ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

August 28-30, 2025

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana

Deadline: April 1, 2025

Mid-term conference of the European Sociological Association, Research Network 18 – The Sociology of Communications and Media Research

The small-scale and focused mid-term conferences of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network 18 seek to ensure that the sociological investigation of media and communications is given full focus, distinguishing its work from that of large international associations, which provide important forums for communications and media research but do not have especially sociological concerns.

The challenges facing societies today seem daunting even by the most volatile historical standards. These include deepening economic inequalities, class antagonisms, the rise of radical right-wing authoritarianism around the world and violent wars that may soon erupt into even wider international conflicts. Generative AI is increasingly reshaping virtually all relations, and digital tech giants are running amok along with their increasingly unhinged owners. Somewhere behind all this, looming on the horizon, is an ecological crisis. While many of these issues are intricately interlinked and, among other things, speak volumes about the deepening power imbalances and crises of liberal institutions, their causes and trajectories may be divergent and contradictory, with outcomes that seem difficult to predict.

As the conference title suggests, no social issues can be addressed without recourse to communication or capitalism. For Hanno Hardt, critical scholar and former professor in Ljubljana, communication could be considered “the sine qua non of human existence” (1979, 1). In this sense, the study of communication must always be the first stepping stone, but one that is now influenced and shaped in various ways by digital giants and media-as-industries. Similarly, critical authors have historically regarded capitalism as a system that cannot be ignored in a holistic social analysis. Sociologist Wolfgang Streeck has, for instance, asserted “that contemporary society cannot really be understood by a sociology that makes no reference to its capitalist economy” (2012, 1). In other words, the sociology of communications and media must inevitably include or address these two of the most fundamental social relations in its research.

In line with these premises, the conference will feature a plenary round table on digital platforms and labour and plenary talks by critical scholars who have addressed the dynamic between communication and capitalism throughout their careers:

• Kylie Jarrett (University College Dublin, Ireland)
  
• Graham Murdock (Loughborough University, UK)
  
• and Slavko Splichal (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia).

The Communication and Capital(ism) conference aims to bring together contributions that explore the unpredictable and unstable social terrain in the era of digital capitalism. It seeks to critically engage with these issues and their consequences by focusing on the role of social communication, media, and journalism. We are looking for theoretical and empirical submissions that may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Theoretical reflections on political economy and cultural studies;
  
• The role of critique and criticality for the sociology of media;
  
• Digital capitalism, imperialism and colonialism;
  
• Digital platforms and tech giants;
  
• Labour and platformisation of working conditions;
  
• Capital, class, gender, and race;
  
• Global media corporations and media-as-industries;
  
• Capitalism and journalism;
  
• Sociology of news;
  
• The material and ideological impact of advertising;
  
• Transformations in political communication;
  
• Democracy and democratic transformations;
  
• The public sphere;
  
• (Re-)presentations in journalism and the media;
  
• Possible alternatives to the existing political/economic malaise and digital capitalism.

Abstract submission

• Abstract submission deadline: 1 April 2025
  
• Notification of selected abstracts: 15 May 2025
  
• Conference dates: 28-30 August 2025
  

Abstracts should be sent to: Conference Organising Committee, rn18esasubmission@gmail.com

Abstracts should be sent as an e-mail attachment (400-600 words including title, author name(s), email address(es), and institutional affiliation(s)). Please insert the words “ESA RN18 Submission” in the subject. Although we do not provide a template for the abstract submission, we expect abstracts that include a rationale, research question(s), theoretical and/or empirical methods applied, and potential results and implications. Each abstract will be independently reviewed by two members of the ESA RN18 Board based on the call for papers.

Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research 

Deadline: March 30, 2025

Guest edited by: Christian Pentzold, Leipzig University, Germany; Anne Kaun, Södertörn University, Sweden; Stine Lomborg & Sille Obelitz Søe, both Copenhagen University, Denmark. 

Much is at stake: The welfare sector across the EU faces growing demands and dwindling resources, with automation expected to bring about significant changes. Automated decisionmaking (ADM) is being proposed as a solution to improve efficiency in the provision of public goods and services by leveraging data-driven processes and reallocating resources to better support citizens’ well-being. Recent academic work, especially within the humanities and social sciences, has critically examined algorithms, datafication, and AI. These studies often emphasize the need for accountability in technical systems, focusing on data ethics, transparency, and regulatory oversight to safeguard human justice within ADM systems. Yet, real-world examples abound of human rights violations, including privacy breaches, biases in automated systems, and discriminatory outcomes. Cases such as the use of data for fraud detection, welfare distribution, and profiling vulnerable populations illustrate these issues globally. Consequently, concerns about the potential adverse effects of automation on various aspects of life—healthcare, welfare, labor, and the functioning of public spheres—have been raised by researchers, public figures, and the general public. 

Stories about the implications of ADM for the welfare of citizens sometimes come to public scrutiny, such as a recent WIRED piece on the Danish welfare system turning into a ‘surveillance nightmare’. When these stories surface, they relay ADM as extraordinary and scandalous. But in fact, ADM for welfare provision is becoming ordinary, widespread, and is fundamentally changing the nature of public goods provision and public services, and thus the conditions for human flourishing. Some argue that ADM is critically altering European welfare states from being based on trust, equity and solidarity to being based on efficiency, control, and discrimination of vulnerable populations. This transformation is largely happening under the public radar. As governments try to ride the waves of automation and drive the exploitation of technological potentials and vast registers of data on citizens, we argue that it is urgent to have a critical and informed debate to shape the use of ADM in the interest of public values, and for the people. Indeed, this call comes at a moment when automation is changing the very notion of what communication and information is. Rather than being mainly about the rights and processes of creating and distributing messages, of speaking and being heard, data streams become significant assets and objects of interest no matter what they contain. 

This Special Issue seeks to explore the impact of ADM on welfare and well-being from European perspectives. It starts from the position of those directly involved: the engineers and designers, the case workers who collaborate with these systems in welfare and service provision decisions, and the people whose data fuel the systems and are affected by automation efforts. The Special Issue aims to address the digital transformation of the citizen–state relationship by examining the development, data work, and human-machine collaboration within ADM, alongside the technological, social, and cultural dynamics that either facilitate or impede progress in automating welfare for the public good. 

A people-centered approach builds on the idea that welfare in societies is fundamentally about fostering the conditions for the flourishing of everybody. Hence public goods and services provision becomes a question of justice and equity. When welfare is increasingly automated this consequently has implications for social justice for the people more generally and must be addressed through the lens of the people implicated in the process of automation. 

The Special Issue is open to theoretical and empirical approaches. It invites senior as well as emerging scholars. Contributions can address, but are not limited to, the following aspects: 

· Conceptualizations of automation, datafication, and communication 

· Reflections on human flourishing in datafied and automated citizen–state relationships 

· Public communication and discourses around datafication and automation for the public good 

· Communicative and media practices around automation, datafication and artificial intelligence 

· Case studies of ADM implementation in public administration and public service provision, including public service broadcasting 

· ADM’s and AI-powered tools in newsrooms and their implications for journalistic practices and the public’s right to information 

· Policies, norms, and regulations of ADM deployment and development 

· Human rights perspectives on automation and public goods 

· Resistance and civic actions against automated processes 

· Impacts of ADM on employability in the media sector and beyond, and the shifting roles of human labor 

· Environmental and climate impacts of ADM and AI deployment for public service provision and media production 

There will be no publication fee. 

Timeline and procedure 

500 to 700 word abstracts should be sent to (christian.pentzold@uni-leipzig.de) by March 30, 2025. The abstract should articulate: 1) the issue or research question to be discussed, 2) the methodological or critical framework used, and 3) the expected findings or conclusions. Feel free to consult with the Special Issue Editors about your article ideas and potential angles or approaches. 

Decisions will be communicated to the authors by April 30, 2025. Invited paper submissions will be due August 31, 2025 and will be submitted to christian.pentzold@uni-leipzig.de. They will then undergo peer review through Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research following the journal’s standard double-blind procedures. The invitation to submit a full article does not guarantee acceptance into the Special Issue. The Special Issue is scheduled for publication in summer 2026. 

This call for abstracts is also accessible via 

https://www.degruyter.com/publication/journal_key/COMM/downloadAsset/COMM_Datafied%20Welfare%20COMMUNICATIONS.pdf 

Contact 

Prof Christian Pentzold 

Email: christian.pentzold@uni-leipzig.de

October 30-31, 2025 

Stockholm, Sweden 

Deadline: May 1, 2025 

The conference aims to foster engaged debates about, and a comprehensive understanding of, challenges related to the quickly transforming algorithmic society, for media users across Europe. We welcome a wide range of approaches and look forward to discussions that will contribute to scientific analysis of our contemporary media world. 

Read more: https://www.sh.se/english/sodertorn-university/calendar/events/2025-10-30-ecrea-audience-and-reception-studies-2025 

University of Amsterdam

We are hiring: For the project "Ideology, Emotion Detection AI, & the Propagation of Social Inequality" we are looking for a post-doc (application deadline April 15th). The project examines how AI emotion detection models may perpetuate political ideology by reinforcing gender and ethnic stereotypes. A key concern is that these models are trained on datasets labeled by human annotators, whose political ideology may shape how they categorize emotional expressions—often in ways that align with stereotypes. When AI systems learn from these biased labels, their outputs can further influence human decision-making, unintentionally reinforcing existing inequalities.

To investigate these dynamics, the project will hire a post-doc for 12 months, starting this spring, see the vacancy: https://werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies/postdoc-investigating-human-sources-of-bias-in-ai-face-classification-models-netherlands-13907

University of Antwerp, Belgium

Apply here

Department: Department of Communication Studies

Regime Full-time

Let’s shape the future - University of Antwerp

The University of Antwerp is a dynamic, forward-thinking university. We offer an innovative academic education to more than 20000 students, conduct pioneering scientific research and play an important service-providing role in society. We are one of the largest, most international and most innovative employers in the region. With more than 6000 employees from 100 different countries, we are helping to build tomorrow's world every day. Through top scientific research, we push back boundaries and set a course for the future – a future that you can help to shape. 

The research group AMSoC of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Antwerp is seeking a post-doctoral candidate willing to write a research proposal about AI, media and society.

External and internal post-doc researchers who are eligible to submit an FWO and/or MSCA post-doc application are invited to apply. The top ranked candidate with the best profile (project proposal & CV) acquires a preparatory post-doctoral research mandate to further develop and submit a competitive research proposal to FWO (Flemish Science Foundation) and/or MSCA (Horizon Europe Marie Curie fellowships), with the University of Antwerp as host institution.

A preparatory full-time or part-time mandate of at least 6 months (up to a maximum of 12 months) will be provided.

Profile

• You hold a PhD in Communication Studies or other relevant discipline in the social sciences and humanities (or you will have obtained it by the time you start work).
  
• Your research qualities are in line with the faculty and university research policies.
  
• You act with attention to quality, integrity, creativity and cooperation.
  
• You can speak and write fluently in English.
  
• You comply with the FWO Post-doc and/or Marie Sklodowska-Curie Post-doc eligibility criteria.
  
• You have a good publication record in international peer-reviewed journals.
  
• Experience with project writing, acquisition and management is a plus.
  

Position

• Since the launch of ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an accessible part of everyday life. We define AI broadly, looking beyond generative AI and including other forms of 'smart' automation, such as algorithmic recommendation and chatbots. We are hiring a postdoctoral researcher to develop a project critically analyzing the role of AI in media and society. The aim is to come to a balanced assessment of its opportunities and risks, in particular in relation to underlying power relations in media and society. The candidate should focus on one or more of the following aspects:
  

• Your proposal should be connected to the research interests and expertise of (at least) one of the professors of the Antwerp Media in Society Centre: Sander De Ridder, Alexander Dhoest, Pieter Maeseele and Steve Paulussen.
  
• The main aim of this temporary position is to develop a proposal for a postdoctoral fellowship to be submitted to FWO and Horizon-MCSA.
  

What we offer

• The planned start date is 1 September 2025 or as soon as possible after that date.
  
• Appointments are made in one of the following categories, depending on your profile:
  
• • Postdoctoral scholarship holder
  • • In order to be eligible in this statute, you must have spent at least twelve months of the three years prior to the start date as a postdoctoral scholarship holder abroad and did not work or study in Belgium during these twelve months. Short-term stays (e.g. holidays, participation in conferences, preparation for this stay as a postdoctoral scholarship holder) will not be taken into account.
    • We offer a full-time appointment for a period of one year.
    • Your monthly scholarship amount is calculated according to the scholarship amounts for postdoctoral scholarship holders on the pay scales for Contract Research Staff (Dutch: Bijzonder Academisch Personeel, BAP).
    • You will receive ecocheques, Internet-connectivity allowance and a bicycle allowance or a full reimbursement of public transport costs for commuting.
  • Postdoctoral researcher (contractual)
  • • If you don’t qualify for the specific eligibility criteria for scholarship holders, we can offer a full-time appointment for a period of six months or a half-time appointment for a full year.
    • Your gross monthly salary is calculated according to the pay scale for a principal research fellow in the Contract Research Staff category (Dutch: Bijzonder Academisch Personeel, BAP).
    • You will receive ecocheques, Internet-connectivity allowance, a group insurance, an income protection insurance, and a bicycle allowance or a full reimbursement of public transport costs for commuting.
• You will do most of your work at the City Campus in a dynamic and stimulating working environment.
  
• Find out more about working at the University of Antwerp here.
  

Want to apply?

• You can apply for this vacancy through the University of Antwerp’s online job application platform up to and including 22 April 2025 (by midnight Brussels time). Click on the 'Apply' button and complete the online application form. Be sure to include the following attachments:  
  
• • a motivation letter
  • your academic CV
  • a provisional project proposal of two to four pages
  • two published papers.
• The selection committee reviews all applications as soon as possible after the application deadline. As soon as a decision is made, we will notify you. If you are still eligible after the pre-selection, you will be informed about the possible next step in the selection procedure, which consists of an (online) interview on 15 May.
  
• If you have any questions about the online application form, please check the frequently asked questions or send an email to jobs@uantwerpen.be. If you have any questions about the job itself, please contact Alexander.dhoest@uantwerpen.be.
  

The University of Antwerp received the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research Award for its HR policy. We are a sustainable, family-friendly organisation which invests in its employees’ growth. We encourage diversity and attach great importance to an inclusive working environment and equal opportunities, regardless of gender identity, disability, race, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or age. We encourage people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse characteristics to apply.

June 30 - July 4, 2025

Manchester, UK

Dear colleagues,

I'm happy to announce that we're again organizing a 'Digital Methods' summer school in Manchester! (30 June 2025 - 4 July 2025)

What you can expect to learn:

- text mining 

- creative AI methods

- sensing methods

- geospatial methods

- visual methods

- data visualisation

(+ critical reflections on ethics and open science)

We have two bursary options available.

For more details, see: https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/db5oUkcvjH3iw

September 10-12, 2025

Université de Lille, France

Deadline: March 15, 2025

4th CONFERENCE ON FOOD AND COMMUNICATION 

The final submission deadline is approaching quickly - please send abstracts by 15th March 2025 via the platform below. Join the diverse international community of scholars already selected through our early bird submissions!

The 4th Conference on Food & Communication aims to critically explore the diverse roles of media and communication in shaping and advancing food democracy in all its dimensions. Food democracy encompasses not only equitable access to nutritious, sustainable, and enjoyable food for all—regardless of socio-economic status, age, or situations of vulnerability—but also stresses transparency in food systems, access to knowledge, public deliberation, and the protection of individual rights and freedoms.

Any topic related to food, communication, media and discourse can be submitted.

Conference details and abstract submission: https://foodforall.sciencesconf.org/

Our network: www.foodcommunication.net

August 12, 2025

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Deadline: April 11, 2025

ECREA Media Industries and Cultural Production Workshop

This one-day conference tackles a central and persistent challenge in media industries research: How scholars gain entry into media companies and navigate the personal and professional relationships that shape researcher-industry interactions.

Issues of trust, access, and working beyond polished corporate narratives have long been debated in studies of media production, distribution, and industrial organization. These questions have been approached from both pragmatic and strategic perspectives, which focus on the practical challenges of forming relationships and gaining access, as well as from ethical perspectives, that address normative concerns about how these relationships should be structured.

The urgency of these questions has only grown in recent years. As international tech giants reshape the media landscape, their corporate cultures and structures pose new barriers to access. Traditional media companies, too, have evolved—fragmentation, competition, and shifting security protocols have made research entry more complex than ever. These changes not only reinforce enduring methodological challenges but also demand fresh approaches to researcher-industry relations.

We invite papers that critically examine the dynamics of access, relational work, and researcher-industry engagement—whether through empirical case studies, methodological discussions, or theoretical inquiry. Our goal is to share experiences, refine our research strategies, and deepen our understanding of the evolving conditions of media industries research.

Presentations at the conference may address, but are not limited to:

●      The ethical dimensions of relational work in media industries research—and the insights gained from openly reflecting on access strategies and the challenges of managing academia-industry relationships.

●      How strategies for gaining access may differ depending on the specific media industries or organizations, their sizes, and political contexts. 

●      Longitudinal accounts of how mutual trust is maintained or challenged in relationships between individual researchers and industry actors over time.

●      Professional “breakups” between researchers and industrial actors, and what can be learned from ending or exiting collaborations.   

●      The issues of sharing or accessing historical data or archival material.

●      The issues of accessing media organizations’ digital platforms, internal systems, or internal communication channels.

●      How taking part in committees and policy work can challenge researchers’ autonomous role and how they have mitigated this. 

●      Creative workarounds to gain access to organizations once initial attempts are denied. 

We invite scholars to submit abstracts for papers addressing these themes. 

Abstracts of 300 words should be submitted no later than the 11 April 2025. Send abstracts to: fredrik.stiernstedt@sh.se. Authors will be informed regarding acceptance/rejection for the conference no later than 16 May 2025. Early career scholars and graduate students are highly encouraged to submit their work (please indicate if the research submitted is part of your thesis or dissertation project). 

Fees and accommodation. The conference registration fee is 50 Euros, and participants are asked to cover their travel expenses. This fee includes coffee breaks, lunch and drinks at the get-together. For participants that will continue to the NordMedia 2025 Conference  in Odense (13-15 August), trains from Copenhagen to Odense depart frequently and take about 90 minutes. Participants are asked to cover their accommodation.

Organizing committee

Local organizers: Mads Møller Tommerup Andersen (University of Copenhagen)

For the section management team: Fredrik Stiernstedt (Södertörn University), Vilde Schanke Sundet (Oslo Metropolitan University), Catalina Iordache (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Torbjörn Rolandsson (Roskilde University).

September 15-17, 2025

University of Bologna, Italy

Deadline: May 15, 2025

PRIN 2022 PNRR “CELEBR-AGE” FINAL CONFERENCE - organised by Ylenia Caputo, Simona Castellano, Antonella Mascio, Roy Menarini, Sara Pesce, Mario Tirino

Celebrities occupy a prominent position in contemporary (media) society for several reasons. In addition to being a form of ‘commodity’ used by the media industry (Turner, 2004), they represent devices capable of creating connections between the media world and the audience world, acting as models for inspiration.

For an ever-increasing number of subjects (people, users, audiences), the activities, speeches and performances of celebrities become symbolic materials, forms of cultural mediation through which they elaborate their own interpretations of the world. In the words of Nick Couldry (2009), it seems useful to look at celebrity as ‘a generative centre that explains the social world's functioning and its values’, i.e. a privileged access point for interpreting a set of fundamental phenomena affecting society.

Many studies have been carried out on celebrities, starting with the figures who embody this role and the type of relationship they have with their publics, also highlighting their ‘measure’ (macro, meso and micro measure, Marwick, 2007). However, few analyses have accompanied these reflections regarding ‘elderly’ celebrities, i.e. all those celebrities who have reached a certain age threshold. Their role seems to have changed compared to the past and the media spaces in which they appear are increasingly numerous and differentiated (films, TV series, social networks...) bringing significant novelties not only on a spectacular level, but also - and perhaps most importantly - on a cultural and social ones.

Ageing is increasingly evident in the world's population, with a significant impact on the economy, politics and social life of many countries. As a result, the cultural models referred to over the past three decades have changed rapidly: advertising, cinema, sports and other spheres now propagate conceptions of ageing under the banner of intellectual activism, psycho-physical well-being and social prominence.

Within a vast constellation of phenomena, events and products that, in various ways, shape new and often contradictory conceptions of ageing, the cultural discourses elaborated by celebrities assume a clear centrality in the mediatised public scene.

For this reason, it now appears necessary to analyse in depth the link between celebrity and ageing, from a multidisciplinary and transcultural perspective.

We therefore invite scholars of Film Studies, Media Studies, Sociology of Culture and Communication and, more generally, scholars interested in the study of the social, anthropological and cultural dynamics of ageing, to send in a paper relating to (but not limited to) these issues:

- celebrity ageing and fiction (films, TV series, comics, podcasts, novels, etc.);

- the role of celebrities in promoting active ageing;

- the function of ageing and the conversion of celebrity capital into other forms of capital (political, economic, etc.) in post-career life (especially for sports celebrities);

- gender differences among celebrities in their experience of ageing;

- nostalgia and ‘ageing’ celebrities;

- ageing celebrity fandom/fans;

- ageing theories in the Celebrity and Media Studies;

- theoretical analyses of the celebrity-ageing nexus from humanities and social science perspectives;

- the social role of celebrities in the evolution of beauty standards, glamour and desirability in old age;

- the role of social media in cultural discourses on celebrity and ageing;

- comparative analyses of celebrity ageing in different historical, cultural, social and geographical contexts.

Abstracts should be up to 300 words, plus key references. Papers must add a short biographical note of the author (max. 150 words). The evaluation will focus on the relevance to the conference topic, the selection of research objects and the clarity of the use of methodology. Only one abstract per author can be submitted. Pre-constituted panels (3 to 5 participants) will be welcomed.

Papers must be submitted to: celebrageunibo@gmail.com.

The conference will be held in-person only. Submission should be made by May 15th, 2025. Notification of acceptance will be sent by June 30th, 2025.

The keynote speakers will be announced soon.

No fees will be charged, but individual voluntary contributions for social dinners will be encouraged.

Please also note that conference participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation arrangements.

Routledge

Deadline: April 20, 2025

An upcoming edited volume, “Media Studies Meet Drug Research,” co-edited by Dr. Piotr Siuda (Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz) and Dr. Michał Wanke (University of Opole), seeks chapter contributions exploring the intersections of media studies and drug research. The book has received initial positive feedback from Routledge’s commissioning editors and aims to bring together scholars from both fields to examine theoretical, empirical, and methodological connections.

Contributions are invited on topics including:

• Theoretical and conceptual frameworks linking media and drug research
  
• Identity, stigma, and agency in drug-related and media environments
  
• Representations, narratives, and moral panics
  
• Digital platforms, online drug markets, and algorithmic influence
  
• Policy, governance, and surveillance across both fields
  
• Methodological and ethical innovations in interdisciplinary research
  

Key deadlines:

*Extended abstract submission: April 20, 2025

*Notification of acceptance: April 30, 2025

*First drafts due: October 1, 2025

*Final drafts due: December 31, 2025

Further details are available here: https://drugsproject.pl/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CfP_Media_Studies_Meet_Drug_Research.pdf 

Scholars interested in contributing are encouraged to submit proposals or share this call with relevant colleagues. For inquiries or discussions on potential topics, please feel free to contact the editors.