ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

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.

May 12, 2025

Lisbon, Portugal

Deadline: January 11, 2025

The practice of journalism, the roles of journalists, and the information-consumption habits of audiences continue to change dramatically and rapidly. Journalists have already adapted to new media environments and communication tools, and face further change brought on by artificial intelligence and other technologies. This is also reflected in the theoretical field of journalism studies, and evolving theories of epistemology, transparency, objectivity, and audiences. The present and future of journalism is evolving and demands a rethinking or perhaps a reimagining.

Researchers in journalism studies at the Research Centre for Communication and Culture (CECC) at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon therefore invite submissions of extended abstracts for a symposium on “Journalism Studies: (Re)Imagining Journalism” to be held on May 12, 2025 at the Faculty of Human Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, with a keynote address by Mark Deuze of the University of Amsterdam. 

This symposium aims to bring together researchers, academics, professional journalists, and media organizations who are thinking about what the work of journalists looks like and should look like in 2025 and beyond. The symposium is open to researchers who wish to present on topics relating to the present and future of journalism, such as journalism and artificial intelligence, relational journalism, and journalism and contemporary audiences. 

Please submit an anonymized abstract of no more than 750 words (not including references) to journsymposium@gmail.com by January 11, 2025. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by mid-February 2025. Note that the symposium will be held in person. Submissions from early-career researchers, and Ph.D. and M.A. students are especially welcome.

Abstracts may address a number of topics within journalism studies, including, but not limited to:

- Journalism and resistance

- Civic and participatory media

- Journalism and artificial intelligence

- Misinformation, disinformation, junk news

- Contemporary news audiences

- Journalism, peace and conflict

- News sources and journalism

- Journalism and media systems

- Funding models for journalism

- Crises of the institutional press

- What journalism studies can do for journalism

- Journalists and journalism scholars as agents of change

- Journalism and propaganda

- Journalism and emotion  

October 13-14, 2025

Paris, France

Deadline: January 15, 2025

In 1985, four journalists founded the non-governmental organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Montpellier. Forty years later, RSF is one of the largest human rights NGOs in the world, and one of the few of French origin. In 2025, the organisation will celebrate its fortieth anniversary, marked by the transfer of its archives to “La Contemporaine: bibliothèque, archives, musée des mondes contemporains” (located on the campus of Nanterre University), and their future opening to research.

This anniversary should be an opportunity to look back not only on the history of RSF - its changes in management and strategy, its major "communication operations" and its eighty issues of photo albums - but also on the complex relationship between the media, in the broadest sense of the term, the powers that be, in all their diversity, and the organisations that defend human rights and, more specifically, freedom of expression around the world. Have the hopes of a new "human rights revolution" been fulfilled? Is the freedom to investigate and to publish the results of these investigations better guaranteed today than in the past? What are the risks run by journalists, but also by writers, artists and even ordinary citizens wishing to communicate the fruits of their work or their thoughts to as many people as possible? Has censorship in the traditional sense of the term (a priori intervention by a political, administrative or religious authority in the dissemination of a message) given way to more diffuse forms of control? Has the gap between the concept of freedom of expression in liberal democracies and that prevailing in authoritarian regimes widened or narrowed? To what extent is freedom of expression an absolute and universal right? What have been, and what are today, the forms of action taken by non-governmental organisations fighting for the effectiveness of this right throughout the world?

These questions, which are deliberately very broad, may be addressed from a number of angles by researchers from a variety of geographical and disciplinary backgrounds. The deadline for submitting proposals is 15 January 2025, in the form of a PDF file of no more than one page (accompanied by a brief CV of the author). They will be assessed by a scientific committee, independent of RSF, which will draw up a list of successful proposals by 15 February 2025 at the latest. Proposals should be sent to the following e-mail address: mediascolloque@gmail.com

This conference will be organised in Paris, jointly by La Contemporaine and the Université de la Sorbonne-Nouvelle, October 13-14, 2025.

January 9, 2025

Online

Dear Colleagues, 

On behalf of the Young Scientists Council at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, we would like to invite you to a scientific event, which will be held on 9.01.2025 at 17:00 online (MS Teams platform). The guest of the webinar will be Professor Henrik Örnebring from Karlstad University in Sweden, who has been selected as the best reviewer for the journal Journalism Studies in 2020. Prof. Örnebring will share tips on how to increase your chances of getting published in key journals for the discipline of social communication and media studies. The meeting will last 60 minutes and will include a question and answer session. We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to meet and discuss. 

RMN UMCS Webinar 

How to satisfy reviewer #2? Increasing your chances of publication success in good journals. 

Thursday, 9.01.2025, 17.00-18.00 CET 

MS Teams 

Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZGFmZDEwZjctMzYxYS00NTc3LThjY2YtMWIxZjVkODQ5ZGUw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2280dbd34a-9b20-490b-ac49-035af103ab2b%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%221d210b33-e870-4a96-ad5f-55ab186d58a5%22%7d 

Short link: https://t.ly/5ksQF

November 19, 2024

Online

Under article 40 of the Digital Services Act (DSA), vetted researchers will be able to request data from very large online platforms (VLOPs) and search engines (VLOSEs) to conduct research on systemic risks in the EU.

A draft delegated act clarifies the procedures leading to the sharing of data by VLOPs and VLOSEs with vetted researchers. It also specifies conditions for providing such data and establishes a DSA data access portal to serve as a one-stop-shop for researchers, data providers and Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs).

The European Commission is hosting a Q&A session on the delegated act, taking place online and targeted at researchers who would like to learn more about the delegated act and how it might benefit their research. 

It will take place on 19 November 2024, 10:00-11:30, and you can sign up here.

November 29, 2024

Online

The C&D section is co-organizing an online Zoom talk series titled "Voices of Change: Activism, Democracy, and Social Justice." The first talk will take place via Zoom on Nov. 29, from 10:00 to 11:30 (CET). More information on the talk and free registration can be found here: https://cts.ku.dk/projects/to-use-or-not-to-use/events/prison-media/. We have also attached a flyer for you to help promote the event (here).

This series aims to provide a platform for scholars across disciplines—including communication, sociology, political science, and law—to engage in thought-provoking discussions and pioneering research in these critical areas. It seeks to foster a space for scholars to connect, learn, and grow within a global network dedicated to advancing knowledge and dialogue on democracy, activism, and social justice. The first talk will feature Prof. Anne Kaun from Södertörn University in Stockholm, discussing her book Prison Media: Incarceration and the Infrastructures of Work and Technology (co-authored with Fredrik Stiernstedt). The book won the ICA Best Book Award in 2024.

Mirca Madianou (Goldsmiths - University of London)

Polity, November 1 2024

ISBN: 9781509559039

https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022

With over 300 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and with emergencies and climate disasters becoming more common, AI and big data are being championed as forces for good and as solutions to the complex challenges of the aid sector.

This book argues, however, that digital innovation engenders new forms of violence and entrenches power asymmetries between the global South and North. Madianou develops a new concept, technocolonialism, to capture how the convergence of digital developments with humanitarian structures, state power and market forces reinvigorates and reshapes colonial legacies. The concept of technocolonialism shifts the attention to the constitutive role that digital infrastructures, data and AI play in accentuating inequities between aid providers and people in need.

Drawing on ten years of research on the uses of digital technologies in humanitarian operations, the book examines a range of practices: from the normalization of biometric technologies and the datafication of humanitarian operations to experimentation in refugee camps, which are treated as laboratories for technological pilots. In so doing, the book opens new ground in the fields of humanitarianism and critical AI studies, and in the debates in postcolonial studies, by highlighting the fundamental role of digital technologies in reworking colonial genealogies.

‘A rich and radical rethinking of digital humanitarianism from the perspective of postcolonial theory. Superbly evidenced and argued, this is a must-read that will define critical scholarship on humanitarianism as well as media and communications for years to come.’

Lilie Chouliaraki, London School of Economics and Political Science 

‘Technocolonialism gets at the very core of how humanitarianism is being redefined in the global context when AI technologies and datafication prevail. With analytical mastery, Madianou reveals the multiple hierarchies embedded in this subject. A must-read and timely intervention.’

Radha Sarma Hegde, New York University 

‘Madianou’s groundbreaking work…sheds light on the tangible repercussions of technocolonialism on the most vulnerable of populations, making it indispensable reading for understanding the contemporary landscape of global aid.’

Cheryll Soriano, De La Salle University, Manila 

Mirca Madianou is Professor in the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. 

For a 30% discount please use code MM30. Valid until the end of 2024 for purchases made directly on the publisher's site: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=technocolonialism-when-technology-for-good-is-harmful--9781509559022

November 21, 2024

Sam Hind (University of Manchester) will be in conversation with Alex Gekker (University of Amsterdam) on Thursday 21st November, 4-5.30pm to launch his new book, 'Driving Decisions: How Autonomous Vehicles Make Sense of the World' (Palgrave).

The event is supported by the Centre for Digital Humanities, Cultures and Media.

To sign up for the (online) event, follow the link: https://www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_eDqtLrOJ5Cl7nNA 

About the book

Driving Decisions: How Autonomous Vehicles Make Sense of the World examines the phenomenon of autonomous driving, and the ongoing, complex, costly, and contentious quest to automate driving. Principally organized around the concept of algorithmic decision-making, the book considers how different mapping, sensing, and machine learning (ML)-dependent capabilities are gifted to autonomous vehicles through different kinds of technical work: from computer science students annotating visual data in industry-funded research centres to software engineers designing ‘end-to-end’ ML models at autonomous vehicle start-ups.

The book intends to complicate, and question, typical understandings of autonomous driving by going ‘under the hood’, challenging the technological determinism or ‘decisionism’ that advocates offer of an inevitable, fully automated, future. Drawing on seven years of research in a range of empirical contexts, the book will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of science and technology studies, media studies, digital sociology, human geography, and mobilities and transport studies.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-97-1749-1

January 15, 2025

Södertörn University, Stockholm

Deadline: November 20, 2024

The Centre for Baltic and East European Studies is pleased to announce call for contributions to a workshop that delves into the role of state propaganda in crafting pro-war consensus in Russia. The workshop will take place on January 15th at Södertörn University, Stockholm.

The goal of the workshop is twofold. Firstly, it aims to analyze various forms of propaganda to reconstruct the ideological environment that impacts individuals daily. Secondly, it strives to define recurring narrative structures in different forms of propaganda.

A number of travel grants are available to cover transport and accommodation costs.

More information about the workshop as well as the registration link can be found here.

Important dates:

• Deadline for applications: 20 November 2024
  
• Notification of acceptance: 2 December 2024
  
• Registration deadline for non-presenting participants in the workshop : 17 December 2024
  
• The event takes place on 15 January 2025
  

Form of event: onsite with mandatory registration

For more details, please contact: spr2024@sh.se.