ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Fonseca Journal of Communication

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 15, 2024

Fonseca Journal of Communication change of platform and Extension of deadline for submission of articles until February 15th, 2024 for the monograph: Immersive audiovisual narratives as pro-social agents: studies on their formulation, consumption and media effects. 

The deadline for the reception of articles has been extended until February  15th, 2024, due to the change of the Fonseca Journal of Communication website. New link: https://revistas-fonseca.com/index.php/2172-9077/announcement 

You can submit your paper here: https://revistas-fonseca.com/index.php/2172 9077/about/submissions 

Through the use of extended reality (XR) technologies, users can engage with immersive environments and stories. With the hype of the metaverse, the usage of augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and particularly virtual reality (VR) technologies has expanded quickly in recent years. These technologies have applications in a variety of industries, including entertainment, education, and healthcare. An area of growing interest is its use as a prosocial tool, creating and experimenting with immersive VR content that aims to encourage positive social behaviors and interactions in the audience, even though its use/application has primarily been studied in the field of video games. Prosociality is developing as a key concept for the betterment of contemporary communities, in which individuals adopt more polarized views, in the present environment of the so-called era of misinformation. By expanding previous approaches to the term (Chacón, 1986; Amato, 1983; Olivar, 1998), González Portal (2000) defined prosocial behavior as "all positive social behavior with or without altruistic motivation" (2000, quoted in Auné et al., 2014). 

A well-known paradigm for analyzing how individuals learn and take on new behaviors is the social cognitive theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986, 1991, 2001). According to SCT, behavior is impacted by a mix of personal (such beliefs and attitudes) and environmental (like social norms and modeling) elements. Technology may be considered as a technique of manipulating these environmental characteristics in the context of immersive prosocial media to increase the transmission of positive social attitudes and values. The immersive nature of immersive media allows for the experience of situations and environments that may be difficult or impossible to replicate in the real world. In this way, VR enables the user to become an active participant in the story they are experiencing, improving the relationship between the audience and the storytelling while inspiring positive attitudes and feelings in them, such as empathy, compassion, and collaboration. This experience can be strengthened through social modeling, in which users watch and mimic the behaviors of others in the VR environment, or by assuming the position of the other through perspective taking experiences (Herrera et al., 2018) by embodying the other through an avatar (embodiment). 

According to the theory of embodiment cognition (Barsalou, 2008), physically experiences, such as interactions with our surroundings and other people, shape our ideas and behaviors. The immersive quality of VR may produce a sensation of presence that makes the virtual environment appear real and present in the given situation. The user's ideas, attitudes, behaviors, and social interactions can all be affected by this experience. 

Therefore, it can be viewed as an addition to SCT as a framework for comprehending the use of VR as a prosocial tool. Numerous cognitive and emotional processes can be influenced by embodied experiences, according to research. For instance, VR simulations of walking help elderly persons' cognitive performance (Riva et al., 2017). Immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences of intergroup encounter have been utilized to foster prosocial behavior by boosting empathy and lowering stress and prejudice in such circumstances (Banakou et al., 2016; González-Franco et al., 2016; Stelzmann et al., 2021; Tassinari et al., 2022). Despite the growing research efforts and interest in the potential prosocial effects of immersive VR technologies, it is important to continue investigating these issues as well as any potential ethical and moral ramifications of their use in the field of communication. 

In this sense, this monographic issue proposes a critical examination of the production of immersive content and its application to prosocial goals. We therefore seek proposals that contribute to the investigation and analysis of the impacts of prosocial immersive VR storytelling from the perspective of communication and media effects. From their production and consumption models, including methods that concentrate on both technological factors and the formal characteristics required for their formulation. We invite participation with empirical and theoretical research. We encourage a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, experimental research and case studies that fall within the following thematic lines and potential research questions, but are not restricted to them: 

Thematic lines: 

- Examining immersive VR, AR, and MR content to improve contemporary 

communities. 

- Historical traces of prosocial usage and applications of immersive technology. 

- Studies of the scientific literature on the use of immersive technologies and their prosocial effects, including scoping reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. 

- The use of immersive technology as social change agents. 

- Prosocial immersive narrative analysis. 

- The use of immersive technology for social advocacy/activism. 

- Measuring experiences of the prosocial effects of immersive narratives. 

- Researching media impact measurement techniques in the realm of immersive storytelling. 

- Methodological approaches for evaluating the effects of immersive prosocial narratives. 

- Research on the formal and technological aspects of immersive prosocial storytelling. 

- The development of hybrid immersive audiovisual creations. 

- The transition of linear products in the audiovisual medium to immersive settings and experiences. 

Research questions: 

-How are processes of change toward prosocial behavior impacted by VR, AR, and/or MR? 

-What techniques and arrangements are used in the design and production of immersive experiences to produce a prosocial influence on the audience? 

-What aspects of an immersive piece of content's design could work against its ability to have a positive social impact? 

-What experimental approaches are best suitable for evaluating the effects of immersive storytelling from an ecological perspective? 

-What specific measures or evaluation tools are effective for assessing the prosocial impact of immersive VR content? 

-How may immersive story interfaces for VR, AR, and/or MR be created to maximize their beneficial effects?  

-What ethical and moral ramifications can immersive audiovisual projects for good causes have, and should they be considered? 

-What risks and effects result from the use of these technologies to the development of prosocial models? 

Multidisciplinary approaches are possible and can originate from a variety of fields, including human-computer interaction, psychology, digital humanities, and communication.  

This special monograph is a component of the "Immersive prosocial audiovisual narratives: measuring their impact on society and analysing their formal and technological characteristics" project, which is supported by the AICO call of the Conselleria d'Innovació,Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana (CIAICO/2021/258, 2022-2044). 

References 

Amato, P. R. (1983). Helping behavior in urban and rural environments: Field studies based on a taxonomic organization of helping episodes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(3), 571. 

Auné, S. E., Blum, G. D., Abal, F. J. P., Lozzia, G. S., & Attorresi, H. F. (2014). La conducta prosocial: Estado actual de la investigación. Perspectivas en Psicología, 11(2), 21-33. 

Banakou, D., Hanumanthu, P. D., & Slater, M. (2016). Virtual embodiment of white people in a black virtual body leads to a sustained reduction in their implicit racial bias. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 601. 

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 

Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. En W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Theory, research and applications (Vol. 1, pp. 71-129). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. Media psychology, 3(3), 265-299. 

Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617-645. 

Chacón, F. (1986). Una aproximación al concepto psicosocial de altruismo. Boletín de  Psicología, 11, 41-62. 

Gonzalez-Franco, M., Bellido, A. I., Blom, K. J., Slater, M., & Rodriguez-Fornells, A. (2016). The neurological traces of look-alike avatars. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 10, 392. 

González Portal, M. D. (2000). Conducta prosocial: Evaluación e Intervención. Madrid: Morata. 

Herrera, F., Bailenson, J., Weisz, E., Ogle, E., & Zaki, J. (2018). Building long-term empathy: A large-scale comparison of traditional and virtual reality perspective-taking. PloS one, 13(10), e0204494. 

Olivar, R. R. (1998). El uso educativo de la televisión como optimizadora de la prosocialidad. Psychosocial Intervention, 7(3), 363-378. 

Riva, G. (2017). Virtual reality in the treatment of eating and weight disorders. Psychological Medicine, 47(14), 2567-2568. 

Stelzmann, D., Toth, R., & Schieferdecker, D. (2021). Can intergroup contact in virtual reality (VR) reduce stigmatization against people with schizophrenia?. Journal of clinical medicine, 10(13), 2961. 

Tassinari, M., Aulbach, M. B., & Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. (2022). Investigating the influence of intergroup contact in virtual reality on empathy: an exploratory study using AltspaceVR. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 815497. 

Coordinators: 

Francisco-Julián Martínez-Cano – Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (francisco.martinezc@umh.es). 

Begoña Ivárs-Nicolás – Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (bivars@umh.es). 

Richard Lachman – Toronto Metropolitan University (richlach@torontomu.ca). 

Editor of the monograph: Nereida López Vidales (nereida.lopez@uva.es)  

IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINE: 

Deadline for receipt of articles: 15th of February 2024.  

Deadline by which authors will receive a response: March 2024. 

Publication date of the monograph: 1st of June 2024. 

SUBMISSION METHOD AND GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS:  

1st) Articles must be submitted through the OJS platform, following the journal's rules and making sure to submit a blind version. 

The articles will be evaluated by blind peers and must follow the journal's rules, which can be consulted at the following link: https://revistas-fonseca.com/index.php/2172-9077/about/submissions 

In order for the article to be reviewed, it is compulsory that: 

- the article arrives adapted to the template. 

- the article comes in a blind version. 

- the document of transfer of rights is attached. 

- the article is accompanied by a Turnitin report (or similar), prepared by the author (articles with more than 35% similarity, excluding the bibliography, will not be accepted). 

2º) Once sent by OJS, an email will be sent to the editor of the monograph, who will acknowledge receipt within a maximum period of one week. 

Doubts about this monograph can also be resolved through the above e-mail addresses.   

A maximum of 7 articles will be published. 

IMPORTANT AT THE SUBMISSION STAGE 

In addition to being uploaded to the platform (OJS), the articles have to be sent simultaneously to the following 4 addresses: fjcrevista@usal.es, francisco.martinezc@umh.es, bivars@umh.es, richlach@torontomu.ca, richlach@torontomu.ca and nereida.lopez@uva.es 

Articles will be peer-reviewed and must follow the journal's guidelines, which can be found at the following link: https://revistas-fonseca.com/index.php/2172-9077/about/submissions 

June 26-28, 2025

University of Graz

Deadline: February 20, 2024

What is critique? What can Critical Theory do for society? Which forms of critique may claim any relevance in late capitalism? How can a critical public opinion manifest itself in the 21st century? How can we distinguish critique from political ideologies and conspiracy theories? (see Fridays for Future, Querdenker, etc.) What characterises critical thinking? How can radical thought be rendered practically relevant?

The conference Theories and Concepts of Critical Theory takes place between 26 and 28 June 2025 at the University of Graz, and it approaches its main theme from various theoretical and practical perspectives. Based at the Faculty of Humanities, this interdisciplinary conference constitutes the second stage of the interdepartmental research project Radical Thought in the Anthropocene. The conference follows on from a first event that took place in 2023 and which was dedicated to different disciplinary approaches to Critical Theory.

We will bring the concept and idea of critique into productive constellations with a variety of concepts and categories pertaining to social and cultural theory. In doing so, and by highlighting fundamental societal and existential challenges of the 21st century, we will reflect upon the possibilities and potentials of a productive critique of society, especially concerning its implications for academic theory and lived practice. In view of the great global, societal, ecological and economic challenges, we will put to the test the social significance and practical relevance of cultural and social theory in the 21st century.

 Keynotes

• Rodrigo Duarte, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

• Lydia Goehr, New York City, USA

• Sven Kramer, Lüneburg, Germany

• Michael Thompson, New York City, USA

Conference Board (University of Graz)

• Stefan Baumgarten, Department of Translation Studies

• Stefan Brandt, Department of American Studies

• Juliane Jarke, BANDAS Center & Department of Sociology

• Susanne Kogler, Department of Art and Musicology

• Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl, Department of Philosophy

Format

 The conference is held in a workshop format. Incoming abstracts will be assigned to the following three corresponding themes:

• Workshop I: Language, Translation, Society

This workshop compares and contrasts diverse forms and concepts of critique and communication, examining their viability in view of current societal challenges such as multiculturalism, multilingualism, migration and modern communication technologies. Amongst other things, we will address cultural readings and language-specific receptions of the first generation of the Frankfurt School, especially concerning their historicity, timeliness and their ‘afterlife’. We will also pay special attention to ideology critique and to critical approaches on technology. Further relevant categories include phenomena such as inter- and transculturality, deconstruction and text, medialisation and multimodality, globalisation and (digital) cultures as well as gender-specific issues.

• Workshop II: Materialism, Aesthetics, Politics

The question surrounding (artistic) ‘material’ concerns one of the key themes associated with Theodor W. Adorno’s aesthetic theory. It is also of central importance regarding the current reception of Critical Theory. Such questions surrounding the status, nature and conceptualisation of the material world not only challenge the Marxist origins of Critical Theory but also its concrete political and practical relevance. In this workshop, we will compare and contrast approaches in Critical Philosophy and Critical Social Theory, as well as approaches pertaining to (Historical) Materialism and (Neo-)Idealism. Of particular interest here is the relationship between New Materialisms and Critical Theory. Further relevant topics include (world) literature, digitalization and mediatisation, art and freedom (from ideology), (artistic) activism and politics.

• Workshop III: Humans, Spirit, World Relation

This workshop deals with the relationship between science and critique. Here, the role of the Humanities for critical thinking and the role of lived practice with positive future implications will be debated from self-reflexive and self-critical standpoints. Among other things, we will discuss in what ways scientific and academic thought echoes conceptualisations, theories and arguments from Critical Theory, and how science might be able to adapt them for a better life, for a radical “wild thinking” that may generate alternative realities, art worlds, even anarchist constellations. Dichotomous thinking, post- and transhumanist ontologies as well as Anthropology and History are further possible themes. The relationship between critique, reason and unreason, as well as between critique, indignation and resistance about the state of (world) social affairs will also be up for discussion.

We look forward to receiving abstracts (max. 300 words) for 20-minute presentations on the above- mentioned topics and themes by 20 February 2024 under radikalesdenken(at)uni-graz.at. We are particularly looking forward to receiving contributions from doctoral candidates and early-career researchers! The abstracts must be submitted in anonymised form in English including a mini- biography (approx. 100 words).

The Conference Board will accept abstracts based on an anonymous selection procedure. Acceptance letters will be sent out in spring 2024. The conference will be streamed online. Selected contributions are expected to be published in English by Palgrave Macmillan.

merzWissenschaft | MEDIEN + ERZIEHUNG

Deadline (EXTENDED): January 24, 2024

SUPERVISING EDITORS:

PROF. DR. BIANCA BURGFELD-MEISE (FACHHOCHSCHULE SOUTH WESTPHALIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES),

PROF. DR. ANDREAS HEPP (UNIVERSITY OF BREMEN) AND MERZWISSENSCHAFT EDITORIAL TEAM (JFF)

The mediatization and digitalization of the everyday world means a loss of boundaries in media behavior. This makes it theoretically and practically impossible to apply a classical concept of media in researching and discussing delineated segments of life time segments (television time, radio time, internet/ PC time) in media-educational terms. Media, relationships conveyed by media and those not conveyed by media converge, online and offline actions can frequently no longer be differentiated, as illustrated by coinages such as the German terms “Bildhandeln” (“image action”) or “Informationshandeln” (“information action”). At the same time the concept of media is essential in the formulation, conceptualization and application of central concepts of the discipline – for example in determining the relationship between media literacy concepts and concepts of digital literacy – entailing implications for objectives and methods of (media-) educational practice.

Here an interdisciplinary realignment can help with perception of different aspects of the concept of media: (1) Robust theoretical references and mental paradigms can aid in regarding media in their communicative and connecting structures, as a central component of public life, as symbolic phenomena, as technical media in the broadest sense (including cultural technologies) and in terms of their abilities to overcome time and space (cf. Winkler 2008). In this context digital networking dissolves and re-forms the delineations between personalized, collective and mass- media audiences. Nonetheless, media are very demanding symbolic systems that generate and work with codes. The tendency for media to become invisible in their use and thus excluded from critical observations thus becomes relevant (cf. ibid.). Reflection here should include the fact that these dimensions address different theoretical models and thought models (semiotics, technical and anthropological perspectives, psychoanalysis, structural-theoretical discourse, etc.) which, depending on the medial phenomenon in question, have to be applied, expanded or adapted in widely varied and flexible ways in order to accommodate the character of the respective media. Felix Stalder’s discussion of a culture of digitality (2016) opens new perspectives for the connection of media, digitalization, the individual, society, and culture with several dimensions: the principle of algorithms, referentiality and communality. These are only some of the possible perspectives on media and their theoretical consideration.

However, the concept of media is challenged by (2) concrete current phenomena of the digital transformation. What interactions for example with AI-based applications and other phenomena of the digital transformation are to be understood as medial behavior? Which concept of media is being referred to here? Media and the concept of media are becoming increasingly more complex. The mediatization of everyday life entails the use of digital media in many educational fields, while at the same time media education is also focusing on other educational fields. What does this mean for media education as a discipline? What is the lasting value of specialized media-educational institutions, where is the added value in joint concepts?

Challenges impact not only the relationship between media and subjects, but also the relationship between media and society. In media education there is a traditionally high reliance on a concept of media whose societal relevance is based among other things on the creation of public appearance in a democratically structured society.

 In the context outlined and in the interest of positioning media and concept of media for (media-) educational practice we welcome papers addressing for example the following questions:

• Do“media”perform a different societal function as intermediaries today?How has this function changed?

• Current media generate new audiences–as well as driving individualization. What is significant here?

• Media are digital, but not all digital systems are media. Where is the delineation?

• What is the relationship of the individual and society with regard to these newer media developments, technolo-gies and audiences, and how do “media” equally address the individual and society?

• How are media and digital audiences understood in pedagogical contexts? On the level of content, as informational systems, as technical artifacts, as medial or social structures and spaces, as economic or even para-state structures?

• How can media and digital audiences be successfully observed in their diverse inter-relationships between the individual, society and the environment? How can media and digital audiences be thought of as environments or extensions of the individual, society and nature?

Robust further development of media education requires an adequate concept of media. The planned edition addresses the question of which concepts of media, media behavior (in its innovative dynamics and manifestations) and digital audiences are currently being discussed in media education and its adjacent disciplines, and calls for the (further) development of a concept of media which facilitates the generation of societally relevant findings, identifies need for action and transfers findings appropriate to the perspectives of the subjects to (media-) educational practice.

In discussing the question of an adequate concept of media, media education seeks dialog with its adjacent disci- plines, primarily with Communication Sciences and Media Studies, but also with Sociology, Political Science and Philosophy, Legal Science as well as information education and other technological sciences.

We look forward to receiving theoretical and empirical papers which can provide insights into the requirements and touchpoints of a currently adequate concept of media and associated key questions and which discuss the concept of media as well as providing direction for (media) educational practice.

Abstracts with a maximum length of 6,000 characters (including blank spaces) can be submitted to the merz-editorial team (merz@jff.de) until January 8, 2024. Submissions should follow the merzWissenschaft layout specifications, available at https://www.merz-zeitschrift.de/manuskriptrichtlinien/. The length of the articles should not exceed a maximum of approximately 35,000 characters (including blank spaces).

Please feel free to contact Susanne Eggert, Fon: +49.89.68989.130, E-Mail: susanne.eggert@jff.de

DEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• 8 January 2024: Submission of abstracts to merz@jff.de

• Extended deadline: 24 January 2024

• 29 January 2024: Decision on acceptance/rejection of abstracts

• 15 May 2024: Submission of articles

• May/June2024: Assessment phase (double-blind peer review)

• June/July2024: Revision phase (multi-phase when appropriate)

• End of November 2024: merzWissenschaft2024 published

Smit Mehta

New Screen Ecology in India is an open access book that provides an in depth exploration of the digital transformation of the Indian media industries. 

Mehta’s debut book makes a persuasive case for a theoretical framework that acknowledges complex interdependencies and informalities in a broader network of digital infrastructures, rather than a siloed, single sector, or cohort of creators. Through first-hand research with creators, platform and portal executives, and intermediaries such as talent agents and multi-channel networks, Mehta develops the concept of the 'new screen ecology' that accommodates both platforms and ‘portals’ (Amanda Lotz’s name for internet-distributed television, or IDTV) as sites of study. The book builds on the historical formal-informal dynamics of the Indian film and television industries to highlight the top-down and bottom-up creator and content-based linkages between creators, streaming services and intermediaries. 

By interrogating the production practices of 13 different platforms and portals, including Hotstar, Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video, the book makes a significant contributions to the understanding of digital transformation of Indian media industries, whether be his focus on creator labor, intersectional analysis of gendered digital production cultures, focus on intermediary work or the political, social and cultural significance of non-mainstream Indian language creations such as Marathi and Bengali to the Indian new screen ecology.

A free copy to the book can be accessed here: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781839025693

About the Author:  Smith Mehta is Assistant Professor in the Center for Media and Journalism Studies at University of Groningen, Netherlands. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Industries (2021) from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He is a critical media industries scholar, having published on issues related to creative labor, digital distribution, and cultural economy in leading journals including such as Media, Culture and Society, Television and New Media, and International Journal of Cultural Studies.' Smith has previously worked in Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd as a content producer

Call for book chapters

Deadline: January 31, 2024

We are excited to invite contributions to our forthcoming book, "Politics of Open Infrastructures," exploring open digital knowledge infrastructures. We welcome abstracts for chapters that delve into respective open infrastructures, including their development, governance, and impact on public policy, research environments, and social change.

Open infrastructures come in different shapes and sizes. Ranging from small community networks to large-scale data infrastructures, they all share an emphasis on collaborative development and a collective benefit from use. They prioritize accessibility, transparency, and inclusivity and thereby challenge traditional notions of hierarchy and control, advocating for more decentralized, participatory approaches to managing and using these vital resources. The movement towards commoning data and infrastructures marks a shift from individual ownership and consumption to collective stewardship and communal advantages. Encompassing practices in science, culture, education, administration and welfare, the act of opening up infrastructures is contigent on the interplay between human organisation and specific social activities (Star 1999, Bowker and Star 2006), aligning with the idea of “infrastructuring” openness.

“Infrastructuring” openness refers to the ongoing, sometimes participatory processes of designing and modifying infrastructure systems to promote open access, open methods, inclusivity, collaboration, and adaptability in a way that they become embedded into everyday practices and support diverse user needs. Within the regulatory frameworks of Europe’s emphasis on “digital sovereignty,” open infrastructures, especially open source initiatives, are garnering significant political interest. However, openness faces several challenges, including the commercial capture of open technologies and issues related to community governance and the distribution of responsibilities. Thus, the question arises: how might open infrastructures contribute to sustainable liveable futures within the political, technological and cultural fabrics of society?

The forthcoming book, “Politics of Open Infrastructures,” addresses the variety of open infrastructures by examining open digital knowledge infrastructures and their complex interrelations with socio-political dynamics. Knowledge infrastructures, in their broadest sense, comprise robust networks of people, artifacts, and institutions that generate, share, and maintain specific knowledge about the human and natural worlds (Edwards 2010). They are often based on digital platforms and open-source principles ensuring that knowledge resources, such as scientific research, educational materials, public services, application programming interfaces (APIs) and standards are freely available, yet they are sometimes also modifiable, governed by their communities of users. This notion of politics highlights that open infrastructures are not neutral, technical artifacts (Winner 1980) but rather intertwined with values and power relations that influence their design, implementation, and impact on society. We therefore emphasize the role of infrastructures in creating and reinforcing social order, and vice versa, where decisions about infrastructure development and maintenance can have significant implications for social inclusion, access to resources, and the distribution of power.

The collection of chapters in this book will provide a multi-faceted exploration of open digital knowledge infrastructures, a critical area where traditional positions on technology development, knowledge production, and social innovation are contested. It will delve into various aspects of such infrastructures, examining how they serve as sites for connection, collaborative creation, shared resources and new models for collective action or governance. The book scrutinizes embodied principles and values in processes of “infrastructuring” openness, while also navigating the complexities of responsibility, sustainability, and ethical considerations. Through a diverse range of perspectives, this collection reveals how open digital knowledge infrastructures are not only technical frameworks or resources but also instruments of social change, shaping and being shaped by specific politics.

Important Deadline: Please submit your abstract (500 words) by January 31, 2024. Detailed information on themes, other key dates and information can be found here: https://shorturl.at/aSV27

We look forward to your insightful contributions to this critical discourse.

Best regards,

Katja Meyer, Astrid Mager and Renée Ridgway

Deadline for applications: February 15, 2024

The Institute of Communication Psychology and Media Education (IKM) is looking for a PhD candidate or Postdoc (m/f/d) in the field of political communication. The position is assigned to the team of Prof. Dr. Michaela Maier.

We are looking for a person with a clear scientific qualification goal. The position can be filled as a doctoral position (usually 75%) or postdoctoral position (100%).

We offer integration into a dynamic, highly motivated working group, which provides both opportunities for collaboration and exchange as well as the freedom to develop your own ideas.

Deadline for applications: February 15, 2024

Weblink to the full job description: https://psy.rptu.de/fileadmin/IKM/dokumente/docs_news/PolCom_Position_in_Landau.pdf

May 31-June 1, 2024

Online

Deadline: March 1, 2024

IPCC 2024 is now accepting submissions for the upcoming conference on May 31-June 1, 2024 which will be held online. This event is organized in the context of the PhD in Communication Program at Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey. For the detailed information, you can visit our website https://ipcc.bilgi.edu.tr

This year's theme is "Beyond the Public-Private in Communication," and the conference aims to provide a platform for early career researchers to reflect on the public-private dichotomy in communication studies. The conference especially welcomes case-dependent works.

The conference will also have a networking event among the participants where they will share their insights in groups for further research agendas on the given themes.

The sections include:

- Conceptualizations and Contexts

- Representing the Public vs. Private

- Digital Spaces and Information Flow

- Public Spaces and Private Initiatives

- Around and Beyond the Digital

- Art and the Public-Private Interface

- Public Relations and the Public-Private Divide

- Personal Identity and Gaming

- Visual Communication

- Doing Research on Private Spaces

You can send your submissions to ipcc@bilgi.edu.tr with an extended abstract of 500-750 words and a bio of 100 words by Friday, March 1st, 2024.

Looking forward to your insights!

On behalf of the organizing committee,

Yusuf Yüksekdağ

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Communication

Istanbul Bilgi University

yusuf.yuksekdag@bilgi.edu.tr

May 2 (full day) - 3 (half day), 2024

AAU, Copenhagen, Denmark

Deadline: February 2, 2024

Considering the recent climate developments and resulting socio-economic disparities, questions that address media and communication from a broader sustainability perspective have become increasingly urgent. Yet, they reside far too often at the periphery of media and communication research and practice. SMiD 2024 seeks to raise awareness and address these issues, fostering a critical discussion on the role of media and communication in relation to the notion of sustainability. We understand sustainability as defined by the United Nations Brundtland Commission in 1987, as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. We address the topic in its broadest possible sense, ranging from environmental, economic, and political Issues to social well-being. Contributions are invited through both the open call and the themed call. More information: https://www.foreningen-smid.dk/

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

1. News media: e.g., climate reporting and climate framing, sustainable news production, resilience journalism, news media, and political power.

2. The ”good” life and datafied living: e.g., balancing personal lifestyle choices and their environmental consequences, navigating environmental data and environmental practices.

3. Everyday practices and sustainability: e.g., upcycling practices, civil movements, and reimagining everyday practices for a sustainable future.

4. Organizational practices: e.g., authenticity vs. greenwashing, communication, AI, and digital sustainability.

5. Sustainable communication: e.g., new ways of explaining the impacts media habits induce on the climate and environment, communicating these challenges,

6. Politics and governance: e.g., communication practices of political parties, issues in climate governance, political and institutional decision-making.

The special issue resulting from the themed call will be guest edited by Mikkel Fugl Eskjær, Aalborg University, Denmark, Sandra Simonsen, Aarhus University, Denmark, Henrik Bødker, Aarhus University, Denmark og Martina Skrubbeltrang Mahnke, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Deadline for contributions: February 2nd, 2024

Contact information: smid@foreningen-smid.dk

No author payments required, all articles will be published fully open access.

ECREA book series in European Communication Research and Education

Deadline: February 12, 2024

With this call, we invite authors to submit a short abstract for a book chapter in an edited volume with the working title Alternative media across European Media Systems. Conceptual cornerstones, methodological challenges, and systemic conditions. The selected abstracts will form part of an extended book proposal for the open access ECREA book series in European Communication Research and Education. The book aims to move beyond purely empirical single country case studies and abstracts with comparative, conceptual, and/or methodological contributions will be valued. Abstracts submitted must be based on original work not previously published. Please note: The extended book proposal is one among three candidates for the open access publication, and acceptance of an abstract is thus not a guarantee of publication.

Background and aim

Across European countries, the past decade’s dropping levels of media- and political trust and sweeping populist election victories have coincided with the rise of what have been labeled “alternative media”, “hyperpartisan news”, or “interlopers” to name a few. Broadly, these terms refer to and reflect a renewed scholarly interest in media actors that, in different ways and to different extents, challenge institutional news media. Accordingly, there has been a recent flux of studies exploring these actors’ content, sourcing practices, media criticism, users, and producers. While these studies have offered important empirical insights, this book aims to further advance this emerging research field conceptually and methodologically and develop systemic perspectives that are applicable across dissimilar national media- and political contexts to provide grounds for better linking and integrating future empirical studies. To this end, we call for contributions that address conceptual, methodological, and systemic challenges, organized in three subsections.

Part I: Conceptual cornerstones

An increasing number of different concepts are currently employed to study similar groups of media outlets. While the proposed book builds on the term “alternative media”, which is currently most widely established in the European context, other related terms include “political media”, “populist media”, “hyperpartisan news”, “parasitic news”, and “junk news”. This raises the pertinent question about whether or not we are studying the same thing. Moreover, the field has over recent years undergone a development from focusing mainly on progressive left-wing cases to focusing also on populist and/or right-wing cases. This raises a number of questions, such as whether our understanding of these media can and should be neutral or normative, how they reshape our understanding of established journalistic terms like balance, quality, and representation, whether and how to distinguish democratic from anti-democratic cases, bias from misinformation, and partisanship from extremity, and whether and how alternative media with different ideological leanings and goals can and should be studied within the same theoretical framework(s). This part of the book calls for contributions that address these or related conceptual questions and/or reflect on the different roles alternative media can play as actors of misinformation, interlopers on the journalistic field, correctives of mainstream media, voices of marginalized groups, parts of populist and anti-systemic movements etc., and how to conceptualize the role of these media from different democracy-theoretical perspectives.

Part II: Methodological challenges

Alternative media research can be a controversial field to navigate and engaging with this object of study raises methodological challenges and ethical dilemmas that should not be, but are currently, left to the Q&A sessions at conference panels. The book calls for contributions that shed light on and discuss these issues. As examples, how do you recruit research participants among users and producers of media characterized by sometimes hostile relations to established research? How do you balance building trust with participants and maintaining a critical perspective on the phenomenon under study? Does research on alternative media risk marginalizing or mainstreaming specific points of view and should this be a concern? And how can and do scholars deal with (the risk of) public backlashes to their research? For this section, the book also calls for contributions that reflect on challenges and potentials relating to different methods that can be used for studying alternative media. These can include but are not limited to network analysis; content analysis (qualitative, quantitative, manual or automated, topic modeling etc.); and user and producer studies (interviews, surveys, tracking, data donation, diaries, etc.).

Part III: Systemic conditions

Many studies on alternative media and related concepts are single-country case studies. This ties the empirical insights to the specific media- and political contexts, making it difficult to transfer and compare results across national or regional contexts. Moreover, most European studies focus on Nordic or Central media systems, leaving understudied the Western, Southern, and Eastern European contexts. This part of the book invites contributions that seek to develop media- and political systemic perspectives that can be applied and allow comparison across dissimilar contexts, e.g. by shedding light on the different mainstreams new media-political actors challenge in different European media systems and what different contexts mean for the roles these actors play in the media- and political systems they enter.

How to submit

Abstracts should be approximately 200 words. Please send your abstract to: miriam.brems@cc.au.dk. Deadline: 12 February.

Editors:

• Miriam Kroman Brems. Aarhus University, Denmark.
  
• Tine Ustad Figenschou. Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
  
• Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk. Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
  
• Eva Mayerhöffer. Roskilde University, Denmark.
  

June 17-28, 2024, Nijmegen (Netherlands)

June 10-14, 2024 (online)

We are thrilled to inform you that the 3nd edition of our flagship event, the Summer School in Social Research Methods (3SRM), held in-person in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 17 – 28 June, and 10-14 June online, is now ‘live’ on the www and that registrations are now open! Please find below all info on this unique event; feel free to disseminate as you see best.

In addition, you’ll also find here below some short info on:

-       The Konstanz Methods Excellence Workshops (komex), organized by the University of Konstanz (Germany) in collaboration with MethodsNET, 22 February - 1 March (online and in-person)

-       Our three Launch events (30 October – 2 November), including our Launch Conference, in-person in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) + hybrid, as we scale up MethodsNET as a global membership-based association. Save the dates!

Finally, please note that registrations are now also open for another top pedagogy training event endorsed by MethodsNET: the 28th Summer School in Social Science Methods, which will take place in Lugano (Switzerland) and online from 8 to 23 August. More on this in a further newsletter.

Best regards,

Benoît Rihoux [sending this message], Derek Beach, Levi Littvay, Cai Wilkinson, Anka Kekez and Bruno Castanho Silva, members of the MethodsNET Executive Board [currently being constituted, and which will be publicly announced when we launch our full digital platform – stay tuned!]

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World-class methods courses – and so much more

Registrations to our flagship event are now open! The 3rd edition of the Summer School in Social Research Methods (3SRM) is hosted again at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 17 - 28 June (in-person) + 10 – 14 June (online)

This is the most pluralistic methods training event worldwide, covering the whole span of methodological traditions, including innovative/emerging topics. If you want to bring your research to the next level, the 3SRM is the place to be. It is a unique venue, which comprises 46 main courses:

●      7 pre-week 1 online courses (10-14 June, 5-day format) on software + other specialized topics

●      38 in-person PhD-level interactive courses spanning the full range of social scientific methods, taught by top pedagogues and enabling multiple useful week 1 – week 2 sequences (intensive 5-day format for each course):

o   5 Foundational courses

o   9 Interpretive/Qualitative Approaches courses

o   5 Case-based/Comparative Approaches courses (4 one-week courses and 2 two-week courses)

o   11 Statistical Approaches courses

o   8 Big Data courses

●      … and each main course fee gives access to a full weekly package also comprising:

o   an optional Morning Cross-cutting short course

o   a choice of Late afternoon optional Supplemental short courses

o   a ‘Methods Café’ to link up with diverse top methods experts

o   … and lunch vouchers

All information on how to register via the institutional host (RSS) website. Registrations are first come, first served, with lower fees for students and PhD researchers. Note the 10% or 15% discounts which can be obtained based on different criteria, including ‘early bird’ registration before 1 April With these respective discounts, at (PhD) student rates, you can get your full weekly training package for 629€ or 594€ (in-person courses), and access to a full 1-week online course for 419€ or 396€.

Additional benefit: by registering to at least 1 course (in-person or online), you receive free MethodsNET membership for the whole of 2024.

Welcome to your Summer School & see you (again?) in Nijmegen… or online! See also these testimonies from 2023.

Limited spots left for #KOMEX2024!

The Konstanz Methods Excellence Workshops (komex) are organized by the University of Konstanz in collaboration with MethodsNET. Komex offers excellent, inclusive, and sustainable PhD-level methods training. Dates: Feb 22 - 23 (short courses) and Feb 26 - Mar 1, 2024 (compact & main courses).

The event’s hybrid format combines in-person and online options, covering a spectrum of quantitative and qualitative methods all at budget-friendly rates.

Browse the komex courses: 7 qualitative courses (4 online, 3 in-person) and 10 quantitative/software/foundational courses (3 online, 7 in-person). Tailored to fit your schedule: choose from short (2-day), compact (3-day) or main (5-day).

Register here: tinyurl.com/komexreg. Stay updated with komex: on X @komex_methods or on BlueSky @komex.bsky.social

As part of the process of scaling up MethodsNET into a membership-based association: do take a good note of these upcoming opportunities for you and your colleagues in 2024 still:

…soon launch of our full website, stay tuned: we are working full steam on the scaling up of MethodsNET as a membership-based association delivering much more services to meet your needs. Within the next 2 months, we will launch the brand-new MethodsNET website, along with more info, a call for members and for partner institutions, and calls for the Launch events (see below). You will be personally informed - and invited.

…and save the date(s) of our Launch events: these will be held in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) from 30 October to 2 November 2024: a ‘Training to trainers’ event (Wednesday 30/10), the MethodsNET Launch Conference (Thursday 31/10 full day & Friday 1/11 morning), and a ‘Methods Innovation Workshops’ event (Friday 1/11 afternoon & Saturday 2/11 morning). Save the dates, as the respective Organizing Committees are composing the program and timetables. There will be plenty of ways to get involved. Online participation will also be possible. Much more info on these events when we launch our new website (NB the URL will remain unchanged). 

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