ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

7-8 April 2022

University of Seville, Spain

Deadline: 8 March 2022

VII GENDERCOM (Spanish/Italian/English)

Welcome to the GENDERCOM 2022 (Gender & Communication) congress that will be held on 7 and 8 April 2022 in hybrid mode (online and in person), at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Seville. Paper proposals (abstracts) in English, Spanish and Italian can be submitted until 8th March 2022. The selected papers will be published in the Scientific Journal and by prestigious Spanish publishing houses.

For more information and to see all eight thematic axes, visit the congress website https://gendercom.org/

To submit your paper proposal for the congress, visit https://gendercom.org/propuestas/

Cyprus University of Technology

The Department of Communication and Internet Studies (CIS), at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), in Limassol, Cyprus, is inviting applications for One (1) position at the rank of Assistant Professor or Lecturer in the specialization "Digital Humanities” (Deadline: May 3, 2022)

The languages of instruction at CUT are Greek and/or Turkish. However, knowledge of either language is not required at the time of the application. If a candidate is selected they will be required to achieve a good level of the Greek language within three years.

Citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus is not a requirement.

The Department of Communication and Internet Studies promotes teaching and research that examine the coupling of Society and the Internet. The Department is highly interdisciplinary; candidates who take an interdisciplinary and critical approach to their research, while maintaining rigorous standards of research are especially invited to apply.

The University, despite its young age, ranks among the top 301-350 universities worldwide and holds the 59th position among the top new universities in the world.

CUT is situated in Limassol, which is classified among the top 100 best cities in the world to live in. With its year-round Mediterranean climate, Limassol’s coastal living offers great quality of life (see this video for more information).

Information on the job vacancies and guidelines on how to apply can be found at:  https://www.cut.ac.cy/faculties/comm/cis/job-vacancies/?languageId=1.

You can direct any questions to chairperson.cis@cut.ac.cy

June 30-July 1, 2022

Bologna, Italy

Deadline: March 13, 2022

Annual conference of the Italian Association of Political Communication

All information about the conference are available here: https://www.compol.it/eventi/convegno/convegno-2022/

As early as the 1990s, leading figures in the discipline contended that political communication has entered a prolonged phase of crisis. Jay Blumler (1997) defined this crisis as the awareness that practices of political communication had to change radically in order to maintain the fundamental function of "communication for citizenship".

At the dawn of the new millennium, the increasing centrality of digital platforms in the "ecosystems of political communication" (Esser and Pfetsch 2020) gave further impetus to the perception of a mounting crisis hitting the field and discipline; and such crisis was understood in term of instability, heterogeneity, and "chaos" (McNair 2006). This idea can be found also in Andrew Chadwick's theory (2013) concerning "hybrid" reconfigurations of media systems. In fact, Chadwick, while highlighting some dysfunctionalities of the hybrid media system, rejected an exclusively negative understanding of the “permanent crisis” characterizing political communication.

The second half of the 2010s was instead characterized by a new phase of pessimism, which led researchers to search tools and frameworks to study political communication in "times of crisis" (Davis 2019). Indeed, these years saw a final collapse of trust in political and media elites, a new rise of nationalism and populism, mounting information overloads for citizens, and a multiplication in existing “regimes of truth” (Waisbord 2018).

Finally, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. The health crisis turned political, economic, and social, providing a new framework to the idea of crisis. The emergence of an unprecedented overlap between political and crisis communication produced a generalized shock that has directly affected our field of study. All actors in political and institutional communication had to face and directly manage the structural uncertainty characterizing the second modernity (Beck 1986).

Therefore, the global experience of the pandemic forces scholars and practitioners in political communication to deal with a renewed concept of crisis. In this historical moment it is even more important to resist the temptation to simply choose between optimism and pessimism. On the contrary, addressing responsibly the crisis of political communication means interpreting it as a challenge and trying to provide new theoretical lenses, to develop new methods for research, and to elaborate new and renovated knowledge. The pandemic has highlighted a widespread difficulty in elaborating solid theories and concepts based on empirical evidence. At the same time, it has shown the urgency of sound research contributing to our understanding of contemporary political and social phenomena without relying exclusively on the quantity of data collected, but also on their capacity to answer relevant questions.

Starting from these premises, we encourage the submission of papers that engage with the idea of crisis to address challenges faced by political communication research in the pandemic age. We are interested both in theoretical essays and empirical studies and we welcome different methodological approaches and research designs (quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods). Issues of interest include (but are not limited to):

* the nature of attention economies and dynamics of agenda building in contemporary media ecosystems, with particular reference to the pandemic period;

* the organization of election campaigns in moments of exceptionality for democratic norms and practices (e.g. lockdowns, physical distancing);

* trends in communication and political leadership styles during the pandemic and their implications in the relationship with other actors in the public sphere;

* new forms of extra-institutional political communication related to protests, social movements, and civil society actors during the pandemic

* politicization of science, health and of their communication in the public sphere, with particular reference to the relationship between democracy, freedom of expression, collective interest and public health;

* transformations and degenerations of public debate in different media arenas with particular reference to incivility and polarization;

* the role of data, platforms, algorithms in processes of political communication and journalism by institutional and extra-institutional actors;

* transformations in political journalism, with particular attention to the boundaries between journalism and other forms of information;

* the impact of AI on the transformations of political communication and journalism;

* methodological and theoretical proposals dealing with the transformations of political communication emerged as a result of the pandemic experience, also in comparative perspective.

Although the conference focuses on the multiple interpretations of the "crisis" in political communication, papers addressing other aspects of the relationship between media and politics are also welcome. Papers by PhD students and young researchers are warmly encouraged.

Paper proposals should include name, affiliation and email address, a title, an extended abstract (600/800 words excluding references), and bibliographical references. Authors should also explicitly indicate whether they request the paper to be considered for publication (after the conference) in “Comunicazione Politica”, the flagship journal of the Italian Association of Political Communication. In the case of ex equo in the evaluations provided by referees, priority will be given to authors who have expressed interest for publication on Comunicazione Politica.

Deadlines:

- The deadline for submitting proposals is 13 March 2022.

- Notification of acceptances will take place by 1 May 2022.

- Contributions will be uploaded to the conference paper room by 13 June 2022.

Jesper Tække and Michael Paulsen

Drawing together action-based research with sociology of education, medium theory and the Bildung-tradition, the authors offer a new perspective on education in the digital age, exploring emancipation, edification, self-formation and democratic education.

The authors draw on 15 years of action-based research and weave this with the theory to show how teachers and students might use new media for learning about interaction, searching, visualizing, constructing, storing, and retrieving. The authors show that education needs to be rethought, resituated and developed anew in the digital age. New norms and new ways of teaching need to be established. Building on the theory and case studies, they analyze and discuss different strategies, ideas and understandings, offering four promising ways to develop a new vision for education.

Purchase here: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/a-new-perspective-on-education-in-the-digital-age-teaching-media-and-bildung/

 April 27, 2022

Virtual symposium

Deadline: March 4, 2022

Co-hosted by Dylan Mulvin (London School of Economics) and Annette Hill (Lund University)

We invite applications for a (virtual) symposium on the proxy, the stand-in, and the warm-up to be co-hosted by the London School of Economics and Lund University. We aim to gather an eclectic and wide-ranging cohort of people exploring the emergent intersection of technology, background work, and hidden performances within media and cultural industries – the infrastructural and hidden labour of our daily lives. We offer this invitation for those who want to further interrogate the cultural dynamics of proxies. The logics of the stand-in draw attention to how certain people, and attendant material objects and infrastructures, are made to not matter and disappear from view.

Our world is suffused with proxies, and the background work of the people who stand in for others, from models who pose for test images to calibrate image technologies, stand-ins for theatre and live events, warm-up acts who prepare an audience for an entertainment show, to voice-over actors, foley artists, and stunt doubles. The art of performing as a stand-in reaches far beyond the fixed realms of media and cultural industries and deep into civil society, including the medical establishment and legal institutions where we might find medical actors who offer their bodies up to trainee physicians and mock juries who come to stand-in for the ordinary citizens. This symposium will dig deeper into these stand-in dynamics while mapping an already existing and interdisciplinary investment in the surrogate logic, absent presence, and politics of proxiness.

Send abstracts to:

Dylan Mulvin d.mulvin@lse.ac.uk & Annette Hill annette.hill@kom.lu.se

Submission deadline: March 4, 2022 (notifications sent out by March 28)

Submission details: a (maximum) 400-word abstract and a 200-word biography

March 24, 2022

I am pleased to invite you to the next in the series of IPRA Thought Leadership webinars. The webinar PR: a global history in 40 minutes will be presented by Emeritus Professor Tom Watson on Thursday 24 March 2022 at 12.00 GMT/UCT (unadjusted).

What is the webinar content?

The history of public relations is far more diverse (and interesting) in its origins and cultural influences than has been portrayed. In this webinar, illustrated by examples from around the world, Tom Watson will survey all the influences that have created the theory and practices of global PR.

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 Tom Watson

Tom is the founder of the International History of Public Relations Conference and the editor of a seven-volume world history of PR. Before becoming an academic, he worked in corporate and consultancy PR for 25 years. Tom is an HonFCIPR and FPRCA. He was chairman of the UK’s PRCA in 2000-2002 and the first guardian of the IPRA Archives held at Bournemouth University.

Contact

International Public Relations Association Secretariat

United Kingdom

secgen@ipra.orgTelephone +44 1634 818308

July 7-8, 2022

Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon

Deadline: April 20, 2022

Over the last century broadcasting played a central role in the construction and dissemination of national cultures and shared identities. Used to promote the idea of nation within state borders, in the cases of the Imperial nations this role was extended overseas with the audio medium becoming central in the effort to unite the home countries with the expats living in the far reaches of the empires. In many territories under European rule, namely in Africa, this led to the creation of what were at first white soundscapes in which local cultures and languages were absent from the airwaves.

In the late 1950s, as the winds of decolonialism swept through Africa, state and private-owned imperial and colonial stations opened up their programming schedules to African languages and cultures. In some cases, such as the BBC, this aimed to safeguard the station’s listenership in the context of increasing competition from stations set-up by the new-born African states (Potter, 2012; Ritter, 2021), while in others, namely in the Portuguese Empire, programmes in African languages were used to indoctrinate the black population on the supposed benefits of colonialism (Ribeiro, 2017). Some of these overall broadcasts also coexisted with a developing commercial radio style and programming, where new jingles and music genres created a new and parallel irresistible (sonorous) empire (di Grazia, 2005; Domingos, 2021). But in this radio ecosystem that emerged in the mid-20th century in different regions in Africa there were as well other stations operated by independence movements that resorted to broadcasting to promote independence from colonial powers and to foster new national identities. In the postcolonial era, broadcasting was instrumental in fostering new cultural and political identities with the new independent state also resorting to the audio medium to create their own sound identity.

The conference “Radio Soundscapes in (Post)Colonial Settings” aims to join scholars researching the history of colonial and postcolonial broadcasting and sound aiming to shed light on the role of radio and music in forging audible and sonorous empires and new-born nations. Thus, the conference seeks papers that discuss technologies, programmes and audiences in both colonial and postcolonial settings, including those focusing on the construction of new soundscapes and radio ecosystems following decolonization. Among many questions that may be addressed, the conference welcomes papers dealing with the following topics (non-exhaustive list):

· Radio and national identities (namely in postcolonial nations);

· Soundscapes in colonial, decolonial and postcolonial settings;

· Imperial, colonial and postcolonial broadcasting institutions and professionals;

· Reception of imperial, colonial and postcolonial broadcasts;

· Technologies used for crossborder broadcasting;

· Radio, ethnicity and race;

· Radio and practices of resistance;

· Broadcasting and colonial subjectivities;

· Radio and colonial independences;

· Radio and decolonization;

· Media entanglements in imperial contexts;

· Intermedial approaches to radio history in colonial contexts;

· Media systems in colonial, decolonial and postcolonial settings;

· Radio and music markets in colonial and postcolonial contexts;

· Challenges of oral history;

· Sources and archives dealing with broadcasting in colonial and postcolonial settings.

All presenters selected will have a 20-minute slot to present their work, followed by Q&A.

How to Submit?

Please send a title and a 400 word abstract in Word or Pdf format before 20 April, 2020 (deadline) to broadcasting.empire@gmail.com .

Author name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and contact information should be sent on a separate file or on the body of the e-mail.

Authors will be notified of acceptance on 6 May 2022.

Conference fee

Full fee: 100€ (early bird) / 130€ (standard fee)

Reduced fee for students: 50€ (early bird) / 65€ (standard fee)

Lunches and coffee-breaks included.

The conference will be hosted by the Research Centre for Communication and Culture (CECC) at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and will take place within the framework of the research project “Broadcasting to the Portuguese Empire: Nationalism, Colonialism, Identity” funded by FCT and FEDER. For more information about the project visit: https://www.broadcastingempire.com

The conference will be held at the Lisbon campus of Universidade Católica Portuguesa that can be easily accessed via metro (30-minute ride), bus or taxi (10-minute ride) from the Lisbon airport. Participants that are unable to travel to Lisbon will be offered the possibility of participating online.

October 17, 2022

Online conference

Deadline: March 18, 2022

Organised by the ECREA Media Industries and Cultural Production Section

Streaming media content, live or recorded, has experienced exponential growth during the COVID19 pandemic. Streaming, understood as the digital transmission and reception of files over the Internet, refers to text, audio and video content. It has impacted upon both content distribution and consumption in a variety of sectors such as film, television, games, publishing, music, and radio/podcasts. The multiple forms and commercial models through which streaming services are organized -- from transnational streaming services, to such that target specific geographical markets or audiences, and from commercial to indie and public service streaming -- transform cultural production in manifold ways. With streaming, consumption has become more on demand and personalised.

This conference on the impact of streaming on the media industries and cultural production is particularly interested in bringing together scholars examining the impact of streaming on different media industry sectors and/or in different countries and production contexts. It especially welcomes contributions that explore the impact of streaming along different parts of the media supply-chain, from the front-end distribution and delivery of content, through content delivery networks and physical infrastructure operations.

Rather than the usual format, this online conference will consist of workshops made up of 5-10-minute provocations/statements designed to generate debate and discussion.

We also welcome pre-constituted workshops of four or five 5-10-minute provocations/statements, as well as workshops that include industry participants.

Two slots per session will be ringfenced for early career researchers, pending sufficient applications. Please indicate if you are an early career researcher in the Abstract.

For 5-10-minute provocations/statements, please submit an abstract of maximum 150 words, and a biography of maximum 100 words. Individually submitted provocations will be formed by the selection committee into workshops consisting of 4-5 provocations.

For pre-constituted workshops of four or five 5-10-minute provocations/statements, please submit a maximum 800 word abstract summarising the overall theme for the workshop and the contribution of each participant, and a maximum 100 word biography for each participant.

The deadline for submissions is 18 March 2022. Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=smicpoct2022ecreapc

We will notify all authors of acceptance/ rejection by 26 April 2022.

For questions regarding the pre-conference and/or abstract submission, please email Maria Michalis, University of Westminster

m.michalis@westminster.ac.uk

The authors of accepted papers are expected to present their papers or short provocations/statements online on Monday 17th October.

This is a free conference. There are NO registration fees.

February 17, 2022 

Meet the editors and authors of the new collection "The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Challenge for Media and Communication Studies", Kopecka-Piech K., Łódzki B., (eds.) Routledge: 2022. Online book launch will take place on 17.02.22, 16-17 CET. Join us on Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/ydk-saxx-ugz

March 3-4, 2022

Online symposium

The Department of Communication, Media and Film is thrilled to host “Cinemas of Global Solidarity”, a two-day virtual symposium with an outstanding list of international speakers.

This symposium will explore the entwined legacies of anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist internationalism in the cinema with a view toward contemporary forms of politicized moving image culture. Presentations will focus on how film, in both its aesthetic strategies and broader circuits of distribution and exhibition, has worked as an instrument of global coalition building, imagining alternatives to the uninhibited flows of market finance and the militarized borders of the nation state. In confronting the problem of solidarity in its diverse geopolitical, historical, and conceptual dimensions, the symposium brings together a group of scholars whose work spans from the Communist international solidarity documentaries of the 1920s and 1930s, to the third cinemas and counter-cinemas of the 1960s and 1970s, to more recent iterations of world cinema, decolonial cinema, and the militant image. We aim to respond to a growing impetus within film and media studies to reopen both the influential and overlooked film radicalisms of the past in order to better conceptualize the role of cinema within the ideological battle-lines of advanced capitalism.

Speakers include:

• Rizvana Bradley (University of California, Berkeley)
• Luca Caminati (Concordia University)
• Matthew Croombs (University of Calgary)
• Rosalind Galt (King’s College London)
• Malini Guha (Carleton University)
• Sarah Hamblin (University of Massachusetts Boston)
• Pato Hebert (New York University)
• Alexandra Juhasz (Brooklyn College)
• John MacKay (Yale University)
• Mariano Mestman (University of Buenos Aires)
• Lakshmi Padmanabhan (Northwestern University)
• Philip Rosen (Brown University)
• Masha Salazkina (Concordia University)
• Ling Zhang (Purchase College)

Please register at cinemasofglobalsolidarity.com to attend.