ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Dear colleagues,

The Department of Politics and Communication at the Hadassah Academic College in Israel is seeking to partner up with an academic institution from Europe or the Middle East with the aim of offering students a joint course in the fields of politics, political science, diplomacy, and communication.

The touristic aspect of the course will be manifested in mutual visits to the relevant study sites according to the course's content.

The course will have a hybrid structure:

• 2 to 3 online meetings with students and instructors from both institutions.
• Two study trips (4 to 5 days), one in each country, for the purpose of meetings with local experts and visiting relevant sites.

Examples for course topics:

• Fake news
• Criticism of journalists by politicians
• Public trust in the media
• Political polarization & news consumption
• Criticism of media outlets & media behavior

The course could be based on an existing offering at your institution. We will work together to determine content and schedule that would fit both institutions.

I would appreciate it very much if you could forward this message to relevant colleagues.

Looking forward to your suggestions and referrals,

Please respond through my private email: iritshmuel1@gmail.com

Dr. Irit Shmuel

Dear Colleagues in fields related to communication,

I am writing to invite you to take part in a survey we are carrying out to identify training needs in the field of accessibility for university staff in university programmes related to communication. Your input will help us to understand the potential knowledge gaps on accessibility and how we can better support you through training materials on the subject.

Access the survey for university teaching and training staff (or click here https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/ADORESurveyStaff)

This survey is being carried out as part of the EU-funded ADORE project (or click here https://www.funka.com/en/projekt/adore/). ADORE aims to make accessibility a priority in higher education programmes related to communication by providing training to university staff on how to publish information on the internet in an accessible way and how to provide a more inclusive teaching experience for all students.

This initiative is coordinated by Tallinn University Baltic Film, Media and Arts School, in collaboration with Funka, INUK, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, University of Maribor.

Thanks in advance for your help on this!

Best regards,

The ADORE project Team

October 19, 2022 

Aarhus University (Denmark)

Deadline: June 1, 2022

ECREA pre-conference

Date and venue: Wednesday, October 19th, 2022, from 10.30-17.00, Constructive Institute at Aarhus University

Pre-conference highlights:

• Present your research to engaged peers – and learn from their wise words and their work
• Visit one of the world’s premier hubs for the development of constructive journalism
• Be part of the conversation about the development of research in constructive journalism
• Form new collaborations with other scholars and practitioners within the field

In recent years, many journalists and editors around the world have started experimenting with constructive journalism, and at the same time researchers have shown an increasing interest in the topic. Constructive journalism as a research field is rapidly expanding and it has resulted in conferences, seminars, and special issues in flagship journals within journalism studies. At this pre-conference – hosted at one of the major sites for the development of constructive journalism, namely the Constructive Institute – we want to explore new avenues for constructive journalism as a research field by bringing together researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and discuss the potential of and challenges for constructive journalism.

In the first part of the day researchers will present and discuss their work in progress. The presentations will provide a status on the state of current and coming research and will serve as a starting point for discussing future avenues for research on constructive journalism.

The second part of the day will start with a presentation of the development of constructive journalism in different newsrooms around the world, to provide insights on the challenges and the potential experienced in the newsrooms working with constructive journalism. Among the presenters will be Ulrik Haagerup, CEO and founder, Constructive Institute, as well as editors and journalists from newsrooms working with constructive journalism.

After the presentation, we will discuss how researchers and practitioners can work closer together in the future to develop the field from both sides.

We invite all researchers with an interest in the field two apply for the pre-conference. But due to the venue there is only room for a limited number of researchers, and preference will be given to those, who have submitted an extended abstract on a study within the research field (max. 500 words). Deadline for scholars who would like a seat at the table at the Constructive Institute is the 1st of June 2022, and abstracts should be sent to journalism@journalism.sdu.dk. Notice of acceptance will be given by the 15th of June. Lunch and various refreshments will be served during the day.

For more information about this pre-conference please contact Peter Bro (ppe@journalism.sdu.dk) or Morten Skovsgaard (skh@journalism.sdu.dk), both of whom are professors at the Centre for Journalism, University of Southern Denmark. For questions, comments etc. relating to the practical arrangement please contact CFOO Peter Damgaard (pd@constructiveinstitute.org) from Constructive Institute, directly.

Join us for this unique event and become part of an international network of scholars who study the growing field of constructive journalism. This pre-conference also offers you the opportunity to meet and perhaps partner up with some of the practicioners who apply constructive journalism techniques and thinking in their own work.

This pre-conference is organized and sponsored by:

• Centre for Journalism, University of Southern Denmark: The Centre is home to a bachelor-and two master programs in journalism, has 600+ students, 30+ full time researchers and lecturers.
• Constructive Institute, Aarhus, Denmark: An independent organization that helps journalists and news organizations apply constructive reporting in their daily work through providing access to a best practices portal, an international fellowship program, relevant training curricula, and research and development projects.

22-23 September 2022

Loughborough University, UK

Deadline for abstracts: May 23, 2022

On 22-23 September 2022, the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture at Loughborough University will host the 8th annual conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics, focused on academic research on the relationship between media and political processes around the world.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 23 May 2022. Attendees will be notified of acceptance by 6 June 2022. Registration fees will be due 8 July 2022 and full papers based on accepted abstracts will be due 8 September 2022. A selection of the best full papers presented at the conference will be published in the journal after peer review. Previous journal special issues based on conference papers can be found here and here.

The conference brings together scholars conducting internationally oriented or comparative research on the intersection between news media and politics around the world. It aims to provide a forum for academics from a wide range of disciplines, countries, and methodological approaches to advance knowledge in this area.

Examples of relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the political implications of changes in media systems; the importance of different types of media for learning about and engaging with politics; the factors affecting the quality of political information and public discourse; media policy and regulation; the role of entertainment and popular culture in how people engage with current affairs; relations between political actors and journalists; the role of visuals and emotion in the production and processing of public information; the role of different kinds of media during conflicts and crises; and political communication during and beyond elections by government, political parties, interest groups, and social movements. The journal and the conference are particular interested in studies that adopt comparative approaches, represent substantial theoretical or methodological advances, or focus on parts of the world that are under-researched in the international English language academic literature.

Titles and abstracts for papers (maximum 300 words) are invited by 23 May 2022. The abstract should clearly describe the key question, the theoretical and methodological approach, the evidence presented, and the wider implications of the study for understanding the relationship between media and politics. Authors are encouraged to provide as much detail as possible about the spatial and temporal context of their study, the research design employed, the data collected, and the main results of the analyses.

Please send submissions via the online form available at https://bit.ly/IJPP2022.

The registration fee for the conference will be GBP 250, to be paid by 8 July 2022. The fee covers lunches and coffee breaks on 22 and 23 September, two conference dinners on 21 and 22 September, and farewell drinks on 23 September. A limited number of registration fee waivers will be available for early career scholars and scholars from countries that appear in Tiers B and C of the classification adopted by the International Communication Association. Applications must be made by 23 May 2022 via the abstract online submission form available at https://bit.ly/IJPP2022.

All attendees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend the conference and respect the UK Government and Loughborough University policies to protect themselves and the population against COVID-19. Attendees visiting Loughborough from abroad must commit to follow the UK Government’s regulations to travel to England.

The conference is organized by Cristian Vaccari (Editor-in-Chief of IJPPand Director of CRCC). Please contact Professor Vaccari with questions at c.vaccari@lboro.ac.uk.

More about the journal, the University, and the Centre.

The International Journal of Press/Politics is an interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the media and politics in a globalized world. The journal publishes theoretical and empirical research which analyzes the linkages between the news media and political processes and actors around the world, emphasizes international and comparative work, and links research in the fields of political communication and journalism studies, and the disciplines of political science and media and communication. The journal is published by SAGE Publications and is ranked 7th in Communication and 9th in Political Science by Journal Citation Reports.

Based on a 440-acre, single-site campus at the heart of the UK, Loughborough University is ranked top 10 in every British university league table. Voted University of the Year (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019) and awarded Gold in the National Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), Loughborough provides a unique student experience. Loughborough University has excellent transport links to the rest of the UK. It is a short distance away from Loughborough Train station, a 15-minute drive from East Midlands Airport (near Nottingham), an hour drive from Birmingham Airport, and an hour and 15 minutes from London via train.

Since its establishment in 1991, the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture has developed into the largest research center of its kind in the UK. The Centre is proudly interdisciplinary, combining social science and humanities approaches for the rigorous exploration of the production and consumption of different forms of communication and creative texts. CRCC’s research draws on and contributes to theories and methods in cultural and media studies, sociology, politics, psychology, history and memory studies, textual, visual and computational analysis, and geography. The Centre promotes research that explores how media and cultural texts are produced, how they construct meanings, how they shape societies, and how they fit within an ever-growing creative economy.

May 26, 2022

Paris, France

The ICA 2022 preconference "Scholars in Exile/Scholarship on the Edges," on the place of critical race studies in media, comm, and political culture, is now open for registration!

More information about the preconference:

https://www.icahdq.org/page/ICA22PrePostconf

Registration:

https://www.icahdq.org/event/ScholarEdge

• Early registration fee, by May 2nd: US$40
• Regular registration fee ()May 2-25): US$60

Lunch will be included for all registered participants.

It takes place on Thursday, May 26, 9:00am-3:30pm (rooms Regency 5 + 6, at the Hyatt Paris Ètoile, Porte Maillot, Paris, France, which is the main ICA conference hotel). Following the conclusion of the preconference, there is an optional "James Baldwin in Paris" walking tour, 4:30-6:30pm, open and free to pre-conference registrants on a first-come first-serve basis (space is limited; please contact Khadijah Costley White at klw147@comminfo.rutgers.edu).

Keynote speakers

Karim Hammou (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research)

Chelsea Watego (Queensland University of Technology)

Other confirmed speakers

Ben Carrington, Sarah J. Jackson, Ralina Joseph, Sarita Malik, Samira Musleh, Clive Nwonka, Srivi Ramasubramanian, Simon Ridley, Raka Shome, Kim-Marie Spence, Anjali Vats, Ana-Nzinga Weiß, Ferruh Yimlaz

Please see https://www.icahdq.org/page/ICA22PrePostconf for more information.

Organizers

Anamik Saha, Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, a.saha@gold.ac.uk

Khadijah Costley White, Department of Journalism and Media Studies, School of Communication and Information - Rutgers University, USA, klw147@comminfo.rutgers.edu

Eve Ng, School of Media Arts and Studies, WGSS Program, Ohio University, USA, evecng@hotmail.com

Simon Dawes, l’Institut d’études culturelles et internationales (IECI), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France, simondawes0@gmail.com

Maxime Cervulle, UFR Culture et communication, Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, France, maxime.cervulle@univ-paris8.fr

Co-Sponsors

ICA IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Committee

ICA Ethnicity and Race in Communication division

Rutgers University-New Brunswick, School of Communication and Information (SCI)

Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis

April 28, 2022

Hybrid event (Veranstaltungscentrum C3 Vienna & online)

Click here for registration until the 25th of April (necessary for participation online and in person)!

This conference addresses the issue of evidence-based communication within the media and higher education institutions and the role of these institutions when it comes to media and information literacy in contemporary societies.

The event is organised within the framework of the Erasmus+ project ERUM - Enhancing Research Understanding Through Media and will explore how the media and academia can collaborate, which skills students have to learn and which policy reforms should be developed to increase the quality of information and tackle the issue of the rising spread of mis/disinformation today.

https://lehrerinnenbildung.univie.ac.at/en/fields-of-work/didactics-of-civic-and-citizenship-education/news-events/conference-facts-figures-evidence-based-information-in-contemporary-societies-the-role-of-academia-and-the-media/

October 19-22, 2022

Online workshop

Deadline: June 15, 2022

ECREA pre-conference workshop

War streaming on Instagram, propaganda in press photography, refugee activism on TikTok? - Recent European crises have shown images and videos as essential tools of communication in politics and protest, a trend mirrored in the increasing use of visuals in research methodologies. Visual data can capture practices of visual, performative or non-verbal communication, text-image relationships, the development of visual formats, notions of aesthetics, as well as underlying meanings of symbols and codes. Extant research has since captured different elements of visual politics and protest, including: social history (e.g. protest photography), political commentary or alignment (e.g. through memes or overlays), social cues in political communication (e.g. GIFs, filters, or emoji), visual activism practices (e.g. culture-jamming, sousveillance video coverage, flesh-witnessing), and visual forms of information documentation and distribution (e.g. infographics).

Even so, new creative practices have at times challenged research practices, for example with regards to image authenticity and appropriation in mis- and disinformation campaigns (e.g. deepfakes), platform affordances in new visual formats and spaces (e.g. short videos on TikTok), (mis)interpretation and visual (il)literacy in communications, trust in image data as factual evidence, and opaqueness in the production of visual materials. These critical debates have been particularly contentious in the arena of politics and protest, where visuals have been seen to shape political opinion and discourse, electoral campaigns, war coverage, and Covid-19 data visualisations.

In response to these trends, the ECREA Visual Cultures section is inviting submissions to the online pre-conference on “Visual Politics & Protest” with a focus on epistemological and methodological challenges, taking place on 6th and 7th October 2022 (= 2 weeks prior to ECREA 2022). The pre-conference workshop will include a keynote by Dr. Jing Zeng (University of Zurich), a series of lightning talks, a panel discussion (including speakers Dr. Stefania Vicari, Dr. Shana MacDonald, & Dr. Jing Zeng), and hands-on discussion rounds with a specific focus on epistemological challenges in research on visual politics and protest.

Topics of interest

We are looking for lightning talks on challenges encountered in research on visual politics and/or protest, which will be allocated to thematic panels. Towards encouraging lively discussions, we are not looking for entire paper proposals, but focussed submissions that outline the challenge along with examples (in written, visual, or other creative forms).

On a broad level this may include (but is not limited to):

• New methodological challenges in visual or multimodal data collection or analysis
• Platform- or format-specific challenges in conducting visual research on politics and protest
• Methodological approaches for capturing visuality or visual cultures surrounding politics and protest
• Challenges in embedding visuals or visuality with textual, audio, or sensory materials
• Issues in interpreting and/or quantifying visual data
• Emerging approaches to visualising image or video data
• Suggestions for the ethical treatment of visuality in politics or protest
• Approaches in analysing specific political visual practices and/or phenomena
• Epistemological discussions of the role of the visual in politics, protest, or social movements
• Theorizing visual issues (example: visibility through aesthetics and visuality)

Submissions should ideally either discuss new challenges, present in-depth illustrations/ examples of specific challenges, or introduce new approaches or nuances.

Submission

Please submit a 200 word description of your challenge in researching visual cultures or materials, along with your contact details on this Google Form link (200 is the maximum incl. references). Proposals can be submitted until 1st June 2022 at 23.59 CEST. Descriptions should be written in English and contain a summary of the challenge that will be presented, as well as a notion of the reflections or approaches that are taken or recommended. The description may follow a conventional abstract structure, but is not bound to it. We encourage creative, unconventional, and work-in-progress submissions, particularly from early-career scholars. The addition of supplementary visual data such as a poster or data excerpt is optional. The submissions should represent a specific issue or challenge encountered in the participant’s visual research.

We are aware that not everyone will be able to use Google services due to regional restrictions or privacy concerns. In those cases we invite participants to submit directly by email vppecrea@gmail.com. The email should contain following information: paper title, participant first and last name, country of affiliation, affiliation, career stage, email contact, names of co-authors, a 200-word description of the challenge, 1-2 visual materials (PDF, Word, or jpg) if applicable (this is optional), and indicate if you would like to be considered for the special issue.

During the workshop, these challenges should be presented as short presentations (7-10 minutes) in panel groups with an adjoining discussion. These presentations do not need to follow conventional presentation formats (creative and purely visual presentations are encouraged). Please note that multi-author submissions are very much welcome, but due to the short nature of lightning talks we ask that only one person (i.e. the submitting author) presents.

Details on the presentation format and full programme will be released in due time.

Workshop follow-up

Post-workshop, a summary (e.g. in the form of a co-authored “living syllabus on visual politics and protest research'') will be created and circulated amongst the participants and the wider public.

Participants will also be invited to join an informal follow-up meeting at ECREA in Aarhus: “visual politics & protest coffee hour”.

Participants will have the opportunity to submit their full papers to a special issue in Journal of Digital Social Research (https://www.jdsr.io/). Extended abstracts of 500 words are due 1st December 2022. Interest in submitting to the special issue should be indicated in the submission form. More information on the special issue will follow in due course.

Further details

The pre-conference workshop is organised by the ECREA Visual Cultures section (see https://visualculturesecrea.wordpress.com/) and will take place online.

Links

Pre-conference website: https://cutt.ly/visual-politics-ecrea

Email contact: vppecrea@gmail.com

Link to profile of keynote speaker: https://www.ikmz.uzh.ch/en/research/divisions/science-crisis-and-risk-communication/team/jing-zeng.html

Key dates 2022

• 1st June: pre-conference submission deadline
• 15th August: communication of acceptance
• 6th & 7th October: ECREA pre-conference on Visual Politics & Protest (online)
• 19th to 22nd October: ECREA general conference
• 1st December 2022: special issue abstract deadline

Pre-conference team

Maria Schreiber, University of Salzburg

Suay Melisa Özkula, University of Trento

Tom Divon, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Danka Ninković Slavnić, University of Belgrade

Doron Altaratz, The Hadassah Academic College

Hadas Schlussel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The International Journal of Public Relations (Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas), Vol. XII, No. 23

Deadline: April 30, 2022

We announce the Call for Papers for Issue No 23 of The International Journal of Public Relations (Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas). This new issue will focus on Public Relations in general (non-monographic issue).

The deadline for papers is open until April 30, 2022. We would like to remind authors that the proposals (articles and book reviews) should be submitted via the Journal’s application system with the following link: http://revistarelacionespublicas.uma.es/index.php/revrrpp/user/register.

In order to have the paper for a revision it is necessary to follow the editors’ guidelines and norms of the journal that can be consulted under the following link:

http://revistarelacionespublicas.uma.es/index.php/revrrpp/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

The papers can be submitted in any of the following languages: Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.

We provide a template that authors can use to prepare articles and reviews. The aim is to facilitate the preparation and editing of the journal. The template is available in the following link http://revistarelacionespublicas.uma.es/index.php/revrrpp/article/view/219.

In order for articles to be more widely distributed, all articles must include an extended abstract (between 500 and 700 words).

The International Journal of Public Relations has been included in the Emerging Source Citation Index -JCR-, Latindex Catalogue, DICE, RESH, CIRC, ISOC, Dialnet, ULRICH, EBSCO, DOAJ, REBIU, MIAR. In Dialnet Metrics, the journal is in Q1. This fact brings an extra value to all authors interested since the published paper may be recognized by the corresponding authorities for further career development.

April 14, 2022

I am pleased to invite you to the next in the series of IPRA Thought Leadership webinars. The webinar Deciphering facts from fiction: lessons learned for communicators will be presented by Tommaso Di Giovanni, Vice President of Global Communications, Philip Morris International on Thursday 14 April 2022 at 12.00 GMT/UCT (unadjusted).

What is the webinar content?

Misinformation is rampant, and often used to drive opposition to progress. Overcoming misinformation is particularly challenging for PMI, because of historical mistrust and skepticism. The webinar will describe how PMI affiliates around the world are countering misinformation and overcoming entrenched biases to promote science-driven change.

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 Tommaso Di Giovanni

Tommaso Di Giovanni is Vice President of Global Communications at Philip Morris International (PMI). He leads a global team of 150+ communicators working to elevate PMI’s mission for open and meaningful dialogues on how to accelerate the achievement of a smoke-free future, where cigarettes are replaced with less harmful alternatives, in 100+ diverse markets.

Contact

International Public Relations Association Secretariat

United Kingdom

secgen@ipra.org

Telephone +44 1634 818308

Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS)

Deadline (Abstracts): June 15, 2022

Edited by Ulla Autenrieth (Fachhochschule Graubünden), Wolfgang Reißmann (FU Berlin), Rebecca Venema (USI Università della Svizzera italiana)

We are seeking contributions for a thematic section of Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS) exploring image corpora and dispersed visual practices in and with digital media.

The search for visual patterns has always been core to the field of visual studies. Already classic scholars like Warburg and Panofsky dedicated much of their work to retrace “pathos formula” (cf. Becker, 2013), or to identify “image types,” defined by Panofsky (1978) as specific forms of representation through which certain actors, actions, events, ideas or themes are visualized. Visual communication researchers have adopted previous works in art history, and have stressed the importance to combine iconographic and iconological expertise with profound knowledge of communication processes and image contexts (Knieper & Müller, 2019).

Research on image types has helped to analyze the highly routinized and conventionalized selection and use of images in news media (Grittmann, 2007, 2019) which iterate topic- or discourse-specific repertoires of images with recurring motifs and representational characteristics with which events, constellations of actors and their (inter)actions are depicted. Here, image types bundle visuals with motifs of similar content or meaning and distinct representational features (Grittmann, 2007; Grittmann & Ammann, 2009, 2011). Importantly, image type analysis has shown a way to link a systematic analysis of quantifiable structures and patterns in data sets with a detailed qualitative analysis and interpretation of representation techniques and compositional features and the manifest and latent meaning of image types (for recent applications, e.g., Brantner, Lobinger, & Stehling, 2020; Pentzold, Brantner, & Fölsche, 2019). Furthermore, key features of corpora based on mass media’s image output were carved out by delineating “generic icons” (Perlmutter, 1998, p. 11), or “key images” and “key image sequences” (e.g., handshakes as gestures to symbolize contracts) (Ludes, 2001). Concurrently, communication research has played out its long-standing expertise in quantitative content analysis, and elaborated new forms of quantitative image (content) analysis (Bell, 2006; Geise & Rössler, 2013; Lobinger, 2012, p. 227–243).

Developments in media environments, media- and image-related practices as well as in methodological tools and procedures call for a re-intensified reflection and work on image types and relational and comparative classification such analyses allow and require. In fact, we have witnessed a major shift in media ecologies as well as in research agendas over the last 10–15 years. Whereas mass media and news media coverage were dominant subjects of inquiry until early 2000s, in recent times more and more research efforts focus on the analysis of the multiple visualities in social media (Hand, 2017; Highfield & Leaver, 2016). Visual communication research contributed with both image analyses of selfies, memes and other visuals (Lobinger & Brantner, 2015), and by increasingly taking image-related practices such as “sharing” into account (Autenrieth, 2014; Gomez-Cruz & Lehmuskallio, 2016; Schreiber, 2017). Studies thus have shed light on how different sorts of visuals are appropriated and used in everyday practices of individuals or in different social entities and have tried to make sense of the constant stream of sorts of images with rather short half-lives which molds our visual media ecologies in times of “networked” and “algorithmic images” (Rubinstein & Sluis, 2008, 2013). When it comes to methods and methodological approaches, computational and digital methods promise to provide new insights and ways of grasping large image corpora and related practices (Niederer & Colombo, 2019). Other contributions explore possibilities to cluster “big image data” corpora (Rogers, 2021) with the help of artificial intelligence, machine learning and diverse sorting tools, supervised and unsupervised strategies (e.g., K-means clustering).

Against this background, the Thematic Section invites to reflect on old and new challenges in analyzing and constructing image types on the level of image contents, and / or in typologizing routinized or conventionalized image-related practices on the level of media and image appropriation and usage.

We welcome both, theoretical reflections on methodology and methods as well as qualitative and quantitative empirical studies or mixed approaches. In particular, the Thematic Section asks:

• How do we build up medium-sized or large corpora of images and practices in digital media environments? How do we develop image types or typologies of image-related practices based on those corpora? Which criteria, elements and relations are essential, which are of secondary relevance – why? What (new) legal and research ethics challenges arise from this? How do we deal with them?

• How do we involve manual and automated forms of coding and analyzing? Which limitations have automated and / or AI-driven forms of image clustering? Are image clusters and image types the same thing, or should we nuance conceptual differences? How are procedures of human and automated coding arranged in appropriate ways, e.g., for mutually correcting the “blind spots” of each other?

• How do we deal with the multitude of actors and contexts involved in producing and sharing images in digital media environments? How do we balance the tension between manifest and latent meanings of image types, and the contextual appropriation of specific representatives in different fields by different actors? How do we bring together people’s everyday practices of using or sorting images, folksonomy or platform-driven classifications, and research-centered, corpus-based results?

Submission guidelines​

SComS welcomes submissions in English, German, French, or Italian. However, English and German are the preferred languages of this Thematic Section. Abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words in length and should explain the main research question(s), scientific literature, methodology, and case studies the authors plan to use. Please submit your abstract via e-mail to wolfgang.reissmann@fuberlin.de.

Manuscripts should be a maximum of 9000 words in length (including the abstract and all references, tables, figures, footnotes, appendices). In addition, authors may submit supplementary material that will be published as an online supplement. Authors are invited to submit original papers that are not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Articles shall be submitted using the APA reference style, 6th edition. The manuscript itself must be free of any information or references that might reveal the identity of the authors and their institution to allow double-blind peer review. Manuscripts should be submitted via the SComS platform:

https://www.hope.uzh.ch/scoms/about/submissions. We ask authors to carefully prepare submissions according to all rules given in the SComS Submission Guidelines.

Abstract submissions are due June 15 2022. Final acceptance depends on a double-blind peer review process of the manuscripts. The expected publishing date of this thematic section is April / May 2024. However, early submissions that successfully pass the review process will also be immediately published online first.

Contributions that receive positive reviews but are not accepted for the Thematic Section may be considered for publication in a subsequent SComS issue within the General Section

For any further information please contact Wolfgang Reißmann (wolfgang.reissmann@fuberlin.de).

Key dates:

• 15 June 2022:Abstract submission deadline
• 30 June 2022:Decision on acceptance / rejection of abstracts
• 31 October 2022:Full paper submission deadline
• Nov 2022 – Jan 2023:First round of peer review
• 15 March 2023:Resubmission deadline
• March – May 2023:Second round of peer review
• 30 July 2023:Final paper submission
• August 2023:Editorial work / final shape-up

Publication of the Thematic Section is scheduled for April / May 2024

Reference list

Autenrieth, U. (2014). Die Bilderwelten der Social Network Sites. Bildzentrierte Darstellungsstrategien, Freundschaftskommunikation und Handlungsorientierungen von Jugendlichen auf Facebook und Co. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Becker, C. (2013). Aby Warburg’s Pathosformel as methodological paradigm. Journal of Art Historiography, 9, 1–25. Retrieved from https://doaj.org/article/58b051219d61444cb8171e5ebcc44df4

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