ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 4, 2026, 8:30–12:00 (UTC+2)

Cape Town, South Africa (in person) 

Deadline: May 4, 2026

We are delighted to announce that registration is officially open for the ICA 2026 pre-conference: https://www.icahdq.org/event/Childrens (deadline, 4 May 2026)

Why attend?

This half-day, workshop-style pre-conference will bring together scholars and practitioners to explore how research can inform policy, regulation and child rights-respecting design in digital environments.

Keynote Speaker – Professor Ann Skelton

University of Pretoria & University of Leiden, Former Chair, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

What to expect:

The programme encompasses an exceptional breadth of scholarship relating to children’s rights, ranging from AI governance, platform power and digital labour to youth activism, digital violence, age-based bans, family mediation, gaming ecosystems and data protection. The conference discussions will be grounded in rich empirical work from across Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia.

Registration Details

Fee: $35

Fee waivers available for students and participants from UN third-tier countries. If this applies to you, please email us to obtain a waiver: info@info@dfc-centre.net

ICA membership or main conference registration not required

About

We invite scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and civil society actors to join us for the preconference to discuss how research can guide policy, regulation, and digital design, and how Global South perspectives can strengthen and reshape international debates within the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General comment No. 25.

The pre-conference is organised by Digital Futures for Children, a joint research centre at LSE with 5Rights Foundation, in association with the ICA divisions Children, Adolescence and Media and Communication Law and Policy. For further information, visit https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/events/ica/preconference 

Alongside the academic program, participants are invited to take part in a carefully curated program of guided tours and cultural events, designed to offer a deeper and more distinctive engagement with Brno. Extending beyond standard sightseeing, the program provides access to experiences that are rarely available to visitors: the tours cover key highlights of the city, but they also offer a unique look at some of Brno's architectural marvels, including the functionalist Villa Tugendhat or the city water tanks. Cultural events include English-friendly theatre performance, film screenings in a functionalist church, and a workshop on sustainable analog photography. These events are designed to offer not only cultural insight but also access to spaces and experiences that are often not easily available, even to local residents.

Participants can sign up for these activities during the conference registration process. As capacity is limited and many of these events tend to fill up quickly, we strongly encourage you to secure your spot early, before 31 May 2026.

More information about the program is available here: https://ecrea2026brno.eu/tours-culture-workshops/

September 14, 2026

Utrecht University (the Netherlands)

Deadline: May 29, 2026

Organized by Karin van Es (Utrecht University), Ramon Lobato (Swinburne University), and Mike Wayne (Erasmus University).

Powered by Special Interest Group Streaming Video.

This workshop explores media distribution in connected vehicles. Planes, trains and automobiles have been electronically mediated environments since the appearance of car radios in the 1930s. Yet recent developments in connected and autonomous transport have introduced an expanded array of media experiences, interfaces, and streaming integrations. This prompts new questions for media research: Who controls vehicular screens? What content is available–or restricted? What user experiences are offered and normalised? How are such screens regulated, and to what effect? In addressing these questions, the workshop approaches digital media as mobile and context-dependent rather than primarily domestic or platform-bound. Our aim is to relocate television, radio and other media within infrastructures of mobility, where viewing practices, technologies, and meanings are reconfigured.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Histories of car radio, mobile television, in-flight entertainment, and other transit media  
  
• Platform strategies of manufacturers, airlines, and other transport providers
  
• Prominence, discoverability and curation of media interfaces in seat-back screens and dashboards
  
• User experience, affordances and requirements of in-vehicle entertainment
  
• Jurisdiction and regulatory challenges arising from cross-border and in-transit viewing
  
• Content licensing, territorial rights, portability, and distribution models in mobile and transnational contexts
  
• Connectivity, onboard systems, streaming technologies, and the material and infrastructural conditions enabling (or constraining) viewing in transit
  
• Advertising, targeting and monetization strategies shaped by mobility, temporality, and location-specific viewing

We welcome theoretically grounded and empirically oriented contributions from media studies, law, design, sociology, mobility studies and related fields that critically engage with the workshop’s themes.

Submission details:

Abstracts of 350 words are due by 29 May 2026 along with a 100 word bio and should be sent to mediainmotionworkshop@gmail.com

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 5 June, and accepted authors will be invited to submit extended abstracts of 1,500 words by 5 September. The workshop will be held on 14 September at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. A special issue is planned following the workshop. We also welcome expressions of interest from scholars who cannot attend the workshop but would like to be considered for the special issue. Please feel free to reach out to the organisers by email: mediainmotionworkshop@gmail.com 

History of Media Studies

Deadline: September 15, 2026

History of Media Studies solicits proposals for a special section on the histories of publishing in the media, communication, and film studies fields. The focus of the special section is on the role of publishers—both commercial and nonprofit—in these fields’ development. We are keen to highlight the contributions of publishing houses and publication initiatives from around the world, including those beyond the Anglophone North Atlantic.

Most existing histories of the media, communication, and film studies fields take the publication context of the works they survey for granted. The premise of the special section is that specific publishers—and the wider world of academic publishing—have made a difference in the development of local, national, and subfield traditions of scholarship. Very few works of dedicated history have attended to these publishing ventures. The special section will provide a forum for new accounts, in conversation with these fields’ intellectual and institutional histories.

Proposals of around 1000 words, including references, should be sent to hms@mediastudies.press, with the subject line: Histories of Publishing. The deadline for submitting proposals is September 15, 2026. Please reach out if you have any questions or ideas.

Proposals may be submitted in English or Spanish, the two languages that History of Media Studies publishes.

We expect most contributions to be research articles (generally 14,000 words or fewer), but we will also consider other formats, including research notes, commentaries, interviews/oral histories, overlay re-publications, and contextualized archival materials; please see our Author Guidelines for more details: https://hms.mediastudies.press/author-guidelines

Suggested approaches include, but are not limited to:

• case studies of media-related publishing houses
  
• accounts of small and independent presses, as incubators of heterodox media scholarship
  
• treatments of significant commercial publishers (e.g., Routledge)
  
• studies of influential book series, including translation series
  
• accounts of institutional publishing (e.g., UNESCO or CIESPAL)
  
• histories of the publishing initiatives of scholarly associations, including association-affiliated journals
  
• self-publishing and informal circulation in activist media scholarship
  
• the role of translation and translated editions
  
• treatments of the relationship between books and journal portfolios within presses
  
• historical accounts of the political economy of publishing and its effects on the field
  
• reflections on the role of editors and editing as mostly invisible intellectual labor
  
• accounts of publishing initiatives beyond the Anglophone world, including in Latin America
  
• female-run initiatives, editors, and publishers
  

Please reach out to hms@mediastudies.press with any questions.

History of Media Studies is a peer-reviewed, scholar-run, diamond OA journal dedicated to scholarship on the history of research, education, and reflective knowledge about media and communication—as expressed through academic institutions; through commercial, governmental, and non-governmental organizations; and through “alter-traditions” of thought and practice often excluded from the academic mainstream. The journal publishes high-quality, original articles, reviews, and commentary on the history of this inter- and extra-disciplinary area as it has intersected with other fields in the social sciences and humanities—and with social practices beyond the academy.

University of St. Gallen 

The Media and Culture Research Unit at the MCM Institute, University of St. Gallen is hiring:

We are seeking two highly motivated PhD candidates to join an exciting new SNSF-funded research project investigating the persuasive power of communicative AI (comAI) in the everyday lives of adolescents and families across Europe. 

The Project

Chatbots, virtual assistants, and AI writing tools are becoming a normal part of daily life for young people across Europe. Yet we know surprisingly little about how these technologies actually influence adolescents - their attitudes, decisions, and relationships - in the context of everyday family life. This four-year cross-national ethnographic study investigates the persuasive power of comAI among adolescents aged 13–18 and their families across Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy. It examines AI influence along three dimensions: the interpersonal dimension, exploring how young people perceive AI as a social actor and navigate questions of agency and relationship; the social and cultural dimension, focusing on how families respond to AI-generated disinformation, bias, and errors; and the technical dimension, examining how families understand emotional design, data profiling, and manipulative by-design features in comAI. Findings will inform AI regulation and digital literacy programmes across Europe.

The DOK Programme

Successful candidates will be enrolled in the PhD Programme in Organisation Studies and Cultural Theory (DOK) at the University of St. Gallen. The DOK programme integrates the university's core and contextual subjects in an interdisciplinary form of doctoral studies, bringing together organisational research and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS). The programme is particularly suited to research that engages with complex social, cultural, and technological questions from multiple disciplinary perspectives, making it an ideal home for this project.

What We Offer

• A fully funded PhD position (100%) for four years supervised by Prof. Veronica Barassi, starting in September 2026.
  
• Enrolment in the DOK programme at the University of St. Gallen, one of Europe's leading universities.
  
• Integration into the Media & Culture research unit (=mcm3) at the Institute of Media and Communications Management Institute, a dynamic, international, and interdisciplinary research team. See more information about us here: https://mcm.unisg.ch/en/das-institut/lehrstuehle-und-forschungsbereiche/mcm3/.
  
• Access to a growing network of researchers through the PersuasiveAI Futures Network
  

Your Profile

• Master's degree in communication sciences, social sciences, political sciences, or a related field.
  
• Proficiency in English and fluency in at least one or two of the project languages (German, French, or Italian) is mandatory.
  
• Willingness and ability to spend extended periods conducting fieldwork in one of the following cities: Berlin, Paris, or Milan.
  
• Knowledge of qualitative and ethnographic research methodologies is a strong advantage.
  
• Curiosity, intellectual independence, and a genuine interest in the social impacts of comAI.
  

How to Apply: 

Application must be submitted by 4 May. In person interviews will be held by 15 June, with decisions communicated by the end of that month.

Please send along: 

• A cover letter explaining who you are, your background, and why you are interested in the PhD position, including your level of language knowledge and your connection to one of the ethnographic areas
  
• A one-page document outlining your potential PhD project
  
• Your CV
  
• A writing sample (MA thesis, article, etc.), if available but not mandatory
  

APPLICATION LINK: https://jobs.unisg.ch/offene-stellen/two-fully-funded-phd-positions-m-w-d/53f14753-3d80-4877-acfe-1acc0b62e409 

For information about the job opening or general questions, please contact philip.disalvo@unisg.ch (applications must be submitted through the application link, applications coming via email won't be considered).

We invite advanced scholars as well as early-career researchers with a completed PhD to serve as mentors at the poster session of the ECREA European Communication Conference 2026 in Brno. 

This session is designed to support Master’s students and early-stage PhD candidates by combining traditional poster presentations with personalized mentorship.  

Mentors will be matched with presenters based on shared research interests.  

As a mentor, you will: 

• Provide feedback on the poster draft ahead of the conference; 

• (Ideally) attend the poster session during the conference and engage in discussion with but not limited to your assigned mentee; 

• Meet with the mentee during or after the conference (in-person or online) to offer career guidance and/or help mentees refine their research.  

After introducing the mentor and mentee to each other via e-mail in May, it will be the mentee’s responsibility to reach out to the mentor, ask for the poster draft feedback, and arrange the mentoring meeting.  

Please express your interest in serving as a mentor by April 30 using the following form: https://forms.office.com/e/U3XhhtYaT6 

We will get back to you in May to match you with a mentee. 

If you have any questions, please contact Lucie Čejková: luccej@fss.muni.cz 

Thank you for supporting this initiative and helping us create an inclusive and nurturing environment at ECC 2026! 

Ariadna Moreno Pellejero

The book analyses the cinematographic oeuvre of the Belgian director Chantal Akerman, seeking to address a fundamental question: in what way does Akerman’s cinema reach the spectator’s body, activating something that did not exist prior to the encounter with the image? Situated at the intersection of aesthetics, film studies, and contemporary feminist film theory, the book proposes an engagement with the ritual dimension of cinema and intimacy, capable of connecting with the audience’s bodily experience. Furthermore, the essay establishes a correspondence between Akerman’s work and that of other filmmakers operating within the personal realm, where experimental, documentary, and fictional modes hybridise.

Please find attached links with further information and a preview of the text: https://puz.unizar.es/3207-de-la-forma-ritual-a-la-experiencia-corporal-el-cine-de-chantal-akerman.html

The Spring 2026 list of books available to review in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television has been updated on the IAMHIST website: https://iamhist.net/journal/#books-review

Should you be interested in reviewing a particular title, please contact the book review editor at Veronica.Johnson@outlook.ie giving details about your own research and why you are interested in reviewing the book you have chosen.

August 18-21, 2026

Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil

Deadline: April 30, 2026

ALAIC Holds its 12th Summer School

Continuing a long-standing partnership, the organization counts on the participation of ECREA researchers in the activities.

From August 18th to 21st, the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (https://www2.ufjf.br/international/), Brazil, will host the 12th edition of the Summer School promoted by the Latin American Association of Communication Researchers (ALAIC).

The activities bring together undergraduate and graduate students in communication who can participate in person or online. The working languages are Portuguese and Spanish. In the coming weeks, a Call for Papers will be published with more information at www.alaic.org.

Continuing the long-standing relationship since the first edition of the ALAIC Summer School, the Latin American organization counts on the participation of at least one representative from ECREA in the program. The name of this researcher will be selected by the ECREA Governing Body. 

If you are interested, please send us an email at info@ecrea.eu by April 30, 2026.

In addition, ALAIC offers 500 euros to support the participation of ECREA postgraduate students who are selected. 

ECREA also supports the 1st World Summer School (WSS), scheduled to take place virtually from October 21st to 24th, resulting from a partnership between scientific associations and universities. The selection of postgraduate students will take place in May.

University of Fribourg, Switzerland 

We are seeking to fill a senior teaching and research assistant position (“maître-assistant”) in Communication and Media Research (teaching in French).

Workload: 40–50% (with the possibility of additional teaching responsibilities)

Location: Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Application deadlinee: April 30, 2026

Start date: September 1, 2026, or to be agreed upon

More information and applications: https://jobs.fr.ch/job/Fribourg2C-CH-MaC3AEtre-assistant-e-en-Sciences-de-la-communication-&-des-mC3A9dias-Sari/1356507857/