News

ECREA ECC 2024 will take place in Ljubljana from 24-27 September. Please make sure to book your accommodation in Ljubljana soon as possible as the capacities during the conference dates may be limited.

We have prepared a list of recommended hotels with special conference fees. On the list you can find hotels of different categories, price ranges and locations. The special conference fees expire on different dates, so make sure to book your accommodation soon!

More details about accommodations in Ljubljana are available at: https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/hotels/

We are delighted to announce the website publication showcasing the keynote speakers for the 10th ECREA ECC 2024. Explore the profiles of our keynote speakers.

Vesna Leskošek is Professor at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her research focuses on social inequalities, poverty, welfare state, and gender. Currently, she is involved in projects exploring poverty in old age and the accumulation of deprivation across the life course.  Her most recent publications are a co-authored book entitled Abortion and reproductive rights in Slovenia: A case of resistance (Routledge, 2024).

Jelena Kleut is Associate Professor at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and Chair of ECREA Audience and Reception Studies Section. Her research focuses on the dynamics of audiences and journalism within the realm of new media and illiberal contexts, while intertwining her scholarly work with activism to uphold the principles of free and open society. Among her recent publications is co-edited volume “Media Systems in Balkan Countries: Context and Dynamics of Changes” (Peter Lang, 2023)

For more on their expertise see: https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/meet-the-10th-ecrea-ecc-2024-keynote-speakers/ 

ECREA Election Committee consisting of Ana Jorge and Göran Bolin invites candidacies for members of ECREA Executive Board for the upcoming election period.

The candidacies should include:

1. a brief position statement,
2. a short CV,
3. a statement specifying if you wish to become a candidate for one of the statutory positions (President, Vice-President, Treasurer or General Secretary), and
4. the scan or photograph of passport or identity card.

The deadline for sending your candidacy and all documents is 7 July 2024.
The documents should be sent by email to: info@ecrea.eu.

The candidacies (position statements, CVs and candidacy statements) will be made public by the election committee one month prior the elections at the latest.

The General Elections will take place online from 23 to 26 September 2024, with the results announced during the General Assembly organised at 10th European Communication Conference on 26 September. The new Executive Board will be elected for the period 2024 – 2028.

How do ECREA elections work: Elections of ECREA Executive Board take place in two stages. During the first stage, ECREA members are invited to nominate themselves for Executive Board positions. During the online election, ECREA members (individual members and institutional co-ordinators) elect up to 12 members of ECREA Executive Board.

The elected Executive Board members then organise a vote for positions of the President, the Vice-President, the Treasurer and the General Secretary.

In the second stage, the call for representatives of Sections, Networks and Temporary Working Groups is organised. The candidates come from management teams of Sections, Networks and Temporary Working Groups and are elected by members of respective management teams.

Legal provisions: For detailed information and procedures concerning ECREA elections you can consult Title III and Title IV of ECREA Statutes (https://ecrea.eu/Statutes) and Title I of ECREA Bylaws (https://ecrea.eu/Bylaws). If less than 3 candidacies will be submitted, the Call for ECREA Executive Board Members will be repeated and the election period of the existing Executive Board will be extended by 6 months to organise the elections.

More information: Should you have any questions concerning the Executive Board elections send your inquiries to info@ecrea.eu.

Ana Jorge, ECREA Election Committee member
Göran Bolin, ECREA Election Committee member

If you’re planning to attend ECREA ECC 2024 in Ljubljana from 24-27 September 2024, make sure to register as soon as possible. The early bird registration ends on 27 June 2024. All participants must register via the Online Registration Form.

Due to the high number of submitted abstracts, and to be able to accept as many delegates as possible, registration will only be allowed for presenting authors/ co-authors at the first stage.

If you are interested in attending the conference, but you are not actively involved in the programme please fill in your details in the waiting list here. We will inform you if there are spots available.

More details about the registration process, fees and guidelines are available at: https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/registration-guidelines/.

ECREA is deeply concerned that members of the Philosophy Faculty at Novi Sad University in Serbia have been subject to a variety of threats and intimidation from a number of sources both inside and outside the University with the intention of discouraging the exercise of academic freedom. ECREA calls upon the administrators of the University to be active in defending and promoting the academic freedom of their colleagues and the Serbian authorities to uphold freedom of expression.

Become a part of ECREA core team by becoming the new International Director of the ECREA Media and Communications Summer School.

European Media and Communication Summer School is officially part of the ECREA activities since 2018, but has a long history of voluntary collaboration between European Universities caring about PhD education in the field (https://ecrea.eu/page-18215). The main objective of the Summer School is to provide a strong and supportive learning environment for PhD students, fostering respectful but critical dialogue between students and senior academics. The Summer School aims to provide innovative mutual support for doctoral studies in the field of media and communication and to connect students to activities of the European Communication Research and Education Association and its Sections, Temporary Working Groups and Networks. The Summer School is crucial for the ECREA as it supports the development of an academic culture that values collaboration, networking and belonging.

The International Director upholds the summer school values, supports the organisers, and develops the summer school in collaboration with the local organisers. According to the new statutes (if the General Assembly approves them), the new Summer School director will also be part of the ECREA Governing Body (former Executive Board). There, the International Director reports on the summer school activities and liaisons between the board and the Summer School organisers.

To apply, the candidate is expected to:

1. Send 1-2 page CV demonstrating your experience of supporting PhD students and preferably experience with the ECREA Summer School.
2. Send a short mission statement (up to 500 words) to explain why you would like to be the next International Director.

The call is open for one month (until May 12). The Executive Board decides on their candidate; if need be, interviews with candidates will be organized after the open call is closed. The mandate of the International Director is five years, and their position is approved by the Executive Board as well as the General Assembly. The hand-over process between the Summer School directors will take place at Roskilde, during the ECREA Summer School on 5-10 August (exact time to be determined by people involved).

Questions can be directed to the current director, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt pille.pruulmann.vengerfeldt@mau.se

Candidacy information needs to be sent to info@ecrea.eu by May 12.

 We are excited to announce that the European Journal of Communication has kindly agreed to sponsor a best paper award for early career scholars presenting their research at the ECC in Ljubljana in September 2024. The award carries a financial value of €1,500 and will be presented during the Ljubljana conference. 

Eligibility: 

• The award is open to early career researchers (doctoral candidates and holders of a PhD, up to three years post-graduation). 
• Papers should align with the journal’s comprehensive approach to communication research and theory, embracing all its diversity.  
• Entrants must have their paper accepted for presentation at the ECC and must be members of ECREA. 
• Eligible papers must be either sole-authored or first-authored by the applicant and must not have been previously published in any scholarly journal. 
• Submissions of the same paper to both the EJC Best Paper Award and the EJCS Best Paper Award are not permitted. 

Submission Details: 

• The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 31, at 4 PM CET. 
• All submissions must be full papers and adhere to the submission guidelines of the European Journal of Communication. 
• Entrants are required to submit a short biography (no more than 10 lines) along with their paper. 

Publication Opportunity: 

The winning paper will be considered for publication in European Journal of Communication, following the standard review process. Please note that publication is not guaranteed in advance. 

Submission Process: 

Please email your papers to info@ecrea.eu.

For further inquiries, feel free to contact us at the same email address. 

The award will be judged by a committee comprising of: 

• Peter Golding (Editor of EJC) 
  
• Christina Holtz Bacha 
  
• Félix Ortega 
  
• Irena Reifová
  

 Deadline to apply for ECREA ECC 2024 grants is approching soon. ECREA together with Local organising committee of the ECC 2024 in Ljubljana calls for following grants applications:

- Regional inclusion grants

- Inclusion of Ukraine-based scholars grants

- YECREA Early-career fee waivers and travel grants

- ECREA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) grants

Deadline to apply for any of the grants is 15 April 2024.

Detail information about the grants and how to apply is available at: https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/grants/

 Before this year's 10th ECREA European Communication Conference hosted in Ljubljana from 24-27 September 2024 eight different pre-conferences will take place:

• (Dis)order in academic culture: Finding meaning in a precarious environment
  
• Building a future for journalism: When researchers, students and practitioners pull together
  
• The informational influence of autocracies abroad
  
• Young people and news: Breaking boundaries across Europe
  
• Exploring the dynamics of digital disconnection – Disruption, inequalities, and norms
  
• Digital content creators, platforms and changing cultural institutions
  
• Mapping AI actor constellations in news media and journalism - Critical perspectives on power (im-)balances, limited autonomy, and reconfigured practices
  
• “We are all victims now” – Emotions and affects of victimhood identities in media and mediatised politics and culture
  

The pre-conferences will be held on 22, 23 or 24 September 2024 as seperate events. Important details (links to their websites, dates, location and submission deadlines) about all eight pre-conferences are also available at https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/pre-conferences/.

ECREA will convene the 2024 ordinary General Assembly from 17–21 June. This Assembly will gather in an online space. Links to documents and voting tool will be shared with members when the General Assembly is opened or sooner.

During the Assembly, ECREA members will be asked to approve the Annual Report 2023 as well as the budget for 2024, and also to approve the Ethics code prepared by ECREA Ethics committee.

If you wish to amend the agenda of the General Assembly, please, contact ECREA Administrator at info@ecrea.eu no longer than 17 May 2024 (30 days prior the General Assembly).

WHO CAN VOTE

Following our statutes (see http://www.ecrea.eu/about/statutes), each individual member has one vote, and each coordinator of an institutional member holds five votes. If you are an ECREA member through an institutional membership and you are not the institutional coordinator, you cannot vote but need to communicate with your institutional coordinator. If you do not know who your institutional coordinator is, please ask ECREA’s General Secretary Andra Siibak (generalsecretary@ecrea.eu) and ECREA Administrator (info@ecrea.eu) in cc.