European Communication Research and Education Association
Flow Volume 27 Special Issue
Deadline: September 13, 2020
Over the past several months, social media platform TikTok has seen an enormous surge in users and popularity while simultaneously becoming the focus of concerns over national and digital security risks. While its users remain skewed to the teenage demographic, the app has disrupted a number of media industries and sparked cultural controversy. In the music industry, going viral on TikTok has become a prerequisite for singles hoping to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and in television, the app has entered the streaming wars. Chinese parent company ByteDance named Kevin Mayer, formerly in charge of streaming at Disney, as CEO of TikTok in June, and Netflix recently refined its quarterly new subscribers forecast in part due to what it perceives as TikTok’s astounding growth. But TikTok is only the latest new media application to affect legacy media industries. TikTok’s rise is replicating changes ushered in to user-generated and professional video content by platforms like YouTube, Vine, and Snapchat. And as a social networking platform, TikTok offers a new avenue for grassroots activism, community formation, and builds seemingly overnight fame for its breakout stars. However, it also exists within a contested digital space, in which concerns have been raised over cultural appropriation, privacy, online toxicity, and racism.
This inaugural issue of Flow’s twenty-seventh volume, “TikTok as a Cultural Forum,” asks media scholars to consider the rise of TikTok from cultural, industrial, technological, digital, political, historical, and national lenses. This special issue raises the question of what makes TikTok unique in its rapid ascent to cultural ubiquity and aims to assess the cultural and industrial impacts of TikTok’s rise. How might the proliferation of TikTok force scholars to rethink the significance of digital identities through lenses of race, gender, and sexual orientation? In what ways does the white co-optation of choreography and language by Black creators find historical precedent in legacies of cultural appropriation, disputes over authorial credit, and discrepancies in how cultural production and audiences are valued within the media industries? How might we discuss the connections between teen and young adult mental health, TikTok community formation, and social distancing during a global health pandemic? What are the responsibilities and practices of platforms like TikTok to stand against being a host of online toxicity, white supremacy, and other extremist groups in online spaces? How is TikTok activism different from past forms of online advocacy and community organizing? How and to what extent are established media brands rethinking digital content strategies to incorporate or compete against TikTok? Possible topics include, but are by no means limited to:
To be considered for this timely issue, please submit a completed short essay of 1200-1500 words, along with at least three images (.gif or .png) or embeddable video/audio links. We will be able to embed TikTok videos into the column, so please feel free to be creative! Send your column, media files or links, and a short bio, to Maggie Steinhauer and Nathan Rossi at flowjournaleditors@gmail.com by Sunday, September 13th, 2020. The
Special Issue will be published at flowjournal.org on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.
University of Westminster - School of Media and Communication
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/…nic
Location: Harrow
Salary: £50,162 (inc. LWA) starting salary
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent
Placed On: 1st September 2020
Closes: 21st September 2020
Job Ref: 50058912
This post is full time and permanent, working 35 hours per week
Do you have a vision for how tomorrow’s media companies will grow and thrive?
Can you teach and support international postgraduates to manage creative projects, develop media businesses and build their careers in the media and creative industries?
The University of Westminster is looking for an industry practitioner with experience of teaching or training to join our team of senior lecturers delivering a suite of three highly successful Masters programmes in media management and media business.
We are seeking candidates with professional experience in the media or creative industries and a degree in business or a relevant discipline (e.g. media and communications or social sciences). A strong network of industry contacts will be an especial advantage as providing work experience opportunities for international students is an important dimension of the role. We are particularly interested in candidates with experience or deep knowledge of any or all of the following: content and format development and production, media project management, digital production and distribution, financial, statistical or data analysis and Theories of media management or of business.
In the short term the successful candidate will support the course leaders in teaching, assessing and administering the programmes as deputy course leader. In the medium-term the post is likely to provide the opportunity to take on a course leadership role. The post also provides the opportunity for short teaching visits to China because, although delivery in 2020-21 will take place in the UK (Harrow Campus) and online, one of the programmes is usually taught partly in Beijing. While the courses are primarily concerned with media management and practice, Westminster plays a leading role in media research through the internationally-rated Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI). Familiarity with business or academic research is not essential but would be an advantage as staff are encouraged to pursue research interests and play an active role in relevant media management and economics research networks.
The University of Westminster is committed to supporting diversity and equal opportunities in our dealings with job applicants, students, staff and the public. We are fully committed to creating a stimulating and supportive learning and working environment based on mutual respect and trust.
For further information and to apply for this post, please click apply and you will be redirected to our website.
Closing date: midnight on 21 September 2020
Interviews are likely to be held on: week beginning 12 October 2020
Administrative contact (for queries only): Recruitment@westminster.ac.uk
Please note: We are unable to accept applications by email. All applications must be made online. CVs in isolation or incomplete application forms will not be accepted.
We are fortunate to receive a large number of applications for our vacancies. Regrettably, we are not able to provide feedback to those job applicants who are not shortlisted, as it simply would not be manageable to do so.
Embracing diversity and promoting equality.
Recerca. Revista de pensament i Anàlisi
Submission deadline: February 15, 2021
Publication: April 2022
Editors: Emma Gómez Nicolau (Universitat Jaume I) and Arantxa Grau Muñoz (Universitat de València)
Perceptions and uses of the body correspond to both cultural parameters and historical contingencies. However, many of these endeavours to socially contextualise the body are premised on the understanding of the body as a natural fact. The body-organism is presented from the legitimating position of biological facts––anatomical, endocrinological, immunological, and so on––until it becomes a self-evident entity. Our interpretations and perceptions of the body, but also our image of its composition, are mediated by the biomedical sciences as legitimate devices for producing scientific knowledge about the body.
The feminist perspective on biomedical sciences has helped to uncover how this technological device invades the social construction of the body by denoting “sex” as the fundamental criterion to explain corporeal differentiation. “Sex” is described as an attribute of the body- organism that corresponds to biological and chemical principles, any variations in which are regarded as an anomaly and/or a pathology. Sex has become a technological device designed to explain and justify corporeal differentiation by highlighting differences (organs, hormones, etc.) and ignoring similarities. This process serves as a normative matrix in the decodification of these bodies. Male and female bodies must necessarily match the bimorphism determined by the biomedical sciences, anatomy loses its descriptive purpose to become a prescriptive science, and it reaches beyond the field of biomedical intervention to invade the sphere of social identity.
This edition of Recerca. Revista de Pensament i Análisi provides a space to explore approaches from sociology, philosophy, ethics and other related disciplines that analyse experiences and processes of this western hegemonic definition of the gendered body and how it affects social experiences and identities. We are especially interested in analysis of the processes of the diverse corporeal itineraries that resist, subvert and destabilise the hegemonic biomedical paradigm, and of the processes of corporeal decodification that contravene the hegemonic definitions of the gendered body.
We propose the following topics:
No payment from authors is expected. Further information regarding Recerca and the instructions for submitting original manuscripts can be consulted at https://www.e-revistes.uji.es/…dex
Please, write enicolau@uji.es if you require any additional explanation.
University of London
Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Permanent with funding for 24 months
Project: ProDem - Protests and Democracy: How Movement Parties, Social Movements, and Active Citizens are Reshaping Europe
Department: Sociology, City, University of London
Closing Date: 20 September 2020
The Department of Sociology at City, University of London seeks to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to work alongside Dr Dan Mercea, Co-Principal Investigator on the project “ProDem - Protests and Democracy: How Movement Parties, Social Movements, and Active Citizens are Reshaping Europe”. The project aims to comparatively assess the medium and long-term effects of the triple interaction between citizens, social movements, and movement parties in 6 European countries. The position, available for two years, is funded through an award by the Volkswagen Stiftung.
Responsibilities
The key responsibilities of the role will involve assisting the principal investigator in designing a cross-national survey to be commissioned to an external pollster.
The appointed candidate will be involved in writing up the research findings together with the principal investigator and other project members, and reporting them in conference proceedings and presentations and in high-ranked academic journals.
Person Specification
The successful candidate will have, or be about to be awarded, a PhD in political science, sociology, communication studies or a related social science discipline, have a good command of advanced statistical analysis and survey design as well as an interest in civic or political participation, social movements, political parties, digital or broadcasting media, and a developing publication record.
They will be able to demonstrate knowledge of advanced statistical analysis and survey design skills, as well as a developing publication record and the ability to conduct literature reviews and relevant background research.
Full details of the responsibilities of the role and person specification can be found in the attached job description.
Additional Information: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/…ths
Deadline: October 1, 2020
Submissions for the new issue of the Interações Journal published by Instituto Superior Miguel are now open. The journal welcomes original articles that present research results and/or theoretical reflection in the different fields of Social and Human Sciences, namely Communication and Media Studies.
From an interdisciplinary editorial perspective, Interações' primary objective is to foster the reflection and diffusion of knowledge in the areas of Social and Human Sciences. The journal accepts articles of scientific investigation, reviews and critical essays, in Portuguese, English and Spanish.
Interações is ruled by the double-blind review standard, ensuring the anonymity of reviewers and authors throughout the review process. No payment from authors will be expected.
Any questions should be addressed through the email: interacoes@ismt.pt
The articles must be submitted through the website: https://www.interacoes-ismt.com/
Guidelines and other instructions for authors can be found on the journal's website: http://www.interacoes-ismt.com/…sta
June 10-13, 2021
University of Hong Kong
Deadline: December 15, 2020
We are now calling for submissions for Art Machines 2: International Symposium on Machine Learning and Art 2021, which will take place between 10th –13th June 2021 at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. "Art Machines 2," will bring together Academics, Artists, and Professionals in the field of Computational Media Art in a four-day symposium on the topic of Machine Learning and Art.
After the success of "Art Machines" in 2019, this much-anticipated follow-up symposium will provide the opportunity for in depth assessment of the impact of artificial intelligence on the making of computational art and media, and an exploration of the conditions of existence, range and futures of computationally based art and media. Media art does not exist in a vacuum and critical concern of the conference will be both to understand and practice ways in which media art can intervene, both critically and constructively, in the ongoing construction of social reality by machine learning algorithms. The conference will comprise academic key notes, plenary panel presentations and discussions, scholarly and art practice paper presentations, an art exhibition and student-led workshops.
Open Call Topics
* Sound Art
* Immersive Media
* Digital Cinema
* Bio Art
* Software Art
* Digital Animation
* Digital Photography
* Robotics
* Gaming
* Digital Poetics
* Digital Humanities
* Creative Coding
* Digital Fabrication
* Physical Computing
* Digital Preservation
* Curatorial Practice
* Brain-Computer Interface
* Pedagogy
* Aesthetics
* Ethics
* Politics
* Philosophy
* Other Topics Pertaining to AI, Machine Learning and Art
Open Call Formats
1. Research Papers
2. Scholarly Abstracts
3. Artistic Project Abstracts
4. Art Projects for Exhibition
Submission deadline: 15th December 2020 (23:59 HK local time)
To learn more about the Symposium, please visit our website: https://www.cityu.edu.hk/…s2/
For details on the submission requirements, please click https://www.cityu.edu.hk/…pes
For enquiries, please contact us via email at smpapers@cityu.edu.hk
You are also welcome to follow us on these channels:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/…es2
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/…es2
Uppsala University
Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our mission is to pursue top-quality research and education and to interact constructively with society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has 46.000 students, 7.300 employees and a turnover of SEK 7.3 billion
The Department of Linguistics and Philology is involved in research and education in a number of languages and language-related subjects and provides an international work environment. The department´s activities cover many of the classical and modern languages and cultures in large areas of Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as computational and general linguistics. Education is offered at the Bachelor, Master and PhD levels.
Duties/Project description: The present position is part of the research programme “Retracing Connections: Byzantine Storyworlds in Greek, Arabic, Georgian, and Old Slavonic (c. 950 – c. 1100)”, investigating various aspects of translinguistic and transcultural narration in medieval texts. We are seeking a programmer to process hagiographical data from printed secondary sources into a structured, web-accessible format. There are three primary tasks: database design (an appropriate XML data representation format for the data), data acquisition (OCR scan and post-process source materials) and interface development (an online front-end to the database for use by project members and other researchers). The resulting website should present the structured data alongside the relevant pages of the source material (for verification), and allow for some basic search functions.
Requirements: The employment requires a Master’s degree in computer science or a related discipline as well as documented competence to carry out at least two of the tasks described above (database design, data acquisition and interface development.
Additional qualifications: Reading knowledge of German and basic familiarity with Greek are qualifying. So is experience in communicating with colleagues across disciplinary boundaries.
Salary: Individual salary.
Starting date: 01-01-2021 or as otherwise agreed.
Type of employment: Temporary position (1 year) according to central collective agreement.
Scope of employment: 100 %
For further information about the position please contact:* Professor Ingela Nilsson, (ingela.nilsson@lingfil.uu.se, +46 18-471 1424) or Professor
Michael Dunn (michael.dunn@lingfil.uu.se, +46 18-471 1341).
Please submit your application by 18 September 2020, UFV-PA 2020/2399.*
Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? If so, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/…nus . You are also welcome to contact International Faculty and Staff Services at ifss@uadm.uu.se .
Please do not send offers of recruitment or advertising services.
Submit your application through Uppsala University's recruitment system.
Placement: Department of Linguistics and Philology
Type of employment: Full time , Temporary position longer than 6 months
Number of positions: 1
Working hours: 100%
Town: Uppsala
County: Uppsala län
Country: Sweden
Union representative: Seko Universitetsklubben seko@uadm.uu.se
ST/TCO tco@fackorg.uu.se
Saco-rådet saco@uadm.uu.se
Number of reference: UFV-PA 2020/2399
Last application date: 2020-09-18
https://www.uu.se/…494
Call for book chapters
Deadline: October 16, 2020
Editors: Darcy White, Julia Peck, Chris Goldie
We seek abstracts for chapters (6,000-8,000 words) to be considered for inclusion in an edited collection, for publication in Summer 2022. The proposed book is the third of a series published by Transcript Verlag, following /Northern Light: Landscape, Photography and Evocations of the North,/ Chris Goldie / Darcy White (eds.), (2018), and /Proximity and Distance in Northern Landscape Photography: Contemporary Criticism, Curation, and Practice/, Darcy White/ Chris Goldie (eds.) (2020).
This book will consider a range of approaches examining the critical role of visual culture in shaping and interrogating conceptions of ecological crisis in relation to the northern landscape. The book will address the geopolitics of visual culture within debates concerned with the politics of climate change and ecological crisis. Its aim is to engage critically with recent debates about the Anthropocene: arguments concerned with identifying the socioeconomic and political causes of environmental crisis, and the problem in regarding the latter as the consequence of undifferentiated human activity.
At its most challenging and critical the visual culture of place is able to represent a complexity and heterogeneity frequently absent or displaced within dominant discourses of environmental catastrophe. Conversely, many images of landscape and place within fine art practice, commercial and popular forms play a role in supporting a more conventional interpretation of environmental crisis. It is our argument that images of northern places and landscapes have a pivotal function within the geopolitics of visual representation, whether through their exclusion and displacement of other locations and the everyday consequences of ecological crisis for heterogeneous populations; through familiar images of pristine wilderness; through melancholic representations of man-altered landscapes and environmental damage; or through an alternative sublime of eco-catastrophe in which scenes of ecological violence are invested with an awe-inspiring, perverse beauty.
We suggest that the visual culture of northern places has not remained static in the era of ecological crisis but has played a dynamic role within the latter’s broad discursive field: northern landscape photography can still give visual form to historically settled conceptions of a natural world, but these images are frequently placed within a context of human mastery and thus sanction the latter’s purported achievements; and ubiquitous representations of environmental disaster can also reinforce the notion of its techno-utopian resolution.
While the medium of photography / photographic practice will be foregrounded in this anthology the discussions may also range into related practices within the wider terrain of visual culture, where examples may be identified that facilitate useful critiques of the conventional or enhanced understanding of new developments in this field of enquiry. Contributions to the book will explore this visual field, presenting wide-ranging critical appraisals of landscape photography and its related practices, as traditionally conceived, as well as more recent developments in art and visual culture in relation to the representation of place. Authors may question the validity of images where they function as vehicles for the consolidation of the global world order around enhanced networks of power, but also consider where visual culture is part of an emancipatory project in the era of global warming.
Chapters can address original work or themes, or the work of particular photographers, genres, collections. Both historical and contemporary approaches will be considered. We welcome proposals from anyone working within this broad field, including theorists, practitioners, curators and archivists.
Please submit a 500 word abstract and a short bio by Friday 16th October, 2020. Please send your submission *TO ALL* of the following:
We look forward to receiving your proposals.
UCLouvain
The research project focuses on the analysis of images and videos on climate change circulating in digital social networks.
Questions about this offer can be directed to Andrea Catellani (andrea.catellani@uclouvain.be).
Hiring Context
The Research Centre in Communication (part of the Institute for Language and Communication, UClouvain, Belgium) has an opening for a fully funded three-year PhD fellowship in video and images analysis. This opening is done in the context of a pan-European interdisciplinary research project on climate change communication analysis. You will work within a team of more than 10 researchers and academics from Belgium, France and Norway.
The fellowship will start between 15 November 2020 and 15 January 2021 for 36 months. The offer is open until 30 September 2020, but candidates that suit all requirements can be interviewed before this date. We specifically encourage women to respond to this call for applications, as we are committed to equality of opportunity. Due to the Covid-19 specific context, face-to-face & teleworking conditions will depend on official conditions at the start of the job.
Research Context
Climate change today is undoubtedly a challenge for humanity. The Special IPCC 1,5 °C report highlighted the numerous dramatic consequences of climate change; yet, the response of our societies has been slow, contradictory and elusive. The humanities and social sciences are called on to make a crucial contribution to the understanding of how humans approach and make sense of climate change, in order to reduce the value-action gap, using innovative forms of communication to identify entry-points for climate action.
This research project has the transformative aim to improve the scientific understanding of why societies remain indifferent to the risks of climate change, and to understand how multimodal devices and recommendations can convert apathy into action. The project will focus on Belgium, France, and Norway. The cooperation between specialists in linguistics, semiotics, law and governance studies, anthropology and psycho-social analysis can significantly improve the state of the art, by combining expertise on texts and images as indications of sensemaking by individuals and cultures, and expertise on social and psychological factors that influence behaviours and attitudes. In Belgium, the research will be undertaken in collaboration with some non-governmental organizations: (1) a cooperative which will receive assistance transforming their communication strategy for calls to action; and (2) a network of organisations, which will contribute to a real-time social-network analysis of a new communication strategy in 2020-2021.
One of the main tasks of the project is to increase knowledge on the visual aspect of online discourses on climate change and climate change mitigation. The analysis of the most “famous” (most seen, shared and commented on) images and videos on climate change from YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Reddit and of the interaction between images and verbal texts will also aim at improving our knowledge of the role of visual content in climate change mitigation.
Job Description
On each platform, the most famous climate change images and videos will be identified and collected. These images will be analysed with a semiotic approach, which is useful for understanding the implicit potential meaning of images, including interactions with texts. The same approach will be applied to a corpus of comments on this visual content, in order to analyse how real viewers produce meaning in relation to images and videos. Intertextual connections will also be examined. This analysis will allow for a comparison between different countries and different platforms.
The aims of the research are the identification of patterns and tendencies concerning the most influential images on climate change in the countries of focus. We aim to
1) identify iconic, narrative and rhetorical multimodal configurations in (dominantly) visual content concerning climate change, and to
2) analyse the attitudes and discursive forms of commentary concerning this content, whether in favour of or against climate mobilisation. For example, how different forms of opposition to climate change mitigation policies are expressed, in comments on the visual content but also through recycling, use and manipulation of this content? How do climate skepticism is expressed and articulated through disagreement and conflict, in particular in relation to and through visual contents? This analysis will contribute to the understanding of how people interpret and manipulate these images, and of how images participate in creating meaning concerning climate change and climate change mitigation practices. The global approach is inspired by the semiotic tradition of analysis, taking into consideration also the theoretical and methodological contributions of social semiotics and pragmatics.
On this basis, the PhD aims to offer advice on effective climate change communication. A result of the research will be also a scientific support to the production and test of prototypes of multimodal and innovative communication devices on climate change for the partners, including for example augmented and virtual reality. Devices and prototypes will be produced by the project team with the support of MIIL (Media Innovation & Intelligibility Lab, UCLouvain); they will be tested by the PhD student with techniques that are made available by the Social Media Lab of UCLouvain, in particular, eye-tracking, interviews, and user experience tests.
The PhD candidate will work mainly in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, under the supervision of Andrea Catellani (IL&C, UCLouvain) and Louise-Amélie Cougnon (MiiL, UCLouvain). S/he will be affiliated with the Institute for Language and Communication. Applicants from outside the EU are responsible for obtaining the necessary visa or permits.
The candidate’s activities will include the following:
- taking part in the doctoral training programme;
- working actively on a PhD thesis, with the aim of defending it by the end of the three-year position;
- contributing actively to the global research project;
- reporting on the results of the PhD project in scientific articles and at conferences, with the support of the supervisors.
Research Profile
Application Procedure and Timetable
If you are interested in this position, please send to Prof. Andrea Catellani andrea.catellani@uclouvain.be:
- a detailed CV in English or in French;
- a copy of Bachelor’s and Master’s diplomas;
- a transcript of records for Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees;
- a cover letter, describing, at least, your motivation and how your profile responds to the offer;
- a sample piece of academic writing in English or French;
- the names and contact details of two academic referees.
Deadline for application: 30 September 2020
Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview (in Louvain-la-Neuve or online) in October 2020.
Philippe J. Maarek
La communication politique des élections européennes de 2019 a été paradoxale. Alors qu'il s'agissait des dernières à inclure la Grande-Bretagne avant son départ de l'Union, le Brexit n'y a pris qu'une part marginale. Alors que pour la première fois en quarante ans la participation a augmenté, ce sont les partis populistes qui en ont bénéficié, remettant en cause la culture de compromis établie de longue date. Alors que l'on pensait les pratiques médiatiques disparates, notamment le Nord et le Sud, les comportements électoraux se sont caractérisés par une grande communauté d'usages synchrones des médias traditionnels et des réseaux sociaux. Cet ouvrage met ainsi en évidence le paradoxe suivant : si l'Europe semble traversée par de puissantes forces centrifuges, un électeur européen prend forme.
https://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=66650
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