ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Membrana no. 6 seeks to address how and why does the notion of being human revolve around our perception of what it means to be an animal or beast – and how is the relationship imaged and constructed through photography. We are interested not only in representations of animals but also in the way in which this human-animal relation is ideologically enforced or subdued through imagery, and how the notion of instinct defines the photographic process as well as photographic representation.

Photographs of animals always held a significant presence throughout the history of the medium, a testimony of particular fascination and desire to either decode or ascribe meaning to the non-human. The sheer number and diversity of photographic representations of animals (and non-photographic pictorial tradition of representing imaginary beasts) testifies of instinctive relationality of the relationship – while captivating our sight, animals also look back at us as if questioning our very notion of humanity – as if we instinctively understand that we can only look for human-ness via our engagement with the pet, the wild or tamed animal, the beast.

Whether used as commodities for exchange, marketing tools for commodification, tools of scientific research or tokens of domestic familiarity, silent trophies from exotic places or city zoos, the images speak of a certain process of domestication of both a sign and a referent. There seems to be a shift from the old photo-humanistic belongingness of The Family of Man to the growing disillusionment of Anthropocene, where a certain demand for a new kind of responsibility, a new kind of not only trans-cultural but also trans-species belonging arises.

We invite textual and visual contributions that explore photographic representations of animals from (but not limited to) the following perspectives:

• contemporary and historical representations of animals
  
• animal photography and social media
  
• photography and notion of instinct (e.g. photographer as predator)
  
• scientific documentation of animals (Crittercams, photo-traps, camptrail cameras etc.)
  
• fine art animal photos
  
• nature documentary, safari photos, hunting and photography
  
• photographing dead animals
  
• taxidermy as a proto-photographic practice
  
• self-made animal images (animal selfies)
  
• animals ascribed human characteristics and vice versa
  
• animals as a contemporary totems or status symbols
  
• animals and questions of human identity (totemistic animals, but also subcultures, such as furries)
  
• hybrids, fantastic creatures and their ideological applications
  

Format of contributions

• Essays, theoretical papers, overview articles, interviews (approx. 14.000 characters with spaces), visuals encouraged.
  
• Short essays, columns (approx. 6.000 characters with spaces), visuals encouraged.
  
• Photographic projects and artwork: proposals for non-commissioned work or samples of work.
  

Contributions will be published in the English edition – magazine Membrana (ISSN 2463-8501) as well as in the Slovenian edition – magazine Fotografija (ISSN 1408-3566).

Proposals and deadlines

Please contact the editors at editors(at)membrana.si. The deadline for contribution proposals (150-word abstracts and/or visuals) is January 18 2019. The deadline for finished contributions from accepted proposals is 20 March 2019. Please send proposals or contact the editors at editors@membrana.si.

About Membrana

Membrana is a contemporary photography magazine dedicated to promoting a profound and theoretically grounded understanding of photography. Its aim is to encourage new, bold, and alternative conceptions of photography as well as new and bold approaches to photography in general. Positioning itself in the space between scholarly magazines and popular publications, it offers an open forum for critical reflection on the medium, presenting both analytical texts and quality visuals. The magazine is published bi-annually in the summer and winter in the English language and in Slovenian under the title Fotografija by the Slovene non-profit institute Membrana.

More about the third edition can be found here

Emotions have long been neglected in media research, although their role is a vital ingredient in shaping our shared stories and the ways we engage with them. But emotions, as they circulate through the media, can also be divisive and exclusionary.

Karin Wahl-Jorgensen makes the case for researching the role of emotions in mediated politics. Drawing on a series of studies, she explores the complex relationship between emotions, politics and media. The book includes analyses of how Facebook structures emotional reactions; the anger of Donald Trump; the use of personal storytelling in feminist Twitter hashtags; the role of emotionality in award-winning journalism; and the communities created by political fandoms.

Essential reading for scholars and students, this important volume opens up new ways of thinking about and researching emotions, media and politics.

ECREA members have 20% discount on paperback of the book

Discount code: PY990 (valid until August 2019)

Universität Hamburg invites applications for a position as a Senior Research Associate in the field of Journalism and Media Studies (or related social sciences) with a strong expertise in the analysis of journalistic and social media content for the project “Social Constructions of Climate Futures” within the framework of the DFG Cluster of Excellence ‘CliCCS – Climate, Climatic Change and Society’, in accordance with Section 28 subsection 3 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG). The position commences on the 1st of April 2019.

CliCCS is an ambitious research program at Universität Hamburg and its partner institutions. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), it is part of Germany’s Excellence Strategy. CliCCS’ overarching research question reads: Which climate futures are possible, and which are plausible? The project “Social Constructions of Climate Futures” explores how journalistic and social media, local discourses, scientists and stakeholders debate and imagine the future in the context of a changing climate - comparing debates in German speaking countries, the United States, India and Southern Africa.

The position is remunerated at the salary level TV-L 13 and calls for 39 hours per week.

The fixed-term nature of this contract is based upon Section 2 of the academic fixed-term labor contract act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, WissZeitVG) and will end on December 31st 2025.

The University aims to increase the number of women in research and teaching and explicitly encourages women to apply. Equally qualified emale applicants will receive preference in ac-cordance with the Hamburg act on gender equality (Hamburgisches Gleichstellungsgesetz, HmbGleiG).

CliCCS offers accompanying measures to help scientists thrive through all stages of their careers.

Responsibilities:

• Conducting journalism and media studies on the construction of climate futures
  
• Coordination and management of the project “Social Constructions of Climate Futures”
  
• Contribution to project development under supervision of project leaders
  
• Contribution to overall interdisciplinary synthesis of the Cluster of
  
• Excellence CliCCS
  

Specific Duties:

• Conducting and combining automated and manual quantitative and qualitative content analysis
  
• Developing and (co-)authoring articles to be published in international academic journals
  
• Presenting research at international conferences
  
• Science Management tasks (e.g. oversight of budget, organisation of cooperation between PhD researchers, workshop organisation)
  
• Contribute to synthesis papers of the overall CliCCS project
  

Requirements:

• Demonstrated interest in the field of climate, risk, science and environmental communication
  
• Expertise in automated and manual content analysis
  
• Good knowledge of multi-variate statistics
  
• Basic knowledge of R or other programming skills
  
• Basic knowledge of qualitative research or network analysis
  
• Publications in peer-reviewed journals
  
• Native or advanced knowledge in English and German
  
• Demonstrated experience and interest in project management
  
• Ability to work proactively in an interdisciplinary team
  
• An excellent university degree in media and journalism studies, related social sciences or neighboring disciplines (such as corpus linguistics), plus a very good or excellent doctorate in any of these fields.
  

Severely disabled applicants will receive preference over equally qualified non-disabled applicants.

For further information, please contact michael.brueggemann@uni-hamburg.de or consult our website at https://www.cliccs.uni-hamburg.de/

Applications should include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and copies of degree certificate(s) submitted as one single PDF file. The application deadline is 31.01.2019.

Please send applications to: christiane.krueger@uni-hamburg.de.

The Department of Communications and Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University is seeking to hire a tenure-eligible Associate Professor of Digital Strategies for Fall 2019. The individual filling this position will play a leadership role in shaping the department’s growing public relations concentration, supervise graduate students on digital strategic communications projects and research, and will serve as the founding executive director of a student-led digital services firm that designs and implements multimedia campaigns for real-world clients.

We are seeking a scholar-practitioner with strong commitments to entrepreneurial research, community-engaged research, service learning, and enhancing diversity. The ideal candidate will have worked in digital strategic communications, audience cultivation and engagement via social media, public relations, crisis communications, or user experience design both in and outside of academia, for either private, public, non-profit or grassroots organizations, and maintains an active research agenda in one or more of those areas. The successful candidate will have a demonstrable commitment to promoting and enhancing diversity. The candidate should possess strong networking and stakeholder cultivation skills, and possess the ability to develop interdisciplinary partnerships with other communication-related academic disciplines.

The candidate must hold a Ph.D. in Communications, Digital Media Studies, Public Relations, or a related field. They must have a research portfolio and track record worthy of tenure and the rank of Associate Professor at a Carnegie-designated High Research Activity institution.

They must have a minimum of 5 years teaching experience at the University level (with experience teaching both undergraduate and graduate students strongly preferred).

We are interested in candidates whose research interests also intersect with qualitative research methods, organizational communications, media industries studies, platform studies, health or science communications. Grant writing skills would be a valuable asset. Digital campaign management experience is also an asset.

To be considered for the position, applicants must provide a letter outlining their experience and interest in the position, a CV, a writing sample, an example of a digital strategic communications project/campaign they have worked on, and a list of three references.

References will not be contacted until the campus visit stage of the interview process. Evaluation of applicant packets will commence January 15, 2019 and continue until the position is filled. Interested applicants can do so at: http://jobs.odu.edu/postings/8839

For questions, please contact the search committee chair, Dr. Fran Hassencahl, at fhassenc@odu.edu or department chair, Avi Santo at asanto@odu.edu

Old Dominion University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

The publication aims to provide relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area of child rights and the media in Africa. It will examine media roles, challenges, theories, and strategies to ensuring the realisation of the rights of the child.

Recommended Topics include but not limited to:

• Theoretical and basis of media for child rights in Africa
  
• Child rights and print media in Africa
  
• Broadcast media and child rights in Africa
  
• Media, social mobilisation for child rights in Africa
  
• Child rights and media corporate social responsibility
  
• Pattern of media coverage for child rights in Africa
  
• Media narratives of child rights in Africa
  
• Media and child abuse in Africa
  
• Constraints to media for child rights promotion in Africa
  
• Media impact on child rights in Africa
  
• Media and childhood education in Africa
  
• Audience perception child rights media campaign
  
• Media ethics and child rights coverage
  
• Media, child rights and sustainable development goals
  
• Media studies and child rights in Africa
  
• Indigenous language media and child rights in Africa
  
• New and social media and child rights in Africa
  

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before January 24, 2019, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by February 23, 2019 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by April 5, 2019, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at http://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission.

Note

There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication. All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery®TM online submission manager. Use the link below to access and click on Propose a Chapter.

Abstracting and Indexing: Clarivate Analytics, Scopus, Inspec, PsycINFO, Compendex

Publisher: This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global and it is anticipated to be released in 2019.

https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/3682

The American University of Beirut (Lebanon)

6th - 7th September 2019

Abstract deadline: 15th March 2019

Organisers: Prof Kari Anden-Papadopoulos (Stockholm University) and Dr. Dima Saber (Birmingham City University) in collaboration with Dr May Farah (The American University of Beirut)

This two-day conference entitled ‘Archiving Dissent: Post-2011 Arab imagery, memory and vernacular representations of conflict’ aims at exploring the mounting challenges but also opportunities posed by the ever-expanding collections of crowdsourced digital content documenting eight years of revolution and struggles in the Arab region. It brings together academics, activists, lawyers, archivists and artists from the MENA and beyond, to map out existing documentation of the 2011 revolts in both online and offline forms, and to think critically and strategically about issues such as preservation, use, value, access, ownership and control.

With the democratisation of image production and dissemination, the lack of documentation of pivotal events, including human rights violations and war crimes, is no longera primary issue. Rather, main challenges are capturing and preserving the overwhelming proliferation of digital imagery coming out of the Arab uprisings, along with ensuring the integrity, reliability and accessibility of such records. In a context of increasingly contested narratives, when the revolutionary moment has slipped into civil wars, violence andthe return to emboldened oppression, these vernaculararchives become ever-more valuable as grounds for efforts to bring about ‘truth’and ‘justice’. As such, eyewitness recordings play a critical role not only in documentingadvocacy efforts, but increasingly also in ensuring the preservation of a crowd-sourced historical knowledge and memory of war

and revolution, the protection ofrights, and the potential prosecution of atrocity and war crimes.

Another urgent issue is also the over-reliance of grassroot image producers on Facebook, YouTube and other corporate tech platforms to distribute and archive their footage. It is critical to observe that these hyper-commercial platforms are not designed to facilitate activism, and that preservation is neither a purpose nor a practice of theirs. Indeed, tech platforms have increasingly taken on the responsibility of policing their user content and activity, through, for example, systematically removing content and channels deemed ‘offensive’. Alarming figures now reveal that YouTube has removed more than 400 000 Syria-related videos since August 2017, when it started using machine-learning to flag and mass delete so-called ‘extremist’ content, with a total lack of transparency regarding its newly developed content moderation algorithm.

These disputable takedowns, which put at risk the entire audiovisual history of the Syrian war, reinforce existing rising concerns about the precariousness of the digital and the costs of the activists and archivists’ over-reliance on platforms they have little to no agency over. In addition, there are also increasing challenges posed by the corrupt melding of state and commercial forms of surveillance and data exploitation on these platforms, in contexts such as Egypt, Palestine and Turkey more regionally, bringing issues of user privacy and security to the fore.

This conference provides a forum in which scholars and practitioners collaborate to address the challenges - representational, political, ethical, technical, organizational and financial - that preserving the post-2011 Arab image archives present for both present and future representations of conflict and revolt in the region.

Participants are invited to address topics including, but not limited to:

• (Innovative) strategiesand open-access tools and infrastructures for archiving, processing, preserving and disseminatingpost-2011 Arab image records
  
• Historical precedents for both documentation and archiving practices in the MENA region
  
• Key challenges and opportunities that crowd-sourced content offer for a constitution of a digital memory of post-2011 wars and revolutions in the MENA region (we particularly welcome here contributions from historians, memory studies and archival studies scholars and practitioners)
  
• Learnings from regional and international/global protest movements such as Gezi Park, #metoo and #Blacklivesmatter campaigns, that could benefit activists and archivists in the MENA
  
• Ethical considerations regarding the roles and rights of image creators themselves, notably in terms of considering issues of ownership, consent, harm, vulnerability, subjectivity and objectification, security, agency and responsibility.
  
• Key challenges in terms of funding, selection, metadata, policy, quality, access, and strategic uses entailed in such archiving efforts
  
• Strategies for mapping and securing non-governmental and regionally-based efforts to build infrastructures that allow for the collection,preservation and distribution ofthese materials
  
• How to protect image records from being destroyedand insure the sustainability of the archives even when they are available in both online and offline forms
  
• Issues of power, ownership and control
  

The organisers welcome proposals for 20 minute academic papers and panels, and/or project-based presentations.

Please send 250-words abstracts, with a 50-word biography to: resistancebyrecording@gmail.com

Journal: /JOMEC Journal/ (Cardiff University Press)

Deadline for Articles: 20th June 2019

Publication Date: December 2019

This issue of /JOMEC Journal/ seeks focused cultural and media studies articles on advertising and China. (The word ‘and’ in the phrase ‘Advertising and China’ includes meanings such as ‘in, on, using, involving’, etc.) This special themed issue will be called ‘Advertising China’ and the editors seek articles that engage with topics such as (but not limited to) the following:

• advertising in China
  
• the use of China and Chinese imagery in advertising
  
• comparative studies of advertising involving China and other national geographical and cultural regions
  
• differences and similarities in advertising across cultures
  
• issues in gender, ethnicity, cultural value
  

The editors are particularly interested in works that contribute theoretically, methodologically and/or analytically to our understanding of the place of advertising in culture and society, with specific reference to China and/or the status of Chinese imagery in other cultural contexts.

The journal homepage is here: https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/

Submission guidelines are here: https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/about/submissions/

Enquiries can be made in the first instance to Professor Paul Bowman: BowmanP@cardiff.ac.uk 

Lund University is seeking to hire two doctoral students for a full time PhD scholarship in the area of media and communication studies. The scholarships cover fees and living expenses for four years and are available for home, EU and international students undertaking research in the areas of media and communication and linked to the research strategy of the department.

Media and Communication research at Lund University focuses on the study of media, society and culture. Our research addresses media and communication structures and processes in modern life. Our aim is to broaden understanding of knowledge, power and social relations in national and transnational media environments. Strategic research areas include: media engagement, democracy and cultural citizenship; media industries and creativity; gender, health and society; audiences, popular culture and everyday life. Researchers in our department specialize in political and cultural engagement, critical animal studies, media and migration, digital media and everyday life, media scandals, celebrities and cultural industries, mobile socialities, media audiences, urban creative collectives, and visual cultures.

We offer teaching and learning at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels in Swedish and English. Our department has a dynamic research environment with state and privately funded research projects, international publications and collaboration, and regular research seminars and conferences with world class scholars from around the world.

Please see the link below for the application process, criteria for applicants, and deadline of 31st January. For further information email Annette Hill, annette.hill@kom.lu.se

More here 

Special Issue on Media and Communication in Development and Social Change: A Tribute to Joseph Ascroft (Volume 29, No. 02, December 2019)

Guest Editor: Dr. Srinivas Melkote, Professor, School of Media and Communication, Bowling Green, State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403, USA

Development communication, as an area of scholarship and practice, has been engaged in finding a niche for media and communication in the efforts to tackle the problems of underdevelopment and marginalization of people and communities worldwide. What should be the mission of the field of development communication in critical social change? What are the different ways in which media and communication have been used in projects tailored to specific development outcomes? What are the lessons learnt?

This special issue of Asia Pacific Media Educator will be dedicated to the memory of Prof. Joseph Ascroft, University of Iowa, USA, an early pioneer in the use of media and communication as a support for development. Submissions are welcome from media professionals, scholars, and educators from all regions within the context of social change and development. Selected papers will attempt any of these objectives: document, study, analyze, construct, and deconstruct the role and place of development communication and media scholarship in the process of directed social change.

The submission guidelines are here:  https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journal/asia-pacific-media-educator#submission-guidelines

Please submit 250-word abstract to the Guest Editor at: melkote@bgsu.edu by January 31, 2019.

Submission deadline of complete paper for peer review: April 30, 2019.

Manuscripts and all editorial correspondence should be addressed to the journal administrator at https://peerreview.sagepub.com/ame

Friday 10th May 2019

University of Nottingham (UK)

Abstract Submission Deadline: Friday 15th February 2019

A one-day conference hosted by the Digital Culture Research Network, and supported by the Midlands3Cities DTP (M3C) Cohort Development Fund

This year’s theme of "ACCESS" seeks to respond to the continued ways in which digital technologies are profoundly impacting social, cultural, and institutional interactions with content, data, and platforms. Rapidly changing modes of knowledge and value production, means of accessibility, and concerns around privacy and censorship have given rise to increased scrutiny of the current digital landscape and our interactions with(in) it.

Submission

For this one-day conference we invite researchers, particularly early-career researchers, from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to present theoretical and empirical research related, but not limited, to the following topics:

• Access to data, platforms, and (digital) environments, and resulting issues of inclusion/exclusion
  
• Algorithmic forms of governmentality and their impact on (in)equality
  
• Uses and users of digital platforms
  
• Approaches to disability in digital contexts
  
• Methodological challenges for studying digital phenomena and the
  
• question of research ethics
  
• World-making capacities of digital cultures
  
• Internet censorship and the decentralized web initiatives
  
• Artistic, philosophical, and activist approaches to participation in digital cultures
  
• Digital implications on and of language and translation
  

To encourage proposals from doctoral researchers, we are awarding up to ten joint travel/accommodation grants to successful proposals. Further details below. There will be no fee for presenting at, or attending, this conference. Submissions should follow the below format and be submitted to digitalcultureconference@gmail.com by 23:00 GMT on Friday 15th February 2019.

• Paper Title
  
• Speaker Name
  
• Speaker Contact Email
  
• Abstract (Up to 250 words outlining the paper's main arguments, methods,
  
• and relevance to the conference theme)
  
• Speaker Biography (Up to 100 words)
  
• Keywords (3 terms relevant to the paper)
  

Funding

We are pleased to offer up to ten joint-travel/accommodation grants, each of which includes one night’s accommodation at the University of

Nottingham (arranged by the organising committee) and up to £50 travel expenses.

The grant is open to all doctoral applicants, but at least five of the grants are reserved for non-M3C-funded applicants based at the DTP’s six institutions (Uni. of Nottingham; Nottingham Trent; Birmingham City; Uni. of Birmingham; De Montfort; Uni. of Leicester). Those currently funded by M3C are not eligible to apply for this grant. This grant will only be offered to doctoral students whose papers have been accepted for the conference.

If you wish to apply for the grant, please complete a Grant Application Form – which can be found here – and submit it along with your abstract. Grants will be awarded on the basis of the conference organising committee’s collective consideration of submitted applications.