ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

June 4, 2026, 8:30–12:00 (UTC+2)

Cape Town, South Africa (in person) 

We are delighted to announce that registration is officially open for the ICA 2026 pre-conference: https://www.icahdq.org/event/Childrens (deadline, 4 May 2026)

Why attend?

This half-day, workshop-style pre-conference will bring together scholars and practitioners to explore how research can inform policy, regulation and child rights-respecting design in digital environments.

Keynote Speaker – Professor Ann Skelton

University of Pretoria & University of Leiden, Former Chair, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

What to expect:

The programme encompasses an exceptional breadth of scholarship relating to children’s rights, ranging from AI governance, platform power and digital labour to youth activism, digital violence, age-based bans, family mediation, gaming ecosystems and data protection. The conference discussions will be grounded in rich empirical work from across Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia.

Registration Details

Fee: $35

Fee waivers available for students and participants from UN third-tier countries. If this applies to you, please email us to obtain a waiver: info@info@dfc-centre.net

ICA membership or main conference registration not required

About

We invite scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and civil society actors to join us for the preconference to discuss how research can guide policy, regulation, and digital design, and how Global South perspectives can strengthen and reshape international debates within the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and General comment No. 25.

The pre-conference is organised by Digital Futures for Children, a joint research centre at LSE with 5Rights Foundation, in association with the ICA divisions Children, Adolescence and Media and Communication Law and Policy. For further information, visit https://www.digital-futures-for-children.net/events/ica/preconference 

August 17-19, 2026

Vilnius, Lithuania

Deadline: April 20, 2026

The Nordic Network of Intercultural Communication (NIC) Conference 2026 will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, from 17 to 19 August 2026. 

The NIC Conference is an annual interdisciplinary event, held for the 32nd time in 2026. It brings together researchers, teachers, students, and practitioners from the Nordic and Baltic regions and beyond to discuss topics related to intercultural communication. 

The theme of this year’s conference is „Intercultural communication for change“. With this theme, we invite contributions that explore intercultural communication as a process of (ex)change of meanings, understandings, values, and knowledge, and examine its role in contexts of transformation and uncertainty. We particularly welcome work addressing intercultural communication as a response to change, a driver of change, or a means of anticipating, managing, and potentially preventing disruptive forms of change, including crises. We also encourage critical reflection on the relationship between intercultural communication research, practice, and policy, including possible mismatches between them and the ways research can (or should) contribute to changes in individual behaviours, professional practices, education, and public policy.

In addition to contributions addressing the conference theme, we also welcome proposals concerning other aspects of intercultural communication.

We invite submissions from researchers at all career stages, as well as practitioners, across the social sciences and humanities.

The deadline for abstract submissions is 20 April 2026.

For further details, including the full Call for Abstracts, important dates and submission guidelines, please visit the NIC Vilnius 2026 conference site: https://www.nicvilnius2026.kf.vu.lt/

Deadline: April 30, 2026

EBU & JOMEC RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP GRANT

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is partnering with the School of Journalism, Media & Culture at Cardiff University (JOMEC) to offer grants that support research in the EBU Ukraine Archive which opened in November 2025.

Launched by the EBU, the Ukraine Archive is a comprehensive, searchable database on the Russia-Ukraine War since February 2022. It brings together thousands of video and audio reports from EBU-member news teams, as well as verified social media clips. The Archive is a resource for journalists, documentary makers, and researchers. It currently comprises nearly 30,000 items and continues to grow as the war goes on. The EBU Ukraine Archive offers an enhanced and focused content search and, in addition, every item is tagged according to editorial and legal categories designed to document human rights abuses in armed conflict. 

JOMEC will offer three research fellowships of €500 each to current PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers (within three years of a successful PhD viva) working in a relevant field whose research would benefit from access to this vital resource. 

The EBU’s primary objective in supporting this opportunity is to encourage the use of the Archive in research on the Russia-Ukraine war. 

Terms of the fellowship: 

Successful applicants will consult the EBU Ukraine Archive as part of their research related to the Russia-Ukraine war, attribute the EBU if content from the Ukraine Archive is cited, and submit brief feedback to the EBU about the experience of using the archive.

The EBU Ukraine Archive will be accessed remotely. Half of the fellowship award will be paid at the start of the fellowship, the rest at the end. The fellowship program must be completed within two years of receiving the fellowship. 

Selected fellows will enter into a fellowship agreement with the EBU and must adhere to the terms and conditions governing access to and use of the EBU Ukraine Archive.  

Application:

This opportunity is open to current PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers (within three years of a successful PhD viva) working in a relevant field.

To apply, please submit a letter of motivation (500 words), a project outline (500 words) and a short CV (2 sides of A4) by email to EBU-fellowships@cardiff.ac.uk before Thursday 30 April 2026. 

Decisions will be announced in June 2026. 

If you have any questions concerning this fellowship opportunity, please contact EBU-fellowships@cardiff.ac.uk.

September 17-18, 2026

Aarhus, Denmark

Deadline: April 17, 2026

Although research on the manosphere is expanding globally, Anglo-American perspectives remain dominant. Research into the manosphere in the Nordic countries is currently dispersed and somewhat under-researched. The Nordic Manosphere Network aims to change this by creating a collaborative, interdisciplinary space that brings manosphere researchers together to share and create future collaborations. The purpose of the Network is also to reflect on the Nordic specific cultures and societies that situate and influence Nordic manospheres in different ways, e.g. the Nordic welfare states, gender equality, state feminism and other cultural and societal issues that are specific to the region.

We invite submissions engaging with any aspect of the Nordic manosphere, including but not limited to:

• Incel communities
  
• Red-pill narratives
  
• Tradwife discourses
  
• Digital masculinities
  
• Platform dynamics
  
• Manosphere financing and business models
  
• Anti-gender discourse
  
• Overlap with the far-right
  
• Feminist or intersectional approaches to these digital cultures

We especially encourage early-career scholars to contribute. For this, the NMN is able to facilitate limited traveling financial support via application.

Following the symposium, accepted abstracts will be published in a digital booklet, and participants will be invited to join regular online meetings designed to foster collaboration, peer support, and long-term research development. The Network seeks to connect isolated researchers, strengthen Nordic scholarship on gendered digital cultures, and develop regionally grounded frameworks for studying this increasingly influential online phenomenon.

Keynote: Professor Debbie Ging

Debbie Ging is Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities. She teaches and researches on gender, sexuality and digital media, with a focus on digital hate, online anti-feminist men's rights politics, the incel subculture and radicalization of boys and men into male supremacist ideologies. Debbie’s research also addresses youth experiences of gender-based and sexual abuse online and educational interventions to tackle these issues. 

About the Nordic Manosphere Network:

The NMN is a newly established network that aims to bring together individuals researching the Manosphere within a Nordic context, with the goal of facilitating discussions and collaboration across borders and boundaries. Our inaugural symposium will bring together different scholars from the Nordics (and beyond) and unite the different strands of work to better facilitate ongoing work with the Nordic Manosphere.

More information on the call and how to apply here: https://nordicmanospherenetwork.com/

Global Media and China

Deadline: May 20, 2026

We are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for a forthcoming special issue titled “AI, Algorithmic Media, and Digital Governance: Power, Control, and Technological Transformation,” to be published in the journal Global Media and China.

The accelerating integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into digital infrastructures represents a profound transformation in contemporary media environments and governance systems. AI-driven platforms, algorithmic recommendation systems, and automated content moderation increasingly shape how information circulates, how public discourse is structured, and how political authority is exercised across different societies. These developments raise important questions about algorithmic governance, digital sovereignty, media regulation, and the broader political implications of AI-mediated communication.

This special issue seeks to advance interdisciplinary scholarship examining the evolving relationships between AI technologies, media systems, and governance practices. We welcome contributions that critically explore how algorithmic systems influence media production, platform governance, public communication, and political power across diverse institutional and geopolitical contexts.

We invite empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions from scholars working in communication and media studies, political science, digital governance, sociology, science and technology studies, and related disciplines. Submissions may focus on specific national or regional contexts, or adopt comparative and transnational perspectives.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Algorithmic governance, digital statecraft, and political authority
  
• AI-driven propaganda, information manipulation, and computational misinformation
  
• State-led AI governance and digital surveillance regimes
  
• Platform politics and the political economy of algorithmic systems
  
• Public perceptions of AI and the politics of digital rights
  
• AI infrastructures, technological sovereignty, and global asymmetries in digital power
  
• Smart cities, Internet of Things systems, and algorithmic governance in public administration
  

Key dates

• Abstract submission deadline: 20 May 2026
  
• Notification of invitations for full papers: 1 June 2026
  
• Full paper submission deadline: 30 October 2026
  

Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words to the guest editors with the subject line “GMAC Special Issue Submission.”

Guest Editors:

• Dechun Zhang, University of Copenhagen (dezh@hum.ku.dk)
  
• Weiai Xu, University of Massachusetts Amherst (weiaixu@umass.edu)
  
• Han Lin, Soochow University (linhan741@gmail.com)
  

Full details of the Call for Papers can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/GCH/Algorithmic%20Media_CFP-1773117974170.pdf

Digital Journalism (special issue)

Deadline: April 17, 2026

Special Issue Editors: 

• Jonathan Hendrickx, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  
• Jorge Vázquez Herrero, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  
• Cruz Negreira, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  
• Sherwin Chua, PhD, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
  

This special issue aims to bring together cutting-edge research that contributes to a better understanding of the audiovisual turn in digital journalism. Said turn builds on earlier forms of multimedia journalism and digital longform storytelling, and ties in within the previously acknowledged audience, emotional and labour turns in journalism.

We invite scholars to submit empirical and theoretical contributions that critically engage with the notion of the audiovisual turn, including how it has been effectuated and can evolve over time. In addition to diverse quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods study designs, we particularly encourage submissions from the Global South, as well as cross-national comparisons that reflect platform-specific and regional differences. Focus areas may include, but are not limited to:

•  The de-institutionalisation of audiovisual journalism and news production by considering non-journalistic interloper actors, including influencers and content creators.
  
• The infrastructural platform dependency, algorithmic ambiguity and/or the ownership of audiovisual journalism in the platformisation era.
  
• A historical evolution of audiovisual journalism from the formats of traditional media to current platforms, considering both common and differentiating elements in journalistic practice.
  
• The production, contents and reception of audiovisual-centric digital journalism, e.g. shortform, vertical videos and/or audio across news outlets’ proprietary as well as social media platforms.
  
• The epistemology and/or ontology of audiovisual journalism.
  
• The news experience and audience interaction through shortform videos and other audiovisual formats.
  
• The production and publication of AI-generated audiovisual news or news-like content and its disinformation effects in a context of algorithmic curation and consumption.
  

Submission instructions:

Extended abstracts of 500-750 words, not including references, as well as a full list of authors, affiliations, and abbreviated bios for each author. 

Please submit your proposal to this Google Form as one file (PDF) with your names clearly stated on the first page: https://lnkd.in/gNxUZJj7

Full manuscripts, if invited, should be between 7,000-9,000 words.

Timeline:

• Extended abstracts submission deadline: 18:00 CET on April 17, 2026
  
• Notification on submitted abstracts: May 8, 2026
  
•  Article submission deadline: October 30, 2026
  

March 27, 2026, 2 PM (WET)

Online (MS Teams)

Stefan Schweigler (Vienna University)

The webinar will explore the cultural-theoretical, philosophical, aesthetic, historical and political dimensions of intergenerationality—a timely topic at the intersection of media studies, ageing, and communication research.

Stefan Schweigler's interdisciplinary work spans media studies, affect theory, ageing care, gender, queer, disability, and postcolonial studies, offering perspectives from across the arts and humanities on how different generations relate, communicate, and are represented in contemporary media and culture.

In this talk, Stefan Schweigler discusses the 2016 short documentary Papa Weifeng and its relational integration into Chinese media activism.

Organized by the STORYline project (Universidade Lusófona), the webinar is supported, among others, by the  ECREA's Children, Youth and Media section and Temporary Working Group on Aging & Communication.

Registration (free but compulsory): https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=BsyME2tRgU6IEwb9JTG93OSldc9WtDlBv3vbnf3mM25UMU00MjVSRjQyR1lPTjcxMFRCOUcyQVAyNy4u

More information: https://cicant.ulusofona.pt/agenda-news/news-events/4279-storyline-webinar-stefan-schweigler

Anna Bisogno

Purchase here: https://www.carocci.it/prodotto/tv-espansa

Television has not disappeared; it has simply moved and now lives elsewhere: in feeds and in the connections of an audience that scrolls through smartphones and tablets and inhabits digital platforms, where algorithms decide what to watch and storytelling blends with consumption. In this new ecosystem, television hybridizes with the language of social media, fragments into clips, recomposes itself into memes, and expands into digital formats.

As the book highlights, this is an expanded television that interacts with artificial intelligence, builds endless archives, and personalizes tastes and viewing experiences. It forms an archipelago of practices, languages, and devices in which data participate in the creative process, shaping narratives, rhythms, and formats, and redefining the role of authors and the very meaning of writing.

In the Italian context, linear television enters into osmosis with platforms and social media, giving rise to a heterogeneous model in which forms of audience participation are reconfigured and viewing becomes a continuous and shared experience.

Anna Bisogno is an Associate Professor at Universitas Mercatorum, where she teaches Cinema, Radio and Television. Her research interests focus on Television Studies, the history of Italian television, and the narrative intersections between TV, digital platforms and social networks. She is also the author for RaiPlay of the program 30×70. Se dico donna….

Edited by: Ana Jorge and Sofia P. Caldeira

From parenting and pilgrimage to activism and mourning, this book explores how digital connection - and disconnection - shapes the emotional texture of our lives.

Using the concept of ‘affective atmospheres’, the authors examine the feelings that emerge in the interactions between people, platforms and places. Drawing on rich, real-world examples, it explores how digital media infuse our homes, beliefs, rituals and politics with emotion, tension and meaning.

Pre-order here: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/atmospheres-and-digital-media

Or download Open access here: https://www.jstor.org/content/oa_book_edited/jj.32726851

TOC 

Introduction: Atmospheres and Digital Media Dis/connection - Ana Jorge, Sofia Caldeira

Chapter 1: Post-digital parenting: the relational-affective network of the family - Francisca Porfírio, Ana Jorge, Rita Grácio

Chapter 2: Platformised feminisms and social media ambiences - Sofia Caldeira, Ana Jorge, Ana Kubrusly

Chapter 3: Affective temporalities in pilgrimage: anticipation, presence and (pro)longing - Ana Jorge, Filipa Neto, Ana Kubrusly, Edna Santos

Chapter 4: Affective intensities of dis/connection in mourning - Ionara Silva, Ana Jorge, Filipa Neto

Afterword: Reflections on affective atmospheres and felt experience in the mediation of everyday social practices - Peter Lunt

October 7-10, 2026

Toronto, Canada

Deadline: April 30, 2026

Call for abstracts for an open panel at 4S 2026 (7-10 October in Toronto, Canada): Techno-Magical Futures & Histories (Panel #245). 

The panel explores: the historical, material, and socio-cultural dimensions of the relationship between magic and technology; efforts by Silicon Valley to position AI technologies as omniscient, god-like entities with supernatural capabilities; intersections between magic and computation; magic and technoscience; and discussions including techno-magical discourses, sociotechnical imaginaries, material practices, hegemonic order, policy and regulation.

Scholars across various fields and disciplines including communication and media studies are welcome to submit a 250-word abstract. The deadline is 30 April.