/en/bfm)

Study area: arts

The position will be filled from 01.09.2021.

More info: https://www.tlu.ee/en/associate-professor-documentary-film

Tallinn University has announced a public competition for the position of Professor of Documentary Film. The elected candidate commences work on the first career level of the position (associate professor) with the aim of supporting their development into a leader of the relevant study and research field in Tallinn University, and moves to the second career level of the position (professor) by way of evaluation.

Description of the field of the academic work:

Documentary is an independent branch of film art. The term contains almost everything non-fiction, starting from factual TV-programs and youtube clips ending with auteur documentaries. Nonfiction storytelling fills people’s every day, it is delivered from TV, Internet and Theatres. Every significant phenomena requires studies, both locally and globally. Discourse of the documentary is in constant move, the theory needs to develop parallel to that. TLU as an Estonian university needs to focus to the developments of Estonian documentary as well.

School context: Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (BFM) has internationally highly valued track record in the film education field. Established in 2005 it has by now, became a leading film school - a competence centre for audiovisual knowledge and expertise in the Baltics.

At BFM a film, especially documentary film, is the strongest area of artistic research and creation. BFM alumni have won prizes in many international film festivals.

According to the Tallinn University Development Plan university's goal is to educate creative professionals and critical and active citizens with diverse media literacy, including the ability to create a state-of-the-art image world to narrate stories and contribute to the development of society as well as enrich Estonian and global culture. TLU is an important centre for learning and development of creative (including film) people.

For fulfilment of all these high targets set in the Development Plan BFM is establishing a professorship in the field of documentary filmmaking.

The strategic importance of the position

The relevance of the field to the development priorities of TLU, Estonia and Europe: Regarding the first aspect, attention should be paid, in addition to European and TLU policy, to the Estonian level policy in education and research. Regarding education, of importance are, as an example, the Estonian strategy of education and the Administrative Contract (Haldusleping) between TLU and the Ministry of Education and Research. The latter addresses TLU responsibilities in the audiovisual arts and media production.

Documentary films have had a significant role in the Estonian cinematography history since the 1960ies, and gained a lot of international recognition. In the 21st century the role of audiovisual arts has ever increased, therefore the relevance of teaching them has also become more and more important. “Kultuur 2020”, the document describing the cultural policy of Estonia stipulates that “the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School of Tallinn University will be a modern international school of cinematography and media studies where the education in the study fields of cinematography and audio visual media can be obtained both in Estonian and English.”

In BFM documentary studies in its various forms have actually been taught since the foundation of the school, currently within the curricula of the BA studies of Film Arts, BA studies of audio visual media and separately at the MA level as an international curriculum.

The administrative contract concluded between the Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia and Tallinn University stipulates that Tallinn University is responsible for teaching audio visual techniques and media production in the study group of the arts curriculum, it is also its responsibility in the digital and media culture which is one of the focus areas of the development plan of the University.

Requirements for the candidates (incl. professional experience)

Candidates for the tenure system position shall meet at least the requirements of career level I of tenure system professor (associate professor), which are stipulated in Annex 2 and respectively in Annex 9 and 10 to the Employment Relations Rules. As this position is in the field of arts, at least a Master’s degree or an equivalent qualification is required.

Academic activity requirements

• The following requirements are considered necessary:
• considerable demonstrable knowledge in the field of documentary film and documentary filmmaking;

• a list of significant creative works including nominations and/or awards from international film festivals or film organisations. Research and publication record would be beneficial. (Submitted among the other application documents);
• experience in international film production;
• experience in organising international workshops and speciality meetings;
• active membership in international and national professional and/or creative organisations, expert groups, journal editorial boards,
• programme committees of international conferences;
• substantial pedagogical experience in teaching and supervising in the field of film art, especially documentary film;
• experience in organizing societal outreach activities including collaborations with film industries;
• experience in developing and running curricula in the field of documentary film.

Leadership aspects of the role: Professor of Documentary Film is expected to have existing experience in leading and managing creative teams. It is recommendable for the candidate to evidence skills in team and consensus building.

Job responsibilities

In accordance with Annexes 1, 2 and 10 to the Employment Relations Rules.

Duties are approximately divided between research (40-65%), teaching (20-40%) and internal and external service (10-30%).

Particular work duties linked to the profile, include:

• development of the study programs both in BA and MA level;
• co-ordinating the activities of the academic staff;
• teaching theory of the documentary;
• supervising creative courses of the documentary;
• initiating international networking, international relationship (i.e participating in the teaching documentary network of CILECT);
• promoting documentary studies in the country and abroad;
• searching for additional funds for financing students’ creative projects;
• participating in the festivals for film schools.
• Representing BFM in the teaching documentary network of CILECT;

European Documentary Network, Estonian Documentary Guild. Ethics. The job holder will cooperate with local ethics committees when planning and executing creative activities and research.

Language skills:

Estonian at a high level (C1). An employee who does not speak Estonian is expected to start acquiring proficiency in Estonian upon starting work and achieve language proficiency level B1 within three years and a level comparable to level B2 within five years in order to be able to perform tasks related to institutional development and administrative work in Estonian.

English at a high level (C1). The candidate needs to possess high command of English for conducting creative works in an international setting.

Working load: 1,0 (40 hours a week).

Remuneration: In accordance with TLU Remuneration Regulation and by negotiations with the director of the School where the position shall be. In addition to remuneration, a limited allowance is foreseen to the tenure professor, which can be used to cover the costs of research and development expenditure, members of the research team etc related to the position.

Location: Professor is expected to live in Tallinn and work at the premises of Tallinn University.

Required application documents shall be submitted by 20th January 2021 (incl) to Personnel Office of Tallinn University. A list of significant creative works shall include nominations and/or awards from international film festivals or film organisations. Research and publication record would be beneficial.

Additional information: Please address your administrative questions to konkurss@tlu.ee, and questions on the content to the Administrative Head of the BFM Kaie Viigipuu-Kreintaal, kaie.viigipuu@tlu.ee

Zrinjka Peruško, Dina Vozab, Antonija Čuvalo

https://www.routledge.com/Comparing-Post-Socialist-Media-Systems-The-Case-of-Southeast-Europe/Perusko-Vozab-Cuvalo/p/book/9780367226787

This book explains divergent media system trajectories in the countries in southeast Europe, and challenges the presumption that the common socialist experience critically influences a common outcome in media development after democratic transformations, by showing different remote and proximate configuration of conditions that influence their contemporary shape.

Applying an innovative longitudinal set-theoretical methodological approach, the book contributes to the theory of media systems with a novel theoretical framework for the comparative analysis of post-socialist media systems. This theory builds on the theory of historical institutionalism and the notion of critical junctures and path dependency in searching for an explanation for similarities or differences among media systems in the Eastern European region.

Extending the understanding of media systems beyond a political journalism focus, this book is a valuable contribution to the literature on comparative media systems in the areas of media systems studies, political science, Southeast and Central European studies, post-socialist studies and communication studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction 2. Explaining the transformations of post-socialist media systems 3. Prelude to modernity 4.Media systems in socialist modernity 5. Towards democracy: Post-socialist media systems in digital modernity 6. Why the media systems are the way they are

Reviews

This is a conceptually rich, methodologically sophisticated, and interdisciplinary analysis of south-east European media systems that explains continuity, change and divergence between the six cases. It deserves to be read not only by scholars of the region but by those considering how to approach more generally the study of comparative media systems and cultures.

John Downey, Professor of Comparative Media Analysis, Loughborough University

There was the need to fill a gap in the study of media systems in Southeast Europe. This book is doing this in a very convincing way. Peruško and colleagues support their discussion of the media systems in Southeast Europe with a rich and often complex interpretative apparatus deriving both from media studies and political science. Undoubtedly this mixture represents a major enrichment of their attempt that opens the doors to other possible applications, avoiding the frequent self-reference that often characterizes media studies.

Paolo Mancini

This book reveals major changes in media systems in the six post-socialist countries of Southeast Europe between their early development in the late 19th century and the end of the socialist period (1945-1990) after World War II, and the breakup of their common state of Yugoslavia (1918-1990). The authors follow common threads of changes in contemporary media policy and media systems from the prolific challenges they pose to democracies to the appalling combination of conditions that reinforce media dependence on agents of political and economic power in what they call a "hybrid and competitive authoritarian media systems". This is an important contribution to comparative media studies, providing an exciting insight into media culture across diverse national contexts and advancing a theoretical understanding of the complex and little-known changes in the post-socialist countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Slavko Splichal, University of Ljubljana

Peruško, Vozab and Čuvalo’s book focusing on one of the most troubled regions of European history is an important contribution to the study of comparative media systems. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this excellent study offers historical depth, conceptual innovation and methodological sophistication and will be a benchmark for future comparative research in the field. A fascinating read for everybody interested in the transformation of media systems in emerging democracies!

Katrin Voltmer, Professor of Communication and Democracy, University of Leeds

Aeron Davis, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman and Gholam Khiabany

Sage, October 2020

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1526456966/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tu00_p1_i4

When we a re told so regularly that we live in a ‘post truth’ age and are surrounded by ‘fake news’, it can be tempting to think of politics as primarily media ted. Discussion and analysis of public affairs is preoccupied with the power and reach of platforms or the passion and rage of social media exchanges. As important as these issues may be, a focus on the communicative risks downgrading the political.

Media, Democracy and Social Change puts politics back into political communications. It shows how within a digital media ecology, the wider context of neoliberal capitalism remains essential for understanding what political communications is and can hope to be.

Tackling broad themes of structural inequality, technological change, political realignment and social transformation, the book explores political communications as it relates to debates around the state, infrastructures, elites, populism, political parties, activism, the legacies of colonialism, and more.

It is both an expert introduction to the field of political communications, and a critical intervention to help re-imagine what a democratic politics might mean in a digital age. It will be essential reading for students, researchers and activists.

Aeron Davis, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman and Gholam Khiabany all work at the Department of Media and Communication at Goldsmiths, University of London, where they teach together on the MA in Political Communications.

Table of Contents

1 Putting Politics Back Into Political Communications

2 Infrastructures of Political Communications

3 The State of Political Communications

4 Elites, Experts, Power and Democracy

5 Democracy Without Political Parties?

6 The Violence of an Illiberal Liberalism

7 Political Communications, Civil Society and the Commons

8 Intellectuals and the Re-imagining of Political Communications