ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 15-16, 2020

Rome (Italy)

Deadline: February 15, 2020

It is our great pleasure to invite you to the two-day International Conference “What People Leave Behind: Marks, Traces, Footprints and their Significance for Social Sciences” that will be hosted by the Department of Communication and Social Research and the Ph.D. Program in Communication, Social Research and Marketing – Sapienza University of Rome on June 15-16, 2020.

The conference focuses on a significant theme in the social sciences: the concepts of “footprint” and “trace”. Usually associated with the digital world, the very idea of footprints clearly gives the image of what one leaves behind without being aware of it. Trace-like information, i.e. information that was not meant to be informative, is much sought after, and this is particularly true in the age of digital capitalism.

Partners of the Conference: Italian Association of Sociology; Sociology, Culture, Communication – Italian Scientific Society; Italian Association of Semiotic Studies; ESARN20 Qualitative methods; ESARN21 Quantitative methods.

Call for panels and papers

The purpose of the conference is to encourage inter- and cross-disciplinary fields of research, with particular attention to sociology, communication studies, data science, anthropology, computational social science, history, semiotics, media and Internet studies.

When submitting paper presentations, the following information is required:

• Title;
• Abstract (500 words maximum);
• Author’s name, affiliations, appointment and email address;
• 5 keywords.

The conference is also open to a small number of proposals for pre-constituted panels: panel conveners are invited to suggest a two-hour themed panel of five/six speakers. All panel submissions should be gender balanced and include authors from at least two different countries. When submitting panel proposals, the following information is required:

• Panel chair’s name, affiliations, appointment and email address;
• Title of the panel;
• Abstract of the panel (300 words maximum);
• Paper titles and short abstracts (200 words maximum), with authors’ names, affiliations and appointments for each paper.

Panels and papers proposals should be sent to wplb2020.coris@uniroma1.it

For more information please visit the conference website: https://web.uniroma1.it/whatpeopleleavebehind/

June 11-12, 2020

Liverpool (UK)

Deadline: January 20, 2020

This conference aims to forge interdisciplinary links between those working in Television and Media Studies, Modern Languages and Gender Studies. Television and media research is changing, the rapid evolution of this medium has been theorised in terms of the technological advances that changing modes of distribution bring, its textual, narrative and aesthetic developments, and its role as a mediator of cultural identity. Scholarship in this area has produced prolific studies of US and, to a lesser degree, UK television to exemplify the ways in which constructions of gender are mediated through different televisual formats and genres. This conference will refocus this research through analysis of television made beyond these English-speaking territories and consider the important work being done in Modern Languages to understand and analyse the ways in which transcultural and transnational mediations of gender are made visible, produced and understood through popular television.

This conference aims to explore this cultural specificity that will provide an important intervention into Gender Studies and Cultural Studies more broadly, as it works at the interface of Area Studies and these other disciplines. As a response to a global political landscape, in which power and gender have been brought into sharp focus, it will examine the way in which these structures of power play out in these ‘other’ television cultures. We will consider television as a key cultural mediator in the transcultural understanding of gender and a significant interlocutor in social change. If we consider TV one of the most influential agents of value construction, then TV shows can be considered a powerful tool to guide viewers through the moral climate of their time, attesting to a collective process of working through social issues.

Themes and research questions may include but should not be limited to:

• How is gender made visible on television?
• How are gendered subjectivities negotiated in different TV genres?
• How are gendered subjectivities framed by the format of the TV genre?
• To what extent is character engagement dependent on genre, hybridisation or actors?
• How do critics deal with gender on TV? What other extra textual discourses contribute to the production of meanings surrounding gender on television?
• To what extent is the continued application of Anglophone theory in a non-Anglophone context useful?
• Can the analysis of the geo-specific productions contribute to the theorisation of the media representation of gender?
• How does the reception of international productions compare to that of indigenous television?
• How has the transmedial configuration of television altered the ways in which configurations of gender and nationality are understood?
• How have streaming platforms changed the ways in which gender is mediated transnationally?

Confirmed keynote speakers:

• Professor Milly Buonanno, La Sapienza University, Rome
• Professor Aniko Imre, Prof of Cinema & Media Studies, University of Southern California

Organisers:

• Dr Anja Louis, Reader in Cultural and Intercultural Studies, Languages and Cultures, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB
• Dr Abigail Loxham, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Film, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX

Conference Formats:

• Individual papers: Oral presentations on original research by one or more authors.
• Full panels: Three thematically connected papers on original research by several authors.
• Posters: A0-size academic posters, which will be displayed during a dedicated poster session. A digital version of the poster must be sent via email 72 hours prior to the conference and submitted physically to the registration desk on the morning of the conference.

All papers consist of a 20-minute presentation by the author(s), with an extra 10-minute slot allocated for discussion at the end. Proposals for papers should include an abstract under 350 words and a bio of no more than 100 words. Panel proposals for three or four paper panels should combine the abstracts and bios of speakers in one document, and should also include a short rationale and panel title. Poster proposals should include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a 100-words speaker bio. All proposals should be submitted to the organisers: a.louis@shu.ac.uk and abigail.loxham@liverpool.ac.uk

The deadline for proposals is 20 January 2020. Accepted papers will be notified by 15 February 2020. Selected papers will be invited to submit for a peer-reviewed volume.

Registration fees: £100 | Concessionary rate (postgraduates): £60

April 10-12, 2020

Ankara, Turkey

Ufuk University is holding the First International Social Sciences Congress to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its foundation. The main theme of the congress is determined as Earth in Context of Economics, Politics and Environment in the 21st Century considering the major discussion subjects in the 21st Century and the critical problems of the world we live in. On the other hand, the sub-themes cited in related parts of the website are to cover all social sciences. The congress will convene at Ufuk University Incek Campus in Ankara, Turkey between the 10th and 12th of April 2020 with panels, workshops, and sessions aimed at bringing together the social sciences academics.

Academics applying to present a paper are to handle all application procedures through the congress website. Additionally, participants may also offer themed panels which they believe to be indispensable or other proposals through the address usbk@ufuk.edu.tr. The panels proposed via e-mail are to be evaluated by the Organization Committee and if approved, the regular process will be followed.

The congress is peer-reviewed. There will be no possibility of poster presentation. The abstracts of the papers presented in the Congress will be printed in the Congress Proceedings Book. Additionally, full text papers (in either English or Turkish), the peer review processes of which are completed and accepted for publication, can be published at the Journal of Ufuk University Institute of Social Sciences.

Congress web site address is usbk.ufuk.edu.tr or you can access on Ufuk Universiy’s web site which is ufuk.edu.tr 

Dear colleagues,

is anyone considering or better already planning to submit a project to the currently open call of Horizon 2020 TRANSFORMATIONS-10-2020 on Evolving European Media Landscapes and Europeanisation?

Our Department of Media and Cultural Studies and Journalism, at the Palacký University in Olomouc, the Czech Republic (and Dep. of Communication Studies, University of Latvia) would like to join as a partner(s). If interested, we can provide with more information about what we can offer and share perspectives on the contents of the prospective project.

Regarding the topic, Czech Republic is very interesting since it is one of the most skeptical European countries towards EU (though with high well-being and stability, concerning the CEE region) and with affinity of politicians towards both Russia and China, and since 2014 is experiencing oligarchization of the media (from minor German media-houses owners to the hands of wealthiest Czechs, incl. the Prime Minister). Latvia's medialandscape, on the other hand, is strongly influenced by the Russian media production and Russian dezinformation campaigns.

Let us know. With best regards,

Zdenek Sloboda

zdenek.sloboda@upmedia.cz, https://kmksz.upol.cz/en/

June 27-28, 2020

Faculty of Humanities, North-West University, South Africa

Deadline: February 28, 2020

Indigenous language media in Africa (ILMA) conference

The advent of social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube etc.) has brought about democratisation of communication as the public that hitherto had been considered to be consumers of messages has now also become producers. The platform of social media is open to everyone who has a device, an account to use and data or access to the internet. Communication has never been better and interesting in the history of man.

However, as we celebrate this ‘power’ of communication given to the people through social media, we also need to ponder the other side of this communication. This advent of social media and with it more opportunities for free participation by citizens in debates has given impetus to insurgent politics and also brought on us the acceleration and strengthening of post-truth, fake news and hate speeches. Before the emergence of social media, there were fake news and hate speech carried by different media in the chronology of media and communication history. These phenomena have been there since the time of communication by mere words of mouth, and through the advent of print, radio and television media. It has however become more obtrusive with the emergence of social media. This has had some deleterious impact on human relationships and the society at large. It has created crisis and fueled it to monstrous proportions.

These are some of the issues we intend to focus on in this conference. Submissions can touch on any of the following points:

• Theorisation around social media, fake news and hate speech
• Social media, Fake news, hate speech and the economy
• Social media, Fake news, hate speech and politics
• Social media, Fake news, hate speech and nationality
• Social media, Fake news, hate speech and race
• Social media, Fake news, hate speech and human relations
• Social media, fake news and hate speech in organisations
• Social media, fake news, hate speech and religion
• Social media, language use, fake news and hate speech
• Social media, indigenous language, ethnicity and hate speech
• Social media, indigenous culture, fake news and hate speech
• Social media, citizen education, fake news and hate speech
• Social media, fake news, hate speech and xenophobia
• Strengths and weaknesses of various social media for fake news and hate speech
• Social media regulation, fake news and hate speech

The list is by no means exhaustive.

Kindly submit abstracts of between 300 and 500 words to Dr. Francis Amenaghawon at olaiyagba@yahoo.com

Papers presented at the conference, after peer-review process, will be published in Habari: ILMA Book Series. Habari is the Swahili word for News. The book series editors are Professor Abiodun Salawu and Prof. Itumeleng Mekoa.

Important Dates:

1. Abstract Submission – February 28, 2020

2. Acceptance/Rejection Notice – March 15, 2020

3. Conference Registration Opens – March 30, 2020

4. Conference – June 27 – 28, 2020

Registration Fees:

Academics – R2500.00

Students – R1000.00

International participants – USD180.00

March 19, 2020

Lund University, Sweden, Department of Communication and Media

Deadline: December 12, 2019

Organisers: Annette Hill and Hario Satrio Priambodho

Break up, break down, and break away: variations on media and the breaking down of infrastructures, technicalities, texts, contexts and social relations are the basis of this international symposium Media and Breakdown. This event focuses on the play off between deconstruction and reconstruction work in media, communication and cultural studies.

Breakdown signifies wearing down, collapse, and catastrophe; this meaning of breakdown relates to media technologies and services, representations and themes in factual and fictional genres, or broader issues such as a crisis of democracy, and a thin trust between politicians, the media and publics. Breakdown also signifies taking apart something to analyse and understand how it works; this meaning of breaking down relates to deconstructing a text and its internal workings and contradictions, or forensically analysing media systems, political economics and power structures. Moments of media breakdown can reveal that which is otherwise hidden. And breakdown can be related to processes of fluidity and renewal, in the breaking down of barriers and divisions. The theme of breakdown offers a multidimensional approach to how we can understand media, culture and society as a site of collapse and repair, and as a place for theoretical and empirical analysis within media, communication and cultural studies.

The international symposium offers a platform for dialogue on media and breakdown that addresses the theme from empirical and theoretical perspectives. We invite papers related to the following themes:

• Media and crises of democracy
• Media, civility and incivility
• Media misinformation, bias and fake news
• Media and failure of institutions, infrastructures, and professionals
• Media framing of catastrophe, crisis, and apocalypse
• Media and breaking down genres and narratives
• Media and cultural practices of collapse, repair and reconciliation
• Media, arts and creativity on breakdown, dissolution and resolution
• Media and cultural methods of deconstruction and reconstruction

The research questions include: 1. How can we critically examine media and breakdown across news, radio and television, film, arts and museums, digital and social media? 2. In what ways can we understand breakdown and repair in our analysis of media and culture? 3. What methods can we apply to the study of media and breakdown? Different disciplinary approaches to research on media and breakdown have developed in a variety of subject areas such as media, communication and cultural studies, political communication, sociology and anthropology, cultural geography, media history, film studies, art and creative practice, and memory studies. The symposium offers opportunities to seek overlaps and connections in pursuing our topic.

Confirmed speakers include Nico Carpentier (Charles University, Czech Republic), Simon Dawes (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France), Christine Geraghty (Glasgow University, UK), Joke Hermes (InHolland University, Netherlands), Annette Hill (Lund University, Sweden), and Peter Lunt (University of Leicester, UK).

Please submit an abstract of 300 words in English by December 12th 2019 to hario.priambodho@kom.lu.se.

For further information please consult our website: https://www.kom.lu.se/en/research/konferenser-och-natverkstraffar/media-and-breakdown/.

There is a registration fee of 850 SEK (90 Euros) that covers food and drink for the day and an evening buffet.

Deadline: December 9, 2019

This is a quick reminder to those of you who might be interested in contributing a chapter to the 'Ethnic journalism in the Global South' book.

The book will be submitted to Palgrave Macmillan in 2020 and if everything goes well will be published as part of the newly launched 'Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South' book series: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16423 (series editors Bruce Mutsvairo, Saba Bebawi and Eddy Borges-Rey).

In this volume, we will look at ethnic journalism in the Global South through the following lenses:

• Ethnic journalism as a profession: journalistic practices, challenges (economic, technological, social, etc.) to journalists working for ethnic media outlets in the Global South, education/training of journalists, transformation of journalistic roles and functions in the digital age, etc.;
• Ethnic journalism as a social mission: the role of ethnic journalism and ethnic media in safeguarding pluralistic media landscape, fostering multicultural understanding and inclusion, protecting ethnic identities, languages and cultures in the Global South;
• Ethnic journalism and digital inequalities: how inequalities in access, skills, benefits people receive through being online hinder the development of ethnic journalism in the Global South, and what the ways to overcome these inequalities can be;
• Ownership, regulation, production and financing of ethnic media in the Global South: how ethnic media are regulated and funded; who owns such media; who produces them; how media policy in the Global South today protects media outlets in ethnic languages on a broader federal and regional/local levels;
• Ethnic journalism through case study analysis: deeper analysis of journalistic practices and ethnic media in the Global South with a focus on their managerial and editorial strategies, content specifics, target audience, distribution channels, main challenges and trends of development in the digital age, etc.

If you are interested in suggesting a chapter for this volume, please send us a one-page summary of your proposed chapter, indicating central questions, methodology, theoretical framework and expected results.

Submissions are to be sent to Anna Gladkova gladkova_a@list.ru and Sadia Jamil sadia.jamil@ymail.com before 9 December 2019.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

March 27, 2020

Dublin, Ireland

Deadline: January 6, 2020

Technological University Dublin invites submissions for its public relations and public affairs conference, SymPR&A 2020.

With a theme of ‘public relations, public affairs and societal engagement’ and an emphasis on social capital and social legitimacy, the conference invites research papers from scholars in PR and public affairs particularly, and encourages interdisciplinary contributions from scholars whose related work explores and benefits contemporary theory and practice.

Topics that are particularly welcomed in this call for papers may include, for example:

• Is societal engagement an evolution of corporate social responsibility, or a revolution?
• The challenges for societal engagement
• What are the strategic and tactical processes for societal engagement?
• How can PR&A measure both engagement and the outcomes of engagement?
• Where does societal engagement sit within schools of PR&A thought – rhetorical, critical theory, systems theory etc?
• Inter-disciplinary approaches to engagement – inter alia, sociology, mass and behavioural psychology, media reporting, ethics, linguistics, marketing, management.
• Practitioner-led case studies that explore these topics

This list is not exhaustive and imaginative proposals from disciplines outside these suggestions are welcome.

Abstracts of 300-400 words for a paper of approximately 20-25 minutes should be submitted with a short accompanying proposer biography by January 6. Submissions may be made at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sympra2020

The full call for papers, and details on registration can be viewed at http://www.prstudent.com/symposium.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The PROFECI Team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is looking to recruit an Arabic speaking Post-Doctoral Fellow in an ERC project about the social dynamics of projecting possible futures.

If you are a native Arabic speaker, or fluent in the Arabic language, and are interested in working on an exciting project for your postdoc studies (starting September 2020), this could be a terrific opportunity for you.

We are an international, interdisciplinary team headed by Prof. Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt (https://scholars.huji.ac.il/tenenboim-weinblattkeren) at the Hebrew University’s Department of Communication and Journalism. The project, PROFECI, examines how scenarios about the outcomes and implications of significant political events are formulated, and how people act upon these expectations. The Post-Doctoral researcher will focus on the social construction of projections related to the war in Syria and the role of the media in this process. The position is fully funded (up to 2 years).

Suitable candidates should hold (or be close to completion of) a PhD in Communication, Middle Eastern Studies, International Relations, or related fields. Background in research on Syria and experience in text analysis are an advantage.

Applications should comprise a statement of motivation (1 page), CV including list of publications, two recommendation letters (one of them should be from the PhD supervisor), as well as one relevant publication (published or under review). Applications should be sent as PDF to Bat Sheva Hass, ERC coordinator, at bath@savion.huji.ac.il.

Review of applications will begin on January 30th, 2019 and will continue until the position is filled.

April 15-16, 2020

Unisinos University / Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Deadline: February 3, 2020

Submit: an abstract in English, Portuguese or Spanish (300 words) and short biography to digilabour@gmail.com

Confirmed speakers include Niels van Doorn (Universiteit van Amsterdam) and Ludmila Costhek Abilio (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), and more to be confirmed. The conference will also host roundtables of policy makers and worker-led organizations.

The conference encourages submissions that explore one of the following issues or another related to digital labor research.

• Digital labor from various perspectives/fields/dimensions;
• Theories, methodologies and epistemologies of digital labor;
• Algorithms, data, platforms and work;
• Artificial intelligence and human work;
• Platformization of labor;
• Platform cooperativism;
• Surveillance, control and digital labor;
• Algorithmic control;
• Narratives and representations about digital labor;
• Race, class, gender and territory in digital labor;
• Entrepreneurial rationality and digital media;
• Regulation of work on digital platforms;
• Collective organization of workers in platform context (worker collectives, labor unions…);
• Platform capitalism and sharing economy;
• Health and work in digital contexts;
• Digital Labor in Latin America
• Education and work in context of platformization;
• Alternative platforms;
• Action research on digital labor.

​Results will be announced on February 17, 2020.

Organizing Committee

• Rafael Grohmann (Unisinos)
• Adriana Amaral (Unisinos)
• Alberto Efendy Maldonado (Unisinos)
• Jiani Bonin (Unisinos)
• Mario de Conto (ESCOOP)
• Daniel Abs (UFRGS)

Scientific Committee

• Ana Claudia Moreira Cardoso (UFJF)
• Arturo Arriagada (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez)
• Bianca Tavolari (INSPER)
• Carlos D’Andrea (UFMG)
• Cláudia Nonato (CPCT/ECA-USP)
• Claudia Rebechi (UTFPR)
• Claudiana Guedes (UFRRJ)
• Danila Cal (UFPA)
• Enda Brophy (Simon Fraser University)
• Graciela Natansohn (UFBA)
• Helena Martins (UFC)
• Janaína Visibeli Barros (UEMG)
• Jean-Paul Van Belle (University of Cape Town)
• Karin Fast (Karlstad University)
• Leonardo Foletto (LabCidade - FAU-USP / BaixaCultura)
• Luci Praun (UFAC)
• Mark Andrejevic (Pomona University)
• Mark Graham (University of Oxford)
• Mary Gray (Microsoft Research)
• Mayo Fuster (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
• Natalia Vinelli (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
• Nathalie Fragoso (InternetLab)
• Rafael Bellan (UFES)¨
• Rafael Evangelista (Unicamp)
• Ricardo Antunes (Unicamp)
• Ricardo Festi (UnB)
• Rodrigo Carelli (UFRJ)
• Rodrigo Moreno Marques (UFMG)
• Roseli Figaro (USP)
• Rudimar Baldissera (UFRGS)
• Ruy Braga (USP)
• Sarah Abdelnour (Université Paris-Dauphine)
• Sergio Amadeu (UFABC)
• Thaiane Oliveira (UFF)
• Veena Dubal (University of California)

More information: https://digilabour.com.br/simposiodigilabour/

Please send any inquiries to rafaelgrohmann@unisinos.br or digilabour@gmail.com