ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

April 13-16, 2023

Las Vegas, USA

Deadline: December 1, 2023

BEA2024 invites media related research papers from academics, students and professionals for presentation in Las Vegas, USA from April 13-16, 2024.

BEA2024, co-located with NAB Show, is a hybrid academic media convention with over 250 virtual and on-site sessions on media pedagogy, collaborative networking events, hands-on technology workshops, research and creative scholarship and the Festival of Media Arts.  BEA2024 will be an in-person convention with limited virtual participation opportunities for presenters and attendees.   

Submit your research to the relevant BEA interest division as a “Debut” or an “Open” paper. “Debut” is open only to those who have never presented a paper at a BEA convention, and “Open” if you have previously presented a paper at BEA.  To help defray costs, 1st and 2nd place “Debut” winners receive $200 and $100 respectively.  Regardless of the number of authors, BEA will award one check to the individual who submitted the paper.  

More details on the 2024 BEA paper competition are available on the BEA website: https://www.beaweb.org/conv/bea2024-call-for-papers/

September 30-October 2, 2024 

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität

Deadline: December 10, 2023

Hosted by the DFG-research training group “Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures” at  FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 30.09.2024 - 02.10.2024  

At this moment of our present time, processes of digitalization are leading to a profound transformation of social environments. Digitalization impacts the economic, cultural, and historic conditions of the lives we live and the ways we socially interact, communicate, and self-reflect. The turn towards the digital informs cultural structures and practices, it shapes forms of knowledge production and dissemination, and it alters the very fabric of the public sphere. An increasing pluralization and differentiation of public spaces of communication raises renewed questions over the loss of an imagined consensus as well as new potentialities for processes of cultural production, their changing social, political, and cultural functions, and their ethical implications. 

Literature, in its extended sense of textuality, cultural production, and history of material practices, is deeply entangled in the structural shift towards digitality. As circumstances of production and reception change, a general reinterpretation of literature as such, its role and functionality, its possibilities or potential “death” ensues. At the same time, literature itself engages in reflections on the opportunities, challenges, and potential risks of the profound shift towards digitality, as digital media forge new literary forms, conventions, and aesthetic practices. Engaging with social change on the level of content, form, and models of engagement, literature actively positions itself and intervenes in the collective imagination and the shaping of processes of exchange between public spheres and new, digital frontiers. 

The Research Training Group “Literature and the Public Sphere in Contemporary Differentiated Cultures,” funded by the German Research Foundation, investigates the interconnections between various literatures and various publics in multilayered and heterogenous subnational and cross-national social environments since the mid-20th century. 

The international conference aims at investigating the diverse interrelations of literature, the public, and the digital through concrete case studies and readings that elucidate the medial  constitution, processes of communication, social conditions, and various functions of literary phenomena.  

Papers we solicit could address but need not be limited to the following research fields: 

• ∙strategies for generating attention in the literary marketplace (economies of reaction, 
  
• scandalization, forms of polarization and populism, aspects of cancel culture) 
  
• ∙public conditions of literary production and reception (digital spaces, platforms, and their specific forms of communication) 
  
• ∙mechanisms that regulate access, exclusion and canonization, form community, inform political participation, or lead towards practices of opting out  
  
• ∙literary materialities (algorithms and communication, AI and human creativity; altered technologies of publication, altered practices of reading, digitality and materiality) and their function for the adoption of literary aesthetics, shifting forms and genres, and the self-reflexivity of literature on its own affordances 
  
• ∙literary knowledge production (fiction and non-fiction engaging with the future of the digital, posthumanism, the utopian/ dystopian imaginary) 
  
• ∙literary ethics and politics (negotiations of the public sphere as a place of deliberative politics; as a set of platforms providing air time under specific conditions of inclusion and exclusion) 
  

Please submit abstracts (300 words) and short bios by December 10, 2023. 

Organized bySabine Friedrich, Svenja Hagenhoff, Karin Hoepker 

Contact 

E-mail us at grk2806-conf2024@fau.de 

https://www.literaturundoeffentlichkeit.phil.fau.de/international-conference-digitality-and-the-public-sphere-literature-mediality-practice/ 

November 27, 2023

Online

Deadline: October 14, 2023

Institute of Social Communication and Media Studies Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and Wroclaw Academic Centre in partnership with Academia Europaea Wroclaw Knowledge Hub are continuing research meetings focused on specific issues of mediatization research chaired by eminent experts (Göran Bolin (2017), Johan Fornäs (2018), Andreas Hepp (2019), Mark Deuze (2020) André Jansson (2021), Andrew Hoskins (2022)), this year the workshop will take place online on the 27 November 2023 and it will be led by Professor Kirsten Frandsen, Aarhus University.

REGISTRATION FORM: https://tinyurl.com/24sz8dnf 

MORE INFO: https://www.umcs.pl/pl/towards-development-of-mediatization-research-vii-mediatization-of-sport-physical-activity-and-recreation,27346.htm

University of Zurich, Switzerland

The Media & Internet Governance Division (Prof. Dr. Natascha Just) of the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich invites applications for an open position of Senior Research and Teaching Associate/Postdoc (80%). Start of employment: at the earliest possible / upon agreement.

The Media & Internet Governance Division studies media policy and media economics in the convergent communications sector. Alongside research on traditional mass media, the division focuses on Internet Governance and Platform Studies. The successful applicant will work on dedicated topics that align with the division's research program. 

Further information and application details: https://jobs.uzh.ch/offene-stellen/senior-research-and-teaching-associate-postdoc-position-media-internet-governance-division-ikmz/225d929e-697b-4462-a059-15a86f7e48ab

Review of applications starts immediately, but the position will remain open until a qualified candidate is found.

Please contact Alena Birrer, MA (a.birrer@ikmz.uzh.ch) if you have any further questions.

Burçe Çelik

The history of communications in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey contradicts the widespread belief that communications is a byproduct of modern capitalism and other Western forces. Burçe Çelik uses a decolonial perspective to analyze the historical commodification and militarization of communications and how it affected production and practice for oppressed populations like women, the working class, and ethnic and religious minorities. Moving from the mid-nineteenth century through today, Çelik places networks within the changing geopolitical landscape and the evolution of modern capitalism in relationship to struggles involving a range of social and political actors. Throughout, she challenges Anglo- and Eurocentric assumptions that see the non-West as an ahistorical imitation of, or aberration from, the development of Western communications.

Ambitious and comprehensive, Communications in Turkey and the Ottoman Empire merges political economy with social history to challenge Western-centered assumptions about the origins and development of modern communications.

Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, ASU

The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (HDSHC) in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on the Tempe Campus of Arizona State University invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position as Assistant Professor who will be required to teach in-person on the Tempe campus with an anticipated start date of August 2024. Applicants who are or will be at the Assistant Professor level in August, 2024 are encouraged to apply. 

Applicants’ scholarship and teaching should focus on intercultural communication. Salary will be competitive based on qualifications. We encourage applications from scholars who work at the intersection of intercultural communication and Indigenous/ Black/ Disability/ Latinx/ Queer studies, and/or are invested in one or more of the following: transnational, international/global, interracial, interethnic, and/or intergroup communication. 

HDSHC, one of the premier schools for studying human communication, offers interdisciplinary Ph.D., M.A., B.A., and B.S. degrees in communication studies. Based on research productivity measured by the Communication Institute for Online Scholarships, the Hugh Downs School is ranked in the Top 10 nationwide in the following areas: Intercultural Communication (6th) Interpersonal Communication (7th) Marriage & Intimacy (5th) Sexuality (6th) Organizational Communication (8th) Nonverbal Communication (10th). HDSHC faculty members and graduate students of intercultural communication (and related domains), embrace diverse theoretical, methodological and paradigmatic lenses, and study a variety of research topics, including communication technology (AI, IoT, Social Robotics); critical and cultural studies; Indigenous and decolonial approaches; performance studies; religion and spirituality; conflict communication and intercultural dialogue; migration and diaspora; identity, class, gender, sexuality and intersectionality; inequalities and disparities; social change communication; activism and advocacy; climate change and the anthropocene. The school actively collaborates with other units and centers at the university, including the following: Hispanic Research Center, Latina/os and American Politics Research (CLAPR), American Indian Policy Institute, Center for Indian Education, Center for Asian Research, The Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies, Black African Coalition and the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict.

The successful candidate will join a dynamic faculty working to advance innovative research and excellence in teaching through their efforts with a diverse and growing undergraduate and graduate student population at Arizona State University. The School’s mission is to produce cutting edge and interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching that responds to pressing issues in the world today.  We invite you to learn more about the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication and Arizona State University by visiting https://humancommunication.clas.asu.edu/ and https://newamericanuniversity.asu.edu/, respectively.

The successful candidate will be expected to develop and maintain a rigorous research program; teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels; contribute to curriculum development and graduate advising; serve on school, college, and university committees; and provide service to the school, professional associations, and the community.     

Department Statement

A uniquely collaborative group, in 2019 the HDSHC completed a School-wide program review that showcased their notable breadth of teaching and research, collegial and interdisciplinary nature, and outlined shared strategic aspirations for the coming years. The HDSHC comprises 25 distinguished core faculty recognized for teaching and research excellence in areas of Human Communication including: intercultural, health, interpersonal, organizational, rhetoric/public communication, and performance studies. Our degree programs offer students a range of in-person and online pedagogical opportunities. The HDSHC faculty benefit from the use of laboratory facilities, computer resources, project support, grant development support, and The Empty Space performance venue.

ASU’s location offers the resources of a major metropolitan area (5+ million) in a state with spectacular natural scenery and recreational areas, sublime winters, and a culturally rich population. Arizona, the Grand Canyon state, is home to 22 Sovereign Native Nations that comprise 27% of Arizona’s total land base. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. The school values Arizona's distinctive cultural heritage and diversity; the school respectfully recognizes the legacy and contributions of Indigenous, Latinx, Black communities as well as people with diverse socio-economic backgrounds, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, age, disabilities, veteran status, nationalities and intellectual perspectives.

Learn more about the HDSHC and ASU at https://humancommunication.asu.edu/ and https://newamericanuniversity.asu.edu/, respectively. Learn more about what The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has to offer by visiting https://thecollege.asu.edu/faculty. In recent years ASU emerged as a global leader for its commitment to inclusive excellence, access and impact; e.g., in 2022, ASU named a Hispanic-Serving Institution by US Department of Education, currently ASU is the No. 1 public university in US for hosting international students; this year, ASU partnered with US Africa Institute to advance college access for Black students.

Minimum Qualifications

● Ph.D. in Communication or a closely related field by the time of appointment

● Record of scholarship (research and/or creative activity) and teaching focused in intercultural communication

● Demonstrated commitment to working with faculty, staff, students and communities to advance the principles of the ASU Charter 

Desired Qualifications

● Research and teaching focus on intercultural communication, including one or more of the following: (a) intergroup, interracial/interethnic, transnational, global, and/or international communication, (b) work at the intersection of intercultural communication and Indigenous/ Black/ Disability/ Latinx/ Queer studies

● A strong record of scholarship in the applicant’s area(s) of specialization commensurate with years of experience            

● Evidence of excellence in teaching in intercultural communication and additional area(s) of specialization at the undergraduate and graduate level

● Evidence of use-inspired, community embedded research, local and global engagement and/or principled innovation as they unfold in multiple settings and contexts

● Evidence of activities related to seeking funded research commensurate with years of experience

● Evidence of activities related to mentoring excellence for graduate and undergraduate students’ independent research projects commensurate with years of experience

● Ability to contribute to research and teaching in one or more of the School’s research collaboratives: Intercultural Communication and Global Engagement (ICGlobal), The Intersections of Civil, Critical, and Creative Communication (I4C), The Transformation Project, Health Communication Initiative, or the Center for Strategic Communication 

● Potential to foster collaborations with other units in the University

● Potential to foster a culture of collegiality and transparency among a large and diverse faculty and staff

● Evidence of commitment to service to the university, discipline, and community commensurate with years of experience           

How to Apply

To apply, please submit the following:

1. A cover letter specifying interest in the position and how qualifications match the required and desired qualifications

2. Curriculum vitae

3. Evidence of excellence in teaching (e.g., syllabi, teaching evaluations)

4. Evidence of excellence in scholarship (e.g., reprints of no more than three articles or book chapters)

5. A list of three references (including, their names, affiliations, and contact details), who may be contacted at a later date

All the aforementioned documents to be submitted through Interfolio.

Application materials should be sent electronically using this link: https://apply.interfolio.com/132652 

Applications received by October 22, 2023 will receive full consideration. If not filled, applications will be evaluated every week thereafter until the search is closed. 

For additional information:

Email search committee chair: Dr. Uttaran Dutta at Uttaran.Dutta@asu.edu

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

A background check is required for employment. Arizona State University is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor and an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. ASU’s full nondiscrimination statement (ACD 401) is located on the ASU website at https://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/acd/acd401.html and https://www.asu.edu/titleIX.

In compliance with federal law, ASU prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and resources. ASU’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at https://www.asu.edu/police/PDFs/ASU-Clery-Report.pdf. You may request a hard copy of the report by contacting the ASU Police Department at 480-965-3456.

November 24-25, 2023

Sofia, Bulgaria

Deadline: October 11, 2023

Partial grants for  Early Stage Researchers available

Dear Colleagues and Change-makers,

We are excited to invite you to the “Gender, Disability, and Social Change” international conference – a dynamic platform that aims to explore how transformation in gender and disability is actively shaped. In an era marked by groundbreaking social change, we find ourselves amidst a wave of transformative movements. From the resurgent fight for gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights to the ongoing disability movement, society is evolving at a pace unseen before. The push for inclusivity, representation, and empowerment is echoing through various spheres of life.

In recent times, we have witnessed remarkable strides in advancing women’s rights, empowering sexual communities, and championing the disability movement. On the other hand, we have been witnessing a backlash coming from right wing actors that oppose and often ridicule these changes and aim to overturn and shut down different policies, movements and inspiring practices and examples. This conference aims to explore, and explain these evolving landscapes. 

The conference is organized by the MILIEU project team and the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. 

The main strains of the conference are:

• Arts and Expression:
  

Explore how the arts, including visual arts, literature, theater, and music, can be powerful tools for challenging stereotypes and fostering inclusion. Celebrate the contributions of artists with disabilities and those of diverse gender identities in shaping our culture.

• Pop Culture and Media:
  

Analyze the influence of pop culture, film, television, streaming platforms and social media in reshaping perceptions of gender and disability. Discuss the role of media in promoting or hindering social change and inclusivity.

• Social Policies and Legislation:
  

Evaluate existing social policies and legislation that impact individuals with disabilities and those from marginalized gender groups. Explore opportunities for policy reform to better support these communities.

• Best Practices and Case Studies:
  

Showcase successful initiatives and best practices in advancing gender and disability rights. Highlight case studies of organizations and individuals making a significant impact.

• Social Movements and Grassroots Activism:
  

Hear from activists and advocates at the forefront of gender and disability movements. Discuss the challenges, successes, and future directions of these transformative movements.

• Backlash and populism:
  

Explore various forms of backlash and organized mobilization against movements, policies, practices, arts and pop-culture that advocate for social change and empowerment of marginalized communities. Investigate political and religious opportunism and populism. 

Call for Participation:

We welcome researchers, activists, artists, policymakers, and all interested parties to submit proposals for individual presentations. Share your insights, research findings, success stories, and creative expressions that contribute to the ongoing conversation surrounding gender, disability, and social change.

Candidates are asked to send an abstract (max 250 words) indicating the title, the main research question(s), the methodology and the results  (if the study has been completed). The conference welcomes different types and formats of research approaches, therefore your proposal may be a standard presentation of research results, a presentation of a research concept, a work in progress or a theoretical reflection.

The conference welcomes non-standard formats of presentations focusing on creativity and artistic expression, e.g. performances, short films or videos. You may also bring your works of art to be exhibited at the conference venue for the entire duration of the event.

Practical info: 

The official language of the event is English. The conference will be carried out in person in Sofia, Bulgaria with a possibility for online participation and you will be asked to indicate your preference upon registration. The organizers will provide lunch and coffee breaks on both days of the conference. There is no participation fee for the conference. However, the participants will have to cover travel and accommodation expenses themselves. 

Accommodation grants: 

Ph.D. students and early-stage researchers (up to 4 years from the beginning of their scientific or academic career, inlcuding their Ph.D studies – to be proved with a relevant document upon registration) may be provided with 10 partial grants for accommodation (single rooms) for the nights of the 22nd and the 23rd of November. The grants are for people participating in the conference in person. Unfortunately the organizers cannot cover any travel expenses.

Important Dates:

Proposal Submission Deadline: 11 October 2023

Notification of Acceptance: 13 October 2023 

Registration Deadline: 27 October 2023

Conference Dates: 24-25 November 2023

Join us in this illuminating exploration of the intricate dynamics of change in gender and disability. Together, we can uncover new avenues for empowerment, inclusion, and social transformation. Let’s come together to inspire and enact meaningful change. We look forward to your participation!

Stay tuned for further updates. For proposal submissions, please access the submission form (also via the button on the right).

For any questions or inquiries, please contact us at: info@milieu-h2020.eu  

MedieKultur: Journal of media and communication research (special issue)

Deadline: November 1, 2023

Media and migration studies, and digital migration studies in particular (Leurs & Smets 2018; Smets et al. 2020, Leurs, 2023), have carved out an increasingly consolidated field. Building on these insights, this special issue emphasizes that migratory experiences and unfoldings are always already mediated: represented through media, and embedded in migrants’ media practices using digital (communication) technologies. Media not only set the frames of how crises are discursively constructed, perceived, and handled, but also how migration can be enacted and experienced via media, for example, by affecting decisions to migrate, possibilities of navigating routes, crossing technologized borders, maintaining communication across distances or diasporic communities, as well as through public representations and imaginations.

Moving away from seeing migration as an isolated event that constitutes a crisis in itself (De Genova 2018; Sahin-Mencutek et al. 2022), migration has been and is a constant phenomenon, often simultaneously occurring in times of crises (pandemic, global warming, natural disasters, war in Ukraine etc.) and thereby leading to new forms of media usage and media representations. We invite scholars to enlarge their perspectives by includling multiple crises as an alarming background to study how media usage and media dependency produce, affect and shape migration movements.

In this special issue, we explicitly draw attention to migrants’ media use, practices, and migrants’ media portrayal concerning a broader historical moment characterized by crises. We welcome theoretical, methodological, or empirical contributions addressing the following topics as well as other foci within the field of media and migration:

•  Media practices, uses, and experiences among privileged, forced, economic migrants affected by multiple crises, such as the war in Ukraine during the Covid-19 pandemic
  
•   Media use during climate-driven migration and political disruptions, disabling communication across distances, diasporic disconnections, impeded migration, etc.
  
•   Mediating migrants’ social relations in sender and receiver countries
  
•   Cross-national comparisons of governmental media practices in communicating migration during multiple simultaneous crises
  
•   Media representations of migration
  
•   Media as a connecting tool for remigration during crises
  
•   Media and deportation
  
•   Mediated experiences of family migration during crises
  
•   Comparison of migration in two or more crises
  
•   Withdrawal from media use during crises
  
•   Media productions by migrants
  
•   Research on artistic media practices among migrants
  
•   Media activism among and for migrants
  
•   Experiences of (im)mobility and inhibited mobility and their mediations during crises
  
•   Media and affect during multiple crises
  
•   Media and materiality in times of crisis
  
•   Mediatization as a background to study media in crises situations
  
•   Media technologies in the governance and management of migration and borders
  
•   Challenges and innovations in the methodology of media and migration during crises
  

Submission guidelines

Abstracts should contain a maximum of 500 words excluding references. It should include the research question(s) addressed, theoretical and methodological approaches as well as preliminary conclusions. Abstracts should be submitted as a Word document via our open  journal system at https://tidsskrift.dk/mediekultur, where you will need to create a user account if you do not already have one. Please indicate in “comments for the editor” section that you are submitting to the special issue “Media and migration in times of crises”. In case of any questions regarding the uploading process, please contact: lynge@cc.au.dk or majanord@oslomet.no

Timeline

Deadline for abstract submission: November 1st, 2023

Acknowledgement of acceptance for full paper submission: November 23rd, 2023

Deadline for full paper: March 10th, 2024

Expected publication: Fall, 2024

Guest Editors

Jeannine Teichert, Paderborn University

Heike Graf, Södertörn University

Philipp Seuferling, LSE

Issue Editors

Maja Nordtug, Oslo Metropolitan University

Lynge Stegger Gemzøe, Aarhus University

References:

Leurs, K., & Smets, K. (2018). Five questions for digital migration studies: Learning from digital connectivity and forced migration in (to) Europe. Social Media+ Society, 4(1), 2056305118764425.

Smets, K. et. al. (2020). The Sage handbook of media and migration. Sage.

Leurs, K. (2023). Digital migration. Sage.

De Genova, N. (2018). ’The migrant crisis’ as racial crisis: Do Black Lives Matter in Europe?. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 41, 1765–1782.

Sahin-Mencutek, Z., Barthoma, S., Gökalp-Aras, N. E., & Triandafyllidou, A. (2022). A crisis mode in migration governance: comparative and analytical insights. Comparative migration studies, 10(1), 12.

Preliminary title: What do We Know about Media, Communication, Journalism, and Democracy? 

Deadline: February 9, 2023

Editors: 

Magnus Fredriksson, Nordicom,

magnus.fredriksson@nordicom.gu.se 

Johannes Bjerling, Nordicom,

johannes.bjerling@nordicom.gu.se  

Important dates: 

• Workshop registration deadline: 15 December 2023 
  
• Workshop (hybrid): 18 January 2024  
  
• Deadline for extended abstracts:   9 February 2024 
  
• Invitation to submit full paper: 26 February 2024 
  
• Deadline for full submissions: 27 September 2024 
  
• Peer review: October 2024 and onwards  
  
• Expected publication: Early autumn 2025  

Nordicom invites authors to submit extended abstracts for a special issue of Nordicom Review. The Call is for literature reviews of research on media communication and journalism and their dependence and influence on democracy. Proposals should include relevance for the Nordic region. 

Accompanying the Call is a workshop, where we welcome authors who are about to submit an abstract to participate. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a forum for discussions with relevance for the special issue. 

Background and aim 

Media, communication, and journalism are important elements of a well-functioning democracy, and at the same time a well-functioning democracy is in many ways a condition for dynamic media systems, independent journalism, and the rights to communicate freely and access information freely. 

In response to this, research on media, communication, and journalism has always been focused on matters related to democracy – though all scholars don’t neccessarily put democracy at the forefront. However, irrespective of knowledge interest, theoretical position, or methodological approach, scholars interested in media use or effects, public discourses, media technologies, journalism, public opinion, or organised communication activities have frequently motivated their research with its implications and importance for politics and democracy. Accordingly, researchers of media, communication, and journalism have a long history of bringing important knowledge to society.  

Recent developments in research with higher levels of specialisation and a strong tendency towards compartmentalisation have made it difficult to gain thorough overviews of

 the knowledge developments in research. This is a shortcoming that not only affects scholars’ abilities to gain valid overviews of their research domains, but it also influences the research community’s abilities to provide substantiated knowledge to society and to be policy relevant.  

In tandem with recent developments in media systems, the circumstances for media production, the developments of communication technologies, and value transformations in the citizenry have increased the need for qualified and reliable knowledge. Particulary in a time when democracy is contested and contentious issues demand purposeful systems for knowledge distribution as well as arenas for open and inclusive public debates. 

Bringing all this together, there is a call for scholars who will take responsibility for the collection, consolidation, and distribution of knowledge regarding media, communication, journalism – and democracy. This can be done in different ways, but to systematically produce and publish comprehensive and reliable research reviews is one that evidently can contribute to the research community, public debate, and policy formation.  

For Nordicom, it is of relevance to provide a platform for this kind of work and to actively distribute it. To promote democratic values is part of our mission, and another is to actively contribute to the supply of science-based knowledge in media policy processes in the Nordic region. Thereby, our  activities and publications aim to strengthen and highlight Nordic perspectives in international media research. Here, Nordicom has a unique position at the interface between academia, industry, and politics and between Nordic and international levels. 

Topics 

The theme for the special issue is media, communication, and/or journalism, with emphasis on matters relevant for democracy.

We aim for a collection of articles with a clear relevance for contemporary democracy in the Nordic region, and we will give priority to papers with a broader approach rather than a review with focus on a single theory or similar. The articles are expected to answer the question “What do we know about X?” The topics may include, but are not limited to, the following areas:  

• The effects of journalism, campaigns, and other forms of communication on voting behaviour, political participation, or other forms of political activities among the citizenry. 
  
• Openness and secrecy among actors with democratic relevance, including public administrations, corporations, and nongovernmental organisations. 
  
• Populism, racism, misogyny, polarisation, and disintegrative aspects of media, communication, and journalism. 
  
• Practices and discourses of disinformation, manipulation, and propaganda in public debates, journalism, and other contexts. 
  
• Communication activities, activism, advocacy, and strategies to gain political influence. 
  
• Journalism and communication in times of crises.  
  
• Institutional, professional, and organisational conditions for the production of media, communication, and journalism. 
  
• The role of and conditions for public service as well as local, national, and international media systems. 
  
• The technological, political, and economic, conditions for the production, distribution, and consumption of media, communication, and journalism. 
  
• Media literacy and the knowledge and abilities among the citizenry to gain, validate, and make use of information they gain in digital and analogue contexts.  
  
• The role of media, communication, and journalism in creating, maintaining, and disrupting trust for the institutions of democracy, including media, political actors, public administrations, and actors in civil society. 
  
• Censorship, regulation, and the autonomy of journalism. 
  
• The role of media, communication, and journalism in creating and maintaining (dis)integration in multicultural contexts  

The Nordic perspective  

The Nordic perspective implies that the articles should focus on an issue or a theme that is relevant given the conditions and circumstances that characterise democracy in

 the Nordic region as a whole or individual countries in the region. That is to say, the Nordic perspective doesn’t mean that the overviews should be limited to research conducted by scholars in the Nordic region or limited to research focusing on the Nordic region. The Nordic relevance is to be made explicit and discussed in the article. 

Types of reviews 

There are a number of different types of literature reviews – from highly formalised methods that seek to systematically search for, appraise, and synthesise research evidence to less-formalised approaches which provide assessments of current literature regarding a theme or domain.  

For this issue, we welcome all types of reviews, but we expect all to focus on empirical research. In addition, all contributions must include a discussion regarding the following: 

• Search strategies and an argument for why certain keywords and sources have been included or excluded throughout the search process. 
  
• Selection criteria and a discussion of what material the authors have decided to include and exclude in the review 
  
• An overall assessment of the overview’s quality, strengths, and shortcomings.  
  

Procedure 

Those with an interest in contributing should write an extended abstract (max. 750 words excluding references) where the subject is described. In addition to this, the abstract should include a discussion about how the article fits with the overall theme, how the Nordic perspective is made relevant, and what type of review the authors will apply. 

Send your extended abstract by 9 February 2024 to editors@nordicom.gu.s and include in the subject line: “Submission to special issue”. 

Scholars invited to submit a full manuscript (6,000–8,000 words excluding references) will be notified by e-mail after the abstracts have been assessed.

 All submissions should be original works and must not be under consideration by other publishers. 

Workshop 

To create a platform for knowledge exchange and to support authors who want to contribute to the special issue, Nordicom will arrange a workshop on 18 January 2024. The workshop will take place at Nordicom’s facilities at the University of Gothenburg, and there will be possibilities for online participation. The workshop is free of charge and coffee, lunch, and dinner is included for all participants onsite. The idea is to provide scholars who are preparing a submission for the special issue the opportunity to present their ideas and receive qualified feedback from fellow scholars.  

If you want to participate, you should send an e-mail to magnus.fredriksson@nordicom.gu.se and please state if you will participate onsite or online. The last day to sign up for the workshop is 15 December 2023. 

Please note that acceptance of a paper for the special issue is not dependent upon participation at the workshop, nor is participation in the workshop a guarantee of full paper invitation.  

Contact 

Questions about the special issue and the related workshop can be addressed to Magnus Fredriksson: magnus.fredriksson@nordicom.gu.se 

About Nordicom Review 

Nordicom Review adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy, and articles are published Open Access with no processing charges for authors. Nordicom Review includes research with relevance for the Nordic context and welcomes interdisciplinary submissions from a worldwide authorship. 

Read more about Nordicom Review here: https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/nordicom-review 

January 9-12, 2024

Lisbon (Portugal)

Deadline: December 15, 2023

The 4th Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication takes a comparative and global approach to the study of media and ambivalence. Jointly organized by the Faculty of Human Sciences (Universidade Católica Portuguesa) and the Center for Media@Risk at the Annenberg School for Communication (University of Pennsylvania), in cooperation with the School of Journalism and Communication (Chinese University of Hong Kong), and the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (University of Helsinki), the 4th Lisbon Winter School offers an opportunity for doctoral students and early career post-doctoral researchers to strategize around the study of media and ambivalence together with senior scholars in the field.

Call for Applications

It is perhaps paradoxical that media scholars tend to regard ambivalence in ambivalent ways. Many maintain that ambivalence undercuts and undermines the media environments it inhabits, introducing a level of uncertainty that obscures not only multiple aspects of the media’s workings—including its messages, roles, technologies, practices and effects—but also what is most patterned and exceptional about the media writ large. Others see ambivalence as a necessary complication of the tired and overused binaries of late modernity, sustaining what the American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald described as the “test of a first-rate intelligence,” whose “ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function” would produce generative opportunities built around the “the improbable, the implausible, often the impossible.” 

Regardless, then, of how positively or negatively scholars feel about ambivalence, its presence is a clear component of media environments everywhere. But what kind of presence does it have? What are its primary attributes and pitfalls? In what ways does ambivalence make media environments better or worse? In what ways does it foster or complicate widely-adopted notions of media practices, processes, production, consumption and effects? How does it foster resistance and under which conditions?

This Winter School will examine the pairing of media and ambivalence in all its recognizable forms. Orienting to the broad spread of ways in which ambivalence can be understood to inhabit the media, it aims to develop a fuller understanding of why ambivalence is such a longstanding inhabitant of media environments. Possible questions stretch across the wide range of entry points for contemplating the media that allow for media representation and processing, media use and media refusal, media production and consumption. They include, how do the media and ambivalence shape each other? What role do the media and associated technologies play in structuring ambivalence, and what role does ambivalence play when associated with the media? Under which conditions does ambivalence emerge? How is it represented and where? How is it recognized and by whom? What impact does it have on media fare, the representation of marginalized groups or the shape of audience engagement? How does it affect the capacity to form identities, make informed decisions or embrace polarization? How does it figure in decisions to refuse or reject the media? How is ambivalence being weaponized in current political climates, and to what end? How has it been weaponized in the past?

We welcome proposals by doctoral students and early career post-doctoral researchers from all over the world to discuss the intertwined relation between media and ambivalence in different geographies and temporalities. The list below illustrates some topics for possible consideration. Other topics dealing with media and ambivalence are also welcome: 

·       Ambivalence towards media platforms, content, practices or effects

·       Ambivalence and AI

·       Techniques to counter ambivalence 

·       Ambivalence and identity formation

·       Ambivalence and human rights

·       Promoting ambivalent representations of the past

·       Ambivalence in the public arena in specific national or regional contexts

·       Ambivalent discourses on science and climate change

·       Ambivalent discourses on racism, misogyny, classism, settler colonialism 

·       Ambivalence and journalism

·       Ambivalence and popular culture

·       Resistance to media, including media rejection, media detox, pushback on social media, news avoidance or domestic practices to control media usage

·       Children and media ambivalence 

·       Ambivalence, media and imaginative future 

·       Ambivalence and conflict

·       Ambivalence and overload

·       …

PAPER PROPOSALS

Proposals should be sent to lisbonwinterschool@gmail.com no later than 30 September 2023 and include a paper title, extended abstract in English (700 words), name, e-mail address, institutional affiliation and a brief bio (max. 100 words) mentioning ongoing research. Applicants will be informed of the result of their submissions by mid-October.

FULL PAPER SUBMISSION 

Presenters will be required to send in full papers (max. 20 pages, 1.5 spacing) by 15 December 2023.  

CONFIRMED KEYNOTES

Juliane Prade-Weiss, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich

Larry Gross, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California

Patrícia Dias, Catholic University of Portugal

Valerie Traub, University of Michigan

More to be announced