ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

The Information Policy Book Series at MIT Press is welcoming proposals. For a description of the series and books published to date, see https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/information-policy.

Note the breadth of the definition of the field and its inclusion of attention to governance and governmentality as well as the formal laws and regulations of governments within the series. Work from all theoretical perspectives, using any methodological approach, and at any level of analysis is welcome. MIT Press encourages positive policy proposals in the books it publishes. Will work as closely with authors as desirable or necessary in the development of projects.

Please contact me at braman@email.tamu.edu if you have a project you would like to discuss or have any questions.

Radiofonias –Journal of Studies in Sound Media

Deadline: July 10, 2020

Due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus, Covid-19, *Radiofonias – Journal of Studies in Sound Media* (formerly Rádio-Leituras) announces an extraordinary call for papers, the dossier “Radio and catastrophes”, for its 2020.2 edition. Thus, the monograph “College radios in times of attacks on science” will be postponed to the first quarter of 2021. The 2020.3 edition remains destined to free articles, which can be submitted in a continuous flow.

Radiofonias is a quarterly publication, index H5 = 5 on Google Scholar, which accepts submissions in Portuguese, Spanish and English, authored by or co-authored with PhDs. It is co-edited by the Postgraduate Program in Communication at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), by the Convergence and Journalism Research Group and by the Radio and TV Center (NRTV) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.

The guidelines for authors can be found here: https://www.periodicos.ufop.br/pp/index.php/radio-leitura/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

Radio and catastrophes

The new coronavirus pandemic paralyzed a third of the planet in just three months, imposing challenges on the authorities. Each country reacted differently, with more or less severe measures, ranging from total inaction to quarantine and lockdown, going through different recommendations for social isolation and suspension of activities involving urban displacement. With a total of victims that doubles every couple of days, the so-called Covid-19 is spreading at a time of strong circulation of disinformation campaigns, which question scientific knowledge, bringing risks to public health.

Radio plays an important role, one way or another, in informing and building the population’s knowledge about prevention and mitigation measures, in order to avoid a collapse in health systems, affecting mainly the poorest population. Due to its reach and agility, radio can be a powerful ally in large-scale communication strategies, assuming a leading role in times of catastrophes such as pandemics, floods, earthquakes, fires, tsunamis and other emergency situations. In this context, Radiofonias encourages submissions that present case studies, propose theoretical reflections and/or arise from research projects involving the relationship between radio and catastrophic situations, such as:

• Radio and public information in times of calamity
• Radio and scientific communication about Covid-19
• Challenges when doing radio in times of pandemic and social isolation
• Protocols for radio action in catastrophe situations
• Broadcasting of public service campaigns by radio
• Radio and misinformation

Deadline for submissions: July 10th, 2020

April 22 - 23, 2021

Bremen, Germany

Deadline: September 1, 2020

The ZeMKI Bremen announces the joint annual conference 2021 together with the division for the History of communication in the DGPuK (German Communication Studies Association) and the Institute for Newspaper Research, Dortmund.

The conference on the topic "Communication History of International Organizations and NGOs" will take place from April 22 to 23, 2021 in the Bremen House of Science. Organisating team: Erik Koenen, Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz

Website here:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zemki/events/conferences/communication-history-of-international-organizations-and-ngos

Call for papers:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/fachbereiche/fb9/zemki/media/photos/veranstaltungen/conferences/CfP_Bremen_en_18May.pdf

Keynote Speakers will be:

• Madeleine Herren-Oesch form the University of Basel 
• Thorsten Kahlert form Aarhus University

Marseille, France

January 20-22, 2021

Deadline: July 3, 2020

The Mediteranean Institute of Information and Communication Sciences (IMSIC) & The Journalism and Communication School of Aix-Marseille (EJCAM) Aix-Marseille University

This colloquium is sponsored by SFSIC (French society of information and communication sciences).

Infomediation platforms (Smyrnaios, Rebillard, 2019) have become the dominant force of a ‘reintermediation’ of information online by organising a large variety of contents and making them available to internet users. Information from journalists, which we would qualify here as news, finds itself subject to exogenous imperatives which finish by influencing editorial decisions on information medias (Bell, Owen, 2017). This ‘platformisation’ of information online has coincided with an acceleration of the circulation of non-journalistic information besides news, from satire to disinformation, which increases the offer of contents proposed to internet users. In this open environment where journalistic productions, disinformation, click traps, infotainment and satire live together, journalism needs to rethink itself.

The aim of this conference is to explore new journalistic practices in relation to “fake news” at the heart of environments dominated by platforms. By “fake news”, and because the polysemy of the term has sometimes contributed to its instrumentalisation, we mean more precisely ‘information problems’ (Wardle, Derakhsan, 2019) in all their diversity.

As such, the conference will consider the question of fact-checking and the way it has been repositioned by criticising “fake news” (Bigot, 2019). Fact-checking has been called upon during electoral campaigns and is becoming increasingly part of a close relationship of collaboration and dependence between editors and web platforms which should be brought into question (Smyrnaios, Chauvet, Marty, 2017; Alloing, Vanderbiest, 2018). Over and above the current political situation, “fake news” on the subjects of health, the environment and even clickbait presenting false promises and strange revelations, questions the expert status of specialist journalists as well as other concerned parties.

Propositions should address the following four lines of research:

• At the information source: media education in the face of the platforms
• Fighting against “fake news”, a reaffirmation of journalism?
• Political journalism and health journalism: the challenge of “fake news” to specialised journalists
• Reception of false information and platforms: a reinforcement of cognitive biais?

At the information source: media education in the face of the platforms

“I saw it on Facebook”. This unequivocal statement from Reuters Institute (Kalogeropoulos, Newman, 2017) demonstrates the way digital environments have changed our relationship to information. The intermediary, in this case Facebook, is more powerful than traditional media as a source of memorised information, opening the door wide to “fake news” by rendering the different sources of information interchangeable. This deconstruction of the source, which journalists call upon and confront, which media use as a reliable source of information is renewing the historic inspiration of media studies. The necessity of a pedagogical attention to source, the one which we often consult via the intermediary of web platforms, overlaps on to understanding the logic of information production. The platforms also present themselves pedagogically when they contribute to highlighting the wheat and the chaff in all the content they host (Joux, 2018). However they are both advocates and judges, which explains why media studies is increasingly transforming into education on web platforms. What are the stakes created by the erasure of the source in the ecosystems where the platforms are dominating? What are the new relationships between information source and information as a source? What are the challenges for media studies?

Fighting against “fake news”, a reaffirmation of journalism?

Fact-checking has been experiencing an important development in publishing since the 2000’s (Bigot, 2017). The increased visibility of “fake news” has given it a new role since the beginning of the 2010’s. While dressing itself up as a social mission with obvious uses, fact-checking has restated the importance of journalism in producing news information in the public sphere. It has also criticised the illusion that anyone can be a journalist which the ease of internet sharing may have led us to hope for (Mathien, 2010). This reaffirmation of specific journalistic savoir-faire is supported differently by the platforms. Facebook, as well Google (through the CrossCheck project), finances publishing to check certain contents, which circulate in their ecosystem. However, this recognition of fact-checking by the platforms can be considered as ambivalent. If it relies on the education of internet users thanks to the visibility of journalistic work, it also corresponds to the imposition of priorities financed by the platforms in publishing. We propose to question these major themes here, fact-checking and its ambitions for journalism as well as the economic and editorial relationships between the platforms and newsrooms.

Political journalism and health journalism: the challenge of “fake news” to specialised journalists

Representing a ‘serious symptom of political breakdown’ (Mercier, 2018), the contemporary unfurling of “fake news” is being fed by a growing defiance to the position of the ‘knowledgeable’ elite which journalists belong to, whether they are ‘general’ or ‘specialist’. In two key information areas – politics and health-, areas which are connected to major collective stakes, the question of the transformation/adaptation of journalists’ professional practices is particularly important. Faced with this menace, is it sufficient to generalise the practices of fact-checking and to correct certain problematic practices (hurried treatments, insufficient verification, incomplete scientific acculturation, …) to restore a curtailed legitimacy? Is turning the discursive weapons employed by ‘post-truth’ (Dieguez, 2018) against it the best way to renew the codes and modes of expression of specialised journalism? Is it enough to remove the “barriers” to the exercise of the profession and organise it in a network (Bassoni, 2015), leaning now on the practices of all the parties concerned by the containment of “fake news” (in this case, in health, the health authorities, scientists, carers, patients and “digital opinion leaders”)?

Reception of false information and platforms: a reinforcement of cognitive bias?

If the proliferation of fake news is linked to the technical and economic conditions of information circulation, it also relies on cognitive domains which do not always promote the truth and forms of reception attached to plural contexts. Recognised cognitive biases frequently lead individuals to select and believe false information to encourage consensus within a group (Festinger, 1954) or through an economy of means (Kahneman, 2011). Social illusionism and the illusion of truth can thus favour the propagation of false information (Huguet, 2018). Indeed, individuals perceive “fake-news” as one of the elements of the globally degraded universe of information, including forms of propaganda or mediocre journalism (Nielsen et Graves, 2017). Here, the public’s perception of “fake news” is the combination of the interests of certain medias which publish it, politicians who contribute to it and the platforms who allow it to be distributed. What are the characteristics of the public’s reception of “fake news”? What type of individual or collective sources does “fake news” call upon? How far can platforms and their business models reinforce the cognitive biases associated to “fake news”? These questions will be approached by considering the modalities of the public’s reception of “fake news” through their permanence or, on the contrary, their variation according to contexts.

How to submit

Propositions should be 6000 characters and include a short biography. They will indicate which research theme they are most appropriate to. Descriptions of the field of study/corpus and the research methodology are expected.

Propositions should be sent to the following address: jep2021@outlook.fr

The deadline is July 3, 2020

Propositions will be double blind evaluated, replies will be sent out during September 2020.

Scientific committee

• Amiel Pauline (IMSIC, Aix Marseille Université)
• Bousquet Franck (Lerass, Université Paul Sabatier – Toulouse 3)
• Cabrolié Stéphane (IMSIC, Aix Marseille Université)
• Graves Lucas (University of Wisconsin – Madison)
• Grevisse Benoît (MiiL, UC Louvain)
• Jeanne-Perrier Valérie (GRIPIC, Paris Sorbonne)
• Jenkins Joy (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford)
• Joux Alexandre (IMSIC, Aix Marseille Université)
• Mercier Arnaud (CARISM, Université Paris 2)
• Pignard-Cheynel Nathalie (Université de Neuchatel)
• Sebbah Brigitte (Lerass, Université Paul Sabatier – Toulouse 3)
• Smyrnaios Nikos (Lerass, Université Paul Sabatier – Toulouse 3)
• Vovou Ioanna (ICCA Sorbonne Nouvelle, Université Panteion, Athens)

Organization team

• Coordination : Joux Alexandre (IMSIC) & Amiel Pauline (IMSIC)
• Bassoni Marc (IMSIC)
• Belgacem Fetta (IMSIC)
• Cabrolié Stéphane (IMSIC)
• Cappuccio Alexia (IMSIC)
• D’Aiguillon Benoît (IMSIC)
• Lukasik Stéphanie (IMSIC)
• Pélissier Maud (IMSIC)

References:

Alloing C., Vanderbiest N. (2018), « La fabrique des rumeurs numériques. Comment la fausse information circule sur Twitter ? », Le Temps des médias, 30(1), 105-123.

Bassoni M. (2015), « Journalisme scientifique et public-expert contributeur. Une « nouvelle donne » dans les pratiques du journalisme spécialisé ? », Questions de communication, série actes 25 (sous la direction de Ph. Chavot et A. Masseran), Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 179-189.

Bell E., Owen T. (2017), The Platform Press. How Silicon Valley reengineered Journalism, Columbia Journalism School, Tow Center for Journalism.

Bigot L. (2017), « Le fact-checking ou la réinvention d’une pratique de vérification », Communication & Langages, 2, n°192, 131-156.

Bigot L. (2019), Fact checking versus fake news : vérifier pour mieux informer, Paris : INA Editions.

Dieguez S. (2018), Total Bullshit ! Au cœur de la post-vérité, Paris : Presses universitaires de France.

Festinger L. (1954), « A theory of social comparison processes », Human Relations, 7, 117-140.

Huguet P. (2018), « Eléments de psychologie des fake news », in L’information d’actualité au prisme des fake news, Paris : L’Harmattan, 201-222.

Joux A., Pélissier M. (2018), L’information d’actualité au prisme des fake news, Paris : L’Harmattan.

Joux A. (2018), « Des dispositifs contre les fake news : du rôle des rédactions et des plateformes », in L’information d’actualité au prisme des fake news, Paris : L’Harmattan, 73-93.

Kahneman D. (2011), Thinking, fast and slow, London : Penguin.

Kalogeropoulos A., Newman N. (2017), ‘I saw the News on Facebook’. Brand Attribution when Accessing News from Distributed Environments, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University.

Mathien M. (2010), « “ Tous journalistes ! ” Les professionnels de l’information face à un mythe des nouvelles technologies »,Quaderni, 72, 113-125.

Mercier A. (2018), Fake news et post-vérité : 20 textes pour comprendre la menace, The Conversation France/e-book, (hal-01819233).

Nielsen K. R., Graves L. (2017), News you don’t believe: audience perspectives on fake news, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University.

Smyrnaios N., Chauvet S., Marty E. (2017) L’impact de CrossCheck sur les journalistes et les publics, First Draft

Smyrnaios N., Rebillard F. (2019), « How infomediation platforms took over the news: a longitudinal perspective », The Political economy of communication, vol. 7/1, 30-50.

Wardle C., Derakhsan H. (2017) Information Disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making, Strasbourg: Council of Europe

September 15-16, 2020

Online

Deadline: June 19, 2020

This event is organised through the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University, and hosted by Prof Jake Lynch (University of Sydney and Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Coventry University) and Dr Charis Rice (Coventry University).

Please find here, news of a two-day conference, the aim of which is to bring together researchers of Journalism, Political and Governmental Communication, with opportunities for dialogue between them. This event is organised through the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University, and hosted by Prof Jake Lynch (University of Sydney and Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Coventry University) and Dr Charis Rice (Coventry University). It will be held online on: September 15-16th 2020, 10am – 6pm (UK time, exact timings to be confirmed) The concept for the conference was suggested by the regularity with which we now find that real-world issues in journalism concerning representation, impacts and media effects are indissociable, in practice, from behaviours of and relationships with sources, including those in and around governments. So concerns over ethics and responsibility in the two fields beg to be considered together.

Find more details at the conference page here: https://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/about-us/research-events/2020/responsible-journalism/

Submit an abstract to jake.lynch@sydney.edu.au by June 19th 2020

Later, selected presenters will be invited to contribute to an edited collection to be offered to Routledge for publication in their Research in Journalism series.

Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies

Deadline: June 30, 2020

https://www.participations.org/?fbclid=IwAR1K71u5p4DzsI_VnKOApx9MRID0XJw_2OPd_gmzLlzMwwFbKhyQ8-2hLgo

Co-editors: Dario Llinares (Brighton), Alyn Euritt (Leipzig), Anne Korfmacher (Köln)

“Listening is essential to the engagement with most of our media, albeit that the act of listening which is embedded in the word ‘audience’ is rarely acknowledged. It is a no less curious absence in theories of the public sphere, where the objective of political agency is often characterized as being to find a voice - which surely implies finding a public that will listen, and that has a will to listen” (Lacey viii).

As podcasting moves through its adolescence, a period of flux in which reformations of the technological and industrial organisation are having fundamental effects on the next phase of its evolution, the ways in which it encourages listening and reception practices are also undergoing fundamental development. The nature of this development depends on the communities, listening publics, and audiences the podcasts serve and/or participate in. As Spinelli and Dann have noted about podcasting, it always implies a relationship between creators and listeners but “while individual listening might be the moment in which a podcast ‘happens’ in some sense, it is possible, and indeed necessary, to consider larger formations of podcast audiences” (13). For Spinelli and Dann, podcast audiences are “much more ‘knowable’ than the radio audience, and the interaction (particularly in fandom) [is] more intense” (13-14). Who are these developing and changing “knowable” podcast audiences and how do they interact with podcasting? What do they listen to, how do they listen and why? Are audiences really knowable in the way Dann and Spinelli suggest and what might this tell us about audio communication practices in the digital age?

In order to understand the complexity, diversity and listening engagements of podcasting’s audiences, this themed section aims to expand the interdisciplinary range of contemporary podcasting studies by including work in literary studies, fan studies, gender studies and disability studies, as well as submissions that critically engage with race. We also explicitly encourage research on podcasts outside the US and Britain. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Podcast reception and connectivity in times of crisis
• How podcast listeners find new content, including the development of taste cultures, content aggregation networks, and platform-specific algorithmic recommendations
• Podcast participation and “prosumer” medial engagement (cf. Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave)
• The development of genres, forms, and narrative practices within podcasting that encourage specific types of listening practices and audiences
• Podcast fans and fan podcasts, podcasting and fandom audiences
• Podcasts within niche culture, podcasting and marginalisation
• Podcasts and community-building practices
• Communal vs. private, on-demand listening
• The rise of right-wing politics podcasts and their listenership
• The role of voice (both politically and aesthetically) in podcasting reception
• How podcasters imagine their listenership and cater their content to specific listening publics
• Marketing discourses of attention and engagement
• Cultural values associated with (podcast) listening

Please submit a 300-word abstract and short author bio in an email to alyn.euritt@fulbrightmail.org. For more information about Participations as well as submission guidelines, visit their website at www.participations.org. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to provide extensive copy editing services. If you are in need of such services, please arrange for them before submission of your draft.

• Deadlines: Abstracts Due: June 30th, 2020
• Decisions to Authors: July 10th, 2020
• Full Submissions: November 13th, 2020

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Aplly here: https://werkenbij.vu.nl/ad/postdoc-worlding-public-cultures/17qvgj?fbclid=IwAR0el_-8flClsTWnVM6wfYw7fgJLOuD0QBYhXfhF57CB7iDpn__pZ2nZ4xs

Do you hold a PhD degree in the Humanities or Social Sciences? Do you have a keen interest in critical, interdisciplinary research methods and approaches? Are you interested in processes of institutional decolonization and transformation, including artists and activists’ ongoing efforts to decolonize museums? The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has a position for you!

Location: AMSTERDAM

FTE: 0.8

JOB DESCRIPTION

We are offering a 1,5 year postdoc position (0,8 fte) for an outstanding and highly motivated researcher who will be part of the Netherlands-subproject in the Trans-Atlantic Partnership funded project, Worlding Public Cultures: The Arts and Social Innovation. This Netherlands- subproject is jointly led by Prof. dr. Wayne Modest (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/VU) and dr. Chiara de Cesari (Universiteit van Amsterdam/UvA). There will be two postdoc researchers in this subproject, one based at the VU and one based at the UvA, working on these topics from different perspectives. The subproject explores institutional change in relation to the conceptual framing of the overall project (see below). In looking at “worlding and/as decolonization,” it focuses on projects and processes of institutional decolonization and especially transformations in the Global South, including artists and activists’ ongoing efforts to decolonize museums. The project will address questions such as: where have these decolonizing practices emerged and thrived? Under what conditions have they emerged? How do they operate and who pushes them through? What are the conditions necessary for their success? What artistic, activist, and curatorial strategies are being mobilized to change institutions in response to the question of enduring colonial legacies?

The successful candidate will be embedded within the department of Art & Culture, History, and Antiquity (AHA), Faculty of Humanities, the interfaculty Research Institute for Culture, History and Heritage (CLUE+) and within national and international research networks and schools.

Your duties

Working together in an interdisciplinary team, the postdoc will:

• collect data on different projects aiming to decolonize museums and cultural institutions
• assist in organizing the Amsterdam Academy, multi-sited international workshop/conference that will take place over several days, that will include project partners, as well as diverse global participants including artists, academics and activists (expected to take place in November 2020) so as to help it address the project themes
• write up research findings in a fieldwork report
• complete and submit a significant body of writing for publication within the period of the appointment
• contribute to developing a published paper on best practices with respect to decolonial themes
• contribute to the Platform’s collaborative Book Series project
• contribute to the content of the project website

REQUIREMENTS

• a PhD degree in the Humanities or Social Sciences or the Arts
• outstanding research qualities and demonstrable research experience manifested in a high-quality PhD dissertation and publications
• keen interest in critical, interdisciplinary research methods and approaches
• excellent written and spoken English
• social media skills
• proven organizational, administrative and leadership skills
• ability and willingness to work in a team
• experience with work in the arts and culture is a plus

WHAT ARE WE OFFERING?

• The employment contract will be for 0,8 fte for a period of 1,5 year. The intended starting date is 1 September 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter. On a full-time basis the remuneration amounts to a minimum gross monthly salary of €3,389 (scale 10) and a maximum of €4,978 (scale 11), Dependent on relevant experience the job profile is Researcher 4 (scale 10) or Researcher 3 (scale 11).
• Additionally, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers excellent fringe benefits and various schemes and regulations to promote a good work/life balance, such as:
• a maximum of 41 days of annual leave based on full-time employment
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

ABOUT VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM

The ambition of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is clear: to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. We strive to be a university where personal development and commitment to society play a leading role. A university where people from different disciplines and backgrounds collaborate to achieve innovations and to generate new knowledge. Our teaching and research encompass the entire spectrum of academic endeavour – from the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences through to the life sciences and the medical sciences.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is home to more than 26,000 students. We employ over 4,600 individuals. The VU campus is easily accessible and located in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, a truly inspiring environment for teaching and research.

Diversity

We are an inclusive university community. Diversity is one of our most important values. We believe that engaging in international activities and welcoming students and staff from a wide variety of backgrounds enhances the quality of our education and research. We are always looking for people who can enrich our world with their own unique perspectives and experiences.

Faculty of Humanities

The Faculty of Humanities links a number of fields of study: Language, Literature and Communication, Art & Culture, History, Antiquities and Philosophy. Our teaching and research focus on current societal and scientific themes: from artificial intelligence to visual culture, from urbanization to the history of slavery, from ‘fake news’ in journalism to communication in organizations. We strive to ensure small group sizes. Innovative education and interdisciplinary research are our hallmarks.

Working at the Faculty of Humanities means making a real contribution to the quality of leading education and research in an inspiring and personal work and study climate. We employ more than 250 staff members, and we are home to around 1,300 students.

Project Description – Worlding Public Cultures: The Arts and Social Innovation

The Trans-Atlantic Partnership funded project Worlding Public Cultures: The Arts and Social Innovation (WPC-TAP) is a collaborative research project and transnational platform that facilitates multipronged dialogues concerning the global in the arts and culture. As such, it puts forward an understanding of the globalized world as historically constituted by open-ended processes involving lived interrelations and interconnections. Bringing together universities and museums across the Atlantic, from Canada to the UK, The Netherlands, and Germany, Worlding Public Cultures sees art, art history, and curating as world-making and activating practices that imagine the global otherwise. By conducting research on and for institutions of public culture, this project endeavors to foster social innovation. In particular, it aims to contribute towards building more resilient public cultures and institutions so as to best address contemporary challenges to pluralist democracies and open pathways towards decolonizing “universal” narratives and epistemologies.

APPLICATION

Are you interested in this position? Please apply via the application button and upload your curriculum vitae and cover letter until 28 June 2020.

Your application must consist of the following:

• a detailed letter of motivation, stating your motivation for applying, and why you are an excellent candidate for the role (no more than 750 words)
• a research proposal, detailing the countries, sites, institutions and movements in the Global South you propose to investigate as well as your research approach for how to tackle the project’s topics (no more than 1,000 words)
• a full academic CV, including a list of publications
• a summary of your PhD thesis (250-500 words)
• one relevant writing sample (totalling no more than 10,000 words)
• the names and contact details of two referees familiar with your academic record and research skills

Only complete applications received via the application button will be considered.

Shortlisted candidates may be requested to provide additional materials. Interviews are planned for 14 and 15 July, most likely digitally, for example via Zoom.

Applications received by e-mail will not be processed.

Vacancy questions

If you have any questions regarding this vacancy, you may contact:

Name: Prof. dr. Wayne Modest

Position: Professor of Material Culture and Critical heritage Studies

E-mail: w.a.h.modest@vu.nl

Special Issue Literary Journalism Studies

Deadline: August 15, 2020

Guest editors: Tobias Eberwein (Austrian Academy of Sciences) & Hendrik Michael (University of Bamberg)

Journalism’s ‘information paradigm’ has been under scrutiny not just since the digital transformations of our mediascape in the last decades. For almost half a century, Gaye Tuchman’s diagnosis of a ‘strategic ritual of objectivity’ has served as a foil against which many critiques of conventional news journalism can be projected, e. g. its lack of transparency and bias towards institutional sources and ideologies as well as the impersonal stance news journalism often assumes to report and comment on events and ideas in the here and now. The recent crisis of media trust and accountability may arise in parts from these deficits. At any rate, it is largely undisputed that journalism needs to reflect (and possibly: adapt) its professional identity and its modes of presentation if it wants to continue to fulfil its social function in the long run.

In this context, it is worthwhile to turn attention to alternative forms of journalism that rely much more on personal experience, in-depth research, the presentation of different perspectives, and an authentic journalistic voice to make news, but also overcome social boundaries and engage readers emotionally. One of these approaches can be found in the concept of Literary Journalism.

By combining aesthetic forms of literature with journalistic methods of research, Literary Journalism presents readers with a mix of discursive strategies and professional practices that differ substantially from standard reporting.

However, Literary Journalism – which is also known as narrative journalism, literary reportage, reportage literature, New Journalism, and the non-fiction novel, as well as literary non-fiction and creative non-fiction – is a deep-layered and arbitrary phenomenon. For over a decade the International Association of Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS) has helped to establish a shared foundation of knowledge and explored manifestations of journalistic narratives in various cultural contexts. What has become apparent in this ongoing scholarly debate is that different countries and cultures adopt different names for the phenomenon.

In Germany, for instance, the term Literary Journalism is not widespread. Instead of tapping into the vast research on the subject in recent decades, literary forms of journalism are often discussed with regard to the (mostly North-American) New Journalism of the 1960s and 1970s or to the tradition of the great reportage (e. g. Kisch and Roth). More generally, it can be stated that an overarching critical scientific discourse about the history, practices, forms, and functions of Literary Journalism that joins the global debate has not evolved in Germany yet.

Therefore, it is the aim of this special issue of Literary Journalism Studies to shed light on the phenomenon in the German-speaking world (i. e., essentially, in Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland) from all possible perspectives. How and when did the genre that is described as Literary Journalism come up in the German language? How did it evolve over the centuries? What are notable examples in the (digital) media landscapes of today? Do any continuities exist? These and further questions are expected to be answered on the basis of selected research articles.

Possible topics of contributions for the special issue “Literary Journalism in the German-speaking World” may include, but are not limited to:

• theoretical justifications of a German Sonderweg of Literary Journalism;
• the origins of Literary Journalism in the German-speaking World;
• historical phases of literary journalism from the Kaiserreich to the Federal Republic;
• the prototypes and pressures of professionalization in German-language Literary Journalism;
• the current structures (and notable media) of Literary Journalism in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland;
• German-language practitioners and projects of Literary Journalism in the era of digital news;
• the effects and consequences of Literary Journalism in the German-speaking World
• examples of literary reporting from the margins in German media;
• examples of media criticism in German-language Literary Journalism;
• ethical reflections of Literary Journalism in the German language;
• the role of Literary Journalism in journalistic training programs in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland;
• and many more.

Literary Journalism Studies (https://ialjs.org/publications/) is a peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS). The journal is international in scope and seeks submissions on the theory, history, and pedagogy of Literary Journalism throughout the world. All disciplinary approaches are welcome. All manuscript authors

are obliged to participate in the double-blind peer review process. No fees or charges are required for manuscript processing and/or publishing materials in the journal.

Submission guidelines:

All submissions for the special issue of Literary Journalism Studies should be informed with an awareness of the existing scholarship. Interested authors are invited to submit an abstract of their paper (500 words max.), along with 4–5 keywords and an author bio of no more than 50 words, to the guest editors Tobias Eberwein (tobias.eberwein@oeaw.ac.at) and Hendrik Michael (hendrik.michael@uni-bamberg.de). The deadline for abstract submission is 15 August 2020.

Authors will be notified about the acceptance/rejection of their submission by 1 September 2020.

Full papers are due on 31 December 2020 and should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words in length, including notes. E-mail submission (as a Microsoft Word attachment) is mandatory. A cover page indicating the title of the paper, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information, along with an abstract (250 words), should accompany all submissions. The cover page should be sent as a separate attachment from the abstract and submission to facilitate distribution to readers. No identification should appear linking the author to the submission or abstract. All submissions must be in English Microsoft Word and follow the Chicago Manual of Style (Humanities endnote style) (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html).

All submissions will be blind reviewed. The special issue is scheduled to be published in December 2021. Copyright reverts to the contributor after publication with the provision that if republished reference is made to initial publication in Literary Journalism Studies.

Important dates:

• Abstract submission: 15 August 2020
• Notification of acceptance/rejection: 1 September 2020
• Submission of full papers: 31 December 2020
• Publication of special issue: December 2021

Contact:

Any questions with regard to the special issue should be addressed to the guest editors:

Dr. Tobias Eberwein Dr. Hendrik Michael

Institute for Comparative Media and Institute for Communication Studies

Communication Studies (CMC) University of Bamberg

Austrian Academy of Sciences / An der Weberei 5 | 96045 Bamberg,

University of Klagenfurt GERMANY

Postgasse 7/4/1 | 1010 Vienna, AUSTRIA hendrik.michael@uni-bamberg.de

Deadline: July 30, 2020

We are looking for participants from the Global North and Global South to establish a truly international research team to assess how journalists across various countries address the current global crisis. The Covid-19 crisis constitutes not only an unprecedented global pandemic but journalists across societies can no longer just 'cover' a story and are emerging as key 'actors' who are now faced with a new challenge to communicate the complexities of an unprecedented global crisis magnitude to their local audiences. When reviewing recent international journalism scholarship regarding the way how globalized 'risks' are assessed, it is surprising that still today, globalization and emerging terrains of globalized crisis journalism are only on the periphery of journalism research.

A number of studies exist in contexts of climate change, however, most studies address this globalized issue through national contexts (e.g. from Brossard et al, 2004; Boykoff, 2008 to Comfort et al, 2020). Furthermore, research is based in Western countries and even if international studies are conducted, they mainly include the US and some European countries. Attempts have been made to address the need for a significant methodological revision of global crisis journalism research. Olausson and Berglez suggest a focus on three methodological shifts in globalized risk journalism research: a 'discursive shift' - to move away from mainly quantitative studies, an (2) interdisciplinary shift and an (3) international shift (Olausson & Berglez, 2014).

The Risk Journalism and Global Crisis Project (RJGCP) builds on these debates but will adopt a new conceptual approach to ‘risk journalism’ which understands journalists - wherever they are based - as cosmopolitan actors within horizons of interconnected risk publicness. We specifically build on Volkmer & Sharif's (2018) concept that suggests a 'reflexive' turn of journalism research and a move away from methodological nationalism towards transnational ‘methodological interdependence’ and a focus on the ‘epistemic sphere’ of risk 'reflexivity' among journalists.

Questions focus on how journalists construct a global crisis, such as the Covid-19 crisis; how they select information; how they engage with digital and data in a transnational spectrum in their day-to-day practice and develop their 'logic' regarding globalized risks and construct their stories.

Leading research questions of this international project are as follows, and project team members are asked to address these in their respective countries:

• how journalists conceptualize the Covid-19 crisis;
• how they identify 'stories', how they perceive 'issues' and construct a 'logic' when setting their agenda through assessing all types of globalized digital sources available;
• investigate the similarities and differences of their 'reflexive' practice;
• how journalists see themselves as cosmopolitan actors during a global crisis.

Methods and approaches will be discussed in project meetings to ensure that research is 'doable' for everyone.

Given the globalized crisis, it is time to build a unique international project across all world regions to investigate the new conceptual and empirical challenges to journalism in the current global crisis. There is no funding attached to this project, members could seek their own funding opportunities. Funding opportunities might arise in the future, once the project is established. Collective and comparative studies will be published in the form of articles, edited book collections, reports, and pre-conferences at international conferences and forums.

This project is led by Professor Ingrid Volkmer (University of Melbourne), Associate Professor Maria Know Lund (OsloMet University), Professor Saba Betawi (University of Technology Sydney), and Associate Professor Sara Chinnasamy (University of Technology Mara, Malaysia). If you are interested to join, please contact Professor Ingrid Volkmer: ivolkmer@unimelb.edu.au

We will close this call by July 30, 2020.

References

Brossard et al (2004) "Are issue-cycles culturally constructed? A comparison of French and American coverage of global climate change,' Mass Communication and Society, 7(3), 359-377.

Boykoff, M.T. (2008) 'Lost in translation? United States television news coverage of anthropogenic climate change, 1995-2004.' Climate Change, 86(1-2) 1-11.

Comfort, B. et al, 2020 'Who is heard in Climate Change Journalism? Sourcing patterns in climate change news in China, India, Singapore and Thailand, Climate Change, 158 (3-4) 327-343.

Volkmer, I. & Sharif, K (2018) Risk Journalism - Between Transnational Politics and Climate Change. New York: Palgrave.

University Bergen

Apply here: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/189010/phd-position-in-media-studies?fbclid=IwAR12s2Yu7eCqv3cN9VLwjebOnZwWiTL_kKOy-nMfsPCSW3JdIpIlG_Wzd40

There is a vacancy for a PhD position at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies in the field of media studies. The position is a fixed-term period of 4 years and 25% of the time will be dedicated to teaching, supervision and administrative duties at the Department.

This is an open call, and we invite you to relate to one or more of our four relevant research groups:

• Research Group for Media Use and Audience Studies: Research on how people use media - as audiences, users and citizens, and how they relate to each other and to society through media.
• Research Group for Rhetoric, Democracy and Public Culture: Research on communication as a tool for argumentation, assurance, and for the expressions of identity and identification – as individuals, in organizations and in society.
• Journalism Studies Group: A broad approach to the role of journalism, news and the social media in the public sphere.
• Media Aesthetics: Focus on media aesthetic expressions, broadly oriented towards contemporary and historical genres, media technology and forms of interaction.

For more information about the research groups and the Department, see the website of the department: https://www.uib.no/infomedia . Do feel free to contact the leader of relevant research group(s).

Project proposal:

A research proposal of 5-8 pages must accompany the application. The proposal should present the topic, the research problem(s) and choice of theory and methods. The proposal should also include a progress plan for the different parts of the project. Admittance to the PhD programme will be based on the research proposal.

Qualifications and personal qualities:

• The applicant must hold a master's degree or the equivalent in media studies, journalism or equivalent
• The degree has to be completed by the application deadline
• The requirements are generally a grade B or better on the Master thesis and for the Master degree in total
• As an applicant you should be able to work independently, have a considerable work capacity as well as an enthusiasm for research
• Profiency in both written and oral English
• Shortlisted candidates will be invited to the department for an interview.

About the PhD position:

The duration of the PhD position is 4 years, of which 25 per cent of the time comprises obligatory duties associated with research, teaching and dissemination of results. The employment period for the successful candidate may be reduced if he or she previously has been employed in a PhD position.

About the PhD training: As a PhD research fellow, you will take part in the PhD programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences, UiB. The programme corresponds to a period of three years and leads to the PhD degree. To be eligible for admission you must normally have an educational background corresponding to a master’s degree with a scope of 120 ECTS credits, which builds on a bachelor’s degree with a scope of 180 ECTS credits (normally 2 + 3 years), or an integrated master’s degree with a scope of 300 ECTS credits (5 years). Master’s degrees must normally include an independent work of a minimum of 30 ECTS credits. It is expected that the topic of the master’s degree is connected to the academic field to which you are seeking admission.

We can offer:

• Salary at pay grade 54 upon appointment (Code 1017) on the government salary scale (equivalent to NOK 479.600 per year). Further promotions are made according to length of service in the position
• A good and professionally challenging working environment
• Enrolment in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Good welfare benefits

Your application must include:

• A cover letter including a brief account of your research interests and motivation for applying for the position
• Preferred research group affiliation
• The names and contact information for two reference persons. One of them must be the main advisor for the master's thesis or equivalent thesis
• Project proposal
• CV
• Transcripts and diplomas showing completion of the bachelor's and master's degrees.
• Relevant certificates/references
• A list of academic publications
• Academic publications that you want to submit for assessment (including your master’s thesis or equivalent)

If you have a master's degree from an institution outside of the Nordic countries, or a 2-year discipline- based master's degree (or the equivalent) in a subject area other than the one associated with the application, you may later in the application process be asked to submit an overview of the syllabus for the degree you have completed

General information:

Closing date: August 20, 2020. The application has to be marked: 20/6145.

Detailed information about the position can be obtained by contacting: Head of Department, professor Leif Ove Larsen, phone 55 58 41 16, e-mail: leif.larsen@uib.no.

Practical questions about the application process should be directed to senior executive officer Bodil Hægland, e-mail: bodil.hagland@uib.no or phone +47 55 58 90 53Ring: +47 55 58 90 53.

Appointed research fellows will be admitted to the PhD programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Questions about the programme may be directed to Adviser-PhD: Hanne.Gravermoen@uib.no.

Applications submitted without a project description or applications sent as e-mails will not be considered. Only submitted documents will be subjected to an expert assessment.

The state labour force shall reflect the diversity of Norwegian society to the greatest extent possible. People with immigrant backgrounds and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply for the position.

The University of Bergen applies the principle of public access to information when recruiting staff for academic positions.

Information about applicants may be made public even if the applicant has asked not to be named on the list of persons who have applied. The applicant must be notified if the request to be omitted is not met.

The successful applicant must comply with the guidelines that apply to the position at all times.

For further information about the recruitment process, click here.