ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Deadline for Abstracts: 14 November 2022 

Edited by Alexander R. E. Taylor (University of Exeter), Linda Kopitz (University of Amsterdam), Alexandra Kviat (University of Leicester) and Yiğit Soncul (University of Winchester) 

Overflowing email inboxes. Back-to-back Zoom meetings. Unending data extraction. Constant connectivity. Data-driven productivity measurement. Gruelling gig economy work. The pressure to maintain social media presence. Netflix binging. 

Daily life in digital culture can be exhausting. 

This edited collection takes the theme of ‘digital exhaustion’ as a starting point for critical inquiry into the ever-expanding presence of digital technologies in daily life. We offer ‘exhaustion’ as a broad and versatile conceptual prism for thinking through human-technology relations in the current climate of digital overload.  

Digital exhaustion - along with a range of other related affects and experiences, including digital burnout, Zoom fatigue, information overload and social media overuse – have all emerged as key structures of feeling in the present. With digital technologies entrenching themselves deeper and deeper into our personal and professional lives, the possibilities of ‘disconnection’ and ‘detox’ seem increasingly tempting. At the same time, the need to engage in sustained dialogue about digital futures and the ways that digital technologies are being deployed, embraced and opposed is of pressing importance. This edited collection is responsive to this need. 

We are interested in issues and approaches pertaining to the study of digital exhaustion and welcome contributions from a range of topics, such as:  

• The fatigue arising from back-to-back Zoom calls 
  
• The ‘burnout’ that comes from social media overuse 
  
• Digital labour 
  
• Digital remedies to digital exhaustion 
  
• Digital aesthetics of exhaustion 
  
• Digital detoxing 
  
• The exhaustion of planetary resources generated by digital device manufacture/demand 
  
• Gig economy and app-driven work 
  

Please submit the following by 14 November 2022 for consideration: 

• A 500-word proposed chapter abstract 
  
• A one-page CV 
  
• A 150-word bio (please make sure to include your current position, institutional affiliation and email address) 
  
• One previous writing sample representative of writing style and narrative voice
  

We are looking to balance the disciplines and methods represented in the collection and this will partly inform our selection process. 

Tentative Production Schedule: 

• Please send the above material to a.r.e.taylor@exeter.ac.uk by 14 November 2022   
  
• Authors notified following review – 21 November 2022 
  
• First chapter drafts due (6,000-8,000 words - 10 February 2023 
  
• The deadline for the submission of full contributions will be late Spring 2023 
  

Please send any questions to a.r.e.taylor@exeter.ac.uk 

Ethics International Press is pleased to invite proposals for scholarly books and edited collections. We specialise in publishing for the academic market, so if you are researching and writing in fields broadly related to Ethics or addressing ethical issues, we would be delighted to hear from you. You can download a Book Proposal Form here.

We aim to be broad in scope, inclusive and welcoming of diverse voices and approaches, and to be a friendly and unpretentious place to publish. All proposals are independently reviewed. Please note that we make no charges to publish.

We take a deliberately broad approach to the topic of Ethics. In a sense, ethical questions, considerations and decisions can be said to underpin most, if not all, areas of human endeavour. As examples, we have published books dealing with:

• philosophical issues such as Religion and Faith, Morality, and Decision Making
  
• applied fields, such as Bioethics, Education, Built Environment, Data Science, Legal, Medical, and Business Ethics
  
• explorations in Psychology, Psychiatry, Counselling, and Childhood Studies
  
• current challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Climate Change, Food Security, Poverty, and Technology/AI
  
• discussions in Arts, Humanities and Social Science fields such as History, Society and Culture, Politics, and Literature
  

If in doubt about scope, please ask and we will give you an answer on likely suitability very quickly. 

Additionally, we have a number of 'Open Calls for Chapters' in edited collections including Statistics, Technology and AI, Critical Psychology and Psychiatry, and Socio-Technical Systems. You can see more information on our edited collections here.

We aim to build Ethics International Press into the world’s leading specialist academic publisher in Ethics and related fields. For more information about Ethics International Press, including current and forthcoming titles; our Advisory Board members; and our Notes for Authors, please view our website, at www.ethicspress.com.  

The books we select for publication are aimed at scholarly researchers, teachers, and students, worldwide. We publish in English. Ethics International Press was founded in Cambridge, UK in 1993.

Wednesday, May 24 and Thursday, May 25, 2023

Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Deadline for abstracts: Friday, December 2, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. GMT

With the support of the International Communication Association (ICA) Popular Media & Culture Division and Media Industry Studies Interest Group.

Proposal submission form: https://bit.ly/podcastprecon23

This, the first ever podcast studies ICA preconference, invites scholars to present, discuss and listen to a range of works focusing on podcasting as a cultural, aesthetic, and institutional communicative form. We aim to promote a broad, cross-field understanding of podcasting, one that is shaped by multiple forces and perspectives that go beyond the early notion of the medium as simply an extension of radio, and open the horizon to fruitful exchanges between media history research, sound studies, creative industries, journalism, platform studies, and more.

 Podcasting is a relatively young medium: It has been 20 years since the first audio file was distributed online via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) in 2003. Thanks to software developer Dave Winer’s innovation of media enclosures within RSS feeds, podcasting became an audio distribution form that greatly expanded the utility and popular excitement around Apple’s iPod in the first decade of the 21st century. While podcasting was initially leveraged by broadcast radio networks such as NPR and the BBC to asynchronously retransmit their content online, the key to the medium’s early identity and development was the explosion of amateur content production, thereby opening up the medium to new voices and perspectives, unhindered by the presence of institutional gatekeepers.

 The cultural significance of this medium has since been resonating through various corridors of communication, culture, and everyday life, and is evident in both the exponentially growing popularity of, and the scholarly attention given to, podcasting. As an audio medium, podcasting's familiar cultural anchor is radio. However, from its very inception podcasting has presented a combination of traits that straddle a range of old and new media practices: serialization and syndication (Durrani, Gotkin & Laughlin, 2015; Haugtvedt, 2017), portability and customization (Berry, 2006; Menduni, 2007; Spinelli and Dann, 2019), autonomous scheduling and binge-consumption (Stitcher, 2016), the simultaneous democratization and egalitarianism of cultural production alongside the centralization and industrialization of the field (Sullivan, 2019).

Based on an open architecture of RSS that cultivates a culture of entrepreneurism and aspirational labor (Sullivan, 2018), podcasts allow for new modes and workflows of production (Rime, Francombe & Collins 2022), as well as new styles of delivery and sound aesthetics (Copeland, 2018; Florini, 2015; McHugh, 2016; Salvati, 2015). These coincide with new modes of audience engagement (e.g. Perks & Turner 2018), digital activism (Fox & Ebada, 2022) and para-social relationships (Schlütz, D., & Hedder, 2021; Sharon & John, 2019), that thrive in an era of attention scarcity that privilege sight over hearing (Sterne, 2003), making podcasting a unique site of inquiry in the current social media landscape.

OBJECTIVE

This preconference seeks to bring together researchers and academic practitioners to explore questions such as: How can podcasts and podcasting be theorized? How can the study of podcasting enrich our knowledge of core issues of communication, both conceptually and methodologically? What types of content define the podcasting medium today and what does that signify? How can podcasts mediate complex topics and de-marginalize authentic, diverse voices? How do podcasts change our understanding of notions such as storytelling and narratives? What is the social economy of podcasting? How are major platform providers such as Spotify, SiriusXM, and iHeartMedia shifting the nature of podcast production, distribution, and consumption? What are the relationships between the practice of podcasting and the study of it?

We invite works that may address the wide range of subject areas relevant to the study of podcasts, including but not limited to:

• The state and future of podcast studies: Mapping the history of the field, theorizing what a podcast is, delineating the borders of podcast studies in relation to other media fields.
  
• The political economy of podcasting: Industry power and control; processes of consolidation, professionalization and platformization of podcasting; monetization and datafication of podcast listening; commercial aspects and advertising in podcasts; podcasting in the age of streaming platforms.
  
• Podcasting as a creative industry: The creative labor of podcasting; audience and production studies about podcast shows and communities.
  
• Non-human podcasts: Generative podcasts, robot hosts, and automated transcripts
  
• Podcasts diversities: The inclusive (and exclusive) nature of podcasts; diverse hosts and audiences; podcasting in the Global South; how podcasts amplify diverse perspectives; making podcasts more accessible; and more.
  
• Podcasts as audio archives: Who is in charge of institutional and informal podcast archives? Who are the gatekeepers of podcasts? How do we preserve human speech and sound, and according to which categories?
  
• Podcast studies methods: Analysis of podcast networks; models for studying podcast delivery modes; theorizing para-social relations between host and listener applying sound studies tools to research podcasts.
  
• Podcasts and journalism: Podcasts and the public sphere; long-form audio news
  
• Podcasts forms and new aural cultures: The rise of new audio genres, narrative and storytelling modes.
  
• Podcasts as academic avenues: Podcasting as a form of intellectual and scholarly engagement; peer review of and through podcasts.
  
• Podcasts as acoustic spaces

SUBMISSION AND SELECTION PROCESS

Given the auditory and often conversational nature of podcasting, this preconference welcomes several types of contributions:

Paper presentations (15 minute presentations)

Audio work presentations (15 minute presentations)

The audio work could be your own (completed or work-in-progress), or you might present the work of others (e.g. clips or sections from a published podcast) for listening and discussion.

Theme-centered podcast episode recording

Recording studios will be available to conduct podcast recordings related to podcast studies. Take advantage of this gathering of experts to get them into the studio! Studios can accommodate up to 6 participants including host(s) and include all necessary equipment. Recorded podcast episodes may be included in a special series of The Podcast Studies Podcast and/or you can release the recording as part of your own podcast if you have one. Technical support staff will be on hand to give you a quick overview of how to run the studio and to help if you run into problems.

Leading a roundtable discussion (of ~20 minutes)

In these roundtable sessions, attendees will participate in three 20-minute roundtable discussions. Attendees may choose to move from one table to another at the end of each 20 minute stretch, or may choose to stay at a particular table to continue to engage with the topic at hand. As a roundtable discussion leader, you would determine the specific theme/topic, summarize the context of the topic, and encourage discussion amongst participants at your table.

Workshops (of up to 90 minutes)

Other: something you want to propose that isn't captured in the categories above

For all submission types, the proposal format is a 500-word abstract (not including bibliography) submitted by Friday, December 2, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. GMT, through the preconference proposal form: https://bit.ly/podcastprecon23

Abstracts should include the main idea/argument, a short literature review and/or theoretical perspectives, and an explanation of the work’s contribution. Aiming to broaden the scholarly imagination through the concept and practice of podcasting, we welcome different delivery modes and approaches, including discussions of literature, historical perspectives, empirical works, critical listening, and other creative forms of academic contributions that can fit with one of the submission types.

Decisions on acceptance will be made by Tuesday, January 31, 2023.

In general, authors of accepted abstracts are expected to attend the preconference in person. However, while we are planning to stream the event, we are exploring options for remote presentation, under certain circumstances.

REGISTRATION FEE (TBC)

100 USD / for registered participants: speakers and attendees who are faculty members

50 USD / for students, and speakers and attendees with no employment

Fee includes: participation in the conference, two snack breaks per day and lunch for both days.

The preconference is open to both ICA members and non-members. Note that you may attend this preconference even if you are not attending the main ICA conference.

ORGANIZERS

Lori Beckstead, Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University)

Kim Fox, The American University in Cairo

Nicholas John, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Tzlil Sharon, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

John Sullivan, Muhlenberg College

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any questions regarding this call for participation, feel free to reach out to our committee at podcastprecon23@gmail.com

October 20-21, 2022

The University of Manchester’s campus and online

Contact: vitaly.kazakov@manchester.ac.uk & dmitrijs.andrejevs@manchester.ac.uk

Programme: please find the full programme here: http://man.ac.uk/MVt7hN

Registration: please register your attendance here: https://forms.gle/JvC9RPjiiWUCeU1j6 

The concept of ‘nation projection’ subsumes classic public and cultural diplomacy efforts and ‘soft power’ activities, such as the hosting of sport and entertainment events. The term also refers to state-sponsored campaigns of external influence activities including international broadcasting and covert meddling in the affairs of foreign states. This hybrid symposium will expand on debates and bring together comparative perspectives on how nation projection differs across: 1) sporting, popular culture, and international media events and channels; 2) liberal and illiberal contexts; 3) different kinds of illiberal regimes; and 4) various media formats and technological platforms.

This multifaceted focus is reflected in the two day programme (access the detailed schedule and programme here: http://man.ac.uk/MVt7hN):

Day 1: 20 October

Panel 1: Nation projection through sport: ‘soft power’, ‘sportswashing’, ‘sports diplomacy’

Participants: Paul Michael Brannagan and Seth Joseph Perkin; James Dorsey; Kaixiao Jiang; Adam Dinsmore; and Laeed Zaghlami.

Keynote 1: “Sport and the ‘Illiberal Turn’: Globalization, Soft Power, and International Development”: Richard Giulianotti

Panel 2: Nation projection through sport: Governance, Values, and Sport Diplomacy Participants: Barrie Houlihan; Solomon Ilevbare; Malte Frank; Michael Skey; and Chris Harvey.

Keynote 2: “The Hard Edge of Soft Power: Mega-Events, Geopolitics, and Making Nations Great Again”: Sven Daniel Wolfe

Panel 3: Sporting events’ legacies and audiences

Participants: Tom Fabian; Jiri Zakravsky; Valerio della Sala; James Saunders; and Richard Arnold 

Day 2: 21 October

Panel 4: Nation projection through media: the case of Russia

Participants: Rui Wang; Maxime Audinet; members of the RUSINFORM research project; Maksim Alyukov; Mikhail Batuev; and Anton Shekhovtsov (presentation on Day 1) 

Keynote 3 “Rethinking agency in il(liberal) nation projection: representing, resisting and reconstructing the nation in wartime”:Precious Chatterje-Doody

Keynote 4 “Projecting Russia in a Mediatized World: Recursive Nationhood”: Stephen Hutchings

Panel 5: Nation projection through cultural production and outputs: cross-regime and historical perspectives

Participants: Pınar Özdemir; Peter Rollberg; Kanika Ahuja; Jonathan Ervine; and Marco Biasioli.

We look forward to seeing you in person or online!

Members of the organising committee are grateful to the NWSSDTP, ESRC, and the University of Manchester for their support of this symposium.

May 24, 2023

Toronto (Canada)

Deadline: December 20, 2022

The conference is organized by the Digital Democracies Institute (Simon Fraser University) and York University and will take place in Toronto on May 24, 2023 (one day before the beginning of ICA).

• For this pre-conference, we seek critical explorations of authenticity and authentication as they relate to digital manipulation and digital artifice. 
  
• How is authenticity caught, created, faked, authenticated and managed through digital assemblages? 
  
• How is it both constructed as a felt experience, as well as machinized though automated recognition patterns? 
  
• If authenticity is key to misinformation, then what kind of interventions can we imagine to question, and undermine such articulation? 
  
• What new algorithms of authenticity could we imagine and deploy?
  

We are particularly interested in research that examines the fabrication of digitally mediated authentic experiences, be they non-conscious and habitual, or spectacular and deeply meaningful. We are interested in research that explores how objects and persons come to be seen and experienced as authentic and inauthentic, which includes paying attention to how authenticity – in its affective, emotional, non-conscious and cognitive dimensions – is constructed via technical affordances, media habits, political rhetoric, mass-personal communication, network rhythms, recommendation algorithms and targeted campaigns. Equally, we are interested in work that critically and creatively challenges the articulation of authenticity with misinformation.

We welcome a wide array of methodological approaches – qualitative, quantitative, speculative, creative, participatory, collaborative and others. We are open to different formats of intervention, from traditional papers to research-creation. We also welcome proposals for short workshops (1 hour length), demonstrations and other modes of collaborative inquiries.

A full description of the conference is available here.

Please submit 150-200 words abstract to ICA2023Preconf@gmail.com by December 20, 2022. Notices of acceptance will be sent on 11 January 2023.

Key details and dates:

• Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2023. 9:00 - 17:00
  
• Venue: York University, Toronto
  
• Division affiliation: Communication & Technology Division
  
• Fee: Registration will be free
  
• Call for Abstract deadline: December 20, 2022
  

Organizers: 

• Ganaele Langlois (Communication and Media Studies, York University)
  
• Wendy Chun (Digital Democracies Institute, Simon Fraser University)
  
• Alberto Lusoli (Digital Democracies Institute, Simon Fraser University)
  
• Anthony Burton (School of Communication, Simon Fraser University)
  

Best regards,

Alberto Lusoli

Digital Democracies Institute

Simon Fraser University

June 19-21, 2022

Newcastle University, a University of Sanctuary

Deadline: December 9, 2022

The academic conference will take place between 19-21 June 2023 during UNHCR Refugee week at Newcastle University, a University of Sanctuary. The conference will be in person only, although we will record the keynote presentations. The cultural festival will take place in buildings and sites on campus and at venues around the city of Newcastle, a City of Sanctuary, between 19-25 June, although some exhibitions might extend into the following weeks.  Further details about the cultural festival including a programme of events and activities, will be available nearer the time.

Call for Papers

The experiences of refugees and asylum-seekers remains salient in and for the media as journalists report from one conflict zone to another, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine adding immediacy to the coverage of war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, (re)animating public and political debate about how ‘we’ should respond. At the same time, major crises in regions such as DR Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, South Sudan, Chad, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi and Ethiopia go largely unreported (Wanless et al, 2022). Generations of Palestinians have now grown up in UN-administered refugee camps in the Middle East, around one million Rohingya people from Myanmar are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, and the accelerating climate crisis is leading to the further displacement of millions of people worldwide.  Some scholars suggest that media coverage of war often lacks context or historical perspective, so that discussions about the economic and cultural aspects as well as the wider structural issue of migration, are largely ignored (Fengler et al, 2022). It is scarcely original to suggest that mainstream media outlets play an important role in informing the public about refugees and asylum-seekers – for example, the number of people attempting (and sometimes tragically failing) to enter Britain informally via the English Channel are a regular feature of UK national news – but the way the issue is reported is seen by many commentators as contributing to the rise of hostile populism across Europe and beyond.  However, refugees, asylum-seekers, activists and others interested in calling media to account are not standing passively by, but are increasingly using both legacy and social media platforms and technologies to challenge and contest misinformation and negative and polarising and narratives, not least in order to tell their own stories in their own words. 

For the academic conference, we now welcome abstracts which focus on any aspect of the relationship between refugees, asylum-seekers and the media from a range of contributors including academics, media professionals and media practitioners, especially those with lived experience and/or experience of collaborating with refugee or asylum-seeker communities. We are keen to receive abstracts of work which will be presented in a variety of formats including text, screen and sound-based based forms, as well as multi-media work*.  Topics could range from, but are definitely not limited to:

§   representations in mainstream or social media

§   reporting policy and/or legal responses

§   refugee and asylum-seeking media practices, websites and/or social media accounts

§   refugee and asylum-seeking experiences as sources or subjects of news discourse

§   alternative media and community media representations

§   refugees and asylum-seekers making media

§   citizen journalism and the refugee and asylum-seeking experience

§   participatory media projects with refugees and asylum-seekers

§   practices of journalists and media practitioners with lived experience as refugees   

§   the ethics of reporting

§   refugee and asylum-seeker voices in the public sphere

§   empathy and affect in media discourse

§   journalism education in relation to covering refugees and asylum-seekers

§   collaborative media projects with refugee or asylum-seeker communities

§   refugees, asylum-seekers and the adoption/adaptation of media technologies

Publication opportunity

After the conference, we will be inviting full papers to be submitted for possible inclusion in a special double issue of Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics which will be published in 2024 (issue 2, summer; issue 3, autumn).  

Dates for your diary

§   9 December, 2022 – submission of abstracts/posters (350-500 words)

§   6 February, 2023 - decisions announced

§   20 February, 2023 – registration opens

Posters

PhD students are welcome to submit abstracts but can, as an alternative, submit a research poster.

For further information, please contact Karen Ross and David Baines at: sanctuarysongs2023@newcastle.ac.uk    

*depending on the technical requirements

References 

Fengler, S., Bastian, M., Brinkmann, J., Zappe, A.C., Tatah, V., Andindilile, M., Assefa, E., Chibita, M., Mbaine, A., Obonyo, L. and Quashigah, T. (2022) Covering migration - in Africa and Europe: Results from a comparative analysis of 11 countries. Journalism Practice, 16(1), pp.140-160.

Wanless J., Michou H., Peyre-Costa P., Schembri K., Kårstad I., Olivesi M., Foster E, Toure M., Vu M.,  Taylor J., Skarstein T. (2022) The World’s Most Neglected Displacement Crises 2021. Norwegian Refugee Council. Availableat: NeglectedList2021_ENG_LR.pdf   

Editors: Franziska Oehmer-Pedrazzi, Sabrina Heike Kessler, Edda Humprecht, Katharina Sommer, Laia Castro

Link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-36179-2

The articles in the book are written in English or German.

Abstract:

This open-access handbook identifies and systematizes the status quo of standardized, content-analytic research in communication science and makes it accessible to researchers and students. It addresses topics and research areas in news journalism, fictional content, and communication by professional and lay communicators. The focus is on the central questions and research designs with special attention to the constructs/variables used. In the associated database "Database of Variables for Content Analysis - DOCA" variable descriptions are compiled and made retrievable. The handbook provides the contextual framework for this. Together, they form the basis for the standardization and thus comparability of content analysis studies.

May 23, 2022

Toronto, Canada

The Interpersonal Communication Division of the International Communication Association invites early career scholars to a Research Escalator taking place in the Annual International Communication Association Conference in Toronto (May 2023). The Research Escalator is a great mentorship opportunity for doctoral students and post-docs. You will receive feedback on the paper you submit from senior Interpersonal Communication faculty, who will provide their feedback on a project in development. This feedback can help develop and shape its direction toward a full conference paper or publication. In this way, the Interpersonal Communication Division wants to enhance participation in ICA and warmly encourages early career researchers to submit to the Research Escalator session. This is a low-threshold opportunity for young scholars to attend the ICA conference.

The process has two stages: First, submit your 500-word proposal by email to both Early Career Representative, Dr. Elizabeth Hintz (elizabeth.hintz@uconn.edu) and International Liaison, Dr. Leena Mikkola (leena.mikkola@tuni.fi) by 1 November at 12:00 ICA headquarter time (EDT). Please mention your name, affiliation, and your career stage. Your proposal can focus on one of three options:

• an article manuscript you are currently working on
  
• an extended abstract of your doctoral dissertation
  
• a detailed research plan/dissertation proposal.
  

In the proposal, present the purpose of the paper, main theoretical framework and/or assumptions, and, if applicable, research methods and (preliminary) results.

The submitted proposals will be reviewed by one of the following mentors – to be matched to junior scholars by expertise:

Kathryn Greene – Rutgers University, US 

Jeffrey Hall – University of Kansas, US

Amanda Holmstrom – Michigan State University, US

Pekka Isotalus – Tampere University, Finland

Steven Wilson – University of South Florida, US

Stephen Yoshimura – University of Montana, US

If the proposal is selected for mentorship, the journal scholar submits the most recent version of their paper by 5 April 2023 to the assigned mentor so that they have sufficient time to review the manuscript.

The Research Escalator meeting is a round-table discussion, in which participants and mentors will discuss the papers submitted by the participants, as well as methodological and theoretical issues in communication research. You will also get written personal feedback from your mentor. Your participation will include submitting a paper, giving a short, 2-3 minutes presentation of your work (no slides), and actively engaging in the workshop discussions. You will receive detailed instructions once accepted.

For further information, please contact Elizabeth Hintz (elizabeth.hintz@uconn.edu) or Leena Mikkola (leena.mikkola@tuni.fi).

Medijska istraživanja / Media Research (SPECIAL ISSUE)

Deadline: November 20, 2022

The editors of Medijska istraživanja / Media Research indexed in SCOPUS would like to invite contributions to a special issue: Higher journalism education online – state, challenges, perspectives

Digital age has significantly transformed higher education of journalists from both of its main aspects - academia and profession. New possibilities and opportunities, as well as more demanding challenges conditioned by rapid technology development particularly call for a specific scientific research and regular improvement of the content of study programs, and of the way they are organized and performed. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the traditional perception of journalism education and the educational experience for all main participants of the educational process.

Scientific journal Medijska istraživanja / Media Research helps to improve journalism theory and media research from 1995 by focusing on a range of important subjects, therefore thematising this topic continues the tradition. This special issue aims to present contemporary practice and theoretical thought of higher journalism education in an online environment with the intent of reviewing new trends in that scholarly area, particularly in the European context. The topic is relevant primarily because we passed the turning point where, using different technological solutions, the conventional journalism education was enriched with new teaching methods, tools, and approaches for educational purposes allowing it to adequately answer the media industry demands. Complex issues arising from web-based/online teaching and learning on an academic level of journalism education requires research of conducting professional journalism competencies from at least two main focuses:

1. Distance academic programs that educate journalists

Distance study programs are those performed entirely at a distance, respectively those in which all courses are performed online and those in which the complete teaching and learning process is mediated by ICT (Sener, 2015, Bates 2020). Distance academic programs that educate journalists have existed in some countries, such as the United States, for almost three decades (Castaneda, 2011), while in some areas, such as Southeastern Europe, they are still missing. There is, as well, a particular lack of literature presenting the introduction of such study programs, analysing curriculum, discussing challenges, advantages and disadvantages, as well as comparative research (Vukić and Brautović, 2021). On that trail, we seek for articles on the following topics:

- planning and conducting study programs

- program concepts diversity

- (specific) teaching contents

- (national) case studies

- analysis of curricula and / or syllabuses

- advantages and disadvantages of study programs

- international comparative analyses

- organization of students' practice in media, etc.

2. Conducting e-learning in study programs that educate journalists

The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus required an urgent shift to distance learning at all levels of education and for all the professions around the world, including academic programs that educate journalists, but e-learning in a hybrid form or only remotely was, in some institutions already a well-known academic practice. Similarly, student internships in students' media and in partner media organizations, have moved into a virtual environment. As such teaching experience differs significantly from the classroom experience and from in-person teaching, the transformation was a certain challenge for those who have encountered e-learning for the first time in these circumstances.

Although, there is a range of research topics regarding e-learning which resulted in different insights and conclusions, based on the recent experience of the heads of the higher journalism education institutions in Russian Federation during pandemic (Vartanova and Lukina, 2021), it could be argued that the journalism education in an online environment in the recent years faced numerous issues that can be associated with three key aspects: technological, pedagogical, and communicational. A number of articles illustrates it. For example, Fowler-Watt et al. (2021) present teaching experience of covering COVID-19 crisis within specific pedagogic challenges of the pandemic, such as teaching mobile journalism, reporting of the community and Zoom managing of students' wellbeing during lockdown. Further, Pain, Ahmed and Zahra Khalid (2021) discuss the consequences that the low internet connectivity, and the lack of access to technology brought to journalism education, giving the example of a good practice and remedy in the case of Kashmir, India. Studying the journalism students' distance learning experience at the Lomonosov Moscow State University during restrictive measures Poluekhtova, Vikhrova and Vartanova (2020) found that while effective online education presumes stable communication of all participants in the teaching process and among departments, online learning is not an alternative to the in-person journalism education because the formation of professional identity is hard to acquire at a distance.

Of all the mentioned perspectives from a general or from the emerging pandemic circumstances point of view, we encourage various contributions on the following topics:

- analysis of teaching documentation and curricula and/or syllabuses

- adaptation of teaching contents that are performed in the classroom for e-learning

- e-learning and teaching methods

- lifelong e-learning

- collaborative e-learning systems (Moodle, Merlin, MS Teams, etc.)

- hybrid forms of teaching

- e-learning experiences (teacher/student perspective)

- creativity in e-learning

- conducting student internships at a distance (student media/media organizations), etc.

We are looking for scientific research articles from a wide range of academic contexts and methodologies, and for book reviews of the books published in 2021-2022, and we actively encourage interdisciplinary, comparative and innovative submissions that will contribute to the development of the journalism education research field.

The Editor-in-Chief of Medijska Istraživanja / Media Research is Nada Zgrabljić Rotar and the guest editor of this special issue is Tijana Vukić. All submissions and questions about this call for contributions should be sent to a special issue editor's email: tijana.vukic@unipu.hr.

The special issue will appear in the second half of 2023.

The deadline for submissions is November 20, 2022.

The procedure with the received papers for this special issue is identical to the procedure for regular publication in the journal Medijska istraživanja / Media Research. Submitted articles are subject to double-blind review and only those submissions with two positive reviews will be published. We seek for 8000 words long articles (about 50,000 characters). Detailed description of the journal, the journal style guide and Guidelines for contributors can be found at http://www.mediaresearch.cro.net/en/guidelines-for-contributors/

This special issue is organized as a project collaboration within the three-year (2021-2023) international scientific project Higher Education of Journalists in a Digital Environment (HEJDE). It is an institutional project of the Faculty of Humanities of the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula aimed at the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research of the state, challenges and educational opportunities of the modern academic education of journalists.

October 12, 2022

We want to invite researchers to discuss the past and the future of mediatization research as a broad yet unifying approach. We would like to open up the discussion, inviting senior scholars, including Göran Bolin, Nick Couldry, Kirsten Frandsen, Andreas Hepp, Stig Hjarvard, Knut Lundby, Friedrich Krotz, Carlos A. Scolariand other guests to provide responses, comments, and to discuss and explore the future of mediatization research. Anyone interested can join, a link to the ZOOM event will appear around 10 October on the event website. 

ZOOM LINK: It will soon be available on the site below

EVENT WEBSITE: https://ecrea.eu/event-4756915