ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

April 9-10, 2026

Copenhagen, Denmark

Deadline (EXTENDED): December 15, 2025

The research projects Algorithms, Data & Democracy (the ADD-project) and Strategic Communication and Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) are pleased to announce the Controversies of AI society conference to be held at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, on 9-10 April 2026. We invite contributions across disciplines and hope to see you there.

With the accelerated implementation of algorithmic technologies, now broadly referred to as ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI), across all dimensions of society, it is imperative to consider how technological and societal developments shape each other: What social formations do AI systems invite? How do emerging uses of AI inform further developments across public, private, and third sectors? What social changes emerge out of these new technologies, and how are social dynamics embedded within their infrastructures? How do business models and consumption patterns enable some technological developments (and not others), and what relations of production and consumption are pushed by AI technologies? Can legal frameworks and political agendas influence the operations of the tech industry, and what are the alternatives to established actors, organizational forms, and ways of working? Can such alternatives influence technological developments, and how are public perceptions and collective actions informed by the material conditions of technological innovation, from venture capital through computing power to data centers? How, in short, might we understand the current constellation(s) of technocapitalism? 

To inquire into these issues, and the many that follow from them, please join us for an interdisciplinary conference on the controversies of AI society.

As no one perspective can fully capture the complex interplay between technology (in its various forms) and society (in its various forms), we invite participants to address this broad agenda from within, from outside, and from the intersections of relevant disciplines across the social sciences, humanities, and technical sciences. That is, investigations of the relationships and tensions that constitute AI society, such as, but not limited to:

• Civil society and democratic concerns
  
• Corporate strategies and business models
  
• Data, data sciences, and data practices in society
  
• Digital platforms and algorithmic publics
  
• Educational systems and approaches to learning
  
• Environmental sustainability and planetary crisis
  
• Ethics, (in)equality, and sovereignty in AI society
  
• Political imaginaries and forms of governance
  
• Public administration and state-citizen interactions
  
• Technological innovations and industry developments
  

Current trends and tendencies may be many things – consensual, collaborative, contentious, or even contradictory – but no matter how we see them, or what powers support them, they all help us see a little bit further. They may never fully line up, they may be messy, but this messiness is integral to how they exist in the world. For instance, some might argue that regulation stands in the way of innovation or that the interests of industry actors are always already misaligned with those of civil society. Others might claim that the interests of industry and democracy can be aligned only through policy, and that we need regulation to curb the excesses of unfettered competition. Yet others might claim that real technological innovation grows from grassroots communities, which need to be be politically and economically supported. Three competing narratives that contribute to the discussion, playing their part – along with multiple others – in narrating the messy whole of AI society, controversies and all.

In sum, we see the developments of what might be termed ‘AI society’ as by their very nature debatable and suggest such debates benefit from interdisciplinary perspectives. Consequently, we particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions, but we also invite participants to shed light on ongoing practical and theoretical controversies from within specific disciplines – and from outside them. We wish for the conference to be an inclusive space for lively and robust debate, not only welcoming controversies but celebrating them.

We accept two forms of contributions: abstract-based presentations and full papers. Please, submit your abstract of no more than 500 words OR your paper of maximum 8000 words (including references) by 15 December 2025. We welcome both technical papers and position papers as well as conceptual, empirical, and methodological contributions. Author guidelines will be posted on this website shortly.

All submissions will undergo peer review, and a decision will be communicated by mid-January. Abstracts will be assessed on an accept/reject basis. Authors of full papers will receive reviewer comments, and those who are invited to participate, will be offered the chance of revising their manuscript towards publication in the conference proceedings. The proceedings be published through AAU OPEN.

Important dates:

• 1 November: Submission platform opens
  
• 15 December: Submission deadline (abstracts and papers)
  
• 19 January: Decisions (and reviews of full papers) sent to authors
  
• 9 March: Revised papers (for publication in the conference proceedings) due in camera ready format (guidelines on formatting to follow)
  
• 9-10 April: Conference

Read more here.

The International Journal of Games and Social Impact 

Deadline: April 31, 2026

Guest Editors: Luciana Lima (Integrated Researcher at Interactive Technologies Institute (https://iti.larsys.pt), LARSyS (Laboratory of Robotics and Systems in Engineering and Science), Universidade de Lisboa) & Ana Pires (Integrated Researcher at Interactive Technologies Institute (https://iti.larsys.pt), LARSyS (Laboratory of Robotics and Systems in Engineering and Science) and Invited Professor at Instituto Técnico Superior (IST), Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)

This special issue of The International Journal of Games and Social Impact invites contributions that propose strategies for change, including inclusive design practices, intersectional moderation systems, case studies of community resistance, feminist pedagogies, collective activism, and studies that reimagine representation, participation, and relational responsibility in different forms of play.

Submissions may address (but are not limited to) the following questions:

• How do communities, both within and beyond “traditional” gamer identities, mobilise to challenge and/or resist gender-based violence and misogyny?
  
• How can co-creation, participatory design, and inclusive development practices combat structural exclusion and gendered toxicity?
  
• What industry, sports and live-streaming practices dismantle power asymmetries in games?
  
• How can justice-oriented frameworks help us understand how women and other marginalized groups respond to gendered toxicity (e.g., collective action, exit strategies, community building) and envision new possibilities for play?
  

Publication Timeline

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Dates are indicative.

Full Paper Submission Deadline:  31-04-2026

Notification of Acceptance for Full Paper Submissions: 31-07-2026

Publication Date: First semester of 2026

For more information: https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ijgsi/announcement/view/250 

December 16, 2025 (4 - 5:30pm (GMT)

LSE Old Building & Online 

Digital transformation and inclusion policies are reshaping societies worldwide, yet the ways in which children are recognised - or excluded - within these agendas remain poorly understood. This event presents new cross-national analyses of over 300 policies from 35 countries and organisations, offering critical insights into how children’s rights, agency, and inequalities are framed in the pursuit of digital futures.

Speakers: Ellen Helsper and Shivani Rao (LSE), Respondent: Steven Vosloo (UNICEF)

Info and registration: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/digitalfuturesforchildrencentre/1944910

Since 2021, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has reshaped its oversight of how governments address children’s rights in the digital environment. This study analyses 79 country reviews to track that evolution, examining how states, civil society, National Human Rights Institutions and UN bodies raise digital issues, and how the Committee integrates General Comment No. 25 into its questioning and recommendations.

On World Children's Day, the DFC launched its new report. Read the report and watch the launch (panel: Gerison Lansdown, Kim R Sylwander and Gastón Wright; chair: Sonia Livingstone).

Read the report: https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/our-work/impact-gc25

Neil Thurman, Sina Thaesler-Kordonouri and Richard Fletcher

This report is based on a survey conducted between August and November 2024 with a broadly representative sample of 1,004 UK journalists. The survey was primarily focused on whether and how journalists and news organisations use artificial intelligence (AI), and how it relates to other aspects of their work. 

ECREA members can access the publication open access here: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ai-adoption-uk-journalists-and-their-newsrooms-surveying-applications-approaches-and-attitudes

Editors:

Simon Borchmann | Roskilde University

Anne Fabricius | Roskilde University

Ida Klitgård | Roskilde University

Purchase HERE

This volume invites its readers to rethink the linguistic basis for framing analysis by problematizing the existing foundation and presenting eight new pragmatically based framing analyses.

The book challenges the assumption that there is a unilateral, one-to-one relationship between words and frames, such that framing occurs when a language user is exposed to a word that activates a frame.

Conversely, it is assumed that framing emerges in social interaction through a complex interplay between the participants, the semiotic resources employed, the circumstances, and the multiple frames of interaction. This assumption calls for the relationship between words and frames to be analyzed in pragmatics, including in cross-fertilization with other disciplines such as discourse analysis, interaction analysis, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and social psychology.

The assumption is operationalized in eight different exemplary framing analyses. Each analysis has its own focus, drawing on its own disciplines, and utilizing its own concepts, tools, and methods.

The results of the analyses are noteworthy and demonstrate how a pragmatic approach to framing analysis can enhance the validity and reliability of the analysis.

ONLINE OPEN LECTURE

December 5, 8.30-9.30 CET 

Michael Skey, Loughborough University 

“The Kids Like It, So What Do We Care About the 55-Year-Olds?” Baller League and the Mediatization of Contemporary Sport

MS Teams: tiny.pl/q2r7dy65

April 7-10, 2026

at the ECPR Joint Sessions

University of Innsbruck, Austria

Deadline (EXTENDED): December 10, 2026

The Workshop will examine how emerging digital platforms, practices, and policies help entrench authoritarianism, or exacerbate democratic backsliding, across the Global South and East — including Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America. It aims to map the transforming terrain of digital authoritarianism, from internet shutdowns and online censorship to surveillance, disinformation, and participatory propaganda.

Read more (link to https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/WorkshopDetails/16786)

Media and Communication

We are pleased to announce that the thematic issue “Journalism in the Hybrid Media System”, edited by Silke Fürst, Florian Muhle, and Colin Porlezza, is now published in Media and Communication.

This thematic issue examines journalism’s role within complex, hybridized media environments shaped by platforms, algorithms, shifting logics of attention, and various actors. Bringing together empirical, theoretical, methodological, and historical perspectives from across three continents, the contributions reveal both enduring structures and transformative dynamics, offering nuanced insights into journalism’s evolving practices, societal functions, and current—as well as future—challenges.

Access the full special issue in Media and Communication here: https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.i494

ARTICLES

Journalism in the Hybrid Media System: Editorial

Silke Fürst, Florian Muhle and Colin Porlezza

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.11227

Ensuring News Quality in Platformized News Ecosystems: Shortcomings and Recommendations for an Epistemic Governance

Pascal Schneiders and Birgit Stark

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.10042 

Historical Roots of Information Flows in Hybrid Media Systems

Silke Fürst

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.10375

Network Analysis for Media Ownership: A Methodological Proposal

Mariia Aleksevych and Tales Tomaz

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.10141 

A See-Through Curtain of Varying Texture: Negotiating Power and Material Realities in Engaged Journalism

Bissie Anderson

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.10027

Fact-Checkers as New Journalistic Mediators: News Agencies’ Verification Units and Platform Dynamics

Regina Cazzamatta

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.9867

Search in the Newsroom: How Journalists Navigate Google’s Dominance in a Hybrid Media System

Daniel Trielli

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.9975

Media Hybridization and the Strategic Value of Political Incivility: Insights From Italian Journalists

Rossella Rega

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.10236

Artificial Amplification and Intermedia Dynamics in the Hybrid Media System: The Case of #LaschetLacht

Florian Muhle and Indra Bock

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.10244

Climate Communication in the Hybrid Media System: Media and Stakeholder Logics on Social Media

Simon M. Luebke, Nadezhda Ozornina, Mario Haim and Jörg Haßler

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.9892

Issue Attention and Semantic Overlap in Vaccination Coverage Within Switzerland’s Hybrid Media System

Dario Siegen and Daniel Vogler

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.10040

If you have any questions about this thematic issue, please contact guest editor Silke Fürst: s.fuerst@ikmz.uzh.ch

Deadline: January 31, 2026

 We seek expressions of interest, in the form of short abstracts for an edited volume engaging with the aftermath of the MeToo movement across the globe, with a focus on the media/social media/journalism domain. Investigations about a major Hollywood sexual predator published in October 2017 reignited a movement exposing and challenging workplace sexual violence and sexual harassment. Within a few weeks, this movement was genuinely global: versions of the #meetoo hashtag appeared in at least 80 countries and seemingly across every work domain. What has happened in subsequent years?

We intend this volume to be international in scope and already have proposals from scholars in Africa and Europe, and in China, India, Brazil, and Egypt. We are particularly interested in proposals for internationally comparative studies and/or that deal with Russia and former SSRs, Mexico, Israel, and MENA nations.

A highly incomplete list of potential topics would include coverage at different points of time (including “anniversary” coverage); analyses of changes in language such as with victim blaming/shaming; assessments of the short-, mid-, long-term impacts/consequences--including for people who were accused of harassment and/or who made accusations; and what happened with the initiatives proposed to address the problem in journalism and comm industries and classrooms? Ethical issues include how to assess and investigate accusations, and what journalists do or should do when they overplay a story. Of course, we seek consideration of the implications for race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity, and class and especially intersections of these. Internationally comparative topics include analyses of how/when sources, politicians, and/or journalists mocked #MeToo as representing US prudery and/or feminist hysteria. We are welcome to other topics and themes: the above list is merely suggestive.

A scholarly press has already expressed interest in the volume. We hope the manuscript will be completed by late 2027, in time to appear in print in early 2028.

Please send your 80 – 120 words idea, with your name, email address, and affiliation, to Dinfin Mulupi (University of Colorado Boulder) Dinfin.Mulupi@colorado.edu and to Linda Steiner (University of Maryland College Park) at lsteiner@umd.edu by January 31, 2026. We will get back to you in early February. Feel free to contact us with your questions.