REFLECTIONS FROM PRESIDENT PILLE PRUULMAN-VENGERFELDT

What is your favorite memory from your time with ECREA?

There are so many. I love the moments you step at any ECREA conference space and you get the first hugs from people you love and who are brought together because of ECREA.

What contribution has ECREA made to the academic community in Europe and beyond?

ECREA has created a safe haven for media scholars where their research is celebrated and valued. I believe ECREA has created academic spaces that are safe, constructive, supportive and engaged. 

What would you like to see ECREA achieve in the next 10 years?

Find ways in which even more people could be part of the constructive academic community. Lift the value of media and communication research not only as a supporting act, but as the theory-building, social-problem-solving, and creative research area we are. Celebrate the diverse academic journals we have so that publishing in European journals is considered prestigious and relevant to everyone's careers.

If you could describe ECREA in one word, what would it be? 

Community.

If you could give ECREA a birthday present, what would it be? 

Hundreds of institutional members that see and value the ECREA mission for what it is and for the support the community can provide.

But I am also giving this handmade birthday card to celebrate the love, the messiness, the interconnectedness and creative spirit that is ECREA.

MY FAVOURITE ECREA MEMORY

By John Rodgers Rosenbaum, founding member of ECREA and member of its first Executive Board.

 Among many lasting memories of my involvement with ECREA, my favorite is the thrill I felt at the very moment ECCR and ECA joined forces as ECREA. Months before, a joint task force had been delegated to manage the merger process with François Heinderyckx and Nico Carpentier representing ECCR and Pertti Hurme and myself representing ECA. The painstaking and, at the same time, congenial efforts of the task force, along with others, were exceedingly productive, constructive, and prescient. It was a pleasure to work with François, Nico, and Pertti, albeit virtually online for the most part. The merging process was timed to culminate in Amsterdam on November 24 and 25 of 2005 at the first European Communication Conference (ECC). Extraordinary General Assemblies of ECCR and ECA met separately during ECC to vote on the merger. I was confident and optimistic, but I must admit being nervous waiting to hear the tallies. I was relieved and delighted when the responses to the merger were overwhelmingly positive. In the 20 years since its founding, ECREA has become the vibrant, strong, and enduring enterprise we imagined it could become. Congratulations to every officer, member, and volunteer who has made ECREA the learned society of communication scholars it is today. May you have many more years of success. Long live ECREA!

FIRST AFFECT, EMOTION & MEDIA WORKSHOP

Our TWG Affect, Emotion & Media had its first workshop in Copenhagen in 2023, where we — for the first time — met some of the colleagues who are now loyal members of our community. This brought back personal memories reaching back to my first experiences as an emerging scholar with the Communication History Section, especially the 2015 workshop in Venice with many wonderful colleagues and the special guests Elihu and Ruth Katz. This workshop connected me with scholars I am friends with until today. It is great to now build a similar environment in which emerging scholars can meet, share, and grow together with a focus on a topic that connects them in their research. ECREA has always been that place where it is foremost about community and building significant relationships across Europe that often last a whole career and spark outstanding research. Eventually, most of us come back to the conferences and workshops for that reason.

Manuel Menke

INTERVIEW WITH MURAT AKSER, WHO WAS MEMBER OF THE ECREA EXECUTIVE BOARD IN 2016-2021

What is your favorite memory from your time with ECREA?

After the EB board meeting in Prague, the office manager Marketa performed with her band at the underground student cafe of FAMU.

What contribution has ECREA made to the academic community in Europe and beyond?

ECREA Brought early career and established academics together for a common cause this very difficult to achieve and very valuable.

What would you like to see ECREA achieve in the next 10 years?

Incorporate multiple European based journals under the association such as European Journal of Communication.

If you could describe ECREA in one word, what would it be? 

Allyship.

If you could give ECREA a birthday present, what would it be? 

An Association. Building in the middle of Brussels with a permanent paid staff. This building could also have large enough auditorium for hosting section conferences.

Which song do you think best describes ECREA’s spirit? 

Happy Nation from ACE OF BASE.

Check the full interview HERE.

FROM CANOES TO CRUISE SHIPS: RIDING THE WAVES OF MEDIATIZATION

Once a small canoe on the vast ECREA ocean, the Mediatization Section now sails a steadier vessel, reading the currents rather than drifting. As media shifted from analog to AI-generated content, we adjusted our course and kept the ship fit for the voyage. Past crews charted the course from early formulations of mediatization theory to deep mediatization.

Just as we thought we were catching the current, along came AI, especially GenAI. Fortunately, this time we’re not just paddling; we’re steering. As one of the newest management teams (still figuring out which oar goes where), we’ve already learned that toilet breaks at major conferences are a myth; coffee breaks double as pitch meetings; and being “embedded” in the academic ecosystem means fellow section managers might also be your reviewer or an unplanned lunch partner under the big tent. Still, we’re loving the ride, because mediatization isn’t just a subject area; it’s a busy voyage where the compass keeps spinning, the deck rarely empties, and the coffee breaks are short, but the academic waves are endless.

Thank you to everyone who rows with us. We will stay open, critical, and collaborative. Challenges will keep coming, and we will keep moving.

Mediatization Section Management Team

INTERVIEW WITH UWE HASEBRINK, WHO WAS MEMBER OF THE ECREA EXECUTIVE BOARD IN 2004–2012.

What is your favorite memory from your time with ECREA?

I will never forget the three days of the 3rd European Communication Conference in Hamburg with the overarching theme "Transcultural communication and intercultural comparisons". After many months of intense preparations, it was overwhelming to experience the enthusiastic and truly international atmosphere with more than 1,000 participants from more than 50 countries. 

What contribution has ECREA made to the academic community in Europe and beyond?

ECREA helped to strengthen the community of communication researchers in Europe and the research on communication in Europe.

What would you like to see ECREA achieve in the next 10 years?

I hope that ECREA and its members will be able to make their contribution to counteract current trends of nationalism, restrictions of media independence, and societal polarization.

COMMUNICATION AND DEMOCRACY - REFLECTIONS

Nico Carpentier:

In 2005, ECREA was created through a merger of two associations, namely the European Consortium for Communications Research (ECCR) and the European Communication Association (ECA). The two associations agreed (through their merger task force, with François Heinderyckx and myself representing ECCR, and Pertti Hurme and John Rosenbaum for ECA) to keep all sections and networks that had been established before the merger. One of these already existing ECCR sections was the Communication and Democracy Section.

In the first phase, the ECCR Executive Board handpicked all chairs and vice-chairs, with the agreement that chair and vice-chair elections would be held two years after the sections' establishment. In the case of the Communication and Democracy section, Bart Cammaerts was selected as its first chair in January 2005, and after consultation with him, the two vice-chairs, Anu Kantola and Claudia Padovani were appointed by the ECCR Executive Board in May 2005.

ECREA itself was established only a few months later, on 24 November 2005 (by two separate general assembly meetings, of ECCR and ECA), at the start of the first European Communication Conference, in Amsterdam (the Netherlands). At this conference, the Communication and Democracy section also organised its very first panel, which was entitled "Communicating Rights in the EU", chaired by Bart Cammaerts, with Julia Hoffmann, Claudia Padovani, Arjuna Tuzzi, Giorgia Nesti, Arne Hintz as presenters, and Cees Hamelink as respondent. This panel provided a significant part of the chapters of the Section's edited volume, that was published in 2006. This book was entitled "Reclaiming the Media: Communication Rights and Democratic Media Roles", was edited by Bart Cammaerts and myself, and published by Intellect.

All this to say that it is also the 20th anniversary of the Communication and Democracy Section. I am happy to have been part of the Section's first steps, and I'm proud to see that the Section has grown into a great intellectual forum, supported by the hard work of so many colleagues, and dealing with a theme that is more relevant than ever. Congratulations to all that were and are involved!

Bart Cammaerts:

One of the main reasons a Communication and Democracy section was established in the first place, was that the field of political communication at the time (and maybe still today to some extent) was very much focused on formal political processes such as elections, strategic communication by political parties, and public opinion research. As such, there was a real need to have a section which could be the home for other approaches, and research interests beyond the rather narrow field of political communication and include debates regarding communication (rights) and civil society, communication efforts by protest movements and the relationship between communication and more informal political processes.

Anne Kaun:

My involvement in the management team of the section only started at the Istanbul conference. So it is the more recent history I can speak to. In any case, the things I remember most are the off-conference years and the events that we organized in Copenhagen in 2015, in Stockholm in Stockholm in 2017 and just before the pandemic hit in Helsinki in 2019. All calls and conference programmes are still available on the old website: https://communicationanddemocracy.wordpress.com/page/2/

The events also reflect how the field changed over time moving from discussions of political agency towards more explicit technological focused questions of Big Data and digital infrastructures.

Lastly, I would like to emphasize that the collaborations with the YECREA network have been crucial during my time as management team member. The YECREA representatives organized amazing events catering to emerging scholars during my time.

Jeffrey Wimmer:

It was always important for us to actively promote young researchers at conferences, support publications, and to reflect. I remember how we critically (and fruitfully) discussed whether or not to schedule young scholars separately, or whether or not to organize extra panels.

Collaboration with other international and national sections has always been important. I still fondly remember the ECREA symposium that Bart co-organized in London in December 2011 on the mediation of scandal and moral outrage (and I was kind of lost because of the different facets and cooperation partners, which was unusual at this time, nowadays quite current).

We organised a very nice symposium on “(mis)understanding political participation” in October 2013 in Munich. The resonance was quite high because everybody thought it was elated to the annual Oktoberfest in Munich, which just ended few days before. So we went to a typical Bavarian location twice, which was very appreciated. The resulting book was published as part of the ECREA-Routledge cooperation: https://www.routledge.com/MisUnderstanding-Political-Participation-Digital-Practices-New-Forms-of-Participation-and-the-Renewal-of-Democracy/Wimmer-Wallner-Winter-Oelsner/p/book/9780367876647?srsltid=AfmBOorzrf7J9AjxfRnXhNjtJZ6cE41_ZcLtYAH84l_42SgdCTNewaEw

Some personal experience (but shared with Bart and Inaki): Always receiving, handling and evaluating too many abstracts for our conferences)

Emiliano Treré:

My involvement in Communication & Democracy began as a member and later as vice-chair, and for me it has always been about much more than academic work. The section has been a vital home for conversations on media, communication, and activism, but also a space of collegiality, generosity, and community - the kind of spirit that makes you want to be there simply because it feels like a good place to be. Like Anne, my own journey started in Istanbul, a conference I still recall as one of the best blends of intellectual insight and genuine fun! 

It is wonderful to see a new generation now taking the baton and ensuring that the section remains a welcoming and vibrant space. Thanks to all who have built it across the years and continue to carry it forward today.

Giuliana Sorce:

My engagement with the Communication & Democracy section began in 2018, when I first presented at the Lugano conference. Since then, I have found this section to be the ideal intellectual home for my research, offering a vibrant community dedicated to exploring diverse voices, grassroots politics, and democratic narratives. I deeply value the association’s role in fostering European collaboration and nurturing connections among scholars working at the intersection of media, communication, and democracy. Now serving my second term as section chair, I am excited to continue contributing to our shared mission and to see what the future holds for our community.