ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

César Jiménez-Martínez

Palgrave MacMillan, 2020

https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030382377

This book explores the struggles over the mediated construction and projection of the image of the nation at times of social unrest. Focussing on the June 2013 protests in Brazil, it examines how different actors –authorities, activists, the national media, foreign correspondents– disseminated competing versions of ‘what Brazil was’ during that pivotal episode. The book offers a fresh conceptual approach, supported by media coverage analysis and original interviews, that demonstrates the potential of digital media to challenge power structures and establish new ways of representing the nation. It also highlights the vulnerability of both ‘old’ and ‘new’ media to forms of inequality and disruption due to political interferences, technological constraints, and continuing commercial pressures. Contributing to the study of media and the nation as well as media and social movements, the author throws into sharp relief the profound transformation of mediated nationhood in a digital and global media environment.

Table of contents:

• Introduction: The June 2013 Protests and the Image of Brazil
• Theorising the Image of the Nation: Contestation, Media and Visibility
• Before the June Journeys: The Contested Visibility of the ‘New’ Brazil
• The Visible Nation: The Media Coverage of the June Journeys
• Strategies of Mediated Visibility: Replacement, Adjustment and Re-appropriation
• Conditions of Mediated Visibility: Routines, Norms, Technologies and Commercialism
• Conclusion: Beyond the Visible, Beyond the June Journeys

Reviews:

“Jiménez-Martínez has produced a highly readable, in-depth analysis of mediated nationhood in contemporary Brazil. Drawing from a rich body of original research, the book persuasively shows that the mediated process of nationhood is contested, with unpredictable consequences. It is not firmly controlled by the State or any other actor, particularly in societies with huge social disparities and political conflict. The meaning of nationhood is essentially unstable, as actors contend to (de)redefine its response to the actions of others. This book should be of great interest to scholars of media, journalism, and nationalism.” (Silvio Waisbord, Professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University, USA)

“Jiménez-Martínez’s book provides a rich, nuanced view about the Brazilian ‘June Journeys’, a puzzling political phenomenon, and the disputes about the event’s meaning, involving the government, protesters, the mainstream and the alternative media. A must-read book.” (Afonso de Albuquerque, Professor of Cultural Studies and Media, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil)

“This book is an original, thoughtful and incisive contribution to the literature around the mediation of national identity and protests. It engages very effectively with various theoretical frameworks, shows an admirable grasp of recent research and makes excellent use of empirical investigation to tell the story of how the mediation of the June Journeys unfolded.” (Tim Markham, Professor of Journalism and Media, Birkbeck, University of London, UK)

“The Brazilian 2013 June protests have had a profound impact on the nation’s contemporary history and political life. Jiménez-Martínez provides here an in-depth engagement with the June Journeys by conducting extensive research on how the nation was constructed in the national and international media, analysing 797 newspaper articles and TV reports and conducting sixty-four interviews. This book is theoretically dense and innovative, destined to contribute to research on nation-building and the role of media in democratisation processes.” (Carolina Matos, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Media, City, University of London, UK)

The author:

César Jiménez-Martínez is Lecturer in Global Media and Communications at Cardiff University, UK. His research interests include media and nationalism, nation branding and public diplomacy, media globalisation, media visibility, and social movements, particularly in the context of Latin America.

JOANNA SZOSTEK, University of Glasgow, UK

International Journal of Communication 14(2020)

An earlier version of this article was presented at ECREA panel on ICA 2019 in Washington, DC

Discussions about state-sponsored communication with foreign publics are increasingly framed in the language of “information war” rather than “public diplomacy,” particularly in Eastern Europe. For example, media projects supported by Western governments to engage Ukrainian audiences, and Ukrainian government efforts to engage international audiences via the media, are considered necessary responses in the information war with Russia. This article highlights several potentially problematic assumptions about communicative influence that are embedded in the language of information war. First is the assumption that communication can be targeted like a weapon to achieve a predictable impact. Second is the assumption that audiences engage with communication from an adversary because they are “vulnerable.” Third is the assumption that “winning” in an information war means getting citizens to believe particular facts. Although these assumptions may hold to some degree, this article argues that adopting them uncritically can have detrimental consequences in policymaking.

https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/13439/3092

Baltic Screen Media Review (Special Focus)

Deadline: June 7, 2020

See about BSMR, a free to publish open access journal here: https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/bsmr/bsmr-overview.xml

The Covid-19 pandemic has functioned as a ‘perfect storm’ – there is a concurrence of diverse factors possibly changing the futures of audiovisual cultures and industries for good. It has brought some social, economic, and cultural spheres to an unprecedented halt presenting an array of challenges, but also facilitated the emergence of new forms and practices, even institutions elsewhere. We therefore launch a Call for Short Papers discussing the ongoing pandemic as a catalysator for change in audiovisual cultures and industries. These short ‘thinkpiece’ type of academic essays could observe the Covid-19 pandemic as a proxy for possible future crises and how these may affect how we teach and produce audiovisual cultures.

Let us start with the reflexive layer – the scholarship of audiovisual cultures and our practices. The “new normal” is rapidly redefining our experiences and practices by colliding our virtual and actual lived worlds and turning our private domiciles into workplaces. Finding a healthy work-life balance in the lockdown creates a paradox when the two have become nearly indistinguishable. The overnight switch to online teaching presumed the willingness to create online courses and to have one’s intellectual labour digitised and mediatised, potentially furthering the ongoing neoliberalisation of higher education. Teaching and academic exchanges are getting platformised in a rapid pace, undermining the autonomy of both academics as well as universities. Yet, also counterpractices as well as new forms of teaching emerge – there are examples of lecturing becoming itself an audiovisual practice that may include elements of complex storytelling and there are signs of genre differences evolving for video lectures.

Yet, while digitisation allowed academia to keep operating under new conditions, filmmakers found themselves in a complete standstill with shooting, location scouting, and casting entirely prohibited. With narrative settings, budgets, and state and private funding often tied to exact shooting schedules and frequently including locations abroad, filmmakers have entered the most stressful phase of their careers. Exhibition at the same time became prone for disruption. With cinemas closed and most film festivals postponed, the streaming platforms have stolen the show. Much of innovation is currently taking place in screening online. Yet, it is not clear how does it affect independent cinema and cinemas of small countries around the Baltic Sea. While there is a risk of concentration in global streaming markets, during the pandemic there has also been an unexpected emergence of multiple new specialised streaming platforms. These are creating possibly a momentum for local varieties in film and audiovisual content production.

Similar has been the fate of television. It too did not escape challenges, with the gathering of live audiences forbidden, leaving talk show hosts to having to resort to producing programmes from home and via digital means. This, too, has broken many pre-existing boundaries, increasing the reliance of media industry on the affordance of global digital platforms, but also enforced convergence of television with networked media and enabled much innovation in terms of the publicness created by television and by the mediatization of previously private spaces.

Baltic Screen Media Review calls for short articles and commentaries, between 1500–2500 words, reflecting and exploring a range of issues concerning teaching, producing and consuming media, and our mediated experiences in the time of the Covid-19 crisis. We invite articles focusing on the Baltic Sea region (incl. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Poland, Germany, Finland, etc), but analyses of similar issues elsewhere, especially in countries of similar sizes or circumstances are also welcome.

• Platformisation of teaching, film and television – their inherent similarities and differences
• The critical shifts in media markets during the crisis
• The new political economies media markets during the crisis
• Emergence of new forms of audiovisual cultures
• The challenges and opportunities of teaching new media, film, and/or television online
• Filmmaking and exhibition under lockdown
• Televised reporting and entertainment during the Covid-19 crisis
• Inclusivity and diversity of digital strategies
• Questions about data and self
• Managing fears and anxieties via digital audiovisual means

Abstracts of 200–300 words are to be received by Monday 7 June 2020, and full manuscripts of 1500-2500 words, excluding refs, by Monday 31 August 2020 in order to be sent out for review. The special section of BSMR will appear in issue vol 8:1 published both online and in print in late 2020. As BSMR is a very visual journal we invite authors to use photos and other illustrations as part of the essays.

All submissions should be sent via email attachment to Indrek Ibrus (ibrus@tlu.ee) and Teet Teinemaa (teinemaa@tlu.ee).

Ocula

Abstract submission deadline: June 15, 2020

Editors: Piergiorgio Degli Esposti, Antonella Mascio e Geraldina Roberti

For some time now, the sociological analysis has been focused on consumptions, not by using a mere economistic analysis, but a multidimensional approach instead, capable of grasping the cultural and/or symbolical aspects also. In fact, consumption practices have been converted into means through which the social actors can express their identity, their membership or the universe of values they feel they belong to. In this regard, consumer goods and experiences constitute the extended self (Belk, 1988; 2013), which enables the actors to better define themselves and their immediate social circle.

That is part of why this CFP aims to analyse the multiple forms of the consumption universe. It is believed that sociology can offer a privileged point of view about the dynamics that underlie the consumption practices of social actors. In the today’s society, in effect, consumptions seem to carry increasingly complicated and complex meanings, as to constitute one of the key elements around which the same social action is structured.

In this respect, consumption practices can contribute to the practice of subjective agency (Borgerson, 2005), but they also enable social actors to concretely and tangibly express their adherence to the gender identity in which they recognize themselves. Gender – as the first key word of the title – and consumption, will be the first topic of reflection proposed in this call, with the awareness of the multiple modalities through which the two terms can intersect. Several scholars have underlined how gender variables have a significant impact on the life and consumption styles of the actors (Harris, 2004). Especially, they pointed out how young women can use specific consumption practices in order to claim their voice and resist the dominant culture (Fisher and Davis, 1993). However, in the context of feminist reflection, Angela McRobbie (2008) has called attention on the necessity of a critical approach, regarding the analysis of women’s role in the wide consumer culture. None the less, the relation between gender identities and consumptions attract attentions of researchers as an interesting space for reflection, which we intend to investigate with a fully cross-disciplinary approach.

The second key word we intend to explore is genre. Traditionally, the concept of genre in the medial panorama has been asserted according to three main dimensions: entertainment, education and information. In recent times, medial genres underwent a significant evolution, related to the transformations of the media themselves, their use within the public sphere as well as the needs of production (Grignaffini, 2012). The importance of genres in the cultural consumption panorama seems to concern, above all, the television industry, which is adapting its production culture to a less linear paradigm. For instance, information appears increasingly expanded over the recognized institutional spaces, by enlarging the usual definitional framework and by calling into question the relation between daily events and opinions, within a game of mirrors favoured by the expansion of social networks. Game show and talk show, reality show, talent show, factual often have minimal differences, which are instead essential to make order within the show schedule and to establish a communicative deal with the audience. Both aspects are fundamental for the success of every show. Regarding the fiction, the pursuit of quality involves several dimensions (screenwriting, directing, acting …), by bringing television closer to cinema, so much so that reference narrative models, as well as the cast, the directors, and other operators of the set often participate in productions for both apparatuses. We are talking about a model of complexity (Mittell, 2015), which operates in different directions, by influencing in a significant way both mixtures of genres and new modalities of fruition products. What we propose to investigate is, therefore, the importance that genres are acquiring in the media, in relation to the ways of creating exchange moments between productions, media products and audiences. In this, the latter are mainly linked to reference genres instead of individual titles in programming, based on increasingly transmedial fruition paths (Hill 2019).

The last key words on which we intend to draw scholars’ attention is generations, more specifically the multiple ways in which, in an increasingly individualized society, the chronological and subcultural variable affect the consumption choices of the subjects. In particular, the present number of the magazine intends to investigate the transformation of styles and practices of consumption within the different generational cohorts, with a specific attention on the role that new communication technologies might have on such processes (Colombo, Boccia Artieri, Del Grosso Destrieri, Pasquali, Sorice, 2012).

As for the new generations, specific consumer practices seem able to create collective identity narratives, by building a real generational semantics (Corsten, 1999). However, it looks evident that young people are adopting more personalized consumption patterns, by differentiating their choices on a functional style to fully express their identity and symbolic imagination (demonstrated by the success of very popular series like, for example, “13 Reasons Why”, “Skam” or “Stranger Things”).

Moreover, in the panorama of medial representations of generations, it is interesting to look at the space given to the old age’s world in recent years. It seems right to state that, through products of fiction and entertainment, the cultural meaning of old age is significantly changing. “The Kominsky Method” or “Grace and Frankie” are two examples of series in which established actors, like Jane Fonda or Michael Douglas, play characters that voice energies and wishes once barred from people of an older age. As a matter of fact, the use of famous, well known and familiar celebrities allows to give new meanings and sense to an age that is no longer represented as a taboo only. Besides, the ageing, as well as on TV, is increasingly used in advertising, cinema, magazines, but also social media, to demonstrate the common sharing of new criteria with which, at a social level, age is experienced and observed. An example is the Instagram profile "Sciuraglam" with 185 thousand followers, which portrays not-so-young cool ladies. A further question to investigate is the relationship between age, generations and gender. Among the many representations of bodies that are no longer young, we notice a consistent presence of the female sphere, in particular, in those websites showing comparisons and differences between an image from the past, the “before”, and another from the present, the “now”.

The monographic number of Ocula will collect theoretical and empirical contributions of scholars that, starting from the different methodological perspectives, reflect upon the processes just mentioned.

Below is an indicative, but not exhaustive, list of possible areas of reflection:

1. Consumptions, bodies and genders identity;

2. Gender and its representation through the media; medial products and productions addressing also queer and/or lgbt+ issues;

3. Evolution of representation of female/male figure in commercials and in different forms of advertising;

4. Transformation of genres and seriality, transmediality and audience’s role, also in a global perspective;

5. Representation of different age cohorts in medial narrations and commercials: is it the end of stereotypes or their reproduction in other forms?

6. Technological platforms, generational cohorts and prosumerism;

7. Media as means for observing cultural changes; gender, genres and generations in the medial representations of present and past;

8. Myths and generational icons.

References

Belk, R.W. (1988), «Possessions and the Extended Self», The Journal of Consumer Research, 15(2), pp. 139-168.

Belk, R.W. (2013), «Extended Self in a Digital World», Journal of Consumer Research, 40(3), pp. 477-500

Borgerson, J. (2005), «Materiality, Agency, and the Constitution of Consuming Subjects», Advances in Consumer Research 32, pp. 439-443.

Colombo, F., Boccia Artieri, G., Del Grosso Destrieri, L., Pasquali, F., Sorice, M. (a cura di) (2012), Media e generazioni nella società italiana, Milano, FrancoAngeli.

Corsten, M. (1999), «The time of generations», Time & Society, 8(2-3), pp. 249-272.

Fisher, S., Davis, K. (eds) (1993), Negotiating at the margins, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press.

Grigraffini, G., (2012), I generi televisivi, Roma, Carocci.

Harris, A. (ed.) (2004), All about the Girl. Culture, Power and Identity. New York/London, Routledge.

McRobbie, A. (2008), «Young Women and Consumer Culture», Cultural Studies 22(5), pp. 531-550.

Mittell, J. (2015), Complex Tv. The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling, New York, New York University Press.

Deadlines

• Abstract submission deadline: June 15, 2020
• Notification of acceptance or refusal: June 30, 2020.
• Submission of the essays: October 30, 2020.
• Notification of acceptance, rejection or revision request: November 30, 2020.
• Revised essays: December 15, 2020.
• Scheduled Publication: January 31, 2021.

Accepted languages: English, Italian.

Abstracts should be sent as an e-mail attachment (300-500 words including title, author name(s), email address(es), and institutional affiliation(s), bibliographic references excluded).

Abstracts and articles must be sent to: redazione@ocula.it

Piergiorgio Degli Esposti: pg.degliesposti@unibo.it

Antonella Mascio: antonella.mascio@unibo.it

Geraldina Roberti: geraldina.roberti@univaq.it

Informations

– The acceptance of the articles and their publication is subject to double blind peer review.

– The Authors can find all the editing and format rules at the page “Come si collabora” - How to contribute to Ocula, on the home page. Please read it carefully and follow the recommendations.

 – There are no official limits of length to the articles, yet we recommend 40.000 characters as a reasonable maximum measure (including spaces, notes and references).

– Files format accepted are .doc and docx.

– The articles may include any kind of images.

– Images (photographies, graphs, tables) must be included in the main text file and submitted each as a separate file, in .jpg, .png, .tif, .eps, .psd formats.

– The Authors must send their contribution in two versions: one in anonymous form, to be sent to the reviewers, and the other containing name, position, email, website, biographic notes. Each version must be a separate file.

– In the anonymous file, in any reference to the Author’s publications the name must be cancelled and replaced by “Author” and the titles by “Title of the publication”.

The date must be let visible.

– Please, add an abstract of the paper

Media and Communication (volume 9, Issue 2)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2020

Publication of the Issue: April/June 2021

Editor(s): Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. (Lancaster University, UK)

Information: Increasing digitization of journalism and other forms of media continue to attract the attention of social scientists and sociological approaches to interpret change and to predict the future for audiences and producers alike. However, emerging forms of surveillance and sousveilliance among and by media producers, privacy amid massive data collection, and globalization at the center of digital communication across continents and economies warrants a revision of critical theory within media and communication studies. While critical theory, which deals with, in the words of Horkheimer, that which attempts to “liberate human begins from the circumstances that enslave them” – promises for much engagement with new technologies and interactions of power systems in media and communication, the area largely remains in select corridors of scholarship and industry discussions. There is a need to revisit (and return to) the works that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s in the U.K. and U.S. not only as a targeted approach against increasing neoliberalism globally but as commentary about the dangers of established social scientific and sociological approaches to politics, advertising, and journalism that failed to question dominant ideologies of the day. The work of scholars most aligned with contemporary attempts at critical scholarship in journalism and media research amid technological change include Stuart Hall, Hanno Hardt, bell hooks, Marx, and, of course, a host of postmodern theorists. This special issue is an attempt to capture the state of critical theory in journalism, media, and communication scholarship to reveal what deeper meanings exist within dominant, normative assessments of journalism and the Fourth Estate, sociological inquiries into journalistic boundary work, and deterministic interpretations of technology that remain at the forefront of popular journalism and media studies. This issue will not argue against the need for normative work that asks difficult questions about technological advancement or positions journalism fully outside of fulfilling its democratic aims. Yet, the predominant position of this issue is to engage and enlighten researchers to ask about and apply critical positions in order to develop those theories, unveil new ideas about current questions, and plow a way forward for critical perspectives in increasingly digital means of communication. This issue welcomes discussions from a variety of media and communication areas, from journalism and advertising to platform studies, social media networks, virtual reality and AI, to political communication.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com).

Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here.

Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna

The Vienna Doctoral School of Historical and Cultural Studies invites applications for 6 fully funded doctoral positions (3 years, non tenure)

The newly established Vienna Doctoral School of Historical and Cultural Studies (SHCS) invites applications from excellent doctoral candidates who intend to pursue their PhD in a vibrant, international academic environment at the University of Vienna.

Currently, the SHCS comprises 80 faculty members and 230 doctoral students. It offers a unique combination of a broad range of interrelated programs in historical and cultural studies (see more at SHCS.univie.ac.at) and provides well structured support and top level specialist supervision to enhance your excellence in research and provide you with outstanding international visibility.

We invite applications for one of our seven research clusters to begin your doctoral studies in the Winter Semester 2020.

• Ancient, Byzantine and Medieval Studies
• East European and Eurasian Studies
• Archeology and Material Culture
• Art History and Visual Culture
• Social and Economic Spaces
• State, Politics, Governance in Historical Perspective
• Women’s and Gender History

To apply, you must hold an MA or equivalent degree. Please send an outline of your research project (15.000 characters), a CV, reference letters by two senior scholars, and a statement, why you would like to join the cluster of your choice. Applications will be accepted until June 5th, 2020. You will be informed about the outcome of your application by September 6, 2020. The semester begins October 1st, 2020

The successful applicants’ primary task will be to complete a PhD degree. Active involvement in the activities of the SHCS is expected, while participation in relevant graduate courses offered at Vienna University is required. You will conduct courses and you will participate in the evaluation and quality assurance of the school. The salary is corresponds to the collective agreement for Universities and is limited to a duration of three years. In addition, travel and publication funds are partly available upon application and depending on budget restrictions. Successful applicants will be employed as University Assistant (prae doc). Their contract will run for 3 years and comes with full social security and health insurance benefits. No extra housing allowance will be provided.

Duration of employment: 3 year/s

Extent of Employment: 30 hours/week

Job grading in accordance with collective bargaining agreement: §48 VwGr. B1 Grundstufe (praedoc) with relevant work experience determining the assignment to a particular salary grade.

Job Description:

Participation in research, teaching and administration:

• Participation in research projects / research studies
• Participation in publications / academic articles / presentations
• We expect the successful candidate to sign a doctoral thesis agreement within 12-18 months.
• Participation in teaching and independent teaching of courses as defined by the collective agreement
• Supervision of students
• Involvement in the organisation of meetings, conferences, symposiums
• Involvement in the department administration as well as in teaching and research administration

Profile:

• Professional competence
• Methodological competence
• Didactic competence
• High ability to express yourself both orally and in writing
• Excellent command of written and spoken English
• IT user skills
• Ability to work in a team

Desirable qualifications are

• Teaching experience / experience of working with e-learning
•  Knowledge of university processes and structures
• Experience abroad
• Basic experience in research methods and academic writing
• Application documents
• Letter of Motivation including ideas for a prospective doctoral project proposal
• Curriculum vitae
• List of publications, evidence of teaching experience (if available)
• Degree certificatess
• reference letters by two senior scholars

Research fields: https://univis.univie.ac.at/ausschreibungstellensuche/flow/bew_ausschreibung-flow?_flowExecutionKey=_c5DCEC3E3-46FD-5445-6C50-E40C880F1791_kC17C76A6-E9ED-D471-08E7-7ADFB764E97E&tid=79022.28

Applications including a letter of motivation (German or English) should be submitted via the Job Center to the University of Vienna (http://jobcenter.univie.ac.at) no later than 05.06.2020, mentioning reference number 10823.

For further information please contact Becker, Peter +43-1-4277-27288.

The University pursues a non-discriminatory employment policy and values equal opportunities, as well as diversity (http://diversity.univie.ac.at/). The University lays special emphasis on increasing the number of women in senior and in academic positions. Given equal qualifications, preference will be given to female applicants.

Human Resources and Gender Equality of the University of Vienna

Reference number: 10823

E-Mail: jobcenter@univie.ac.at

Faculty of Humanities – Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis

Publication date 17 April 2020

Closing date 31 May 2020

Level of education Master's degree

Hours 38 hours per week

Salary indication €2,325 to €2,972 gross per month

Vacancy number 20-235

Research at the Faculty of Humanities is carried out by six research schools under the aegis of the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research. The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, one of six research schools of the Faculty of Humanities, has a vacant PhD position as part of the NWO VIDI project IMAGINART—Imagining institutions otherwise: Art, Politics, and State Transformation, led by Dr Chiara de Cesari.

ASCA is home to more than 110 scholars and 120 PhD candidates, and is a world-leading international research school in Cultural Analysis. ASCA members share a commitment to working in an interdisciplinary framework and to maintaining a close connection with contemporary cultural and political debates.

Project description

Funded by the Netherlands’ Research Organization, the IMAGINART project explores the role of socially engaged art in reinventing failing public institutions and social structures. Whereas political and cultural theorists often claim that art serves to imagine society differently, this project uses ethnographic methods to examine how this works in practice. Focusing on creative institutional experiments in Hungary, Italy, and Lebanon/the West Bank, IMAGINART has two main aims. The first is to investigate these experiments’ impact on societal resilience, governmental policy, and state formation. The second is to assess their potential for developing 'concrete utopias' in response to state failure or transformation under (post)colonial, postsocialist, or neoliberal conditions.

Within the broader framework of IMAGINART, this PhD subproject will focus on creative experiments with institutions in Hungary. In the face of nationalist-conservative hegemony, cultural practitioners have largely disengaged with the Hungarian state’s institutions. In this context, the candidate will undertake extensive ethnographic fieldwork and critical discourse analysis to examine the ways in which socially engaged art is developing creative alternatives to established state bodies in Hungary. Read more.

Tasks include:

• carrying out fieldwork in Hungary;
• submission of a PhD thesis within the period of appointment;
• completion and submission of at least one article for an international, peer-reviewed journal within the period of appointment;
• completion of a policy brief/best practices paper within the period of appointment;
• contributing to collaborative publications undertaken by the IMAGINART team;
• co-organising the project’s conference;
• organising project valorization activity (small public program or workshop) at relevant institution(s) in Hungary;
• participation in the ASCA and Faculty of Humanities PhD training programs;
• teaching courses at BA-level or other types of activities in the 3rd and 4th year of the appointment (0,2 FTE per year).

Requirements

• The successful applicant must have:
• a relevant Master’s degree in the Humanities or Social Sciences or the Arts, completed no later than 31 August 2020;
• outstanding research qualities, manifested in strong transcripts and a high-quality Master’s thesis;
• excellent spoken Hungarian;
• excellent written and spoken English;
• keen interest in critical, interdisciplinary research methods and approaches;
• ability and willingness to work in a team;
• willingness to travel abroad for fieldwork, research stays, conferences and workshops;
• strong organizational skills;
• strong social media skills is a plus;
• demonstrable experience with either work in the cultural field or fieldwork therein is a plus;
• demonstrable familiarity with ethnographic methods such as participant observation; structured, semi-structured, and non-structured interviews; and critical discourse analysis is a plus.

Our offer

The recruited PhD candidate will be employed at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Humanities within the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. The employment contract will be for 48 months, full-time (38 hours per week), under the terms of employment currently valid for the Faculty. The first contract will be for 16 months, with an extension for the following 32 months, contingent on a positive performance evaluation within the first 12 months. The intended starting date is 1 September 2020. The gross monthly salary will be €2,325 during the first year to reach €2,972 during the fourth year, based on 38 hours per week, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities. The PhD candidate receives a tuition fee waiver and has free access to courses offered by the Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities and the Dutch National Research Schools.

We are currently working on the assumption that the PhD project will start on 1 September 2020, or as soon as possible thereafter. However, we may need to delay the starting date if travel restrictions will still be in place, or foreseen for the near future, by mid-June 2020. Candidates still in the procedure will be duly informed.

Questions?

For more information on the project, please contact:

Dr Chiara de Cesari

For practical questions, please contact:

Dr Eloe Kingma

Would you like to learn more about working at the University of Amsterdam? Visit our website.

Job application

The UvA is an equal-opportunity employer. We prioritise diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for everyone. We value a spirit of enquiry and perseverance, provide the space to keep asking questions, and promote a culture of curiosity and creativity.

Please submit your application in a single PDF file (not zipped) under the CV button. Your application must consist of:

• a detailed letter of motivation, describing how you would approach this research project, your motivation for applying, and why you are an excellent candidate for the role (no more than 1,000 words);
• your curriculum vitae, listing at least: Full address and contact details; Education; Professional information and employment, if relevant; Language proficiency; Grants/honours; and Conference presentations and publications, if applicable.
• a summary of your Master’s thesis/project (250-500 words);
• a writing sample, such as an essay, project paper, or a chapter of your MA thesis, between 3,000-10,000 words;
• transcripts of your Master (or equivalent) program;
• the names and contact details of two referees familiar with your academic record and research skills.

Shortlisted candidates may be requested to provide additional materials. Interviews are planned for 26 June, most likely via Skype.

Applications must be submitted via the link below. Deadline for applications is 31 May 2020. #LI-DNP

No agencies please

Apply here: https://www.uva.nl/en/content/vacancies/2020/04/20-235-phd-candidate-socially-engaged-art-and-state-transformation-in-hungary.html?fbclid=IwAR35dyWwKjzTD2qBzkDKEc9tUDGJRNRyiadxv7eTBtHAT3-gAhcARKpgutA&cb

Cyprus University of Technology (CUT)

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

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

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

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

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

Citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus is not a requirement.

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

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

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

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

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

June 3, 2020, 1530-1630 (BST)

Research Webinar

Deadline: June 2, 2020

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

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

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

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

Local News - The Role of Independent Media

Jonathan Heawood

Public Interest News Foundation

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

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

UClouvain (Belgium)

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

Project description

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

PhD 1 – Linguistics

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

Profile

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

PhD 2 – Communication

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

Profile

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

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

Procedure

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

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