ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Conference Call for Panel proposals

Deadline: January 24, 2022

The ICA 2022 conference theme One World, One Network‽ invites reimagining communication scholarship on globalization and networks. The use of the interrobang glyph - a superposition of the exclamation and question punctuation marks – seeks to simultaneously celebrate and problematize the “one-ness” in the theme.

ECREA will host one panel at ICA 2022 and invites the submission of panel proposals that are focused on timely and innovative topics and are diverse in terms of methodologies, theoretical standpoints and/or nationalities of the presenters. We especially encourage panel proposals which include a European perspective and a comparative research focus. This call for panel proposals is open to ECREA members of all ECREA sections and to all topics.

Please note the following information:

Panel submissions. Panels provide a good forum for the discussion of new approaches, ongoing developments, innovative ideas, and debates in the field. If you plan to submit a panel, please submit the following details: (a) Panel theme or title, (b) a 75-word description of the panel for the conference program, (c) a 400-word rationale, providing justification for the panel and the participating panelists, (d) 300-word (max) abstract of each paper, (e) names of panel participants (usually 4-5 presenters, plus an optional designated respondent), and (f) name of panel chair/organizer. In terms of diversity, we expect a strong panel proposal to (a) include contributions of at least two different countries, (b) feature gender balance, and, ideally, (c) include not more than one contribution from a single faculty, department or school. Panel proposals need to be original and may not have been submitted to ICA before or at the same time. The format of the panel can be in person, virtual (live, not pre-recorded), or hybrid. Accepted panel presentations do not count towards the max. allowed individual paper presentations at the ICA conference.

Registering panelists. All panelists must be ECREA members by the time the conference takes place and agree in advance of submission to participate as panel presenters and to register for the ICA conference. ICA only provides a registration waiver for the panel convener, not for the other panelists.

How to submit?

• Email to: info@ecrea.eu
• Submission deadline is 24 January 2022, 23:59 CET
• In case of questions please contact: Andreas Schuck (a.r.t.schuck@uva.nl)

ECREA-ICA Conference Review Committee:

Andreas Schuck (U Amsterdam, chair)
Christina Holtz-Bacha (U Erlangen-Nürnberg, co-chair)

Irena Reifová (Charles U Prague, co-chair)

March 16, 2022

Lund University, Sweden, Department of Communication and Media

Deadline: December 14, 2021

Organisers: Annette Hill, Hario Satrio Priambodho and Cheryl Fung

Break up, break down, and break away: variations on media and the breaking down of infrastructures, technicalities, texts, contexts and social relations are the basis of this international symposium Media, Breakdown and Recovery. This event explores how we can understand media, culture and society as a site of collapse and repair, and as a place for theoretical and empirical analysis within media, communication and cultural studies.

Breakdown signifies wearing down, collapse, and catastrophe; this meaning of breakdown relates to media technologies and services, representations and themes in factual and fictional genres, or broader issues such as a crisis of democracy, and a thin trust between politicians, the media and publics. The COVID-19 crisis has brought into sharp relief media power and inequalities during the global pandemic. Breakdown also signifies taking apart something to analyse and understand how it works; this meaning of breaking down relates to deconstructing a text and its internal workings and contradictions, or forensically analysing media systems, political economics and power structures. Moments of media breakdown can reveal that which is otherwise hidden. And breakdown can be related to processes of fluidity and renewal, in the breaking down of barriers and divisions.

Originally slated for 2020 on the theme of breakdown, this international symposium returns in live and digital mixed mode to engage in dialogue on media, breakdown and recovery. We invite papers related to the following themes:

• Media and crises of democracy
• Media, COVID-19 and the global pandemic
• Media, civility and incivility
• Media misinformation, bias and fake news
• Media and failure of institutions, infrastructures, and professionals
• Media framing of catastrophe, crisis, and apocalypse
• Media and breaking down genres and narratives
• Media and cultural practices of collapse, repair and reconciliation
• Media, arts and creativity on breakdown, dissolution and resolution
• Media and cultural methods of deconstruction and reconstruction

The research questions include: 1. How can we critically examine media, breakdown and recovery across news, radio and television, film, arts and museums, digital and social media? 2. In what ways can we understand breakdown and repair in our analysis of media and culture? 3. What methods can we apply to the study of media breakdown and recovery? Different disciplinary approaches to research on the theme have developed in a variety of subject areas such as media, communication and cultural studies, political communication, sociology and anthropology, cultural geography, media history, film studies, art and creative practice, and memory studies. The symposium offers opportunities to seek overlaps and connections in pursuing our topic.

Confirmed speakers include Nico Carpentier (Charles University, Czech Republic), Simon Dawes (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France), Christine Geraghty (Glasgow University, UK), Joke Hermes (InHolland University, Netherlands), Annette Hill (Lund University, Sweden), and Peter Lunt (University of Leicester, UK).

Please submit an abstract of 300 words in English by December 14th 2021 to hario.priambodho@kom.lu.se. For further information please consult our website https://www.kom.lu.se/en/research/konferenser-och-natverkstraffar/media-and-breakdown/. There is a registration fee of 850 SEK (90 Euros) that covers food and drink for the day and an evening buffet.

Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS), Bochum, Germany

Are you studying the social, political, economic, media-related or cultural effects of digitalization? Do you want to concentrate exclusively on a project and are interested in interdisciplinary exchange?

The Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum, Germany, supports innovative projects that deal with the social opportunities and challenges of the digital transformation. Experts from academia and practice can apply for Fellowships and Working Groups.

The funding program is open to experts of all career stages, to all disciplines and areas of investigation, as well as to pure research and to projects that are more applied in orientation.

The funding program is continuous. Apply by 31 January 2022 for Fellowships starting from October 2022 and for Working Groups starting from January 2023.

For more information go to: www.cais.nrw/en/callforapplications/.

If you have any questions, please contact esther.laufer@cais.nrw.

University of Salzburg 

GZ A 0155/1-2021

The Department of Communication Studies, is seeking to fill a research and teaching position, in accordance with the Universities Act 2002 (UG) and the Austrian Employee Act (Angestelltengesetz) with a university assistant in accordance with § 26 of the Collective Agreement for Universities (Postdoc position). (Application group B1; the monthly salary for this position is € 3,945.90 gross (14 times per year)).

Starting date: 1 March 2022

Duration of employment: 5 years

Number of hours per week: 40

Responsibilities:

• conduct independent scientific research and teaching at the Division of Public Spheres and Inequalities,
• academic support in research and teaching, and support in research and teaching as well as participation in administrative tasks in the Public Spheres and Inequality division at the department with a focus on the research global communication and international asymmetries;
• independent teaching of 4 semester hours per week;
• experience with qualitative and/ or quantitative methods, possibility to work on habilitation (second book) is provided

Employment requirements:

• completed doctoral studies in communication science or a related field with a recognisable thematic focus
• scientific publications
• sound and differentiated knowledge of theories and methods in communication studies

Desired additional qualifications:

The application must be submitted in electronic form and, in addition to a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae and references, must include the following:

a) Presentation of achievements in science and research

b) Description of experience and activities in teaching (and, if applicable, in the supervision of young academics)

c) Concept for future plans in research and teaching and for the contribution to the internationalisation of the academic profile of the department

d) Considerations on knowledge transfer and science management as well as presentation of social and other competences

e) Good knowledge of German and a 3rd foreign language are advantageous

Desired personal qualities: independence and taking initiative, teamwork and cooperation, reliability, openness, critical skills

For further information please contact hanan.badr@plus.ac.at

How To Apply:

Please send your application, stating the reference number of the job advertisement GZ A 0155/1-2021, via e-mail to bewerbung@plus.ac.at

Application deadline is 22 December 2021

Full German job ad here: https://www.plus.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/A-0155-Postdoc-KoWi.pdf

The Paris Lodron University of Salzburg aims to increase the proportion of women among academic and general university staff, especially in management positions, and therefore expressly invites applications from qualified women. In the case of equal qualifications, women will be given priority.

Persons with disabilities or chronic illnesses who meet the required qualification criteria are expressly encouraged to apply. Information is available at +43/662/8044-2462 and at disability@plus.ac.at.

Unfortunately, travel and accommodation expenses incurred during the admission procedure cannot be reimbursed.

Admissions are made in accordance with the provisions of the Universities Act 2002 (UG) and the Austrian Employee Act.

GZ A 0156/1-2021

The Department of Communication Studies is seeking to fill a research and teaching position in accordance with the Universities Act 2002 (UG) and the Austrian Employee Act (Angestelltengesetz) with a university assistant in accordance with § 26 of the Collective Agreement for Universities (PhD Position). (Application group B1; the minimum monthly salary for this position is € 2,228.60 gross (14 times per year) and may be increased on the basis of the provisions of the collective agreement by taking into account previous experience relevant to the job).

Starting date: 1 March 2022

Duration of employment: 4 years

Hours per week: 30, working hours determined by agreement

Responsibilities:

• academic support in research and teaching in the Public Spheres and Inequality division of the department as well as administrative tasks;
• independent research activities, including the writing and publication of a dissertation
• from the third year of employment onwards, independent teaching for two hours per week; cooperation in the department's research projects is expected

Employment requirements: completed diploma or master's degree in Communication Studies or a related subject with a recognisable thematic reference; commencement of the relevant doctoral studies at the University of Salzburg.

Desired additional qualifications: experience with qualitative and/or quantitative social science research methods; interest in interdisciplinary research; good knowledge of communication and media theories as well as critical theories, with a focus on media, (post)migration and participation; very good spoken and written language skills in English and German, knowledge of a 3rd foreign language is an advantage; experience in academic work is also an advantage as well as editorial experience, e.g., in content management systems or PR.

Desired personal skills: teamwork, cooperation, reliability, taking initiative, openness, critical skills

For further information write to hanan.badr@plus.ac.at

Please send your application, stating the reference number of the job advertisement GZ A 0156/1-2021, via e-mail to bewerbung@plus.ac.at

Application deadline is 22 December 2021

Full German job ad here: https://www.plus.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/A-0156-Diss-KoWi.pdf

The Paris Lodron University of Salzburg aims to increase the proportion of women among academic and general university staff, especially in management positions, and therefore expressly invites applications from qualified women. In the case of equal qualifications, women will be given priority.

Persons with disabilities or chronic illnesses who meet the required qualification criteria are expressly encouraged to apply. Information is available at +43/662/8044-2462 and at disability@plus.ac.at.

Unfortunately, travel and accommodation expenses incurred during the admission procedure cannot be reimbursed.

Admissions are made in accordance with the provisions of the Universities Act 2002 (UG) and the Austrian Employee Act.

December 9

I am pleased to invite you to the next in the series of IPRA Thought Leadership webinars. The webinar Science based reputation management: insight, influence and persuasion will be presented by Ashwani Singla, founding managing partner at Astrum, India on Thursday 9 December 2021 at 12.00 GMT/UCT (unadjusted).

What is the webinar content?

The webinar will explore science-based reputation management considering aspects of insight, influence and persuasion. Drawing on examples from Asia we will consider the five aspects of reputation management which are:

• Discover and define the persuadables
• Discover and define the drivers of opinion
• Define and develop sources of influence and information
• Define and develop your Big Picture Story
• Deliver your communication by being holistic yet focused.
• The webinar will be followed by an interactive Q&A session.

How to join

Register here at Airmeet.

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 Ashwani Singla

Ashwani Singla is the founding managing partner of Astrum, India’s first specialist reputation management advisory that uses science to understand and shape public opinion. In his two decades of experience, he has been a trusted advisor and strategist for both c-suite executives and political leaders. He has advised Indian and multinational corporations across a range of sectors. He has been an election campaign strategist and pollster for national and regional political parties and has been involved in election campaigns for close to a decade, including the defining 2014 campaign of India’s BJP. Prior to founding Astrum, Ashwani was the CEO of Genesis Burson-Marsteller and Asia MD of Penn Schoen Berland. He is also the founder executive director of Impact Research & Measurement.

Contact

International Public Relations Association Secretariat

United Kingdom

secgen@ipra.orgTelephone +44 1634 818308

Special issue of Communication, Culture and Critique (Vol. 16, No. 1, March 2023)

Abstracts due December 15, 2021

Editors: Bo Ruberg (University of California, Irvine) and Whit Pow (New York University)

Contribution length: 6,000 to 7,000 words, inclusive of all notes and references

Trans studies and game studies—the academic study of video games, analog games, and play—have many productive points of resonance. Transgender people have long made and played games, despite the misconception that trans inclusion is a recent addition to the medium. Trans representation in games has had its own long-standing yet rocky history, while trans players themselves have for years used game spaces for their own radical purposes: exploring gender identity and alternate modes of embodiment in ludic and often digital spaces. Even in the face of transphobia, trans designers, programmers, artists, and fans have worked to trans games themselves: repurposing games and reimagining them in ways that resist and refuse the dominant cis-normativity of games culture. These are only some of the myriad ways that trans issues have come to intertwine with games.

The intersection of trans experience and games is not yet as codified an area of study as queer game studies, which allows for a great deal of potential and possibility as work on the intersection of trans lives and games continues to grow. We take this special issue as an opportunity to turn toward community imaginings of the past, present, and future of trans game studies. While an imagined trans game studies has much to draw from the established sub-field of queer game studies, trans game studies (like trans studies more broadly) must be understood as distinct from the study of queerness. Addressing trans experiences and trans lives in games may necessitate its own set of approaches, methodologies, theories, and archives. It may also raise its own array of rich new perspectives and productive contradictions between this widely influential media form and the realities of trans life.

This special issue of Communication, Culture & Critique calls for the envisioning of—and a critical self-reflection on—a trans game studies. We understand this issue to be exploratory in spirit, driven by an interest in speculative futures, reimagined histories, and alternate presents. What is trans game studies? What has it been, what is it now, and what would we like to see it become? We are particularly interested in contributions from authors who themselves identify as part of trans (game) communities—as well as those who are similarly invested in the importance of positioning trans life, and Black and Indigenous trans lives and trans lives of color, as inseparable from the study and the design of games and computational media.

With this special issue, we aim to explore the following questions:

- What is trans game design and/or what are trans games? How might trans perspectives shift the creation of games, their temporalities and spaces, or the politics of their labor and design?

- What is the place of trans people or trans issues in video game history? What might it mean to re-tell the history of games through trans perspectives or trans lives, or to use trans game studies to question existing modes of writing and thinking about history?

- What is the relationship between trans studies and game studies? What might it mean to trans the field of game studies or to bring a focus on games and play to the field of trans studies?

Building from these questions, potential article topics may include but are not limited to:

- Games (digital or analog) with trans representational content

- Games interpreted through trans lenses

- Trans game creators and/or design

- Trans lives in game history and/or trans approaches to game history

- Perspectives, experiences, and politics of Black and Indigenous trans people and trans people of color and games

- Trans embodiment in or through games

- Digital trans aesthetics in games

- Tensions between the representational and the deliberately non-representational and their relation to trans life and experience (e.g. the glitch, the pixelated, or the deliberately opaque)

- Trans issues in game culture

- Experiences of trans players

- Trans video game live streamers

- Trans game fandoms

- The place of trans topics within game studies and vice versa

- The relationship between trans game studies and queer game studies

Submission Instructions:

Please submit an abstract of approximately 500 words, not inclusive of references, to the special issue editors Bo Ruberg (bruberg@uci.edu) and Whit Pow (wpow@nyu.edu) by December 15, 2021.

No payment is required from authors.

Based on the relevance and strength of the proposed work, the special issue editors will choose a selection of the submitted abstracts and invite their authors to submit full drafts of their articles for peer review. Because all articles undergo a full anonymous peer review process, an invitation from the editors to submit does not guarantee acceptance in the issue. Notifications regarding abstract selection will be sent out by January 15, 2022. For those authors invited to submit, full articles will be due May 1, 2022. These will be submitted directly to Communication, Culture, and Critique via ScholarOne (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cccr)

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the co-editors, Bo Ruberg (bruberg@uci.edu) and Whit Pow (wpow@nyu.edu).

Special Issue Editors:

Bo Ruberg, Ph.D. (they/them) is an associate professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. They are the author of The Queer Games Avant-Garde: How LGBTQ Game Makers Are Reimagining the Medium of Video Games (Duke University Press, 2020) and Video Games Have Always Been Queer (New York University Press, 2019) as well as the co-editor of Queer Game Studies (University of Minnesota Press, 2017).

Whit Pow, Ph.D. (they/them) is an assistant professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Their work has been published in Feminist Media Histories, ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories, JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, and The Velvet Light Trap.

MARIA BAKARDJIEVA; STINA BENGTSSON; GÖRAN BOLIN AND KJELL ENGELBREKT

Based on an extended empirical research project, this book advances the theoretical, normative and practical understanding of civil society under the conditions of digital mediatization and in relation to a set of particular historical and geopolitical circumstances.

Digital Media and the Dynamics of Civil Society adds to existing knowledge of the democratizing role of digital media in communication studies by carefully tracing the trajectory of the emergent communicative and representational practices of civil society in a pair of new European democracies – Estonia and Bulgaria – facing distinctive socio-cultural and political challenges. The book combines macro and micro perspectives to illuminate the activities of civic activist and civil society organizations in the new media environment taking into account the social and cultural developments characteristic of each country. Have digital media contributed to the constitution of a new public space fostering the vitality and democratic potency of civil society in countries where it has suffered historical obstacles?

The book addresses this question by traversing the whole range between personal, group and societal beliefs, lived experiences and actions unfolding in a concrete region at a time when civic activists around the world are grappling to understand and harness the powers of digital communication.

Purchase here: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786616401/Digital-Media-and-the-Dynamics-of-Civil-Society-Retooling-Citizenship-in-New-EU-Democracies

My name is Mirela Polic, I am working as Marketing Manager at Xiaomi for Croatia&Slovenia and I am currently at the stage of finishing my PhD research. The aim of the research is to explore heuristics (cognitive bias) as the new communication pattern. In addition to that, I am reporter for EUPRERA's project Women in Public Relations for Croatian market, hence my intention is not only explore new communication patterns but also to explore the differences between male and female communication as well as to compare Croatian sample with international sample. 

Questionnaire (completely anonymous): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ch9EXzJFNe0PXg1Wv0HnMNaD0mr3AJMN8nl-8RRZwAo/edit?usp=sharing_eip_m&ts=611623d0&urp=gmail_link

Profesional de la información (Scopus Q1, WoS Q3)

Deadline: March 10, 2022

Coordinated by Luis Miguel Pedrero Esteban and Teresa Piñeiro Otero

Publication date: September-October 2022

Manuscript submission deadline: March 10th, 2022

http://www.profesionaldelainformacion.com/notas/cfp-digital-audio-communication/

In the first months of 2021, the live social audio app Clubhouse became a fulgurating global phenomenon. Their success revived the orality relevance in the age of convergence (Jenkins, 2006), and promoted significant changes in other social platforms.

Despite losing its original popularity, it has made a great impact on an increasingly sonorous communicative ecosystem. The popularization of podcasts and audiobooks; the multiplication of sound streaming platforms; the interconnection between audio devices; and the consolidation of voice as a digital connection interface in smart assistants and speakers, have positioned the sound as one of the main trends in communication.

The diversification of formats and devices, and the confluence between media and screens, have created new sound species that provide more interactive and immersive experiences. This evolution from sound to sound-media requires a reconceptualization of profiles, practices, and professional work routines in this communicative ecosystem. At the meantime, the diversification of devices, platforms and formats has generated new relations between socialization and individualization of listening, between large audiences and hyper-segmentation.

Podcasts such as ‘Serial’ (This American Life, 2014-2018) in the United States or ‘El gran apagón’ (Podium Podcast, 2016-2018) in Spain reveal that exits a captive audience for sound stories, but also a social audience with an interest in interacting around those contents. Meanwhile, smartphones, tablets and wearables have promoted the emergence of personal soundscapes that are redefining our experience of space.

The interaction between socialization and individualization of listening has grown in strength during Covid-19 pandemic; mobility restrictions have been a boost for online audio: while radio has reaffirmed its role as an information and entertainment medium, other contents such as podcasts and audiobooks have experienced a great expansion even as a cultural product. The health crisis has also underlined the urgency of defining new business models for audio media.

This monograph invites the submission of research papers of analytical, theoretical, methodological or review nature, preferably of international scope, around the following axes and lines of research:

• Evolution of radio. Adaptation of listening habits, devices, channels, and distribution systems. Interactions between online and offline broadcasting. New formats and contents. Integration of artificial intelligence and other technologies in the radio production and broadcasting process.
• Podcasting. Products, genres, and formats. Creative and expressive innovations. Podcast platforms: effects on production, distribution, prescription, and personalization. The podcast as DiY media. Podcast and slow journalism.
• Sound platforms and music streaming. Editorial and commercial models. Curation using algorithms. Impact on the generation and modification of tastes and trends.

• Business models. Sound contents as part of online broadcasting and monetization strategies. Influencers in/of sound communication.
• Online radio and audio consumption trends. Audiences and participation.
• The production context. Transformations in professional routines. New professional profiles. Access and self-mediation of social groups.
• Innovative contents. Experiences in the convergence of contents, formats, and genres. Segmentation and hyper-specialization. Fiction. Documentary. Daily. Online audio as origin and expansion of transmedia universes.

• Immersive sound experiences. Alternate reality games with sound base. Audio games. Mobile urban drama.
• Audiobooks. Synthetic voices and content accessibility.Audio branding. Branded podcasts. Audio branded content. Corporate radios.

Manuscript submission

If you wish to submit an article, please read carefully the journal’s acceptance criteria and rules for authors:

http://www.profesionaldelainformacion.com/authors.html

And then send us your article through the OJS journal manager on:

https://revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/EPI/submissions

IMPORTANT FOR AUTHORS

If you are not yet registered as an author, do so here:

https://revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/EPI/user/register

Evaluation

All articles published in EPI are double blind peer reviewed by 2 or more members of the international Scientific Committee of the journal, and other reviewers, always external to the Editorial Board. The journal undertakes to reply with the review results.

There are many calls for more education on digital media and data in all areas of education. But which topics are already covered by teachers, lecturers and trainers? Which methods and resources do they use? What works well, what resources are needed? This survey addresses educators from all educational sectors (incl. HE) who are interested in teaching about digital technologies, data security, (big) data and/or datafication.

The survey is conducted by Ina Sander, Data Justice Lab, Cardiff University. Answer are collected entirely anonymously. The survey takes 15-20 minutes and is available in English and German: https://www.soscisurvey.de/educator-survey/