ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

University of Passau

The University of Passau (Bavaria/Germany) invites applications for fully-funded Ph.D. and postdoc positions in its new interdisciplinary DFG Research Training Group “Digital Platform Ecosystems” (DPE). The Research Training Group DPE (see https://dpe.uni-passau.de/en for more information) is a graduate excellence program generously granted by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The Research Training Group DPE forms a unique, vibrant interdisciplinary research community of leading research partners from the disciplines of information systems, management and organizational research, marketing, economics, as well as communication science.

 We are explicitly looking for students with a background in communication studies. I will be responsible for one area - this will include examining media discourses on the regulation of platforms online and offline, as well as studying the role of experts and scientific evidence in regulatory debates.

Positions are available for three years, starting in October 2022. Doctoral and post-doctoral researchers receive highly personalized mentoring and a tailored, interdisciplinary, and generously funded training program, including a three-months research stay abroad. Post-doctoral researchers receive advanced training and take on leadership responsibilities in the Research Training Group. The University of Passau (https://www.uni-passau.de/en/) has an outstanding international reputation in research and teaching, a strong focus on digitalization and digital technologies. Its award-winning campus is located in one of the most beautiful historic towns in Europe.

Interested students are welcome to contact me at any time with questions: Hannah.Schmid-Petri@Uni-Passau.De

Edited By Katarzyna Kopecka-Piech, Bartłomiej Łódzki

Purchase here: https://www.routledge.com/The-Covid-19-Pandemic-as-a-Challenge-for-Media-and-Communication-Studies/Kopecka-Piech-Lodzki/p/book/9781032134413

This truly interdisciplinary volume brings together a diverse group of scholars to explore changes in the significance of media and communication in the era of pandemic. The book answers two interrelated questions: how media and communication reality changed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how media and communication were effectively studied during this time.

The book presents changes in media and communication in three areas: media production, media content, and media usage contexts. It then describes the theoretical and practical, methodological, technical, organizational, and ethical challenges in conducting research in circumstances of sudden change in research conditions, emergency situations and developing crises. Drawing on various theoretical studies and empirical research, the volume illustrates the principles and results of applying diverse research methods to the changing role of media in a pandemic and offers good practices and guidance to address the problems in implementing research projects in a time of sudden difficulties and challenges.

This diverse and interdisciplinary book will be of significance to scholars and researchers in media studies, communication studies, research methods, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies.

Comunicação e Sociedade

Deadline: March 31, 2022

Editors: Rafaela Granja (CECS, University of Minho, Portugal), Sílvia Gomes (Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom) and Thais Sardá (Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom)

Issues associated with crime and justice are constantly at the centre of public debate. Police violence, criminal investigations, high-profile trials and even life inside prisons are a common focus of media attention. Both media and fictional representations of crime and justice make oppositions between collective security and human rights more visible. They also reify discourses that rely on notions of “us” and “others”. However, there is a lack of debate about the profound social inequalities (racial, gender, among others) that promote such social cleavages. These tensions are explored by social movements and activists, particularly on social media, exposing various forms of violence and crime (e.g., hate crimes, racial violence, etc.). However, people deprived of freedom are restricted from acting as agents in civic mobilization due to barriers in accessing information. In this thematic issue of Comunicação e Sociedade, we invite social sciences researchers to reflect on the various forms of interconnection and disconnection between crime, justice and media, focusing on one or more of the following topics:

– perceptions about crime and justice;

– media coverage of crime and high-profile criminal cases;

– police or judicial journalism;

– media trials;

– fictional portraits of crime and justice;

– revisiting the concept of moral panic;

– police violence, racism and exclusions;

– hate crime and hate speech;

– social movements and media coverage of justice;

– techno-optimism in fighting crime;

– representations of prisons and other contexts of deprivation of liberty;

– info-exclusion of people deprived of liberty.

KEY DATES

Proposals submission: February 1 to March 31, 2022

Notification of acceptance: June 7, 2022

Deadline for the submission of the final article (PT and EN): September 20, 2022

Publication: December 2022

LANGUAGE

Papers can be submitted in English or Portuguese. At the peer-review process, the authors of selected articles should ensure the translation of their articles. The editors shall have the final decision on the publication of the article.

EDITING AND SUBMISSION

Comunicação e Sociedade is an open-access academic journal, operating according to demanding standards of the peer-review system, and operates on a double-blind peer-review process. After submission, each paper will be distributed to two reviewers, previously invited to evaluate it according to its academic quality, originality and relevance to the objectives and scope of the theme.

Originals should be submitted through the journal’s website. When accessing Comunicação e Sociedade for the first time, you must register before submitting your article (instructions to register here).

Refer to the guidelines for authors here.

For further information, please contact: comunicacaoesociedade@ics.uminho.pt.

No payment from the authors will be required.

Vista

April 30, 2022

Thematic editors: José Capela (School of Architecture, Art and Design/Lab2PT, University of Minho, Portugal) & Ana Cristina Pereira (CES, University of Coimbra)

The communication mechanisms have been a central theme of the so-called “conceptual art”. Within the broad theme of communication — and despite the porosity of artistic categories characterising this kind of art — the specific theme of visual representation assumed particular importance for artists. Millennia of pictorial figuration of reality, and decades of photography, were thus placed under scrutiny that, despite fitting into the work of art and not renouncing its artistic condition, is often close to the mission of art theory or of semiotics. Art was, accordingly, set to serve the consideration of the phenomena — namely those of communication — that underlie it. For that reason, it may be said to be a self-reflexive art: art about art.

In this new issue of Vista, we propose to focus on the entity linguistics has called “referent” and on the possibility of its resurgence beyond its mere representation — a territory that extends from the impossibility of absolute fidelity to the model (is it in the lack of fidelity that art may reside?) to the characterisations aiming at manipulating, distorting and abusing.

Much importance has been given to the most diverse form of art works’ receiver as a producer of meanings for those works. Importance is given to this phenomenon that lies downstream of the work and ultimately determines what it is to our eyes. The aim here is to highlight what lies upstream: the entity that precedes the representation and whose presence that representation intends to replace, in this case, in the specific context of the visual arts and images. This perspective may include themes such as:

• the representation of visual configuration mechanisms within artistic practices;
• the condition of the referent (absent or present) in the context of visual representation;
• the rights of the referent and iconographic ethics: between self-representation and appropriation;
• the possibility of inserting the readymade in a work/image;
• animism in visual representation;
• memory, trauma and the possibility of emancipation of the referent.

IMPORTANT DATES

Full article submission deadline: April 30, 2022

Journal publication date: continuous edition (January to June 2022)

LANGUAGE

Articles can be submitted in English or Portuguese. After the peer review process, the authors of the selected articles should ensure translation of the respective article, and the editors shall have the final decision on publication of the article.

EDITING AND SUBMISSION

Vista is an open access academic journal following demanding peer-review standards, based on a double-blind review process. After submission, the papers will be forwarded to two reviewers, previously invited to evaluate them according to their academic quality, originality and relevance to the journal’s objectives and scope.

Originals must be submitted through the journal’s website. If you are accessing Vista for the first time, you must register before submitting your article (instructions for registration here).

The guidelines for authors are available here.

For further information, please contact: vista@ics.uminho.pt

No payment from the authors will be required.

Deadline: February 15, 2022

Dear friends and colleagues,

We invite scholars, educators, professors, and practitioners from all over the world to write a chapter of the upcoming book about animation to be published January 2023 where the past, present and future of animation will be analyzed. It will be published in English in the USA and Canada and in Spanish for distribution in all Spanish speaking countries. It has broad lines of research. For clarification, it is a research book, not a dissemination book.

The theme is the world of animation cinema in any of its aspects, such as but not limited to:

• Animation and Aesthetics
• Animation and Advertising

• Animation and Culture
• Animation and Discrimination
• Animation and Education
• Animation and Entertainment
• Animation and Ethics
• Animation and Film Festivals
• Animation and Future
• Animation and Law
• Animation and New Communications Developments
• Animation and Other Artistic Expressions
• Animation and Society
• Animation and Technology
• Animation and Violence

ETC…

The characteristics and dates are the following:

Abstract 500 words, February 15, 2022.

Keywords: 7

Article: 7,000-8,000 words

Text in English, when approved the author will send it in Spanish as well in collaboration with the editor.

Chapters that do not follow the APA 7 system can not be considered. For reference: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Unpublished article/chapter.

At least 30 bibliographic sources not more than 10 years old, unless they are highly justified.

Dates: February 15, 2022, Summary 500 words, Keywords: 7, the proposals are studied, and the selected chapters are reported before the end of the month.

Dates:

Abstract and keywords: February 15, 2022

Accepted Proposals: March 15th, 2022

Article: June 1, 2022

Blind peer review to be in first correction on July 1,2022.

Final Chapter: September 1, 2022

Published in January 2023.

Send you proposals or inquiries to: cartoonresearchersandeducators@gmail.com

Please advise if you would like to be part of the peer review committee.

Thanks for your time.

Raquel Benitez Rojas

Journal of Professions and Organization (special issue)

Deadline: October 1, 2022

Kirstie McAllum, Université de Montréal, Canada; Frédérik Matte, University of Ottawa, Canada; Joshua B. Barbour, University of Texas at Austin, United States; Stephanie Fox, Université de Montréal, Canada; and Sabina Siebert, University of Glasgow, Scotland invite submissions for a special issue of the Journal of Professions and Organization (JPO) (see: https://academic.oup.com/jpo) focused on “Opening up the meanings of “the professional,” professional organizations, and professionalism in communication studies.”

The deadline for initial submissions is October 1, 2022, with scheduled publication in March 2024.

Rather than championing any one definition or perspective, this special issue aims to map out and contextualize the multiple meanings of professionalism and professional organizations, particularly in novel or non-standard contexts. It also seeks to articulate how distinctively communication-centered research can deepen our understanding of professionalism and professional organizations.

Please consult the full call for submissions at https://academic.oup.com/jpo/pages/call-for-papers-communication-studies and contact Dr. Kirstie McAllum (kirstie.mcallum@umontreal.ca) or any of the guest editors with questions or clarifications.

October 18, 2022, 9-17 (CEST)

University of Copenhagen and online (hybrid format).

Abstract deadline: April 1, 2022

ECREA pre-conference

Keynote speaker: Professor Anne Kaun, Södertörn University

Data logging and processing have been fundamental for the development and maintenance of welfare states since the 20th century. Exemplified by key functions such as the assignment of social security numbers, the reporting of tax statements, or the registration of criminal records, state authorities have always been dependent on collecting and organising significant amounts of citizen data. With the digitization of welfare sectors and institutions and the rise of computerised big data, these processes have accelerated, leading to new and comprehensive modes of datafication (Cukier & Mayer-Schoenberger 2013; Kitchin 2014; Mejias & Couldry 2019).

Following this “paradigm shift” in the provision of public services and social welfare (Dencik & Kaun 2020), the pre-conference discusses the growing reliance on data-driven and algorithmic systems across sectors and institutions (Yeung 2018; Eubanks 2018). We are particularly interested in the extensive use of commercially supplied services and in the growing reliance on big tech companies who provide the underlying infrastructure for a wide range of societal functions. Amazon and Microsoft are, for instance, dominant actors in the provision of cloud solutions to public databases and services, while entire app ecologies rely on Google’s third-party services and developer tools. Focusing on the consequences of this inherent and hidden commercialization, the pre-conference welcomes contributions that enquire into the potential conflicts of interests and clashes between market logics and welfare ideologies.

The pre-conference, in other words, seeks to understand the nature of emergent data welfare states (Andreasen et al. 2021) and to critically assess how and why mechanisms of datafication and commodification are being built into the architecture of contemporary welfare states and democracies. It enquires into technical, ethical, and political choices that are made when digital technologies are implemented; the degrees and possibilities of citizen surveillance and data governance; the market structures and political economies around datafied welfare services and sectors; and the material infrastructures that undergird the datafication of the welfare state.

The pre-conference welcomes contributions on, but not limited to:

- Datafication processes and challenges in key welfare sectors (e.g., healthcare, education, social services, policing, media, etc.)

- Conflicts and clashes between welfare ideologies and commercial logics of big tech

- Historical analyses of public datafication processes

- Theoretical discussions on datafication and democracy

- Case studies of e.g., Covid-19 strategies

- Digital public infrastructure projects and public-private partnerships

The ECREA pre-conference is arranged by the Communication & Democracy section, the ERC-funded Datafied Living project and the Data Publics project, funded by the Velux Foundation. The pre-conference is in hybrid format and both speakers and listeners can choose to participate in person or online. Participation is free of charge, but seats are limited, and registration is mandatory. Authors must indicate if they plan to present online or in person. Abstracts of 300-500 words excluding references must be sent to datafiedwelfarestates@hum.ku.dk no later than April 1st, 2022.

Timeline:

• Deadline for submission of abstracts: April 1st, 2022
• Notification of acceptance: June 1st, 2022
• Deadline for registrations: September 1st, 2022
• Pre-conference: October 18th, 2022, 9-17 (CEST)

Sara Balonas, Teresa Ruão and María-Victoria Carrillo (Eds.)

The book Strategic Communication in Context: Theoretical Debates and Applied Research, edited by Sara Balonas, Teresa Ruão and María-Victoria Carrillo, has just been launched.

Strategic communication is becoming more relevant in communication sciences, though it needs to deepen its reflective practices, especially considering its potential in a VUCA world — volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The capillary, holistic and result-oriented nature that portrays this scientific field has led to the imperative of expanding knowledge about the different approaches, methodologies and impacts in all kinds of organisations when strategic communication is applied. Therefore Strategic Communication in Context: Theoretical Debates and Applied Research assembles several studies and essays by renowned authors who explore the topic from different angles, thus testing the elasticity of the concept. Moreover, this group of authors represents various schools of thought and geographies, making this book particularly rich and cross-disciplinary.

April 28 – 29, 2022

Online (Vilnius University, Faculty of Communication, Lithuania)

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 15, 2022

Conference website: VU Faculty of Communication - IKTPR-2022

Department of Organizational Information and Communication Research of the Faculty of Communication, Vilnius University, will hold its annual international scientific conference, the aim of which is to encourage scientists and practitioners to present the results of theoretical and applied research and initiate scientific discussions on relevant information and communication topics. The conference will be organized as a virtual event, with all sessions taking place online.

The conference organizers invite presentations based on the following research areas:

• Information and knowledge management in the organization: assessment of information and knowledge management; creativity and innovation; learning organization; knowledge management systems; organizational culture and knowledge management; the role of information and communication technologies in improving information and knowledge management in the organization, etc.
• Communication management in organizations: strategic and corporate communication; social responsibility and sustainability communication; organizational change communication; intercultural communication in an international organization; the influence of information technology and hybrid workplace on communication in the organization; communication of the organization with stakeholders in the context of risk, etc.
• Gender expression in communication and other socio-cultural contexts: the gender dimension in communication; gender – sensitive language; gender equality and its communication; equal opportunities communication; gender representation in the media; the gender dimension in mass and popular culture; gender and media; gender equality in the media industry; gender expression in the organization, etc.

Application

We invite interested researchers to submit 300-word abstracts in English indicating the abstract topic, 3-5 key words, the relevance of the research, the research problem, objectives, methods (for scientific reports), results and conclusions until 15 February, 2022. You can submit your abstract via the conference website.

The Scientific Committee will review all submitted abstracts. Notification regarding abstract acceptance and scheduling will be sent to the submitting author by 1st March, 2022.

The key dates:

Abstract submission deadline extended to February 15, 2022.

Notice of acceptance will be given until March 1, 2022.

Registration of participants will take place until April 15, 2022.

For more information see the conference website here: VU Faculty of Communication - IKTPR-2022

Papers publication

Selected articles, prepared on the base of presentations, will be published in the scientific journal of Vilnius University "Information Sciences" (ISSN 1392-0561 | eISSN 1392-1487).

Contact

For more information please contact via e-mail: daiva.siudikiene@kf.vu.lt

You are welcome to participate!

February 9, 2022

Online coference

Deadline (for registration): February 6, 2022

13:00 – Opening Session

Evandro Oliveira, ECREA OSC-Chair; Holger Sievert – Macromedia local organiser

13:05 – Welcome Speech - Castulus Kolo, President, Macromedia University

13:15 – Impulse Keynote - Now or Never: Transforming Educational Practices Through Learning Engineering – Peter van Leusen, Arizona State University

14:00 – Homely Coffee-Break

14:10 – Session 1– Strategic Communication Education

Teaching organisational communication through problem-based learning: Comparing offline and online learning environments.

Michael Johann, Universität Augsburg

Disciplinary approaches and theories in Argentinian PR undergraduate programmes.

Gabriel Sadi, Huddersfield Business School

Meaningful applied learning in Spain during the pandemic: An asynchronous collaborative experience.

Andrea Castro-Martínez and Cristina Pérez-Ordóñez, Universidad de Málaga

Teaching strategic communication in Spanish online universities.

Ileana Zeler, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona, Marc Compte Pujol, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

15:00 - Session 2 - Pedagogic strategies in communication

Increasing engagement of students in online teaching: The use of asynchronous video discussions in disseminating knowledge.

Gabor Sarlos, University of Roehampton

Innovative practices in Communication education: the use of biomimicry and the AskNature platform.

María Belén Barroso, Universidad de Málaga & Almanatura Trust; Alejandro Álvarez-Nobell & Isabel Ruiz-Mora, Universidad de Málaga

The 'Coaching Lab': bridging fundamental advertising theories with their practical value.

Sara Vinyals-Mirabent & Cristina Martorell, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona

Approaches to the development of master's programs in the context of digital transformation: the experience of the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow).

Veronica Yarnykh, Russian State University Moscow

PodCasting as a tool of discourse and qualification on didactics in higher education.

Andreas Hebbel-Seeger & Annette Strauß, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences

16:00 – Homely Coffee-Break

16:20 – Session 3– Intercultural Communication Education

The benefit of VR in teaching intercultural communication competence.

Liane Rothenberger, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt; Yi Xu, Kathrin Knutzen & Irina Tribusean, TU Ilmenau

Hybrid and team teaching of intercultural communication. Theoretical and empirical perspectives on a bilingual case study on communication management within a multi-campus university.

Holger Sievert, Florian Meißner & Dominik Pietzcker, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences

Training intercultural communication competencies with an open approach and movement.

Evandro Oliveira, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona

Peeking at the privates: teaching protest organisations research of the (online) public sphere.

Yulia Belinskaya, Universität Wien

17:10 – Session 4 - New tools and strategies within Digital Environments

Teaching tech to non-techie Media students… online

Danilo Giglitto & Mon Rodriguez-Amat, Sheffield Hallam University

The SCoRe Project: from research-based learning to research-based seeing via video

Marianna Baranovska-Bölter, Andreas Hebbel-Seeger & André Kopischke, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences

Teaching like a YouTuber: Exploring ways of applying YouTubers’ techniques for online lectures

Hantian Zhang, Sheffield Hallam University

Adapting film creative project realisation to Covid teaching conditions.

Susannah Gent, Sheffield Hallam University

18:00 – Homely Coffee-Break

18:30 – Communication Education during and after Corona: A pan European expert panel

Ana Tkalac Verčič, Faculty of Zagreb. Croatia and Slovenia

Evandro Oliveira, ECREA Organizational and Strategic Communication Section Chair. Portugal, Germany and Spain

Ileana Zeler, ECREA Organizational and Strategic Communication Section Vice-Chair. Argentina and Spain.

Ralph Tench, EUPRERA – European Public Relations Education and Research Organisation. UK

Chair: Holger Sievert, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

This session will be open to public without registration.

19:45 – Virtual get together

Registration as online audience until February 6th. https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/ecrea-osc-2022

25 Euro - online participation (includes a physical conference package sent by mail)

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact ecreaosc@gmail.com. This conference is organised by the ECREA OSC management team (Prof. Dr. Evandro Oliveira, Dr. Joan Ramon Rodriguez-Amat and Prof. Dr. Ileana Lis Zeler), together with Macromedia University and OSC member local organizer Prof. Dr. Holger Sievert.