ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Special issue of About Journalism

Deadline: December 1, 2019

Website: https://surlejournalisme.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/CFP-DeadAbout-Journalism-narrative-journalism-and-socialism.pdf

Editors of this special issue:

Pablo Calvi (Stony Brook University, NY, United States), William Dow (American University of Paris, Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, France), Roberto Herrscher (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile), Isabelle Meuret (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) & Isabel Soares (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal).

From Jack London to George Orwell, from Upton Sinclair to Gabriel García Márquez, from José Martí to Elena Poniatowska, from Joseph Roth to Günter Walraff, literary journalists have often pursued a socialist agenda. Undercover reporters, muckrakers and, increasingly, whistleblowers share a common dedication and commitment to social justice and progress. Because it explores the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, narrative or literary journalism falls within the traditions of History from Below (United Kingdom), Alltagsgeschichte (Germany), or microstoria (Italy) of the past century, all of which have a staunch socialist or Marxist allegiance. Poverty, precarity, unemployment, displacement, imprisonment, malady, i.e. the many plagues that affect the downtrodden, feature as essential topics in Anglo-American literary journalism, French grand reportage, and Hispano-Portuguese crónicas. By way of illustration, Ted Conover follows Mexican migrants crossing the border to the United States, Adrienne Nicole Leblanc reports on a Puerto Rican family in the Bronx drug underworld, William T. Vollmann investigates poverty across the world, while in France, Florence Aubenas tells the stories of precarious workers and dropouts, and in Portugal Mário and Pedro Patrocínio tell of lives in Brazilian favelas and Angolan urban ghettoes.

With the rise of populisms and right extremisms, movements from the left, far-left, and even beyond the left side of the political spectrum, have also gained in visibility. Socialism today, drawing either from its Marxist heritage or as a legacy of a pluralist Left, takes different directions, including radicalization or direct action. Grass-roots movement are thriving, whether they originate from the political sphere or civil society. The dramatic comeback of socialism is also characterized by the popularity of some politicians who totally assume this new turn to the left, from Bernie Sanders in the United States to Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom. The nature of this socialism is not homogeneous; it comes in a variety of forms. Growing inequalities between elites and citizens, big bosses and minimum wage earners, and the shameless exploitation of vulnerable populations, cause considerable discontent on a worldwide scale. A global conversation allows for new ideas to emerge on the management and action levels, and “conscientization” (Paulo Freire) remains an important key to understand the prevailing climate, to untangle problems, to imagine viable solutions or even pedagogical projects. However, if radical imagination and direct action are undeniably back in favor, socialism does not necessarily mean radicalism or anarchism, nor Marxism, nor communism.

Movements for social justice have always been supported and performed through storytelling. This issue of About Journalism will interrogate the specificities of such stories, which prompt and convey meaning to action, in a diachronic perspective. It will highlight the roots, convergences and divergences, but also the prospects for socialism in the twenty-first century, as well as the manner in which it is revisited and modernized by future generations. It will aim at understanding how narrative journalism, or literary reportage, allows for a better understanding of the stakes, promises, and values of socialism today, in a transcultural and interdisciplinary perspective. This issue will deal with the main motivations and subjects of socialism, now that it is actively resisting, and will define the journalistic and literary practices and strategies used to reflect such realities. It will analyze the poetics, poietics, and politics of narrative journalism when it specifically reports on the people from below, those whom we have come to call the new poor, the underprivileged, or poorly-paid workers.

From a purely journalistic point of view, it is a fact that the political press is losing momentum and is being supplanted by pluralistic and nonpartisan media. Therefore, it is worth considering the vacuum left by many newspapers that explicitly assumed their left-wing alignment, be it simply socialist, progressive, or else, not to mention those who are still, strictly speaking, the official organs of a party – Le Peuple in Belgium, L’Humanité in France, Pravda in the Soviet Union, People’s Daily in China – to name just a few. This void is now filled by editorialists and polemicists of all kinds who are providing opinions and commentaries, while social networks offer space to vent off anger, hatred, and abuse. Conversely, literary journalists propose an alternative path where long-researched and well-crafted stories disclose the details of felt lives and reveal the humanness of complicated realities.

Papers for this special issue of the journal will reflect the variety of definitions, conceptualizations, representations, and interpretations of socialism, along the following lines:

• Activism, radicalism, direct action, journalism
• Ethics and aesthetics of literary/narrative journalism
• Literary/Narrative journalism and social justice
• Literary/Narrative journalism in immersion
• Politically committed journalism, journalism of attachment
• Active literature and positive journalism
• Militant and pedagogical practices through the media
• Representations of struggles and revolutions in media productions

The deadline for submitting the final manuscripts (30 to 50,000 characters, including notes and bibliography) is 1st December 2019, at: Isabelle.Meuret@ulb.ac.be Manuscripts may be written in English, French, Portuguese or Spanish. Double blind review.

Organized by the ECREA Mediatization and Philosophy of Communication Sections

November 1–2, 2019

University of Bonn, Germany (Department of Media Studies)

Deadline (EXTENDED): July 15, 2019

The rapid development of technologies in the last decades has undeniable impacts on the social, cultural and political processes in contemporary societies and on the everyday lives of their members. Digital platforms became the new spaces of social action, and data has turned into a value system of its own. These transformations, which in the framework of mediatization theory have been described as a ‘metaprocess’ of social change, may promise the increase of efficiency of human performance, but they might as well mean a loss of control or a new landscape for work, privacy or democracy, just to name some of the man contexts involved. No doubt, these processes are in need of critical reflections on the changing relationships between humans and technology.

Particularly two developments currently seem to characterize mediatization processes: Datafication and the introduction of ‘digital machines’ into everyday life.

Datafication understood as the process of translating information about the social practices of individuals (such as everyday and private communication or consumption) and institutional actors and organisations (such as in politics, the world of work, commerce or the health system) into digital data, refers to the comprehensive collection, storage, archiving and use of digital data in all areas of society (micro, meso and macro levels). As one of the central consequences of digitization, the relevance of data archiving is therefore increasing in all areas and poses major challenges, especially to democratically constituted, liberal societies. Digitization and data archiving mark both a technological and cultural change in society as a whole, the effects of which will have a decisive influence not only on the future of democracy but also on it. In the public discourse, contemporary diagnoses and, in particular, prognoses for the future of democratic society usually oscillate between optimistic-utopian perspectives on the one hand and pessimistic-dystopian scenarios on the other.

As one of the most visible consequences of datafication, the role of the ‘machine’ has come into focus recently. It is not only the ubiquity of algorithms and AI, it is as well the explosion of usage contexts for robots, which far exceeds the long-known industrial robots. Even considering that people's relationships to technology and to 'machines' has always been ambivalent, the current development touches on new limitations - machines stand for progress and threat alike. In the course of human history, emotional charging, mythical exaggeration or demonisation and the political interpretation of machines have almost always accompanied the relationship to technological innovations. With new machines like social robots or autonomous weapons, ethical conflicts are inevitable.

These often conflicting relationships between (wo)man and machines mark leaps in the development of social change, since these conflicts illustrate how people reorganize themselves around technology.

In view of the described massive technological changes, it becomes clear that machines can no longer be reduced to a physical object, but can also be program codes, algorithms or artificial intelligence. These processes of change point to the necessity to detach the concept of the machine from its materiality.

Such “invasion” of the machines at the very heart of the social invites media scholars and philosophers to rethink and reconceptualize the core elements the traditional social thought.

Hence, we invite papers to the following themes.

• Is the technologically permeated society qualitatively different from its earlier forms?
• What are the principles of human-machine interaction?
• What is the nature of agency, is there any sense of applying this concept to the functions performed by machines?
• Historical and recent perspectives on machines
• Datafication as mediatization
• Ethical and political perspectives on machines
• New understanding of the machine concept and artificial intelligence, machine ethics, robot ethics,
• Politics, technology and equality, e.g. models of ‘digital feudalism’
• Images of machines in journalistic (mass) media
• Changes in society due to datafication
• The meaning of being human in the technologized society

Please note that we invite contributions in various formats, e.g. workshops, panels and individual presentations.

Proposals should consist of an abstract max. 500 words, not including references).

Please submit an abstract outlining the state of the study or project, as well as the research question(s) or hypotheses, findings and conclusion(s).

We also encourage submitting theoretical papers, work in progress, e.g. new theoretical, methodological or didactic ideas.

Presentations can be either short pitch/poster sessions or traditional presentations (feel free to be creative).

Panelsconsist of various presentations addressing a common topic from different perspectives. Panels are scheduled for one hour, including discussions. Panel proposals should include a description of the topic and an overall panel goal, addressing the relevance of the topic to the conference theme (400 words). The proposal should also suggesta chair to serve as moderator and should include a short abstract of each of the presentations (max. 200 words each).

Deadline for submissions: Saturday, July 15, 2019

Official Website: http://www.ecrea-bonn2019.uni-bonn.de

Please include your author information (name, institution, contact) in the accompanying e-mail.

Accepted presenters will be informed by 1st of August, 2019.

Please submit abstracts as anonymized word or pdf-documents to:

Prof. Dr. Caja Thimm (thimm@uni-bonn.de)

January 7-11, 2020

Lisbon, Portugal

Deadline: July 22, 2019

Jointly organized by the Faculty of Human Sciences (Universidade Católica Portuguesa), the Center for Media@Risk at the Annenberg School for Communication (University of Pennsylvania), the School of Journalism and Communication (Chinese University of Hong Kong), the Department of Media and Communications (London School of Economics and Political Science) and the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Helsinki), the Second Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication will take a comparative and global approach to the study of media and uncertainty across time.

CONFIRMED LECTURERS

• Dominique Brossard, University of Wisconcin-Madison
• Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Victor Pickard, University of Pennsylvania
• Teresa Ashe, Open University
• Carla Ganito, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Fathali Moghaddam, George Washington University
• Saskia Witteborn, Chinese University of Hong Kong

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The media today are troubled by uncertainty.

Externally, a growing sense of uncertainty draws from deep-seated questions about identity formation, increasing angst over the viability of familiar cultural, political and social formations and intensifying social and economic precarity and inequality. Ultimately, the risks and challenges posed by climate change expose an even deeper sense of risk, calling into question the usual cyclical social imaginations about risk, crisis and renewal.

Within media environments, uncertainty builds from the rapid unfolding and often unforeseen ramifications of digital technology, the collapse of traditional business models, new degrees of irrelevance, the emergence of new players and platforms, the development of new reception practices, changing expectations of what media are for and a shift in the very relationship of the media to the outside world in an era marked by widespread dis- and mis-information.The viability of media as we know them is up for grabs.

How and in what ways will the media – as institutions, as occupational and professional contexts, as a diverse set of practices – adapt to this age of uncertainty? Will the media continue to produce meaningful content, and if so in which ways? How will the media push back against political assault? Who will fund the media’s continued presence? Will new business models allow the media to play a central role in democratic societies, producing investigative journalism and relevant information on current affairs? How do we move forward in rebuilding public trust in the media, ensuring that they help sustain some kind of inclusive public space?How will audiences relate to and engage with different media platforms? How will new forms of media change and disrupt legacy media platforms? How will journalism report about uncertain and risky futures? How will political powers be held accountable?

Questions like these fuel the imaginary that uncertainty introduces into considerations of the media, demanding global approaches to the different occupational, professional, economic, political, cultural and environmental contexts in which the media operate. Thus, the Second Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communicationwill consider how uncertainty is molding the media in different geographies and how societies rely on the media to deal with moments of uncertainty.

The Lisbon Winter School invites proposals by doctoral students and early career post-docs from all over the world that address, though may not be not be strictly limited to, the topic of media and uncertainty as it relates to:

• Media and digital transformation
• Emergent cultural, political and social formations
• New business models
• New notions of risk and resistance to it
• Media and uncertainty throughout history
• Online harassment
• Alternative media forms and outlets
• Media activism
• Reporting uncertainty
• Authoritarian media
• Media and political accountability
• Dis- and misinformation, fake news and hate speech
• Environmental precarity

PAPER PROPOSALS

Proposals should be sent to lisbonwinterschool@gmail.comno later than July 22, 2019 and include a paper title, extended abstract in English (700 words), name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation and a brief bio (max. 100 words) mentioning ongoing research. Applicants will be informed of the result of their submissions by September 20, 2019.

FULL PAPER SUBMISSION

Presenters will be required to send in full papers (max. 20 pages, 1.5 spacing) by November 22, 2019.

For more information please visit the Winter School website: https://www.lisbonwinterschool.com/

Special issue of Journal of Popular Romance Studies

Deadline: September 1, 2019

Eds. Eftihia Mihelakis and Jonathan A. Allan

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of a cell phone will sext. One study notes that, “of 870 U.S. adults aged 18-72 … 88% had sexted in their lifetime.” This special call for papers seeks to explore the ways that sexting has affected our ideas of romance and intimacy. How has sexting influenced the popular romance novel, the chick flick, or the soap opera? How has sexting changed how we think about romance and love? We welcome papers that engage with these topics, and encourage interdisciplinary approaches.

This special call for papers understands sexting quite broadly, ranging from the flirtatious email sent to a partner at home through to the unsolicited dick pic sent over Tinder.

For the special issue, we welcome proposals for original research articles (5000-10,000 words) that explore sexting, romance, and intimacy. Topics may include:

Sexting and gender

Sexting and courtship, dating, marriage, etc.

Sexting and virginity or “sexual inexperience”

Sexting and scandalTechnology, sexting, and romance media (movies, films, TV, music videos, memes, etc.)

Pornification and romanceRomance and the virtual landscape

The deadline for 250-word abstracts is due September 1, 2019 with full drafts due by March 1, 2020. Please send abstracts and direct any enquiries to Dr. Eftihia Mihelakis at MihelakisE@brandonu.ca and Dr. Jonathan A. Allan at AllanJ@brandonu.ca.

About the Editors

Dr. Eftihia Mihelakis is Assistant Professor of French. She is the author of Virginité en question, ou les jeunes filles sans âge.

Dr. Jonathan A. Allan is Canada Research Chair in Queer Theory and Professor of English and Creative Writing. He is the author of Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus and co-editor of Virgin Envy: The Cultural (In)Significance of the Hymen.

Together, Dr. Mihelakis and Dr. Allan are lead investigators on “The Joy of Texting: Mapping the Significance of Sexting in the Digital World,” funded by Research Manitoba.

Please see our Topics of Interest page for a non-exhaustive list of subjects covered by our journal, and our regular Submissions page for additional information on submitting your work.

Special edition of the open access Digital Culture and Education journal

Full paper submission deadline: November, 30, 2019

This 2020 special issue of the Digital Culture and Education open access, online journal explores contemporary issues in digital eco-pedagogy, particularly in relation to the education of children.

The worldwide youth climate strike on March 15 reflects young people’s growing frustrations with the lack of political response to the escalating ecological crisis. It also reflects the impact of efforts already underway to highlight environmental concerns. The ecological turn has been gaining ground in social and theoretical discourse since at least the 1970s. During that time environmental education has been a concept in progress. Early debates concerning the notion of eco-citizenship and even the definition of nature itself express the growing realisation that environmental stewardship in the age of the Anthropocene (when humans dominate the earth) is a multi-dimensional cultural project incorporating everything from emotional re-learning of nature connectivity, through to eco-media literacy training, scientific witnessing, philosophical/economic reassessment and citizen action.

Alongside this, the growing ubiquity of digital culture has fuelled concern. In Last Child in the Woods (2008) Richard Louv blames the rise of digital screen culture for what he calls children’s ‘nature-deficit disorder’. Indeed, a 2013 study revealed that only 1 in 5 UK children felt sufficiently connected with nature (rspb.org.uk/connectionmeasure), raising the question of potential consequences for those 40% of the world's species already at risk of extinction and reliant upon human passion and dedication to save them.

Nevertheless, the role that digital culture plays in this crisis is still unclear and also in flux. Büscher’s (2016) concept of Nature 2.0 to describe the emerging digital representations of nature and networked engagements with the natural world points to the growing research interest in eco-digital cultures. Indeed, as Dobrin (2014: 205) observes, digital environments are “themselves natures … environments in and with which humans and non-humans forge relationships”. The ways that digital culture and nature are becoming increasingly enmeshed invites more discussion, particularly in relation to the role that eco-pedagogies play within thesesocial and material assemblages. Recent provocations include Fletcher’s (2017) discussion of the “environmental values behaviour” gap between the mediated appreciation for nature, versus the lack of societal commitment to conservation action. Whilst nature-relatedness research (Richardson 2015, 2018) indicates that in order to build a joyous connection with nature, children in particular will often need to do so by focusing on the positives, free from the impending fear of environmental collapse. More evidence is required to help better understand the role that digital eco-pedagogy plays regarding these sorts of tensions.

This special issue invites researchers to explore these contemporary issues in digital eco-pedagogy.

Empirical studies are particularly welcome. Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Engaging pedagogy with mediated experiences of nature relatedness
• Interplays of real/virtual, action/simulation, inside/outside, the physical world and digital space in environmental education
• Eco-media literacy, including awareness of the creative, economic and material modes of digital production
• Progressive and social constructions of ecological citizenship
• Navigating the limits, as well as the potential benefits of digital nature connections
• The intercultural, multi-dimensional, interdisciplinary and/or inter-generational dimensions to eco-citizenship
• Digital eco-pedagogy and cultural theory
• The digital mediation of inter-species relationships
• Digital representations of climate change e.g. abstraction, versus digital photo-realism
• Links between mediated play, expectations of nature and off-line behaviours
• Digital green-washing
• Testing the educational and social impact of digital nature connections across genres and platforms
• The use of portable, personalised, automated and/or ubiquitous technologies in digital eco-pedagogy
• Digital eco-feminist interventions
• Digital citizen science initiatives
• Collaborative Design of digital nature

There is no charge to submit, or publish papers in the Digital Culture and Education journal, which is a non-commercial, open access academic journal that is distributed freely, at no charge.

5000 – 7000 word paper submission is due Nov 30, 2019. For author guidelines please see https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/submit-your-paper-1

Please direct your questions to Bronwin Patrickson at floatingblueseen@gmail.com in the first instance, or alternately Alexander Schmoelz at alexander.schmoeltz@univie.ac.at

Uppsala University

Deadline: August 12, 2019

Uppsala University is a comprehensive research-intensive university with a strong international standing. Our mission is to pursue top-quality research and education and to interact constructively with society. Our most important assets are all the individuals whose curiosity and dedication make Uppsala University one of Sweden’s most exciting workplaces. Uppsala University has 44.000 students, 7.100 employees and a turnover of SEK 7 billion.

The Department of Informatics and Media (http://www.im.uu.se/?languageId=1) has a broad research profile based on research in the disciplines Media- and Communication Studies, Human-Computer Interaction and Information Systems. In Media and Communication Studies research is focused on social and cultural change connected to communication, media and digitalization.

The accepted candidate must have been admitted as doctoral student to the Department of Informatics and Media and the PhD program in Media and Communication Studies. The education is carried out in collaboration with the national research school Management & IT (MIT).

Duties/Project description:

The position is a fully salaried PhD position (doktorandtjänst), equivalent to a maximum of four-year full-time PhD studies. The holder of the PhD position shall primarily devote her/himself to her/his own doctoral study (see theme below). Active participation in departmental activities as well as activities at the research school Management & IT (MIT)s, such as seminars, workshops, etc., is expected. Other tasks, including teaching and administrative work, can also be part of the employment (for a maximum of 20%). The language of teaching is English and Swedish.

The ongoing digitization of society is of great importance for how communication occurs within and between organizations, and also how they organize themselves. Today, there is an ongoing effort among organizations to adapt and develop their communication in accordance with digital conditions and prerequisites. This leads to an increased need for knowledge about how, and in what way, digitization affects organizations' way of communicating and organizing themselves, and how knowledge about new communication technologies is utilized and developed within various organizations. The holder of the present doctoral position is expected to conduct a qualified research project focusing on the importance of digital technology for organization’s communication and activities.

Requirements:

For admission to the PhD program in Media and Communication Studies, an applicant must have basic and specific eligibility prescribed by the Faculty of Social Sciences. Anyone with a degree on the advanced level (i.e. a master’s degree), that has completed course requirements of at least 240 credits (including at least 60 credits at advanced level) has fulfilled the basic entry requirements. The specific eligibility requirements for admission to the PhD program in Media and Communication require that the applicant has passed courses of 90 credits in Media and Communication Studies. Anyone that in any other way, in or out of the country, has acquired equivalent knowledge is also considered to fulfil the basic or specific eligibility requirements, respectively.

We are seeking a candidate with well documented knowledge in media and communication. Knowledge in organizational communication is a merit. Candidates should have a good overview of social sciences and/or the humanities, and a strong interest in research. Great importance will be attached to the candidate's personal suitability for the post. Sought for qualifications are teamwork abilities, initiative, independence and a reflective and analytic approach. Very good communicative skills are required, including the excellent command of written and spoken English.

When the University employs new doctoral students the candidates will be chosen who after a qualitative evaluation of competence and skills are deemed to have the best capacity to fulfill work duties as well as contributing to a positive development of the research environment. Of vital importance is the capacity to finish the doctoral program.

Qualifications must be documented so that quality as well as extent can be evaluated.

Candidates should be available for interview, either in person in Uppsala or via Internet.

Additional qualifications:

A complete application must include:

Filled out form applying for admission to the doctoral program in Media and Communication Studies.

http://uadm.uu.se/digitalAssets/81/81624_ansokan_forskarniva_eng.pdf

• A short letter documenting

1) The motives why you are applying, your research interest and relevant experiences for the PhD post (max 500 words)

2) A list over the documents handed in to support the application

3) If more than one academic work is handed in, you should name one of them to be prioritized by the admission committee.

• A dissertation plan (two pages). The plan should cover theoretical approach, aim, research questions, type of data, method and time plan.
• Curriculum Vitae/Résumé, including English proficiency with certified transcript(s) of your academic record/degree(s) to date, proving the basic and specific eligibility.
• Two letters of recommendation
• A copy of independently written work produced within the applicant’s course of studies (e.g. bachelor or master thesis; include a draft if not completed) or other relevant text(s)
• Other documents the applicant may wish to attach, e.g. English test results.

Incomplete applications will not be considered

Rules governing PhD students are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5, §§ 1-7 and in Uppsala University's rules and guidelines http://regler.uu.se/?languageId=1.

Uppsala University strives to be an inclusive workplace that promotes opportunities and attracts qualified candidates who can contribute to the University’s excellence and diversity. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and from people of all backgrounds.

Salary: According to local agreement for PhD students.

Starting date: 2019-09-01 or as otherwise agreed.

Type of employment: Temporary position according to the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 § 7.

Scope of employment: 100 %

For further information about the position please contact:

Head of IM Jenny Eriksson Lundström: jenny.eriksson@im.uu.se, Göran Svensson, Head of Subject MCS: goran.svensson@im.uu.se

Please submit your application by 12 August 2019, UFV-PA 2019/2379.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? If so, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus. You are also welcome to contact International Faculty and Staff Services at ifss@uadm.uu.se.

Please do not send offers of recruitment or advertising services.

Applications must be submitted as described in this advertisement.

Placement: Department of Informatics and Media

Type of employment: Full time , Temporary position longer than 6 months

Pay: Fixed salary

Number of positions: 1

Working hours: 100 %

Town: Uppsala

County: Uppsala län

Country: Sweden

Union representative: Seko Universitetsklubben seko@uadm.uu.se

ST/TCO tco@fackorg.uu.se

Saco-rådet saco@uadm.uu.se

Number of reference: UFV-PA 2019/2379

Last application date: 2019-08-12

Special issue of Internet Histories: Digital Technology, Culture and Society

Due date for abstract submission: August 1, 2019

(guest editors: Maria Eriksson & Guillaume Heuguet)

In today’s digital landscape, cultural content such as texts, films, images, and recorded sounds are increasingly subjected to automatic (or semi-automatic) processes of identification and classification. On a daily basis, spam filters scan heaps of emails in order to separate legit and illegit textual messages,1 algorithms analyze years of user-uploaded film on YouTube in search for copyright violations,2 and software systems scrutinize millions of images on social media sites in order to detect sexually offensive content.3 To an increasing extent, content identification systems are also trained to distinguish “fake-news” from “proper journalism” on news websites,4 and taught to recognize and filter violent or hateful content that circulates online.5

These examples reveal how machines and algorithmic systems are increasingly utilized to make complex cultural judgements regarding cultural content. Indeed, it could be argued that the wide-ranging adoption of content identification tools is constructing new ontologies of culture and regimes of truth in the online domain. When put to action, content identification technologies are trusted with the ability to separate good/bad forms of communication and used to secure the value, authenticity, origin, and ownership of content. Such efforts are deeply embedded in constructions of knowledge, new forms of political governance, and not least global market transactions. Content identification tools now make up an essential part of the online data economy by protecting the interests of rights holders and forwarding the mathematization, objectification, and commodification of cultural productions.

Parallel to their increased pervasiveness and influence, however, content identification systems have also been heavily contested. Debates regarding automatic content identification tools recently gained momentum due to the European Union’s decision to update its copyright laws. A newly adopted EU directive encourages all platform owners to implement automatic content filters in order to safeguard copyrights6 and critics have argued that such measures run the risk of seriously hampering the freedom of speech and stifling cultural expressions online.7 High profile tech figures such as Tim Berners Lee (commonly known as one of the founders of the Internet) has even claimed that the widespread adoption of content filtering could effectively destroy the internet as we know it.8 Content identification systems, then, are not neutral devices but key sites where the moral, juridical, economical, and cultural implications of wide-ranging systems of online surveillance are currently negotiated and put to the test.

This special issue welcomes contributions that trace the lineage and genealogy of online content identification tools and explores how content identification systems enact cultural values. It also explores how content identification technologies reconfigure systems of knowledge and power in the online domain. We especially invite submissions that reflect on the ways in which content identification systems are deployed to domesticate and control online cultural content, establish new and data-driven infrastructural systems for the treatment of cultural data, and bring about changes in the activity/status of cultural workers and rights holders. Contributions that locate online content identification tools within a longer historical trajectory of identification technologies are also especially welcomed, since digital content identification tools must be understood as continuations of analogue techniques for monitoring and measuring the qualities and identities of things.

We envision contributors to be active in the fields of media history, software studies, media studies, media archaeology, social anthropology, science and technology studies, and related scientific domains. The topic of contributions may include, but are not limited to:

The historical and political implications of content identification tools for audio, video, images, and textual content such as machine learning systems and digital watermarking  or fingerprinting tools

The genealogy of spam filters, fake news detection systems, and other strategies for keeping the internet “clean” and censoring/regulating the circulation and availability of online content

Comparative investigations of the technical workings of different methods for identifying content, including discussions on the challenges and potentials of indexing/identifying sound, images, texts and audiovisual content

Reviews of the scientific theories, political ideologies, and business logics that sustain and legitimize online systems of content identification

Reflections on historical and analogue techniques for identifying objects and commodities, such as paper watermarks and the use of signets and stamps

Issues of censorship related to online content identification and moderation and/or discussions regarding the ethical dilemmas and legal debates that surround content surveillance

Explorations of the implications of algorithmic judgements and measurements of identity, and reflections on the ways in which content identification tools redefine what is means to listen/see and transform how cultural objects are imagined and valued

Examinations of the relationship between human and algorithmic efforts to identify suspect content online and moderate information flows

Submissions

Abstracts of a maximum of 750 words should be emailed to Maria Eriksson (maria.c.eriksson@umu.se) and Guillaume Heuguet (guillaume.heuguet@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr) no later than 1 August 2019. Notification about acceptance to submit an article will be sent out by 1 September 2019. Authors of accepted abstracts are invited to submit an article by 1 February 2020. Final versions of articles are asked to keep within a 6,000 word limit. Please note that acceptance of abstract does not ensure final publication as all articles must go through the journal’s usual review process.

Time schedule

• 1 August 2019: due date for abstracts
• 1 September 2019: notification of acceptance
• 1 February 2020: accepted articles to be submitted for review
• Feb-April 2020: review process and revisions

About the guest-editors

Guillaume Heuguet defended a dissertation in 2018 on music and media capitalism based on a longitudinal analysis of YouTube’s strategy and products, including its Content ID system (to be published by the French National Archives in 2019). He is currently an associated researcher at GRIPIC (Sorbonne Université) and Irmeccen (Sorbonne Nouvelle). He runs the music journal Audimat and has edited a forthcoming book entitled Anthology of Popular Music Studies in French (Philharmonie de Paris, 2019).

Maria Eriksson is a doctoral candidate in media studies at Umeå University, Sweden who is currently spending time as a visiting scholar at the department of arts, media and philosophy at Basel University in Switzerland. She has a background in social anthropology and her main research interests concern the politics of software and the role of algorithms in managing the logistics and distribution of cultural content online. She is one of the co-authors of the book Spotify Teardown: Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music (MIT Press, 2019) and has previously co-edited special issues in journals such as Culture Unbound.

Link to the online version of the call for papers: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/internet-histories-genealogies-online-content-identification/?utm_source=CPB_think&utm_medium=cms&utm_campaign=JOD09539

More information on Internet Histories: Digital Technology, Culture and Society can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rint20.

University of Fribourg

Deadline: September 30, 2019

The University of Fribourg’s Department of Communication and Media Research DCM is dedicated to research and teaching in the field of communication and media studies that ad- heres to the highest international standards. Researchers at the department cover research fields ranging from political communication, journalism, communication management, to communication history, business communication and new media, media systems and media effects.

A fund raised by the department’s founding fathers Dr. Max Gressly and Dr. Florian Fleck allows the DCM to offer an INTERNATIONAL VISITING SCHOLARSHIP for post-doctoral researchers and non-tenured professors. As a trilingual institution (French, German, English) the University of Fribourg provides a truly international research environment with plenty of opportunities to share ideas. Moreover, visiting scholars can benefit from enriching research opportunities in Switzerland. The remuneration consists of CHF 5.000, permitting a stay of two to three months. Visiting scholars will have the chance to collaborate with established scholars and to contribute to academic discussions at the department.

The scholarship addresses young internationally-orientated scholars who are on a research or a sabbatical leave. The quality of the applicants should be demonstrated by publications in international peer-reviewed journals or by promising ongoing research projects. Priority will be given to applicants from outside of Switzerland focusing on research projects which correspond to the research interests at the DCM.

Applicants are requested to submit a letter of application, a statement outlining their research plans and their motivations, a curriculum vitae, a list of publications (with the most significant publications highlighted), copies of degree certificate(s) and an academic letter of recommendation.

Deadline for applications: September 30, 2019

Please send applications by email to: anne-marie.carrel@unifr.ch

For additional information, please contact the President of the Department of Communication and Media Research, Prof. Dr. Regula Hänggli (regula.haenggli@unifr.ch) or Anne-Marie Carrel (administrative assistant; anne-marie.carrel@unifr.ch).

As Specialty Chief Editors of the Frontiers in Communication ‘Political Communication Section’, we are inviting applications for the role of Associate Editor.

The Political Communication section fosters boundary breaking, interdisciplinary and innovative scholarship, both theoretical and empirical, that helps expand and deepen our understanding of the interactions between social, political and communication processes.

Further details can be found below this email. The Political Communication Section was established a year ago, is developing well, and we are now in a position to expand our range of Associate Editors. Frontiers Associate Editors are high impact researchers and recognized leaders in their field, with a strong publication record in international, peer-reviewed journals and with a recognized affiliation. They are typically associate professor level or higher, or an equivalent position of equal standing in their field. (see below for more details regarding role).

Associate Editors are also encouraged to submit their own inaugural articles and develop a ‘Research Topic’ reflecting their own research interests. Research Topics work as a kind of open-ended special issue, allowing the development of a substantial body of articles focused on a key research area.

If you are interested, please contact us with brief CV and we will be delighted to consider your suitability for an Associate Editor role.

Please email us at Piers.robinson@propagandastudies.ac.uk and/or d.miller@bristol.ac.uk.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Dr Piers Robinson and Professor David Miller, Speciality Section Chief Editors ‘Political Communication’, Frontiers in Communication

Piers.robinson@propagandastudies.ac.uk d.miller@bristol.ac.uk

Special Section Political Communication: Scope

In the age of ubiquitous internet-based digital communication and substantial economic, social and political upheavals, understanding the relationships between political change and communication processes is essential to understanding, explaining and evaluating the world around us, as well as attempting to change it.

The Political Communication section fosters boundary breaking, interdisciplinary and innovative scholarship, both theoretical and empirical, that helps expand and deepen our understanding of the interactions between social, political and communication processes. Its¨express goal is to enable critical and progressive research, which challenges orthodoxies and expands intellectual inquiry by moving thinking beyond existing paradigms, ideological boundaries and status quo orientated research agendas.

This section draws particularly on the fields of media and communication studies, political science / international relations and sociology. It will provide space for scholars that explore the relationship between communication and class, race, gender and sexual identity, as well as how these intersect with government (at any level), the nation state, imperialism, international relations, corporate/capitalist power and indeed the activities of social movements – from both above and below.

Our reach is genuinely global and seeks to address issues surrounding political communication and major issues including conflict, inequality and environmental crisis and their consequences in all parts of the world. We encourage all forms of critical and progressive political communication scholarship especially that which helps to expand the boundaries of existing mainstream political communication research.

We welcome ground-breaking scholarship in the following areas:

• the role of propaganda, persuasion and influence activities and their impact upon democracy;

• progressive normative theory which seeks better ethically grounded approaches to persuasion and influence;

• the role of communication in policy and political processes both via¨mass media and through direct communications – specifically through¨examinations of lobbying and associated processes;

• the politics and sociology of science, health and environmental¨communications and their interactions with expertise;

• the role of communication in social movements and the communicative and strategic activities of social movements;

• news media coverage of political affairs with a focus on identifying and explaining media performance and its relationship to power and the exercise of power;

• the impact of new media technologies, including the internet, social media and independent/alternative media on the public sphere, both at national and global levels;

• the political economies of media industries;
• political-economic and empirical work on marketing, advertising and related communicative industries, including on consumerism;

• progressive normative theory which seeks to improve political journalism and the capacity of news media industries to facilitate democracy;

• strategies to improve both media literacy amongst publics, in particular developing critical awareness of media bias and propaganda activities;

• considerations of methods in researching and analysing political communications processes and indeed how communication intersects with the material, the real and with extra-communicative / discursive actions and activities.

Associate Editor Role:

Associate Editors make an initial assessment to ensure a manuscript fits within the scope of the specialty and is scientifically robust. They invite reviewers and directly oversee the interaction between the reviewers and Authors during the collaborative peer-review process.

Based on the reviewers’ recommendations, and ensuring all quality, validity and ethical standards have been met, Associate Editors make the final decision on acceptance or recommend a manuscript for rejection to the Specialty Chief Editors.

Deadline: September 15, 2019

From news and documentaries to TV drama and major media franchises, science has become a firm fixture in contemporary media culture. Across these diverse formats, a fascination with the perceived capacity of science – whether in the guise of medicine, criminology, space science or engineering – to transform life in wonderful and fearful ways endures. The figure of the scientist is science made manifest and, though different variants have evolved over the centuries, the scientist has remained a constant presence in Western culture. The last hundred years or so has seen many developments in science and technology and popular culture has kept abreast of these, portraying scientists that respond to the shifting hopes and fears of eager audiences. Science fiction may work variously to celebrate or denigrate scientific values and activities and many horror fictions have explored the ramifications of dabbling in science and technology. Moreover, the recent flourishing of superhero narratives has meant a strong focus on such characters and scenarios. The imaginary feats and failures, as well as the cultural prominence, of scientists have attained ever-greater heights as a result. Science and scientists have also flourished in other genres, such as forensic drama, police procedurals and true crime narratives, found their way into children’s fictions, and into comedy.

Acknowledging the long and enduring history of fictional scientists, including adaptations and re-imaginings, this planned essay collection seeks to offer critical interrogations of recent portrayals of the scientist as well as fresh insights into long-established characters.

Scientists have featured on the big screen from the early days of cinema and held their own on the small for decades, from network television staples and lavish HBO offerings to recent fare on streaming services like Netflix. With this tradition in mind, suggested case studies might include, though are not limited to, the following texts:

Films:

/Annihilation /(2018); /Back to the Future/ (1985); /Contact/ (1997); /Deep Blue Sea /(1999); /Despicable Me/ (2010); /The Fly/ (1958),/The Fly/ (1986); /Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/ (1931); /Frankenstein/,//etc (Universal), /Curse of/ /Frankenstein/, etc (Hammer), /I, Frankenstein/(2014); /Godzilla/ (1998), /Godzilla/ (2014); /Hollow Man/ (2000); /Honey, I Shrunk the Kids /(1989); /I Am Legend/ (2007); /The Invisible Man/ (1933); /Island of Lost Souls /(1932), /The Island of Dr. Moreau/ (1977), /The Island of Dr. Moreau/ (1996); /Jurassic Park /(1993), etc; /The Man with Two Brains/ (1983); /The Martian/ (2015); MCU (/Black Panther/, /Deadpool/, /The Hulk/, /Iron Man/, /Spider-Man/, /Venom/,//etc); /Mimic/ (1997); /The Nutty Professor/ (1996); /The Omega Man/ (1971); /Outbreak /(1995); /Piranha/ (1978); /Re-Animator /(1985); /Splice/ (2009); /World War Z /(2013); /Young Frankenstein/ (1974); /28 Days Later/ (2002), plus any prequels, sequels and other franchise entries.

TV:

/The Alienist/; /American Horror Story/; /The Big Bang Theory/; /Bones/; /Chernobyl/; /CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY/,/ CSI: Cyber/; /Dexter/; /Doctor Who/; /The Flash/; /Futurama/; /Game of Thrones/; /Hannibal/; /The O.A./; /Penny Dreadful/; /Rick and Morty/; /Ripper Street/; /Sherlock/; /Silent Witness/; /The Strain/; /Stranger Things/; /Waking the Dead/; /The Walking Dead/; /Westworld/, plus any spin-offs and other franchise entries.

Potential topics might include: issues of representation (e.g. age, childhood, gender, race, sexuality); genre (e.g. detective fiction, forensic drama, medical drama, police procedurals); Gothic and horror tropes; the role of the scientist in environmental catastrophes and outbreaks; national identity and history; science and ideology (inc. philosophy, politics, religion, scientism); science in partnership (e.g. business, Government, military, etc)

Advice for Contributors

Please send 250 word abstracts, along with a short bio, to Rebecca.Janicker@port.ac.uk by September 15, 2019. Abstracts should aim to clarify the intended scope and focus of the essay and include a provisional title. Queries are welcome at the same email address.

Publishers have been contacted about the project and abstracts will form part of the written proposal. The final essays will be scholarly and engaging and 7000–8000 words in total.

About the Editor

Rebecca Janicker is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK. She received her PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2014 and had her thesis published as /The Literary Haunted House: Lovecraft, Matheson, King and the Horror in Between/ (McFarland, 2015). She is the editor of /Reading ‘American Horror Story’: Essays on the Television Franchise /(McFarland, 2017) and has published journal articles and book chapters on Gothic and horror in literature and comics, film and TV.