ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

May 14-15, 2025

University of Sheffield, UK 

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 28, 2025

Over the past decades, digitalization and sustainability have emerged as two of the most significant global trends, yet they have largely developed independently. Digitalization is proposed as a solution to address global sustainability challenges such as climate change, environmental pollution, and biodiversity loss (United Nations 2018; Dwivedi et al. 2022). Nevertheless, technologies such as AI are partial and deceptive solutions to the planetary crises if their sustainability is not addressed.

Alarming figures from scientific research have highlighted the detrimental environmental effects of digitalization and datafication. The environmental impacts of digitalization are significant and growing, with rising electricity consumption, water usage, and emissions from devices, networks, and data centers (Gelenbe, 2023; Lange et al., 2023; Li et al., 2023). Moreover, the extraction of critical minerals for digital devices as well as planned obsolescence and poor recycling cause severe ecological harm, particularly in the Global South (Lange et al., 2023).

Although societies want digital technologies to serve the social good, there has been far more focus on environmental harms of digital technologies than sustainable alternatives. In this symposium, we ask what a sustainable digital society looks like and how we get there. What kind of research is needed to make the digital future more sustainable? 

The interdisciplinary symposium will include paper presentations, a workshop, and keynote talk. We welcome different types of presentations: theoretical, empirical, and methodological research papers, “work-in-progress”, practice-based responses, and “wildcards” (suggest your own presentation type).

Proposals may respond to, but are not limited by, the following themes:

• Conceptual frameworks and vocabularies for studying good digital sustainability
  
• Rethinking digital efficiency from a planetary perspective
  
• The ethics of resource-intensive technologies (e.g. AI)
  
• Alternative visions of sustainable digital society
  
• Sustainable practices in digital industries and digital everyday life
  
• Policy innovations and interventions for addressing digital unsustainability 
  
• Innovative and/or speculative methods for digital sustainability research
  
• Art-science collaboration, design prototypes, or games on digital sustainability
  

Please submit your proposal (200-250 words) with a brief bio via email to minna.vigren@lut.fi by 28 February 2025. 

Details: 

When: 14-15, May 2025

Where: The Edge, 34 Endcliffe Crescent, Sheffield. S10 3ED (University of Sheffield campus). 

Participation fee: £120, or £90 for PhD students.The fee covers symposium attendance, refreshments, lunches and an evening meal on the first day. Travel and accommodation are not covered.

For questions and more information, please contact minna.vigren@lut.fi. 

The symposium is a collaboration between the ESRC Digital Good Network and the Imagining Sustainable Digital Futures project (Research Council of Finland, 2022-2025).

Organizing committee: Minna Vigren, Dorothea Kleine, Preeti Raghunath, and Thomas Wright

September 8-10, 2025 

Deadline (EXTENDED): March 7, 2025

Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey

(ALSO: PhD pre-conference - 7 September 2025 - details to be circulated separately)

ECREA Radio and Sound Section

Media Department, Faculty of Communication, Istanbul Bilgi University, Santral Istanbul Campus 

Abstract Submission site: https://ecrearadioandsound2025.org/

Keynote Speaker: Professor Mia Lindgren, University of Tasmania

Conference theme:

This conference aims to examine the past, present, and evolving role of radio around the world within a dynamic global media landscape. We will highlight the transformation of radio from a static entity to an adaptive component of the larger media ecosystem, continually reshaping itself in response to socio-political, economic, and technological changes. In the early 20th century, radio played an important role in the establishment and development of nation-states — especially militarily, economically, politically, and linguistically. Today, it is ubiquitous in various forms, multi-faceted, and present throughout the world. With the advent of artificial intelligence and non-human presenters, along with rising public mistrust and the prevalence of disinformation, radio faces new pressures to evolve. Nevertheless, radio endures as a critical medium, especially during global conflicts, where it serves as a source or way of communication for the different parties to the conflict as well as for the diaspora communities. 

Starting from this premise, we invite papers that help conceptualise “radio” as a cog in a changing wheel and focus on the dynamics that have shaped, over time and across the globe, the role of radio, be these roles assumed, attributed, or presumed by both broadcasters and listeners and be these radios private, public, university, community, clandestine, political, and more. We seek papers which explore the resilience and ongoing transformation of radio, emphasising its vital role in a shifting media environment and welcome interdisciplinary perspectives. We also welcome papers that contribute to investigating the various roles and forms that radio has occupied, as well as the various topics it has tackled since its inception to the present day across different political, geographical, economic, and cultural contexts. We are particularly interested in exploring the contexts and reasons behind these evolutions.

Furthermore, we aim to understand how the materiality of what is sometimes too quickly labelled as “radio” has evolved. Our goal is to investigate radio's transition from live, real-time broadcasting to a platform that accommodates on-demand audio formats and genres, working alongside podcasts, streaming, and downloadable content. This evolution has rebranded the industry as "audio" or "sound media", showcasing new capacities for audiences to listen almost whenever and wherever they want, thanks to the Internet and associated technologies. 

We particularly welcome conceptual and theoretical proposals that address the place of podcasts, radio and sound studies in academic landscapes. These fields are tackled by researchers from various disciplines, from engineers to art researchers, and are mobilised to explore many topics, from the role they could play in war contexts to their place in the artistic and cultural development of groups and nations. The rise of podcasts has notably transformed how researchers disseminate scientific knowledge and engage in reflection on their methodologies and dissemination processes. The conference will specifically address these ongoing developments.

Lastly, we invite practitioners in the fields of radio and sound studies who are eager to combine their reflections with those of academics. By merging practical insights with theoretical perspectives, we aim to foster a rich dialogue that bridges the gap between practice and research.

The conference will feature keynote speeches, panel discussions, and paper presentations that address the following themes related to the one or many main topic(s) of this conference:

RADIO AND SOUND: PRODUCTION, FORMATS AND PURPOSES

• Production 
• • Practices
  • Studies
  • Podcasting 
  • Ethnographies
  • Broadcast locations (e.g. prisons, hospitals, educational institutions,refugee camps, farms, armed forces, …)
  • …
• Formats
• • Information
  • Storytelling
  • Narratives
  • Musics
  • Sounds
  • Codes (non-talk)
  • Drama
  • Sound Creation
  • Documentaries, 
  • Talk shows, 
  • Podcast typologies
  • …
• Purposes
• • Politics
  • Pedagogy and education
  • Awareness raising
  • Activism
  • Entertainment
  • (Dis)information
  • …

RADIO AND SOUND: MEDIUM IN CONTEXTS 

• Medium
• • Civic radio 
  • Free radio
  • Pirate radio
  • Alternative radio
  • Radical radio 
  • DIY radio
  • Not-for-profit radio
  • NGOs radio
  • Feminist radio 
  • Community radio 
  • Local / national / regional radio 
  • …
• Contexts
• • Radio in the global media landscape
  • Ownership, regulation and governance of radio
  • Freedom of speech
  • Political and economical constraints
  • Policies of broadcasting 
  • …

RADIO AND SOUND: AUDIENCES AND LISTENING 

• Audiences
• • Community
  • National
  • Transnational
  • Diasporas
  • Demographics within audiences
  • …
• ○ Listening
  
• • Poetics of listening
  • Philosophy of listening
  • Politics of listening
  • History of listening
  • Listening as a cultural practice
  • Phenomenology of listening 
  • …

RADIO AND SOUND: TECHNOLOGIES 

• DAB, streaming or LTE broadcasting
• Podcasting distribution
• Sound platforms 
• Internet
• • Social media 
  • Radio as an app
  • (De)materialisation
  • Hybrid radio
  • …
• Artificial intelligence 
• • Radio production and reception
  • Trust, information and disinformation
  • …

RADIO AND SOUND: RESEARCH

• Radio and sound as research fields 
• Theories of radio and sound studies
• Political economy of the radio
• Radio and gender studies
• Methodological approaches to sound research
• Digital ethnography
• Digital methods
• Network analysis
• Archiving and oral history
• Radio history
• Journalism
• Radio journalism
• Radio art
• Sound art
• Aural culture and cultural aural expressions
• Reception studies 
• …

The conference situates radio and sound studies within the broader contemporary media landscape and aims to start a dialogue with, and accept contributions from platform studies, Internet studies, sound studies, social media studies, critical political economy of the media, media history, digital media management, cultural studies, production studies, ethnography, and social sciences.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Deadline for abstract submissions: 17 February 2025

Notification of acceptance (and announcement of Early Bird date): 31 March 2025

Publication of Programme: w/c 28 April 2025 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Proposals for individual papers and panels can be submitted until 17th February 2025 through the conference website’s platform https://ecrearadioandsound2025.org/. Abstracts should be written in English and contain a clear outline of the argument, theoretical framework, and, where applicable, methodology and results. Individual abstracts and panel proposals should be between 300 and 500 words. In the case of a panel, proposals should contain a short summary of the panel and include the 4 or 5 individual contributions (with the title and author’s names of each contribution composing the panel.

SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE RADIO JOURNAL: INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN BROADCAST & AUDIO MEDIA 

We will invite delegates of the Conference to submit their full papers no later than February 2026 to be selected for a special issue of the Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, edited by Intellect 

(www.intellectbooks.com/radio-journal-international-studies-in-broadcast-audio-media), to be published in the second issue of 2026.

For further information, please contact the organising committee at this email address: radioandsoundconference@gmail.com

University of Stirling

The University of Stirling, Scotland is pleased to invite applications for fully funded PhD opportunities within the IAS Creative Industries Cluster.  Successful candidates will join the Division of Communications, Media and Culture, an internationally renowned centre for research and teaching across screen studies, digital media, creative industries, journalism, public relations and media and cultural policy. 

We welcome research projects for conventional or practice-based PhDs in any of the following interdisciplinary areas:

• Regional innovation, business models, and economic development: projects may focus on the role of local film, TV, social media and/or video game production in regional development; the economic, business and strategic impacts of public investment in the film and TV sector in Stirling and Clackmannanshire region or elsewhere in Scotland; or creative skills development, education, and training in the Stirling and Clackmannanshire region or elsewhere in Scotland.
  
• Sustainable work and labour practices: projects may focus on quality and inclusive work and labour practices at the interface between local/national and transnational creative industries; or the roles of non-traditional employment relationships (e.g., freelance and self-employment), labour organisations (e.g., unions and professional associations), or newer forms of labour (e.g., social media content creation) in creative industries.
  
• Social inclusion and cultural representation: projects may focus on strategies to increase diversity and inclusion in the media industries; the relationship between creative production and representation; or the impact of location-based creative production on the cultural presence and material sustainability of built and natural heritage.
  

Funding: Studentship funding awards provide full fees and a stipend set at the UKRI minimum annual award for 2025/26 (which for 2024/25 is £4,786 and £19,237 respectively). A number of fee waivers are available for international students, and a contribution to stipends for those who have fees covered. In addition, there is funding available to support research training requirements. The funded period for all awards is 3 years FTE (36 months).

Candidate profile: Ideal candidates will have a background in media, communications, film and television studies, cultural policy, cultural studies, cultural geography, media economics, media management, or related fields. A strong academic record is essential, with a master’s degree (preferably at Merit or higher), or equivalent relevant professional experience.

Application deadline: 24 March 2025

Full project and application details: https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/institute-for-advanced-studies-studentships/creative-industries/

For any enquiries, please contact the Co-leads of the Creative Industries Research Cluster Dr Errol Salamon (errol.salamon@stir.ac.uk) and Professor Dario Sinforiani (dario.sinforiani@stir.ac.uk).

September 15-17, 2025

Bucharest (Romania)

Deadline: April 4, 2025

The Risk and Crisis Communication Section conference will take place in Bucharest, Romania, from September 15-17 2025. Crisis8 will be hosted by the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, SNSPA. The conference aims to bring together scholars, researchers, and practitioners to discuss developments in risk and crisis communication within the evolving communication ecosystem. The conference program includes distinguished keynote speakers, opportunities for networking, as well as engaging social activities. Additional highlights are a workshop on memes and crisis communication, a crisis simulation workshop, and a dedicated PhD workshop. PhD candidates whose abstracts are accepted for presentation at Crisis 8 will have the opportunity to submit their presentation to receive the ‘CCTT Best PhD Paper Award’ ($500), sponsored by the Crisis Communication Think Tank (CCTT). 

All information can be found on the conference website. Deadline for submissions is April 4, 2025.

https://commcenter.eu/ecrea-crisis-8/conference-call/

August 13-15, 2025

University of Helsinki, Finland

Deadline: April 10, 2025

The 31st Nordic Network for Intercultural Communication Conference will be arranged in Helsinki on 13–15 August 2025. The NIC 2025 conference theme is "Evolutions in intercultural communication: New concepts and methodologies". With this theme, we wish to encourage discussion of conceptual and methodological development in the field of intercultural communication, drawing connections between research, teaching and practice. 

In addition to those addressing the theme, we also welcome proposals that explore related aspects of intercultural communication. These are, for example, 

• Critical evaluations of theories of intercultural communication, education, or management  
  
• Migration and new or alternative forms of language, interaction, and communication 
  
• Challenges of trans/poly/cross/intercultural encounters and relationships 
  
• Decolonization and the knowledge on culture and communication 
  
• Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in different spaces and settings 
  
• New questions on education and learning in multicultural societies 
  

Intercultural communication is an interest to and researched by scholars in a wide variety of fields and disciplines such as language, media and communication, multilingual and/or multicultural education, sociolinguistics, social interaction, international management, discourse studies, cultural studies, ethnic relations, and cross-cultural psychology. We welcome submissions from all.  

Abstract submission

Please submit your max 250-word abstract using the abstract form below. The abstracts will be anonymously peer reviewed. Note that all submissions should be in English and those submitting the abstract should be prepared to attend the conference in person. The deadline for submitting your abstract is April 10th, 2025. 

SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT HERE

If the abstract includes citations, please provide the appropriate references (the list of references is not included in the word count).  

Welcome to Helsinki in August!

For further details and up-to-date information, see the NIC Helsinki 2025 Conference website.

Organizing committee: Saila Poutiainen (Chair), Mélanie Buchart, Yoonjoo Cho, Niina Hynninen, Janne Niinivaara

Deadline: February 26, 2025

We are planning to propose a special issue to a peer-reviewed journal on the theme of Digital Authoritarianism in the Global South, and soliciting brief abstracts from scholars working in this field to be a part of our proposal.

We consider Digital Authoritarianism to include all the ways in which digital practices, platforms, and policies contribute to maintaining or exacerbating authoritarianism. These can range from the active use of digital infrastructures by states or related entities against organized opposition or common citizens (e.g., for surveillance, disinformation, or propaganda) to prohibitions on internet access, blocking of content, restrictions on private communication driven by political motivations, and so on.

While recognizing that the Global South is an ambiguous construct, for our SI proposal we consider it to cover all parts of Asia (including the Middle East), Africa, and Latin America that have historically experienced colonialism. Studies that look at interrelations between the Global North and South in the context of digital authoritarianism will also be considered.

Abstracts may focus on states under authoritarian rule or putatively democratic nations that indulge in digital authoritarianism. While country-specific case studies are welcome, we are also interested in comparative or cross-border studies that illustrate digital authoritarianism as a transnational phenomenon. Although we expect most abstracts to be empirically driven (using qualitative, quantitative, or computational methods), conceptual articles and policy-oriented papers may also be submitted.

If you are interested in contributing to our SI proposal, please submit:

1. A 150-word abstract, including your problem statement/research question, methods and materials, and scientific/societal contribution, and

2. A 50-word bio of each author.

All submissions should be sent to Dr. Saif Shahin (s.s.shahin@tilburguniversity.edu) and Dr. Junki Nakahara (junki@stanford.edu)  by Wednesday 26 February.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Editors: Tamas Tofalvy and Igor Vobič

Routledge, 2025

https://www.routledge.com/Histories-of-Digital-Journalism-The-Interplay-of-Technology-Society-and-Culture/Tofalvy-Vobic/p/book/9781032795072

About the book:

Building on the momentum of the recent “historical turn” in digital media and Internet studies, this volume explores how digital journalism has developed from a historical perspective. With contributions from established and emerging scholars from Europe, Asia, South and North America, the book investigates not only how established journalistic systems transformed in the early days of digital but how the structural, technological, and cultural changes induced by digitization have reconfigured the trajectory of journalism.

The book argues in support of three main claims. The first is that emphasis should be given to the plurality of histories instead of one single digital journalism history, thereby acknowledging the complexities, interactions of social relations, cultural traditions, power configurations, and technological changes that have shaped journalism and digitization. The second is the decentralization and decolonization of digital journalism histories. The third refers to the need to highlight and demonstrate the idea that the evolution of digital journalism should be viewed as the co-construction of the social and technological realms.

With theoretical and methodological reflections on historicizing digital journalism along with original case studies or comparative inquiries into the phenomena over the decades-long digital revolution of journalism, this volume will shape the nascent field of digital journalism history and start a global critical exchange of various approaches to and aspects of historicizing digital journalism. As such, it will interest scholars and students of digital journalism, journalism history, digital media, Internet studies, and technology studies.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: Why historicize digital Journalism? Disentangling the relationship between journalism, technology, and history

Tamas Tofalvy & Igor Vobič

PART 1: Theories and methods of digital journalism histories

Chapter 2: Conceptualizing change in digital journalism: Three key theories in comparison

Thomas Schmidt

Chapter 3: "I tape therefore I am": Excavating digital journalism’s lieux de memoire through oral history

Christopher Silver

Chapter 4: Bridging boundary work theory and the social construction of technology from a historical perspective: On the construction of socio-technical boundaries of digital journalism

Tamas Tofalvy

PART 2: Professionalism and meta-discourses of digital journalism

Chapter 5: The short history of naming journalism in the digital era

Laura Ahva

Chapter 6: Inquiry into the digital sublime: Interrogating the major narratives concerning new technologies in journalism research between 1980 and 2013

Igor Vobič, Jernej Amon Prodnik & Boris Mance

Chapter 7: Digital disruption or union neutralization? A diachronic history of tensions between the figures of the professional and the worker in the history of a Canadian newspaper

Samuel Lamoureux

Chapter 8: “A whiff of panic”: How journalists in the UK and Germany articulated their professional beliefs and identity in crisis times

Imke Henkel

Chapter 9: From bytes to bylines: A history of AI in journalism practices

Carl-Gustav Lindén & Laurence Dierickx

PART 3: Cultures of data, organizations, and journalism practices

Chapter 10: From audience clicks to time spent: Evolution of audience analytics and metrics in Norwegian newsrooms

Ana Milojević

Chapter 11: No crisis but cooperation: Construction of online newspapers in Nepal

Harsha Man Maharjan

Chapter 12: A singular public model: A history of online journalism through DiarideBarcelona.com

Javier Díaz Noci

Chapter 13: Digital journalism in Brazil: A history of diversity in products and research

Suzana Barbosa & Otávio Daros

Chapter 14: History of digital journalism in Egypt: Between institutionalism and individualism

Nagwa Fahmy & Maha Abdul Majeed Attia

CODA

Chapter 15: Historiography and digital journalism

John Nerone

Teresa Sofia Castro, Maria João Leote de Carvalho, and Maria José Brites

We are excited to share the open-access new book, "Let’s Talk About Ethics in Research with Children and Young People? What Nobody Shared Online… Until Now", published by Edições Universitárias Lusófonas. This publication is part of the project YouNDigital – Youth, News and Digital Citizenship (https://doi.org/10.54499/PTDC/COM-OUT/0243/2021) based at CICANT, Lusófona University, Portugal. You can learn more about YouNDIgital on the website youndigital.com.

This book brings together researchers from different geographies and their invaluable insights and discussions on the ethical challenges and considerations in research involving children and young people. Born from a series of thought-provoking conversations, the book offers a deep dive into real-world experiences, dilemmas, and best practices in the field.

To make these conversations even more accessible, we have also launched a series of podcasts, allowing researchers, educators, and students to engage with these discussions in a dynamic and convenient format.

Get the book here: https://cicant.ulusofona.pt/agenda-news/news-events/1454-ynd-book-ethics

Listen to the podcasts on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Wx2WjrgEMxT8ustab7XcS

We invite you to explore, share, and engage with this work. Your support in spreading the word will help extend this crucial discussion to a wider audience.

Let’s keep the conversation going! If you have any thoughts, feedback, or would like to collaborate, feel free to reach out.

Teresa Sofia Castro, Maria João Leote de Carvalho, and Maria José Brites (Authors)

Hossein Kermani

This book investigates Twitter activism in authoritarian regimes, with particular attention to Iran. Twitter provides citizens around the globe with a free and quick way to engage in politics and public discourses. The role of Twitter, alongside other social media, is even more critical in authoritarian regimes where official media is systematically monitored and censured. Thus, social media is vital in restrictive (non-democratic) societies for people to seek their liberty, raise their voice, and create counter-narratives and discourses. There is substantial research into Twitter and democracy, both in democratic and non-democratic regimes. However, Iran, as a country with a high population of tech-savvy users who actively participate in political discussions online, remains understudied to a great extent. Twitter in Iran has been blocked since the 2009 presidential election and its subsequent protests, the Green Movement. Nevertheless, Iranians have been continually using it to date.Recently, another significant hashtag movement unfolded in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini. But it is only an instance of how Iranians employ Twitter to fight a dictatorship. Given the unique context of Iran as a non-democratic society with a high number of Twitter users, this book tries to explore how Iranian users participate in politics, challenge the regime, mobilize their protests, and shape anti-regime discourses. It also examines the strategies that the Iranian regime takes to dismantle Twitter activism. Therefore, this work will fill some gaps in the existing literature on Twitter and democracy, which is relatively Western-centered.

https://link.springer.com/book/9783031815379

The International Journal of Games and Social Impact  (Special issue)

Deadline: May 15, 2025

Guest Editors: Rikkie Toft Nørgård (Aarhus University, Danish School of Education) & Conceição Costa (Lusófona University, CICANT

This special issue of The International Journal of Games and Social Impact invites contributions that delve into the manifold theoretical, practical, and methodological dimensions of game jams, game-making and games as cultural expression, engagement, practice, transformation, or invention.

Submissions may address (but are not limited to) the following questions:

• How can game jams facilitate the integration of tangible/intangible cultural heritage and values into the game-making process?
  
• In what ways do game jams in cultural contexts empower youth as active participants and co-creators of tangible/intangible cultural heritage?
  
• How can game jams foster curiosity, creativity, and community in cultural contexts and among participants from diverse backgrounds?
  
• What are some of the practical and methodological challenges of designing and implementing game jams and game-making in cultural heritage contexts?
  
• How do games created with the use of tangible/intangible cultural heritage or in cultural heritage contexts reimagine, reconfigure, or in other ways transform tangible and intangible cultural heritage?
  

Publication Timeline

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Dates are indicative.

Full Paper Submission Deadline: 15-05-2025

Notification of Acceptance for Full Paper Submissions: 30-07-2025

Publication Date: Second semester of 2025

Contact

For inquiries about the special issue or submission process, please contact Rikke Toft Nørgård (rtoft@edu.au.dk)

Join us in exploring how games and game-making practices can reshape our engagement with cultural heritage, values, and culture, creating new spaces for cultural expression and social transformation.

For more information: https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ijgsi/announcement/view/225