ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

October 16-17, 2019

Edinburgh University, UK

Deadline: April 30, 2019

In the early 1980s, the establishment of Catalan, Basque and Welsh TV channels motivated several European scholars to investigate key concepts concerning minority language media and undertake important case studies. In 1992, the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages emphasised that public authorities have important responsibilities in this field. In the last two decades, the introduction of digitalisation and the Internet have developed a global world where the impacts, challenges and opportunities for minority language media have become increasingly complex. Despite these transformations, there has been little focused discussion and debate on the relationship between the digital and minority-language media.

This international conference is co-organised by the Basque Institute Etxepare and the University of Edinburgh and aims to exchange knowledge as well as promote collaboration between academics and professionals working on minority-language media.

We invite individual papers, pre-constituted panels or posters that engage with research and case studies on any of the following topics:

1. Communication and cultural policies

2. Media economics and the digital age

3. TV channels and online video platforms

4. Audience, genres and content analysis

5. Programming strategies and content commissioning

6. Production conditions and distribution opportunities

7. Commercialisation of programmes

8. Media education and language use

9. Nation, language and identity

10. Media and gender perspectives

Confirmed plenary speakers:

• Rob Dunbar, University of Edinburgh
• Josu Amezaga, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
• Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Mercator Media
• Alan Esslemont, TG4 Irish TV General Director
• Itziar Azpeitia Iruretagoiena, Head of special projects - Basque Public TV (ETB)

Scientific committee:

1. Miren Manias-Muñoz, University of Edinburgh / University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)

2. Aitor Zuberogoitia, University of Mondragon

3. Estibaliz Amorrortu, University of Deusto

4. Helen Kelly-Holmes, University of Limerick

5. Tom Moring, University of Helsinki

6. Tarlach McGonagle, University of Amsterdam

Organising committee:

- Miren Manias-Muñoz, University of Edinburgh / University of the Basque Country (UPVEHU), miren.manias@ehu.eus

- Garbiñe Iztueta Goizueta, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) / Etxepare Basque Institute, g-iztuetagoizueta@etxepare.eus

Conference Language: English

https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/events/crowded-out-or-limitless-horizons

Abstracts should not be longer than 250 words and should be submitted before April 30th to the conference organisers at: miren.manias@ehu.eus

Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for questions. Panels will be 90 minutes long, with three papers of 20 minutes and 10 minutes for questions. Registration information will be provided by the end of April.

See conference website for details: https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/events/crowded-out-or-limitless-horizons

Democratic Communiqué, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to investigating mass media, information, and telecommunication phenomena and issues from critical political economy and policy studies perspectives, invites original, scholarly articles for publication in its Winter 2020 issue (Vol. 29, No.1).

The Communiqué publishes articles exploring any of a wide range of topics, including alternative/community/public media, the internationalization of capital and information flows, media and imperialism, telecommunication industry ownership and consolidation, information society, information technology and surveillance, feminist political economy, environmental political economy, media’s relatedness to social class, labor or social movements, and analyses of cultural artifacts or practices which encompass ideational and material concerns. While these topics encompass a vast swath of academic inquiry and scholarship, they are united in their critical examination of media and communication as they relate to political economy, individual and societal involvement in these economic systems, and the policies that shape them.

The journal is indexed by Scopus, EBSCO, Google Scholar and the Directory of Open Access Journals, and publishes in both the Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date citation systems presented by TheChicago Manual of Style (15th ed.).

Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout with a detachable title page containing the full contact information of the author(s). Submissions undergo double-blind peer review, and should not exceed 8,000 words.

Please email article submissions to the Communiqué’s editor, Dr. Jeffrey Layne Blevins (Head, Department of Journalism at the University of Cincinnati) at Jeffrey.Blevins@UC.edu.

The Commentary and Criticism, Feminist Media Studies

Deadline: April 26, 2019

The broad expansion of the post-feminist media landscape of the past couple of decades brought about an increased visibility of spectacularised and idealised ideas of pregnancy – a romanticised “new momism” (Douglas and Michaels, 2004). Alongside these romanticised discourses, though, exist numerous examples of mediated pregnancies that sit outside of such glamorised and perfect representations of pregnancy. This context has also opened up new networked spaces for people to seek and offer support online in relation to pregnancy, as well as spaces to search for or share (self-)representations of pregnancy. The editors of Commentary and Criticism invite short essays that critically consider pregnancy and contemporary media. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Media representations of pregnancy
• Pregnancy in the media industries
• Online users and communities’ uses of digital media related to pregnancy
• Celebrity pregnancies
• Mediated pregnancy in relation to diverse intersectionalities including: LGBTQ+, age, race, class, ability
• Audiences’ consumption of mediated pregnancy
• Pregnancy in the context of health communication or health policy in the media
• Onscreen pregnancy and genre
• Neoliberalism, pregnancy and media

The Commentary and Criticism section of Feminist Media Studies aims to publish brief (~1000 words), timely responses to current issues in feminist media culture, for an international readership. Submissions may pose a provocation, describe work in progress, or propose areas for future study. We will also consider book and event reviews, as well as contributions that depart from traditional academic formats. We encourage all submissions to strategically mobilise critique to also offer a productive contribution to both feminist politics and media studies. Submissions must go beyond mere description in order to be considered for publication in Commentary and Criticism.

Please submit contributions by 26 April 2019, via email to both Melanie Kennedy (mjk29@le.ac.uk) and Safiya Noble (safiya.noble@usc.edu).We also welcome questions and expressions of interest in advance of the deadline.

Submissions for Commentary and Criticism will not be correctly processed if submitted through via the Feminist Media Studies site, and should be emailed directly to Drs Kennedy and Noble using the email addresses above.

Please be sure to follow the Feminist Media Studies style and referencing guides, which can be found here.

4th International Teaching Forum

November 14-15, 2019

Clermont-Ferrand (France)

Deadline: May 15, 2019

Purpose

According to the OECD, the internationalization of higher education has accelerated over the past fifteen years. With nearly 4.6 million international students in 2015, higher education institutions place the mobility of students at the centre of their methodologies.

Most often student mobility takes the form of semesters and internships abroad as immersion in intercultural environments appears to facilitate the development of academic and non-academic skills. Numerous studies have shown the relevance of this type of educational experience (Ballatore 2006, Teichler and Janson 2007, Brandenburg 2014, Tarrant et al 2014, Potts 2015). Abroad, the student engages socially and academically with a culturally different environment, which leads to experimentation and related opportunities to develop multiple transversal skills. This encompasses the development of a set of attitudes and behaviors associated with individual skills, namely relational skills (ability to communicate, but also personal qualities/attitudes such as enthusiasm), organizational skills (the capacity to envisage solutions beyond the scope of personal reach), the aptitude to manage emotions and empathy, the building-up of complex attitudes (responsibility, open-mindedness, adaptability, tolerance, self-confidence, desire to learn) and even aesthetic skills which involve cultivating satisfactory images in coherence with those – put forward by the organization (Bailly and Léné, 2015, p.71). All these are generally known as intercultural skills.

However, mobility experiences abroad are not the only opportunities for students to engage with intercultural environments. Pedagogies can be equally effective in promoting internationalization of education. This is the case when international students work with local students on various projects, or when visiting professors from abroad introduce students to pedagogical approaches with which students are unaccustomed, or when two teachers set up, in two different countries, a project within which students must interact via information and communication technologies. In short, a multitude of pedagogical practices exist that can potentially provide all students with intercultural experiences. This 4th International Teaching Forum will focus on these methodologies in order to identify them, to examine the skills they aim at fostering and to evaluate mechanisms used to measure their acquisition.

In line with the previous three conferences (two were held at Shanghai Normal University in China in 2016 and 2017 and one at Utah Valley University in the United States in 2018), the overall objective of the 4th International Teaching Forum will be to address innovative pedagogical practices in higher education in different countries. Over two days, teachers and researchers together will work on issues related to the contributions and limits of innovative teaching practices, based on experiments conducted more particularly (but not exclusively) in the field of communication and management. This conference will take place in Clermont-Ferrand (France) on November 14th and 15th, 2019.

For this edition, the theme of pedagogical innovation will be addressed from the perspective of interculturality and skills. Papers will discuss how teaching pedagogies have fostered the creation of a context favorable to interculturality and facilitated the acquisition of transversal skills. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• How pedagogical practices promote the creation of an intercultural context
• What contribution information and communication technologies make to pedagogical innovations in intercultural situations
• What skills are developed by students (local and / or international) in the context of intercultural learning
• What assessment mechanisms are put in place to evaluate the acquisition of skills
• What skills are acquired by teachers in such intercultural contexts
• - What mode of communication is developed between teachers and students acting in a culturally different environment
• - What role intercultural communication plays in these pedagogical practices

The Forum aims to:

• publish the proceedings on the conference website;
• publish selected articles (finalized following the conference) in two journals (one in Information and Communication Sciences and the other in Management Sciences);
• publish a volume on Innovative Pedagogical Practices and Interculturality.
• The main language of the conference will be English, but papers may be presented in French.

Dates and place of the conference

The conference will take place on Thursday November 14th and Friday November 15th, 2019, at Université Clermont Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand, France).

The first day of the Teaching Forum will be centered on the presentation of selected papers. The second day will be organized in the form of round tables to promote the exchange of good practice and the constitution of workshops that can continue to collaborate after the conference. The round tables will be based on the themes which emerge from the papers presented.

Important dates

• May 15th, 2019: Proposals due
• June 15th, 2019: Notification by the Scientific Committee
• September 1st, 2019: Full papers due
• October 1st, 2019: Notification by the Scientific Committee of possible modifications required
• November 1st, 2019: Final papers due
• November 14th and 15th, 2019: Teaching Forum

Submission guidelines

Please submit full proposals (1800-2000 words) in English or French by May 15th, 2019.

Each proposal should include

(1) a title

(2) 4 to 5 keywords

(3) an abstract of 1500 words maximum (approximately 10,000 characters)

The abstract should clarify the pedagogical practice under discussion, how it promotes interculturality in the classroom, the type of skills targeted by this practice and / or the evaluation mechanism put in place to measure them. Clear bibliographical references are required. Completed papers (between 30 000 and 40 000 characters, including spaces) will need to be submitted according to guidelines accompanying the notification of acceptance. Anonymous peer review and requested modifications will follow.

Please submit your abstracts and completed papers (English or French) online here: https://teaching-forum4.sciencesconf.org

Contact: teaching-forum4@sciencesconf.org, cecilia.brassier@uca.fr

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

If you are from Germany and interested in working on an exciting project for your PhD or postdoc studies (starting fall 2019), this could be a terrific fit for you. The project examines how values are constructed in digital spheres through a comparative analysis of user-generated content in five languages. The positions are fully funded: up to 5 years for PhD students and 2 years (with an extension option) for postdoctoral students. The team will be based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Dept. of communication) with trips to the relevant countries for interview purposes. Candidates with qualitative and/or quantitative training in the social sciences, humanities and computer science are encouraged to apply.

For more information, see https://limorshifman.huji.ac.il. To start the application process, please send your CV to the principal investigator, Limor Shifman, at: limor.shifman@mail.huji.ac.il.

Moment Journal

Deadline: September 1, 2019

The emergence of new media and its affordances have generated an increasing interest not only in resurgence of centralized structures and surveillance, but also in their participatory potential. Such interest is, in fact, not historically distinctive; each time the society is introduced to a new medium of communication, its potential of being used for the broader social good or harm becomes a matter of debate. Then again, where the rise of authoritarianism in the world today is considered, enabling more citizen participation in social and political debate is regarded as a progressive contribution of new media in general.

In Turkey’s context, participation is generally associated with practices that are limited to efforts to sustain electoral democracy and politics. However, looking at the increasing international scholarly calls for contribution on participation issue by numerous journals and books, one can see the diversity in the ways in which participation as a concept is understood as a very broad category, which may imply “interaction”, “engagement” or merely a social, political or cultural “joining”. For instance, Nico Carpentier (2013) defines participation in a much broader way than it is used in the academic lexicon of Turkey, but also with a narrower political signification than many others assume since he considers participation as an equalization of power relations in decision-making processes. Communication as a “practice” and media as an “institution” play a crucial role in strengthening or changing social power relations in such processes. The definition of participation by Henry Jenkins (2013), on the other hand, is closer to the broader meaning when he refers to "participatory cultures" of youth, including fan clubs, blogs, popular videos, online activism, etc.

Within the framework outlined above, we invite submissions for Moment Journal’s issue on participation and the media, on topics including, but not limited to:

• theoretical explorations on participation and the media
• methodological perspectives on participatory communication research
• electoral processes, participation and media performance
• citizenship, media participation and public sphere
• alternative, radical or community media, activism and participation
• gender, ethnicity, age and equality in participation
• new media, technological challenges and possibilities for participation
• breaking the institutional production-consumption chain via participatory practices
• new media and participatory practices at global and/or local levels
• participatory practices in social media apps
• youth cultures, fan clubs, new media and participation
• participatory art practices via communication media

The manuscripts should be submitted to the Moment Journal via Dergipark between June 1 and September 1, 2019. Submissions both in English and Turkish will be accepted.

• Deadline: September 1, 2019
• Publication Date: December 15, 2019

For details, see SUBMISSION GUIDELINES here: http://www.momentdergi.org/index.php/momentdergi/about/submissions

Theme Editors: Oğuzhan Taş (Ankara University, Turkey), Emre Canpolat (Hacettepe University, Turkey)

References

Jenkins, H., & Carpentier, N. (2013). Theorizing participatory intensities: A conversation about participation and politics. Convergence, 19(3), 265–286.

Edited by: Luis A. Albornoz and Trinidad García Leiva

This book reflects critically on issues of diversity, access, and the expansion of digital technologies in audio-visual industries, particularly in terms of economics and policies.

It brings together specialists in cultural diversity and media industries, presenting an international and interdisciplinary collection of essays that draw from different fields of studies – notably Communication, Economics, Political Science and Law. Among the topics discussed are: the principle of diversity as a goal of cultural and communication policies, the assessment of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity, free trade agreements and the conception of cultural goods and services they advance, the challenges faced by the production, circulation and consumption of cultural content through the Internet, the role algorithms play in the organization and functioning of online platforms, Netflix and the hegemony of global media. The approach is a critical understanding of audio-visual diversity, that aims to transcend specific issues like media ownership, ideas portrayed or modes of consumption as such, to focus on a more balanced distribution of communicative power.

More here: https://www.routledge.com/Audio-Visual-Industries-and-Diversity-Economics-and-Policies-in-the-Digital/Albornoz-Garcia-Leiva/p/book/9781138384453

The Global Undergraduate Award (UA) seeks for Judges in Social Sciences: Anthropology & Cultural Studies category.

UA is the world’s largest global undergraduate academic awards programme. A non-profit organisation initially founded in Ireland, we discover excellence at the undergraduate level by inviting the world’s best students to submit their coursework. There are 25 award categories, and we invite experts to assess students' work in each.

Headed up this year by Returning Chair Dr. Zakaryya Abdel-Hady of Qatar University, Social Sciences: Anthropology & Cultural Studies is an essay-based category which has always received a lot of Submissions at UA. In recent years, the category is becoming increasingly popular among students working in interdisciplinary fields of gender studies, critical race theory, queer theory, cultural studies, migration studies, and disability studies, and therefore it is important that the experience and approaches of panellists reflect this as UA grow the number of Judges on the panel to balance workload. I would appreciate if you would assist UA in circulating our Call for Judges for this panel with your network (CFJ image attached for Social Media sharing, if applicable). More information for Judging candidates on the process and how to sign up can be found online here: https://undergraduateawards.com/the-ua-network/ua-judges.

Acting as a Judge for UA allows academics to meet colleagues in their panel from all over the world, and it also exposes Judges to some of the best undergraduate student coursework in their field. This exposure can be particularly advantageous for individuals working in academia or intending to work in academia. We primarily accept Judges who are professors, lecturers, tutorial assistants, PhD candidates, and professional experts outside of the arena of academia.

For more information or to apply, contact jenny@undergraduateawards.com.

October 24-25, 2019

Helsinki, Finland

Deadline: May 15, 2019

International Conference Organized by the Helsinki Media Policy Research Group, the University of Helsinki, the ECREA Communication Law and Policy Section and the Euromedia Research Group , and supported by the IAMCR Communication Policy & Technology Section.

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/communication-rights-in-the-digital-age

The rights-based perspective on ethical and political questions presented by the new digital media has recently regained attention in academic and political debates. The formulation of human rights in general is based on a communication right – freedom of expression – as well as a right to take part and be heard in a dialogue. In the digital era, the role of communication has been magnified.

Calls for the protection of citizens’ “digital rights,” for example, have resulted in countless reports and declarations by governments, international bodies and activist organizations over the past two decades. In addition to debates on the consequences of digital transformations for established rights, such as freedom of expression, new rights have been envisioned, such as “the right to be forgotten” and the right to internet access.

Thus far, there are more academic, public and policy debates than solid and sustainable legal and policy solutions. This is not surprising given the complexity of these rights, which have many context-based variations, operate on the cusp of theory and praxis, and are constantly evolving with technological advances. Communication rights refer not only to legal norms but also more broadly to the freedoms and norms that have special significance to societies and individuals.

Due to the importance of communication rights to societies and democracy, it is imperative to understand how those rights are defined, manifested, regulated and monitored today. The realization of communication rights is further shaped by economic, political and socio-cultural situations. What do we know about these contexts? How can we accumulate a better conceptual and empirical understanding of communication rights?

This conference will specifically address the interplay of national and global (universal and specific) characteristics of communication rights. Core questions include but are not limited to the following:

• What are some definitions of communication rights?
• What should be considered communication rights?
• What is their relationship to human rights and/or natural rights?
• How do communication rights differ from the classic reliance on speech rights as the basis for media regulation?
• Who are the policy and other actors defining these rights in national and international contexts, and what are their roles in discursive and/or policy-making contexts?
• How do different academic disciplines respond to the concept of communication rights?
• How are rights interpreted in different empirical contexts?
• For instance, communication rights and their position in national constitutions
• What are current core issues or cases that pertain to communication rights?

These may include but are not limited to:

• Market concentration, platforms and “big tech”: EU and national responses
• For instance, platforms financing media and their influence on journalism
• New policies for diversity; new tools and policies for media support and sustainability
• For instance, media flows, cultural diversity and new policy tools, such as the Netflix tax, or old policy tools, such as quotas
• The influence of party politics and populism (and the context of hate speech) on freedom of speech
• Increasing state control of media outlets, including public broadcasters
• We are especially interested in novel conceptual and theoretical interventions, but we also appreciate comparative empirical approaches.
• Presenters will be invited to submit to a special issue of the Journal of Information Policy.

Confirmed keynote speaker:

Philip M. Napoli, James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Professor of the International Comparative Studies Program, Duke University, United States.

Submission:

Please submit your proposal of max. 500 words, including your affiliation and contact information, by 15 May 2019 to minna.aslama@helsinki.fi.

You will receive notification of acceptance by 15 June 2019.

Registration and fee:

Registration will be open 15 June through 15 October.

Registration fee: €100

Reduced student fee: €40

For more information and enquiries, please contact minna.aslama@helsinki.fi and irina.khaldarova@helsinki.fi and see: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/communication-rights-in-the-digital-age.

The 2019 JERAA Conference

December 4-6, 2019

University of Sidney

Deadline: June 28, 2019

Journalism has always been a pluralist and precarious pursuit. Its many forms emerged from songs and royal reports, pamphlets and gazettes, consolidated with the emergence of the mass media, and have now diverged again in the age of social and participatory media, augmentation and algorithmic production. It has always been risky for journalists to monitor and question the actions of the powerful, but now diverse economic and political factors threaten journalism’s future and a discourse of crisis often overshadows its evident potential to evolve.

In 2019, the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia conference, to be held at the University of Sydney, invites papers and panel proposals that address the theme of ‘Journalisms: plurality, precarity and possibilities’. Contributions could address any of the following topics within those themes, or related research:

Plurality

Indigenous, Asian and Pasifika journalisms; media diversity and pluralism initiatives; slow and indie magazine journalisms; literary journalism and memoir; student publications…

Precarity

Industry consolidation, job loss, forced career change and employment insecurity; future of public interest journalism after Fairfax; legal constraints; journalism safety and health initiatives…

Possibilities

Jobs and skillsets for next-gen digital journalism; automated journalism; managing journalism partnerships; work integrated learning, education and training for the future…

Paper abstracts will be 300 words max. listing title, author/s and affiliation, abstract and keywords.

Panel abstracts will have a 200 word overview, with 200 words from each participant on their contribution. They should also list panel title, author/s and affiliation, abstract and keywords.

Key dates

• Paper and panel abstracts for peer review: June 28
• Notification following review: August 30
• Registrations open: August 31
• (Earlybird until Sept. 30 and standard until Nov. 8th)

Please submit your abstracts at: jeraaconference2019@gmail.com

JERAA 2019 will be hosted by the University’s Dept. of Media and Communications (MECO) and the School of Literature Arts and Media. Contact Dr Fiona Martin (convenor) and Dr Margaret Van Heekeren (organiser) for more information at jeraaconference2019@gmail.com.

More here.