ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

May 29-30, 2023

Toronto, Canada

Deadline: January 15, 2023

Novel Directions in Media Innovation and Funding is an ICA post-conference on innovation in journalism that will bring together global scholars and leading journalists to address three key areas:

• Analyze the impact of journalism funding and policy in different national contexts
  
• Consider innovative and successful funding solutions adopted by media outlets internationally
  
• Highlight the role of digital news start-ups and peripheral actors in reshaping journalism

Journalists will be invited to participate in the discussions to build bridges between academic researchers and practitioners. By assembling this shared expertise, this conference aims to galvanize those who seek meaningful repair, reform and/or transformation of journalism. 

The conference will be held in a central location in downtown Toronto on the evening of Monday May 29 and the day of Tuesday May 30, 2023. A registration fee of $75 Canadian ($25 for students and scholars from the Global South) includes two meals.

We invite submissions from scholars on topics related to journalism funding and media policy, innovative funding approaches, and on the role of digital news start-ups in reimagining journalism. Please submit using this form.

The deadline for submission is January 15, 2023. Submissions will be selected by the organizers, Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young, University of British Columbia. Presenters will be notified by February 17, 2023.

Questions, comments or suggestions? Get in touch with us at journalisminnovationlab@gmail.com

Deadline for proposals: December 30, 2022

Call for Chapters

Published by Lexington Books, August 2023

Edited by Tomás Dodds (Leiden University)

VR, AR, and 360 videos are storytelling tools that require journalists to navigate new narratives and platforms. Immersive technologies can amplify feelings of presence for the audience, allowing for deeper emotional engagement and information recall. Therefore, immersive technologies present unique ethical and practical questions for journalism, as its production is linked to biometrical, sensory, and metadata collection. Consequently, conversations about future-proofing newsrooms for the metaverse have gained increasing academic and societal attention over the last few years. This edited book is one of the first to ask: How do immersive technologies affect newsmaking, and what impact do they have on journalistic norms, audience engagement, and data protection?

This volume will be divided into three sections. The first section looks at how the empathy- generating nature of 360-degree videos impacts journalists producing the news and which ethical norms and values media workers consider when making the news. The second section of this book delves deeper into platform infrastructures and the narratives allowed by their affordances. This book's third and final section explores how new users’ data is made available to journalists through these technologies and presents the ethical and regulatory challenges associated with this recent phenomenon.

• Content Production & Journalistic Cultures: This book's first section addresses how journalists use new platforms to create novel types of content. Immersive technologies allow the users to gain first-person experiences of the events presented by journalists, which radically transforms the reporters' role in constructing news narratives. This section describes how VR technologies are transforming working cultures within newsrooms, including the diversification of professional roles and the upgrade in the materiality required to produce 360-degree and VR content. Possible questions for this section include: (1) how newsrooms are adapting their infrastructure to produce VR content, (2) how journalists are navigating professional and ethical questions surrounding the production of immersive content, and (3) reporters' imaginaries about the future of the news industry across the world.

• Narratives & Platforms Infrastructures: Virtual reality has shown promising results in recent studies on information recall and emotional engagement. Unlike two- dimensional (2D) videos, immersive 360-degree videos using a VR headset impact the audience differently, even when the based content is similar between the two formats. This makes the role that third-party platforms play in constructing virtual worlds even more critical as journalists adapt to the affordances of these platforms to build the news. As journalists look for spaces in the metaverse, new processes of gathering, processing, and designing information emerge across newsrooms. Possible questions for this section include: (1) platforms' affordances and their impact on news production, (2) VR languages and platform narratives for the creation of immersive content, and (3) how immersive technologies could increase the dependency between newsrooms and third- party platforms like Facebook and Google in different countries.

• Audiences Metrics & Data Protection: The material design of virtual and augmented reality technologies allows platforms and third-party companies to collect, analyze and distribute unquantifiable amounts of individual user data. VR headsets, some of which include brainwave sensors and eye-tracking technologies, allow the collection of three distinct categories of data to create virtual worlds. Firstly, physical data, such as body motion or visual attention-cueing, is collected through new generations of headsets or hand-based inputs. Secondly, biometrical data is collected through sensors that measure and record voluntary and involuntary bodily signals. Thirdly, metadata is naturally also recorded by platforms in the metaverse. Everything becomes data points for media to better understand their users, from avatars to microtransactions to friends and interactions. Possible questions for this section include: (1) what type of ethical considerations journalists have when dealing with user data, (2) how journalists are using new types of data to construct news stories, and (3) how these new categories of data impact the construction of media’s agenda.

*Please email chapter proposals of up to 500 words in length, as well as a brief author biographical information (150 words) to Tomás Dodds (t.dodds.rojas@hum.leidenuniv.nl) – no later than Friday, December 30th. Please indicate for which section you are proposing your chapter.

*Notification of acceptance will be sent in January 2023.

*After feedback, complete chapters (6000-7000 words) are due on April 24th for editing. The book is expected to be published as a hardcover edition in August 2023.

A contract has been signed with Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group). No payment from the authors will be required.

Editor: Tomás Dodds is an Assistant Professor in Journalism and New Media at Leiden University and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is also a researcher in the AI, Media & Democracy Lab in the Netherlands and the Artificial Intelligence and Society Hub [IA+SIC] in Chile.

May 4-5, 2023

University of Bologna, Department of Arts (Italy)

Deadline for proposals: 29 January 2023

Call for Paper and Panel Proposals

Website: https://eventi.unibo.it/creative-korea 

Result notification: 15 February 2023

In recent years, Korean cultural industries have established themselves as among the most dynamic and successful at the global level, both artistically and commercially. Supported by a series of worldwide successes in different areas, the Korean Wave has become one key example of non-Western cultural production that was able to engage global audiences and to influence the way in which they consume pop culture. In this process, Korean cultural production has been able to diversify its offer and to adapt to the transformative changes brought by new social and digital media technologies. 

The conference will focus on exploring the different aspects of contemporary Korean cultural production, with an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspective, including the many different sectors that compose the Korean Wave: film and TV production; music; performing arts; visual art; comics, graphic novels and webtoons; animation; videogames and e-sports; fashion and food. The aim is analyzing the multiple factors that have made this growth possible, the specific characteristics of cultural industries and cultural production in the Korean context, the different influences that shaped this production and how Korea’s success is now influencing other contexts, the historical development and changes of the Korean Wave, the socio-political and economic effects and impact of the spread of Korean cultural products both inside and outside Korea. In particular, we welcome contributions dealing with recent developments and changes in Korean cultural production, the post-pandemic challenges and opportunities for cultural industries, the integration of culture and technology, new trends in the development of cultural production.

Submissions should include an abstract (300 words) and a short bio (100 words) and be sent to creativekorea2023@gmail.com before 29 January 2023. 

Proposals from PhD students, early career researchers and independent scholars are welcome. 

Publication plan: at the end of the conference, we will look for an opportunity to publish an edited volume.

Enquiries can be directed to: Dr. Mary Lou Emberti Gialloreti, University of Bologna, marylou.emberti@unibo.it

The event is funded by the Academy of Korean Studies.

May 24, 2023

Toronto (Canada)

Deadline: December 20, 2022

The conference is organized by the Digital Democracies Institute (Simon Fraser University) and York University and will take place in Toronto on May 24, 2023 (one day before the beginning of ICA).

For this pre-conference, we seek critical explorations of authenticity and authentication as they relate to digital manipulation and digital artifice. 

How is authenticity caught, created, faked, authenticated and managed through digital assemblages? 

• How is it both constructed as a felt experience, as well as machinized though automated recognition patterns? 
  
• If authenticity is key to misinformation, then what kind of interventions can we imagine to question, and undermine such articulation? 
  
• What new algorithms of authenticity could we imagine and deploy?

We are particularly interested in research that examines the fabrication of digitally mediated authentic experiences, be they non-conscious and habitual, or spectacular and deeply meaningful. We are interested in research that explores how objects and persons come to be seen and experienced as authentic and inauthentic, which includes paying attention to how authenticity – in its affective, emotional, non-conscious and cognitive dimensions – is constructed via technical affordances, media habits, political rhetoric, mass-personal communication, network rhythms, recommendation algorithms and targeted campaigns. Equally, we are interested in work that critically and creatively challenges the articulation of authenticity with misinformation.

We welcome a wide array of methodological approaches – qualitative, quantitative, speculative, creative, participatory, collaborative and others. We are open to different formats of intervention, from traditional papers to research-creation. We also welcome proposals for short workshops (1 hour length), demonstrations and other modes of collaborative inquiries.

A full description of the conference is available here.

Please submit 150-200 words abstract to ICA2023Preconf@gmail.com by December 20, 2022. Notices of acceptance will be sent on 11 January 2023.

Key details and dates:

Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2023. 9:00 - 17:00

Venue: York University, Toronto

Division affiliation: Communication & Technology Division

Fee: Registration will be free

Call for Abstract deadline: December 20, 2022

Organizers: 

Ganaele Langlois (Communication and Media Studies, York University)

Wendy Chun (Digital Democracies Institute, Simon Fraser University)

Alberto Lusoli (Digital Democracies Institute, Simon Fraser University)

Anthony Burton (School of Communication, Simon Fraser University)

March 22 - 23, 2023 

University of Pennsylvania, USA

Deadline: December 15, 2022

CARGC Fellows’ symposium

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, the 2023 biannual fellows’ symposium will reflect on evolving concepts and methodologies in the field of global communication and media studies. We are witnessing  ongoing global crises, from widespread displacements and climate disasters, to pandemics and the rising threat of fascism. In light of these circumstances, we invite emerging scholars, artists, and activists to explore what a global approach to media and communication can do today. What is at stake in studying global communication and media at this historical moment? 

We seek to decenter Western epistemologies by foregrounding the local, the situated, and the relational interconnectedness of cultures, institutions, and infrastructures through media. In an effort to think beyond the national frameworks typically employed by area studies, we foreground transregional methods and frameworks of study that situate the global within the local and vice versa. Bringing together questions of the global and the local allows us as scholars to be reflective and reflexive, to situate our own scholarship within the world, rather than from an imagined, 'objective' outside.

We invite scholarly and creative projects, including research papers, creative writing, video essays or documentaries, sound or audio projects, artistic installations, and performances. We  welcome submissions from early career scholars, as well as artists and activists whose work engages these issues. Submissions from scholars, artists, and activists based in the Global South are particularly encouraged. Topics may include: 

• Activist interventions, inclusive practices, and in/equity in global communication and media
  
• Epistemologies of the planetary, the global, and the local and their interrelations
  
• Mediating (neo)colonialism, environmental extractivism, and competing sovereignties
  
• The politics of translation, comparative frameworks, and regional approaches 
  
• Media’s im/mobilities and south-to-south flows of cultural exchange 
  
• Global perspectives on ( the failures of) communicating mis/disinformation, nonsense, and noise
  
• Global political economy of media industries, platforms, and popular culture 
  

The keynote address will be given by Professor Purnima Mankekar.

Conference Format & Timeline

The CARGC Fellows symposium will take place at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA and online on March 22 & 23, 2023. The symposium is planned as a hybrid event, with in-person participation highly encouraged. It will feature a keynote address by Dr. Purnima Mankekar and roundtable sessions (in which participants will give 5-8 minute flash presentations of their work). Senior scholars will act as discussion facilitators for the roundtable sessions, responding to and providing feedback on participants’ work. The purpose of these roundtables is to foster discussion between participants before opening up to a wider Q&A from the audience. Accepted participants will also be invited to a professional development workshop on teaching global media studies and communication. 

Keynote address and in-person roundtable sessions will be made accessible to global audiences through Zoom. Please note that the professional development workshop is for symposium presenters only. 

Accepted participants with financial need may apply for a travel grant to offset a portion of the cost of travel 

Timeline: Submission deadline for abstracts is December 15, 2022. Acceptance notifications will be sent to selected participants by late January 2023. Please note that although all sessions will be held in a roundtable format, participants are still asked to circulate their conference-length papers and/or creative work to their roundtable chair. 

Submission Guidelines:

Important Note: Participant(s) may only submit one proposal to the conference. Proposals should be uploaded through our submission platform here 

Academic Paper Submissions:

• Select “Academic paper” on the submission form
  
• Abstracts and presentations should be in English
  
• Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words (excluding references) 
  
• The abstract must clearly and succinctly describe the paper’s topic, argument, theoretical framework, or theories from which the project draws from, context/data, method/research approach, and expected results/findings/intervention.
  
• Please indicate whether you intend to participate in person or virtually

Creative and Multimodal Work Submissions:

• Select the appropriate format (“Audio submission,” “Short film or documentary,” or “Creative writing”, “Performance”, “Installation” ) on submission form
  
• Abstracts should be in English; creative works in other languages should be accompanied by English captions 
  
• The abstract should be a description of your project no longer than 300 words (excluding any references)
  
• The description should highlight how the piece addresses or grapples with the conference theme and/or the topics listed above 
  
• You may also provide a link to your multimodal project (though this is not required)
  
• Please indicate whether you intend to participate in person or virtually
  

Please note that to keep the conference interactive and to leave room for questions and discussion, participants must be available to present their work synchronously during the conference, either in person or via Zoom. 

Deadline for submissions is December 15, 2022. For any questions or concerns, e-mail cargcfellowssymposium@gmail.com

Submit your proposal HERE

Journalism Practice

Deadline: December 16, 2023

Guest editors:

• Claudia Mellado
  
• Daniel Hallin
  

Over the past decade, research on journalistic role performance—defined as the study of how particular journalistic norms and ideals are collectively negotiated and result in specific practices—has become very important among scholars from the Global North and South, providing a more thorough understanding of the processes behind journalistic practices in relation to normative expectations in a fluid media environment.

While journalists must adapt, adjust, and perform multiple roles on a daily basis in response to ever-changing circumstances, shifting norms, rapidly changing technology, political polarization, and a years-long pandemic are making the profession more challenging than ever. In public discourse, journalists are often derided as failing to live up to their duties to serve society, and public distrust with media performance is widespread and by many accounts increasing. At the same time, journalists across the world are working in smaller newsrooms, covering a variety of beats, feeding more platforms, often in environments that offer little job security. How do these circumstances impact the performance of journalistic roles? How is the performance of journalistic roles shaped in the news, and how do journalistic ideals compare to actual practice?

As a concept, role performance conceives of journalism as a social practice, focusing on the interplay between political economy, agency, and the structure of the media. This epistemic umbrella provides a strong theoretical and empirical framework to account for the fluid, dynamic nature of journalistic roles and to explore the constant tension between norms, ideals, and the practices of journalists and news organizations in different institutional settings.

This special issue explores the factors shaping journalistic roles, what roles journalists most frequently perform in their newsrooms, the way journalists feel they can perform multiple roles, to what extent journalistic ideals consistently or fully match the real-world behavior of journalists and the content of news media in different newsrooms, how this varies across space and time, and how this affects the way audiences evaluate the profession.

We welcome empirical and theoretical submissions that contribute to the further development of this research area. Contributions to this special issue may employ different methodological and theoretical approaches and study professional roles and role performance from different levels of analysis.

A conference related to this special issue, “Between ideals and practices: Journalistic role performance in transformative times,” will be held by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) in May, 2023 before the ICA Conference.  People interested in submitting to the special issue are encouraged, but not required, to submit to this conference as well.

The special issue aims to bring together innovative, thought-provoking contributions, from different national and regional contexts, exploring a range of topics, including:

• Professional roles and pandemic reporting: How has the pandemic affected roles performed by journalists? How has journalistic content creation changed/evolved and how has a global pandemic impacted the ways journalists view their roles?
  
• Role performance and technology: How have technology and AI modified news media practices and consumption? How has the digital transformation of journalism impacted the performance of journalistic roles in the news? How are converged newsrooms that deliver to multiple platforms changing traditional roles?
  
• Role performance and media systems: What political, social and economic contexts shape the performance of journalistic roles?
  
• Role performance and news beats: How does the performance of professional roles vary across news beats and genres?
  
• Role performance and news routines: How do journalistic roles materialize in, or are shaped by, the practices of sourcing, newsgathering, and packaging the news?
  
• Role performance and audiences: How do audiences play a role —shaping, perceiving or receiving— the roles that news media and journalists perform?
  
• Methodological challenges of studying journalistic roles: What are the best practices to engage with and gain access to journalists and for data collection and analysis in the study of journalistic role performance?
  
• Blurred professional boundaries: How do the proliferation of digital media and the variety of actors and channels introduced into the circulation of news affect professional norms and role performance?"
  

https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/journalistic-role-performance/

December 9,  9.30-10.15 CET

We would like to invite you to an open lecture being part of the sixth edition of the workshop Towards Development of Mediatization Research: Mediatization of War, organised by the Department of Mediatization of the Institute of Social Communication and Media Sciences of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, in cooperation with Wroclaw Academic Centre and Academia Europaea Wroclaw Knowledge Hub.

The lecture, entitled 'The War Feed: War in Plain Sight', will be given by Professor Andrew Hoskins, University of Glasgow.

Please join us on Friday, 9.12.2022, 9.30-10.15 a.m. at Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/xeu-syzi-ifm 

Edited By: Melodine Sommier, Anssi Roiha, Malgorzata Lahti

Engaging with the topic of critical intercultural education at tertiary level, the book aims to strengthen what critical intercultural communication means and facilitate its implementation in higher education classrooms.

With contributors coming from a variety of educational contexts and disciplines, the book provides a versatile and comprehensive picture of how intercultural communication can be approached in different fields. By offering a reflection on theoretical frameworks for teaching and learning critical intercultural communication, it bridges the gap between theory and practice in recent years. Furthermore, it proposes concrete pedagogical solutions that will help educators working at the tertiary level move from essentialist approaches to meaningful intercultural education.

Higher education teachers, lecturers and professors responsible for the design and delivery of teaching on intercultural communication will find this book helpful and resourceful.

https://www.routledge.com/Interculturality-in-Higher-Education-Putting-Critical-Approaches-into-Practice/Sommier-Roiha-Lahti/p/book/9781032345390

Digital Journalism, special issue

Deadline (EXTENDED): December 5, 2023

Guest editor: Stuart Allan (Cardiff University, UK)

The ongoing crisis engendered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has recast anew longstanding concerns about the relative strengths and limitations of war and conflict reporting. Journalists are risking their lives to bear witness in often harrowing circumstances – some finding themselves deliberately targeted by the Russian military – on behalf of their distant readers, listeners or viewers. Intent on crafting compelling narratives, many are actively refashioning conventional approaches to digital reportage in order to better engage and focus public attention on the plight of those whose lives are caught-up in this catastrophe.

Just as familiar conceptions of visual journalism are undergoing reappraisal, more traditional understandings of war correspondence appear increasingly open to experimentation and innovation, particularly across social media sites and apps. Some Western media commentators have labelled the conflict in Ukraine the world's first ‘TikTok war,’ pointing to alternative types of citizen-centred coverage emerging. ‘When Russia invaded Ukraine last week, some of social media's youngest users experienced the conflict from the front lines on TikTok,’ Reuters reported. ‘Videos of people huddling and crying in windowless bomb shelters, explosions blasting through urban settings and missiles streaking across Ukrainian cities took over the app from its usual offerings of fashion, fitness and dance videos’ (Reuters, March 7, 2022). Impromptu video clips and still images, many livestreamed by citizen witnesses in the wrong place at the right time, put the lie to Russian assertions that its forces were ‘liberators’ and ‘heroes’ welcomed by the Ukrainian people. ‘The bombings and violence in cities like Mariupol, Kharkiv and Kyiv feature a cast of newly minted stars,’ the Los Angeles Times observed, ‘social media standouts who rely on satire, grit and an insider’s sensibilities to document the horrors for a global audience’ (LA Times, March 31, 2022).

This special issue of Digital Journalism aims to explore the current state of visual war journalism in diverse contexts, devoting particular attention to evolving standards, conventions and engagement. Possible themes to be examined empirically and/or theoretically in relation to one or more conflicts may include:

• The evolving status of war photojournalists in an era of image abundance
  
• ‘Click-bait’ news values in visual war journalism
  
• Drone reporting and the affectivities of distant suffering
  
• Citizens bearing witness via social media in warzones
  
• Changing narratives of ‘war’ and visual storytelling ethics
  
• The visual politics of disinformation, such as deepfake videos, in war coverage
  
• Audience interpretations of the visual mediation of warfare
  
• Computational comparisons of war-related news images in under-reported regions and locales
  
• The weaponization of visual memes in conflict reporting
  
• The political economy of global image brokers covering war
  
• Activist anti-war reworkings of war journalism’s visualities 
  
• Reimagining digital war and peace photo-reportage
  

Information about submitting:

Please submit an abstract of approximately 500 to 750 words (not including references) in either a MS Word or PDF file format to Stuart Allan (AllanS@cardiff.ac.uk) by November 30, 2022. Authors of accepted abstracts are expected to develop and submit their original article for the journal’s full peer-review process by the stated deadline. Articles should be between 7,000 and 9,000 words in length, following the journal’s style guidelines.

Timeline:

• Abstract submission deadline (extended):  December 1, 2022

• Notification on submitted abstracts: December 16, 2022

• Article submission deadline: April 17, 2023

This information also appears on the journal’s website:

https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/digital-journalism-visual-war/?utm_source=TFO&utm_medium=cms&utm_campaign=JPG15743&_gl=1*b2p7za*_ga*NTQyMzA2MTI5LjE2NjYwODUwNDM.*_ga_0HYE8YG0M6*MTY2ODY2Njk4NS41LjAuMTY2ODY2Njk4NS4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.123454027.1921148026.1668666986-542306129.1666085043

Central European Journal of Communication, Special Issue 2023

Deadline: January 31, 2023

Editors: Greta Gober, Michał Głowacki, Anna Jupowicz-Ginalska, University of Warsaw, Poland 

The “Central European Journal of Communication” and the Norway-grants funded „Diversity Management as Innovation in Journalism” research project (2021-2023) invite scholars from a broad range of disciplines to submit extended abstracts for a special issue under the theme of: “Reinventing Media Diversity: Change Management for Social Innovation”, focusing on the political, social, and cultural implications of enhancing diversity in the media.

Accompanying the call, we welcome interested scholars and media managers to a research conference with the same theme “Reinventing Media Diversity: Change Management for Social Innovation”. Conference is organized by Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies, University of Warsaw (June 22-23, 2023). 

For more information visit: www.managingnewsroomdiversity.com

Our Timeline:

Deadline for extended abstracts (max. 500 words): January 31, 2023

Invitation to submit a full paper: February 15, 2023 

Full paper submission: May 31, 2023 

Peer review and copyediting: Summer/Autumn 2023  

Publication: October/November 2023

Our Topic and Goals:

We are living at a historical moment of disruption and radical transformation. The urgency of climate change, the globalization crisis, the increasing sense of distributive injustice, the impoverished political leadership, the rise of the “global Right ”, the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine are all points of disruption where radical change starts. Unequal power relations in participation processes that are increasingly mediated become especially pertinent in times of crisis and war.

Disruption and radical transformation similarly affect contemporary media systems, bringing attention to these transformations’ consequences for democracy and the quality of public debates. On the one hand, many discussions and research on crises facing media and journalism narrowly focus on technological disruptions and economic declines. On the other hand, there is a growing realization that the root causes of media and journalism in crises are more profound; with the focus shifting to epistemological blind spots, gaps, and exclusions. This shift is reflected in the recent renewal of media organizations’ interest in diversity and inclusion management. Reports from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (approximately since 2019) regularly list ‘diversity’ amongst the industry’s biggest challenges. ‘Diversity’ (amongst journalists, management, and programming) is a solution to restoring the audience’s trust, improving the quality of journalism, and even ‘saving liberal democracies (e.g.,  Toff et al. 2022, English, 2021). 

Meanwhile, if ‘diversity’ has become a buzzword or even a fashion, the relationship between media and participation remains vaguely defined and largely underdeveloped in mainstream media and journalism research and education (see Tandoc Jr et al. 2020 addressing this problem). We argue that critical contributions feminist, postcolonial, queer, and anti-racist theories have made in advancing our understanding of the relationship between media and participation can help deepen and expend understanding of the challenges and opportunities media and journalism face in such turbulent times (e.g., Callison & Young 2020, Douglas 2022, Thomas et al. 2019). Reinvention of media diversity, both as a field of study and practice, is thus needed urgently.

The Special Issue 2023 of the “Central European Journal of Communication” aims to shed a critical and innovative light at the complexity of political, social, and cultural implications of enhancing diversity in the media and daily media practices. We suggest looking at conditions, possibilities, and constraints for mediated participation and the role diversity management and inclusion can play in reshaping newsroom cultures, journalistic practices, and organizational processes. We also aim  for a reinvention in theorizing diversity; for instance, concerning organizational and human-based resistance to unequal power relations and organizational adaptation and change (Gober and Głowacki, 2022). Bearing in mind the complexity of reinventing media diversity theorizing we invite papers, media scholarly and industry interventions on change management and social innovation considering:

1) The Value of Media Diversity (theory vs potential impact on society),

2) Diversity and Inclusive Management (rituals, artifacts, organizational culture, and so on),

3) Societal and cultural contexts (including motivation, standpoint, positionality, and pride).   

Our Processes:

We invite extended abstract (max. 500 words), highlighting the novelty of the research, data, goals, and methodologies by January 31, 2023 (the abstract shall be sent to: g.gober@uw.edu.pl).

Authors invited to submit full manuscripts (7,000–9,000 words) will be notified by February 15, 2023. The full papers shall be submitted by May 31, 2023, in accordance with the editorial standards and practices of the “Central European Journal of Communication”: www.cejc.ptks.pl.

About Us:

The “Central European Journal of Communication” adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy and articles are published Open Access with no processing charges for authors. The journal offers professional copyediting and instant access to Open Journal Systems. We welcome theoretical and empirical research from various disciplinary approaches, including methods and concepts, book reviews, conference reports, and interviews with scholars and media practitioners (policymakers, media managers, journalists). CEJC is indexed in several scientific databases, including SCOPUS, Web of Science Master Journal List, Emerging Citation Index and Central and Eastern European Online Library. 

Contact 

Questions about the “Diversity management as innovation in journalism” project, the special issue, and related June conference can be addressed to Greta Gober (g.gober@uw.edu.pl), Michał Głowacki (michal.glowacki@uw.edu.pl) and Anna Jupowicz-Ginalska (a.ginalska@uw.edu.pl). 

References:

Callison, C., Young, M. L. (2020). Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities. online edn: Oxford University Press https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190067076.001.0001 

Douglas, O. (2022). “The media diversity and inclusion paradox: Experiences of black and brown journalists in mainstream British news institutions”. Journalism, 23(10), 2096–2113. https://doi-org.ezp.sub.su.se/10.1177/1464884921100177

Gober, G., and Głowacki, M. (2022). “Polyphony and Voice Plurality in Managing Newsroom Diversity”. Paper delivered at the conference of the European Media Management Association, Munich, June.

 Graff, A., Kapur, R., Walters, S.D. (2019). „Introduction. Gender and the Rise of the Global Right”. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 44(31): 541-560.

Tandoc Jr, E., Hess, K., Eldridge II., S., Westlund, O. (2020). “Diversifying Diversity in Digital Journalism Studies: Reflexive Research, Reviewing and Publishing”, Digital Journalism, 8:3, 301-309, DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2020.1738949

Thomas, T., Kruse, M., Stehling, M. (eds.) (2019). Media and participation in post-migrant societies. Lanhem, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield International.