ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

East European Film Bulletin

Proposals: June 15, 2022

Papers due: November, 15 2022

In the late 1950s and 1960s, experimental cinema in the Balkans developed away from the mainstream despite occasional official support. Experimental cinema often originated in socalled amateur film, and flourished in numerous cinema clubs in all major cities of the former Yugoslavian federation. However, the cinema clubs were also part of the socialist project of spreading art to all layers of society. In the 1970s artistic activity and forms of provocation continued to be produced clandestinely despite the reinforcement of censorship of Marshal Tito’s regime. The "New Art Practice", a generation of artists active in Yugoslavia in the late 1960s and the 1970s, practiced experimentation in art, turning the traditional studio to artist-run spaces, creating multimedia performances in the street, as well as experimental publications. The concept of “anti-films” thrived, especially supported by the Genre Experimental Film Festival (GEFF). With the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, cinematic practices branched out to a questioning of memory and identity, often through an ethno-anthropological gaze. In recent years, questions of ethnic identity remain relevant, but experimental cinema has expanded into diverse forms and subjects – gender, ecology, a return to folk mythology among others. Much of this has been approached through contemporary technological explorations of digitality or analogue media.

As part of its 2022 Balkans focus, the East European Film Bulletin is preparing a special issue on experimental cinema, including experimental documentary, video and moving-image art and new media. We are looking for essay-length contributions that should discuss current and past trends of these art forms in the Balkans (or of Balkan artists from abroad) and/or contributions that focus on the work(s) of a particular artist.

We are particularly interested in discussions on the work(s) of: Marina Abramović., Neša Paripović, Sanja Iveković, Dalibor Martinis, Maria Kourkouta, Marianna Christofide, Goran Trbuljak, Igor Toholj, Jurij Meden

Publications should be in English.

Proposals should be sent to editors@eefb.org

Stylistic guidelines for essays published in our journal can be found here.

East European Film Bulletin | 22 rue des Envierges, 75020 Paris | Facebook | eefb.org

June 16-18, 2022

Online Conference 

Deadline for extended abstracts: April 3, 2022

Conference website: www.mediatingscale.com

Confirmed keynote speakers:

• Prof Benjamin Bratton (University of California, San Diego)
• Prof Kathryn Yusoff (Queen Mary University of London)
• Dr Joshua DiCaglio (Texas A&M University)
• Dr Zachary Horton (University of Pittsburgh)
• Dr Bogna Konior (NYU Shanghai)
• Dr Thomas Moynihan (University of Oxford)

The problem of scale has historically been discussed primarily within the confines of specific disciplinary contexts (biology, geography, mathematics, etc.), however it is increasingly emerging as a transdisciplinary concern. Similarly to the ways in which contemporary problems exceed disciplinary boundaries, and require heterogeneous approaches in order to be productively understood, the future orientation of our strategies for addressing those problems must engage with the full scalar spectrum of our planetary existence. Global crises such as pandemics or climate change disturb the human comfort of the mesoscale and require us to grapple with the underlying material reality, including molecular as well as global processes.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved that the biological, chemical, and epidemiological reality is indifferent to the cultural and political narratives conjectured by the human vectors of transmission. A post-pandemic world needs to learn the lessons from this ‘revenge of the real’ (Bratton, 2021) and recognise the complexity of the world which cannot be reduced to myopic projections and illusions. As Dipesh Chakrabarty points out: ‘the coming together of human and nonhuman scales produces the political in the form of a paradox that calls into question previous ways of thinking about and using that category’ (2021, p. 8). As global society is affected by ‘mega processes’, our orientation towards the future should be guided by reason, and a planetary politics which exceeds the logics of the nation-state and includes the whole physical universe (Mbembe, 2019).

In order to access different scalar perspectives, humans have always constructed mediating devices. Instruments such as the telescope or the microscope provided an insight into the scale of reality beyond human visual perception, and demonstrated that ‘the invisible makes up a continuum of reality with the visible’ (Blumenberg, 1987, p. 618). More recent examples of scalar media include the James Webb Space Telescope, mediating the spatial and temporal scale of the universe through an analysis of infrared light, as well as potentially shedding light on the local condition of far-off planets. It contributes to a wider process in which scientists use numerical data from telescopes and satellites to help imagine worlds and places which can be made sense of on a human scale (Messeri, 2016). Computational technologies also help us conceptualise some of the most pressing scalar problems. Inequalities related to labour relations and the distribution of resources can be traced through the mineral materialities of media devices and the cartographies of electronic waste (Parikka, 2015), whilst the concept of ‘climate change’ is an epistemological accomplishment of planetary-scale computation (Bratton, 2019). The history of media and technologies is a history of evolving modes and scales of perception and knowledge, and cultural texts such as Powers of Ten, Fantastic Voyage, Alice in Wonderland, and Gulliver’s Travels have been discussed as motivating thinking about scale (Horton, 2013, 2020; DiCaglio, 2020, 2021). Recent scholarship has also emphasized the necessity for developing a theory and a vocabulary of scale itself, foregrounding the ongoing negotiations between scalar alterity and scalar access (Horton, 2020), and placing scale ‘at the intersection of a transformation of the world and a transformation of ourselves’ (DiCaglio, 2021, p. 9).

With this conference, our ambition is to map the broad spectrum of frameworks and attitudes towards scale, reflecting on how scalar thinking should orient our visions towards the future. We are interested in the role of scalar media, technologies, scientific theories, models and concepts in confronting the scalar disjunction between human sensory and cognitive capacities, and the scale of reality independent of our perception. We believe these questions are crucial to developing the multi-scalar thinking required to address some of the most urgent global issues including automation, planetary governance, or the climate crisis. This conference will therefore explore ways of framing the problem of mediating scale, and the stakes involved in addressing epistemological barriers to facing contemporary problems at an appropriate scale.

We welcome contributions from across disciplines whose work is relevant to the question of mediating scale.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• approaches to scale in media studies
• history and archaeology of scalar media
• politics of scale in visual cultures
• scale and political tactics (including local vs global organising)
• planetary politics and governance
• existential risks, including climate change
• the science and politics of geoengineering
• scientific models and model-world relations
• reductionism, antireductionism, and complexity theory
• theories of scale, rhetoric of scale
• timescales, geologic time, deep time, longtermism

Submission guidelines:

We are inviting submissions for 30-minute talks in English that address the conference theme.

Please send an extended abstract of 600-900 words and a short biography to mediatingscale@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is Sunday April 3rd 2022. Responses will be sent out in mid-April.

Conference details:

This online conference will be free to attend but registration will be required. The conference will be streamed live with recordings of the keynote presentations available afterwards on YouTube. For more information, please see the conference website: www.mediatingscale.com and if you have any questions, please email mediatingscale@gmail.com

Organised by Dr Oliver Kenny (Institute of Communication Studies (ISTC), Université Catholique de Lille) and Magdalena Krysztoforska (University of Nottingham).

The event is hosted and funded by the Institute of Communication Studies (ISTC), Université Catholique de Lille.

Bibliography:

Blumenberg, H. (1987). The Genesis of the Copernican World. MIT Press.

Bratton, B. H. (2019). The Terraforming. Strelka Press.

Bratton, B. H. (2021). The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World. Verso.

Chakrabarty, D. (2021). The Climate of History in a Planetary Age. The University of Chicago Press.

DiCaglio, J. (2020). Scale Tricks and God Tricks, or The Power of Scale in Powers of Ten. Configurations, 28(4), 459–490.

DiCaglio, J. (2021). Scale Theory: A Nondisciplinary Inquiry. University of Minnesota Press.

Horton, Z. (2013). Collapsing Scale: Nanotechnology and Geoengineering as Speculative Media. In K. Konrad, C. Coenen, A. Dijkstra, C. Milburn, & H. van Lente (Eds.), Shaping Emerging Technologies: Governance, Innovation, Discourse (pp. 203–218). IOS Press / AKA.

Horton, Z. (2020). The Cosmic Zoom: Scale, Knowledge, and Mediation. The University of Chicago Press.

Mbembe, A. (2019). Bodies as Borders. From the European South: A Transdisciplinary Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 4, 5–18.

Messeri, L. (2016). Placing Outer Space: An Earthly Ethnography of Other Worlds. Duke University Press.

Parikka, J. (2015). A Geology of Media. University of Minnesota Press.

June 27- July 1

Virtual Online Conference (Conference Platform: Webex)

Deadline: March 27, 2022

The 27th International Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies

Conference Hosts: The University of Toledo; Department of World Languages and Cultures

When COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, it interrupted almost every aspect of life around the globe. Intercultural communication, social interaction, education, international and local travel, healthcare systems, supply chains and economy were all affected and impacted at different levels. Global lockdowns, lack of social interaction and extended “shelter in place” orders caused sharp rise in conflicts, domestic violence, stress, anxiety, mental health breakdowns and even suicide. However, the same pandemic opened new opportunities and even forced many people to communicate beyond their comfort zones as some had to learn new ways of communicating and rely on virtual communication-technology. It even offered opportunities for new and emerging businesses. As we look beyond the pandemic, what lessons did we learn? How are we moving forward? How do we re-create communities and resolve conflicts in complicated religious, linguistic, educational, and cultural contexts? What linguistic choices are emerging? And how priorities, education, healthcare systems and even life are being reformatted? The theme of this conference seeks to address these issues, among many others, in the context of Intercultural and intra-cultural communication.

The International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS) invites scholars, educators, administrators, graduate and undergraduate students from all disciplines of cultural sciences, and related fields, to submit proposals to this conference. All submissions will be considered. All authors of accepted proposals will have the choice to submit their papers to a special issue of IAICS journal.

Conference registration: registration will be waived for all participants and attendees that have IAICS membership (The new introductory rate is $30) Click below to sign up:

https://utep.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=qg0IsHqxx7I%3D

About IAICS

The International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies consists of scholars from a range of the cultural sciences who are dedicated to doing research on communication across cultures. Its membership is made up of participants from over 32 countries. These participants meet annually at different locations around the world to discuss common research interests. The results of their investigations are published in the journal of the organization, Intercultural Communication Studies (ICS).

Conference Goals

• To provide scholars, educators and practitioners from different cultural communities with opportunities to interact, network and benefit from each other’s research and expertise related to intercultural communication issues
• To synthesize research perspectives and foster interdisciplinary scholarly dialogues for developing integrated approaches to complex problems of communication across cultures
• To advance the methodology for intercultural communication research and disseminate practical findings to facilitate understanding across cultures
• To foster global intercultural sensitivity and involve educators, business professionals, students and other stakeholders worldwide in discourses about diversity and transcultural communication issues.

Conference Topics

Conference topic areas are broadly defined as, but not limited to, the following:

• Communication during and post pandemics
• Intercultural communication in the healthcare systems
• Cosmopolitanism in culture
• Intercultural communication and cosmopolitanism
• Shifts in Linguistics
• Time and space in culture / literature
• Language and culture
• Intercultural communication and nationality
• Language and identity
• Comparative culture
• Cultural identity
• Interculturality in literature
• Cultural hybridity
• Diversity studies
• Intercultural communication and interculturality
• Language Teaching and Intercultural Communication
• Mediated intercultural communication
• Virtual intercultural communication
• Multi cultures and interculturality
• Intercultural communication competence
• Culture and travel
• Intercultural education
• Cross cultural encounters
• Indigenous cultures
• Comparative poetics
• Public policy
• Comparative literature
• Transnational enterprises and intercultural communication
• Social media and culture
• Cultural study theories
• Literature and religion
• Culture and diplomacy
• Literature and film
• Language planning and policy
• Translation studies
• Intercultural pragmatics
• Communication, stress and anxiety
• Communication and therapy
• Computer assisted learning and teaching

Guidelines for Submissions

• Abstract, 100-150 words in English, Please include positions, affiliations, email addresses for all authors. Please use Times New Roman 12 point font size, single spaced.
• Panel proposals reflecting the conference theme or topic areas may be submitted. Panel proposals should include title of panel, a 100-150 word abstract of each panelist’s paper (as above). Panel proposals must include positions, affiliations, email addresses for all authors. Please use Times New Roman 12 point font size, single spaced.

Contact: Please submit abstracts, panel proposals, to the following web address:

https://utep.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=prQmzAFMKi0%3D

Conference email: IAICS@utoledo.edu

Conference Webpage: https://www.utoledo.edu/al/world-languages-and-cultures/iaics-conference/

Conference Registration & IAICS Membership Application : https://utep.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=qg0IsHqxx7I%3D

Deadline: Please submit abstracts and panel proposals by March 27, 2022

Proposals acceptance: Scholars will be informed of acceptance decisions before or by May 1, 2022.

Conference program will be emailed and available online by or before May 30, 2022

Conference Working Language: Abstracts should be submitted using English. Oral presentations could be in the author’s language of choice.

For questions related to the conference contact conference chair: IAICS@utoledo.edu

For questions concerning payment of IAICS dues contact Kenneth Yang.

For general questions related to IAICS contact Keith Lloyd or Joanna Radwanska Williams

COMMUNICATIONS – The European Journal of Communication Research (special Issue)

Deadline: March 31, 2022

https://euromediapp.org

Guest editors: Josef Trappel, Tales Tomaz (University of Salzburg)

Since October 2020, the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet network “European Media and Platform Policy” (EuromediApp) addresses the ongoing fundamental transition from the post-World War II media order to a truly global communication network and platform order. Digital communication promises to bring enormous benefits to citizens and businesses and to improve the wellbeing of citizens. However, its set-up is no longer dominated by national or European players, but by global oligopolies, mostly originating in the United States. These digital platforms increasingly determine European communication at all levels, from political communication to economic, cultural, sports and everyday-life communication. This special issue therefore asks: What is the European answer?

We invite contributions to this special issue in four distinct, but interrelated topics:

1. Regulatory context: Internet governance in general and platform governance in particular can be discussed from a global, European and national perspectives. In this topic of the special issue, contributions are welcome that deal with private-commercial governance rules, as well as national and European regulatory patterns. For example, the design and effectiveness of the German Network Enforcement Act (2017), the modernisation and strengthening of antitrust abuse control, European and national competition rules in the area of digital platforms, such as the proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA), as well as the European Commission's draft Digital Services Act (DSA) are all up for discussion. Contributors can discuss the chances of success of efforts to create a safer digital space in Europe where, on the one hand, users' fundamental rights are protected and, on the other hand, a level playing field for information and communication-based platform companies is established. Keywords are: European and national regulation; platform regulation, platform governance, digital intermediaries, self-regulation, co-regulation, external regulation, government regulation, state regulation, multi-level governance, good platform governance.

2. Economic policy context: Digital platforms were initially conceived by their developers as forums for exchange between individuals, independent of the mass media. With their wide dissemination, a competitive relationship has quickly developed. Due to the economic two-sidedness, digital platforms today compete with mass media in terms of both usage time and advertising sales. In the past decade, digital platforms succeeded in gaining competitive advantages in both areas. Especially younger cohorts spend more time using digital platforms than mass media, and personalized advertising provides digital platforms additional advantages. As a result, mass media advertising revenues have eroded, affecting the financial viability of journalism. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated and accelerated this trend. Contributions are welcome addressing fair competition, regulatory responses to oligopolistic or monopolistic concentration of power and its abuse. Keywords are: competition, concentration of power, platform power and abuse, bequest, manipulation, propaganda; antitrust policy, protecting fundamental rights protection, privacy.

3. Corporate policy context: Mass media and digital platforms create public spheres and shape public discourse by producing or moderating content. While mass media are responsible for the top end of the relevant value chain, thus the generation of content, digital platforms delegate this step to their users in order to intervene in a moderating capacity only later - often only when necessary. In both cases, the operators socially responsible as well as accountable. Contributions should discuss the diversity of procedures in the production and dissemination of content, as well as justified variations of regulatory regimes. Who bears responsibility for algorithm-driven or algorithm-generated content? What requirements, if any, should be placed on self-regulation within the industry and on individual platform companies? Keywords are: accountability, transparency obligation, responsibility, algorithms, accountability, infrastructures

4. Journalistic and editorial context: The platformisation of democracy, the public sphere and journalism has fuelled the debate on the power of commercial technology corporations and digital platform operators such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Contributions are welcome on issues of governance and regulation regarding the power and influence of private media and platform corporations on public and political democratic discourses. Keywords are hate speech, all kinds of legal or illegal mis- and disinformation, structural and situational violation of privacy, restrictions on access to content (gatekeeping), lack of labelling of advertising and propaganda, etc.

Contributions should not exceed 8000 words (including references, tables, footnotes, excluding appendices and supplementary material) for articles and 4000 words for Research in Brief or a Debate. The language style should be American English, quotation style (APA) should be applied. Interested scholars are invited to submit two-page abstracts by the end of March 2022. Selected abstracts are invited to submit full papers. COMMUNICATIONS is a double-blind peer reviewed journal and contributions are accepted only after this process.

Timing:

• Abstracts (2 pages including five key words): 31 March 2022
• Invitation to submit full paper: 25 April 2022
• Full paper submission: 30 September 2022
• End of review process: 31 March 2023
• Final version of articles: 30 April 2023
• Publication of the special issue: September 2023

Submission address: tales.tomaz@plus.ac.at

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

Editors: Jorge Vázquez-HerreroAlba Silva-RodríguezMaría-Cruz Negreira-ReyCarlos Toural-BranXosé López-García

This book aims to explore the diverse landscape of journalism in the third decade of the twenty-first century, constantly changing and still dealing with the consequences of a global pandemic. ‘Total journalism’ is the concept that refers to the renewed and current journalism that employs all available techniques, technologies, and platforms.

Authors discuss the innovative nature of journalism, the influence of big data and information disorders, models, professionals and audiences, as well as the challenges of artificial intelligence. The book gives an up-to-date overview of these perspectives on journalistic production and distribution. The effects of misinformation and the challenge of artificial intelligence are of specific relevance in this book.

Readers can enjoy with contributions from 50 prestigious experts and researchers who make this book an interesting resource for media professionals and researchers in media and communication studies.

Link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88028-6

June 20-22, 2022

Loughborough University, UK

Deadline: February 27, 2022

10th International Digital Storytelling Conference

Call For Papers and Presentation Proposals

We invite you to join us at Loughborough University, UK, in the coming Summer for an amazing gathering of digital storytelling professionals, academics, museum educators, students, community partners, and activists.

Our conference is part of a multi-institutional, multinational, three-year process and programme, started last year with our successful 24hour online marathon – organised by Loughborough University (UK), StoryCenter (US) UMBC – University of Maryland Baltimore County (US), Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology (US), Montgomery College (US), Patient Voices (UK) – that includes a face-to-face event in Loughborough in June 2022 and a series of follow-on activities in the Washington, D.C. area and in Maryland, USA, in 2023.

Our conference will host various events (both in person and online) in its structure for inclusion of diverse perspectives and voices. In addition to academic papers, workshops, and roundtable discussions, we encourage practitioners from community settings, artists and students to contribute and express their creativity through various formats (short performances, artworks, video/audio submissions, etc.).

Within the umbrella theme of Story Work for a Just Future ,explored across our three-year programme of events, and in response to the current pandemic, for DST 2022 Rise Up! we are particularly interested in proposals with a focus on how our Story Work could help us and our communities Reconnect, Rebuild, Recreate.

To frame your ideas you could also consider (but not limited to) the following Re-words and use them as lenses through which look at context, content or practice:

• Revive
• Restore
• Recover
• Rewrite

All interested conference contributors are invited to share their work through six types of contributions, but we also welcome other formats.

Conference Formats:

• Academic paper (15 minutes)
• Workshop (45 minutes)
• Roundtable discussion (45 minutes)
• Short performance (to be defined on a one-to-one basis)
• Artwork (to be defined on a one-to-one basis)
• Video/Audio submission

Other: If you think you don't fit into one of these formats, please email us with your idea!

Submission guidelines & key dates:

250-word abstract to describe your proposal (please, specify which format)

Include a title, your name, email address, and affiliation if applicable

Submit your proposal via email to Saedstorytelling@lboro.ac.uk

• Deadline for abstract submission: 27th February 2022
• Notification of acceptance: 31st March 2022
• Early bird registration opens: 15th March 2022
• General Registration opens: 15th April 2022
• Registration closes: 30th May 2022

Conference presentations, videos, materials to be sent in advance by 5th June 2022. Special arrangements will be made on a one-to-one basis for other formats.

Early bird: £180 (£80 student and practitioner rate)

Regular registration: £220 (£100 student and practitioner rate; £60 day rate)

Digital participation: It is our intention to make digital participation possible. Please write to Sally Bellman for more information.

Included in the Registration fee are coffee and tea breaks, lunch, access to all conference sessions, social activity (true-life storytelling club) during the opening evening, publication of the abstract in online conference proceedings.

Additional and optional social activity will be booked separately by each participant.

For further submission requirements and information on accommodation, please write to the Storytelling Research Team at Loughborough University: Saedstorytelling@lboro.ac.uk

Conference Chairs: Antonia Liguori and Michael Wilson (Loughborough University, UK)

Conference Committee Members: Lyndsey Bakewell (DeMontfort University, UK), Jessica Berman (University of Maryland, Baltimore County UMBC, US), Bev Bickel (UMBC, US), Matthew Decker (Montgomery College, US), Patrick Desloge (Hong Kong University), Lindsay DiCuirci (UMBC, US), Sara Bachman Ducey (Montgomery College, US), Mark Dunford (University of Westminster/DigiTales, UK), Daniela Gachago (Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa), Jamie Gillan (Montgomery College, US), Pip Hardy (Patient Voices, UK), Grete Jamissen (OsloMet, Norway), Tricia Jenkins (DigiTales, UK), Charlotte Keniston (UMBC, US), Joe Lambert (StoryCenter, US), Michalis Meimaris (University of Athens, Greece), Daniel Onyango (HopeRaisers, Kenya), Ngozi Oparah (Loughborough University, UK / StoryCenter, US), Philippa Rappoport (Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology, US), Bill Shewbridge (UMBC, US), Burcu Simsek (Hacettepe University, Turkey), Tony Sumner (Patient Voices, UK), Pam Sykes (University of the Western Cape, South Africa), Chris Thomson (Jisc, UK).

***

Story Work for a Just Future

Exploring Diverse Experiences and Methods within an International Community of Practice

Storytelling has been defined as 'the artform of social interaction' (Wilson, 1998), not only for its inner dynamics, but also for its power to unlock grass-roots knowledge, explore dilemmas, develop community resilience, engender change.

Stories can generate empathy and trust in the audience and at the same time demonstrate their usefulness because they have the power to give meaning to human behaviors and to trigger emotions (Bourbonnais and Michaud, 2018). 'This happens because stories are perceived as vectors of truth. They also challenge the meaning of truth itself and suggest a deeper reflection on how various perspectives embedded in personal narratives about contested themes and events can generate multiple truths' (Liguori, 2020).

Yet we acknowledge the existence of multiple truths when we recognise, as the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie observes, 'the danger of a single story' (2009). As she describes, 'because our lives and our cultures are composed of a series of overlapping stories, if we hear only a single story about another person, culture, or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding'. In a time of worrying 'critical misunderstandings' worldwide, we want to explore with you the value of Applied Storytelling as a tool to co/re-develop 'A Just Future'.

Conference website: dst2022.org

The main contact for the DST Conference 2022 in Loughborough is Antonia Liguori.

October 10, 2022

Online conference

Deadline: June 10, 2022

Joint event of ECREA Central and Eastern European Network and IPSA RC 22 – Political Communication

Co-organisers:

• Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Szeged, Hungary
• Faculty of Political Science and Journalism, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland
• Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
• Institute of Journalism, Media and Social Communication, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland

In the post-socialist Central and Eastern European region the first democratic election campaigns took place more than 30 years ago. In parallel with this, political communication as a field of research emerged in the region’s scientific community. Since then, phenomena such as the changes in voters’ levels of volatility (Blumler 2016; Blumler and Kavanagh 1999; Swanson 2004), the shift of communication and in news consumption (Thomassen 2005), the appearance of ‘modern’ political marketing (Maarek 2011), and long-term relationship between political actors and electorate as a strategy (Wring 1996) shaped the directions of research in political communication. Although these symptoms are widely studied in Western democracies, the situation is different in the CEE region. However, the processes mentioned above have also conquered political campaigns in the region (Eibl and Gregor 2019). Seeing that their voters live their everyday lives on social media, political actors have ‘moved up’ to the leading platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and nowadays Instagram and TikTok. This process has to be reflected in research on political communication. The new platforms demand different communication techniques. The significance of personalized politics has increased too (Bennett 2012). The basics of political communication have not changed in response to new platforms. However, the density of communication means of interaction and a constant race for attention have resulted in a significant turnaround. Populist-illiberal parties, the decline in media freedom in the region, and – inevitably – the heightened public opposition to the governmental decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is sometimes interspersed with fake news and conspiracy theories caused by the epidemic and vaccinations have further contributed to the changes in political communication.

KEY QUESTIONS

The event’s focal point is the conceptual and practical overview of political communication scholarship in Central and Eastern Europe. The organizers look forward to presentations in (but not limited to) the following areas of interest:

- patterns of political communication research in the region,

- features of the communication patterns,

- digital communication,

- personalisation of the content,

- challenges to political marketing in the region

- illiberal/anti-liberal tendencies in the user-generated content

- polarization of public discourses in the region

- future of political communication in the CEE region.

Abstracts (with maximum length of 350 words) will be evaluated by members of the Scientific

Committee. Please include the name, affiliation and email address of author(s).

Upload your abstract here: https://shorturl.at/ceFOX

Deadline: June 10, 2022

Organizing Committee:

• Norbert Merkovity (University of Szeged, Hungary)
• Magdalena Musiał-Karg (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland)
• Lenka Vochocová (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic)
• Małgorzata Winiarska-Brodowska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland)

May 4-6, 2022

University of Minho (Braga, Portugal)

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 22, 2022

As part of the research project Festivity - Festival, Cultural Heritage and Community Sustainability, we are organizing the International Congress Festivals, Cultures and Communities: Heritage and Sustainability, which will take place at the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal), on the 4th, 5th and 6h May, 2022. This scientific meeting aims to disseminate and discuss the research carried out on traditional festivities, namely their revitalization and re-signification associated with the transformation of festive cultures and the policies of patrimonialization of the festivities, among other topics.

https://www.festivity.pt/congresso/

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