ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Women*in AI, Humanities, & Social Sciences (WAIHSS) is a global initiative created by and for women* across the humanities and social sciences whose research focuses on artificial intelligence.

The initiative launched on June 23 and is organised by Nadja Schaetz, Sejin Paik, Anna Schjøtt, and Dieuwertje Luitse. As female scholars we firsthand witness the enduring barriers that limit equal participation in academia and are increasingly concerned about the sweeping cuts to education and scholarship funding that compound them. In response, WAIHSS aims to facilitate community building to counteract these developments by creating a platform and support structure dedicated to female social sciences and humanities scholars researching AI.

Creating space for critical research into AI from a multitude of perspectives is particularly crucial now, as AI development remains male-dominated and academic freedom is increasingly under threat. 

We are launching this fall with an online launch event on September 1, followed by an online dialogue series and our first hybrid event -- a preconference workshop at the Association of Internet Researchers 2026.

Visit our website, www.waihss.com or follow us on LinkedIn, to learn more about the initiative and our upcoming events. Here you can also find out more about how you as an individual scholar or institution can join us in this work and become part of the WAIHSS community.

* WAIHSS uses self-identification as a guiding principle. We honor each person's understanding of their own gender identity. We recognize that gender exists on a spectrum and that the barriers WAIHSS addresses affect people across diverse identities. We welcome all individuals who feel aligned with our mission and community.

Salla-Maaria Laaksonen, Mervi Pantti & Olga Dovbysh

Emerald, 2026

Developing a critical understanding of the environmental responsibility and accountability of digital platforms, Platforms and the Planet focuses on the environmental responsibility of the so-called Big Tech, their digital media platforms and their role in the sustainability transition as a discursive, material, and ethical question.

Bringing together a multidisciplinary group of authors, this edited collection is compelling reading for a wide range of researchers and students both in the fields of media and communication studies, digital sociology, and other fields of critical technology studies and environmental studies.

https://bookstore.emerald.com/platforms-and-the-planet-hb-9781836621737.html

August 26-27, 2026

VU Amsterdam

Organized by the VU Chair for Media and Culture 

About the symposium:

What are the planetary burdens of media technologies? What cultural and aesthetic frameworks shape how nature is depicted on screen?

The international symposium media/environment: Screens and Streams in the Age of Climate Crisis confronts the question of how media both represent and materially transform the natural environment in a warming world.

Prominent speakers from three continents will present the latest research on topics ranging from the materiality of film and the finitude of resources to images of extraction, film archives, the colonial and environmental history of photochemical cinema, media’s role in the environmental transformations of the Great Acceleration, and the ecological footprint of digital screen culture and artificial intelligence.

A roundtable brings together perspectives from the media industry, cultural institutions, and archives on how these sectors are responding to the concrete environmental challenges of media tech.

In collaboration with Rialto VU, the symposium also features a short film program exploring the extractive history of celluloid, food production, and oceanic dead zones.

Are you interested in media studies, environmental humanities, science, technology, history, or the arts? Whether you are a scholar, student, practitioner or simply curious, this symposium invites you to join us in rethinking media’s planetary footprint from the archive to the algorithm, from screen to stream.

Speakers:

Michelle Henning (University of Liverpool):  Photography’s Broken Contract: Environmental Relations and Technological Imaging

Fieke Jansen (University of Amsterdam): Securing the Market: AI, Predicting Hazards, and Managing Vulnerability

Sigrid Kannengießer (University of Münster) Environmental Perspectives on Digital Technologies and AI Infrastructures

Salomé Lopes Coelho (Utrecht University): Ecologies of Extractive Violence Across Non-Fiction Film

Ryo Okubo (Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo): Materiality and Finitude: Munesuke Mita’s Theory of Information and Japanese Media Studies

Michał Pabiś-Orzeszyna (University of Lodz): Intertwining Scopes: Assessing the Environmental Footprint of an AI-Driven Art Project

Elena Past (Wayne State University, Detroit): Fire and the Archive: Climate Change, the Mediterranean, and the Istituto LUCE

Kirsty Sinclair Dootson (University College London): Reverse Engineering Climate Collapse: Or Doing Film History Backwards

Hunter Vaughan (Emerson College, Boston): Sustainable Digitalisation? The Social Threats and Environmental Costs of a Digital Screen Culture

María Vélez-Serna (Independent scholar): Operative Images and Environmental Futures in Extractive Landscapes

Anne-Katrin Weber (University of Lausanne): Entangled Flows: Automobility and Television in Postwar Switzerland 

Wu Chi-Yu (Media artist, Taipei): Does Celluloid Dream of Camphor Forests? Colonial Extraction and the Material Prehistory of the Moving Image

Film Screening:

Stories of Celluloid: Phantom Gaze / Terra Nullius Data (2025, Wu Chi-Yu)

Dead Zones (2023, Suzette Bousema)

Agrilogistics (2021, Gerard Ortin)

Bliss Point (2023, Gerard Ortin)

To join the symposium, please register via https://mediaenv.ehc-amsterdam.nl/.

For questions contact Judith Keilbach, VU Amsterdam, j.i.keilbach@vu.nl

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

3 years (initial contract), starting 1st October 2026. Annual gross salary of between 44,493 and 63,239 Euros, depending on qualifications and experience.

Application deadline: 15th July.

https://job-portal.lmu.de/jobposting/bc6a8769c81b40692c353e8eeab443df8680d1fe0?ref=homepage

The Department of Media and Communication at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München is one of the largest and highest-ranked communication science departments in Germany. The Department invites applications for a PhD candidate to work with Professor Neil Thurman and his team.

This PhD position focuses on media audience measurement, understood as the ongoing, industrialised measurement of media audiences that produces television ratings, newspaper and magazine readership and circulation figures, and estimates of websites’ and apps’ unique users and related metrics.

The candidate will investigate audience measurement as a central infrastructure of modern media systems: a set of practices through which audiences are counted, valued, represented, and made actionable for commercial, regulatory, and research purposes.

The topic can be approached from a range of perspectives, including the economics and organisation of the audience measurement industry; its historical development across the twentieth century; its changing forms in the twenty-first century; and the methodological challenges of measuring audiences across multiple platforms, devices, and services.

The candidate may also explore critical debates surrounding audience commodification, surveillance, transparency, and advertising fraud, as well as the disruption created by streaming services, social media platforms, and other digital intermediaries.

The focus is intentionally broad, allowing the successful applicant to develop an original research project on how audience data are produced, governed, contested, and used in practice by media companies, advertisers, policymakers, and researchers.

Tasks and responsibilities:

• Conduct independent and collaborative research on the above-mentioned topic, including as part of the preparation of a doctoral thesis (either a monograph or a cumulative dissertation)
  
• Contribute to the development of new research projects (external funding/grant proposals)
  
• Teach approximately 2.8 contact hours per week per semester (3.75 SWS). One teaching hour (SWS) equates to 45 minutes of contact time
  
• Contribute to other teaching and administrative activities
  

Qualifications:

• Applicants must hold a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline — such as media and communication, sociology, history, economics, management, law, or public policy — and should have a strong academic interest in audience research, media industries, media history, media policy and regulation, media economics, or related work on quantification, platforms, and metrics
  
• Strong interest in the above mentioned research topic
  
• Fluency in English (written and oral)
  
• Working knowledge of German is an advantage
  

Benefits:

• A funded (75%) PhD position (initially for three years) on the TV-L E13 salary scale
  
• Annual gross salary of between 44,493 and 63,239 Euros, depending on qualifications and experience
  
• A pleasant, collegial work environment in one of Germany’s largest and highest-ranked media and communication departments
  
• A workplace in LMU’s Department of Media and Communications, which occupies a centrally-located building on the edge of Munich’s English Garden park. Munich is an attractive and vibrant city close to the Alps
  
• Close supervision within a collaborative and supportive research environment
  
• The opportunity to pursue a Ph.D
  
• Flexible, family-friendly working model (e. g. Some remote work is possible).
  
• People with disabilities who are equally as qualified as other applicants will receive preferential treatment.
  

How to apply:

Applications should be sent as soon as possible to Prof. Dr. Neil Thurman at <neil.thurman@ifkw.lmu.de>, and at the latest by 15th July 2026.

The following materials (in English only) should be included, as a single PDF:

• Covering letter describing your suitability for the position.
  
• CV including publications (if any).
  
• Academic transcripts and certificates.
  
• Contact details of two referees.
  
• Examples (if any) of academic writing in English (publication(s), BA and/or MA theses).
  

November 18-19, 2026

UKEN, Krakow, Poland

Deadline: October 30, 2026

Online conference organized by the Methodological Forum of Young Media Researchers, Media Research Center, UKEN, Kraków. Participation in the conference is free of charge.

Main topics:

• Media and Digital Competences in Practice
  
• Digital Agency and Participation
  
• Risks: Addictions, Manipulation, Colonization
  
• AI and Technologies in Media Education 4.0
  
• Institutions, Methodology, and Strategies
  

1. Media and Digital Competences in Practice

Introduction:

Contemporary media, functioning as the primary communication infrastructure of late modern societies, require a redefinition of media competence. From a cultural studies perspective, such competence should be understood as a form of symbolic competence that enables individuals to navigate media environments autonomously and to deconstruct media messages. From sociological and political science perspectives, media competence is an instrument of empowerment and a prerequisite for participation in public life. In media studies, it is a set of skills that allows for analyzing the intentionality of media messages, identifying mechanisms of influence, and engaging in conscious content production.

Related topics:

• Critical thinking toward media messages: deconstruction, exposure, “decolonization”
  
• Information verification and fact-checking: towards active reception practices and a “suspicious” reading
  
• From audience to creator: shifting from consumption to creativity and conceptualization of media experiences
  
• Analysis of image, sound, narrative, and media contexts: methods of studying media messages and narratives
  
• Ethics in communication and media: theoretical aspects and actual media practices
  
• Cybersecurity and privacy protection: analysis of educational practices
  
• Digital competences of students, teachers, and parents: systems thinking and lifelong learning
  
• Digital inclusion and reducing media exclusion: projects and implementations
  

2. Digital Agency and Participation

Introduction:

Digital agency should be understood as a form of mediated emancipation, where individuals possess both the technological and cultural capacity to generate meaning and initiate social action. Sociologically, it manifests as performative subjectivity; in cultural studies, as a form of transmedia practice positioning individuals as prosumers (Toffler), co-creators of discourse, and initiators of narratives. From a media studies perspective, this phenomenon signals the erosion of the traditional sender–receiver dichotomy and the consolidation of the user’s status as a social actor and media content producer. Digital participation—understood as engagement in social processes through media—constitutes a key element for developing quality-oriented, civic, and creative education.

Related topics:

• Media agency across generational cohorts: empowerment, autonomy, emancipation
  
• From audience to prosumer: creativity and online civic engagement
  
• Digital participation: engaging students and communities in social action through media
  
• Social campaigns and media initiatives as tools for social, political, and cultural change
  
• Gamification, storytelling, and project-based education
  
• Media labs, educational hackathons, student-led projects
  

3. Risks: Addictions, Manipulation, Colonization

Introduction:

This module focuses on analyzing systemic mechanisms that generate risk in media ecosystems. Digital addiction, communication-related violence, disinformation, and algorithmic profiling are not merely individual phenomena but are embedded within the structural logic of the attention economy. Sociologically, such risks may be interpreted as forms of symbolic violence (Bourdieu); from a cultural studies perspective, as the colonization of imagination and communication practices by dominant technological platforms. In media education, a key challenge is fostering epistemic resilience, enabling individuals to consciously resist algorithmic hegemony while maintaining cognitive and decision-making autonomy. The analysis of media risks should address both the individual level (behavioral mechanisms) and the structural level (regulatory aspects of platform functioning).

Related topics:

• Media addictions (scrolling, binge-watching, doomscrolling) and media affordances: towards interactive and interaction-based research methods
  
• Risky online behaviors (hate speech, cyberbullying, trolling) in the context of network ethnography and cybercultural studies
  
• Disinformation, digital propaganda, fake news: research methods and prevention of online threats
  
• Digital colonization: platform hegemony and technological dependency—quantitative and qualitative research perspectives
  
• Data extraction and the algorithmic economy
  
• Epistemic resistance: how education can support independent knowledge and thinking
  
• Algorithmic manipulation and power asymmetries in media
  

4. AI and Technologies in Media Education 4.0

Introduction:

The integration of artificial intelligence into the production, distribution, and reception of media content transforms the ontology of media. AI functions as a non-normative agent capable of generating meaning and constructing representations of reality, which necessitates expanding media competence to include reflexivity toward tools that automate interpretation. Sociologically, AI reshapes traditional human–technology relations; in cultural studies, it becomes a form of hybrid technological creativity; in media studies, it shifts boundaries between constructing and reproducing messages.

Related topics:

• Artificial intelligence and media production/reception (deepfakes, generative media)
  
• Use of AI in teaching—opportunities and challenges
  
• Algorithmic justice and anti-discrimination education
  
• Decoloniality in AI design (decolonial AI)
  
• Cybersecurity in the context of AI tools
  

5. Institutions, Methodology, and Strategies

Introduction:

This module focuses on the systemic dimension of media education as both a cultural and political-educational project. Institutions—schools, universities, NGOs, research centers—serve as mediators between individuals and media environments. Sociologically, they constitute infrastructures for distributing social competences; in cultural studies, they are spaces for negotiating communication norms and values. From a media studies perspective, the need for methodological pluralism is evident—incorporating both qualitative approaches and digital data analysis. A key challenge lies in translating academic reflection into actionable policy and educational initiatives that support media competence development, certification, and partnerships among academia, education, and media sectors.

Related topics:

• The role of schools, universities, NGOs, and media in Media Education 4.0
  
• Partnership models across educational, social, and media sectors
  
• Strategies for implementing media education (education policies, programs)
  
• Funding for media projects and educational innovation
  
• Methodological pluralism in media research
  
• Research ethics and data protection compliance
  
• Methods of disseminating research findings and scholarly communication
  
• Monitoring, evaluation, and certification of media competences
  

We invite you to submit paper proposals and abstracts via the submission form.

Deadline: 30 October 2026. Participation in the conference is free of charge.

Deadline: September 15, 2026

 Digital Geography and Society

Welfare state geographies are undergoing increasing digitalization and datafication, as digital and data-driven technologies and associated practices are embedded in welfare institutions and shape interactions with citizens. Digital welfare systems are often assumed to provide more convenient and personalized services, flexible working practices, cost-efficiency and in some cases more just decisions. At the same time, they create frictions and contradictions when systems fail to function as intended or enhance biases. We call these digital vulnerabilities.

Guest Editors:

Dr. Desirée Enlund

Department of Thematic Studies, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

Dr. Maria Arnelid

Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences & Department of Thematic Studies, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

Dr. Petter Falk

Department of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden

Dr. Anne Kaun

Department of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden

Dr. Sara Mörtsell

Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Special issue information:

This Special Issue invites contributions that attend to the geographies produced in, through, and of digital vulnerabilities and how these contribute to uneven digital geographies.

Manuscript submission information:

The Digital Geography and Society’s submission system is open for submissions to our special issue titled “Digital Vulnerabilities: Spatial Perspectives on the Datafied Welfare State”.

Interested to contribute to this special issue, then kindly send a maximum 250-word abstract to Dr. Desirée Enlund(desiree.enlund@liu.se) before 15th September 2026.

All submissions deemed suitable to be sent for peer review will be reviewed by at least two independent reviewers. Once your manuscript is accepted, it will go into production and will be simultaneously published in the current regular issue and pulled into the online Special Issue.

Articles from this Special Issue will appear in different regular issues of the journal, though they will be clearly marked and branded as Special Issue articles.

Please see an example here.

Further, kindly ensure to read the Guide for Authors before writing your manuscript. The Guide for Authors and link to submit your manuscript is available on the Journal’s homepage at Digital Geography and Society.

Important dates:

• 15 September 2026: Abstract submission (a maximum 250-word abstract to Dr. Desirée Enlund desiree.enlund@liu.se)
  
• 31 January 2027: Full paper submission 
  
• February – August: Review and revision phase
  
• October 2027: Publication
  

Deadline: September 1, 2026

We invite chapter proposals for the Research Handbook on Communication in China, an edited volume under contract with Edward Elgar Publishing, edited by Dechun Zhang (University of Copenhagen) and Jun Liu (University of Copenhagen).

The handbook aims to provide a comprehensive and state-of-the-art assessment of communication scholarship in and on China. As China plays an increasingly significant role in global politics, economics, technology, and digital governance, understanding communication processes within and beyond China has become more important than ever. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars, the volume seeks to examine, synthesize, and critically reflect on communication in China across political, social, cultural, technological, and international dimensions.

We welcome contributions from communication studies, media studies, political science, sociology, China studies, international relations, science and technology studies, and related fields.

Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):

• Media systems, journalism, and communication governance

• Political communication, propaganda, and censorship

• Digital politics, social media, and public opinion

• Platform capitalism and digital economies

• Digital culture, identity, and social inequalities

• Artificial intelligence, algorithms, and communication technologies

• International communication, public diplomacy, and China's global influence

Submission Guidelines:

• Chapter proposal (300–500 words)

• Short biographical note (100–150 words) for each author

• Submission deadline: 1 September 2026

For submissions and inquiries:

Dechun Zhang: dezh@hum.ku.dk and Jun Liu: liujun@hum.ku.dk

Please find the full Call for Chapters: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15SYAWZ_ZXmIQCbqaacy-x-wd8W9gVmmN/view?usp=sharing.

We would be grateful if you could circulate this call among colleagues and networks who may be interested in contributing.

November 5-6, 2026

Lusofona University, Portugal

Deadline: July 19, 2026

On 5 and 6 November 2026, Lusófona University will host the European conference for the NewsArcade – Seriously Play the News in the Classroom! project (Project Number 101186092).

The event has an open call for papers for various presentation formats until 19 July. A special issue of the International Journal of Games and Social Impact is planned for publication following the event.

https://cicant.ulusofona.pt/agenda-news/news-events/21055-newsarcade-european-conference-2026

Media and Communication

Deadline: October 15, 2026

Academic Editor(s): Berta García-Orosa (University of Santiago de Compostela), Jorge Vázquez-Herrero (University of Santiago de Compostela), and Tomás Dodds (University of Wisconsin – Madison)

• Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 October 2026
  
• Submission of Full Papers: 15-28 February 2027
  
• Publication of the Issue: July/December 2027
  

About the Issue

When discussing the state of mass communication, academic debates oscillate between two simultaneous yet contradictory views: Some have celebrated the democratizing potential of new digital platforms to facilitate citizen discussion and lower barriers to information access; others, however, point to the risks associated with big tech platforms, particularly discursive fragmentation, incivility, and biased algorithmic architectures.

Moreover, traditionally hegemonic actors in the public sphere—the state, political parties, and the media—are experiencing a weakening of their roles, with some of their functions transferring to more volatile, new actors. Additionally, the rapid rise of AI in newsrooms once again places journalism at a turning point.

This thematic issue is structured around two interconnected dimensions: the quality of deliberation in relation to normative models, and the media’s role as mediators of political discourse. The objective is to examine how digital spaces—and increasingly, AI-driven communication environments—reconfigure traditional discussion practices through two main axes: (a) the role of media, digital architectures, and algorithmic systems; and (b) methodological innovation and hybrid intelligence.

We invite submissions related to the following thematic areas, although the list is not exclusive:

• Operationalizing deliberative quality in hybrid media environments and emerging actors in digital public spheres;
  
• The social role of deliberative journalism in the age of AI;
  
• Platform affordances and deliberative design;
  
• Democratic backsliding, disinformation, and resilient public spheres;
  
• Deliberation beyond Western democracies from comparative and global perspectives;
  
• Intelligence methodologies for studying online deliberation and journalism;
  
• AI and the democratic functions of journalism;
  
• Algorithmic curation and information diversity in journalism.
  

Submissions may take various forms, including empirical research or theoretical essays that advance scholarly understanding of deliberation, journalism, and democracy in the age of AI.

Instructions for Authors

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Open Access

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 100 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

Please visit this link to view the latest books available to review in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: Journal - IAMHIST.

If you are interested, please send a message (mentioning the full title of the book and your postal address) to Veronica Johnson (Veronica.Johnson@outlook.ie).  It would help if you could tell us a bit about your own research and expertise and/or why you are interested in reviewing this title. This will allow us to direct the books to the most appropriate reviewers. Please indicate anything that you think would be helpful.