ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 8, 2023

I am pleased to invite you to the next in the series of IPRA Thought Leadership webinars. The webinar Japan digital PR best practices: how to run hybrid media relations will be presented by Kazuko Kotaki on Thursday 8 June 2022 at 12.00 GMT/UCT (unadjusted).

What is the webinar content?

Explore hands-on learnings and insights on how corporate communications have evolved in the hybrid world resulting from a three-year-long virtual media relations. The webinar will share practical knowledge on what works and why, based on Kazuko’s global media and agency client experiences from both Japan and around the world.

How to join

Register here at Airmeet. (The time shown should adjust to your device’s time zone.)

A reminder will be sent 1 hour before the event.

Background to IPRA

IPRA, the International Public Relations Association, was established in 1955, and is the leading global network for PR professionals in their personal capacity. IPRA aims to advance trusted communication and the ethical practice of public relations. We do this through networking, our code of conduct and intellectual leadership of the profession. IPRA is the organiser of public relations' annual global competition, the Golden World Awards for Excellence (GWA). IPRA's services enable PR professionals to collaborate and be recognised. Members create content via our Thought Leadership essays, social media and our consultative status with the United Nations. GWA winners demonstrate PR excellence. IPRA welcomes all those who share our aims and who wish to be part of the IPRA worldwide fellowship. For more see www.ipra.org

Background to Kazuko Kotaki

Kazuko is Associate Director, Corporate at Edelman Japan. She is a passionate public relations veteran with over 20 years of experience in consulting, media relations, and narrative development focusing on communications in the STEM field. She joined Edelman in 2022 to provide business communications counsel to the world’s top brands and most critical communication needs. 

Contact

International Public Relations Association Secretariat

United Kingdom

secgen@ipra.org

Telephone +44 1634 818308

Friday 6 October, 2023

London college of communication

Deadline: July 3, 2023

8.00-14.00 (BST) / 16.00-22.00 (AWST)

TikTok Creators and Digital Economies Symposium

From new dance challenges to instantly recognisable songs, TikTok is often attributed with producing new global trends. Merging short form video, popular and original music, hashtags, comments, and participatory features like stitching and duets, TikTok provides a platform for ordinary users to consume, create, play and participate in public conversations.

Creators benefit from new kinds of visibility and affective economies, yet also complain of shadow bans, seemingly arbitrary limitations on views, and algorithmic personalisation and circulation of content.

TikTok follows and disrupts the social media landscape and popular imagination. TikTok’s ‘For You’ feature amplifies the potential for ordinary users to create viral content and its powerful personalised algorithms extend creators’ reach to global audiences and across multiple platforms.

TikTok influencers and ordinary creators generate niche communities important for identity expression, community building and visibility, introducing new iterations of symbolic, cultural and economic power (Abidin et al. 2020, Abidin 2020, 2019).

TikTok native influencers generate millions of views and leverage virtual, gift, and live-streaming economies, expanding forms of cultural production across platforms (Poell et al 2022, Yesiloglu and Costello 2021).

In addition, Bytedance and Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, point to significant cultural, geo-political, and economic commonalities and differences in platform governance, as determined in and through national contexts and markets (Kaye et al al. 2022, Zhang 2021).

More globally, Bytedance occupies a unique position in the data economy and is at the heart of serious privacy and surveillance concerns, marked by the rise of TikTok bans (Maheshwari and Holpuch 2023).

TikTok and Douyin open up new creator practices with serious implications for creative industries, monetisation practices, digital economies alongside governance frameworks encompassing these spheres.

All of these factors point to big questions about the relationship between TikTok creators and emerging features of digital economies. While TikTok’s niche creator practices share common features across other social media and digital platforms (Hardy 2022, Sujon 2021), TikTok’s specific approaches to monetisation and affective entrepreneurialism raises questions about what is distinct on TikTok for creator economies.

This symposium brings together current work which opens up these dynamics, examining emerging forms of cultural production and also their economic consequences for creators, citizens, consumers, advertisers, and platforms.

Submission guidelines

We invite papers examining TikTok Creators and Digital Economies, related to but not limited to these themes:

• Creator identities and cultures
  
• Storytelling, music and creator discourses
  
• Intimate, relational and affective labour
  
• Virtual gifting and cultural production
  
• Creator academy and creator fund
  
• LGBTQ+ creators
  
• Queerbaiting
  
• Materialities of creation, consumption and circulation
  
• Global, local, national creator contexts and economies
  
• TikTok, ByteDance and Douyin platform ecosystems
  
• Douyin and wanghong
  
• Resilience and precarity
  
• Influencers, celebrity, and virality
  
• Creator business models
  
• TikTok advertising and monetisation
  
• Political and networked economies
  
• Nichification, metrics and metrification
  
• Branded content, paid partnerships and the creator marketplace
  
• Livestreaming and e-commerce
  
• Symbolic power and cultural economies
  
• Attention economy, affective commerce and regimes of visibility
  
• Algorithmic personalisation
  
• TikTok audiences and markets
  
• Platform governance, bans and censorship
  
• Content ownership, copyright and royalties
  
• Geo-politics of short-form video
  

Research students, early career researchers and scholars in and/or or from the Global South and/or underrepresented communities are strongly encouraged to apply.

A selection of papers will also be considered for inclusion in a Special Issue tentatively entitled “TikTok Creators and Digital Economies” that will be published in a top-ranked peer-reviewed journal in the field of Media and Communication Studies. 

For consideration in this symposium, please submit abstracts (up to 250 words) on previously unpublished papers and a short bio (up to 100 words) to DCE@lcc.arts.ac.uk. 

Key dates

Abstracts and biographies submission: 3 July 2023

Notifications of acceptance: 24 July 2023

TikTok Creators and Digital Economies Symposium: 6 October 2023

This event is a collaboration between the TikTok Cultures Research Network based at Curtin University and the Digital Cultures and Economies Research Hub at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

The event is organized by Zoetanya Sujon, Sevil Yesiloglu, Irida Ntalla, Jonathan Hardy, Yue Qin, Yingwen Wang and Richard Meng.

Please email DCE@lcc.arts.ac.uk with any questions about this event.

Open call

Deadline: June 3, 2023

The term ‘Artificial intelligence’ (AI) was coined by John McCarthy in the year 1956 at Dartmouth College at the first-ever AI conference. Later that year, JC Shaw, Herbert Simon, and Allen Newell created the first AI software program named ‘Logic Theorist.’ Since then, AI is changing the way we communicate in the media world as is the intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the intelligence of humans and other animals, it is the backbone of innovation in modern computing, unlocking value for individuals and businesses. Its applications include advanced web search engines, recommendation systems, understanding human speech with voice-enabled devices, such as Siri and Alexa, that have evolved the way people talk to their devices, self-driving cars, generative and creative tools, automated decision-making, and competing at the highest level in strategic game systems, from interacted TV to TV shows where the spectator can choose the next steps of the show,  Chatbots, omnichannel communications, and targeted marketing campaigns, conversational agents, optical character recognition (OCR), social robots, 3D printing, the fifth generation of mobile services (5G), and automated-writing software the artificial intelligence is having a big impact on communication.

The study of mechanical or "formal" reasoning began with philosophers and mathematicians in antiquity. The study of mathematical logic led directly to Alan Turing's theory of computation, which suggested that a machine, by shuffling symbols as simple as "0" and "1", could simulate any conceivable act of mathematical deduction. This insight that digital computers can simulate any process of formal reasoning is known as the Church–Turing thesis (Berlinski,2001).

The importance of the proposed research is to analyze how those “0” and “1” have affected and impacted communication, how AI will evolve and how this evolution will affect communication, what will be implications of the 4 main types of artificial intelligence affecting the perception and reception of the recipient, What is AI and why it matters, How AI is shaping the future of communication and media, What AI Means for the Freedom of speech, what it takes to make AI safe and effective, in the  Adaptive artificial intelligence, unlike traditional AI systems, can revise its own code to adjust for real-world changes that were not known or foreseen when the code was first written, is the AI controlling and determining the access to the mass media for the users, etc.…

This open call seeks submissions that contribute to our understanding of the application of AI in media production and consumption, considering the wide range of communication processes and theories from the perspective of communication studies. Multidisciplinary submissions are welcome. We encourage a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to this subject, particularly those relating to global and international contexts for the subject.

Rules

• Abstracts should be 500 words excluding the bibliography.
  
• Abstracts should include a biographical note max. 50 words per author.
  
• Abstracts should include at least two references.
  
• Evaluation will focus on relevance to the book topic, selection of research objects, and clarity in the use of methodology.
  
• Co-authored abstracts need to state the first author.
  
• Only one abstract per the first author can be submitted.
  
• APA 7
  
• 5 Keywords.
  

Send your abstracts with your chapter proposal on June 3, 2023, to raquelbenitezrojas@gmail.com

References

Berlinski, David, (2001) The advent of the algorithm: The 300-year journey from an idea to the computer. Harcourt Books. San Diego, USA

August 21 - September 1, 2023

Maastricht Summer School, Maastricht University (online) 

Deadline: August 1, 2023

The focus of this Summer School course is on critical discourse analysis, social semiotics and news framing. A key objective is to enable you to design an analytical framework to study media representations with textual and/or visual elements (e.g. newspaper/magazine articles with photos, cartoons and social media posts). Most Summer School participants are usually PhD candidates, You can read more about the course content, course objectives and recommended literature below. You also find there the link to the timetable.

The course fee is €399. To apply for the course, please visit the DreamApply website. For more information, please contact course coordinator Leonhardt. 

Course Description

What do the newspaper coverage of the War in Ukraine, the tweets by Elon Musk and the heated social media debates about migration have in common? They all confirm the pivotal role of texts and images in our societies. This course teaches you the analytical skills to study the possible meanings of textual and visual media representations.

Interactive lectures offer you concepts and methods to examine what combinations of words and/or visual elements mean in terms of a broader debate in society. These lectures further help you to understand how national identities and power relations affect the interpretations of media representations. Your individual assignment concerns a short paper, in which you apply a method to study one or two news articles, cartoons or social media posts.

Dr Leonhardt van Efferink developed an exclusive Summer School template that helps you to write a well-structured course paper. On top of this, he offers individual feedback in class and active personal tutoring by e-mail. Finally, his support includes a simple framework to develop focused, consistent and transparent research questions.

Below you find the course objectives, a link to the timetable and suggested literature.

Course Objectives

1.    Designing an analytical framework to study media representations with textual and/or visual elements (e.g. newspaper/magazine articles with photos, cartoons and social media posts).

2.    Developing a research method that draws on critical discourse analysis, social semiotic analysis and/or news framing analysis, in line with your research objectives.

3.    Explaining the role of the national and ideological contexts in which (social) media content is being produced.

4.    Understanding the complexity of text-image relations and their role in meaning-making processes.

5.    Producing a research design and dataset for your thesis or dissertation that is manageable.

Timetable

The fifth online edition of this course lasts from 21 August until 1 September 2023. Four earlier online editions in 2020/2021/2022 were fully booked and seven earlier editions took place on-campus in Maastricht between 2014 and 2019. This edition has daily teaching sessions of at most three hours. Teaching days will start at 13.00 (Maastricht time zone/GMT+2) and end at the latest at 16.00 (Maastricht time zone/GMT+2). This makes it easier for students from far away countries to deal with the large time differences. Please check Leonhardt's website for most up-to-date version of the timetable: https://vanefferink.com/en/media-representations-and-research-methods-summer-school-critical-discourse-analysis-social-semiotics-and-news-framing/

Literature

Leonhardt has based this course on publications in various languages (see overview below for some examples). You are not required to do pre-course reading. However, if you would like to do so, you are advised to select one of the publications below. You can also contact Leonhardt for tailor-made reading advice.

1.    Caple, H. (2013) Photojournalism. A Social Semiotic Approach.

2.    Dahinden, U. (2006). Framing. Eine integrative Theorie der Massenkommunikation.

3.    D’Angelo, P. (ed.) (2018) Doing News Framing Analysis II. Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives.

4.    Geise, S., & Lobinger, K. (eds.). (2013). Visual Framing. Perspektiven und Herausforderungen der visuellen Kommunikationsforschung.

5.    Machin, D. (2007) Introduction to Multimodal Analysis.

6.    Machin, D. and Mayr, A. (2012) How to do Critical Discourse Analysis.

7.    Richardson, J. (2007) Analysing Newspapers. An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis.

8.    Royce, T. D. (2006). Intersemiotic Complementarity. A Framework for Multimodal Discourse Analysis. In T. D. Royce, & W. Bowcher (Eds.), New Directions in the Analysis of Multimodal Discourse (pp. 63-109).

9.    Van Gorp, B. (2010) Strategies to take the Subjectivity out of Framing Analysis. In P. D’Angelo, & J. A. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing News Framing Analysis. Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives (pp. 84-109).

10.    Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (eds., 2016) Methods of Critical Discourse Studies.

Student reviews (from LinkedIn recommendations)

1.    “I found Leonhardt very well familiar with all the dynamics of his class room, as he very efficiently caters to the need of all his students coming from different social, cultural and educational backgrounds.” – Sadia from Pakistan

2.    “Leonhardt is a great lecturer who knows his subject matter. I found his inclusive approach particularly useful in teaching media analysis techniques.” – Koen from Belgium

3.    “Not only did Leonhardt demonstrate a high level of expertise in the subject, but he also helped his students understand difficult concepts in a very accessible way, effectively bridging the gap between theory and practice, and fostering fruitful discussions in class.” – Carolina from Brazil

Special monograph

Deadline: December 15, 2023

Through using extended reality (XR) technologies, users can engage in immersive environments and stories. With the hype of the metaverse, the usage of augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and particularly virtual reality (VR) technologies has expanded quickly in recent years. These technologies have applications in a variety of industries, including entertainment, education, and healthcare. An area of growing interest is its use as a prosocial tool, creating and experimenting with immersive VR content that aims to encourage positive social behaviors and interactions in the audience, even though its use and application has primarily been studied in the field of video games. Prosociality is developing as a key concept for the betterment of contemporary communities, in which individuals adopt more polarized views, in the present environment of the so-called era of misinformation. By expanding previous approaches to the term (Chacón, 1986; Amato, 1983; Olivar, 1998), González Portal (2000) defined prosocial behavior as "all positive social behavior with or without altruistic motivation" (quoted in Auné et al., 2014).

A well-known paradigm for analyzing how individuals learn and take on new behaviors is the social cognitive theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986, 1991, 2001). According to SCT, behavior is impacted by a mix of personal (such beliefs and attitudes) and environmental (like social norms and modeling) elements. Technology may be considered as a technique of manipulating these environmental characteristics in the context of immersive prosocial media to increase the transmission of positive social attitudes and values. The immersive nature of immersive media allows for the experience of situations and environments that may be difficult or impossible to replicate in the real world. VR enables the user to become an active participant in the story they are experiencing, improving the relationship between the audience and the storytelling while inspiring positive attitudes and feelings in them, such as empathy, compassion, and collaboration. This experience can be strengthened through social modeling, in which users watch and mimic the behaviors of others in the VR environment, or by assuming the position of the other through perspective taking experiences (Herrera et al., 2018) by embodying the other through an avatar (embodiment).

According to the theory of embodiment cognition (Barsalou, 2008), physically experiences, such as interactions with our surroundings and other people, shape our ideas and behaviors. The immersive quality of VR may produce a sensation of presence that makes the virtual environment appear real and present in the given situation. The user's ideas, attitudes, behaviors, and social interactions can all be affected by this experience. Therefore, it can be viewed as an addition to SCT as a framework for comprehending the use of VR as a prosocial tool. Numerous cognitive and emotional processes can be influenced by embodied experiences, according to research. For instance, VR simulations of walking help elderly persons' cognitive performance (Riva et al., 2017). Immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences of intergroup encounter have been utilized to foster prosocial behavior by boosting empathy and lowering stress and prejudice in such circumstances (Banakou et al., 2016; González-Franco et al., 2016; Stelzmann et al., 2021; Tassinari et al., 2022). Despite the growing research efforts and interest in the potential prosocial effects of immersive VR technologies, it is important to continue investigating these issues as well as any potential ethical and moral ramifications of their use in the field of communication.

This monographic issue proposes a critical examination of the production of immersive content and its application to prosocial goals. We, therefore, seeking proposals that contribute to the investigation and analysis of the impacts of prosocial immersive VR storytelling from the perspective of communication and media effects. From their production and consumption models, methods that concentrate on both technological factors and the formal characteristics required for their formulation. We invite participation with empirical and theoretical research. We encourage a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, experimental research and case studies that fall within the following thematic lines and potential research questions, but are not restricted to them:

Thematic lines:

- Examining immersive VR, AR, and MR content to improve contemporary communities.

- Historical traces of prosocial usage and applications of immersive technology.

- Studies of the scientific literature on the use of immersive technologies and their prosocial effects, including scoping reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.

- The use of immersive technology as social change agents.

- Prosocial immersive narrative analysis.

- The use of immersive technology for social advocacy/activism.

- Measuring experiences of the prosocial effects of immersive narratives.

- Researching media impact measurement techniques in the realm of immersive storytelling.

- Methodological approaches for evaluating the effects of immersive prosocial narratives.

- Research on the formal and technological aspects of immersive prosocial storytelling.

- The development of hybrid immersive audiovisual creations.

- The transition of linear products in the audiovisual medium to immersive settings and experiences.

Research questions:

- How are processes of change toward prosocial behavior impacted by VR, AR, and/or MR?

- What techniques and arrangements are used in the design and production of immersive experiences to produce a prosocial influence on the audience?

- What aspects of an immersive piece of content's design could work against its ability to have a positive social impact?

- What experimental approaches are best suitable for evaluating the effects of immersive storytelling from an ecological perspective?

- What specific measures or evaluation tools are effective for assessing the prosocial impact of immersive VR content?

- How may immersive story interfaces for VR, AR, and/or MR be created to maximize their beneficial effects? 

- What ethical and moral ramifications can immersive audiovisual projects for good causes have, and should they be considered?

- What risks and effects result from the use of these technologies to the development of prosocial models?

Multidisciplinary approaches are possible and can originate from a variety of fields, including human-computer interaction, psychology, digital humanities, and communication.

This special monograph is a component of the "Immersive prosocial audiovisual narratives: measuring their impact on society and analysing their formal and technological characteristics" project, which is supported by the AICO call of the Conselleria d'Innovació, Universitats, Ciència i Societat Digital de la Generalitat Valenciana (CIAICO/2021/258, 2022-2044).

References

Amato, P. R. (1983). Helping behavior in urban and rural environments: Field studies based on a taxonomic organization of helping episodes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(3), 571.

Auné, S. E., Blum, G. D., Abal, F. J. P., Lozzia, G. S., & Attorresi, H. F. (2014). La conducta prosocial: Estado actual de la investigación. Perspectivas en Psicología, 11(2), 21-33.

Banakou, D., Hanumanthu, P. D., & Slater, M. (2016). Virtual embodiment of white people in a black virtual body leads to a sustained reduction in their implicit racial bias. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 601.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. En W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Theory, research and applications (Vol. 1, pp. 71-129). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. Media psychology, 3(3), 265-299.

Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617-645.

Chacón, F. (1986). Una aproximación al concepto psicosocial de altruismo. Boletín de Psicología, 11, 41-62.

Gonzalez-Franco, M., Bellido, A. I., Blom, K. J., Slater, M., & Rodriguez-Fornells, A. (2016). The neurological traces of look-alike avatars. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 10, 392.

González Portal, M. D. (2000). Conducta prosocial: Evaluación e Intervención. Madrid: Morata.

Herrera, F., Bailenson, J., Weisz, E., Ogle, E., & Zaki, J. (2018). Building long-term empathy: A large-scale comparison of traditional and virtual reality perspective-taking. PloS one, 13(10), e0204494.

Olivar, R. R. (1998). El uso educativo de la televisión como optimizadora de la prosocialidad. Psychosocial Intervention, 7(3), 363-378.

Riva, G. (2017). Virtual reality in the treatment of eating and weight disorders. Psychological Medicine, 47(14), 2567-2568.

Stelzmann, D., Toth, R., & Schieferdecker, D. (2021). Can intergroup contact in virtual reality (VR) reduce stigmatization against people with schizophrenia?. Journal of clinical medicine, 10(13), 2961.

Tassinari, M., Aulbach, M. B., & Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. (2022). Investigating the influence of intergroup contact in virtual reality on empathy: an exploratory study using AltspaceVR. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 815497.

Coordinator:

Dr. Francisco-Julián Martínez-Cano – Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (francisco.martinezc@umh.es).

Begoña Ivárs-Nicolás – Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (bivars@umh.es).

Richard Lachman – Toronto Metropolitan University (richlach@torontomu.ca).

Editor of the monograph: Nereida López Vidales (nereida.lopez@uva.es).

IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINE:

Deadline for receipt of articles: from December, 15, 2023 until January, 30, 2024.

Deadline by which authors will receive a response: Before March, 15, 2024.

Publication date of the monograph: June, 1, 2024.

SUBMISSION METHOD AND GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS:

1st) Articles must be submitted through the OJS platform, following the journal's rules and making sure to submit a blind version.

The articles will be evaluated by blind peers and must follow the journal's rules, which can be consulted at the following link: http://revistas.usal.es/cuatro/index.php/2172-9077/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

In order for the article to be reviewed, it is compulsory that:

- the article arrives adapted to the template. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MM_zDxj3z94jCRmNZjO0BbPPe8iI1v7x/edit)

- the article comes in a blind version.

- the document of transfer of rights is attached.

- the article is accompanied by a Turnitin report (or similar), prepared by the author (articles with more than 35% similarity, excluding the bibliography, will not be accepted).

2º) Once sent to OJS, an email will be sent to the editor of the monograph, who will acknowledge receipt within a maximum period of one week.

Doubts about this monograph can also be resolved through the above e-mail addresses. 

A maximum of 7 articles will be published.

IMPORTANT AT THE SUBMISSION STAGE

In addition to being uploaded to the platform (OJS), the articles have to be sent simultaneously to the following 4 addresses: fjcrevista@usal.es, francisco.martinezc@umh.es, bivars@umh.es, richlach@torontomu.ca, richlach@torontomu.ca and nereida.lopez@uva.es

Articles will be peer-reviewed and must follow the journal's guidelines, which can be found at the following link:

http://revistas.usal.es/cuatro/index.php/2172-9077/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

Lund University, Faculty of Social Sciences

Login and apply

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top 100 universities. The University has around 46 000 students and more than 8 000 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.

Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We regard gender equality and diversity as a strength and an asset.

We are now looking for a PhD student in Media and Communication Studies with a focus on strategic communication and psychological defense.

Work duties

The main duties are to devote themselves to their own research education, which includes both own research and third cycle courses. In addition to doctoral studies, participation in teaching and other departmental work (max 20%) may also be included. 

Strategic communication deals with the study of organizations' conscious communication efforts to achieve their overall goals. The research will highlight, create an understanding of and critically examine the communication processes that govern and shape organizations in our society and the effects of strategic communication.

The Department of Strategic Communication has a newly established research institute for psychological defence (psychologicaldefence.lu.se). Psychological defense is society's common ability to identify and resist undue information influence and other misleading information directed against Sweden in order to influence our decisions, perceptions or behaviors. The research institute receives basic funding from the Swedish Agency for Psychological Defence.

The Psychological Defence Research Institute conducts research within the field of strategic communication with a focus on malign information influence and foreign interference. Malign information influence supports the interests of foreign powers’ and aims to influence vulnerabilities in society. The Research Institute focuses on security issues such as civil defence, hybrid threats, social media platforms, and open-source intelligence, and develops research-based guidelines, tools, and analyses to identify and counteract malign information influence. Applications are expected to contribute to the development of the research field of strategic communication through the investigation of psychological defence. The PhD student will actively contribute to the work and development of the Research Institute.

The doctoral programme in Media and Communication Studies at Lund University is given jointly by the Department of Strategic Communication and the Department of Communication and Media. For more information about doctoral education, see the website.

Eligibility

General eligibility for third-cycle studies requires that the applicant has completed: a second-cycle degree, completed course requirements of at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits are fromsecond-cycle level, or in some other way in Sweden or abroad acquired largely equivalent knowledge.

In addition to the general entry requirements for third-cycle studies, the doctoral student must have at least 30 credits in the main field of study Media and Communication Studies at advanced level or acquired equivalent knowledge in Sweden or abroad. 

The doctoral student must also have completed independent projects of at least 15 credits at second-cycle level. 

The applicant should have such knowledge of English that he/she can assimilate research literature, third-cycle courses and participate actively in seminar activities.

Assessment criteria

When appointing, consideration shall primarily be given to the degree of ability to benefit from the doctoral education.

The applicant must have a basic education related to and experience in strategic communication, media and communication studies, rhetoric or equivalent. Great emphasis is placed on the applicant's master's thesis (or equivalent degree project) and the presented thesis idea.

The assessment will also take into account the ability to work independently and structured, but also the ability to contribute to good collaboration and a good research environment at the department.

Type of employment

Only those who are or have been admitted to PhD-studies may be appointed to doctoral studentships. The employment is limited to 4 years in the case of full-time studies. In the case of teaching and other departmental duties, the employment is extended correspondingly, but not more than 5 years (at 20 % departmental duties). Doctoral student employment is regulated in the Ordinance SFS 1993:100 (Higher Education Ordinance, Chapter 5, Section 7). The position is planned to start January 2024 or according to agreement.

Instructions on how to apply

The application must be attached:

1) CV with certified copies of degree certificates, academic grades and other relevant certificates 2) a copy of the Master's thesis and, where applicable, the applicant's other scientific 

publications (e.g. articles in scientific journals)

3) a personal letter describing the applicant's background, interest in the subject and intention of the doctoral education

4) a thesis sketch where the applicant presents an idea for the thesis (maximum five pages)

5) contact information for two reference persons.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Welcome with your application!

The Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University is one of the leading education and research institutions in Sweden and operates both in Lund and Helsingborg.

The Department of Strategic Communication runs Sweden’s largest education and research activities in the field of strategic communication. The department is also one of the largest in the field in Europe. The activities of the department are based at Campus Helsingborg, which is characterised by the authenticity of Lund University in a young and dynamic environment with an interdisciplinary approach. Another characteristic of the activities at Campus Helsingborg is strong engagement with the business sector and the public sector in both education and research.

The Department of Strategic Communication offers three popular undergraduate and Master’s degree programmes. At present, the department has almost 25 staff and around 330 full-time equivalent students. The department conducts successful research in various areas, including crisis communication, branding processes, organizational communication, public diplomacy and information warfare, and new media and democracy. The research environment is growing strongly, has active international contact and welcomes cross-disciplinary initiatives. The work environment at the department is characterised by cooperation in teaching teams, active work on strategy and development, and an international environment where communication in English is a natural part of the everyday.

We kindly decline all sales and marketing contacts.

Type of employment: Temporary position

Salary: Monthly salary

Number of positions: 1

Full-time equivalent: 100

City: Helsingborg

County: Skåne län

Country: Sweden

Reference number: PA2023/1314

Contact:

• Mozhgan Zachrison, +4642356529
  
• Åsa Thelander, +4642356628
  
• Anna Borg, +46462224806
  

Union representative

• OFR/ST:Fackförbundet ST:s kansli, 046-2229362
  
• SACO:Saco-s-rådet vid Lunds universitet, kansli@saco-s.lu.se
  
• SEKO: Seko Civil, 046-2229366
  

Last application date15.Jun.2023 11:59 PM CEST

Lund University, Faculty of Social Sciences

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Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top 100 universities. The University has around 46 000 students and more than 8 000 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.

Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We regard gender equality and diversity as a strength and an asset.

We are now looking for a phd student in Media and Communication Studies with a focus on strategic communication.

Work duties

The main duties are to devote themselves to their own research education, which includes both own research and third cycle courses. In addition to doctoral studies, participation in teaching and other departmental work (max 20 %) may also be included. 

Strategic communication deals with the study of organizations' conscious communication efforts to achieve their overall goals. The research will highlight, create an understanding of and critically examine the communication processes that govern and shape organizations in our society and the effects of strategic communication. 

The research at the department is in a number of different sub-areas within the field, but mainly in the areas of organizational communication, political communication, disinformation (information influence), crisis communication, visual communication, corporate branding and digital media (for more information see our website isk.lu.se).  

The doctoral programme in Media and Communication Studies at Lund University is given jointly by the Department of Strategic Communication and the Department of Communication and Media. For more information about the doctoral programme, see here.  

Eligibility

General eligibility for third-cycle studies requires that the applicant has completed: a second-cycle degree, completed courses of at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits are from second-cycle level, or in some other way in Sweden or abroad acquired largely equivalent knowledge.

In addition to the general entry requirements for third-cycle studies, the doctoral student must have at least 30 credits in the main field of study Media and Communication Studies at advanced level or acquired equivalent knowledge (for example in strategic communication) in Sweden or abroad. 

The doctoral student must also have completed independent projects of at least 15 credits at second-cycle level. 

The applicant should have such knowledge of English that he/she can assimilate research literature, third-cycle courses and participate actively in seminar activities.

Assessment criteria

When appointing, consideration shall primarily be given to the degree of ability to benefit from the doctoral education.

The applicant must have a basic education related to and experience in strategic communication, media and communication studies, rhetoric or equivalent. Great emphasis is placed on the applicant's master's thesis (or equivalent degree project) and the presented thesis idea.

The assessment will also take into account the ability to work independently and structured, but also the ability to contribute to good collaboration and a good research environment at the department.

Type of employment

Only those who are or have been admitted to PhD- studies may be appointed to doctoral studentships. The employment is limited to 4 years in the case of full-time studies. In the case of teaching and other departmental duties, the employment is extended correspondingly, but not more than 5 years (at 20 % departmental duties). Doctoral student employment is regulated in the Ordinance SFS 1993:100 (Higher Education Ordinance, Chapter 5, Section 7). The position is planned to start in January 2024 or according to agreement.

Instructions on how to apply

The application must be attached: 

1) CV with certified copies of degree certificates, academic grades and other relevant certificates 2) a copy of the Master's thesis and, where applicable, the applicant's other scientific publications (e.g. articles in scientific journals)

3) a personal letter describing the applicant's background, interest in the subject and intention of the doctoral education

4) a thesis sketch where the applicant presents an idea for the thesis (maximum five pages)

5) contact information for two reference persons.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Welcome with your application!

The Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University is one of the leading education and research institutions in Sweden and operates both in Lund and Helsingborg.

The Department of Strategic Communication runs Sweden’s largest education and research activities in the field of strategic communication. The department is also one of the largest in the field in Europe. The activities of the department are based at Campus Helsingborg, which is characterised by the authenticity of Lund University in a young and dynamic environment with an interdisciplinary approach. Another characteristic of the activities at Campus Helsingborg is strong engagement with the business sector and the public sector in both education and research.

The Department of Strategic Communication offers three popular undergraduate and Master’s degree programmes. At present, the department has almost 25 staff and around 330 full-time equivalent students. The department conducts successful research in various areas, including crisis communication, branding processes, organizational communication, public diplomacy and information warfare, and new media and democracy. The research environment is growing strongly, has active international contact and welcomes cross-disciplinary initiatives. The work environment at the department is characterised by cooperation in teaching teams, active work on strategy and development, and an international environment where communication in English is a natural part of the everyday.

We kindly decline all sales and marketing contacts.

Type of employment: Temporary position

Contract type: Full time

Salary: Monthly salary

Number of positions: 1

Full-time equivalent: 100

City: Helsingborg

County: Skåne län

Country: Sweden

Reference number: PA2023/1290

Contact

• Åsa Thelander, +4642356628
  
• Mozhgan Zachrison, +4642356529
  
• Anna Borg, +46462224806
  

Union representative

• OFR/ST:Fackförbundet ST:s kansli, 046-2229362
  
• SACO:Saco-s-rådet vid Lunds universitet, kansli@saco-s.lu.se
  
• SEKO: Seko Civil, 046-2229366
  

Last application date: 15.Jun.2023 11:59 PM CEST

November 22-23, 2023

University of Glasgow, UK

The deadline for submissions: August 17, 2023

Media are integral to how we both remember and forget conflict.  While individuals refer to the family photo album, the collective memories of communities are often shaped by iconic photographs of traumatic events such as popular uprisings, terrorist attacks, and wars. This memory work was traditionally confined to repositories such as historical archives, museums and institutions. In recent years the ‘connective turn’ has ‘unmoored’ memory from these institutions, replacing traditional notions of collective memory with the searchable ‘memory of the multitude’ online (Hoskins, 2017). The automated systems of online platforms like Facebook ‘dig’ for memories on behalf of their users, including those of (Jacobsen and Beer, 2021). Historical photographs shared on photo sharing sites like Instagram facilitate informal learning about events such as the Holocaust among younger generations (Commane and Potton, 2019). This has empowered a new generation of memory activists who leverage the affordances of online platforms for commemoration rituals (Fridman, 2022). More recently, apps like Telegram have made it easier to document human rights violations during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whilst simultaneously creating a curated, unsanitized ‘war feed’ for global audiences  (Hoskins and Shchelin, 2023). 

This hybrid workshop seeks to advance the discussion about the role of media in conflict memory work. We adopt a purposefully broad definition of conflict which includes (but is not limited to) armed insurrections, civil disorder, geopolitical interstate conflict, political violence in divided societies, terrorist attacks, and wars. 

We are looking for original and creative contributions that demonstrate the broad range of methodologies (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, digital) in this emergent field. Abstract submissions should explicitly address the role of media (e.g. newspapers, social media, television) in conflict memory. We will accept both theoretical and empirical studies provided they are relevant to the workshop’s key themes.

Possible topics for the workshop include:

• Conflict memory, media and education
  
• Mediatization of war, terrorism, armed conflict and civil disorder
  
• Journalistic practice and collective memories of conflict
  
• Media and conflict memory in post and neo-authoritarian societies
  
• Memory activism after conflict
  
• Radio, memory and conflict
  
• Social media and conflict memory
  
• Television news and audience understanding of conflict

We especially encourage submissions from early career researchers and those based in Global South countries. There will be a limited number of travel bursaries available for those traveling to Glasgow to attend in-person. 

Abstracts of 300-500 words, excluding references, should be sent to paul.reilly@glasgow.ac.uk and virpi.salojarvi@helsinki.fi. Please indicate on your submission whether you will attend in-person or online, and if you wish to be considered for a travel bursary should your abstract be accepted. There will be no registration fee for participants accepted for the workshop. Workshop participants will be invited to submit an abstract for a co-edited volume based on the workshop.

This event is co-sponsored by the Crisis, Security and Conflict Communication and Communication in Post and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Groups of the International Association of Media and Communication Researchers (IAMCR). 

If you have any questions about the workshop please contact the organisers:

• Dr. Paul Reilly, University of Glasgow (paul.reilly@glasgow.ac.uk)
  
• Dr. Virpi Salojärvi, University of Vaasa/University of Helsinki  (virpi.salojarvi@helsinki.fi)
  
• Dr. Katja Lehtisaari, Tampere University (katja.lehtisaari@tuni.fi)
  

The Department of Communication and Media Research (DCM) at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (https://www.unifr.ch/dcm), is dedicated to research and teaching in the field of communication and media studies that adheres to the highest international standards. Researchers at the department cover research fields ranging from political communication, journalism, communication management, to communication history, business communication and new media, media systems and media effects.

A fund raised by the department’s founding fathers Dr. Max Gressly and Dr. Florian Fleck allows the DCM to offer an international visiting scholarship for post-doctoral researchers and non-tenured professors.

The scholarship addresses young internationally-orientated scholars who are on a research or a sabbatical leave. As a trilingual institution (French, German, English) the University of Fribourg provides a truly international research environment with plenty of opportunities to share ideas. Moreover, visiting scholars can benefit from enriching research opportunities in Switzerland. The remuneration consists of CHF 5.000, permitting a stay of two to three months. Visiting scholars will have the chance to collaborate with established scholars and to contribute to academic discussions at the department. 

The deadline for applications for a scholarship in 2024 is September 30, 2023. The complete call for applications is available here: https://www.unifr.ch/dcm/de/assets/public/files/flyers/Gressly-Fleck2024.pdf  

Dear colleagues, 

We are pleased to announce the forthcoming launch of a one-stop open online platform on the safety of journalists – safetyofjournalists.org - a joint initiative between the University of Liverpool and the Worlds of Journalism Study, in co-operation with UNESCO. The project is funded by Research England and is led by Dr Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova, Reader in Global Journalism and Media at the University of Liverpool and Central and Eastern Europe Regional Co-Lead in the Worlds of Journalism Study and the Journalism Safety Research Network. 

The website will be launched by the end of July 2023 and will be an open one-stop resource on journalists’ safety aimed at introducing the key stakeholders in the process of implementation of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and bridging the gap between them. A main aim is to present academic research in a format that will make sense for and will be of use to non-academic partners with the goal of ultimately improving journalists’ safety. The website will also contain essential information about international organizations and civil society that work actively in this area. It will also feature interviews with “champions” of journalists’ safety, and will contain useful open-access resources for academics, students and journalists, an invitation for collaborations on the topic and information about events and initiatives.     

We would like to invite you to contribute to the website by presenting your research and adding your profile to it as well as sharing any relevant research outputs on the safety of journalists. We are kindly asking you to complete one survey with information about your research profile - https://liverpoolcommsmedia.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_78TZ4HFv0hpHQZo and a separate survey for every study that you would like us to present in a non-academic way on the website – https://liverpoolcommsmedia.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3yHolL7e8kjiIHc 

Please note that the second survey is for ONE academic study only so if you like us to feature more than one study on the website, please fill in the survey as many times as needed until you have submitted a separate entry for each of your studies.    

The website will also feature a database of research outputs so if you are uploading outputs, please ensure that you are the copyright holder or have the permission to upload the output you are uploading (for journal articles, these would mainly be the pre-proofs versions).   

We hope that you will contribute to this important initiative.  

If you have any questions, please get in touch with either Vera or Christos at vpetkova@liverpool.ac.uk and christos.kostopoulos@liverpool.ac.uk. 

Looking forward to hearing from you!  

Kind regards,  

Vera & Christos