ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Special Issue of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

Deadline for abstracts: March 7, 2021

Expected date of publication: April 2022

Guest editors: Daniela van Geenen (University of Siegen), Dr. Karin van Es (Utrecht University) and Dr. Jonathan Gray (King’s College London)

The criticism of knowledge technologies has a long tradition in science and technology studies (STS), feminist studies and media studies approaches often addressing the ways in which technologies frame epistemic processes in scientific and technical settings (e.g. Latour, 1987; Latour and Woolgar, 1979; Haraway, 1988 and 1997; Chun, 2011; Galloway, 2012; Manovich, 2013). Knowledge technologies are not just the preserve of natural scientists and engineers, but also present in a wide variety of everyday and professional settings – including social and cultural research, in particular, in critical approaches to ‘Big Data’ and algorithmic systems. Importantly, these tools frame how we approach our objects and sites of study; they are not neutral, but active mediators impacting the ways knowledge is produced and disseminated.

This special issue explores the contemporary relevance of the notion of ‘critical technical practice’ (Agre, 1997a) to digital research in the humanities and social sciences including internet studies, critical data studies (e.g. Iliadis and Russo, 2016), critical algorithm studies (Gillespie and Seaver, 2016), and software studies (e.g. Rieder, 2020). Philip Agre (1997a and b) coined the notion of critical technical practice (CTP) in his work on artificial intelligence, proposing the challenge of having ‘one foot planted in the craft work of design and the other foot planted in the reflexive work of critique’ (Agre, 1997b: p. 155). The issue aims to bring together, advance, and reflect on recent work on the relevance of critical technical practice(s) for scholarship, pedagogy, and public engagement around digital devices and computational tools in the context of social and cultural research. It takes up recent calls advocating the relevance of such approaches to tool development, research, and education in cultural and social studies in order to approach digital media as both objects and instruments of investigation (e.g. Dieter, 2014; Gray, Bounegru, Milan, and Ciuccarelli, 2016; Gray and Bounegru, forthcoming; Rieder & Röhle, 2012 and 2017; Van Es, Wieringa, Schäfer, 2018; Van Geenen, 2018 and 2020).

The editors welcome contributions from a range of disciplinary perspectives that explore questions such as:

● How can researchers organise critical inquiry with and about such digital tools, methods, and data collections?

● How can devices such as network graphs, spreadsheets, scrapers, APIs, machine-learning tools, and code libraries be repurposed in cultural and social research, with a critical sensibility towards their genealogies and sociocultural lives?

● How can methods be taken as sites of experimentation around the composition of collective life, between research and other areas of practice (e.g. activism, education, journalism, or policy)?

Deadline abstracts: 7 March 2021

Please send a 500-word abstract and a 100-word bio to the guest editors: daniela.vgeenen@unisiegen.de, k.f.vanes@uu.nl and jonathan.gray@kcl.ac.uk

Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to send full contributions by 2 August 2021.

April 13-14, 2021

Online conference

Deadline: January 29, 2021

Crises signify conflicts, danger and chaos. Global crises, from health crises like COVID-19 pandemic to political crises, from war and terror to humanitarian disasters, represent the dark side of a globalized world. This year’s conference theme focuses on how do global crises emerge from, and result in, social, political, cultural, institutional, economic, technological and environmental changes. The conference aims to analyze the ongoing multi-dimensional crisis of global world and provide interdisciplinary approaches to the current global crises. The major themes to be covered with respect to global crises may include health crises (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic), wars and terrorism, global displacement and mass migration, legal crises and legitimacy, economic crises, disasters, catastrophes and risks, environmental challenges, poverty, politics (e.g. rise of populism, rise of nationalism), security (e.g. national security, digital security), the role of media in crisis time, disinformation and power relations. The conference also aims to understand how global crises are spawned by and shape our global age, and how they are represented in the media.

By structuring the discussion around potential topics, the 9th International Conference on Conflict, Terrorism and Society (ICCTS) welcome paper submissions that examine a key issue from different theoretical or methodological approaches.Within this perspective, the conference aims to bring together leading scholars from across disciplines to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of ‘global crises’. Potential topics for presentations include but are not limited to:

●  Global crises

●  Health crises

●  Wars and terrorism

●  Economic crises

●  Political crises

●  Legal crises

●  Global displacement and mass migration

●  Refugee crisis

●  Contemporary risks in digital age

●  Security

●  Crisis in digital media

●  The role of media in crisis

●  Media, representation and narratives of crises

●  Gender inequality

●  Poverty

●  Climate change

●  Natural disasters

●  Environmental crisis and challenges

For everyone’s health and safety, ICCTS2021 will be organized and run as a virtual conference.

Please, submit a maximum 300 words abstract to: Mine Bertan Yılmaz, Faculty of Communications, Kadir Has University, Istanbul-Turkey mine.yilmaz@khas.edu.tr

Proposals should be submitted in the following order

• Name of the author(s)
• Telephone, fax, and e-mail address Affiliation
• Title of proposal
• Body of proposal

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: 29.01.2021

You will be notified by 12.02.2021 regarding the status of your proposal.

Previous years the selected papers have been published in edited volumes with respected publishers.

The organizing committee is planning to edit a new volume with selected papers from this year’s conference.

For further information about conference, please visit our website: http://iccts.khas.edu.tr 

For further information about the conference in general, contact: Prof. Banu Baybars-Hawks: banubhawks@khas.edu.tr

July 13-15, 2021

Online conference

Deadline: January 31, 2021

The International Sustainable Development Research Society (ISDRS) is pleased to announce its 27th annual conference to be held on the July 13 – 15, 2021

PhD Workshop July 12 2021 hosted by the Faculty of Science, Technology and Media, Mid Sweden University, Sweden

Conference special topic: Accelerating the progress towards the 2030 SDGs in times of crisis

This online conference covers sustainability in relation to all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the virtue of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. It aims to investigate the most current trends and implications for the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development in the Global North and Global South.

The new track Communication for sustainability was created in response of the urgency to take action and interact to achieve the UN Sustainable Development goals of the UN and contribute to new solutions for large scale societal challenges that we are experiencing. Communication scholars have an important role in counteracting social and environmental crises in developing and developed countries and provide knowledge that contributes to social transformation and sustainable development.

This track invites communication scholars and scholars from other disciplines to present and discuss research focusing on the role of communication in relation to sustainable development. Communication research has an important role to play in this transformation.

https://2021.isdrsconferences.org/communication-for-sustainability/

Universität Siegen

https://jobs.uni-siegen.de/job/Wissenschaftlicher-Mitarbeiterin-Medienwissenschaft%2C-SFB-%E2%80%9ETransformationen-des-Popul%C3%A4ren-57072/641171901/

We are looking for:

In Faculty I ­– Faculty of Philosophy, Media Studies, the German Research Foundation (DFG) Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1472 “Transformations of the Popular” is looking for a postdoctoral research associate at the earliest possible date under the following conditions:

100% = 39,83 hours

Salary category 13 TV-L

fixed-term period until 31.12.2024

CRC "Transformations of the Popular"

The CRC is an interdisciplinary research network consisting of 18 projects and more than 60 scientists from the fields of literature studies, media studies, linguistics, history, music, education, social sciences, art history as well as theology and business administration, collaborating with national and international cooperation partners for a period of four years. The CRC will be funded by the DFG from January, 1st 2021. The CRC deals with interrelated, interdisciplinary research on the causes and consequences of the epochal erosion of the culturally dominant high/low axiology in the course of the development of quantifying methods of measuring attention and its popularisation. The CRC is divided into three areas of research „pop“, „popularisation“ and „populisms“.

Further information on the CRC’s research agenda and subprojects can be found at https://popkultur.uni-siegen.de/sfb1472/

Your tasks:

• Conceptualisation, organization and realization of the project “Fabricating ‘the people’ – Negotiating Claims of Representation in Social Media in Post-Gezi Turkey” as part of a team. The project explores how public opinion is both measured and fabricated in the context of post Gezi-Turkey drawing on ethnographic, digital and software studies methodologies
• Development of digital ethnographic methodologies
• Conducting fieldwork on Twitter related practices, networks, software ecologies and automation in the context of Turkey drawing on ethnographic methods

• Presentation of the research project at relevant international conferences
• Publication of research outcomes in relevant international journals
• Conceptualisation and organisation of international conferences, workshops and data-sprints
• Regular participation in the interdisciplinary event program and collaborative working groups of the CRC (including colloquia, lectures, conferences, research labs and workshops)
• Contributions to main topics of the CRC, including socio-technics of popularization in social media, popularization and quantification, popularization and populism

Your profile:

• Above-average doctorate in a discipline relevant to the project such as media studies, cultural studies, ethnology, sociology or science and technology studies
• Research expertise and interest in the field of social media, software- and platform studies, digital culture in Turkey or Twitter research
• Experience with (digital) ethnographic methods, interest in methods of software and platform research and the willingness to participate in methodological development

• Relevant academic achievements (publications, conference presentations)
• Experience with workshop or conference organisation
• Readiness for interdisciplinary cooperation
• Ability to work in a team, conduct tasks independently and very good communication skills
• Fluency in spoken and written English
• German and/or Turkish language skills would be desirable

Our offer:

• This position aims to promote the candidate’s scientific or artistic qualification (e.g. Habilitation) according to the Act of Academic Fixed-Term Contracts (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz), for which the ongoing media research in Siegen together with the Collaborative Research Centre 1187 “Media of Cooperation” and the GRK 1769 “Locating Media” offers an enabling environment.
• Responsibility for a field with great creative potential
• An agile environment that supports engagement with innovative educational work.
• The opportunity to make a visible contribution towards modern accounts of leadership, cooperation and diversity culture
• Numerous offers such as flexible working hours, company pension scheme, dual career service, coaching/mentoring and a comprehensive personnel development program

We look forward to receiving your application by 28.02.2021. Please apply exclusively via our application portal: https://jobs.uni-siegen.de. Unfortunately, we cannot consider applications in paper form or by e-mail.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Carolin Gerlitz

+49 (0) 271 740 4692 (Sekretariat)

Carolin.Gerlitz@uni-siegen.de

Prof. Dr. Mine Gencel Bek

Mine.GBek@uni-siegen.de

The University of Siegen is an equal opportunity employer. The call for applications is explicitly aimed at people of all genders (m/f/d); applications from women are given preference in accordance with the North Rhine-Westphalian Equal Opportunities Act (Landesgleichstellungsgesetz). We also welcome applications from people with different personal, social and cultural backgrounds, people with severe disabilities and people of equal status.

February 1-5, 2021

NOVA University of Lisbon (Portugal)

Deadline: January 18, 2021

iNOVA Media Lab invites applications for the SMART Data Sprint 2021, which will be held from 1 to 5 February in a hybrid format — online and in-person, at NOVA University of Lisbon. The Sprint is part of the Digital Media Winter Institute, an annual meeting focused on digital methods. The next edition theme is about The Current State of Platformisation.

Participants from around the world will connect to attend keynote lectures, short talks and join applied research projects. This year we will bring even more innovative formats for practical labs, including an exclusive track made for researchers non-familiar with digital methods. Applications open on November 1st and close on January 18, 2021.

Main audience: doctoral students and scholars interested in developing research from the perspective of digital methods.

See the call for applications on the #SMARTDataSprint research blog: https://smart.inovamedialab.org/2021-platformisation

Keynotes

• José van Dijck (Utrecht University)
• Anne Helmond (University of Amsterdam and Digital Media Initiative)
• Fernando van der Vlist (App Studies Initiative and Digital Methods Initiative)

Masterclass

Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández (School of Communication at QUT and Digital Media Research Centre).

Projects

Participants can choose from different projects to work on. More information on projects will be available on the website soon.

Practical Labs

An International team of senior researchers, doctoral students and designers will also be leading Short Talks and Practical Labs. In 2021, SMART Data Sprint will offer an innovative format for practical labs, including an exclusive track made for researchers non-familiar with digital methods. More information on practical labs will be available soon.

If you have questions, contact the organising committee at smart.inovamedialab@fcsh.unl.pt.

• Ana Marta M. Flores, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, iNOVA Media Lab, Portugal
• Elena Pilipets, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria
• Janna Joceli Omena, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, iNOVA Media Lab, Portugal

May 10-13, 2021

University of Bologna (Italy)

Deadline: February 10, 2021

The deadline for paper proposals is postponed! Please submit your abstracts in English language by 10 February 2021. Authors will be notified by February 28, 2021.

All information at https://eventi.unibo.it/…nce

Covid-19 update: Please be advised that the conference will take place as planned and will be carried out in person AND remotely (or fully remote modality, depending on the health conditions of the moment), in conformity with Covid-19 emergency regulations.

Organized by University of Bologna: Dipartimento di Scienze per la Qualità della Vita, DAR (La Soffitta), Scienze Politiche e Sociali, INC (Italian Research Network in Celebrity Culture), in collaboration with CFC (Culture, Fashion, Communication) e CoMediaS (Comunicazione, Media e Spazio Pubblico).

The emergency and exceptional situations linked to crisis contexts involve a series of urgencies and perspectives that also affect the world of celebrities. Depending on the type of crisis in progress, the media define new celebrities, or place an emphasis on the actions of already known personalities. An example is Greta Thunberg, who has become an icon of the climate crisis, known to the general public above all for the importance that mass media have given to her words and actions. Or the recent "celebrities with white coats", so called to emphasize the social importance and media presence of medical experts in the Covid 19 emergency.

When cases of this type appear in the media, opinion makers and commentators usually rush to define the specificities of the celebrity on duty, also motivating the reasons for its rapid notoriety. Observations on his behavior are activated only randomly, following, in fact, the very trend of the crisis, which appear suddenly, reach the peak and then return to a stabilization logic. In other words, there seems to be a lack of systematic reflection, which instead leads to an analysis of the effects and consequences of the actions of celebrities in crisis situations.

It is possible to trace two reference macro-groups: celebrities who are born in crisis situations (and who are therefore closely connected to them) and celebrities already known, who change their behavior during crises. For the latter, the reflections usually seem to concern the differences that crises determine with respect to a normal routine, due to a change undergone with respect to the public image (for example the breakdown of a relationship due to the betrayal of the partner) or, on the contrary, for the realization of an 'out of the box' action, managed and voluntarily activated (such as participation in humanitarian aid). Some studies have been carried out in this regard, but remain liminary for the moment, such as Ilan Kapoor's 2013 work entitled “Celebrity Humanitarism. The ideology of global charity”which gave rise to a series of important considerations on the role of celebrities and the meaning of their work in crises.

Starting from these first considerations, the conference calls for the investigation of the active role of celebrities, understood as social phenomena, images, signs, in the culture of the crisis: in the contemporary context, but also following a historical perspective. We intend to examine the internal contradictions of the phenomenon of celebrity engagement with respect to crises and we invite to study the critical aspects of culture that they highlight. For example, public actions of celebrities (philanthropy, militancy, product-endorsement) aimed at offering support to crisis situations (climatic, environmental, political-social) embrace the global principles of ecology, sustainability, solidarity, national and cultural borders, but at the same time they reinforce a geopolitically circumscribed model of personality and individualism.

The conference therefore intends to investigate the role of celebrities in times and situations of crisis in many directions, considering this area of reflection as a generative and culturally rich territory. The crisis can in fact take the form of an opportunity, providing celebrities with the possibility of transforming their social role, which is too often rigidified within specific interpretative frameworks.

Consider the case of the article written by Giorgio Armani in March 2020, in which the designer claims the need for a slow time for fashion, giving rise to an immediately shared public and political reflection, far from the catwalks. Or to the many donations that Chiara Ferragni, Fedez or Armani himself have given to healthcare facilities for the Covid 19 emergency. These are cases in which celebrities take off their rigid masks, to tell about themselves also according to parameters that concern other contexts, political and cultural.

The following topics should be considered as an outline and an example, but they do not exhaust the proposals.

Topics:

- Celebrities and world crisis (general). Crisis between global and local

- World crisis as opportunity: celebrities' new roles and representations

- Celebrities and SARS-CoV-2: philanthropic messages/actions, public positions

- Celebrities and SARS-CoV-2: home entertainment

- Celebrities and SARS-CoV-2: figure of the ill celebrity

- Celebrities/stars and economic crisis (1929, 2008, 2020-21)

- Celebrities and Ecological crisis

- Celebrities and Terrorism

- The crisis of the celebrity (personal, career/economic) and the crisis of cultural models.

- Changing celebrities: shifts and transformations in celebrities public role

- The crisis of the celebrity connected to the crisis in the history of media

- Film Stars and the concept of crisis

- Fashion celebrities/Fashion system and crisis

- The rise/fall of celebrity culture in contexts of Fashion crisis

Steering Committee:

• Antonella Mascio, Roy Menarini, Sara Pesce with the collaboration of
• Ylenia Caputo (University of Bologna)

Scientific Board:

• Luca Barra (Università di Bologna)
• Claudio Bisoni (Università di Bologna)

• Giovanni Boccia Artieri (Università di Urbino)
• Donatella Campus (Università di Bologna)
• Giulia Anastasia Carluccio (Università di Torino)
• Fabio Cleto (Università degli Studi di Bergamo)
• Pamela Church Gibson (London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London)

• Michele Fadda (Università di Bologna)
• Leonardo Gandini (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia)
• Laura Gemini (Università di Urbino “Carlo Bo”)
• Joke Hermes (Inholland University, NL)

• Annette Hill (Lund University)
• Katharina Niemeyer (University of Québec)
• Catherine O’Rawe (Bristol University)
• Roberta Paltrinieri (Università di Bologna)
• Francesca Pasquali (Università degli Studi di Bergamo)

• Eugenia Paulicelli (City University of New York)
• Marco Pedroni (Università eCampus Novedrate)
• Valentina Re (Università degli Studi Link Campus University)
• Alberto Scandola (Università di Verona)
• Federica Villa (Università di Pavia)
• IoannaVovou (Panteion University, Atene)

Please submit your abstracts to quvi.eventicelebrities@unibo.it (max. 500 words) for papers and panels, including a short biography (max. 100 words) and institutional affiliation, in English language by 10 February 2021

The official website of the conference is http://eventi.unibo.it/…nce

Authors will be notified by February 28, 2021.

Please make sure to also attach a short CV (max. 150 words).

Language: English.

The Conference will take place in Rimini and Bologna on May 10-13, 2021.

After the conference, speakers are expected to send a full paper of their speech for publication of the official proceedings, by *August 31, 2021.

Keynote speakers will be announced soon.

Conference participants are required to pay a conference fee of EUR 100,00, or EUR 80,00 if they register before April 15 at: https://eventi.unibo.it/…nce.

The conference fee is EUR 70,00 for PhD, Graduate and Undergraduate Students of other Universities.

No conference fee for PhD, Graduate and Undergraduate Students of all courses at the University of Bologna.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Apply here: https://careers.insidehighered.com/job/2064183/dean-college-of-communication-and-information/

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) invites applications and nominations for the position of the Dean of the College of Communication & Information. The dean is the chief academic and administrative officer of the College reporting directly to the provost. The new dean will lead a diverse, talented group of faculty, staff, and students in addressing communication and information issues in our current and future era characterized by rapid change, ethical questions, and differentiated access. The College has the added the goal of developing nationally ranked programs, world-class scholarship, and work that has a direct impact on the community. The dean must be champion of diversity, equity and inclusion and lead with a spirit of humanity, generosity, and empathy.

The University and Region

UTK is the state’s flagship, land-grant university. We are a Research 1 university with 11 colleges and nearly 30,000 students. With new leadership at the system, university, and college levels, UTK is poised for dramatic positive change focused on solving some of the most audacious, pressing problems our country and world face today. The city of Knoxville is a hidden gem surrounded by eight gorgeous lakes, with a beautiful and walkable downtown, a diverse music scene including internationally recognized festivals, active neighborhoods, unique restaurants, and a robust offering of diverse cultural and outdoor activities. UTK is located within easy driving distance to the Great Smoky Mountains, Atlanta, Nashville, Asheville, Charlotte, Louisville and Cincinnati. It is only a day’s drive to Memphis, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Knoxville and the surrounding counties have a population of more than 850,000 people. The Knoxville region houses many leading corporations, including Bush Brothers & Company, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PetSafe/Radio Systems Corporation, Pilot/Flying J, and Tennessee Valley Authority. Knoxville is one of the top video producers in the nation. It is home to Tombras Group advertising, AC Entertainment, Regal Cinemas, HGTV, DIY Network, and other networks owned by Discovery Inc.

The College

The College of Communication & Information is comprised of 1280 undergraduate students, 420 graduate students, nearly 80 full-time faculty, and 40 staff. It boasts four schools: the School of Advertising and Public Relations, the School of Communication Studies, the School of Information Sciences, and the School of Journalism and Electronic Media. The College offers bachelor’s degrees, an undergraduate honors program, Master of Science degrees, and an interdisciplinary PhD in Communication and Information. The College has a Board of Visitors comprising 43 distinguished individuals who support the College and represent the disciplines and professions (https://cci.utk.edu/bovdirectory). The College is home to the Center for Information and Communication Studies (https://cics.utk.edu/), which assists CCI faculty with obtaining and managing external funding for research and teaching projects. These projects are also supported by several labs within the College, including the Scripps Convergence Lab, the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center, the User eXperience Lab, the Message Effects Lab, the Converged Newsroom Lab, and a Public Speaking Center. The College’s School of Information Sciences is ranked in the top 20 in the U.S. News & World Report Graduate rankings and is accredited by the American Library Association. All units are nationally accredited.

The Position

The College is well positioned for a new dean to lead faculty and staff in addressing current national and international issues in the field of communication, raising the level of recognition, and increasing enrollment. The new dean will lead the College in building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment that fosters a sense of the legal and ethical responsibilities of access to information and the exercise of expression in a democratic society. The new dean will work with integrity and shared governance to increase awareness of the important communication and information issues in the contemporary world. The dean will lead the college programming in developing students’ personal skills in communication, critical thinking, research, and evaluation. The dean will work with current and future community partners to fulfill the university’s new strategic vision developed in 2020.

Responsibilities

• Lead the College in developing a new vision that identifies and adapts to disciplinary changes in the field and in each school;
• Foster curricular, teaching, and research excellence in all areas of the College;
• Recruit, retain, develop, and evaluate diverse faculty;
• Develop and support faculty in solving national issues in the field, mentoring students, and building leadership capacity;
• Enhance the College’s national and international reputations;
• Increase external funding through fundraising and grants programs;
• Develop and nurture strong relationships with relevant academic, public, and business communities;
• Contribute actively and positively as a member of the Council of Deans and as a senior administrator of the University;
• Advocate for and enhance the visibility of the College within the university through collaborative partnerships and interdisciplinary programs and projects;
• Oversee College communications, marketing, and recruitment efforts;
• Lead each school through accreditation cycles;
• Skillfully plan, direct, and coordinate the College’s operational, personnel, and budgetary policies and procedures (including the effective management of a $9M dollar budget).

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications

• Earned terminal degree(s) in a relevant field or fields of study;
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all areas of academic life and knowledge of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action;
• Evidence of knowledge of the rapidly evolving field and a sense for what the future holds for communications and information
• Record of visionary and innovative leadership;
• Strong record of scholarly or creative achievement, teaching, and professional accomplishments appropriate for appointment as a tenured full professor in the College;
• Demonstrated understanding of the research university environment;
• Demonstrated understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of the communication and information sciences and the specific disciplines/sub-disciplines represented by the College;
• Demonstrated understanding of academic and professional training programs;
• Demonstrated experience in skillful management of personnel and financial resources;
• Demonstrated experience in strategic planning development and implementation;
• Demonstrated ability to develop and sustain collaborative working relationships with diverse faculty, students, staff, administrators, and external constituencies.

Desired Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in planning and executing successful fundraising programs;
• Demonstrated experience with outreach and distance education programs;
• Demonstrated experience leading global programs;
• National and international reputation in the field.

Application Instructions:

Applications should include: (1) a letter of interest addressing the qualifications, (2) a comprehensive curriculum vitae, (3) a statement of leadership philosophy, (4) a diversity statement, and (5) the names and contact information (addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses) of five references.

The position will be open until filled, but to be assured of full consideration, all materials should be received by February 1, 2021. Inquiries and nominations may be directed to Brooke M. Swart, Executive Recruiter, at bswart@utk.edu.

Frontiers in Communication (Science and Environmental Communication; Health Communication) and Frontiers in Environmental Science (Science and Environmental Communication)

Deadline: March 31, 2021

Register your interest and submit abstracts at https://www.frontiersin.org/…893

Keywords: digital narrative, interactive storytelling, health communication, science communication, science education, science journalism

We are seeking papers for a joint issue with Frontiers in Communication (Science and Environmental Communication; Health Communication) and Frontiers in Environmental Science (Science and Environmental Communication) on digital and interactive narratives and science and health education and journalism. This Special Topic aims to investigate how digital media affordances—such as human-machine and human-human interactivity, multimedia capacities, dynamic visual appeal, playfulness, personalization, real-time immersion, multilinear narrative, and so on—have been and can be used to effectively communicate health and science issues. We would like to go beyond the current discourse on fake news, mis/disinformation and online radicalization, which recognizes the malignant effects of digital media on health and science affairs, to refocus on the positive affordances of digital media—both in direct education (e.g., museums, public demonstrations, school settings) and through the media (e.g., news, film, games)—as communication tools and techniques for health and science topics.

The aim of this Research Topic is, therefore, to explore the current state of play, as well as potential future trajectories, of digital narrative and storytelling in the communication of health and science topics. We invite scholarly investigations, including theoretically driven and practice-related research, on any topic relevant to that overall goal. Some potential topics include, but are not limited to:

* How can science and health be effectively communicated through both playful and informative digital narrative and storytelling forms?

* How can information, education and entertainment be integrated into digital narratives about health and science issues?

* How do the socio-technical affordances of digital health and science narrative and storytelling, especially interactivity, affect audience experience, message cohesion, knowledge acquisition, emotional engagement and, ultimately, health/science literacy?

* Can digital narrative and storytelling serve as an antidote to digital health and science mis/disinformation and online science denial more broadly, and in what way?

* How are interactive narratives currently used for health & science communication and what are the social, economic and technological constraints on their production?

Types of Manuscripts:

• Empirical Research Papers
• Practice-led research Projects
• Reviews
• Conceptual Analysis
• Brief Research Reports
• Perspectives/Commentaries

Abstract Deadline: 31 March 2021

Full Papers: 30 Sept 2021

The full call is at https://www.frontiersin.org/…893; please register interest using the “Participate” button, and contact Lyle Skains (lskains@bournemouth.ac.uk ) with any questions.

Guest Editors: R. Lyle Skains and An Nguyen, Bournemouth University

September 23-24, 2021

Cardiff University, UK

Deadline: February 18, 2021

The School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC) at Cardiff University will host the eighth biennial Future of Journalism conference on 23rd-24th September 2021.

At present the conference will be virtual, in light of COVID-19 and social distancing. However, should conditions change, and time permitting, we envisage a blended conference, which will partly take place in JOMEC's state-of-the-art home in Cardiff's city centre. The theme for 2021 will be “Overcoming obstacles in journalism.”

Overcoming obstacles in journalism 

2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenges and obstacles for journalism as an institution, and journalists as professionals. At the same time, journalism has never been more important. With audiences around the world urgently requiring reliable information on the coronavirus pandemic and major breaking news events, journalists have carried out their work under difficult and often dangerous circumstances.

In doing so, their storytelling has shed light on, and made tangible, the realities on the ground which would otherwise be inaccessible. Audiences, in turn, have altered their news-seeking behaviour and engagement with traditional and alternative media. Against this backdrop, news organisations around the world have had to operate with unprecedented agility and flexibility, changing their routines and practices to overcome the many obstacles thrown in their path. The Future of Journalism conference 2021 invites contributions that engage with the theme of “overcoming obstacles,” examining areas including, but not limited to:

Transformations in journalistic practices 

* How have news organisations around the world covered the pandemic? What have been the major logistical and ethical challenges in doing so?

* How have news organisations managed the coverage of major events beyond the pandemic (e.g. the Black Lives Matter movement and critical race theory, and the US presidential elections)?

* How have news organizations responded to unprecedented attacks on journalists as professionals and journalism as an institution?

* How have journalists changed their working routines and practices given the challenges of covering the news in a pandemic?

* How has journalism fared in holding governments to account?

* How have the experiences of journalists varied across national contexts and types of journalism?

* How has journalism responded to embrace greater diversity and inclusion?

* How has journalism’s role changed?

Enhancing storytelling 

* What new storytelling formats, techniques and platforms have journalists developed to cover the pandemic?

* What has been the role of emerging practices (e.g. data journalism, fact-checking artificial intelligence, constructive journalism) in shaping storytelling?

* Which theoretical approaches can help us understand changes in storytelling techniques?

Engaging and supporting audiences 

* How has audience engagement with the news changed?

* How have news organisations responded to the “infodemic” of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories? What role have social media played in this context?

* How have audience members changed their news-seeking behaviour?

* What have we learned about news avoidance?

Building resilience for the future

* What has been the emotional impact of covering news in crisis, and how can news organisations ensure support for the mental health of journalists in the future?

* How have news organisations maintained their commitment to longer-standing projects (e.g. investigations and experimentation) in the face of the pandemic?

* How have business models in journalism coped with the pandemic?

* What are the most promising avenues for financial sustainability in the future?

* What research agendas and theoretical approaches are most helpful to understand the future of journalism?

* How can practising journalists and academics strengthen their ties and work to better inform audiences?

We are delighted that a selection of papers presented at the conference will be published in special issues of international peer-reviewed journals, such as:/Journalism Practice/ and /Journalism Studies/. More news will follow.

The conference will take place on Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th September 2021. Further information on registration fees and keynote speakers will be available in due course.

The deadline for submitting abstracts (500-750 words maximum) for papers is Thursday Feb 18th 2021. Please submit your abstract via the conference email address: FoJ2021@cardiff.ac.uk

Please do not submit more than one abstract as first author, with no more than two abstracts in total.Should you have any questions, please contact us at FoJ2021@cardiff.ac.uk

March 25-26, 2021

Online Conference

Deadline: January 15, 2021

We invite the submission of abstracts for Media in America, America in Media international conference to be held online on 25-26 March 2021.

This is the third edition of a joint effort of the American Studies and Political Science scholars at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin, Poland) who aim to generate a cross-disciplinary debate that brings together divergent yet complementary voices reflecting on American media environment and America’s portrayals in media across the globe.

Abstracts (150-250 words) in English + a short bio should be sent by January 15th, 2021 to media.ameryka@gmail.com

There is no registration fee. The details can be found on the conference website https://mediainamericaconference.wordpress.com/

For the 2021 edition of Media in America, America in Media conference publication we are pleased to announce the cooperation with two peer-reviewed open access academic journals: Res Rhetorica (Scopus, WoS) and NewHorizons in English Studies (MLA, Erih+).

The post-conference volumes are scheduled for publication in 2021 (NHES) and 2022 (RR).

Since the conference is being held under the patronage of the Polish Rhetoric Society, we are honoured to present our Keynote Speaker, Dr. Jim A. Kuypers (Virginia Tech’s School of Communication), a pioneer in the area of rhetorical framing analysis in political communication.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The one thing we have certainly learnt since our first conference in 2017 is that there are no media trends that cannot be reversed. While in 2019 we hailed the dawn of the TV era, the 2020 annual media report prepared by the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic showed the increased consumption of traditional sources of news, especially television... However, some new digital behaviours that are likely to have long-term implications have also emerged in this crisis. Many have joined Facebook or WhatsApp groups for the first time and have engaged in local groups’ online activities. Young people of Generation Z (aged 18-24) have consumed more news through services like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok and the use of Instagram for news has doubled since 2018 and looks likely to overtake Twitter over the next year. Video conferencing has become a new platform for personal communication but has also changed the face of government press conferences. The media have embraced these new technologies in terms of remote working, but also in terms of the production and distribution of content. Due to falling revenues from traditional media outlets, in the last 12 months more publishers have started charging for digital content or tightening paywalls and this is also beginning to have an impact. There is a growing fear of information inequality, where people with less money become more dependent on social media and other lower-quality news spreading damaging misinformation.

There is also a question of a growing bias, yet interestingly, this is not a global phenomenon. Comparing 2020 with data from 2013, the Reuters report has shown the increased preference over time in the UK (+6) for news that has ‘no particular point of view’. At the same time, the proportion that prefers news that ‘shares their point of view’ has declined by a similar amount (-6). On the other hand, in the United States, where both politics and the media have become increasingly partisan over the years, we do find an increase in the proportion of people who say they prefer news that shares their point of view – up six percentage points since 2013 to 30%.

The conference /Media in America, America in Media/ addresses a wide variety of topics across the disciplines of media, political science, language and cultural studies. They may include the following themes, among others:

I. Media in America

1. Media and their representations in America

• Mass media, social media and personalized media
• Rhetoric of media in America - ideology, persuasion, manipulation past and present

• Media roles in the election process
• Media as a tool in identity formation

2. Media theories in America

• Contemporary American theories of communication and media
• Mediatization – American model vs. European model
• Rhetorical perspectives on /logos, ethos and pathos /in media
• Visual media studies, game studies – intertexts and intermediality

3. Media technologies in America

• Technological revolutions – trends and implications
• Media personalities - the role and ethos of a (digital) journalist
• Advertising - role, medium, case studies, micro-rhetorical situations
• Big Data, fake news, bots and apps – new concepts, new challenges

 II. America in Media

1. Images of America in American media

• Representations of the majority and the minorities: ideological, feminist, religious, racial, ethnic, LGBTQ+ and other

• New phenomena, new audiences – America in TV series, podcasts, games, hashtags, infographics, tweets, pins...

• Adaptations in the media: history, literature and art in a new form

2. Images of America in foreign media

• American models – political and advertising campaigns, streaming platforms, newsrooms, sitcoms, talk shows, etc.

• American media and international reception – a comparative study
• Whose America? – a homogeneous or heterogeneous media image

Due to the interdisciplinary character of the conference, the invitation is addressed to representatives of all scientific disciplines dealing with the topic of media.

Organizing Committee

• Anna Bendrat, Ph.D.
• Elżbieta Pawlak-Hejno, Ph.D.
• Anna Oleszczuk, M.A.
• Agata Waszkiewicz, M.A.
• Lidia Kniaź-Hunek, M.A.