ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Cyprus University of Technology (CUT)

The Department of Communication and Internet Studies (CIS), at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), in Limassol, Cyprus, is inviting applications for three (3) tenure-track positions at the rank of Lecturer or Assistant Professor in the specializations of:

1.  "Online Privacy and Security” (Deadline: June 5, 2020)

2.  “Politics and the Internet” (Deadline of applications: July 29, 2020)

3.  “Computational Journalism and Data Journalism” (Deadline: July 29, 2020)

The languages of instruction at CUT are Greek and/or Turkish. However, knowledge of either language is not required at the time of the application. If a candidate is selected they will be required to achieve a good level of the Greek language within three years.

Citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus is not a requirement.

The Department of Communication and Internet Studies promotes teaching and research that examine the coupling of Society and the Internet. The Department is highly interdisciplinary; candidates who take an interdisciplinary and critical approach to their research, while maintaining rigorous standards of research are especially invited to apply.

The University, despite its young age, ranks among the top 301-350 universities worldwide and holds the 59th position among the top new universities in the world.

CUT is situated in Limassol, which is classified among the top 100 best cities in the world to live in. With its year-round Mediterranean climate, Limassol’s coastal living offers great quality of life (see this video for more information).

Information on the job vacancies and guidelines on how to apply can be found at:  https://www.cut.ac.cy/faculties/comm/cis/job-vacancies/?languageId=1.

You can direct any questions to chairperson.cis@cut.ac.cy

June 3, 2020, 1530-1630 (BST)

Research Webinar

Deadline: June 2, 2020

Given that our conferences and network meetings have had to be postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19 outbreak, the MeCCSA Local and Community Media Network and the MeCCSA Policy Network has been organising a research webinar series. The aim of the series is to provide a forum for scholarly discussions and networking, as well as explore topical issues that are of interest to our members.

The next research webinar will be on ‘Local News - The Role of Independent Media’, with Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation. After Jonathan’s talk there will be opportunity for questions and discussion.

Please sign up at this link, by Tuesday 2 June 2020 - the link to join the research webinar will be emailed to you when you have registered for your free ticket to attend: https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventbrite.com%2Fe%2Flocal-news-the-role-of-independent-media-with-jonathan-heawood-pinf-meccsa-network-event-tickets-105019650602&data=02%7C01%7Caa5891%40coventry.ac.uk%7C19d23e54e96841abc20f08d7fb362372%7C4b18ab9a37654abeac7c0e0d398afd4f%7C0%7C0%7C637254082253797026&sdata=VRs2xbCj06F59AneIuRqwz2sxCwMbUIedG8xE%2FINvMc%3D&reserved=0

By joining you give your consent to be recorded (this seminar will be posted online at a later date). Please mute your microphone during the main presentation, before the Q and A.

Local News - The Role of Independent Media

Jonathan Heawood

Public Interest News Foundation

The COVID-19 crisis has created a perfect storm for independent news providers in the UK. Already vulnerable, these small organisations are struggling to stay afloat whilst continuing to publish public interest journalism about the pandemic. Publishers, editors and journalists are balancing their own safety against the need to report on the situation. More than 60% are going beyond traditional journalism in their response to the crisis - not only publishing news and information, but also providing direct support to vulnerable citizens; organising online events; coordinating volunteers; and working with local businesses to provide information about home deliveries. Despite their vital role, most independent news providers are facing the risk of collapse, and the Government has so far failed to include them in its support package for corporate newspaper publishers. In this presentation, Dr Jonathan Heawood describes the role played by independent news providers during the COVID-19 crisis and considers two versions of the future - one in which independent providers survive and thrive; and one in which they are destroyed.

Jonathan Heawood is Executive Director of the Public Interest News Foundation and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Stirling

UClouvain (Belgium)

Thes positions are part of the research project “Discourse, populism and democracy. Tracking the uses of populism in media and political discourse (TrUMPo)”.

Project description

In contemporary democracies, there is not a day without the word populism being used in political and media discourse. For many observers worldwide, the spread of populism is one of the main threats to democracy. This has led to the development of a booming literature on populist political parties and politicians. These works have provided rich insights into the origin, the discourse and the impact of such particular actors. Nevertheless, one major aspect of populism remains understudied, namely the use of the term populist itself by political and other actors, which is the subject of a real political struggle (Laclau, 2005). Populism is indeed used by some political actors to disqualify political opponents but also as a positive category/label demonstrating proximity to people’s concerns in order to gain legitimacy (Mazzoleni, 2007). These uses of populism lead to fierce debates about the role and place of the people in democracies, and about who can pretend to best represent the people. It also raises the question of what is a legitimate (or illegitimate) way to refer to the people in a democracy in the context of a deep democratic malaise worldwide and in particular in Western democracies. Hence, the way the word and the notion of populism are defined, used and circulated is directly related to competing conceptions of democracy. In order to understand how the construction of this category of populism contributes to shaping our collective imagination of democracy, we consider that we need to understand in which contexts and situations this notion is used, which meaning it conveys in actual discursive practices, and how it circulates in the public debate. This is why we will study this topic from a threefold perspective: political science, communication studies and linguistics. We will compare these discourses in the national public sphere of three countries Belgium, France and Spain, and we will conduct a qualitative and quantitative analysis of data from different forums in which discourses about populism can be held: (i) the parliamentary arena (ii) mass media and (iii) social media platforms.

PhD 1 – Linguistics

1 full-time PhD position, for 4 years (supervisors: B. De Cock and Ph. Hambye). This project will be carried out in the field of linguistics and more precisely discourse analysis. It will focus on the comparison between languages in order to capture in a detailed way how the term “populism” is used, focusing on the linguistic strategies to do so and the specificities of the different languages and countries involved. This PhD will hence involve comparative work on Dutch, French and Spanish data. While approaching the data from a linguistic point of view, this project will consider the Belgian and French data in French separately, in order to take into account differences possibly due to the different constellation of the public sphere.

Profile

• Master in linguistics, or master in languages with a strong focus on linguistics, or near fields;
• Min. C1 command of French and Spanish. A good knowledge of Dutch is an asset.;
• High level of academic English, both written and spoken, will be considered an asset;
• Good methodological skills both quantitative and qualitative;
• Familiarity with discourse analysis (asset);
• Dynamic and motivated;
• Ability to work both independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team.

PhD 2 – Communication

1 full-time PhD position for 4 years (supervisors: S. Roginsky and B. De Cock) will focus on the circulation of discourses on populism in traditional and social media: how discourse concerning populism is transferred, which fragments are used and re-used, by whom and how, also taking into account the media infrastructures, in two languages. Through its communicative angle, this research will then look into how discourse concerning populism is transferred with a focus both on the communication settings and the forms used to do so. This part of the project then also implies a reflection on the communication infrastructures in the respective case studies. In the second place, this research will also adopt a communicative- linguistic approach to the ways in which the discourses are transformed when being transferred.

Profile

• Master in communication science or near fields;
• Min. C1 command of at least 2 of the three languages studied in the project (Dutch, French, Spanish). A good knowledge of the third language is an asset;
• High level knowledge of academic English, both written and spoken, will be considered an asset;
• Good methodological skills both quantitative and qualitative;
• Dynamic and motivated;
• Ability to work both independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team.
• Work environment

The PhD researchers will be funded by the Action de recherche concertée funds of the Université catholique de Louvain within the TrUMPo research project. The salary is according to UCLouvain regulations for PhD scholarships. The employment starts on October 1st 2020. Grant duration: 4 years.

Procedure

Interested candidates should send their application to: Catherine Goossens (trumpo@uclouvain.be) before 10 July 2020. Applications should include in one single pdf file: (1) a curriculum vitae, (2) a letter of application stating to which PhD you apply (PhD 1, PhD 2, or both), (3) a list of courses and academic transcripts, (4) an academic publication (if you have one) or your Master's thesis, and (5) the contact information (e-mail) of two potential references. After a first round of selection based on the applications, the short-listed candidates will be interviewed via videoconferencing between 15 and 20 July 2020.

For questions, please contact the promoters of the project: Barbara De Cock (Barbara.decock@uclouvain.be), Philippe Hambye (philippe.hambye@uclouvain.be), Min Reuchamps (min.reuchamps@uclouvain.be) and Sandrine Roginsky (Sandrine.roginsky@uclouvain.be).

ECREA 2020 Pre-conference 

October 2, 2020

Braga, Portugal

Deadline: June 15, 2020

Despite the special and exceptional situation that we all are facing, it's important to keep our activities in the security of our houses.

Thus, the Organizational and Institutional Communication SOPCOM Working Group and the Advertising SOPCOM Working Group are pleased to invite you to submit your abstract to the ECREA 2020 Pre-conference “Improving public participation through strategic communication”. The event will take place on the 2nd October 2020.

WHY THIS PRE-CONFERENCE?

We are facing an era of a permanent search for new answers to contemporary environmental, political and social challenges. The public, as producer, receiver or user, has today wide access to information and tends to be more involved in communication, being an essential element in this equation.

Moreover, publics are the engine of paradigm changes, as they have the power to influence behaviors, individually or as part of organizations, to whom they demand more conscious behavior. On another hand, acting as citizens, those publics are important agents of change, with a strong ability to influence decision making.

Considering the role of Strategic Communication in this context, not only for organizations but for the whole society, publics must be taken into account as an essential element of its process. Being a strategic function with specific goals to achieve, the stakeholder mapping in Strategic Communication it’s not an abstract part of planning, but a must-have in the whole process. Through Strategic Communication, and its branches of public relations and advertising, it’s possible to improve the publics’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

In this context, can Strategic Communication be understood as a way to boost public participation, assuming stakeholders as key players in a changing environment?

We particularly welcome submissions on:

• Key concepts, perspectives and frameworks in research on Strategic Communication;
• Innovative methodological approaches to studying Strategic Communication;
• Theoretical or empirical studies about publics/citizens in Strategic Communication;
• Digital challenges in Strategic Communication;
• Measuring the impact of Strategic Communication;
• Redefining the borders of Strategic Communication;
• Collaborative projects in Strategic Communication;
• The future of Strategic Communication.

Deadline for submissions: May 15, 2020.

Submission and selection process: Presentations at the conference are based on abstracts of 500 words, to be submitted by June 15, 2020, to strategic.ecrea@ics.uminho.pt

Note: The abstracts should include main idea/argument, research questions, and key concepts, theoretical and/or methodological discussion and analysis (if relevant). All submitted abstracts must be anonymous with no reference to author(s). Submit the abstract as an e-mail attachment and include name, affiliation and contact details in the e-mail message.

Decisions on acceptance: July 8, 2020 (The abstracts will be subject to anonymous peer review.)

For more information, please visit: http://www.cecs.uminho.pt/en/como-promover-a-participacao-dos-publicos-atraves-da-comunicacao-estrategica/?fbclid=IwAR1DA_590X_becesC9ksBiQu138hkWlp0gdSvH-NIETcwCabBiW2iCcNOmw

SCIENTIFIC COMITEE:

• Ana Raposo, Lisbon Polytechnic Institute
• Isidoro Arroyo, King Juan Carlos University
• Ivone Ferreira, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
• Joep Cornelissen, Erasmus University Rotterdam
• José Gabriel Andrade, Minho University
• Lars Thøger Christensen, Copenhagen Business School
• Pedro Hellín, University of Murcia
• Sara Balonas, University of Minho
• Teresa Ruão, University of Minho

ORGANIZATION COMITEE:

• José Gabriel Andrade, University of Minho – jgandrade@ics.uminho.pt
• Ivone Ferreira, Universidade Nova de Lisboa – ivoneferreira@fcsh.unl.pt
• Ana Raposo, Lisbon Polytechnic Institute – araposo@escs.ipl.pt
• Sara Balonas, University of Minho – sarabalonas@ics.uminho.pt

The pre-conference is organized by the Organizational and Institutional Communication Sopcom Working Group and the Advertising Sopcom Working Group.

SPONSORS:

• Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS) of the University of Minho
• NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA) of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa
• Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences (Sopcom).

SN Social Sciences

Deadline: end of March 2021

Editor: Associate Professor Ignas Kalpokas (Department of Public Communication, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania)

The term ‘synthetic media’ can be used to describe a broad range of content generated, in whole or in part, by employing machine learning or other means of automatic content generation. Such content is currently taken to encompass primarily video, audio, image, and text, but it also extends to digital objects of various descriptions (e.g. virtual influencers), augmented reality (games, product try-on tools etc.), and fully immersive virtual environments. This shift will certainly bring numerous benefits, particularly in terms of fostering creativity and democratising content editing and generation by automating the process. Synthetic media will also enable new ways of storytelling that will span the physical and the virtual environments, potentially erasing boundaries between the two. However, the same attributes of automation and democratisation will also make synthetic media potential security threats, enabling manipulation and deception on a large scale, which is a matter of great concern in a world already permeated by fake news and post-truth (the debate about the manipulative potential of deepfakes is a case in point). No less importantly, the emergence of synthetic media raises the necessity to rethink intellectual property rights, the right to one’s likeness and voice and other ways in which such content can be monetised and misuse of one’s person or the fruit of one’s labour prevented. These and other questions create a fertile ground for academic debate on the present and future impact of synthetic media.

With the above developments in mind, this thematic collection aims to analyse the impact of synthetic media on personal, public, and political communication processes, shifts in creative practices, and disruptions in reality perception and sense-making. The collection also invites considerations of regulatory frameworks applicable to synthetic media.

The collection is open to all disciplines from across the social sciences, and qualitative, quantitative, or purely theoretical contributions are equally welcome. Potential questions to be asked include, but are by no means limited to, the following:

• What are the potential uses of synthetic media and how do they compare with other types of media?
• How do synthetic media transform self-expression, marketing, political communication, or journalism?
• How do synthetic media affect personal and group identities?
• What are the social and political threats of synthetic media?
• What are the appropriate tools and frameworks for regulating synthetic media?
• What new monetisation practices are enabled by synthetic media and how does that impact on content creators and consumers?
• What are the likely future directions of synthetic media’s development?

This is a rolling collection and as such submissions will be welcomed up until the end of March 2021. Authors who wish to discuss ideas for articles are asked to contact the guest editor direct before submission. Full papers (original or review) must be submitted via the journal’s submission system. Submissions by email cannot be accepted.

ICNOVA – Nova Communication Institute a NOVA FCSH’s research unit of excellence in the communication sciences field, is accepting expressions of interest from potential candidates for Marie Skłodowska-Curie – Individual Fellowships 2020.

We welcome candidates in the category of European Fellowships or Global Fellowships. Candidates with excellent scientific CV (peer review publications and participation in projects are priorized) and a relevant track record of obtaining funding for their research activities are especially welcome.

Working with ICNOVA is to be part of a team that brings together more than 200 researchers and develops research and promotes knowledge dissemination work in the field of communication sciences. Our work develops around the areas of media and journalism, culture and arts, strategic communication, performance and cognition, and digital media.

We are housed on the Campolide campus, sharing the Almada Negreiros college building with the other NOVA FCSH research units and promoting interdisciplinary and collaboration networks with these and other international researchs units.

Our strategic agenda for 2020-2023 is entitled Media Practices: Cultural, Societal and Technological Challenges, aiming at the achievement of inclusion and diversity in a world of social acceleration and deep mediatisation. These global goals will be pursued through the following major themes: 1) Diversity, Pluralism, Inclusion; 2) Cognitive, Mediation and Decision-Making Processes; 3) Culture, Criticism and Digital Practices.

If your project and your academic path connects with the scientific field of Communication Sciences and you are interested in researching with high level quality in the areas of our estrategic agenda, send us your pre-application until the 19th of June, with your CV and a detailed synopsis of your research project.

Deadline: Friday, 19 June, 2020 – 00:00

Host Institution: NOVA Communication Institute – ICNOVA

Field: Individual Fellowships

Call ID: H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

Publish date: Tuesday, 14 April, 2020 – 13:30

Start date: Wednesday, 8 April, 2020 – 00:00

Call deadline: Wednesday, September 9, 2020 – 17:00

For more detailed information, please contact

Patrícia Contreiras

patriciacontreiras@fcsh.unl.pt

Special Issue of Media Studies (Mediální studia)

Editors: Andra Siibak, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt and Risto Kunelius

• Philipp Seuferling: Hopeful and Obligatory Remembering: Mediated Memory in Refugee Camps in Post-War Germany
• Lorenzo Giuseppe Zaffaroni: Distinctions Between Photographs Matter: Theorising the Artistic Legitimisation of Photography in Italy
• Maris Männiste and Anu Masso: "Three Drops of Blood for the Devil": Data Pioneers as Intermediaries of Algorithmic Governance Ideals
• Natasja van Buggenhout, Wendy van den Broeck and Pieter Ballon Exploring the Value of Media Users’ Personal Information (PI) Disclosure to Media Companies in Flanders, Belgium
• Kathrin Stürmer, Gearoid OSullebhain, Pio Fenton and Lars Rademacher: Lobbying On The German Federal Level: The Unknown Shift Through Digital Transformation
• Raluca Iacob: Blind Spots in the Spotlight: Media Reporting on the National Bank of Romania’s answers to Financial Crisis Aftershock PDF
• Kaisa Tiusanen: Strategies of Middle-class Distinction and the Production of Inequality in Food Media Texts: Good Food and Worthy Food Culture in Mainstream Broadsheet Journalism

About the Journal:

Mediální studia / Media Studies (ISSN 2464-4846) is a peer-reviewed, open access electronic journal, published in English, Czech and Slovak twice a year. Based in disciplines of media and communication studies, it focuses on analyses of media texts, media professionals practices and media audiences behaviour. We especially welcome papers covering media in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and support the emphasis on the dynamics of local-global knowledge on media and its mutual connections.

Contact: medialnistudia@fsv.cuni.cz

https://www.medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/

Researchers from the University of Malaga in Spain ask ECREA members for help with their study on podcasts as the branded content. The message from Emilia Smolak, the head of the study follows:

"Together with two other collueagues at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, the Prof.  Paloma Villafranca and Prof. Carmen Monedero we conduct the study on podcast among the professionals and academics. I would appreciate your help in disseminating the link among members of the ECREA, as we are particularly interested in the opinions of the members of the association."

Check the survey :

English version: https://forms.gle/B9unzvxSASvm5Ae77

Spanish version: https://forms.gle/HMmwpbab42pbRVcd7

November 20-21, 2020

Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Charles University, Prague

Deadline: June 15, 2020

International Colloquium

Societies are in a permanent dialogue with change. Change is dealt with in configurations of the present and societies’ visions of the future, entailing reflections and re-constructions of the past. Our apprehension of the features and dimensions of change drives political, economic and cultural responses, at the individual and collective level. Furthermore, change is perceived as a positive or negative outcome or prospect, as an opportunity or a threat, driving the social actors’ struggles for maintenance or reconfiguration of power positions.

This colloquium aims to bring together scholars from a diverse set of foci and backgrounds, from the broad area of media and communication studies, to examine, discuss and reflect upon, through various approaches and methods, how change is constructed, in media and communication practices.

Diverse settings, fields and practices can be objects or loci of study (e.g., journalism, political communication, advertising, campaigning, activism, education, culture, sports) in an exploration of how change is represented, negotiated, contested and appropriated by actors and groups in the social realm.

We welcome contributions related, but not limited, to the following thematic areas:

• how societal phenomena, challenges and crises (e.g., epidemics and pandemics, climate change, migration, war and conflict, extremism) are mediated and reconfigured through the prism of change, at the national, European and international level;
• how different actors, social groups and institutions (e.g., media, political parties, education, religion) negotiate, in mediated environments, their identities and societal roles, in times of change;
• how communicators and mediators apprehend, and deal with, change, in a world in flux;
• how different ideological positions are articulated in public discourse, in visions about stability and change of national and European identity;
• how history is brought into communicative practices and public debates about the present and the future;
• how Europe is represented, in public discourse, through the prism of change.

Abstracts of 500 words (in English) can be submitted by 15 June 2020 to Vaia Doudaki (vaia.doudaki@fsv.cuni.cz)

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 10 July 2020.

Amongst the aims of the colloquium is the publication of an international edited collection or a special issue of an international peer-reviewed journal, with selected contributions from the colloquium’s participants. More details will be provided later.

For this purpose, participants will be expected to pre-circulate drafts of works in progress in advance of the colloquium.

Deadline for pre-circulation of draft works in progress: 2 November 2020

Our intention is to hold an in-person event, in Prague. We will be monitoring closely how the Covid-19 pandemic evolves and will consider alternatives to this model, if need be.

For news and updates, visit the colloquium’s web page.

The colloquium is organised by the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism (Charles University).

The colloquium is supported by the 4EU+ consortium project “Mediating Change: Strengthening collaboration in research and research-oriented education” (Charles University, University of Copenhagen, University of Warsaw), and by DESIRE, the Centre for the study of Democracy, Signification and Resistance.

ECREA is happy to announce a new promotional leaflet. The main goal is to invite new scholars and students to become ECREA members. It can be distributed at the conferences, workshops, and different academic meetings. Feel free to spread it.

You can download the leaflet here: EcreaLeaflet_WEB.pdf