ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

International selection tender is open until January 29, 2019

Place of work: Communication and Society Research Centre – University of Minho (Portugal)

Project: AUDIRE– Audio Repository: saving sonic based memories 

AUDIRE is a research project funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. It aims to create social awareness on the relevance of sound as a form of expression and to explore the innovative and creative potential of sound narratives. The working plan is organised into five main objectives:

• to develop a theory of sound as an essential support for human expression and as a source of knowledge
• to understand how people recognise and value the acoustic environments
• to construct a repository of open access sound contents
• to create a virtual sound museum which can contribute to stimulate the creativity of emerging artists and at the same time preserve a kind of sound heritage
• to promote sound literacy based on a proposal of pedagogical activities
  

The research team is now recruiting a new researcher.

Candidates should fit the following main requirements:

1) to hold PhD in Communication Sciences

2) to be proficient in Portuguese and English

3) to present a portfolio of relevant works of technique and/or artistic production in the sound effect area

More details available here: http://www.cecs.uminho.pt/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/CTTI-94-18-CECS1-Ingl_s.pdf

Deadline: February 28, 2019

International journal “Mediatization Studies” is announcing a call for papers for the new issue: Vol. 3, Spring 2019. We are expecting papers that apply mediatization approach in its multiple dimensions, theoretically informed empirical works are especially welcomed.

We invite authors and papers from around the world that address one or more of the following key questions:

• different fields and domains of mediatization
  
• mediatization theory and its developments
  
• methodological challenges for mediatization research
  
• new manifestations of mediatization process in its different societal, culture and technological and context
  

Deadline for full paper submissions: February 28, 2019

Detailed information about call for papers: http://journals.umcs.pl/ms/index

On behalf of the Editorial board:

Deputy editor Ewa Nowak-Teter

Editorial assistant Wojciech Magus

e-mail: mediatization.studies@gmail.com

International Journal of Fim and Media Arts (IJFMA)

Deadline: April 15, 2019

IJFMA is preparing a special issue titled ‘Flow and Archive’ dedicated to Television and to its current challenges.

The digital turn has allowed television to be reimagined after the networked computers. Following the telephone and radio, the new paradigm inspiring the future of television are the networked computers, their social networks and the participatory visual culture established on the aftermath of the twentieth century cultural industries. After the liveness and flow, definitional components of television, we are currently offered with DVR-mediated television experiences and collections of short videos which can be uploaded, viewed and shared by the viewer. By becoming searchable and accessible online, television provides a similar experience to the archives and to the video aggregators that entertain the new generations of cellphone viewers. The discussion about the future of television not only makes it worth thinking about its past, the cultural value of its equipments and its most resilient genres, but is certainly an opportunity to analyse how TV journalism is challenged by social networks, and how its public service can be revalued.

IJFMA welcomes papers addressing one or more of the following themes:

• Early and current screen practice
  
• TV superseded equipments as material and cultural heritage
  
• TV and media participatory turn
  
• TV and transmedia industries
  
• Old and resilient TV genres
  
• Flow versus archive as a television challenge
  
• Memory and the obsolete in online video collections
  
• Social networks and other new challenges to public service broadcasting
  

Contributions are encouraged from authors with different kinds of expertise and interests in media studies, television and media history.

Abstracts should have between 250-300 words and should be submitted until April 15, 2019

Full paper submissions are due by 15 May 15, 2019

Please find submission informations at http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ijfma/about/submissions

Journal Website: http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ijfma

For any query, please contact: victor.flores@ulusofona.pt

February 26, 2019

Brussels

The problem of women’s unequal access to and representation in mainstream media is not new and research studies focused on the European media industry over at least the past 30 years, including work commissioned by EU institutions, have demonstrated the challenges women face in developing a career in the media and being represented in ways which reflect their lived experience. In 1995, the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women took place in Beijing and from that gathering, the Beijing Platform for Action emerged as a global call to eradicate gender equality from society: one of the critical areas of concern identified was the media. In the same year, the first Global Media Monitoring Project took place which monitored how women and men appeared in news media around the globe. Every five years since the BPfA, reviews have been undertaken to see how far the original ambitions have been met, along with various ad hoc studies undertaken by NGOs, EU institutions and civil society organisations.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, each review and new piece of research finds that although there has been progress, it is slow and uncoordinated, so further indicators are developed, further strategies written. Both the European Parliament and the Council of Europe have produced research and recommendations around gender equality and the media: media organisations have been active in developing internal initiatives to support women’s careers or designed actions to monitor gender-bias in content, but they rarely tell anyone else about them. Civil society organisations and individuals have also been active over the past few years and, impatient for a gender-equal future, have been working hard to bring the issue to public attention through the use of digital platforms and hashtag activism such as #metoo and #timesup. However, despite all this good work, the goal of achieving gender equality in the media remains elusive, not least because there are no mechanisms through which to promote the good practices which have been initiated.

That is, no mechanisms until now!

We are pleased to invite you to the launch of the AGEMI (Advancing Gender Equality in Media Industries) project and web platform where you can find a range of useful resources focused on aspects of gender equality, including a Resources Bank of (around 100) Good Practices and learning resources which include mini-lectures and filmed interviews with media practitioners on topics such as representation, culture, policy, advocacy and leadership. Gender issues are rarely included as a specific aspect of journalism training so AGEMI is addressing this absence. AGEMI has also piloted two activities to build links between students and the world of work through its summer school and internships. We believe that including such activities as part of media education encourages gender-sensitivity amongst the next generation of journalists and thus has the potential to influence the wider media landscape.

As well as demonstrating the AGEMI platform, we will also hear from a range of stakeholders about the work they are doing to challenge gender inequality in the media. We believe this kind of knowledge exchange is both necessary and timely, particularly in advance of the Beijing+25 review which will take place in 2020 with the aim of informing the implementation and raising awareness of the gender-media dimensions of the 2030 gender-equality agenda. We hope you can join us to celebrate the launch of this much-needed new resource and engage in a productive dialogue and we hope to see you in Brussels.

The event is free but please register here by 19 February 2019.

For further information, please contact Karen Ross:

http://krossings.me

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/staff/profile/karen.ross

Working schedule

• 14:30 – welcome refreshments
  
• 14:40 – welcome and brief background to AGEMI
  
• 14:50 –Julie Ward MEP and Michaela Šodjrová MEP
  
• 15:20 – European Commission (speaker tbc)
  
• 15:35 - Cécile Gréboval, Council of Europe (Gender Equality Division)
  
• 15:50 – Asha Allen, European Women’s Lobby
  
• 16:05 – break
  
• 16:20 - AGEMI platform launch and demonstration
  
• 17:00 - Safia Kessas RTBF (Belgian public service broadcaster)
  
• 17:15 - Martine Simonis, AJP
  
• 17:30 – close/drinks reception
  

Mid-late April, 2020

Madrid, Spain

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 10, 2020

Since the twilight of the last century, game studies have emerged to become a legitimate discipline by which to study digital entertainment products as part of the Humanities. Deriving from this phenomenon are historical game studies, which have blossomed in the last decade and help us understand the uses of and discourses about the past in gaming. Most of the works, however, have focused on Western computer games using an analytical approach that also draws from a Western heritage, despite the importance of the Asian market, especially the Japanese one, after the 1983 crash of the American game industry. Furthermore, in recent decades the production of videogames in countries like China, South Korea and Taiwan has been reaching global audiences. Therefore, we have deemed it relevant to focus the 3rd Complutense’s Historical Game Studies Conference on this Asian phenomenon.

The 2020 Conference follows an open call for papers system. The organization will evaluate positively those contributions built on original and appropriate theoretical frames and methodological apparatuses (in preference to purely descriptive ones).

Proposals should be sent to asiangamesconference@gmail.com and will consist of a title, an abstract of no more than 400 words, up to 5 key words and a selection of bibliography in a text document with the name of the contributor. They will be blind peer reviewed by a scientific committee of five experts. The accepted languages are English and Spanish. Research topics proposed by the organization are as follows:

• History of videogames and gaming culture in East Asia: producers and developers, evolution of franchises, chronologically defined audiences, their practices and their evolution…
• Western games consumed in East Asia and vice versa: impact of historical computer game franchises around the globe, ports, localization of historical games in order to adapt their discourses to foreign audiences…
• Representations of foreign history in Asian videogames: how Asian developers reimagine foreign history (Operation Europe: Path to Victory, Uncharted Waters, Bladestorm Valkyria Chronicles…), adaptation of historical elements in contexts of fantasy (Fate, Granblue Fantasy…), historical anthropomorfism (Azur Lane, Girl’s Frontline…)…
• Representations of Asian history in Asian videogames: Sengoku Basara, Samurai Warriors, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga’s Ambition, Touken Ranbu…
• Computer game genres and gender/sexual identities: historical games marketed to gender-based audiences (otome games, bishoujo games), sexuality and history in East Asian games (moé)…
• Transmedia visual culture: relationship between historical games and comics (manga, manhwa, manhua), animation, film, advertisement…
• Reception dynamics: fan activities (cosplay, fanzines, doujinshi, modding, pilgrimages…), fan cultures around historical videogames…

Deadline for abstracts is February 10, 2020. Authors of selected contributions will be notified approximately one month after the deadline. The two-day long conference will be held at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Madrid, Spain) mid-late April 2020.

If you have any questions regarding the Conference, please contact us at asiangamesconference@gmail.com. We are looking forward to your contributions.

ECREA supports young scholars and provides opportunities for their development. The Young Scholars Network (YECREA) at ECREA was established with exactly this goal in mind.

ECREA supports this Network financially. For example, last year ECREA awarded 3 grants in total amount of 3.500€ for participation at the ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School 2018 and offered 10 Young Scholars Grants for the ECREA 2018 conference in Lugano. We would like to continue this support, ideally on a larger scale.

We kindly appeal for your support. By donating to the Young Scholars Fund you will directly support post-graduate researchers affiliated with the Young Scholars Network. We will gratefully accept any amount from individuals, groups, organisations or companies.

As a way of expressing our gratitude, you will receive a delicious box of ECREA-branded chocolates (for donations of €15 and above) or an ECREA-branded athletic t-shirt (for donations of €35 and above). Ten donations of this amount will allow us to award the conference fee for one PhD scholar. We want to assure you that the whole amount will go to the Young Scholar Fund.

If you wish to donate to the Young Scholars Fund, you can do so by clicking HERE. It is as easy as that.

Please consider donating to the Young Scholars Fund. It is a great way to encourage participation and development of emerging young scholars within ECREA. Thank you for your valuable support.

If you have any questions about donating to ECREA, contact Paweł Surowiec at treasurer@ecrea.eu.

Deadline: February 9, 2019

The University of Stirling seeks to appoint a Senior Lecturer (Grade 9) in Film and Gender Studies with a demonstrable interest and expertise in gender.

The appointee will contribute to doctoral, masters and undergraduate provisions within Stirling’s highly regarded film and media programme (ranked 8th in the UK in the latest Guardian rankings). The appointee will also take leadership of the MSc/MLitt in Gender Studies. While Stirling has always encouraged scholars with a diverse range of interests within the broad ambit of film and screen studies, we would be particularly interested in building capacity within the Division in areas such as science fiction and film theory.

The MSc/MLitt in Gender Studies (Applied) at the University of Stirling is unique in the UK and is attracting a growing number of students interested in placing the application of learning to real-world contexts which lies at the heart of the course. The course awards two scholarships annually specifically for students studying the MSc/MLitt in Gender Studies (Applied), the Dr Dee Amy-Chinn Gender Studies Scholarship and the Gender Studies Community Bursary. The programme has been co-ordinated since inception five years ago by the departing chair and is proving particularly popular among third sector organisations both as hosts of masters interns and as a platform for re-training.

Contract Type: Open Ended

Working Pattern: Full Time

Salary: Grade 9 (£50,132-£58,089)

Closing date: Midnight on Saturday, 9th February 2019

For further details, please see here

 May 9 – 11, 2019

Piran (Slovenia)

Deadline: February 28, 2019

Today, algorithms are present everywhere, from the most basic functions of the biggest search engines and social networking sites, to the ways formerly laborious operations are fully automatized. Even though the omnipresence of algorithms increasingly shapes and defines relations at both individual and social levels of our lives, their quasi-autonomous logic and practice remains largely opaque. Practices performed by algorithms are often seen as if they were neutral and objective, even though their logic often merely confirms and reproduces the existing contradictions, inequalities and biases. Moreover, algorithms may strengthen mechanisms of surveillance and oppression, as they are silently taking over functions that in democratic societies ought to be subjected to public scrutiny.

To provide a better understanding of how algorithms influence social relations in the wider field of communication studies, we invite proposals for presentations on a variety of topics connected to algorithms. We seek both empirical and theoretical studies, but the research should be critical in its nature and have strong theoretical foundations. Possible topics for the colloquium include, but are not limited to the issues more narrowly connected to algorithmization of journalistic and media practices, such as:

• Automatization of journalistic labour and robot-journalism,
• Transformations in news and media production,
• News credibility and professional journalistic norms in automated journalism,
• Propaganda,
• Journalistic responsibility and ethics,
• Personalisation of news production, social polarisation and divisions within society,
• Changes in funding of journalism,
• Media politics and regulation,

or to the wider issues in which algorithms are related to social communication:

• Ideology, logic and power of/in algorithms,
• Global news-flows and new types of communication inequalities,
• Search engine algorithms,
• Pitfalls of algorithmization for democratic societies,
• Political economy of algorithms (e.g. advertising, digital labour, market concentration),
• Liquefaction of the publicness/privateness divide,
• Big data and data monopolies,
• Automated inequality,
• Recent technological developments,
• Human decisions in construction of algorithms,
• Communication imperialism and platform imperialism.

EURICOM Colloquia are traditionally small-scale intellectual events with approx. 20-25 participants. This gives participants ample opportunities for in-depth discussions and presentations of research projects. The organisers welcome proposals for papers addressing any aspect of the subject and do not intend to prioritise any particular approach, method or attitude towards the issues under consideration.

In keeping with the established practice of the Colloquia, a special issue of the journal Javnost-The Public will be published containing a selection of the papers presented at the Colloquium.

Interested scholars are invited to submit abstracts for presentation at the 34th EURICOM Colloquium (approximately 250 words) to the editor of Javnost-The Public editor@javnost-thepublic.org by February 28, 2019.

Deadline for abstract submission: 28 February 2018.

Confirmation of abstract acceptance: 20 March 2019.

Deadline for draft paper submission: 6 May 2019.

Deadline: March 1, 2019

Edited by Christina Lee and Erik Champion (Curtin University)

We are soliciting contributions for an edited book that will explore the affective landscapes – both real and imaginary – in screen tourism. Screen tourism is a burgeoning global industry whereby tourists visit locations that are featured in or are associated with film and television texts (e.g. filming locations, theme parks, the creator’s former abode). This simultaneously niche yet mainstream market has now extended the bucket list of travel destinations to include the likes of Westeros (Dubrovnik, Game of Thrones), Middle-earth (New Zealand, The Lord of the Rings), and Platform 9¾ (London, Harry Potter).

The book will explore how affective landscapes in screen tourism are sights/sites of transformation, play and possibility. It will broach a spectrum of topics, ranging from the tourist’s/fan’s affective response to place, to the strategic design of ventures to enhance the experiential through creating senses of place and narrative. The book will further advance discussions of the future potential of the industry (e.g. use of mixed/augmented reality).

'Screen Tourism and Affective Landscapes' will be a comprehensive collection of essays by international scholars and screen tourism practitioners, opening up a space for dialogue between the academy and industry. This interdisciplinary book will be informed by fields including cultural studies, tourism studies, media studies, cultural heritage and visualisation studies.

Possible areas of research include (but are not limited to):

• narrative and affective landscapes
  
• liminal spaces
  
• embodied experiences
  
• themed experiences and places
  
• augmenting place through technology
  
• modes of reality
  
• (popular) cultural heritage and authenticity
  
• the screen tourist’s gaze
  
• fandom communities and engagement
  

Chapters are expected to be approximately 6000–7500 words.

Proposals should be sent by email (in a Word document) to the Editors by March 1, 2019. This should include an abstract (250 words) and a short contributor bio (one paragraph including institutional affiliation, position and recent publications). Please note that the submission date for accepted papers is October 4, 2019.

Contributors, please address all inquiries and proposals to: Dr Christina Lee (c.lee@curtin.edu.au)

Media Mutations 11 Conference

May 20-21, 2019

University of Bologna (Italy)

Deadline: January 20, 2019

Confirmed keynote speakers

• Rachel Dwyer (SOAS University of London)
  
• Stanley Rosen (University of Southern California)
  

Organized by Marco Cucco (University of Bologna), Gertjan Willems (University of Antwerp) and Zhan Zhang (Università della Svizzera italiana)

Media products, in particular audiovisual works, have always been used both as soft power tools for shaping or branding the image and reputation of their producing countries, and as a diplomatic platform for facilitating international relations and trade. Soft power strategies involve public and private stakeholders working in different areas within a wide, complex and well-orchestrated plan. However, due to the fundamental role of culture, media always play a crucial role in any plan of soft power and strategic marketing.

The conference aims at understanding how media products serve for diplomatic and soft power purposes, with a focus on emerging markets. While traditional flows of communication moved from the Western world to other regions (as in the case of Hollywood films), nowadays the most sophisticated and innovative soft power plans are going in the opposite direction: from developing countries to Western Europe and the United States. Not only do countries like China, India, South Korea and Mexico have more and more skillful and powerful media companies and professionals, they are also intensively working and negotiating to spread their media products and brands abroad and to create international co-productions and new media ventures. Within these collaborations and expansion strategies, Western Europe and the United States also became their targeted markets.

Investigating these dynamics is very challenging for scholars. Soft power strategies are often based on “unwritten” political decisions; they usually aim at reaching intangible goals, and their analysis requires expertise from several research areas (political sciences, economics, media studies, etc.). In light of these challenges, the conference aims at a better understanding of the role played by media products in international diplomacy and as soft power tools of developing countries favoring a dialogue between scholars from different research fields and geographic areas. In line with its founding purposes, the Media Mutations conference series aims to serve as a platform for discussing methodologies, sharing expertise and promoting a multi-disciplinary approach.

The 11th edition of Media Mutations encourages submissions that cover the following subjects and topics:

• Mapping of public and private stakeholders involved in soft power strategies of emerging markets, with a focus on creative industries
  
• The role of media within soft power strategies of emerging markets
  
• Case studies of single countries (economic and cultural goals policies; international agreements; development and performance of media products, etc.)
  
• Case studies of particular media companies/organizations for their success/failure (corporate strategy, output, markets, economic results, etc.)
  
• Case studies of particular media products for their success/failure (content design; financing; international distribution/circulation; reception in the national market and in foreign markets)
  
• Soft power and national branding
  
• The implementation of soft power into media practices
  
• The places of networking for diplomatic and soft power purposes (fairs, markets at festivals, etc.)
  
• Relations between developing countries and international organizations (e.g. European Union, World Trade Organization, etc.) in the field of media
  
• Methodological approaches for investigating soft power strategies and their tangible/intangible results
  

The official language of the conference is English. Abstracts (300-500 words for 20-minute talks) should be sent to mediamutations.org@gmail.com by January 20th , 2019. Please attach a brief biography (maximum 150 words) and an optional selected bibliography (up to five references). Notification of acceptance will be sent by February 18 th . A registration fee will be requested after notification of paper acceptance (€60 for speakers and professionalattendants; free conference admission for students).

This Conference is financially supported by Centro Dipartimentale La Soffitta and Dipartimento delle Arti, Università di Bologna, and sponsored by the ECREA Film Studies Section.

The CFP is also available on the Media Mutations web site: https://www.mediamutations.org/about/902-2/