ECREA

European Communication Research
and Education Association

Log in

ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

  • 30.05.2024 11:19 | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    Edited by: Gaëlle Ouvrein, Ana Jorge, and Hilde Van den Bulck 

    Published in May 2024

    Audience Interactions in Contemporary Celebrity Culture: Approaches from across Disciplines explores current understandings of celebrity-audience relationships in the context of digitalization and the ongoing celebritization of all aspects of culture and society. Focusing on the themes of celebrity and health, celebrity and identity, and celebrity and scandal, this volume presents chapters authored by experts from across the globe that deal with celebrity-audience relationships in different historical, cultural, and social settings, tackling the topics from social-psychological, critical/cultural, and persuasive perspectives. In doing so, this book highlights the broadening of disciplinary, paradigmatic, theoretical, and methodological approaches to celebrity studies research. By bringing these different approaches together in one book and drawing overall conclusions across chapters, the editors and contributors of this volume promote and facilitate cross-fertilization in ongoing efforts to grasp the fascinating complexity of celebrity-audiences relationships. Scholars of media, pop culture, and celebrity studies will find this collection particularly useful.

    Contributions by: Gwen Bouvier, Mihai Coman, Paulien Decorte, Simone Driessen, Olivier Driessens, Regiane Lucas Garcêz, Qiang Geng, David C. Giles, Alexander Jenkins, Gaëlle Ouvrein, Pedro Paixão-Rocha, Samantha Tecson, Hilde Van den Bulck

    About the editors: Gaëlle Ouvrein is assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Brussels. Ana Jorge is associate professor of media and communications at Lusófona University. Hilde Van den Bulck is professor of communication studies at Drexel University.

    Availability:

    Audience Interactions in Contemporary Celebrity Culture: Approaches from across Disciplines (Lexington Books) for $105.00 • (£81.00)(Hardcover) and $45.00 • (£35.00)(Ebook). For more information, please visit: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666922448/Audience-Interactions-in-Contemporary-Celebrity-Culture-Approaches-from-across-Disciplines 

  • 29.05.2024 14:33 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    September 16 - 20, 2024

    University of Bonn, Germany

    Deadline: June 30, 2024

    Summer School

    In times of datafication and the increasing integration of artificial intelligence applications into many areas of society, the debates about human self-determination and technological autonomy can be seen as symptoms of a profound reconfiguration of the relationships between technology, culture, and society. Together we want to explore key issues related to these themes and their consequences for, among others, individuals, institutions, and democracy.

    In the course of the ongoing rise of artificial intelligence, digital society unfolds diverse potentials for transforming the relationship between humans and technology. Social robots like Paro, generative language programs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT, and interactive voice assistant systems (Alexa, Siri) simulate authentic interpersonal interactions, mimic cognitive processes of emotion recognition, present themselves in humanoid forms, and generate evaluative speech and text communication. With the continuously expanding functional spectrum of artificial intelligence, new scenarios are being explored, and algorithmic degrees of freedom beyond human control, surveillance, and intervention are activated and normalized in many areas of society.

    The enhanced capabilities of new “social machines” pose serious ethical and political challenges for democracies. Machines are no longer perceived solely within communication processes as media for storing, visualizing, and distributing information, but are conceptualized, utilized, and researched as communication partners. In particular, we need to account for the increasing autonomy of technical artifacts such as robots, voice assistance systems, drones, or so-called autonomous vehicles. What semantics surround their usage? Which are the most crucial and far-reaching implications that different types of autonomous systems have for defense, surveillance, work and care situations as well as for electoral mobilization and political decision making within democratic societies? Are critical methodologies and research perspectives such as “responsible AI” or “platformization”, sufficient to capture the effects of “social machines” on democratic life?

    In general, the summer school explores the development of human self-understanding under contemporary technological conditions, the relationship between states and private actors, and specific scenarios of human-technology interaction in medicine, music, art, and politics that confront us with a complicated landscape of risks and constantly evolving challenges for regulation but also with an underexplored variety of chances for creating a better future and enhancing the resilience and vitality of democracies.

    Autonomy and Autonomous Systems Workgroup

    Cooperative Summer School

    The Universities of Bonn and the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH) in collaboration with distinguished professionals, international scholars, and researchers from Europe and the United States, invite you to participate in an in-depth Summer School on “Artificial Intelligence, Social Machines and the Future of Democracy”. This 5-day program is organized to provide individuals and organizations with the knowledge, skills, and practical understanding necessary to address the intricate issues surrounding AI and the future of human-machine relations and democratic governance structures.

    This Summer School intends to bring together a variety of disciplines, such as

    • philosophy

    • media studies

    • political science/international relations

    • information science

    • science and technology studies

    • technology and innovation management

    • robotics

    • psychology

    One afternoon will be dedicated to a practical workshop at University of Bonn’s ‘Human Robot Lab’ to offer a hands-on perspective on robot research.

    The Summer School is open for a total of 30 PhD, MA, M.Sc candidates with different disciplinary backgrounds. Participants are offered (1) extensive training in discussing current research problems following keynote presentations and in small-group workshops, (2) the opportunity to network with other students and leading scholars, and (3) an inspiring environment to present and discuss their own research work.

    Keynote Speakers:

    Christian Bauckhage, PhD, Professor of Computer Science (Pattern Recognition), Lead Scientist for Machine Learning at Fraunhofer IAIS, co-director of The Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, University of Bonn (Germany).

    André Cramer (DT/German Telekom), Innovation Strategy, Strategic Communications and Tech Ethics Advocacy, member of the AI competence Team of the German Telekom.

    Autumn Edwards, PhD, Professor, School of Communication; Editor-in-Chief of the Human- Machine Communication Journal, Western Michigan University (USA). Co-editor of the «DeGruyter Handbook of Robots in Society and Culture» (to appear 2024)

    Chad Edwards, PhD, Professor of Communication, Co-Director of the Communication and Social Robotics Labs; Associate Editor of the Human-Machine Communication Journal, Western Michigan University, USA

    Gabriele Gramelsberger, PhD, Professor for Theory of Science and Technology. Co-Head of the Human Technology Center at RWTH Aachen, Director of the Kate Hamburger Kolleg "Cultures of Research", RWTH Aachen (Germany).

    Application:

    To apply, MA and PhD students are asked to submit an abstract of 300 words detailing their own research and a short CV. Selection of participants based on following criteria: thematic fit, originality, interdisciplinary approach. Accepted abstracts will be presented in a high- density session including a short presentation and a poster. Please submit your application via email (see below) until June 30th, 2024.

    Program

    The Summer School will include daily keynote lectures, and practical and theoretical workshops on related topics. Further details will be published soon.

    Dates

    • Application Deadline: June 30th, 2024
    • Acceptance Notification: July 15th, 2024
    • Summer School: September 16th - 20th, 2024

    Contact address for abstracts:

    Anna Maria Böhmer (anna.boehmer@uni-bonn.de)

    University of Bonn, Lennéstraße 6, 53113 Bonn/Germany

    Fees

    Participation at the Summer School will be free. Costs for travel and accommodation will not be covered.

    Organizing Team:

    • University of Bonn
    • Secretary: Dagmar Ogon (ogon@uni-bonn.de)
    • Prof. Dr. Caja Thimm (thimm@uni-bonn.de)
    • Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer (maximilian.mayer@uni-bonn.de)

    More information : https://autonomy-research-group.org/en/index-en.html

  • 29.05.2024 14:15 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Communication & Society (2025 Special Issue)

    Deadline: October 30, 2024

    Guest Editors:

    • Josef Trappel, University of Salzburg, Austria
    • Tales Tomaz, University of Salzburg, Austria Gillian Doyle, University de Glasgow, Scotland
    • Mercedes Medina, University of Navarra, Spain

    Recent transformations in media ownership and market concentration have had a considerable impact on the diversity and quality of news and information accessible to the public. After many years of journalism experience, producing and disseminating news continues to be a highly challenging, but necessary endeavor (Ferrucci and Nelson, 2019; Neff et al., 2022; Picard, 2010). In the latest decades, two categories of new entrants are playing a decisive role in this scenario: small-scale businesses characterized by adaptable frameworks and cost-efficient operations (Medina, Breiner & Sánchez-Tabernero, 2023) and technology titans such as Google, Meta, X, and TikTok (Voci et al., 2019; Trappel, 2024). The stability of the information system is jeopardized by the financial instability of traditional media conglomerates or the infiltration of technological platforms with substantial market reach but minimal regard for journalistic standards (Flew et al., 2024; Hendrickx, Smets, & Ballon, 2021).The current discourse centers on expanding the scope of corporations' operations to guarantee income streams that support journalistic endeavors (Vara-Miguel et al., 2023) or resort to public funding to preserve a struggling market (Sjøvaag & Krumsvik, 2018).

    In the present call for papers, we invite authors to contribute empirical and theoretical research on how ownership can influence the continuity of news media and its essential role in democracy.

    This special issue aims to bring together interdisciplinary research that sheds light on the following topics (not limited to):

    ● In the digital age, who owns media matters.

    ● Ownership and strategic management of media companies as sources of competitive advantage.

    ● Financial sustainability of media companies: solutions to overcoming information market failures.

    ● Exploring how private and public ownership influences the content of media outlets.

     ● Market concentration and pluralism in the digital era.

    ● Transparency in media ownership: implications and case studies.

    ● Editorial independence and media ownership.

    ● Relationships between media ownership, politics and democracy.

    ● Influence of media ownership on audience trust.

    ● Impact of changes in media ownership and ownership on content policies

    and strategies.

    ● The transformation of media companies through technology.

    Paper submission deadline: before October 30, 2024.

    Articles should be submitted through the OJS before October 30, 2024 for the peer-review process. Authors should indicate in the "author comments" section that this article is for this monograph.

    The proposed articles must comply with the journal's guidelines which can be found on the following link: https://www.unav.edu/publicaciones/revistas/index.php/communication-and- society/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

    Publication: April 2025.

    This special issue is part of the project Resilient Media for Democracy (ReMeD) the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 101094742.

    Call can be found here: https://www.unav.edu/documents/29853/0/CYS_CFP_2025.pdf/3d32359e-4c35-bda9-8cca-e4ecfc7476b2?t=1716894864639 

  • 23.05.2024 13:54 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Edited by: Irina Zakharova (Leibniz University Hannover, Germany) & Juliane Jarke (University of Graz, Austria)

    A new Special Issue on “Care-ful Data Studies: or, what do we see, when we look at datafied societies through the lens of care?” edited by Irina Zakharova and Juliane Jarke has been published in Information, Communication & Society, Vol. 27(4): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2316758

    The issue and its nine contributions apply feminist care ethics to the study of datafied societies. The contributions explore socio-digital care arrangements, practices of data work and care, situated modes of knowledge production, politics of vulnerability, and build communities of care in our datafied world.

  • 21.05.2024 21:03 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Medijske studije/Media studies (special issue)

    Deadline: June 20, 2024

    Medijske studije / Media studies journal announces call for papers for the special issue: New European Media and Platform Policy: Implications for the Political Economy of News

    Guest editors:

    Tales Tomaz (University of Salzburg), Josef Trappel (University of Salzburg), Mercedes Medina (University of Navarra)

    Important dates:

    • Extended abstract submission deadline (800-1000 words, excluding references): 20 June 2024
    • Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 August 2024
    • Full paper submission deadline: 15 December 2024
    • Special issue publication date: June 2025

    Different economic arrangements of media and technology lead to different outcomes. Publicly funded media with independent governance structures usually provide more accurate and public-oriented coverage, upholding the rights of vulnerable groups (Benson, 2018; Cushion, 2017). Even distinct ownership and governance forms of private media matter: publicly traded companies are more aligned with general capitalist demands than family-owned outlets, or ad-based outlets are more sensitive to corporate interests than subscription-based ones (Dunaway, 2008; Soloski, 2019).

    Thinking about these conditions is ever more important as the political economy of news has significantly changed in the recent decades. News has become digital (Newman et al., 2023), platformised (Poell et al., 2023) and produced and distributed by a variety of actors beyond media companies, ranging from big tech platforms to small alternative content producers (Mancini, 2020). In addition, the advertising-based business model of news production does not seem to be sustainable for the demands of democratic societies facing (geo)political, economic, societal and ecological crises, while the pressure on publicly funded media only increases (Sjøvaag & Ohlsson, 2019).

    Far from the libertarian fantasy that an economy can be created outside the control or oversight of governments, political bodies are active in shaping the conditions under which all stakeholders operate. This is also true for media and technology (Griffin, 2023). Accordingly, the European Union has followed these developments and created a comprehensive regulatory package to influence the political economy of media and platforms. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the AI Act and the Media Freedom Act (EMFA), among others, have laid down new baselines for the operation of media and digital platforms. To what extent are these changes having a real impact on the political economy of news production, distribution and consumption? Should we expect changes in EU countries in terms of ownership concentration, funding of public interest content or the balance between profit and non-profit news production? Does the new regulatory framework favour the promotion of public interest content? Should we expect EU influence in middle powers, which are often “policy followers”, shaping their regulation and political economy of news as well?

    On top of those questions, the governance toolbox is more diverse than the one reflected in this EU regulatory framework. There are options on the table such as stronger antitrust enforcement against platforms (as attempted by the FTC in the US), increasing public subsidies to news media (the Nordic experience) or requiring platforms to fund news media (as represented by the Australian Media Bargaining Code). There is also the proposal to create a fully-fledged public service internet (D’Arma et al., 2021). Would such measures in Europe achieve better results than the current framework? What impact should we expect from different instruments? How to design these alternatives, given the current framework, and how to build the political will to bring them about?

    This special issue welcomes proposals on the topics above and related discussions. Submissions can be theoretical, methodological or empirical, case studies or comparative work. Innovative use of methods is encouraged. We expect extended abstracts of 800 to 1.000 words, excluding references, by 20 June 2024.

    Abstracts should be sent to tales.tomaz@plus.ac.at, josef.trappel@plus.ac.at, mmedina@unav.es and ms@fpzg.hr.

    Manuscripts should be submitted directly through the Media Studies OJS system. The manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review, following the standard procedure of the journal. When submitting the manuscript, please make a note that submission is for the special issue New European Media and Platform Policy: Implications for the Political Economy of News.

    Manuscripts should be up to 8.000 words, including footnotes and references. Detailed instructions for authors can be found here.

    For more information about the special issue, please contact: tales.tomaz@plus.ac.at, josef.trappel@plus.ac.at, mmedina@unav.es or grbesa@fpzg.hr.

    Articles published in the Media Studies journal are indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, ProQuest - Social Science Database and Social Science Premium Collection, ERIH PLUS, Hrčak – The Portal of Croatian Scientific Journals and DOAJ – the Directory of Open Access Journals.

    For more information about the journal, visit Media Studies.

    References

    Benson, R. (2018). Rethinking the sociology of media ownership. In L. Grindstaff, M.-C. M. Lo, & J. R. Hall (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Cultural Sociology (pp. 387–396). Routledge.

    Cushion, S. (2017). The democratic value of news: Why public service media matter. Bloomsbury Publishing.

    D’Arma, A., Fuchs, C., Horowitz, M. A., & Unterberger, K. (2021). The future of public service media and the internet. In C. Fuchs & K. Unterberger (Eds.), The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto (pp. 113–127). University of Westminster Press. https://doi.org/10.16997/book60

    Dunaway, J. (2008). Markets, ownership, and the quality of campaign news coverage. The Journal of Politics, 70(4), 1193–1202. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381608081140

    Griffin, R. (2023). Public and private power in social media governance: Multistakeholderism, the rule of law and democratic accountability. Transnational Legal Theory, 14(1), 46–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/20414005.2023.2203538

    Mancini, P. (2020). Comparing media systems and the digital age. International Journal of Communication, 14, 5761–5774.

    Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Eddy, K., Robertson, C. T., & Nielsen, R. K. (2023). Digital News Report 2023. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023

    Poell, T., Nieborg, D. B., & Duffy, B. E. (2023). Spaces of negotiation: Analyzing platform power in the news industry. Digital Journalism, 11(8), 1391–1409. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2103011

    Sjøvaag, H., & Ohlsson, J. (2019). Media ownership and journalism. In H. Sjøvaag & J. Ohlsson, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.839

    Soloski, J. (2019). The murky ownership of the journalistic enterprise. Journalism, 20(1), 159–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918809250

  • 21.05.2024 21:01 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    November 29, 2024

    Prague, Czech Republic

    Deadline: June 2, 2024

    It is our pleasure to open the call for papers and presentations for the 2024 Prague Media Point Conference, which will take place on November 29, in Prague, Czech Republic.

    Artificial intelligence has come with a power to dramatically shaken our economic, labour, and information systems. For the media sphere, it means yet another drastic turn on its bumpy ride towards any prospect of renewed stability. But unlike many other such turns, AI may provide professionals with a reactive (and creative) potential on a more egalitarian and therefore democratic basis. With the hindsight of coming on to two years of widely accessible AI tools, join Prague Media Point in assessing the impact on and responses of the media sphere and journalism to the two-vowel phenomenon. Be that on the job market, school curricula, newsroom policies, media regulation, journalistic solidarity, and beyond.

    We seek submissions of abstracts, presentations or session proposals that focus on research, projects, and practices in the media that appear to be working and generating impact in the response to AI-induced media volatility (alternatively, which clearly demonstrate a potential to do so). We stress the importance of this AI-volatility link and the example-based approach for the submissions. The topical areas should be related to the following:

    ·         Reforming media/journalism education and media literacy for the new paradigm

    ·         Responses to increasingly precarious and volatile work conditions of journalists

    ·         Freelancing as the new norm

    ·         Building cross-journalism solidarity and new forms of collaboration

    ·         Internal changes at newsrooms – policies, workers, leadership, strategies

    ·         AI and new business models

    ·         Success of hitherto platform and media regulation and what to improve

    ·         Protecting journalism in adversity – standards, volatility, SLAAPs, pluralism, trust

    ·         Harnessing AI for investigative and data journalism

    ·         AI and English-language dominance vs. small-language media – marginalization or expansion?

    ·         Election super-year and beyond: what’s new on the disinfo scene, what’s missing in our responses

    Please submit max 500-word abstracts or proposals + a short bio by June 2, 2024 to: precek@keynote.cz.

    Please use the templates on our webpage, where you can also find more information on registration, deadlines, and fees: https://www.praguemediapoint.com/call-for-abstracts

    Contact: Marek Přeček, Project Coordinator, precek@keynote.cz

  • 21.05.2024 20:48 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    May 21, 2024

    Online

    IAMCR Presidential PhD Research Seminar on "News Agencies in Transition: An Exploration of Their Status Quo, Challenges, and Future Prospects convened by Jasmin Surm 

    Join the webinar on “News Agencies in Transition” on 21 May 2024 at 08:00 UTC. 

    This webinar offers an exceptional opportunity to foster enriching scholarly dialogue on the dynamic field of news agencies. Participants will have the chance to network and engage in meaningful exchanges of ideas. 

    Our presenters will address a range of critical topics, including: 

    - Jasmin Surm: "News Agencies in Transition: An Exploration of Their Current State, Challenges, and Future Prospects” 

    - Sina Thäsler-Kordonouri: "Exploring AI Integration in UK Newsrooms: An Investigation into the Use and Evaluation of News Agency Automated Journalism” 

    - Barbara Ravbar: "Refugee Crisis through Media Lenses: Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Xenophobia in Reporting of European News Agencies on the Ukrainian and Syrian Refugee Crisis” 

    Your participation is highly anticipated! 

    To receive an invitation, please contact Mazlum Kemal Dagdelen at <mazlum@iamcr.org>.

  • 20.05.2024 20:41 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    November 22, 2024

    MS Teams

    SHORT DESCRIPTION:

    Continuing our research meetings focused on specific issues of mediatization research chaired by eminent experts (Göran Bolin (2017), Johan Fornäs (2018), Andreas Hepp (2019), Mark Deuze (2020) André Jansson (2021), Andrew Hoskins (2022), Kirsten Frandsen (2023), this year the workshop will take place online on the 22 November 2024 and it will be led by Professor Carlos A. Scolari, Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University. We invite all mediatization researchers who wish to discuss their own research projects in a narrow and closed group of media scholars under the guidance of an expert. 

    MORE INFO AND REGISTRATION:

    https://www.umcs.pl/pl/towards-development-of-mediatization-research-viii-mediatization-s-conversations-of-theories-concepts-and-traditions,29680.htm 

  • 16.05.2024 09:25 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Fribourg, Switzerland

    The Chair in Communication and Media Studies (Prof. Thilo von Pape) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) offers a fully funded 5 year PhD position for graduates with at least intermediate skills in French.

    You are a creative and autonomous person, and you enjoy the theories and methods of social research. You can work both independently and as part of a team. You are interested in the following areas:

    - uses, effects, and social issues of media innovations: equal access, everyday appropriation, well-being, privacy, sustainability,

    - digital communication: mobile media, social networks, human-machine communication, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, internet of things

    You are proficient in qualitative or quantitative methods of data collection and analysis applied in the social sciences.

    Percentage of employment: 100%

    Application deadline: June 8

    Start of employment: September 1.

    Complete job ad: https://www.unifr.ch/dcm/de/assets/public/files/jobs/2405-DiplomassistenzCommMediaE.pdf

    Questions to: thilo.vonpape@unifr.ch

  • 15.05.2024 10:43 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Anna Zsubori

    Since the creation of the franchise in 2000, Disney Princesses have become a ‘phenomenon’ receiving international attention, admiration as well as criticism from both consumers and scholars. Although audience research has seen growing recognition recently, the investigation of audiences in Central and Eastern Europe and those of Disney animated features is greatly neglected by academics. Within the framework of audience research and by employing Disney Princess animations as the object of study, Anna Zsubori’s book examines the verbal and visual identity constructions of tweens in illiberal Hungary.

    Through Hungarian tweens’ ambivalent and sometimes even contradictory ideas of identity, this research reveals the heterogeneity of both the ‘Princess Phenomenon’, by highlighting that its local negotiation is profoundly impacted by cultural and societal characteristics, and of the diverse audiences, who are multifarious in their understandings that often incorporate antithetical and dynamic discourses. Combining textual, thematic and semiotic, analyses of the conversations, tweens’ drawings and building blocks, and broader contextual examinations of the sessions with Hungarian children, this book offers original contributions on both theoretical and methodological levels. Its findings demonstrate the novelty of this project, and its relevance to audience, communication, cultural, feminist media, film and tweenhood studies, and sociology.

    Praise:

    “In this absorbing and thought-provoking text, Zsubori deftly explores the complex position that Disney Princesses inhabit within the lives of Central and Eastern European tweens. Exploring the inbetweenness of age, geography, and culture, this book offers a nuanced reading of Hungarian tweens as intelligent and critical viewers of Disney media, drawing on rich empirical data to give voice to this under-researched group. Through its interdisciplinary approach Zsubori contributes to our understanding of the limits of Western theories in non-Western contexts, and what it means to do gender-specific field work in an anti-gender environment.”

    — Victoria Cann, University of East Anglia

    “The Walt Disney Company is one of the oldest and most complex global entertainment empires today, engaging with and influencing our lives in various ways regardless of age, race, gender, or geographical location. This book provides a powerful lens inviting the reader to look at Disney not only at the global, macro level, but also the micro-level: in our daily lives, around the family dinner table, in the classroom setting and elsewhere. While the focus is on the Disney Princess phenomenon, and tweens negotiating self-representation and identity in the small Central European nation of Hungary, the insights and conclusions are, in many ways, rather universal, often surprising and paradoxical. The reader will not only see the Disney Princess Franchise but the Disney Company from a more nuanced and informed perspective after reading this influential and well-researched book.”

    — Katalin Lustyik, Ithaca College

    “What unfolds when a Princess from the West claims her throne in Eastern and Central Europe? Is she a colonial ruler or a feminist icon? Anna Zsubori's insightful book explores the interpretation of Disney Princesses by Hungarian tweens, examining reception of their gender roles and racial identities within the context of Hungary's increasingly patriarchal, racially intolerant, and illiberal society. This exploration delves into the "in-betweenness" of Hungarian tweens, a concept that captures not just their transitional age but also Hungary's delicate balance between East and West.”

    — Irena Reifová, Charles University

    About the Author:

    Anna Zsubori is a media sociologist and film studies scholar, presently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Loughborough University. She specialises in conducting audience research with marginalised and vulnerable participants in Central and Eastern Europe. Her research explores the heterogeneity of Hungarian tween audiences through the participants’ ambivalent and sometimes even contradictory ideas about their identity, while her latest project, funded by the British Academy, examines social media usage among Hungarian LGBTQ+ citizens. Dr Zsubori’s articles have been published in prestigious journals such as the European Journal of Cultural Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Children and Media and Studies in Eastern European Cinema.

    Module Reading Lists:

    Please do consider requesting a copy of Disney Princesses and Tween Identity: The Franchise in Illiberal Hungary for your university library. It should be relevant to reading lists for various gender, media and film modules/studies, including:

    • Audiences, Users and Producers
    • Children, Culture and Cinema
    • Culture and Media
    • Cultural Studies
    • Disney Studies
    • Feminist Approaches to Media Analysis
    • Feminist Media Studies
    • Film Studies
    • Gender and Representation
    • Gender, Identity and Media
    • Global Audiences
    • Media Audiences
    • Media, Identity and Diversity
    • Popular Media
    • Researching the Audience
    • Society and Representation
    • Texts and Audiences
    • Tweenhood Studies
    • Youth Culture and the Media

    Availability:

    Disney Princesses and Tween Identity: The Franchise in Illiberal Hungary is now from Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield) for £92 (Hardcover) and £38 (Ebook). For more information, please visit: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793647115/Disney-Princesses-and-Tween-Identity-The-Franchise-in-Illiberal-Hungary

ECREA WEEKLY DIGEST

contact

ECREA

Chaussée de Waterloo 1151
1180 Uccle
Belgium

Who to contact

Support Young Scholars Fund

Help fund travel grants for young scholars who participate at ECC conferences. We accept individual and institutional donations.

DONATE!

CONNECT

Copyright 2017 ECREA | Privacy statement | Refunds policy