ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

April 12-13, 2027

Turin, Italy

Abstract submission deadline: September 30, 2026

The conference explores the circulation, transformation and reinterpretation of cultural heritage from an interdisciplinary perspective. It welcomes contributions addressing the intersections between media, media practices and cultural heritage, including the circulation of audiovisual media, archives and memories, formats and modes of mediation, and the role of media in the transmission and transformation of cultural heritage.

The call is open to PhD researchers and early-career scholars who obtained their PhD no more than three years ago, working in media and communication studies, cultural heritage studies, game studies, and related fields.

Full Call for Abstracts (english version below):

https://dott-patrimonio.campusnet.unito.it/do/avvisi.pl/ShowFile?_id=8hte;field=allegato;key=LQbXrWYUjgc7MU2Dh9E9NI5LeLiT5LCXA;t=8682

November 18, 2026

University of Klagenfurt

Deadline: September 30, 2026

Early-Career Workshop "How to Deal with Challenging Platform Environments? Ethics and Methodological Self-Reflection", organized by the early career representatives of the Visual Communication Section of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) as a pre-conference to the annual conference "25 Years of Images in Focus. Paradigms, Practices and Perspectives".

The workshop is aimed at doctoral candidates, postdocs and master's students and offers space for shared discussion of ethical and methodological challenges in researching particularly challenging visual platform environments (ranging from extremist content to mental health communities to kidfluencers). The program's first part features keynote talks by Moa Eriksson Krutrök (Associate Professor in Sociology at Umeå University, Sweden), Veronica Bezold (Research Associate in the ForGeRex research consortium at the University of Passau) and Franziska Koschei (Research Associate in the Research Department of JFF – Institute for Media Education in Research and Practice and part of the "ForGeRex" research consortium), while the second part consists of interactive Method & Ethics Circles addressing individual cases brought by the workshop participants.

The workshop aims to conclude with the joint development of a working paper. The workshop will take place in hybrid format on November 18, 2026 (10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.) at the University of Klagenfurt. Participation is free of charge. Contributions (max. 300 words) can be submitted until September 30, 2026. Registration is also possible for the keynote talks only. For further information, please see the Call for Participation on the conference website. (Submission deadline: September 30, 2026)

mediastudies.press invites you to join Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz and Yves Winkin for the launch of the Goffman in the Open book series. The free, one-hour online event will highlight the first three books in the series: Winkin’s From Erving to Goffman: A Work in Performance? (2026), Leeds-Hurwitz’s Mapping Goffman’s Invisible College (2025), and Goffman’s 1953 dissertation, Communication Conduct in an Island Community (2026, with an introduction by Winkin)—all diamond open access. Leeds-Hurwitz and Winkin will speak about the backstories of their books, with Winkin adding details about his visit to Unst, the Scottish island-site of Goffman’s dissertation fieldwork. Plenty of time will be set aside for Q&A. 

• September 18, 2026
  
• 14:00 UTC (10am EDT/3pm BST/4pm CET)
  
• One hour
  
• Register here
  

mediastudies.press is a scholar-led, nonprofit, no-fee open access publisher in the media, film, and communication studies fields.

Questions? Email press@mediastudies.press

Written by: Jannie Møller Hartley

Read and download the book Open Access: https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/just-you

Every day, invisible algorithms decide what news reaches us, what stories fade from view, and, quietly, how we come to understand the world. To uncover how these systems work, Jannie Møller Hartley spent years inside the machinery of personalisation, following journalists, editors, and data scientists as they grapple with what it means when machines take on something as deeply human as judgment.

Running through this story is the extraordinary life of Ada Lovelace, whose nineteenth-century vision of algorithms offers a powerful and historic lens on today’s debates about artificial intelligence, creativity, and human agency.

Blending storytelling, the history of algorithms, and original research, this book reveals how the technologies shaping our information environment influence what we know, what we notice, and how democratic life unfolds. It shows that algorithms carry human values, ambitions, and blind spots.

Written for researchers, journalists, students, technologists, policymakers, and anyone curious about life in an AI-powered information ecosystem, this book invites readers to imagine how these systems could be built differently.

Dear colleagues

I wanted to bring to your attention two recent publications from the Digital Futures for Children centre:

1. 'Assessing the impact of using EdTech on children's learning: A scoping review of meta-analyses' (by Kruakae Pothong, Kim Ringmar Sylwander, Sonia Livingstone, and Sandra El Gemayel) 

Open access link: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/140402/

We conducted a scoping review of meta-studies assessing the impact of using EdTech on children's learning. This review considers 56 meta-analyses, encompassing findings from 2,111 studies, involving many thousands of children worldwide. The evidence shows that gains from EdTech are realised in very particular contexts and conditions of implementation. Thus, we find that learning effects depend on how and by whom technology is deployed and used, rather than on an EdTech technology in isolation. EdTech produces its strongest effects when embedded in active, collaborative and contextually grounded pedagogical approaches. When findings are disaggregated by children with different needs, ages and abilities, the measured impact varies greatly, and the evidence is the weakest for the most vulnerable children.

2. Our anthology 'Children's rights under pressure in a digital world' (edited by Kim R Sylwander, Gazal Shekhawat and Sonia Livingstone) 

Open access link:  https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/our-work/rights-under-pressure

The DFC's first anthology showcases work presented at the ICA 2026 pre-conference in Cape Town, South Africa. Spanning continents, the anthology's papers are organised around five themes: participation, regulation, family, commercial interests, and new technology. We invite readers to engage with the papers and seek conversation and collaboration with our anthology collaborators across the world. 

You can learn more about the DFC's work here: https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/our-work 

All the very best, Sonia

Mediální studia/Media Studies 

Deadline: September 15, 2026

Mediální studia / Media Studies calls for the submission of audio/visual essays for its first edition of 2027. As part of the journal’s innovation strategy, peer-reviewed audio/visual essays will complement the journal’s already-existing written text articles. The aim of this expansion is to strengthen academic multimodality, validate academic work that transcends hegemonic forms of academic knowledge sharing and benefit from the abilities that auditive and visual modes of communication create.

Authors are invited to submit their A/V essays (and contextualising statements) for peer review before 15 September 2026, to the journal’s submission site at https://ms.vedeckecasopisy.cz/.

The genre of the academic A/V essay refers to formal and structured pieces of work with a clear narrative that creatively deploy audio/visual modes of communication. Subgenres include audiovisual essays, film essays, video essays, and sound essays. This implies that the A/V Section also (warmly) welcomes essays that are sound-based only.

The focus on academic A/V essays implies that the contributions themselves need to contain the characteristics of academic publications, for instance, in their vocabulary, in their attention to theory and methodology, and in the rigorous and systematic nature of their analysis. At the same time, the A/V Section will welcome contributions with hybrid affiliations to different fields, for instance, by articulating artistic and academic approaches, including A/V essays that integrates elements from literature, theatre, and dance. The A/V Section also strongly prefers contributions that creatively deploy the use of the audio/visual mode (avoiding A/V work with only academic lecturing). Finally, A/V essays can be in any language, but when languages other than English are used, English-friendly measures are required.

The A/V section has no thematic a prioris, as the usage of the audio/visual mode of communication renders it relevant. At the same time, A/V essays that deal with communication-related themes are particularly welcome. The target audience of the A/V Section thus remains an academically informed audience, which implies that the A/V Section will not publish contributions which are primarily aimed at reaching (larger) audiences outside academia, as part of a science communication strategy.

Mediální studia / Media Studies is an established academic journal that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Financed by the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, at Charles University’s Faculty of Social Sciences, the journal is diamond open access, and, in other words, does not charge publication fees and makes its publications freely available. The journal’s main editor-in-chief is Kateřina Turková, and the A/V Section’s editor-in-chief is Nico Carpentier. The A/V Section is affiliated with the Multimodal Communication Research (MCR) of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

For questions, please contact Nico Carpentier at medialnistudia.avessays@fsv.cuni.cz.

More information can be found at the links below:

The journal website: https://medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/

The A/V Section webpage: https://medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/avessays/

The journal’s submission website: https://ms.vedeckecasopisy.cz/

The detailed A/V essays submission guidelines: https://medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/detailed-av-submission-guidelines/

A/V essays submission deadline: September 15, 2026

MIA

Media International Australia (MIA) – https://journals.sagepub.com/home/mia – calls for Expressions of Interest for the position of Junior Associate Editor.

Expressions are invited from early career scholars based in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, ideally who are members of the Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand Communication Association (AANZCA), or eligible to be. The Junior Associate Editor role is a voluntary position for a two-year term, commencing November 2026, and offers a key opportunity to help shape the intellectual direction of media and communication publishing in this region whilst, at the same time, developing the editor’s skills in journal management.

Founded by Professor Henry Mayer, MIA has now entered its fourth decade of publication. Supported by AANZCA (https://aanzca.org/), it has built an enviable track record as a key journal in Australasia for research and commentary focussed on media, telecommunications, and cultural industries, policies and practices. It now attracts submissions from across the globe.

About the role

After 3 years under the leadership of EIC Professor Crystal Abidin, MIA’s Editor in Chief (EIC) is now Dr Kylie J. Stevenson. The Junior Associate Editor will support Dr Stevenson’s leadership of the journal and undertake everyday editorial activities alongside Senior Associate Editor Dr Andy (Xinyu) Zhao, Book editor Dr Aljosha Karim Schapals, and Editorial Administrative Assistant Ashleigh Dharmawardhana. The expected work commitment is for around 4 hours per week and attendance at 4-8 meetings per year. As noted above, MIA editorial roles are voluntary and unpaid. The successful applicant will be provided with mentoring by the MIA Editorial and Executive teams.

It is anticipated that the Junior Associate Editor will be an early career researcher from the Australasia region (maximum 3 year post award of PhD) or, in exceptional circumstances, a late-stage (final year) doctoral candidate. The required skills (selection criteria) for the role are:

• High standard of academic English
  
• Ability to utilise online technical platforms
  
• Responsiveness to emails
  
• Attention to detail
  
• Ability to work successfully in a team
  
• Previous experience of academic publishing or editing preferred, but not essential
  

Activities may include:

• Working effectively with MIA editorial team, including the Editor-in-Chief, Senior
  
• Associate Editor, Book Reviews Editor, Editorial Assistant, MIA Executive team, and MIA
  
• Editorial Advisors.
  
• Assisting editors with the day-to-day running of the journal, including:
  
• Allocating papers to peer reviewers and monitoring progress;
  
• Regular consultation with Executive team and AANZCA Executive in meetings and at Annual General Meetings.

Submitting your application

• Brief CV, 1-3 pages
  
• Cover Letter - 2 page maximum, outlining how you fulfil the selection criteria and why you would like to edit MIA. You should also explain how you will help maintain and/or grow MIA’s reputation and reach, and ensure the journal’s content continues to be inclusive, interdisciplinary and internationally relevant.

Applications (and queries) should be addressed to the MIA Editor in Chief, Dr Kylie J. Stevenson or MIA Senior Editor Dr Andy Zhao at mediaintaus@outlook.com.

Closing date for EOIs is COB Friday 2 October 2026.

University of Bern

At the Institute of Communication and Media Studies (icmb) of the University of Bern, a position is available as a Post-doc (100%) in political communication

The position will be available from January 15th, 2027 (or by appointment) for an initial period of three years. It is intended to serve the purpose of scientific qualification.

Tasks:

- (potential) collaboration in an SNF-sponsored cross-national research project about how the lack of social recognition influences political information usage and effects. This project draws on the role of social identity and identity threats for political information behavior.

- development and implementation of own research ideas

- teaching of courses and supervision of BA and MA theses

- contribution to the general tasks of the institute

Requirements:

- above-average PhD in communication science, a related social science discipline or psychology

(applicants who are close to the completion of their PhD will also be considered)

- strong interest in political communication

- very good skills in quantitative (e.g., surveys & experiments, statistical analysis) and/or qualitative (e.g., interviews, thematic / discourse analysis) methods of empirical social science

- willingness to present research at (inter-)national conferences and to publish in top journals

- ability to work in a team

- proficiency in English; German is an advantage (French is a plus)

We offer: An attractive working environment awaits you at the Institute of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Bern: a collegial team, cooperation and exchange, as well as the freedom to develop your own ideas. Employment adheres to the regulations of the Canton of Berne.

Applications (letter of motivation including research interests / ideas, CV (incl. list of publications), certificates, two core publications and a recommendation letter) should be mailed as a PDF file by October 6th, 2026 to Prof. Dr. Silke Adam (silke.adam@unibe.ch). The talks will take place on October 20th / 21st. For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Silke Adam

Edited by: Catherine Bouko and Nataliia Laba

The book Six Critical Lenses on AI-generated Images offers six critical, interdisciplinary approaches to AI-generated images. It invites the reader to (re-)imagine relationships between artefacts and media, authorship and agency, creativity and commodification, representation, and visual style. Across the chapters, the book examines three realities of AI images, from sociotechnical fabrics, through semiotic interfaces, to representations and aesthetics.

Drawing on media studies, philosophy of technology, multimodality studies, critical AI studies, and visual communication studies, the book pursues the following interconnected topics:

(1) addressing pataphysical and sociomaterial engagements with AI image making,

(2) theorizing distributed and probabilistic forms of agency through the concept of vector agency,

(3) analysing interfaces and affordances of visual generative AI via multimodal walkthroughs,

(4) conceptualising prompting as a cultural practice that reshapes agency,

(5) mapping representational patterns and emerging visual genres in AI-generated imagery,

(6) interrogating how visual AI styles are co-produced by machines, users, and generative platform politics.

These six critical lenses offer complementary perspectives to understanding the complex ecosystem surrounding AI image production.

Six Critical Lenses on AI-Generated Images is intended for scholars, graduate students, and practitioners working with visual generative AI in both analytical and creative contexts. Ultimately, the book calls for a reflexive and responsible engagement with increasingly AI-mediated visual culture.

 Link to the book: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.1201/9781003740261/six-critical-lenses-ai-generated-images-nataliia-laba-catherine-bouko

November 5-6, 2026

University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal 

Deadline: September 1, 2026

https://televisaoenovosmeios.ubi.pt/

Democracy is increasingly challenged by political polarization, disinformation, populist communication, declining trust in institutions, and the rapid transformation of the media ecosystem. Television now coexists with digital platforms, streaming services, social media, and algorithmically curated information environments that profoundly shape political debate and public opinion.

The International Conference Television and New Media invites scholars, researchers and media professionals to reflect on the role of television and audiovisual media in contemporary democratic societies. Under the theme “Democracy in Times of Anger”, the conference seeks to explore how television and new media contribute to the construction, mediation, amplification or resistance of democratic and non-democratic discourses.

We welcome theoretical, empirical and comparative contributions from communication and media studies, political communication, journalism, propaganda, political science, cultural studies and related fields.

SUGGESTED TOPICS INCLUDE

• Television and democratic resilience
  
• Television and political communication
  
• Populism, polarization and media
  
• Television, propaganda and non-democratic discourses
  
• Disinformation, misinformation and fact-checking
  
• Television news and public trust
  
• Public service media and democracy
  
• Authoritarian narratives in audiovisual media
  
• Electoral campaigns and political advertising
  
• Journalism, editorial independence and democratic accountability
  
• Artificial intelligence, algorithms and political communication
  
• Television and social media ecosystems
  
• Platformisation of television
  
• Streaming platforms and the transformation of the public sphere
  
• Digital participation and civic engagement
  
• Hate speech, online extremism and media regulation
  
• Media literacy and democratic citizenship
  
• Visual communication and political persuasion
  
• Comparative perspectives on media systems and democracy
  
• Media regulation and freedom of expression
  
• Television audiences and democratic culture
  

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Researchers are invited to submit original abstracts of up to 500 words, clearly outlining the research question, theoretical framework, methodology and main findings or expected contribution.

Submissions should be written in English and subjected to: https://forms.gle/sNGAvrceNQSHTDUB7

The Television and New Media Conference is accepting proposals for in-person and remote presentations.

IMPORTANT DATES

• Call for Papers: 15 June 2026
  
• Submission deadline: 1 September 2026
  
• Notification of acceptance: 30 September 2026
  
• Conference: 5–6 November 2026
  

We look forward to welcoming researchers from around the world to the University of Beira Interior for two days of discussion on the future of television, audiovisual media and democracy.

PUBLICATION

All accepted papers will have the possibility of having their work published in a book, edited by Editora de Livros LabCom. The book will be open access and free of charge.

REGISTRATION

• €50: PhD holders
  
• €25: Students
  
• Free: UBI/LabCom members

SPEAKERS

ELKE WEISSMANN, Edge Hill University, United Kingdom

Elke’s research and teaching interests primarily lie in the area of television. This includes high-end drama, an area where she has specific expertise on transnational television with past collaborative work with Jonathan Bignell and another with Trisha Dunleavy. She is also interested in soap opera and public service television.

She also worked on a project on sustainability, local community and community-led television which is a collaboration between Edge Hill University, the University of Liverpool, Love Wavertree CIC and the British Academy. She is now taking this research forward to understand how the television industries tell stories about climate adaptation.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

• Sónia de Sá
  
• Francisco Merino
  
• Ana Catarina Pereira
  
• Branco Di Fátima
  
• Carla Cerqueira
  
• Eduardo Paz Barroso
  
• Evandro Oliveira
  
• Gil Baptista Ferreira
  
• Gisela Gonçalves
  
• Hélder Gonçalves
  
• Hélder Prior
  
• Inês Amaral
  
• João Canavilhas
  
• João Carlos Correia
  
• José Antonio Pereira
  
• José Ricardo Carvalheiro
  
• Paulo Serra