ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 9, 2022

Online webinar

I am pleased to invite you to the next in the series of IPRA Thought Leadership webinars. The webinar Public affairs: the changing nature of political engagement will be presented by Stuart Thomson, head of public affairs at BDB Pitmans on Thursday 9 June 2022 at 12.00 GMT/UCT (unadjusted).

What is the webinar content?

Public affairs is not always understood across the PR profession but if political audiences are not managed there may be damage. Public affairs should be viewed as an aspect of reputational management. Done well, it opens up opportunities and deals with threats. Ignored then significant damage can be inflicted. This session will show the valuable role that public affairs can play.

How to join

Register here at Airmeet. (The time shown should adjust to your device’s time zone.)

A reminder will be sent 1 hour before the event.

Background to IPRA

IPRA, the International Public Relations Association, was established in 1955, and is the leading global network for PR professionals in their personal capacity. IPRA aims to advance trusted communication and the ethical practice of public relations. We do this through networking, our code of conduct and intellectual leadership of the profession. IPRA is the organiser of public relations' annual global competition, the Golden World Awards for Excellence (GWA). IPRA's services enable PR professionals to collaborate and be recognised. Members create content via our Thought Leadership essays, social media and our consultative status with the United Nations. GWA winners demonstrate PR excellence. IPRA welcomes all those who share our aims and who wish to be part of the IPRA worldwide fellowship. For more see www.ipra.org

Background to Stuart Thomson

Dr Stuart Thomson is a UK-based public affairs and communications consultant. His latest book, Reputation in Business: Lessons for Leaders, will be published by Routledge in late 2022. Stuart has been listed as one of the UK’s Top 100 Public Affairs Consultants and in 2020, he won Best Current Affairs Influencer at Vuelio’s Online Influence Awards.

Contact

International Public Relations Association Secretariat

United Kingdom

secgen@ipra.org

Telephone +44 1634 818308

October 18, 2022

Aarhus, Denmark

Deadline: July 1, 2022

The pre-conference ‘Doing gender’ across mobile apps, organised by the University of Coimbra and MyGender project (PTDC/COM-CSS/5947/2020).

Related Section: Gender, Sexuality and Communication. More information is available in the attachment and here.

Abstracts (300 max.) can explore theoretical and empirical studies that use qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods on topics within gender, sexuality and app studies. The organisation of the pre-conference will publish a book with the articles that may be submitted.

Abstracts should be sent to mygender@fl.uc.pt by the 1st of July 2022.

Notice of acceptance will be given by the 15th of July.

June 7-10, 2022

Come join us online for the 2nd FilmEU Summit (7-10th June) hosted by IADT. This year’s theme is Environmental Sustainability in Film and Media Arts industry and Education.

Speakers at the open sessions will include policy makers, industry professionals, academic staff and crucially, students.

The public sections will be streamed on FilmEU Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzU6nBbPA1iQrKIaLYC2E9g

The event will happen on Dublin timezone (WET).

Register here for the online participation and updates: https://bit.ly/3PGeseu Updated program and info here: https://www.filmeu.eu/news-and-events/events/filmeu-summit-june-2022

KOME, an international Open Access journal published by the Hungarian Communication Studies Association is currently accepting submissions.

KOME is a theory-oriented journal of media and communication studies and related fields. Given the connection between theory and empirical research, we are open to submissions of empirical papers as well, if the research demonstrates a clear endorsement of communication and/or media theories. We would love to hear from our colleagues across Europe and overseas, and read about their current research!

If interested, please visit our website at http://www.komejournal.com. Manuscripts can be submitted directly to kome@komejournal.com.

We are free to all authors and readers, and indexed in SCOPUS and Web of Science. All submission undergo double blind peer review. Average turnaround time is 10 to 12 weeks. No APC's, page charges, submission charges; we do not charge authors for publishing their work and do not solicit or accept payment for contributions.

Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Salary from £37,197 to £44,802 pa inclusive with potential to progress to £48,168 pa inclusive of London allowance

This is a fixed term appointment for three years, starting from 1 September 2022

Applications are invited from outstanding candidates in the field of Media and Communications. The successful candidate will join an established and successful Department renowned globally for its high-quality original research and teaching excellence, and ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in its field (2022 QS World University Rankings).

The Department is seeking to appoint an LSE Fellow who can make important contributions to its teaching and research. This post presents an excellent opportunity for the successful candidate to expand on their teaching experience while developing their research career.

Candidates will have a completed PhD in Media and Communications or a closely related field (PhD in hand without revisions pending by date of application). Candidates must demonstrate evidence of teaching at graduate level, an interest in contributing to teaching on methods of research in media and communications, as well as experience of media and communications teaching from a critical perspective, including on topics relating to China and the institutional arrangements of global media and communications industries. Candidates must also have a developing research record in the field of media and communications with a focus on global media and communications industries. Candidates will demonstrate evidence of a commitment to critically assessing theories and empirical research. Candidates must demonstrate excellent communication and presentation skills and have a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion within teaching practice.

We offer an occupational pension scheme, generous annual leave and excellent training and development opportunities.

For further information about the post, please see the how to apply document, job description and the person specification here: https://jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/5038/0/350079/15539/lse-fellow-in-media-and-communications

If you have any technical queries with applying on the online system, please use the "contact us" links at the bottom of the LSE Jobs page.

Should you have any queries about the role, please email Professor Lee Edwards, at L.Edwards2@lse.ac.uk.

The closing date for receipt of applications is Sunday 26 June 2022 (23.59 UK time). Regrettably, we are unable to accept any late applications.

An LSE Fellowship is intended to be an entry route to an academic career and is deemed by the School to be a career development position. As such, applicants who have already been employed as a LSE Fellow for three years in total are not eligible to apply. If you have any queries about this please contact the HR Division.

LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university.

Birkbeck, University of London, 30 Russell Square, Room 101, London WC1B 5DT

13 June 2022, 11:30am – 5:00pm

Book your place: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=31670

Recent political turmoil has arguably been good for the news industry: Paid subscriptions at the New York Times, for example, surged after Donald Trump was – to the shock of many – elected President of the United States. The Brexit referendum massively boosted newspaper sales in the UK, while a record number of viewers and listeners tuned into political programmes on the BBC. During the Covid-19 pandemic, audiences appeared to show renewed trust in legacy media brands as sources of reliable information (Nielsen et al., 2020). And the horrific Russian invasion in Ukraine glued people all over the world to their screens, with viewer figures for mainstream TV channels such as BBC News or Sky News multiplying.

And yet, if these events seem to have encouraged audiences to (re)turn to traditional news media, how should we understand the falling back on such media in light of an information landscape many still consider to be wrought with mis- and dis-information, antagonistic exchanges, and overpowered by platform companies? Or in an era where democracies seem to be undermined by populism, authoritarian tendencies, political polarisation, and now war?

The symposium aims to explore these questions. The title is meant as provocation: are media good for democracies – as scholars, journalists, and politicians generally assume? If so, just what forms of democracy might media support? Why are mainstream, legacy, traditional, or establishment media so often seen as especially suited to supporting such democracies? What are the democratic responsibilities of platform companies, or for that matter alternative media?

We will discuss new perspectives and approaches to these questions. The symposium will be opened by a keynote speech from Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, followed by two thematic panel discussions.

Schedule:

11:30am – 1pm keynote by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

1pm – 1:45pm lunch break

1:45 – 3:20pm 1st panel

20 min coffee/comfort break

3:40- 5:00pm 2nd panel

Full programme:

Download PDF of programme

Keynote:

Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Cardiff University

“Emerging media ecologies, democracy and emotion"

This talk begins from the premise that media are essential institutions in a democratic society. At the same time, contemporary media ecologies are dynamic and subject to constant change, shaped by complex interactions between legacy media and newer entrants, including social media and digital outlets. Drawing on examples from recent events, ranging from the coronavirus pandemic to the war in Ukraine, the talk suggests that we can no longer assume that media actors and platforms are benign in their normative underpinnings and practices. Instead, they are shaped by an increasingly polarised political context, characterised by the growing prominence of emotional discourse – for better and for worse.

Panel speakers:

Dr Dimitry Chernobrov, University of Sheffield

Professor Des Freedman, Goldsmiths, University of London

Dr Tanya Lokot, Dublin City University

Dr Chanda Mfula, University of Hertfordshire

Dr Monika Metykova, University of Sussex

Dr Tom Mills, Aston University

Dr Judith Möller, University of Amsterdam

Contact:

Dr Imke Henkel

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

The research training group 2806 “Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures” at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), funded by the German Research Foundation, is offering

• 12 Doctoral Positions (m/f/d) (65%, E-13 TV-L)
• 1 Postdoc Position (m/f/d) (100%, E-13 TV-L)

for a duration of three and five years respectively, starting 01.10.2022. Extensions for the doctoral positions are possible.

The interdisciplinary research training group analyzes contemporary literatures since 1945 in different public and cultural contexts. It adopts a broad conception of literature, including socio-cultural, political, and economic contexts, (inter-)mediality, institutional conditions, as well as literary life as subjects for enquiry.

The research training group focuses on literatures in various languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian), including ‘small literatures’ and minority cultures on different continents. On the basis of comparative and transnational perspectives, the research training group takes praxeological, social, media related, material, ethical, and economic aspects into account.

The research training group explores the cultural specificities, potentials, and functions of these literatures and investigates their conditions of emergence and public resonance. It conceives of literatures (1) as seismographs of often contradictory cultural, media related, and social developments, (2) as generators of a vocabulary to articulate the multilayered experiences of the contemporary moment, (3) as forums for the discussion of concerns relevant to the public.

Drawing on five closely interrelated fields of interest, the research training group examines how fragmenting publics constitute a relevant context for and a prominent concern of these literatures:

VI. Literatures‘ strategies to activate attention

VII. Public contexts of literatures

VIII. Material appearances/materiality of literatures

IX. Literary knowledge production

X. Literary ethics and politics

The disciplines involved are English and American Studies, Book Studies, Digital Humanities, German Studies, Comparative Literature, (Cultural) Sociology, Media Ethics, Media Economics, Media Studies, Eastern European Studies, and Romance Studies.

For more information on the research program, the respective advisors, and contact information, see: https://www.literaturundoeffentlichkeit.phil.fau.de/

If you have any questions, please contact the speakers of the research training group: dirk.niefanger@fau.de and antje.kley@fau.de.

Requirements:

• an excellent academic degree
• an innovative project idea relevant to the program of the research training group
• intercultural competence and an interest in interdisciplinary work
• proficiency in abstract theoretical thinking
• methodological competence
• adequate language skills: B2 German and English, C1 German or English
• first publications, academic talks, or academic administrative experience (e.g. as student assistant) are desirable

• in addition, postdocs should have an outstanding dissertation, scientific experience, and a research project relevant to the program of the research training group

Documents to submit:

• cover letter
• CV
• degree certificates (MA, State Exam, or equivalent degree; dissertation for postdoc)
• research proposal (ca. 8-10 pages)
• writing sample (e.g. Master’s Thesis, dissertation for postdoc)
• certificate(s) of language skills (may be handed in within the first year if necessary)

Please submit your application (English or German) electronically as one single PDF file (plus writing sample in a separate PDF file) to kontakt-grk2806@fau.de by 6th of July 2022.

The Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg strives to increase the number of women in academic research and teaching and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

FAU is an equal opportunity employer and gives preference to candidates with disabilities if equally qualified.

Special Issue of Journalism and Media

Deadline: December 31, 2022

(Guest Editors: José Luis Rojas Torrijos and Daniel Nölleke)

The boundaries of sports journalism continue to expand as non-traditional actors emerge and proliferate in the digital environment. This outstanding and vital specialist area of work within the news industry faces increasing pressure from adjacent fields. Amateur sports enthusiasts (bloggers, streamers or influencers) and team media for sports organisations adopt many of the roles and tasks historically attributed to sports journalism and engage in activities that may be perceived and regarded as journalistic by audiences.

As Simon McEnnis points out in his book Disrupting Sports Journalism (2021), “sports journalists are seeing how the very bases of their professional practice are being appropriated by others” and, yet at the same time, they are trying to defend their distinctiveness by elevating their standing and professional status.

The arrival of new actors around the journalistic field, the heavy use of social media and its impact on sports consumption patterns, as well as the search for new business models for news organisations and the disrupting technology that is being explored and applied as innovation in the sports coverage all require new conceptual approaches to better understand the sports newswork in the digital age.

All of these considerations lead this Special Issue to reopen and broaden the discussion among scholars about the current trends in the sports media landscape and the bigger challenges that sports journalists need to face in the coming years.

These are the topics to be addressed in this Special Issue of Journalism and Media:

• Theoretical considerations of professionalism in sports journalism;
• Sports journalism and its boundaries: from bloggers to team media for sports organizations;
• Disrupting technologies, new job profiles and practices in digital sports newsrooms;
• The heavy use of social media and the reshaping of the sports news agenda;
• Audiences' consumption habits and perceptions in the era of attention economy;
• Sports events, TV networks and streaming platforms;
• Esports and other emergent niches in the field;
• Innovation in the sports media coverage: from visual and graphic departments to media labs;
• Editorial strategies to better connect with audiences and the changing business models in sports media;
• The impact of COVID-19 on sports journalism;
• Gender studies in sports journalism.

For detailed information about the submission process, please follow the link to the Special Issue website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/journalmedia/special_issues/sport_journalism

The submission deadline is 31 December 2022. You may send your manuscript now or up until the deadline. Submitted papers should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for open access publication in this Special Issue will be fully waived, which means that you have the privilege to publish your paper free of charge in an open access scholarly journal.

Papers should be in the range of 6,000 to 9,000 words. For further details on the submission process, please refer to the instructions for authors at the journal website or let us know if you have any questions (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/journalmedia/instructions).

Guest Editors:

José Luis Rojas Torrijos, PhD, Associate Professor of Journalism, Universidad de Sevilla, jlrojas@us.es

JProf. Dr. Daniel Nölleke, Assistant Professor, German Sport University Cologne, d.noelleke@dshs-koeln.de

October 19, 2022

Aarhus University, Denmark (hybrid with onsite and online panels)

Deadline: July 8, 2022

Preconference of the ECREA Temporary Working Group “Communication and Sport”

The relationship between media and sport can for many good reasons be characterized as entirely strategic, both in a historical and contemporary perspective. In this one-day preconference hosted by Aarhus University on October 19 2022, the ECREA Temporary Working Group on Communication and Sport calls for papers exploring strategic dimensions of the sport-media nexus from diverse perspectives and on many levels. The aim is to share and nuance our existing knowledge about the many ways in which mediated communication about sport in Europe is developing in close connection with various forms of strategic concerns in the realm of sports, in media and/or wider societal contexts.

Abstracts between 300 and 500 words can be submitted by July 8, 2022.

For more than a century some sports and events have been vital content for certain media businesses to achieve pivotal strategic goals, like attracting more or new audiences/users, create traffic and data, and build up new markets, perhaps in connection with processes of rebranding. And for an increasing number of sports organizations and managers, partnerships and contracted collaborations with media organizations have been crucial elements in the development of still more complex business models involving a range of other strategic business partners. These formalized collaborations have together with more informal relationships with independent journalists all been important for the public image of many sports and organizations. Not to mention nations, regions or cities using hosting/organization of sports events of different scales as vehicles for social, economic or infrastructural development or a ‘soft power’ strategy seeking political and cultural recognition on a global or international scene.

Digitization has added new dimensions to this broad picture of strategic intertwinements between powerful media and sport, which we are interested in. The profession of journalism and the working conditions for journalists have changed profoundly, requiring new strategies from them to get access to sources and thus to produce sports content. We witness a wave of sports activism, where athletes use their status as (media-created) icons and the direct access to fans and the wider public on social media to pursue different sorts of (political) goals. Sports organizations on all levels in European sports increasingly engage in different forms of digitally facilitated sports activities, sometimes in close collaboration with new types of media businesses. Sports clubs and governing bodies communicate with a wide range of stakeholders via global digital platforms, and the commercially strong organizations build up their own professionally staffed media and marketing units, trying to produce data and get more leverage to the public image of their sports and events.

We call for papers which deal with historic and contemporary strategic dimensions in European sports communication, including both theoretical and analytical perspectives on the tensions, conflicts, many dilemmas and negotiations involved, like when power balances are changing and different strategic interests co-exist or merge around the same sport or event.

We invite abstracts between 300-500 words submitted in English language by July 8 2022 via e-mail to the Chair of the TWG JProf. Dr. Daniel Nölleke (d.noelleke@dshs-koeln.de).

To support the integration of as many scholars as possible, we invite to 1-2 onsite panels and 1 online panel. Please indicate clearly whether the abstract is for onsite or online presentation.

Authors will be notified about acceptance at the end of July.

Call for papers for a special issue of Nordicom Review and Invitation to Symposium at Stockholm University

November 10, 2022

Stockholm, Sweden

Deadline: September 1, 2022

Editors:

Andreas Widholm, Stockholm University (andreas.widholm@ims.su.se)

Mattias Ekman, Stockholm University (mattias.ekman@ims.su.se)

Important dates

• Deadline for extended abstracts: 1 September 2022
• Notification of acceptance to symposium (attendance voluntary): 15 September 2022
• Symposium at Stockholm University: 10 November 2022
• Invitation to submit full paper: 24 November 2022
• Full paper submission: March 2023
• Peer review process: Summer/Autumn 2023
• Expected publication (Open Access): January 2024

The Digital Human Sciences Research Hub and the Department of Media Studies at Stockholm University and Nordicom invite scholars from a broad range of disciplines to submit extended abstracts for a special issue of Nordicom Review, focusing on the political, social, cultural, and juridical implications of digital technologies for a sustainable democratic information environment.

Accompanying the call, we welcome interested scholars to a symposium with the theme “Democracy and Digital Disintegration”. Our goal is to facilitate dialogue between researchers of various disciplines and create opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.

The symposium will take place in the Film House in Stockholm and is free of charge. Acceptance of a paper for the special issue is not dependent upon participation in the symposium. Coffee, lunch, and dinner on the evening of 10 November is included for all participants. After the symposium, selected papers will be considered for the special issue.

Background and aim

The rapid and profound transformations associated with contemporary media systems have severe consequences for democracy and public debates. Social media play an increasingly central role for political participation, especially among young citizens, and digital platforms have significantly changed how political parties operate strategically to mobilise voters and influence public opinion. Furthermore, activists and social movements have access to new digital tools to raise awareness about their causes and to coordinate protests. Digital platforms have also become central venues for the distribution and circulation of news – by legacy media institutions as well as new alternative or “fake” media organisations. Hence, today’s citizens find themselves in a hybrid information environment, where the boundaries of traditional journalism, hyper-partisan news, political propaganda, and strategic (dis)information have become increasingly blurred.

Digital platforms are drivers of change towards a more globalised, interconnected, and socially integrated world. However, platforms simultaneously contribute to the disintegration of the citizenry. While algorithmic content recommendation systems may help people more easily navigate abundant information flows online, concerns have been raised that they may also contribute negatively to information diversity, prioritising content that corresponds to the worldviews and ideological preferences of individual users. Moreover, in addition to benefits such as facilitating public debate and mobilisation, the economic and technological infrastructure of social platforms have proved to fuel political polarisation, racism, and affective language use, making democracies increasingly vulnerable and open to manipulation and antidemocratic influences.

This global information environment raises questions related to algorithmic transparency, regulation of information, digital censorship, and freedom of expression online, reflected most recently in the European Union’s ban of RT and Sputnik, two of Russia’s most influential global propaganda channels. Elon Musk’s potential acquisition of Twitter as an alleged act of “securing free speech” is a harbinger of future changes, also in need of scholarly attention.

We aim for a collection of contributions with a clear interdisciplinary relevance for the Nordic region and beyond. We welcome contributions with longitudinal and/or comparative perspectives, as well as specific case studies that inform the Nordic and global context. We particularly welcome contributions employing innovative methodological approaches (qualitative as well as quantitative). Topics may include but are not limited to the following areas:

• Political news in mainstream and alternative media
• Political communication, activism, and digital propaganda strategies
• Integrative, transnational, and boundary-crossing aspects of digital media
• Affective platforms and politics of emotion
• Populism, racism, polarisation, and disintegrative aspects of digital media
• Practices of disinformation, manipulation, and “deep fakes”
• Discourses of disinformation (in politics, journalism, and other contexts)
• Fact-checking and source criticism
• Free speech, censorship, and regulation of information online
• The democratic challenges of algorithms and artificial intelligence
• Young citizens and digital media literacy

Procedure

Those with an interest in contributing should write an extended abstract (max. 750 words) where the main theme (or argument) of the intended paper is described. How the paper fits with the overall theme of the issue and symposium should be mentioned.

Send your extended abstract to digdis@ims.su.se

Scholars invited to submit a full manuscript (7,000–9,000 words) will be notified by e-mail after the symposium and after the abstracts have been assessed. All submissions should be original works and must not be under consideration by other publishers.

Contact

Questions about Digital Human Sciences Research Hub (DHV), the special issue, and related November symposium can be addressed to Andreas Widholm (andreas.widholm@ims.su.se) or Mattias Ekman (mattias.ekman@ims.su.se).

About Nordicom Review

Nordicom Review adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy and articles are published Open Access with no processing charges for authors. Nordicom Review includes research with relevance for the Nordic context and welcomes interdisciplinary submissions from a worldwide authorship, including both empirical and theoretical articles.

Read more about Nordicom Review here:

https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/nordicom-review