ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

March 13, 2020

Toronto, Canada

Deadline: November 29, 2019

https://www.mcluhancentre.ca/logout

SUBMIT: An extended abstract in English (500 words) and short biography (max 200 words)

CONTACT: Julie Yujie Chen at julieyj.chen@utoronto.ca

Digital capitalism is a terrain of intensifying social conflict. Work is increasingly shaped by technologies such as platforms and algorithmic systems, which standardize and reorganize the labour process, incorporate managerial tasks, and devise new forms of value generation. By decomposing or outsourcing jobs, technologies are being used to make workers increasingly replaceable. New surveillance techniques are used to control and discipline workers, and new forms of despotism in the digital workplace are on the rise. But workers don’t passively obey the rules of the digital economy. In recent years, repertoires of tactics inherited from the industrial era have been revived, adapted, and extended by digital workers to fuel new struggles in the contemporary economy. Look no further than drivers in the ride-hailing industry in the streets of the world, domestic workers and freelancers in North America and Asia, food-delivery couriers in Europe and Canada, warehouse workers in urban peripheries across the globe, software engineers from China to California, and game designers and other digital media workers in cities across North America.

The ubiquitous penetration of digital technologies in warehouses, workshops, offices, and app-based workplaces is met with novel workarounds and solidarity-building techniques. Both overt organizing and covert resistance connect workers in traditional sectors like hospitality as well as in booming industries such as logistics, online crowdwork, or the urban gig economy. Scholars from multiple disciplines and labour activists have started to shape the debate around digital worker struggle, but questions remain: What are the new challenges and potentials brought about by the new wave of autonomous decision-making technologies? Which new forms of class composition boost solidarity and organizing in the digitally-mediated work environment? What roles do technologies, cultures, geographies, and infrastructures play in worker organizations? How can tactical media be deployed towards workers’ goals? How do workers log out from or subvert digital labour?

Building on the success of the 2018 edition, Log Out! 2 brings together critical research on how workers from different sectors of digital capitalism across the world confront, negotiate, and disrupt the technologically-mediated conditions of work that structure and mediate their lives. We are interested in both empirical and theoretical contributions that address worker organizing and unionization, strikes, work refusal, algorithm hacking, tactical interventions, as well as the material and political economic components of resistance. Worker knowledge is critical to understanding labour politics: we welcome contributions from members of worker collectives and labour unions.

Log Out! 2 is funded by the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology and organized by the McLuhan Centre working group on digital labour. It will take place at the University of Toronto on March 13, 2020.

Confirmed speakers include Jack Linchuan Qiu (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Sareeta Amrute (University of Washington and Data & Society). The conference will also host a roundtable of worker-led organizations, including Foodsters United, Game Workers Unite!, VICE Canada Union, and more to be confirmed.

​Results will be announced in mid-December 2019. Limited funding for travel and accommodation will be made available for selected speakers, with a preference for students, workers, independent or precarious scholars, and speakers from the Global South. In your application please indicate if you need financial support.

The organizing committee for Log Out! 2 is composed of Julie Yujie Chen, Nicole Cohen, Alessandro Delfanti, Greig de Peuter, Julian Posada, Brendan Smith.

November 12, 2019

Policy Observatory, Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster (UK)

The event is free, but advance registration is required: https://bit.ly/2MHHRH0

4:30pm – 5:00pm: Welcome drinks

5:00pm-7:00pm: Panel debate and discussion with the audience

7:00pm – 7:45pm networking drinks reception.

For decades, public service broadcasting has been at the heart of British culture, providing original British drama, trusted news and current affairs, entertainment and original comedy, as well as investing in popular children’s programmes, arts, documentaries and wildlife programmes. Obligations around UK content, diversity, quality and universality have ensured both a thriving creative industry and a range of programming available throughout the UK which reflects British values.

Recent trends in television viewing and production now threaten to undermine the contribution of PSB. A recent report by Ofcom highlights the popularity of new streaming services and their impact on traditional TV consumption, particularly among 16 to 34-year-olds.

While the plethora of new platforms and streaming services offer an unprecedented array of viewing and listening choices, they pose a unique challenge to many of the public policy objectives of PSB. As global content providers, almost all currently located in the United States, they cannot provide the same volume and range of UK content. Moreover, while PSB budgets diminish, the streaming giants continue to invest very large sums of money in new and lavish productions, thereby creating inflationary pressures for talent and production staff based in the UK.

This event will examine some of the urgent policy and regulatory questions being raised by new platforms and new global players in the audiovisual market. In particular:

• What are the particular cultural, economic and democratic contributions of PSBs that are under threat?
• How can they benefit from the new digital environment, in particular in responding to new technologies and new subscription competitors?
• What measures should governments be taking, if any, to protect and promote the national public interest by supporting PSBs?
• What regulatory interventions should be considered to sustain the contribution of PSBs?
• How are these challenges being addressed by European policymakers, and what are the implications of Brexit?

Speakers:

Professor Steven Barnett, CAMRI, University of Westminster;

Mrs. Bérénice Honold, Adviser International Affairs at the German Federal Film Board (FFA);

Mrs Lucile Petit, Head of Department VOD, Distribution and New Services, at the French regulator Conseil Supérieur De L’Audiovisuel (CSA);

The European Commission, The Audiovisual and Media Services Policy Division of DG Connect (TBC);

Channel 4 (TBC)

Dr. Maria Michalis, Deputy-Director of CAMRI, University of Westminster

Chair: Professor Naomi Sakr, CAMRI, University of Westminster

Communication Studies Department, Boston, MA USA

Apply here

The Department of Communication Studies at Emerson College seeks a faculty colleague with expertise in the field of global communication. This full-time appointment may be for a tenure-track Assistant Professor or for a renewable term Executive in Residence, depending on the candidate’s qualifications and current position. Appointment begins on August 20, 2020.

Emerson College is committed to an active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity—in people, in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in the college’s intellectual, social, cultural, and geographical communities. Emerson endorses a framework of inclusive excellence, which recognizes that institutional excellence comes from fully engaging with diversity in all aspects of institutional activities. Therefore, we strongly encourage applications from candidates who can demonstrate through their teaching, research, and service that they can contribute to our excellence in this area.

We seek a colleague who can enrich global communication perspectives in one or more areas of the department’s curricula. By “global communication” we mean primary engagement with issues and stakeholders in specific countries or regions as well as those with international, transnational, and intercultural dimensions. Global communication represents a core educational commitment we wish to develop and enhance across the curriculum rather than a distinctive curricular area. Possible existing courses for the successful candidate could include: Crisis Communication, Leadership, Conflict and Negotiation, International PR and Global Communication Management, Management and Communication, Public Affairs Matrix: Media, Politics and Advocacy, Sports as Soft Power, and Health Communication Campaigns. The faculty member will also have the opportunity to develop new courses.

In addition, we seek a candidate who could participate in all facets of the operation of the Center for Global Communication, a partnership between Emerson College and Blanquerna-Ramon Llull University School of Communication and International Relations, Barcelona [ECBCGC]. This could include, but not be limited to, the organization of national and international academic/professional meetings as well as conferences, the contribution to research efforts, and the development, expansion, and strengthening of networks of scholars and practitioners spanning across countries, academic disciplines, and cultures.

The department offers undergraduate majors in communication studies, political communication, public relations, and sports communication as well as a master’s in public relations. In addition, the department offers a number of minors and houses Emerson College’s basic oral communication course. Annually, the department participates in the international GlobCom project, a multicultural global communications competition involving 15 universities in 15 countries on five continents. The department also has immersive programs in public diplomacy, political communication, public relations and civic engagement programs in several countries, including Mexico, Canada and Australia. Finally, global opportunities exist for research and teaching in Spain, Mexico, Australia, and other locations nationally and internationally

Emerson College’s Department of Communication Studies has continuously been recognized as one of the top Communication & Media Studies programs in the United States by College Factual, a market leader in providing college rankings. It represents one of the oldest communication programs in the country, with roots reaching back to Emerson’s founding as a school of oratory and expression in 1880.

Emerson College is the nation’s only four-year institution dedicated exclusively to majors in communication and the arts in a liberal arts context. Its main campus is located in the center of the dynamic multicultural city of Boston, in close proximity to major publishing houses, arts institutions, and research centers. The college also has campuses in Los Angeles and the Netherlands. Emerson College enrolls over 4,400 graduate and undergraduate students from more than 52 countries and all 50 states.

Required Qualifications:

● Master’s degree or equivalent degree in communication or a related field. For tenure-track assistant professor consideration, a Ph. D. in communication or a related field is required;

● Evidence of successful classroom teaching at the university level. In particular, candidates should demonstrate professional and/or academic experience in teaching or working with diverse populations and in multicultural settings;

● Content expertise in the areas specified above;

● For assistant professor consideration, a record of active, ongoing scholarly research (or promise thereof) is expected.

Preferred Qualifications

● Experience in global engagement (corporate, non-profit, NGO, governmental, academic).

Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, a teaching philosophy statement, evidence of teaching effectiveness, contact information for three references, and (for candidates interested in a tenure-track, Assistant Professor appointment) a research statement and at least one sample publication. Each material should be saved as a separate PDF or Word doc. and uploaded into the upload section where it requests your CV. Although the upload section just shows "upload CV" - you should upload all materials in this section as the separate documents. 

Edited by Mats Bergman, Kęstas Kirtiklis, Johan Siebers

Models of Communication offers a timely reassessment of the significance of modelling in media and communication studies. From a rich variety of different perspectives, the collected essays explore the past, present, and future uses of communication models, in ordinary discourses concerning communication as well as in academic research.

This book challenges received views of communication models and opens up new paths of inquiry for communication research. By zooming in on the manifestations and purposes of modelling in ordinary discourses on communication as well as in theoretical expositions, the essays collected in this volume cast new light on the problems and prospects of models crafted for the benefit of communication inquiry. Complementing earlier studies of models of communication, the volume digs deep into fundamental epistemological and ontological questions concerning modelling in the communication disciplines; but it also presents several novel models that promise to be of practical use in empirical studies of media and communication.

The book is intended for communication scholars and students of media and will also be of interest for related disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences.

Purchase here.

May 7-8, 2020

Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon

Deadline: January 20, 2020

The emergence of radio introduced profound changes in public communication, changing patterns of information dissemination at local, national and international levels. While in the early 1920s broadcasting was mostly operated by small stations listened to by a small group of people who owned radio sets, before the end of the decade large stations had already emerged on the scene, aiming to reach nationwide or even international audiences. The audio medium soon became a central instrument in the construction and dissemination of national cultures and shared identities. While this was obviously the case in the interwar dictatorships, in Western democracies broadcasting (first radio and later on television) also took centre stage in the dissemination of popular culture and was seen as a powerful tool of propaganda and of creation of national identities (MacKenzie, 1986; Douglas, 1999; Scannell & Cardiff, 1991; Hilmes, 2008) as well as of imagined communities (Anderson, 1983). In the case of the Imperial nations this role was extended overseas with radio becoming the most important medium for uniting the home countries with those living in the far reaches of the empires, though not unproblematically.

A growing body of literature on the history of imperial and colonial broadcasting, as well as of sound, have been contributing to the understanding of the role of radio technologies, broadcasting and music in the 20th century in forging audible and sonorous empires. However, the ways in which different imperial countries used radio to create a sense of nation and colonial identities among those living in different geographies and historical periods remains an open question that may well require different theoretical and methodological approaches, questions and answers. Firstly, how did different imperial projects engage with broadcasting, and how did they use radio as both an imperial and colonial tool across different geographies? How has broadcasting been incorporated and appropriated (similarly and differently) within different colonial settings alongside the rise of the anti-colonial liberation movements? How did different imperial nations embrace technological transformation in the field of broadcasting and of sound in order to achieve their goals? Which were the different broadcasting programming strategies adopted by distinct imperial nations and colonial rules in different territories? In which way have conditions and choices in radio reception shaped imperial and colonial broadcasting? Which were the broadcasting and sound practices that posed resistance to imperial and colonial radio strategies and policies? What role did the audio medium play during decolonization and how did broadcasting institutions change and adapt in the aftermath of colonialism?

The conference “Crossing Borders with a New Medium: Radio and Imperial Identities” seeks papers that tackle these and other issues of (inter)national and cross-border broadcasting practices and policies in different colonial settings. It aims to discuss how radio purposively served the idea of Empire while also serving as a tool to fight colonial rule alongside the rise of pro-independence movements.

Hence, papers dealing with the following topics will be highly appreciated (non-exhaustive list):

• Radio and national identities;
• Imperial and colonial broadcasting institutions;
• Radio professionals in imperial and colonial broadcasting contexts;
• Programming in international broadcasts;
• Reception of Imperial and colonial broadcasts;
• Technologies used for international broadcasting;
• Radio, ethnicity and race;
• Radio and practices of resistance;
• Broadcasting and colonial subjectivities;
• Radio and colonial independences;
• Radio and decolonization;
• Media entanglements in imperial contexts;
• Intermedial approaches to radio history in colonial contexts;
• Media systems in colonial and decolonial settings;
• Radio and music market in imperial and colonial contexts;
• Challenges of oral history.
• Sources and archives dealing with broadcasting in colonial settings;

All presenters selected will have a 20-minute slot to present their work, followed by Q&A.

How to Submit?

Please send a title and a 400 word abstract in Word or Pdf format before 20 January, 2020 (deadline) to broadcasting.empire@gmail.com .

Author name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and contact information should be sent on a separate file or on the body of the e-mail.

Authors will be notified of acceptance on 7 February 2020.

Conference fee

Full fee: 100€ (early bird) / 130€ (includes lunches and coffee-breaks)

Reduced fee for students: 50€ (early bird) / 65€

The conference will be hosted by the Research Centre for Communication and Culture (CECC) at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and will take place within the framework of the research project “Broadcasting to the Portuguese Empire: Nationalism, Colonialism, Identity” funded by FCT and FEDER.

For more information about the project visit: https://www.broadcastingempire.com

University of Jyväskylä

Deadline: November 30, 2019

University of Jyväskylä is currently seeking to recruit 1-3 Assistant and/or Associate Professor (tenure track) starting August 1st 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter, in the position of an Assistant Professor for a fixed term of 3-5 years and in the position of Associate Professor for a fixed term of 5 years.

The position is allocated to the university’s profiling area Multiliteracies for social participation and learning across the life span (https://www.jyu.fi/hytk/fi/tutkimus/meilla_tutkitaan/multiliteracies-for-social-participation-and-in-learning-across-the-life-span-reclas-2), which is a joint scheme by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Education and Psychology. An important focus in the profiling area is on digital and media practices across the whole life span and the role of media in civic engagement and community involvement.

You’ll find the job advertisement and the application form at following link: https://rekry.saima.fi/certiahome/open_job_view.html?did=5600&jc=12&id=00007957&lang=fi

The closing date for the applications is Saturday, November 30th 2019.

Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV)

Deadline: November 24, 2019

Apply here: APPLY

In the past few years, interest in the colonial past has returned to contemporary Dutch society – as elsewhere in the world – with a fierceness that was unexpected for some. This phenomenon ranges from pleas to embrace the colonial past on the one hand, to calls to decolonize our ways of thinking, academic institutions and the production of knowledge on the other hand. Public debates seem increasingly polarized when it comes to topics such as the transformation of ‘Zwarte Piet’ (‘Black Pete’) as a Dutch tradition; white privilege or innocence; the aftermath of slavery and its impact on both descendants of formerly enslaved and descendants of abolitionists and former plantations owners; or the accountability of the Netherlands with regard to its role in Indonesia’s war of independence. What is this vivid historical engagement about? Who is involved (ranging from individuals to communities and institutions)? Why and how does polarization take place, and to what extent and how does it relate to historical cultures in formerly regions colonized by the Dutch, in particular in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, more precisely Indonesia, Suriname and the Antilles, and the diaspora?

For KITLV, as a formerly colonial institute reflecting on its own past, these questions are topical and a starting point for a fresh research agenda that aims to understand the nature and impact of colonial legacies, connections and disconnections, within and between the various regions that have been part of a Dutch colonial space. In that postcolonial framework KITLV has a vacancy for a PhD-research project that focuses on an exploration of the functioning of postcolonial memory, and the dynamics of memory cultures in Netherlands, Indonesia and/or the Caribbean, and the diaspora. Candidates with a research experience or interest in these issues are invited to apply.

There is no disciplinary limitation except that applicants must be trained in the humanities and/or social sciences. We particularly welcome applicants with a background in history, anthropology, political science, cultural studies (including literature), or law, or a combination of these disciplines. An interest and ability to work across disciplinary boundaries will be considered an advantage, as is experience in working with postcolonial communities. Proposed topics of study may be related, but are certainly not limited, to: identity formation of postcolonial groups; the development of multidirectional memory; the role of possibly traumatic memories in identity formation; memory and counter- or post-memory across generations; and the role of generation in the transfer of traumatic memories; the role of ‘lieux de mémoires’/material heritage/sites and oral history in relation to postcolonial meaning, memories and identifications. The PhD candidate may connect his/her research to the postcolonial groups just mentioned, but may also identify other relevant communities that have developed within the specific Dutch colonial past of the Netherlands.

The PhD candidate will have a great deal of flexibility in determining the course of his/her research. To that end, we ask applicants to submit a proposal (maximum of 1000 words) in which they describe their potential project, including a research question, sub-questions, methodology and a rough schedule for completion of the work.

The research position is funded by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), an institution of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The PhD candidate will be appointed at, and embedded in, KITLV (www.kitlv.nl) while also formally attached to Leiden University. Leiden is a pleasant, historical city located between Amsterdam and The Hague. Supervision will be provided by KITLV. The PhD candidate will work at the KITLV’s office on Leiden University’s campus in Leiden.

The PhD candidate is expected to:

• Conduct research, including field research in Southeast Asia and/or the Caribbean;
• Publish on the basis of this research, culminating in at least two journal articles and a PhD dissertation completed within the allotted timed (four years at 1.0 fte; five years at 0.8 fte);
• Collaborate with supervisors and peers on the development of the broader research agenda;
• Participate in conferences, workshops, and other scholarly activities.

REQUIREMENTS

The successful candidate should:

• Hold a recent MA or Mphil in the humanities or social sciences from an internationally recognized university;
• Excel academically, as shown in the transcripts and CV;
• Have an excellent written and spoken command of English;
• Be a native or advanced Dutch speaker, or be willing to learn; knowledge of Indonesian and/or a relevant Caribbean language will be considered an advantage;
• Have affinity with, and preferably experience in, the field of Southeast Asian and/or Caribbean studies;
• Have an advanced level in one of the local languages in these regions;
• Be highly motivated and able to work independently;
• Have good social and organizational skills.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

Appointment will be according to the terms of the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO NU). We offer a 1,0 or 0.8 fte position for one year with the possibility of a three- or four-year extension. The function is validated in the University Function Ordening system (UFO) under the profile “PhD Candidate”. Gross monthly salaries are in accordance with the CAO NU, increasing from € 2325 per month initially, to € 2970 in the fourth year excluding 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end bonus on a full time basis. We offer an extensive package of fringe benefits.

KITLV is committed to diversity, inclusiveness, and equal opportunities.

EMPLOYER

Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV)

The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV-KNAW) is an Academy research institute. The KITLV conducts interdisciplinary and comparative historical research. Its research focus is Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, with an emphasis on Indonesia and the ‘Dutch’ Caribbean. It is particularly interested in such issues as state formation, violence and citizenship, processes of mobility and the formation of ethnic and national identity. KITLV is active in the humanities, social sciences and comparative area studies and works closely with Leiden University.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Questions may be directed to Dr. Esther Captain (captain@kitlv.nl)

We will not respond to any supplier enquiries based on this job advertisement.

University of St Andrews - School of Philosophical, Anthropological & Film Studies

Deadline: December 9, 2019

Location: St Andrews

Salary: £33,797 to £40,322

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 16th October 2019

Closes: 9th December 2019

Job Ref: 249196

Fixed Term: 52 months

Start: 1 June 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BWA903/research-fellow-history-of-rat-catching-ar2279mr?fbclid=IwAR1PPAr3oKj-uXzsSfUMGJqq5uwWAAxuyxbEucaPkyiys7Fdkc3X3D_Kzwc

The Department of Social Anthropology, with funding provided by the Wellcome Trust is sponsoring a project entitled The Global War Against the Rat and the Epistemic Emergence of Zoonosis.

The project, led by Dr Christos Lynteris (PI), will run at the University of St Andrews from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2024. The project team will consist of two postdoctoral research fellows who will work independently and in collaboration with each other and the director of the project.

The post will be held for 52 months, starting 1 June 2020 to 30 September 2024.

The Research Fellow will examine rat-catching practices and campaigns as these unfolded in colonial and metropolitan contexts (including but not limited to British India, the USA, and Brazil) so as to understand how they led to the emergence of new forms of human-rat interaction, and how they contributed to the development of scientific understandings of zoonosis.

Applicants must hold a good first degree and have been awarded or be close to be awarded a PhD in a relevant field of research (history, anthropology, regional studies, animal studies). Applications are encouraged with regard to any relevant field of studies, including medical history, medical anthropology, regional studies and animal studies. Applicants who can demonstrate experience in a) medical historical/anthropological research on animal-borne diseases; and/or b) historical/anthropological research on medical epistemology, are also encouraged to apply regardless of regional research experience.

Applicants must submit a letter of support and a writing sample in support of their application. This can be any published work up to 10,000 words or a thesis chapter.

Applications are particularly welcome from women and ethnic minorities, who are under-represented in Arts posts at the University. You can find out more about Equality & Diversity at https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/edi/

The University is committed to equality for all, demonstrated through our working on diversity awards (ECU Athena SWAN/Race Charters; Carer Positive; LGBT Charter; and Stonewall). More details can be found at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/edi/diversityawards/

Interviews will held in the week commencing 25 January 2020

Please quote ref: AR2279MR

May 26, 2020

Gold Coast, Australia

Deadline: December 20, 2019

The last five years have seen a sea change in debates around regulation of digital platforms. There is a growing view that nation-state regulation is warranted to address public concerns about the market power, lack of accountability and lack of transparency of the leading tech giants. This symposium will bring together communications and media policy and industry researchers to consider critical issues around digital platform regulation.

Location: Function Room – G42_4.23, Griffith University Gold Coast Campus, 1 Parklands Drive, Southport, Gold Coast (venue accessible from Broadbeach via G-Link light rail).

Institutional sponsors: Queensland University of Technology Digital Media Research Centre, University of Sydney Department of Media and Communication, Griffith University Centre for Social and Cultural Research, and the Australian Research Council.

ICA division affiliations: Communications Law and Policy Division, and the Media Industries Interest Group of the ICA

Post-Conference Organizers: Professor Terry Flew (Queensland University of Technology), Dr. Fiona Martin (University of Sydney) and Dr. Rosalie Gillett (Queensland University of Technology).

Link to website: https://research.qut.edu.au/digitalplatformreg/2019/10/14/international-communication-association-2020-post-conference-call-for-papers/

Conference description:

As online activities and experiences are increasingly mediated through digital platforms, a series of scandals and ‘public shocks’ (Ananny & Gillespie, 2017) have raised concerns about privacy and security, the misuse of user data, algorithmic biases, and the public distribution of objectionable and sometimes abhorrent content through the internet (Flew, Martin, & Suzor, 2019). Legislators and regulators in many countries are now engaged in public inquiries and the development of new laws to apply public interest standards to digital platforms, as First Amendment arguments about freedom of online expression and claims that the platforms are simply intermediaries are increasingly under challenge (Napoli, 2019). Leading scholars have identified digital platforms as being central to 21st century communication and media policy (Just & Puppis, 2018; Picard & Pickard, 2017), and debates about the relationship between individual rights and social responsibilities for digital platforms have been noticeably shifting from the quasi-libertarian logics of only a decade ago (Gillespie, 2018).

At the same time, there is a lack of consensus about what digital platform regulation could, or should involve. It is unclear, for instance, whether it should involve a refining of existing forms of communications and media policy to incorporate the role now played by digital platforms as quasi-publishers of increasingly popular digital media content, or whether the principal issues such as monopoly power and consumer protection are best addressed by variants of economic policy e.g. proposals to treat digital platforms as ‘information fiduciaries’ in their handling of user data (Balkin, 2018; Dobkin, 2018). The balance between nation-state regulation and supranational governance is also a subject of considerable debate, as is the extent to which ‘soft law’, and platform-brokered arrangements such as the Twitter Trust & Safety Council and the proposed Facebook Oversight Board may substitute for nation-state regulation. At a time of growing tensions among leading world powers, the divergence between forms of internet governance, and the possibility of a global ‘splinternet’ also needs to be considered (Mueller, 2017).

This post-conference forms a part of ongoing work being undertaken by Professor Terry Flew (Queensland University of Technology), Professor Nicolas Suzor (Queensland University of Technology ), Dr. Fiona Martin (University of Sydney), Associate Professor Tim Dwyer (University of Sydney), Professor Philip Napoli (Duke University), Professor Josef Trappel (University of Salzburg), Dr. Rosalie Gillett (Queensland University of Technology), and Lucy Sunman (University of Sydney) as part of a three-year Australian Research Council Discovery Project, Platform Governance: Rethinking Internet Regulation as Media Policy (Australian Research Council Discovery-Project DP190100222 – 2019-2021).

Confirmed speakers:

• Sandra Braman, Texas A&M University
• Stuart Cunningham, Queensland University of Technology
• Tim Dwyer, University of Sydney
• David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds
• Ramon Lobato, RMIT University
• Sora Park, University of Canberra
• Victor Pickard, University of Pennsylvania
• Nicolas Suzor, Queensland University of Technology
• Josef Trappel, University of Salzburg
• Krisztina Rozgonyi, University of Vienna
• Dwayne Winseck, Carleton University

We invite submissions relating to current platform governance debates. Possible topics include:

• The relationship between digital platforms and traditional media industries
• Platformization of the Internet and its implications for online speech and digital content regulation
• Public interest rationales for regulation in an age of digital platforms
• The economics of digital platforms and questions of market power in multisided markets
• Applicability of media and communications laws, policies and regulations to digital platforms
• Comparative international studies of digital platform regulations
• Divergence in digital media policies and the prospects of a global ‘splinternet’
• Models of regulation, including self-regulation, co-regulation and ‘soft law’, and their applicability to digital platforms
• Questions of trust relating to digital platform regulation
• Implications of populist politics for digital platform regulation.

Submission and participation details:

We invite authors to submit abstracts of 300-500 words addressing conference objectives. We are particularly interested in diverse international and comparative perspectives on these topics. Please make sure you include a title for your abstract. Abstracts will be automatically excluded that are poorly written, or do not address the themes of the post-conference. Abstract submissions will be reviewed and final decisions communicated by January 15th, 2020.

For any enquiries and to submit your extended abstract, please email Dr. Rosalie Gillett at digitalplatformregulation@qut.edu.au.

• Closing date for abstracts: Friday, December 20, 2019.
• Author notifications: Wednesday, January 15, 2020.
• Registration opens: Wednesday, January 15, 2020.
• Registration deadline: Thursday, April 30, 2020.
• ICA 2020 conference: 21-25 May, 2020
• Digital Platform Regulation Post-Conference: Tuesday 26 May 2020

Publication outcomes:

Publication outcomes are under consideration include a special issue of the journal Global Perspectives on “Trust in the Digital Economy”, to be edited by Terry Flew and Sora Park, and a possible edited book.

Registration fees:

The registration fees for the post-conference will be $US50 for those in full-time academic positions from Tier A countries, and $US30 those from Tier B and C countries, graduate students, and those in employment exception positions (adjunct, sessional and part-time positions). The registration fees will cover refreshments for two breaks and lunch. Information on ICA Country Tiers can be found at https://www.icahdq.org/page/tiers.

All attendees will need to create an ICA profile in order to register. We also expect that all presenters will attend the post-conference event for the full day. Speakers are expected to register for the event unless otherwise advised.

April 29-30, 2020

McGill University, Montreal

Deadline: December 31, 2019

Organized by:

Jhessica Reia, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University

Will Straw, James McGill Professor of Urban Media Studies, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University

Over the last decade, the study of the night has emerged as an international, interdisciplinary field of scholarly research. Historians, archaeologists, geographers, urbanists, economists and scholars of culture and literature have analyzed the night time of communities large and small, across a wide range of historical periods. The study of the night has expanded in tandem with new attention to the night on the part of city administrations, organizers of cultural events (like nuits blanches and museum nights) and activists fighting gentrification, systems of control and practices of harassment and exclusion which limit the “right to the night” of various populations.

In this context of this new attention to the night, we invite proposals for an international conference, in English and French, on relationships between media and the night. We are open to papers focussing on old and new media, from any disciplinary perspective, and dealing with any historical period or geographical area. Possible topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• The place of media consumption and circulation within the 24-hour cycle;
• Formal and stylistic features of media treatments of the night;
• Media constructions of the transgressive, marginal or identitarian night;
• Specialized media directed at (or produced by) communities of the night;
• The role of media forms (or platforms) in tracing itineraries of night-time activity;
• Media tools to enhance the safety and accessibility of the night;
• “Intermedial” dimensions of media’s relationship to the night (e.g., electric lighting and photography; late-night television and classic cinema, etc.);
• The challenge of imagining “night” genres for 24-hour streaming services;
• Archiving the night;
• Pre-digital or digital practices of mapping the night;
• Night, social media and data visualization;
• Night media and energy infrastructures.

Proposals (with title) should be approximately 350 words, in French or English, and submitted by email to jhessica.reia@mcgill.ca by December 30, 2019. Please note that, while the organizers are unable to cover the travel and accommodation costs of participants, we will and will not charge a registration fee.

https://theurbannight.com/