ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Special Issue of Comunicação Pública no. 33 (December 2022)

Deadline: July 7, 2022

Editors: Ricardo Morais (IADE - Faculdade de Design, Tecnologia e Comunicação, Universidade Europeia, Universidade da Beira Interior/LabCom) and Patrícia Silveira (IADE - Faculdade de Design, Tecnologia e Comunicação, Universidade Europeia, CECS – Universidade do Minho)

Languages: Portuguese; English; Spanish

In recent years, we have seen a violent attack on the values of democracy. The growth of populism and authoritarian governments has contributed to a democratic backlash. In this context of threat to liberal democracy, citizenship and civic participation are also at risk. It is therefore urgent to reflect upon the growth of these trends, but above all it is necessary to understand that in a scenario dominated by media and digital communication, as well as by disinformation, it is essential to develop literacy for citizenship, participation and democracy.

Description and Framework

In recent years there have been several phenomena put democratic values to the test, to the point that we now can speak of a regression of liberal democracies around the world (V-Dem 2020; Democracy Index, 2019). The political transformations that have taken place in countries such as Hungary, Turkey or Brazil, with the election of populist leaders and the constitution of antidemocratic governments, are just some of the visible faces of a larger problem, which reaches its maximum expression with the increase in the number of autocracies, which is now higher than that of democracies, something that has not occurred since 2001 (V-Dem, 2020, p. 6).

Researchers have explained most of these transformations based on the idea that citizens no longer trust “the political system and democratic institutions” (Belchior, 2015). This mistrust would be at the origin of citizens' discontent and at the base of their adherence to populist politicians, who defend nationalist or protectionist measures, as well as restrictions to individual freedoms and rights.

The media have been used, in this process, as the main channel to transmit populist ideas. When the media are not available, digital platforms are the privileged vehicles to attack traditional media, convey disinformation and encourage the polarization of discourses. In this context, the question that arises is whether citizens are prepared to understand and critically assess the diversity of messages to which they are exposed in contemporary society.

The fast pace at which information circulates, especially in the digital world, combined with the transformations that have taken place in the production of content (Bruns, 2007; Anderson, Bell & Shirky, 2014), have reinforced the importance of promoting media and digital literacy as a democratic development strategy. Critical understanding and active participation are thus the basis of all democracies, as the absence of these competences prevents certain sectors of society from making informed choices, exposing them to false content and affecting the nature and quality of public debate.

In this context we understand that it is necessary to consolidate scientific knowledge and the perception that citizens have about the democratic process, civic participation and citizenship. It is not simply a matter of analyzing what the public knows about politicians or political institutions. Thinking about literacy for citizenship and democracy is to enter the broader field of identifying a set of competencies without which citizens would not be able to act critically, in a democratic context. In this sense, this call for papers aims to collect theoretical and empirical contributions that can help to reflect on the importance of this kind of literacy for citizenship and democracy, and more specifically what skills should be developed and what tools can be used to help combat democratic backlash. Among others, it seeks to obtain answers to the following questions: How to prepare citizens to participate critically in the democratic process? What kind of knowledge, attitudes and skills are essential for the exercise of citizenship in the digital age? To whom should media literacy actions be addressed? What strategies can help foster young people's interest in democracy?

Objectives and approaches

Considering that literacy for citizenship and democracy is the central axis of this call for papers, we seek contributions that take into account the following topics, (although not limited to them):

• Media literacy, citizenship and democracy
• Misinformation and information literacy
• Populisms, polarization and digital literacy
• Digital divide, teaching and media literacy
• Political literacy and civic participation
• Public policies and media literacy
• Technology, literacy and digital citizenship

KEY DATES

1st Call for Papers: 1 March 2022

Deadline for Submissions: 7 July 2022

Deadline for Notification of Acceptance: 15 October 2022

Deadline for submitting the final version of accepted paper: 1 November 2022

Publication date: 15 December 2022

Submission guidelines:

Articles must be submitted online via https://journals.ipl.pt/cpublica/index.

Authors are required to register in the system before submitting an article; if you have already registered, simply log into the system and start the 5-step submission process. Articles must be submitted using the preformatted template of Comunicação Pública. For more information on submission, please read Information for Authors and Guidelines for Authors.

University in Bydgoszcz

Faculty of Game Studies and Information Technologies; Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland offers a position of Assistant Professor in new media, including games studies and information technologies.

Further information regarding the job description can be accessed under the following link: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/795520

APPLICATION DEADLINE is 07/07/2022 00:00 - Europe/Brussels

For any details or questions, please contact Faculty’s chair: piotr.siuda@gmail.com

November 22 – November 25, 2022

University of Wollongong, Australia

Deadline: July 31, 2022

ANZCA 2022 Conference

Convened by School of The Arts, English and Media, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, and Centre for Digital Transformation, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences

ANZCA 2022 will showcase new directions for research focusing on fundamental changes occurring across the broad sectors of communication, journalism, digital health, and digital media. This includes burgeoning research and methodological frameworks in public and health communication, civic participation, and community-building. The conference will bring together academics, independent researchers, creative practitioners, and activists to explore a range of issues that intersect with digital, social, and virtual communities and Web futures, as well as the ascendency of streaming services and social gathering platforms.

The conference will run as an inclusive hybrid face-to-face and online event, welcoming emerging, aspiring, and established thinkers interested in interrogating new communication developments, connections, and disruptions that have transpired during the COVID pandemic era.

ANZCA 2022 will also facilitate debates on a range of developments that are responding to the apparent deepening of digital divides and the prevalence of misinformation in an era marked by significant global crises. The conference will scrutinise the emergence, adoption, propagation, and extension of new community cultures and practices, as well as the policy and governance mechanisms that have yet to keep pace with them, inviting us to consider questions such as what are some of the new testing grounds for human creativity and for overcoming post-COVID challenges in this interdisciplinary arena?

Key topic areas include:

– The transformation and impacts of COVID-era organisational, intercultural, and interpersonal communications, and responses to misinformation;

– New and dynamic forms of public relations and health communication, and the creative use of digital media tools among communities of creative practitioners, commentators, audiences, fans, and policymakers;

– The evolution of virtual communication and social engagement in networked, mobile, augmented reality, and online spaces in the COVID era, and the environmental/carbon impact of these forms of engagement; and

– Adaptions made to civic and community-building communication practices that are designed to support participation in society during periods of lockdown, isolation, and restricted mobility.

– The first day of the conference will feature a Postgraduate (HDR) and Early Career Researcher (ECR) Day, which is being organised by the Fan Studies Network Australasia. More details will be provided about this soon.

Conference Attendance: Given the ongoing uncertainty with COVID-19, ANZCA 2022 will be held in hybrid (in person and online) mode. Stay tuned for more details about attendance and registration options.

Guidelines for Submission: We welcome submissions for papers and panels on a wide range of topics as outlined above. We invite four types of submissions: individual paper abstracts; panel proposals; HDR/ECR roundtable day; and full papers for consideration in a special conference-themed journal issue. Please indicate whether you intend to present in person, or online.

ABSTRACTS: Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words. Please indicate your submission type and include a 100-word author biography with your submission.

PANEL PROPOSALS: Pre-constituted panels can feature 3-4 speakers whose papers share a strong thematic link. To propose a panel, please submit the following: panel title; an abstract providing an overview of the panel (250-500 words); an abstract for each individual paper (250 words each); and a 100-word bio for each presenter.

HDR/ECR ROUNDTABLE: For HDR students and ECRs (i.e. those within 5 years of being awarded their PhD), we invite submissions of 200 words for our Roundtable session on Day 1 of the conference. This session will offer each speaker the opportunity to receive feedback on any element of their research from both their peers and senior academics. Please include a 100-word author biography with your submission.

FULL PAPERS: All full papers submitted will undergo a double-blind peer-review process to assess the suitability for one of two ANZCA conference special issues – in either Communication Research Practices (CRP) or Media International Australia (MIA). ANZCA no longer publishes conference proceedings. However, the organising committee will issue a formal letter of acceptance to the paper author(s) based on the peer-review. Please eliminate any authorial identifying information from the submitted paper, including from the title page, headers and footers, and document file names. This will ensure blind refereeing, and failure to deidentify a paper may lead to its rejection.

The body of the paper should be double-spaced, and left-aligned or justified. Quotations should be in “double quotation marks” and paragraphs of cited text longer than 40 words should be indented. Please number all pages of your manuscript in the top-right header. The suggested word count is a maximum of 6000 words, including references cited. Papers must be referenced in APA style. Authors selected for either CRP or MIA will be contacted following the conference, with anticipated publication in 2023.

ELIGIBILITY: You do not need to be a member of ANZCA to submit an abstract, panel proposal, or full paper. If your submission is accepted, you will be asked to register for the conference via our website. There are a range of different registration fees available, depending on career stage/employment, which will be announced soon.

KEY DATES:

– Submission site opens: 1 May 2022

– Submissions close: 31 July 2022

– Acceptance notifications and instructions emailed to participants: 30 September 2022

– Early Bird registration opens: 30 September 2022

– Registration for Postgraduate/ECR pre-conference symposium opens: 30 September 2022

– Early Bird registration closes: 15 October 2022

– Registrations close: 21 November 2022

Keynote speaker confirmed: Dr. Lev Manovich – Presidential Professor, City University of New York

Manovich is a world-renown innovator and top influencer in many fields, including media theory, digital humanities, cultural analytics, and media art. He is a Presidential Professor at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and a Director of the Cultural Analytics Lab. Manovich was included in the list of “25 People Shaping the Future of Design” and the list of “50 Most Interesting People Building the Future”. He is an author of 180 articles and 15 books that include Cultural Analytics, Instagram and Contemporary Image, and The Language of New Media described as “the most suggestive and broad-ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan.” Manovich’s digital art projects were shown in over 110 international exhibitions in Centre Pompidou, ICA London, ZKM, KIASMA, and other leading venues.

UPDATE submission portal now open

We are now accepting submissions for abstracts, panels, full papers, and HDR roundtable discussions. You can access the submission site here, which will be open until Friday 22 July 2022 (11.59pm AEST).

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

If you have any enquiries please contact anzca2022@gmail.com

Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetEP3_-nTVGrdHRl2nYCklCB2huzdcHsUMCN9YQ5wnvNJnZw/viewform

December 2, 2022

Instytut Nauk o Komunikacji Społecznej i Mediach, Lublin (Poland)

Deadline: October 15, 2022

Continuing our research meetings focused on specific issues of mediatization research chaired by eminent experts (Göran Bolin (2017), Johan Fornäs (2018), Andreas Hepp (2019), Mark Deuze (2020) André Jansson (2021)), this year the workshop will take place online on the 2 December 2022 and it will be led by Professor Andrew Hoskins, University of Glasgow.

The title of this year's edition is: Mediatization of War

We invite all mediatization researchers who wish to discuss their own research projects in a narrow and closed group of media scholars under the guidance of an expert.

This year we would like to dedicate the workshop to such topics of contributions as:

• Mediatization of war, invasion, armed conflict
• Mediatization of war refugees and humanitarian crisis
• Mediating the politics of war: manipulation, propaganda, and persuasion
• The importance of cyber warfare in mediatization
• Between mediatization of military, economy and culture
• Looping crises and their mediatization: war, pandemic, environment, markets
• The relationship between data, attention and control in contemporary war
• The gathering and potential (mis)use of open source information in shaping perceptions, and the memory and forgetting of war, and in pursuing the prosecution of war crimes

The idea and format of the meeting is based on a closed specialization workshop in a formula proven in the previous editions, i.e.:

• participants work on different types of materials (articles, works in progress, proposals, theses, reports, drafts etc.) under the guidance of the expert;
• meeting is preceded by substantive preparation by the expert and all participants on the basis of materials circulated among all participants in advance;
• during the meeting all participants focus on group discussion and expert feedback (presentations and speeches are limited to a minimum);
• seminar is preceded by an introductory lecture by the leader.

*There is no conference fee.

SCHEDULE

[15.10.2022] - submissions of proposals

Please use the form available below; other submission will not be accepted

[31.10.2022] - notification of acceptance of proposals

[28.11.2022]- submission of materials for discussion (only pdf format is accepted)

[29.11-1.12.2022] - preparation for the workshop by the leader and all participants

[2.12.2022] - closed online workshop (Google Meets will be used)

Any substantive questions about the workshop can be answered by Katarzyna Kopecka-Piech, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, via email: katarzyna.kopecka.piech@gmail.com.

https://www.umcs.pl/pl/towards-development-of-mediatization-research-vi-mediatization-of-war,24329.htm#page-2

June 29, 2022

Virtual meeting

First of our 2022 series: your reminder to join us for the virtual launch of the DFC's new report in their Education Data series, looking at the challenges schools face in managing children's education data

Thank you to those of you who have already registered to join us next week for a breakfast briefing to launch the Digital Futures Commission's latest report, 'Education Data Reality: The challenges for schools in managing children's education data'.

If you haven't already, it's not too late! Tune in to find out how schools are struggling to manage the considerable complexity of students’ data collected and processed by EdTech. What support do they call for, and what changes do they want, to ensure children’s best interests?

Details:

• Date: Wednesday 29th June
• Time: 09:00 - 10:00am BST
• Location: virtual, see link below

Register for the event here

Sonia Livingstone OBE, Professor of Social Psychology at LSE and DFC Research Lead will be joined by:

• Al Kingsley, CEO of NetSupport and Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust
• Sarah Turner, PhD researcher focusing on data protection and socio-technical cyber security

To learn more about what you can expect from the launch event, read the Digital Futures Commission's latest blog post here. There will be time for an interactive Q&A with attendees at the end.

We do hope you will be able to join us, and please do feel free to forward this invitation to anyone in your network who may be interested in attending.

If you have any questions about the event or the Digital Futures Commission please contact us on info@5rightsfoundation.com.

Thank you,

The Digital Futures Commission team

The Digital Futures Commission – hosted by 5Rights Foundation – is a flagship project driven by a board of Commissioners. It consists of three work streams – Play in the Digital World, Beneficial Uses of Education Data, and Guidance for Innovators. In each strand we are trying to shift the dial – our outputs will be focused on reimagining the digital world as if it were built for children, by design.

Our Commissioners represent the following organisations: 5Rights Foundation; BBC Research & Development North Lab; Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation; Erase All Kittens; EY; Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop; LEGO; London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE); Technological University Dublin; The Alan Turing Institute; The Behavioural Insights Team; University of Leeds.

You can learn more about the Digital Futures Commission here. You can also check out our blog, where we regularly profile the DFC's work.

School of Communications / Institute for Future Media Democracy and Society DCU

The DCU Institute of Future Media, Democracy and Society (FuJo) is seeking a PhD researcher. FuJo is a multidisciplinary research centre focused on the digital transformation of media, democracy, and society. FuJo investigates how to counter digital threats; enhance public participation through democratic innovations; and secure the sustainability of high-quality journalism and media.

The student will be based at the School of Communications at DCU which is home to almost 1,000 students at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD levels. With a tradition stretching back more than 40 years, the School is defined by excellence in both teaching and research. In the QS global subject rankings in 2021 DCU was in the top 150 (of almost 1,500) universities worldwide in the area of communications. DCU is ranked number 1 nationally in Communications & Media Studies.

FuJo is seeking a doctoral researcher to work on a funded project to study the transmission of climate denier (greenwashing) and rebuttal narratives through social platforms, mainstream media, and political speech and help establish whether deliberative assemblies can help elites move towards climate action and withstand lobbying and information campaigns from vested interests. Quantitative skills will be vital and a background in a relevant social science is desirable: communications, political science or psychology.

The role is a part of a larger funded project and there will be excellent training and travel opportunities, as well as a tax-free stipend of €18,500 plus fees. The School also offers PhD candidates opportunities to gain teaching experience.

(For further information, contact Prof. Jane Suiter – jane.suiter@dcu.ie)

NB. Applications should consist of a 1,500-word research proposal as well as a brief CV detailing academic qualifications and professional experience to date.

NB. All applications should be submitted directly to Prof. Jane Suiter.

Successful candidates will be shortlisted and interviewed either in person or online in July. Successful candidates then will be required to apply formally to be admitted as PhD students and may also need to show proficiency in the English language. Successful candidates will begin their studies in October 2022 and are required to be normally resident in Dublin for the duration of their studies.

Closing date for applications: Friday 8 July 2022.

Colleen Kennedy-Karpat (Anthology Editor), Feride Çiçekoglu (Anthology Editor)

The Sustainable Legacy of Agnès Varda celebrates the feminist legacy of French director and visual artist Agnès Varda, who died in 2019 after more than six decades of innovative work in film, photography, and installation art. Co-edited by Colleen Kennedy-Karpat (Bilkent University, Dept. of Communication and Design) and Professor Feride Çiçekoglu (Istanbul Bilgi University), the essays collected here explore how creation, connection, and environment form the core of Varda's artistry.

With chapters inspired by the "Virtual Varda" conference hosted at Bilgi in 2020, marking the first anniversary of Varda's death, the volume discusses a wide range of work, from the French New Wave classic Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) to contemporary documentaries The Beaches of Agnès (2008) and the Oscar-nominated Faces Places (2017) as well as selected art installations. The book's fourth section also features preeminent scholars from around the world writing about how they have incorporated Varda's art and feminist pedagogies into their classroom.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/sustainable-legacy-of-agn%c3%a8s-varda-9781350240902/

Deadline: November 1, 2022

Dear ECREA members, would you like to join us in a pioneer scientific work of mapping higher journalism education in Europe supported by UNESCO?

There are numerous study programmes that educate journalists, but there is no central place where one can access updated information about them fast and easily. This freely accessible interactive map presenting data with regard to geographical, institutional and programme characteristics, useful for future students, researchers, professionals and the wider public, will resolve that problem. It will be developed by an international European team of diverse collaborators - researchers, teachers, journalists, managers, students, etc.

Are you one of them?

The project is already up and running: we have an interactive digital database platform, and the Manual for collaborators which you are strongly advised to consult before deciding whether to collaborate.

You can start by adding data about your institution and study programme, and then collecting and entering data about other institutions in your country. The information we seek - name of the institution/department/faculty/study programme, institution ownership, type, and address, study programme foundation year, duration, degree level, website link, etc. We especially encourage those who will be dedicated to the entry of all study programmes that educate journalists in a particular country.

What is interesting is that you can see your own entry right away on the map, and track other people’s contributions. Every HEJDE project collaborator contributing to building the map will receive an official certificate of collaboration.

The deadline for this HEJDE project activity is November 1, 2022.

Mapping higher journalism education in Europe is the main activity of the institutional scientific project Higher Education of Journalists in a Digital Environment (HEJDE) of the Faculty of Humanities of the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula for a three-year period (2021 – 2023). It is directed toward the research on the state, challenges and educational opportunities of the European academic education of journalists in the digital environment. It brings together an international team of associates, scientists and institutions organized in a few teams which work on key project activities from different perspectives. ECREA TWG Journalism and Communication Education is one of the HEJDE project partners.

If you are interested you can directly Sign up. Should you have any questions please write to the HEJDE project leader e-mail tijana.vukic@unipu.hr

We hope you will join us in this highly important work!

TWG JCE management team

Medijska istraživanja / Media Research (special issue)

Deadline: November 20, 2022

The editors of Medijska istraživanja / Media Research indexed in SCOPUS would like to invite contributions to a special issue.

Digital age has significantly transformed higher education of journalists from both of its main aspects - academia and profession. New possibilities and opportunities, as well as more demanding challenges conditioned by rapid technology development particularly call for a specific scientific research and regular improvement of the content of study programs, and of the way they are organized and performed. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the traditional perception of journalism education and the educational experience for all main participants of the educational process.

Scientific journal Medijska istraživanja / Media Research helps to improve journalism theory and media research from 1995 by focusing on a range of important subjects, therefore thematising this topic continues the tradition. This special issue aims to present contemporary practice and theoretical thought of higher journalism education in an online environment with the intent of reviewing new trends in that scholarly area, particularly in the European context. The topic is relevant primarily because we passed the turning point where, using different technological solutions, the conventional journalism education was enriched with new teaching methods, tools, and approaches for educational purposes allowing it to adequately answer the media industry demands. Complex issues arising from web-based/online teaching and learning on an academic level of journalism education requires research of conducting professional journalism competencies from at least two main focuses:

1. Distance academic programs that educate journalists

Distance study programs are those performed entirely at a distance, respectively those in which all courses are performed online and those in which the complete teaching and learning process is mediated by ICT (Sener, 2015, Bates 2020). Distance academic programs that educate journalists have existed in some countries, such as the United States, for almost three decades (Castaneda, 2011), while in some areas, such as Southeastern Europe, they are still missing. There is, as well, a particular lack of literature presenting the introduction of such study programs, analysing curriculum, discussing challenges, advantages and disadvantages, as well as comparative research (Vukić and Brautović, 2021). On that trail, we seek for articles on the following topics:

- planning and conducting study programs

- program concepts diversity

- (specific) teaching contents

- (national) case studies

- analysis of curricula and / or syllabuses

- advantages and disadvantages of study programs

- international comparative analyses

- organization of students' practice in media, etc.

2. Conducting e-learning in study programs that educate journalists

The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus required an urgent shift to distance learning at all levels of education and for all the professions around the world, including academic programs that educate journalists, but e-learning in a hybrid form or only remotely was, in some institutions already a well-known academic practice. Similarly, student internships in students' media and in partner media organizations, have moved into a virtual environment. As such teaching experience differs significantly from the classroom experience and from in-person teaching, the transformation was a certain challenge for those who have encountered e-learning for the first time in these circumstances.

Although, there is a range of research topics regarding e-learning which resulted in different insights and conclusions, based on the recent experience of the heads of the higher journalism education institutions in Russian Federation during pandemic (Vartanova and Lukina, 2021), it could be argued that the journalism education in an online environment in the recent years faced numerous issues that can be associated with three key aspects: technological, pedagogical, and communicational. A number of articles illustrates it. For example, Fowler-Watt et al. (2021) present teaching experience of covering COVID-19 crisis within specific pedagogic challenges of the pandemic, such as teaching mobile journalism, reporting of the community and Zoom managing of students' wellbeing during lockdown. Further, Pain, Ahmed and Zahra Khalid (2021) discuss the consequences that the low internet connectivity, and the lack of access to technology brought to journalism education, giving the example of a good practice and remedy in the case of Kashmir, India. Studying the journalism students' distance learning experience at the Lomonosov Moscow State University during restrictive measures Poluekhtova, Vikhrova and Vartanova (2020) found that while effective online education presumes stable communication of all participants in the teaching process and among departments, online learning is not an alternative to the in-person journalism education because the formation of professional identity is hard to acquire at a distance.

Of all the mentioned perspectives from a general or from the emerging pandemic circumstances point of view, we encourage various contributions on the following topics:

- analysis of teaching documentation and curricula and/or syllabuses

- adaptation of teaching contents that are performed in the classroom for e-learning

- e-learning and teaching methods

- lifelong e-learning

- collaborative e-learning systems (Moodle, Merlin, MS Teams, etc.)

- hybrid forms of teaching

- e-learning experiences (teacher/student perspective)

- creativity in e-learning

- conducting student internships at a distance (student media/media organizations), etc.

We are looking for scientific research articles from a wide range of academic contexts and methodologies, and for book reviews of the books published in 2021-2022, and we actively encourage interdisciplinary, comparative and innovative submissions that will contribute to the development of the journalism education research field.

The Editor-in-Chief of Medijska Istraživanja / Media Research is Nada Zgrabljić Rotar and the guest editor of this special issue is Tijana Vukić. All submissions and questions about this call for contributions should be sent to a special issue editor's email: tijana.vukic@unipu.hr.

The special issue will appear in the second half of 2023.

The deadline for submissions is November 20, 2022.

The procedure with the received papers for this special issue is identical to the procedure for regular publication in the journal Medijska istraživanja / Media Research. Submitted articles are subject to double-blind review and only those submissions with two positive reviews will be published. We seek for 8000 words long articles (about 50,000 characters). Detailed description of the journal, the journal style guide and Guidelines for contributors can be found at http://www.mediaresearch.cro.net/en/guidelines-for-contributors/

This special issue is organized as a project collaboration within the three-year (2021-2023) international scientific project Higher Education of Journalists in a Digital Environment (HEJDE). It is an institutional project of the Faculty of Humanities of the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula aimed at the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research of the state, challenges and educational opportunities of the modern academic education of journalists.

Documentary Summer School at Locarno Film Festival

August 8-12, 2022

Locarno, Switzerland

Submission Deadline:

• 17 June 2022 for participants who need a visa to enter Switzerland
• 30 June 2022 for participants who do not need a visa

https://www.locarnofestival.ch/en/LFF/about/factory/documentary-summer-school

Established 23 years ago as a joint initiative between the Institute of Media and Journalism of the Università della Svizzera italiana and the Locarno Film Festival, in collaboration with La Semaine de la Critique, the DSS offers to its participants a unique platform to meet and learn from high-profile international film scholars and non-fiction filmmakers and representatives of film institutions, all while enjoying the vibrant atmosphere of one of the top film festivals in the world.

The Documentary Summer School (DSS) programme entails five half-days of lectures, coupled with screenings of films selected in the Semaine de la Critique section and participation to masterclasses and events of the Locarno Academy.

How to participate

The DSS takes place from Monday 8th to Friday 12th of August 2022 in Locarno.

It is open to 30 participants among:

• university and film school students
• early PhD students
• emerging filmmakers

The participation fee is of 550 CHF, inclusive of:

• Lectures
• Exclusive Q&A sessions with filmmakers from La semaine de la critique
• Participation to Masterclasses and Locarno academy events
• Bed and breakfast accommodation for 7 nights in shared room (two and three-beds rooms), at the Locarno Youth Hostel from Sunday 7th to Sunday 14th August 2022
• Locarno Film Festival accreditation
• Closing dinner with Locarno academy participants
• Certificate of attendance

Meals other than breakfasts and travel to and from Locarno are at the expense of participants.

As part of the Festival we will enforce any Covid-19 restriction or rule that will be required for Festival attendees. Detailed information will be provided in due time.

Attendance to the DSS is rewarded with 3 ECTS (the number of credits may vary according to the participant’s educational institution), subject to the submission of a concise theoretical and/or practical work, to be agreed with the organizing committee.

Applications

Candidates shall submit the following documents to dss@usi.ch:

• Personal CV
• Brief motivation letter
• Passport-size digital photo (max 1MB)

Selected participants will be notified via email within three weeks after the deadlines for submission.

Faculty

The DSS faculty is composed by international film scholars and film practitioners, including filmmakers selected in the Semaine de la Critique section.

• Cristina Formenti is Assistant Professor in Film Studies at University of Udine. She is the author of Il mockumentary: la fiction si maschera da documentario (Mimesis 2013) and The Classical Animated Documentary and Its Contemporary Evolution (Bloomsbury 2022) as well as editor of Mariangela Melato tra cinema, teatro e televisione (Mimesis 2016) and Valentina Cortese: una diva intermediale (Mimesis 2018). She is co-editor of the journal Animation Studies and serves on the board of the Society for Animation Studies, where she co-founded the Documentary Special Interest Group.
• Andrea Segre is an award-winner Italian filmmaker who has directed over twenty films of documentary and fiction genre, among which: Shun Li and the Poet (Lux Prize 2012), Ibi (2017), Venetian sMolecules (2020) and Welcome Venice (2021), the latter shot during the Covid pandemic. Andrea is co-founder of ZaLab, a video production and distribution organization, which promotes participatory filmmaking as a means for social inclusion. He holds a PhD in Sociology of communication from the University of Bologna.
• Till Brockmann is the head of Semaine de la Critique, an independent section of the Locarno Film Festival, organized by the Swiss Association of Film Journalists, which presents seven international documentaries, with five world premieres and two international premieres. Till has worked as a film journalist and film critic since 1995, mostly for the Swiss daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Till also has vast experience as a lecturer in film studies, as well as a curator for institutions such as the Heritage Film Festival for the Goethe-Institut Gulf Region in Abu Dhabi.

Applications and inquiries

Documentary Summer School – Organizing committee:

• Dr Eleonora Benecchi is a lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Media and Journalism of the Università della Svizzera italiana and she is responsible for courses on audiovisual theory and production and digital cultures. Her research and publications focus on fandom and audiovisual culture.
• Dr Gloria Dagnino is a lecturer at the Institute of Media and Journalism of the Università della Svizzera italiana, where she is also Equal Opportunities Officer. Since 2019 she is responsible for the Film Economics module of the Master Réseau Cinéma CH.
• Dr Stefano Guerini Rocco is an Adjunct Professor at the Università Cattolica in Milan and a Lecturer at the SAE Institute of Milan. He is a programmer for Orlando Festival and a documentary developer selected at Biennale College (2018) and IDS Academy Series (2021).