ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Revista Comunicando (thematic Section)

Deadline: March 21, 2025

Thematic editors: Miguel Midões (Polytechnic Institute of Viseu/ Communication and Society Research Centre, University of Minho, Portugal) and Giovanni Ramos (Polytechnic University of Coimbra, Portugal) 

“There is no journalism without proximity, whether it's proximity to the sources, proximity to the subjects, or proximity to local, regional, national or international communities, and this proximity takes many forms: geographical, emotional, cultural, affinity, among many others. Everything outside of this that we commonly call journalism is something that may still be undefined, but it is not journalism” (Midões & Martins, 2024). 

Coverage of local and community issues, proximity in journalism that allows a close relationship with sources and the discussion of local issues has long been seen as a way of promoting democracy. Proximity in journalism strengthens active citizenship by providing direct information on issues that impact citizens' lives, stimulating civic involvement and providing a space for the expression of diverse voices and perspectives. Focussed on the needs and concerns of communities, local media have a responsibility to promote transparency in public policies and local authorities, making them essential for building a more participatory and inclusive society. 

In a scenario marked by financial constraints and a shortage of resources, the future of local media is increasingly uncertain. A sector strongly marked by cutbacks, the closure of publications, local and regional broadcasters, the centralisation of content production and a lack of specialised human resources, local media have been facing the challenge of finding new ways to react to a context marked by profound transformations. 

In this thematic section we would like to receive works that show the reality of proximity media and proximity in the media, as well as those that analyse the relationship between the media and communities and the impact that technological advances, new publishing platforms and current production and distribution models have on this relationship. 

Topics of interest for this section include, but are not limited to: 

• Local media and technological advances 
  
• New publishing platforms 
  
• Old and new forms of funding and/or business models 
  
• Local and community media, democracy and strengthening communities 
  
• Public sphere: traditional journalism versus new social media dynamics 
  
• Media and the hinterland: production, distribution and use of local news 
  
• Local media: independence, political and financial control 
  
• Co-operation strategies in local and regional media 
  
• Local media, disinformation and fake news 
  
• Alternative media and collaborative journalism 

The works in the thematic section will be published between July and December 2025, in a continuous edition. 

All papers are subject to a double-blind peer review process. There are no associated publication fees (article processing fees or APCs). 

Full text submission period: from 2 January to 21 March 2025 

Languages: Portuguese, English or Spanish 

Sections: articles, interviews, reviews and experience reports 

Submission guidelines: https://revistacomunicando.sopcom.pt/index.php/comunicando/about/submissions 

For more information, please contact: revistacomunicando[at]gmail.com 

Comunicazioni Sociali: Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies (special issue)

Deadline: December 10, 2024

Edited by Alice Cati, Anna Chiara Sabatino, Max Schleser, and Shuai Li

Since the advent of small-gauge film devices, alternative audiovisual forms have adopted original and creative approaches to documenting personal experiences. Among these, amateur audiovisual films have often been characterized by self-referential and subjective expressions, whether shaped as “home movies” or individualistic autobiographical or self-portrayal declinations. From this perspective, the question is no longer how self-representational practices such as mobile and first-person filmmaking are used to express personal unique perspectives and styles, but rather what forms of self-narrative representation emerge within the exploration of novel methods and alternative renderings of the Self in audiovisual and digital media.

Within a mediascape where social media platforms have catalyzed an unprecedented development of self-narrative forms through digital creative practices, nearly anyone can produce and share self-representations, acting as captures and stories of mobile lives.

Since the first mobile films emerged roughly two decades ago, audiovisual storytelling has seen remarkable growth in multiple configurations, from videodiaries and travelogues to first-person formats, ranging from cinema to social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, as well as news broadcasting and citizen digital journalism. Such medial expansion has led to new formats and narrative structures, establishing smartphone filmmaking and digital storytelling as a distinct creative ecology that includes both professional and amateur domains. As these platforms continue to evolve, they offer new opportunities for both creators and audiences to engage with content in innovative ways. One key aspect of this evolution is the shift towards brevity and immediacy in storytelling. The rise of short-form video formats has further transformed personal storytelling by encouraging creators to condense their narratives into more concise and immediate forms. Additionally, the role of algorithms in addressing and promoting content has a relevant impact on the visibility of self-narrative productions, determining which stories reach broader audiences and go viral. Thus, mobile storytelling occupies a liminal space, one that has given rise to new classifications and identities for content creators, including the “prosumer”, “pro-am”, and “pro-d-user” categories.

In parallel, the concept of the amateur—deriving from the Latin term for “lover,” meaning one who creates out of passion rather than financial necessity—has evolved as well in the digital era, where the always online and highly interconnected environment offers new avenues for individuals and communities to communicate and present themselves to virtual audiences anywhere at any time. In this perspective, digital storytelling and mobile filmmaking as creative practices become both autonomous expressive tools for self-narratives and vehicles for collective engagement, as well as catalysts for activism, addressing issues like inequality and environmental and social crises. In the current digital landscape, creators can construct an authentic self-image that resonates closely with their intended audience. Nevertheless, far from being exclusively online, such narrative modes also encompass alternative applications, including therapeutic uses of mobile devices within participatory research designs and peculiar audiovisual fields.

From private memoirs to always-active social media profiles, from domestic memory capturing to the dialogic and participatory dispositives of smartphone filmmaking, how can audiovisual languages, tools and practices be declined today in their personal and collective performances? How traditional self-representative configurations such as autobiography and self-portrait evolve within their audiovisual upgrades? What are the varied facets that the self-narratives take on in the age of Big Data? What models of self-reflexive discourse and self-representation are defined as marginal or dominant in the contemporary mediascape? How do amateurism and professionalism interact with self-storytelling, which frequently occurs at the crossroads between private and public, between personal and corporate logic (e. g., influencer marketing)?

This issue of Comunicazioni Sociali invites scholars to propose reflections on the disciplinary, theoretical, and historical intersections of amateur, personal, mobile storytelling and smartphone filmmaking. In particular, the issue aims to solicit contributions that seek to explore how digital storytelling, mobile and smartphone filmmaking can be understood today in both personal and collective forms. We particularly encourage proposals that emphasize self-representation, mobile autobiographies, first-person filmmaking, amateur digital configurations and transformative dimensions within these practices.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The historical development and creative practices of digital storytelling, mobile filmmaking and smartphone filmmaking;
  
• Audiovisual forms and genres of self-mediatization (e.g. self-portrait, video diaries, travelogues, Instagram stories, TikTok videos);
  
• Therapeutic use of digital devices and mobile self-representational practice within medical and clinical contexts;
  
• Digital identity construction and online presence configurations;
  
• Alternative story forms, formats and counter-cultural expressions;
  
• Amateur creative contributions and expressions, both personal and collective;
  
• The impact of short-form video formats on how individuals construct and share personal narratives;
  
• The role of algorithms in shaping the visibility, reach, and influence of audiovisual self-representations. 

Submission details

Please send your abstract and a short biographical note by December 10, 2024, filling out the following form: https://www.vpjournals.it/index.php/comunicazionisociali/about/submissions   

Abstracts should be 300 to 400 words long (in English). All submissions should include 5 keywords, the name of the author(s), the institution's affiliation, contact details, and a short bio for each author.

Authors will be notified of proposal acceptance by December 20, 2024.

If the proposal is accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit the full article in English by May 15, 2024

Submission of a paper will be taken to imply that it is unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

The articles must not exceed 5,000/6,000 words in English (including references)

For editorial guidelines, please refer to the section “Guide for the authors” on the Comunicazioni Sociali website: http://comunicazionisociali.vitaepensiero.com

Contributions will be submitted through a double-blind peer review process.

Issue 2/2025 of Comunicazioni Sociali will be published in September 2025 and available in open access on the journal's website.

November 27, 2024, 6.30pm to 8.00pm

Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building (CKK, see LSE campus map) (In-person and online public event)

Speaker: Prof Sonia Livingstone

Chair: Prof Ellen Helsper

Registration

This public event is free and open to all.

In-person attendance: no ticket or pre-registration is required

Online attendance: register here.

Hosted by the Digital Futures for Children centre (DFC), Department of Media and Communications and 5Rights Foundation

Public anxiety about children’s digital lives and wellbeing is reaching a fever pitch, marking a notable turnaround from the decades-long efforts to ensure children are fully digitally included, literate and empowered. While arguments rage over what’s wrong with ‘screen time,’ ‘online harms,’ and data-driven forms of exploitation, this lecture hosted by the Digital Futures for Children centre will make the case for a rights-based approach that puts children’s needs at the forefront of the design and deployment of digital services.

April 23–24, 2025

Liwa College in collaboration with Abu Dhabi University (English sessions held in a hybrid format at Abu Dhabi University)

Deadline: December 18, 2024

Languages: English, Arabic, and French

Conference Themes:

• Artificial Intelligence and Media Content Industry
  
• Big Data Analysis to Improve Media Strategies
  
• Artificial Intelligence Media Tools and Techniques
  
• Content Customization and User Experience Improvement
  
• Artificial Intelligence and the Podcast Industry
  
• Automated and Robotic Media and the Humanization of Content
  
• Professional Ethics and Challenges in Artificial Intelligence in Media
  
• Bridging the Labor Market and Academic Skills
  
• The Future of Media Professions in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
  

Important Dates:

• Abstract Submission Deadline: December 18, 2024
  
• Full Paper Submission Deadline: March 1, 2025
  

Submission Guidelines:

Abstracts (max. 300 words) must align with one of the conference themes.

Full papers should be 15-25 pages in length and formatted according to APA style.

Accepted papers will be considered for publication in Crossroads of Social Inquiry, Abu Dhabi University’s academic journal.

Contact Information for Submissions:

Email: lc.media@lc.ac.ae (for general inquiries)

English sessions inquiries: viola.gjylbegaj@adu.ac.ae

Conference Link:

For more information, please visit the conference website.

This conference provides an excellent platform to explore cutting-edge intersections of digital media, artificial intelligence, and data analysis, aligned with the UAE’s National Strategy for Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence.

CAMRI

The University of Westminster’s Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) is pleased to announce this year’s Quintin Hogg Trust (QHT) PhD Studentships for UK and International applicants to commence in the 2025/26 academic year. 

Full information about the studentships, entry requirements and the application procedure can be found here: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/studentships/quintin-hogg-trust-phd-studentship

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, select the School of Media and Communication and choose the 'MPhil/PhD Media Studies' programme. Be sure to include the title of the studentship, The Quintin Hogg Trust Studentship, in your application. 

Applications must be submitted by 5pm on Friday 7 February 2025.

Interviews will take place in the week beginning 10 March 2025. 

ABOUT CAMRI

The Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) in the School of Media and Communication is a world-leading centre in the study of media and communication, renowned for its critical and international research, which has consistently been ranked highly according to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the QS World University Rankings. In REF 2021 83% of CAMRI's overall research was judged to be ‘world-leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’.

CAMRI welcomes applications which explore the political, economic, social and cultural significance of the media across the globe. CAMRI research is focused on four key themes: Communication, Technology and Society; Cultural Identities and Social Change; Global Media; and Policy and Political Economy. 

CONTACTS

To seek guidance and be connected with prospective supervisors, please contact Dr Ed Bracho-Polanco, Coordinator of the CAMRI Doctoral Researcher Development Programme. 

Email: E.Brachopolanco@westminster.ac.uk

Alternatively, you may directly approach a prospective supervisor. For more information, visit the CAMI website to explore our core research themes and the expertise of our academic staff.

Link: https://www.camri.ac.uk

Edited by: Daniel Jackson, Andrea Carson, Danielle Carver Coombs, Stephanie Edgerly, Einar Thorsen, Filippo Trevisan and Scott Wright

We are pleased to announce the publication of U.S. Election Analysis 2024: Media, Voters and the Campaign

Free report featuring 88 articles from leading scholars with snap analysis and research insights on the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign. 

Website: https://www.electionanalysis.ws/us/

PDF: https://bit.ly/USElectionAnalysis2024_Jackson-et_al_v1-COMPRESSED

Table of contents

Section 1: Democracy at stake

1. Trump’s imagined reality is America’s new reality (Prof Sarah Oates)

2. Trump’s threat to American democracy (Prof Pippa Norris)

3. Why does Donald Trump tell so many lies? (Prof Geoff Beattie)

4. Strategic (in)civility in the campaign and beyond (Dr Emily Sydnor)

5. Can America’s democratic institutions hold? (Prof Rita Kirk)

6. How broad is presidential immunity in the United States? (Dr Jennifer L. Selin)

7. Election fraud myths require activation: Evidence from a natural experiment (Dr David E. Silva)

8. What ever happened to baby Q? (Harrison J. LeJeune)

9. We’re all playing Elon Musk’s game now (Dr Adrienne L. Massanari)

10. Peak woke? The end of identity politics? (Prof Timothy J. Lynch)

11. Teaching the 2024 election (Dr Whitney Phillips)

Section 2: Policy and political context

12. The campaigns’ pandemic memory hole (Prof Michael Serazio)

13. America’s kingdom of contempt (Prof Barry Richards)

14. Americanism, not globalism 2.0: Donald Trump and America’s role in the world (Prof Jason A. Edwards)

15. The politics of uncertainty: Mediated campaign narratives about Russia’s war on Ukraine (Dr Tetyana Lokot)

16. The U.S. elections and the future of European security: Continuity or disruption? (Dr Garret Martin)

17. Trump’s victory brings us closer to the new world disorder (Prof Roman Gerodimos)

18. Abortion: Less important to voters than anticipated (Dr Zoë Brigley Thompson)

19. Roe your vote? (Dr Lindsey Meeks)

20. Gender panics, far-right radicalization, and the effectiveness of anti-trans political ads (Dr Thomas J. Billard)

21. U.S. politics and planetary crisis in 2024 (Dr Reed Kurtz)

22. Trump and Musk for all mankind (Prof Einar Thorsen)

23. Guns and the 2024 election (Prof Robert J. Spitzer)

24. Echoes of Trump: Potential shifts in Congress’s communication culture (Dr Annelise Russell)

Section 3: Voters

25. Seeing past the herd: Polls and the 2024 election (Dr Benjamin Toff)

26. On polls and social media (Dr Dorian Hunter Davis)

27. How did gender matter in 2024? (Prof Regina Lawrence)

28. The keys to the White House: Why Allan Lichtman is wrong this time (Tom Fisher)

29. Beyond the rural vote: Economic anxiety and the 2024 presidential election (Dr Amanda Weinstein, Dr Adam Dewbury)

30. Black and independent voters: Which way forward? (Prof Omar Ali)

31. Latino voters in the 2024 election (Dr Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez)

32. Kamala’s key to the polls: The Asian American connection (Nadya Hayasi)

33. The vulnerability of naturalized immigrants and the hero who “will fix” America (Dr Alina E. Dolea)

34. Did Gen Z shape the election? No, because Gen Z doesn’t exist (Dr Michael Bossetta)

35. Cartographic perspectives of the 2024 U.S. election (Prof Benjamin Hennig)

Section 4: Candidates and the campaign

36. The tilted playing field, and a bygone conclusion (Dr David Karpf)

37. Looking forwards and looking back: Competing visions of America in the 2024 presidential campaign (Prof John Rennie Short)

38. Brat went splat: Or the emotional sticky brand won again (Prof Ken Cosgrove)

39. Election 2024: Does money matter anymore? (Prof Cayce Myers)

40. Advertising trends in the 2024 presidential race (Prof Travis N. Ridout, Prof Michael M. Franz, Prof Erika Franklin Fowler)

41. Who won the ground wars? Trump and Harris field office strategies in 2024 (Sean Whyard, Dr Joshua P. Darr)

42. Kamala Harris: Idealisation and persecution (Dr Amy Tatum)

43. Kamala Harris campaign failed to keep Democratic social coalition together (Prof Anup Kumar)

44. Revisiting Indian-American identity in the 2024 U.S. presidential election (Dr Madhavi Reddi)

45. Harris missed an opportunity to sway swing voters by not morally reframing her message (Prof John H. Parmelee)

46. In pursuit of the true populist at the dawn of America’s golden age (Dr Carl Senior)

47. Language and the floor in the 2024 Harris vs Trump televised presidential debate (Dr Sylvia Shaw)

48. Nullifying the noise of a racialized claim: Nonverbal communication and the 2024 Harris-Trump debate (Prof Erik P. Bucy)

49. A pseudo-scientific revolution? The puzzling relationship between science deference and denial (Dr Matt Motta)

50. Amidst recent lows for women congressional candidates, women at the state level thrive (Dr Jordan Butcher)

Section 5: News and journalism

51. The powers that aren’t: News organizations and the 2024 election (Dr Nik Usher)

52. Newspaper presidential endorsements: Silence during consequential moment in history (Dr Kenneth Campbell)

53. Trump after news: a moral voice in an empty room? (Prof Matt Carlson, Prof Sue Robinson, Prof Seth C. Lewis)

54. Under media oligarchy: profit and power trumped democracy once again (Prof Victor Pickard)

55. The challenge of pro-democracy journalism (Prof Stephen D. Reese)

56. Grievance and animosity: Fracturing the digital news ecosystem (Dr Scott A. Eldridge II)

57. Considering the risk of attacks on journalists during the U.S. election (Dr Valerie Belair-Gagnon)

58. What can sentiment in cable news coverage tell us about the 2024 campaign? (Dr Gavin Ploger, Dr Stuart Soroka)

59. The case for happy election news: Why it matters and what stands in the way (Dr Ruth Palmer, Prof Stephanie Edgerly, Prof Emily K. Vraga)

60. Broadcast television use and the 2024 U.S. presidential election (Jessica Maki, Prof Michael W. Wagner)

61. Kamala Harris’ representation in mainstream and Black media (Dr Miya Williams Fayne, Prof Danielle K. Brown)

62. Team Trump and the altercation at the Arlington military cemetery (Dr Natalie Jester)

63. Pulling their punches: On the limits of sports metaphor in political media (Prof Michael L. Butterworth)

Section 6: Digital campaign

64. Reversion to the meme: A return to grassroots content (Dr Jessica Baldwin-Philippi)

65. From platform politics to partisan platforms (Prof Philip M. Napoli, Talia Goodman)

66. The fragmented social media landscape in the 2024 U.S. election (Dr Michael A. Beam, Dr Myiah J. Hutchens, Dr Jay D. Hmielowski)

67. Outside organization advertising on Meta platforms: Coordination and duplicity (Prof Jennifer Stromer-Galley)

68. Prejudice and priming in the online political sphere (Prof Richard Perloff)

69. Perceptions of social media in the 2024 presidential election (Dr Daniel Lane, Dr Prateekshit “Kanu” Pandey)

70. Modeling public Facebook comments on the attempted assassination of President Trump (Dr Justin Phillips, Prof Andrea Carson)

71. The memes of production: Grassroots-made digital content and the presidential campaign (Dr Rosalynd Southern, Dr Caroline Leicht)

72. The gendered dynamics of presidential campaign tweets in 2024 (Prof Heather K. Evans, Dr Jennifer Hayes Clark)

73. Threads and TikTok adoption among 2024 congressional candidates in battleground states (Prof Terri L. Towner, Prof Caroline Muñoz)

74. Who would extraterrestrials side with if they were watching us on social media? (Taewoo Kang, Prof Kjerstin Thorson)

75. AI and voter suppression in the 2024 election (Prof Diana Owen)

76. News from AI: ChatGPT and political information (Dr Caroline Leicht, Dr Peter Finn, Dr Lauren C. Bell, Dr Amy Tatum)

77. Analyzing the perceived humanness of AI-generated social media content around the presidential debate (Dr Tiago Ventura, Rebecca Ansell, Dr Sejin Paik, Autumn Toney, Prof Leticia Bode, Prof Lisa Singh)

Section 7: Popular culture

78. Momentum is a meme (Prof Ryan M. Milner)

79. Partisan memes and how they were perceived in the 2024 U.S. presidential election (Dr Prateekshit “Kanu” Pandey, Dr Daniel Lane)

80. The intersection of misogyny, race, and political memes… America has a long way to go, baby! (Dr Gabriel B. Tait)

81. Needs Musk: Trump turns to the manosphere (Dr Michael Higgins, Prof Angela Smith)

82. “Wooing the manosphere: He’s just a bro.” Donald Trump’s digital transactions with “dude” influencers (Prof Mark Wheeler)

83. Star supporters (Prof John Street)

84. Pet sounds: Celebrity, meme culture and political messaging in the music of election 2024 (Dr Adam Behr)

85. The stars came out for the 2024 election. Did it make a difference? (Mark Turner)

86. Podcasting as presidential campaign outreach (Ava Kalinauskas, Dr Rodney Taveira)

87. Value of TV debates reduced during Trump era (Prof Richard Thomas, Dr Matthew Wall)

88. America’s “fun aunt”: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates (Dr Caroline Leicht)

May 20 - May 23, 2025

New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Deadline (EXTENDED): December 7, 2024

https://www.websci25.org/ 

Important Dates:

• Sat, November 30, 2024 Paper submission deadline
  
• Tue, January 31, 2025 Notification
  
• Tue, February 28, 2025 Camera-ready versions due
  
• Tue - Friday, May 20 - 23, 2025 Conference dates

About the Web Science Conference 

Web Science is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding the complex and multiple impacts of the Web on society and vice versa. The discipline is well situated to address pressing issues of our time by incorporating various scientific approaches. We welcome quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research, including techniques from the social sciences and computer science. In addition, we are interested in work exploring Web-based data collection and research ethics. We also encourage studies that combine analyses of Web data and other types of data (e.g., from surveys or interviews) to help better understand user behavior online and offline.

2025 Emphasis: Maintaining a human-centric web in the era of Generative AI 

Web-based experiences are more deeply integrated into human experiences than ever before in history. However, the rapid deployment of artificial intelligence (including large language models) has drastically shifted the interactions between humans in the digital environment. The Web has never been more productive, but the integrity of human connection has been compromised. Trust and community have been eroded during this current era of the Web and researching alternative aspects of life on the Web is as essential as ever. Bots, deepfakes, and sophisticated cyberattacks are proliferating rapidly while people increasingly navigate the Web for news, social interaction, and learning. This year's conference especially encourages contributions investigating how humans are reconfiguring their Web-based engagements in the presence of artificial intelligence. Additionally, we welcome papers on a wide range of topics at the heart of Web Science.

Possible topics across methodological approaches and digital contexts include but are not limited to: 

Understanding the Web        

• Trends in globalization and fragmentation of the Web
  
• The architecture, philosophy, and evolution of the Web
  
• Automation and AI in all its manifestations relevant to the Web
  
• Critical analyses of the Web and Web technologies
  
• The Spread of Large Models on the Web
  

Making the Web Inclusive       

• Issues of discrimination and fairness
  
• Intersectionality and design justice in questions of marginalization and inequality
  
• Ethical challenges of technologies, data, algorithms, platforms, and people on the Web
  
• Safeguarding and governance of the Web, including anonymity, security, and trust
  
• Inclusion, literacy and the digital divide
  
• Human-centered security and robustness on the Web
  

The Web and Everyday Life     

• Social machines, crowd computing, and collective intelligence
  
• Web economics, social entrepreneurship, and innovation
  
• Legal and policy issues, including rights and accountability for the AI industry
  
• The creator economy: Humanities, arts, and culture on the Web
  
• Politics and social activism on the Web
  
• Online education and remote learning
  
• Health and well-being online
  
• Social presence in online professional event spaces
  
• The Web as a source of news and information
  

 Doing Web Science      

• Data curation, Web archives and stewardship in Web Science
  
• Temporal and spatial dimensions of the Web as a repository of information
  
• Analysis and modeling of human and automatic behavior (e.g., bots)
  
• Analysis of online social and information networks
  
• Detecting, preventing, and predicting anomalies in Web data (e.g., fake content, spam)
  
• Novel analysis techniques for Web and social network analysis
  
• Recommendation engines and contextual adaptation for Web tasks 
  
• Web-based information retrieval and information generation 
  
• Supporting heterogeneity across modalities, sensors, and channels on the Web. 
  
• User modeling and personalization approaches on the Web.

Format of the submissions

Please upload your submissions via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=websci25 

There are two submission formats.

* Full paper should be between 6 and 10 pages (inclusive of references, appendices, etc.). Full papers typically report on mature and completed projects.

* Short papers should be up to 5 pages (inclusive of references, appendices, etc.). Short papers will primarily report on high-quality ongoing work not mature enough for a full-length publication.

All accepted submissions will be assigned an oral presentation (of two different lengths). 

All papers should adopt the current ACM SIG Conference proceedings template (acmart.cls). Please submit papers as PDF files using the ACM template, either in Microsoft Word format (available at https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template under “Word Authors”) or with the ACM LaTeX template on the Overleaf platform which is available https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/association-for-computing-machinery-acm-sig-proceedings-template/bmvfhcdnxfty. In particular, please ensure that you are using the two-column version of the appropriate template.

All contributions will be judged by the Program Committee upon rigorous peer review standards for quality and fit for the conference, by at least three referees. Additionally, each paper will be assigned to a Senior Program Committee member to ensure review quality.

WebSci-2025 review is double-blind. Therefore, please anonymize your submission: do not put the author(s) names or affiliation(s) at the start of the paper, and do not include funding or other acknowledgments in papers submitted for review. References to authors' own prior relevant work should be included, but should not specify that this is the authors' own work. It is up to the authors' discretion how much to further modify the body of the paper to preserve anonymity. The requirement for anonymity does not extend outside of the review process, e.g. the authors can decide how widely to distribute their papers over the Internet. Even in cases where the author's identity is known to a reviewer, the double-blind process will serve as a symbolic reminder of the importance of evaluating the submitted work on its own merits without regard to the authors' reputation.

For authors who wish to opt-out of publication proceedings, this option will be made available upon acceptance. This will encourage the participation of researchers from the social sciences that prefer to publish their work as journal articles. All authors of accepted papers (including those who opt out of proceedings) are expected to present their work at the conference.

ACM Publication Policies 

1. By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM's new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

2. Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, so you can complete the publishing process for your accepted paper.  ACM has been involved in ORCID from the start and we have recently made a commitment to collect ORCID IDs from all of our published authors.  The collection process has started and will roll out as a requirement throughout 2022.  We are committed to improve author discoverability, ensure proper attribution and contribute to ongoing community efforts around name normalization; your ORCID ID will help in these efforts. 

Program Committee Chairs:

• Fred Morstatter (University of Southern California)
  
• Sarah Rajtmajer (Penn State University)
  
• Vivek Singh (Rutgers University)
  
• Marlon Twyman (University of Southern California)
  

For any questions and queries regarding the paper submission, please contact the chairs at websci25@easychair.org

June 18-20, 2025

University of Lincoln, UK

Deadline: December 6, 2024

Please see the CFP below (submit here). 

Confirmed Keynotes:

• Dr Debashree Mukherjee (Columbia University, USA)
  
• Dr Kate Terkanian (Bournemouth University, UK)
  

This seventh iteration of the Women’s Film and Television History Network conference will foreground transnational and transmedial approaches to histories of women’s work in and across film, television and related media. The conference seeks to expand women’s film and TV histories by exploring cross-border and cross-medial relationships. 

An 'entangled’ approach to film, TV and media historiography problematises national and mono-medial histories (Cronqvist and Hilgert, 2017). It recognises the complex processes by which film and television are made, distributed, seen and received across borders, be they geographical, cultural, ideological or otherwise defined, and in dialogue with other media.

This compels us to ‘read against the grain’ of existing histories, paying attention to ‘how historical silences are produced’ (Hilmes, 2017). These are the fundamentals of feminist media historiography, and this conference aims to bring women’s voices, figures, organisations, and stories into the light, giving them sharper focus. The conference will emphasise women’s roles in these entanglements. Our understanding of ‘women’ is inclusive and gender-expansive. 

We encourage transmedial approaches that account for the role of women in the long histories of media convergence in different social and cultural contexts, as well as related practices, such as divergence, conglomeration, inter- and cross-mediality. ‘Media’ is defined broadly.  Work that engages with (interconnected) histories of women’s film and television beyond Western contexts is welcome.  

We are calling for papers in any area of women’s film and television history, but especially those that respond to the theme, on topics such as, but not limited to: 

• Entangled and / or transnational women’s media histories and historiography: theory, practice, challenges  
  
• Case studies of film and TV workers across national or medial borders 
  
• Historicising women’s role in digital or online screen media production, distribution, consumption, promotion, publicity or criticism. 
  
• Media convergence pre- and post-digital media 
  
• Feminist and/or decolonising approaches to media archaeology
  
• Methodological challenges and approaches to entangled media histories 
  
• Entangled histories in cinema and TV industries beyond the mainstream e.g. amateur cinema, community television, independent and activist film and TV.  

We welcome proposals in the following three formats: 

• 15-minute presentations, including the following information: 
  
• • title  
  • 250-word abstract  
  • brief biography of the author(s).  
• pre-constituted panels with a maximum of 4 speakers (panel length will be 90 minutes and should include at least 15 minutes for discussion). Pre-constituted panel proposals should include: 
  
• • short (250-word) rationale statement, explaining the constitution of the panel and types of contributions it will include. 
  • individual abstracts (250 word)   
  • brief biography of all contributors

Panels can also be constituted as roundtables, workshops or other non-standard forms. Please contact the organising team to discuss ideas. 

• Practice-led contributions which address women’s histories in film, television and audio/visual media are encouraged. Please submit:  
  
• • a 250-word description  
  • running time 
  • display requirements   
  • links to an excerpt and/or full work 
  • brief biography of creator(s). 

If accepted, practice-led contributions may be presented as part of panels or as a limited number of separate sessions/screenings and/or made available to delegates online.   

Please submit here: https://forms.office.com/e/NvRLHtdNa2

Deadline for proposals: 6 December 2024. The acceptance of your proposal will be communicated to you by the end of January 2025.

If you have any questions please contact Hannah Andrews (handrews@lincoln.ac.uk) and/or Jeongmee Kim (jkim@lincoln.ac.uk). On behalf of the conference organising team: Hannah Andrews, Diane Charlesworth, Jeongmee Kim, and Frances Morgan.

References 

Cronqvist, M. and Hilgert, C. (2017) Entangled Media Histories: The Value of Transnational and Transmedial Approaches in Media Historiography. Media History 23(1): 130-141. 

Hilmes, M. (2017) Entangled Media Histories: a Response. Media History 23(1): 142-4.

May 28-30, 2025 

Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Deadline: April 1, 2025

The 18th Biennial Communication Ethics Conference and the Silver Jubilee Anniversary Conference of the International Communicology Institute will be held May 28-30, 2025. The conference is sponsored by the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies and the Communication Ethics Institute at Duquesne University and the International Communicology Institute in Washington, DC. 

Theme: Ethical Communicology of the Image and Imagination: Discovering the Ethical as Natural or Artificial, Real or Surreal 

The conference proposes to explore current research on the “image” across the human sciences. We hope to make concrete the ethical, logical, philosophical, and rhetorical foundations of communication as “imagination” in the experience of embodied thinking, speaking, and inscribing as the ecology of culture. We wish to (1) explore current frontiers of natural and artificial sign-systems, (2) encounter diverse manifestations of concrete reality and abstract surreality of human imagination, and (3) discover future domains of conscious experience that found the art and practice of the human sign milieu.

 The domain of the image/imagination includes all the Arts and Sciences of expression and perception, including: (1) Arts of Media: speaking, writing, painting, printing, sculpture, performance, voice; (2) Sciences of Media: social and media ecology, film and video, photography, digital and legacy media; and (3) Technological Media of Artificial Intelligence (AI): ubiquitous computing, robotics, holographics, and applied algorithms. Communication ethics theory, research, and application corresponds with and enriches our understanding of each domain. To assist in their exploration, questions and problematics that presenters may consider include, but are not limited to:

• What questions are raised by recent phenomenological, rhetorical, and critical theories of vision, visuality, perception, expression, and the experience of communication?
  
• Is there a general theory of image ethics? If so, what are its foundations and some of its value limitations (e.g., journalism, cinema, advertising, design, propaganda)?
  
• How is the rhetoric of images impacted by networked and internetworked media?
  
• How does an epidemiological perspective (e.g., transmission, contagion, virality) add to our understanding of the production and circulation of image artifacts as ecology?
  
• What do images want from AI? What does AI want from images? What constitutes personification in/of the media?
  
• What pasts, presents, and futures are imagined by the visualization of data?

We invite completed papers or extended abstracts of 200–500 words. 

We also invite panel proposals of three speakers per panel. Please include a panel title with 250-word rationale, titles and 200-word abstracts for each presentation, and contributor contact information (institutional affiliation and email).

Please send submissions to cec@duq.edu by April 1, 2025

Essential Conference Information 

Location: Located in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, Duquesne University is a vibrant, private institution known for its commitment to academic excellence and social justice. Duquesne University is home to the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, a hub for phenomenological research and scholarship, with extensive collections including the archives of prominent phenomenologists.

Transportation: Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) has direct international flights from London and easy connecting flights via New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Denver, Dallas/Fort Worth and others. The airport is 18 miles (approx. 20 minutes) to city center/Duquesne University.

From airport to conference location (18 miles):

Ride sharing services (Uber, Lyft)

Port Authority Bus #28X Airport Flyer (stops in city center at Liberty Ave @ Wood Street, then approximately 15-minute walk to campus).

Hotels: Nearest walkable (10-15 minutes): Marriott City Center (request the Duquesne University rate), Cambria Hotel (request the conference rate), Double Tree. Also walkable: Omni William Penn, Embassy Suites, Kimpton Hotel Monaco

Parking: parking is available on campus for $20/day

Journalism Studies (special issue)

Deadline: June 15, 2025

Much journalism is produced, consumed and given meaning through interconnected cycles, waves, rhythms and rituals. While such fluctuations, some of which are recurring, consistently have been paid some attention within journalism studies, there has been little focus on broader seasonal patterns related to weather or/and culture. The more recent interest in seasons and seasonality within the (environmental) humanities and social sciences — e.g. Fischer and Macauley (2021) and Bremer and Wardekker (2021) — has thus largely bypassed journalism studies. This may be due, in part, to the fact that this interest partly has emerged in relation to climate change as “seasonal disruption has been occurring at a faster rate over the last several decades” (Fischer and Macauley 2022, 13); another and related reason for the neglect of seasons may be that seasonal disruptions primarily have surfaced in weather reporting, which has never figured prominently in journalism studies.

The recent interest in, and somewhat changed significance of, seasons provide fertile ground for a broader discussion of the intersections of journalism and seasonal patterns. Few people, arguably, live in “seasonless places” (Orlove 2003, 121), which means that most of us inhabit what have been called “seasonal cultures” (Bremer and Wardekker 2021, viii). As diverse amalgamations of astronomy, biology, meteorology, everyday observations, historical data, memory, power and culture, seasons provide important interpretive layers for understanding and situating ourselves and our communities in relation to continuity and change; and as Carey (1989) emphasized through his notion of “ritual communication”, journalism is an integral part of such processes.

Journalistic coverage of the weather follows and is inscribed within seasonal patterns (see e.g., Zion 2016; Bødker & Simonsen 2023). However, seasons consist of many other interrelated rhythms. Given the prominence of (national) politics in journalism, it is unsurprising that one of the most widespread terms linking journalism and seasons is the notion of the silly season, which — in certain countries — connects journalistic content to the rhythms of national politics, particularly the summer period when parliament is in recess. Yet, seasonal journalism (Bødker 2025), which concerns seasonally recurrent forms of journalistic content, is also tied to a range of other important rhythms, including those related to sports, fashion, education, theatre, film, music, religious festivals, holidays, finance, business, international meetings, and more. A seasonal perspective is related to, but also distinct from, “issue-attention cycles” (Downs 1972), which — as the name suggests — focuses on how journalistic attention to issues develops and fades, and what drives such waves, which may or may not be linked to seasons. A seasonal perspective is more likely to be interested in incremental changes over time, or in understanding significant disruptions to what would normally be expected.

Analyzing journalism as seasonal will, arguably, reveal important insights into how journalism aligns with and helps (re-)negotiate broader societal and/or natural rhythms. The goal of this special issue is to assemble work based on this premise. It aims to encourage and develop analytical perspectives on seasonality and journalism through a series of culturally and geographically diverse empirical and theoretical investigations that may explore both the production and consumption of journalism.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of possible themes to address within the framework outlined above:

• How are particular types of journalistic content, forms and/or tropes related to seasonal rhythms, such as the opening of parliament, the start of the football season, or specific religious events and holidays?
  
• How is the production and consumption of journalism linked to seasonal patterns, such as (almost) pre-written content published at specific times of year? How is such predictable content received and appropriated by audiences?
  
• How do seasonal disruptions feature in journalistic productions (e.g., the coverage of heat waves, floods, or changing patterns of tourism), and how are such productions interpreted?
  
• How can a seasonal perspective be related to or enhance environmental or climate change journalism?
  
• How is journalism related to the increased challenges to the four-fold, temperate seasonal pattern that has been imposed on indigenous cultures in settler countries?
  
• How is the perspective of seasonality, both theoretically and empirically, linked to other concepts of fluctuations within journalism studies (e.g., cycles, waves, rhythms, and rituals)?
  
• What are some of the methodological approaches and implications of studying seasonal patterns in journalism?
  

References:

Bremer, S. and Wardekker, A. (eds.) (2021) Changing Seasonality: How Communities are Revising their Seasons. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Bødker, H. (forthcoming, 2025). Seasonal Journalism and Climate Change. In Eldridge II, S. et al (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies (second edition). London: Routledge.

Bødker, H. and Simonsen, S. (2023) Danish Public Service Online Weather from 2005-2022: from Meteorological Data and Information to Leisurely Commonality. Media, Culture & Society 46(3): 591–606.

Carey (1992) J.W. Communications and culture: Essays on media and society. New York, NY: Routledge.

Downs, A. (1972) Up and down with ecology — the ‘issue-attention cycle’. The Public Interest 28: 38-50.

Fischer, L. and Macauley, D. (eds.) (2022) The Seasons: Philosophical, Literary, and Environmental Perspectives. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Zion, L. (2016) The Weather Obsession. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

Submission Instructions

The format of the special issue is full research articles of 6000 and 9000 words, inclusive of the abstract, tables, references, figure captions, endnotes. WHen submitting your manuscript please select the "seasonalities of journalism" issue. The articles will appear as they a finished but will appear as a collection once all articles are completed. This will most likely be in the spring of 2026.

Submit here.