ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

University of Bremen, Germany

At the University of Bremen, the ZeMKI Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research/ Faculty 9 - Cultural Studies - in the ZeMKI Lab "Datafication and Mediatization" of Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp has a vacancy from 1.3.2023, subject to approval, for a

Research Associate (Doctoral Researcher) (f/m/d)

- pay group 13 TV-L - half-time - for a period of

for a period of 3 years.

The fixed-term contract is for scientific qualification according to § 2 para. 1 WissZeitVG (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz). Accordingly, only applicants who still have qualification periods to the corresponding extent according to § 2 para. 1 WissZeitVG can be considered.

We are looking for a person (f/m/d) with an interest in research on media use and digital media practices, who would like to work in a committed team dealing with recent media change (including automation and datafication of communication, pioneer journalism, pioneer/developer communities) and using an innovative combination of qualitative and digital methods.

Tasks:

-        Independent research in the form of a doctorate to the extent of one third of the working time. 

-        Scientific research activities to the extent of one third of the working time:

o   Support in ongoing research projects of the ZeMKI Lab "Datafication and Mediatization", especially in the area of current media change (including pioneer communities of technology development and pioneer journalism).

o   Support in the acquisition of a research project in the field of automation of communication and related publications

o   Preparation and implementation of scientific conferences

o   Support in academic self-administration

-       Scientific services in teaching to the extent of 2 SWS or one third of the working time:

o   Conducting tutorials or seminars according to own thematic priorities

o   Preparation of teaching materials

o   Pre-correction of examinations

o   Supervision of seminar papers, term papers, presentations and Bachelor's and Master's theses.

Requirements for employment:

-        Above-average academic university degree (Master's/Diplom) in communication and media studies or a related discipline

-        Sound methodological training (especially with regard to qualitative methods and digital methods)

-        Prior knowledge of or high interest in the above-mentioned research foci

-        Willingness to pursue further academic qualification (doctorate) in the above-mentioned field

-        Very good written and spoken German and/or English skills

-        High level of commitment and initiative, ability to work in a team, careful and reliable working methods

-        Willingness to participate in academic self-administration

-        Willingness to teach in accordance with the LVNV (Lehrverpflichtungs- und Lehrnachweisordnung).

The university is family-friendly, diverse and sees itself as an international university. We therefore welcome all applicants regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic and social origin, religion/belief, disability, age, sexual orientation and identity.

As the University of Bremen intends to increase the proportion of female employees in science, women are particularly encouraged to apply. Disabled applicants will be given priority if their professional and personal qualifications are essentially the same.

Questions should be addressed to Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp (andreas.hepp@uni-bremen.de).

The deadline for applications is January 15, 2023, quoting the reference number A345/22. 

Applications have to be sent to

University of Bremen

Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)

z. Attention: Ms. Heide Pawlik

PO Box 33 04 40

28334 Bremen

or by e-mail as PDF to: Heide Pawlik hpawlik@uni-bremen.de

In addition to a covering letter outlining the motivation, the application should be accompanied by a curriculum vitae, final certificates and the final thesis or other publications, if applicable.

Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico (special issue)

Deadline: April 14, 2023

The percentage of citizens who avoid consuming news has sharply increased over the last year according to the 2022 Digital News Report. The high levels of confusion and distrust brought about by the infodemic that accompanied the global pandemic have given rise to social apathy and a search for mechanisms of disconnection and self-protection.  Social media have distorted notions of authority, as the most complex media system in history took shape, generating an emotional and existential impact on journalism. In this context, disinformation has become a cause of concern in newsrooms and a priority line of research at the global level. Most studies have focused on the messages, conspiracy theories, interest groups and superspreaders of such content, and their impact on citizens. It is therefore pertinent and necessary to consider the perspective of professional journalists, reflecting their expertise when it comes to information, with quantitative, qualitative and theoretical approaches that help to advance knowledge.

In this special issue, we aim to examine the behaviour of journalists towards disinformation, how they react in the face of information disorder, integrating formulas into their routines to handle such content, and how they draw attention to the problem on media agendas and restrict its spread guided by their social responsibility. Proposals that focus on the specialised skills and training that are needed as well as the rise of new professional roles will also be welcome.

This call for articles is also open to recent events, such as the implementation of the 2022 Strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation in Europe. How journalists perceive the changes introduced on Twitter, the migration to platforms with a greater commitment to content moderation, and the challenges that might arise in the metaverse are examples of relevant reflections that will be addressed in this monograph.

We seek constructive articles that also reflect on innovative solutions, such as collaboration between media, institutions and fact-checkers, or those proceeding from participation in hackathons to build prototypes that make it possible to swiftly detect false content and prevent its spread, using artificial intelligence.

The following are some of the potential themes:

• Journalistic coverage and treatment of disinformation.
  
• New professional roles and routines related to disinformation.
  
• Fact-checkers as a journalistic source.
  
• The relation of journalists with propagators of disinformation.
  
• Quality and usability of content generated by fact-checkers.
  
• Narrative innovation to combat disinformation in vulnerable audiences.
  
• Active audience collaboration in fact-checking tasks supported by mass media.
  
• The ethical dimension and guides to good practice within the journalistic profession to avoid the production and diffusion of false content.
  
• Professional deontology in disinformation contexts.
  
• Journalists’ participation in media education to prevent disinformation.
  
• Data journalism, visualisation and disinformation.
  
• Usability of bots in journalistic contexts to stop false content.
  
• Metaverse, journalistic practices and disinformation.
  
• Initiatives based on artificial intelligence to restrict disinformation.
  
• Perception of experts in artificial intelligence on the future of the diffusion of false content.
  

Submissions must conform to the indications of the journal https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ESMP/about/submissions  and must be sent via OJS platform: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ESMP/about/submissions

By indicating in the section "comments for the editor", or in the header of the article, the title of the monograph: “Impact of disinformation”

Deadline for submission is April 14, 2023.

Invited editors:

Bella Palomo - Bella Palomo is a Full Professor in the Journalism Department at the University of Malaga (Spain). Palomo has focused her line of research on digital journalism, professional routines, social media and active audiences during the last two decades. She has been a visiting scholar at the Universities of Washington, Rutgers, Miami (US), and Federal de Bahia (Brazil). She is also a member of the editorial board of several journals (Digital Journalism, Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico, Dígitos, Hipertext), and is responsible for DisinformationResearch.com. The aim of this website is to increase the visibility of specialized research on information disorder. She is the principal researcher of the MEDIO (Media & Data Innovation Observatory) research group and the national project ‘The Impact of Disinformation in Journalism: Contents, Professional Routines and Audiences.’ She coordinated the book Politics of Disinformation (Wiley, 2021). She is a member of national and international evaluation committees. 

Edson C. Tandoc Jr. – is Associate Professor and the Associate Chair for Research at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he is the Director of the Centre for Information Integrity and the Internet (IN-cube). He is also an Associate Editor of two journals: Digital Journalism and Human Communication Research and the Vice Chair of the Journalism Studies Division of the International Communication Association. He is the author of Analyzing Analytics: Disrupting Journalism One Click at a Time (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of Critical Incidents in Journalism: Pivotal Moments Reshaping Journalism around the World (Routledge, 2020). His studies have focused on the impact of journalistic roles, new technologies, and audience feedback on the news gatekeeping process. He has also looked at how readers make sense of critical incidents in journalism and take part in reconsidering journalistic norms; and how changing news consumption patterns facilitate the spread of fake news.

Rodrigo Cunha - Professor at the Department of Communication at the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil). PhD in Contemporary Communication and Culture at the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil). He is the leader of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Journalistic Information Design (GRID), with researchers from Journalism, Design, Information Sciences and Computer Sciences. He is the author of the books Design da Informação e Inovação em Produtos Jornalísticos para Tablets (LabCom-IFP, 2017) and co-editor of Interfaces Contemporâneas no Ecossistema Midiático (RIA Editorial, 2020). He worked on the design, visualization and artificial intelligence team on the Convergent Journalism Laboratory project (CNPq/CAPES/FAPESB, 2011-2016); and collaborated with the Spanish project “El Impacto de la Disinformación en el Periodismo: Contenidos, Rutinas Profesionales y Audiencias” (Ref. PID2019-108956RB-I00). During the 2022-2023 course, he is a visiting researcher at the Universidad de Málaga with the DATOUCH project for the development of an accessibility protocol that allows visually impaired people to view data journalism. He has written numerous articles on data journalism, information design, data visualization and accessibility.

Aarhus University, Denmark

Do you want to help tackling societal challenges in an individual fellowship, but from an interdisciplinary perspective, in a collaborative group of researchers? 

'SHAPE - Research Center for Shaping Digital Citizenship' at Aarhus University, Denmark, and the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) are pleased to announce five theme-based fellowships within the thematic scope of SHAPE. The theme of the call is 'Democracy and Digital Citizenship.' A theme-based fellowship is individual, but fellows are expected to work as part of an interdisciplinary group of researchers. The five fellows will work together to address and explore the theme from an interdisciplinary and collaborative perspective. Fellows will have their daily office at AIAS and will become part of the international and interdisciplinary research environments of both SHAPE and AIAS. 

FIVE FELLOWSHIPS

Five fellowships including salary according to academic level are available for talented researchers from all nationalities, research fields and academic seniority. All applicants must hold a PhD. The five theme-based fellows will commence at the same time on 1 September 2023, and fellowships have a duration of 10 months, until 30 June 2024.

HOW TO APPLY?

Know more about each of the 10-month fellowships, the mission and the thematic scope of SHAPE, and the guidelines for application by visiting the webpage below:

AIAS-SHAPE Fellowships - 5 fellowships within 'Democracy and Digital Citizenship': https://aias.au.dk/opportunities-at-aias/aias-shape-fellowships

Application deadline: 1 February 2023.

We are looking forward to hearing from you, and for any questions please feel free to contact helle@aias.au.dk

May 9-10, 2023

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Deadline: January 9, 2023

The Communication & Democracy Section has extended the call for abstracts for next year’s section conference titled Technology in Movement, Movement in Technology to be held at the University of Copenhagen from May 08-10, 2023. The organizers are happy to receive abstracts of 300-500 words, including submissions to the PhD course by January 9, 2023.

All details can be found on the conference website:

https://comm.ku.dk/research/information-technology-and-connections/to-use-or-not-to-use/tim-talks/international-conference-phd-course/

Edited by Chloë Arkenbout and Laurence Scherz

Happy to share the recent publication by the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam (INC). The INC Reader series is derived from the Institute’s conference contributions and ties together many academic and non-academic thinkers dealing with the (political) power of memes beyond virtual images. This collection emphasizes the ability of memes to serve as tactical “weapons” in times of conflict. The multimodal novelty of memes has proven its efficiency in mobilizing people in the Capitol riots, sparking memetic violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and playing a substantial information role in the Ukrainian war. It seems that in times of conflict, memetic warfare becomes more immediate and accessible than real-life demonstrations, and the distinction between the virtual and ‘real life’ no longer applies, or perhaps was never there? 

This collection deals with many of the current instances that were led by memetic responses moving through digital infrastructures, policies, regulations, and bodies. Furthermore, this collection envisions memetic tacticality as a generator of cultural revolution while asking what kind of labor that would require? What kind of tools and principles would we need? And what if the memetic logic of spreading information were applied to spread progressive ideas for a possible future?

Get the full book here (PDF)

BOOK CONTENTS

Preface

Geert Lovink 

Introduction 

Chloë Arkenbout and Laurence Scherz

MEMETIC AMMUNITION

Political Meme Toolkit: Leftist Dutch Meme Makers Share Their Trade Secrets

Chloë Arkenbout

Benevolent Edgelords: Specters of Benjamin and Memetic Ambiguity

Pierre d’Alancaisez 

Semiotics of Care and Violence: Memetization and Necropolitics During the Brazilian 2018 Presidential Elections in the Action #MarielleMultiplica

Isabel Lögfren

SUBVERSIVE MEMES TO THE RESCUE

‘Let’s Go Baby Forklift’: Fandom Governance in China within the Covid-19 76 Crisis

Jamie Wong

Playful Publics on TikTok: The Memetic Israeli-Palestinian War of #Challenge

Tom Divon 

Memes as Schemes: Dissecting the Role of Memes in Mobilizing Mobs 106 and Political Violence

Bhumika Bhattacharyya

Like a Virus

Daniel de Zeeuw, Tommaso Campagna, Eleni Maragkou, Jesper Lust and Carlo De Gaetano

CRITICAL MEME READER II MEMES AND (MENTAL) LABOR

I’m Not Lonely, I Have Memes: The Cognitive (Disembodied) Experience of 140 Depression Memes

Laurence Scherz

EVERY MEME MAKER WE KNOW IS EXHAUSTED

Anahita Neghabat and Caren Miesenberger

Not Like Other #Girlbosses: Gender, Work & the #Gatekeeping of Meme Capital

Christine H. Tran

A WORLD CRITICIZED THROUGH MEMES

Memes in the Gallery: A Party Inside an Image Ecology

Marijn Bril Get in Loser 

We’re Criticizing the Art World: Memes as the New Institutional

Critique Manique Hendricks

The Rise and Fall of Web4U (2033-2063)

Jasmine Erkan and Emma Damiani

Oprah Memes, or Dis-articulations of Affect

Katrin Köppert

Speculate — or Else! Blockchain Memes on Survival in Radical Uncertainty

Inte Gloerich

AT THE END OF THE ROAD, THERE’S MEMES

Memeing Reading // Reading Memeing

Jordi Viader Guerrero

You’ll Never Feel Alone — Thoughts on Relatability

Florian Schlittgen

The Promise of Memes: The Case of Fotonski Torpedo

Mariana Manousopoulou

‘Then We Could Explore Space, Together, Forever’: On Hope and Memes

Savriël Dillingh

Dear all, 

On 21 November, the Digital Futures Commission held a virtual launch of its new essay collection, Education Data Futures. This open access collection offers critical, practical and creative reflections identifying exciting possibilities for the beneficial uses of children’s data as well as tackling the exploitative uses (or misuse) of such data.

Authors from a wide range of disciplines, from academia to regulators, industry to the third sector have contributed to the collection. Some of the topics covered include:

The financial power brokers behind EdTech

Exploring parental trust in relation to data about their family

How children’s data can be shared safely using existing data protection laws

What EdTech can learn from FinTech

Understanding how disabled children can benefit from education data

What data stewardship could offer education

Here are links for:

The full collection of essays

Author biographies

The recording of the launch event

The Digital Futures blog, with reflections upon the event.

The Digital Futures Commission is an exciting research collaboration of unique organisations that works with innovators, policy makers, regulators, academics and civil society to unlock digital innovation in the interests of children and young people.

We focus on three areas: play in a digital world, beneficial uses of education data, and guidance for innovators. Each work stream is informed by the voices of children and underpinned by a research programme and outputs geared toward real world change for children. 

Read more about the Digital Futures Commission’s work in our blog, and sign up to our mailing list to receive updates from us. You can find us on Twitter, or LinkedIn: look for our hashtag, #DigitalFutures. 

For further information, or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

June 29-30, 2023

Brno, Czech Republic

Deadline: January 15, 2023

14th Central and Eastern European Communication and Media Conference

The Department of Media Studies and Journalism at the Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, in cooperation with the ECREA Central and East European Network organizes the 14th Central and Eastern European Communication and Media Conference CEECOM 2023 from 29th – 30th June 2023 in Brno, Czech Republic.

Conference theme

The theme of the 14th Central and Eastern European Com- munication and Media Conference is Threats, Challenges and Opportunities in Changing Central and Eastern European Media Environments.

In recent years the countries in Central and Eastern Euro- pean region, similarly to countries worldwide, face various challenges regarding their media systems. Digitalization has provided the public with diverse choices and more media products than ever before, and media routines and the repertoires of audiences have been changing contin- uously. New information environments in many countries are more fragmented and polarized, followed by growth of divergent alternatives. Legacy media and journalists in many countries in CEE region struggle with declining trust, increasing politization and growing pressure and political interference in the autonomy of the journalists. The rise of illiberal tendencies, populist and radical political actors and populists and radical communication is associated with increased political hostility towards knowledge-pro- ducing elite institutions. In populist discourses, estab- lished professional media are typically labeled as ‘fake news’ or ‘a part of liberal propaganda’, and professional journalists as enemies of people.

Moreover, during last two years the countries in region were hugely affected by two crises – COVID-19 and the Russo-Ukrainian War taking place in the region itself. Therefore, the aim of the 14th Central and Eastern Europe- an Communication and Media Conference CEECOM 2023 is to address the current issues in the region, threats and challenges the countries face and possibly future develop- ment and opportunities. To do so, the specific contexts of individual countries should be addressed with an empha- sis on the comparability to access not only the specifics of the CEE region compared to countries worldwide, but also to access the intra-regional diversity.

The organizers welcome proposals for papers in (but not strictly limited to) the following areas of interest:

• The role of media in contemporary socio-political environment
  
• Media and their role during crisis
  
• Working conditions and safety of journalists
  
• Trust in media and journalists
  
• Political polarization and the role of the media
  
• The role of recipients (in media content creation)
  
• Powerfulness vs. powerlessness of media recipients
  
• Political activism as/and a fan activism
  
• Protest media and mobilization
  
• Populist and radical political communication
• Conspiracies, disinformation and propaganda in CEE region
• Regional and local media in CEE
• The role and recent situation of public service media Media fragmentation and changing patterns of media consumption and usage
• Risks and opportunities of new media usage
• Media representation, inequalities and minorities
• Alternative media and their use
• Contemporary media industries and media market in CEE

Submission and deadline

Proposals for individual papers can be submitted by email to CEECOM2023@fss.muni.cz until 15th December 2022. Paper proposals addressing one of the proposed topics (other topics on CEE issues are also welcomed) should be specified in an abstract no longer than 150 words. Submitted abstracts will be evaluated by the members of the Scientific Committee.

Journal of Digital Social Research, special issue

Deadline (extended): December 23, 2023

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 visual data in research methodologies. Visual data may 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 affiliation (e.g. through memes or profile picture overlays), social cues in political communication (e.g. in the form of GIFs, filters, or emoji), visual activism practices (e.g. culture-jamming, sousveillance video coverage, graphic flesh-witnessing, or video activism), 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), the role of platform affordances in new visual formats and spaces (e.g. short videos on TikTok), (mis)interpretation and differing levels of visual 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, we are looking for methodologically oriented papers on visual politics and/or protest. This may include methodological discussions, new methods or approaches, worked examples or case studies, research on emerging visual digital phenomena, or submissions linking theory to methodology surrounding digital culture, data, or methods. Foci may be based around methods of data collection, analysis, visualisation, theorisation, or other methodological areas.

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

➢ New methodological approaches in visual or multimodal data collection or analysis

➢ Platform- or format-specific mitigations in conducting visual research on politics and

protest

➢ New methodological approaches (including software tools if applicable) for capturing visuality or visual cultures in politics and protest

➢ Discussions of the relevance of technological formats, tools, and infrastructures in visual research

➢ Innovations in embedding visuals or visuality with textual, audio, or sensory materials

➢ Advancements in analysing specific political visual digital practices and/or phenomena

➢ Methodological strategies for interpreting and/or quantifying visual data

➢ Emerging approaches to visualising image or video data

➢ Suggestions or developments in the ethical treatment of visuality in politics, protest, or activism

➢ Epistemological discussions of the role of the visual in politics, protest, or social movements

➢ Advances in collecting, interpreting, and conceptualising social media data

➢ Linking theory to methodology in visual research

We are open to different article structures. However, articles should have clear contributions in the arena of methodological research by outlining or describing new methodological approaches, innovations, strategies, or frameworks. As such, they should draw on methodological scholarship in the wider field.

Submission & key dates

Extended abstracts of 400-500 words excluding reference list (references are optional) are due 15th December 2022 and should be directly to the special issue editors - see email info below. Final articles should be submitted directly via the journal website of the Journal of Digital Social Research (https://www.jdsr.io/) and have a word count of up to 8500 words inclusive of everything (abstracts, reference list, notes).

• 23rd December 2022 (extended): special issue abstract submissions
  
• 15th February 2023: End of abstract selection & communication of results
  
• 15th April 2023: Full papers due
  
• 15th July 2023: End of first review round
  
• 15th October 2023: End of second review round
  
• December 2023: Publication of special issue
  

Further details

This follows on from the ECREA online pre-conference on , which took place on 6th and 7th October 2022 with a keynote by Dr. Jing Zeng (University of Zurich), a series of lightning talks, and a panel discussion with speakers Dr. Stefania Vicari, Dr. Shana MacDonald, & Dr. Jing Zeng. This special issue call follows on from the pre-conference workshop “Visual Politics & Protest - Methodological Challenges” organised by the ECREA Visual Cultures section (see https://visualculturesecrea.wordpress.com/). Submissions to the special issue call are open to everyone. For added context, the programme can still be viewed on the pre-conference website: https://cutt.ly/visual-politics-ecrea, along with a list of references discussed during the conference.

In the case of both questions or submissions, please email us directly on the below indicated email addresses.

Special issue team

Suay Melisa Özkula, University of Trento suaymelisa.ozkula@unitn.it

Hadas Schlussel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem hadas.schlussel@mail.huji.ac.il

Danka Ninković Slavnić, University of Belgrade dninkovic@yahoo.com

Doron Altaratz, The Hadassah Academic College doronal@edu.hac.ac.il

Tom Divon, Hebrew University of Jerusalem zem1987@gmail.com

Flow Volume 29 Special Issue 4

Deadline: Janaury 13, 2023

The viral popularity of BeReal prophesizes the next generation of social media and social sharing platforms. The image-centric sharing platform, launched in 2020 by Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau, promotes itself as a platform for people who hate social media. The platform’s 10 million active users receive a daily notification reminding them it is “time to BeReal” while allowing two minutes to snap their current moment. Already recognized as the “antidote to social media fakery” (Duffy & Gerrard, 2022), BeReal encourages authenticity through the platform’s logic and design while policing users' labor through its emphasis on capturing each post in a single shot. BeReal cultivates a return to simplicity with its minimalist interface and simple user experience flow (Boffone, 2022). In the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns, BeReal promotes a sense of digital collectiveness as users share their pandemic moments and build a digital community. With increased social media fatigue, BeReal promises a platform experience where creative work and posting practices neither center around advertisements nor influencers (McKoy & Scanlan, 2022).     

This special issue of Flow opens a space to discuss this platform. What do BeReal’s unique affordances provide for users? How do they catalyze certain user behaviors and practices over others? How will BeReal shift influencer and creative economies? Is BeReal just another social sharing fad, or will the platform have a more permanent impact on digital platform cultures? As one of the first scholarly forums about BeReal, we welcome scholars to grapple with this emerging critical conversation interrogating BeReal’s role in the following topics and beyond:

• Methodological ethics and concerns for studying BeReal
  
• Telecommunications law and media policy 
  
• The future of advertising on social platforms
  
• BeReal’s user experience
  
• Race, Gender, and BeReal
  
• Cross-cultural and/or transnational analyses of platform use
  
• Influencer economies and platform labor 
  
• Social sharing v. social media 
  
• Behind the scenes of BeReal: authenticity and curation 
  
• Social media fads
  
• Slow social media 
  
• Gamification of social platforms 
  
• Abolitionist and anti-carceral analyses of surveillance on BeReal

To be considered for this issue, please submit a completed column of 1200-1500 words, along with at least three images (.gif or .png) or embeddable audiovisual materials with image sources. Please send your column, media files, sources/citations, and a short bio to Flow’s guest editors, Jess Rauchberg and Tom Divon, at flowjournaleditors@gmail.com by January 13, 2023. This Special Issue will be published at flowjournal.org in early February. 

Flow is a critical forum on media and culture published by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Flow’s mission is to provide a space where scholars and the public can discuss media histories, media studies, and the changing landscape of contemporary media.

References

Boffone, T. (2022, September 29). You gotta be quick when it’s time to BeReal. Retrieved from https://www.popmatters.com/bereal-social-media-gamification. 

Duffy, B.E. & Gerrard, Y. (2022, August 15). BeREal and the doomed quest for online authenticity. Retrieved from  https://www.wired.com/story/bereal-doomed-online-authenticity/. 

McKoy, K. & Scanlan, K. (2022, November 15). Could BeReal be the first successful social media channel to grow without ad support? Retrieved from https://digiday.com/marketing/could-bereal-be-the-first-successful-social-media-channel-to-grow-without-ad-support/.

Deadline: March 17, 2023

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to share the call for nominations for The International Journal of Press/Politics Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award 2023. The award honors internationally oriented books published within the last ten years that advance our theoretical and empirical understanding of the linkages between news media and politics in a globalized world in a significant way. 

You can find the call for nominations at the bottom of this email and on the journal website at https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/HIJ/2023%20IJPP%20book%20award%20announcement-1670345784.pdf.

I would be very grateful if you could consider nominating books (self-nominations are also accepted) and share this call for nominations with anyone you think may be interested in it. The deadline is March 17, 2023. 

Call for Nominations 

The International Journal of Press/Politics Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award 2023

Deadline: 17 March 2023

Nominations are invited for the annual International Journal of Press/Politics Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award, to be sent to committee members no later than March 17, 2023.

Rationale

The International Journal of Press/Politics Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award honors internationally oriented books that advance our theoretical and empirical understanding of the linkages between news media and politics in a globalized world in a significant way. It is given annually by the International Journal of Press/Politics and sponsored by Sage Publications. 

The award committee will judge each nominated book on the following criteria: the extent to which the book contributes to internationally relevant knowledge; the significance of the problems addressed; the strength of the evidence the book relies on; conceptual innovation, clarity of writing; and the book’s ability to link journalism studies, political communication research, and other relevant fields of intellectual and scholarly inquiry.

Eligibility

Books written in English and published within the last ten years will be considered. Monographs as well as edited volumes of exceptional quality and coherence will be considered for the award. Books by current members of the award committee are ineligible and committee members will recuse themselves from discussion of books by members of their own department, works published in series that they edit, and similar circumstances.

Award committee

The award committee consists of Cristian Vaccari (Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics), Frank Esser (chair of the Political Communication Division of ICA), and Annika Sehl (chair of the Journalism Studies Division of ICA). 

Nominations

Nominations including a rationale of no more than 350 words should be emailed to Cristian Vaccari (c.vaccari@lboro.ac.uk by March 17, 2023. Self-nominations are accepted. 

The nomination must specify why the book should receive the award by outlining the importance of the book to the study of media and politics and by identifying its international contribution and relevance. Please include links to or copies of relevant reviews in scholarly journals if applicable. 

Arrangements should be made with the publishers of nominated books for one hard copy or e-book (i.e., the full book in PDF form) to be sent by March 17 to each of the three committee members at the following addresses:

• Cristian Vaccari, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Brockington Building U3.19, Loughborough University, Epinal Way, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, United Kingdom. Email: c.vaccari@lboro.ac.uk. 
  
• Frank Esser, Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Andreas St 15, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland. Email: f.esser@ikmz.uzh.ch
  
• Annika Sehl, Department of Journalism, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Ostenstraße 25, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany. Email: annika.sehl@ku.de 
  

Presentation

The award will be presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association and will be announced on the IJPP website. 

Past winners of the award

2022: Nikki Usher, News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism (Columbia University Press 2021).

2021: Allissa V. Richardson, Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism (Oxford University Press 2020).

2020: Thomas Hanitzsch, Folker Hanusch, Jyotika Ramaprasad, and Arnold S. de Beer (Editors), Worlds of Journalism: Journalistic Cultures Around the Globe (Columbia University Press, 2019).

2019: Maria Repnikova, Media Politics in China: Improvising Power Under Authoritarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

2018: Erik Albæk, Arjen van Dalen, Nael Jebril, and Claes H. de Vreese, Political Journalism in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2014). 

2017: Katrin Voltmer, The Media in Transitional Democracies (Polity Press, 2013).

2016: Andrew Chadwick, The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power(Oxford University Press, 1st edition 2013).

2015: Rodney Benson, Shaping Immigration News (Cambridge University Press, 2014).