ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

ZeMKI Bremen

The ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Studies at the University of Bremen, Germany, is offering two Phd-Posts with the following profiles:

A 162/21

three-year doctoral position – under the condition of job release – in the Lab "Audio-visual Media and Historiography", which will be co-supervised by the Lab "Communication History and Media Change" as soon as possible:

Doctoral student (f/m/d)

Remuneration group 13 TV-L

with 50% of the regular working time

for a period of three years

in the field of "Dictatorship and Unequal Memory in Digital Society: Historical Images in Feature Films and their Communicative Appropriation Using the Example of the Last Argentine Military Dictatorship (1976-1983)".

The time limitation is based on § 2 (1) WissZeitVG (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz, i.e. temporary science employment act). Therefore, candidates may only be considered who dispose of the respective scope of qualification periods according to § 2 (1) WissZeitVG.

The doctoral student (f/m/d) will work on the above-mentioned topic with the lab leaders Prof. Dr. Delia González de Reufels and Prof. Dr. Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz. The aim is to write a qualification thesis and to work on the project of the ZeMKI research focus "Audiovisual Cultures and Communicative Appropriations of Historical Images: New Inequalities in Digital Society".

Tasks:

A) The interdisciplinary study of images of history and traumatic historical experience in contemporary Argentine feature films and their social discussion, taking into account the disciplines of history as well as communication and media studies and the highlighted importance of social media for current media practice in everyday life.

B) Writing a dissertation with a focus on one of the research areas of the participating labs on the topic of "Dictatorship and Unequal Memory in Digital Society: Images of History in Feature Films and Their Communicative Appropriation Using the Example of the Last Argentine Military Dictatorship (1976-1983)".

C) Conducting courses amounting to 2 SCH (semester contact hours per week) in the degree programmes of Communication and Media Studies as well as participation in the conduct of examinations in the degree programmes supported by the ZeMKI.

Objectives:

- Testing new methodological approaches for combining historical research on contemporary feature films on the traumatic history of the last Argentinean military dictatorship with subject-centred and actor-based media research.

- Participation in the further development of the research profile of the ZeMKI through collaboration in the aforementioned research focus "Audiovisual Cultures and Communicative Appropriations of Images of History: New Inequalities in the Digital Society".

Recruitment requirements:

- Above-average Master's degree in history and communication and/or media studies or comparable degrees that indicate an aptitude for working on a doctorate in the aforementioned field.

- Knowledge of historical analysis as well as social-empirical qualitative methods and/or the willingness to develop this knowledge further.

- Knowledge in the field of Latin American history and knowledge of the Spanish language at level B 2.2 (Common European reference framework for languages).

- Interdisciplinary research interest or interest in the scientific analysis of audiovisual cultures and communicative appropriations of historical images as well as in the topic of inequality in the digital society.

- Experience in the field of social media data analysis is desirable.

- Enjoy organisational tasks and working in a team

The University of Bremen is committed to increasing the proportion of women in academia and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. Severely disabled applicants will be given priority if they have essentially the same professional and personal qualifications. Applications from people with a migration background are welcome.

Questions should be addressed to Prof. Dr. Delia González de Reufels at dgr@uni-bremen.de or to Prof. Dr. Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz at stefanie.averbeck.lietz@uni-bremen.de.

Application

Applications should include the following documents:

- A two-page letter of motivation: On the first page, please outline your interests in terms of content and methodology and explain how your work will contribute to the research focus "Audiovisual Cultures and Communicative Appropriations of Historical Images: New Inequalities in Digital Society".

- Curriculum vitae with the usual information about your career.

- A copy of your certificates (university entrance qualification, degrees).

- A writing sample (a research paper, publication or your Master's thesis).

- The names of two reviewers who will be able to comment on your previous work and your suitability for participation in the project.

Please send your application, quoting the reference number A162/21, by September 9th, 2021 to

Universität Bremen

Prof. Dr. Delia González de Reufels

Bibliothekstr. 1

28359 Bremen

or as PDF by e-mail (single file to): bewerbungen-zemki@uni-bremen.de

Further information:

Lab "Audio-visual Media and Historiography"

The Lab researches AV media - especially film and television - as historical sources or documents of the history of modernity. It focuses on the role of these media for the memory and construction of historical processes and looks at films of all kinds, sound recordings and of photographs, which are to be systematically lifted and made accessible for historical research. The approaches and theoretical approaches developed by historians for text sources can only be transferred to audio-visual sources to a limited extent, which results in a methodological problem for historians that the Lab would like to help solve. One focus is therefore on the discussion of methods, another on exploring the significance of audio-visual media, such as films and images, for historical research. It is currently concentrating on the fields of Latin American population and development policy after 1945 as well as coming to terms with and overcoming the Latin American military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s.

Lab "Communication History and Media Change

The Lab sees itself as an inter/transdisciplinary platform for research in the history of media and communication: The change in social communication, media dispositives and appropriations are researched and described from different perspectives and with a variety of methods and sources. The subject of research on mediatisation in the history of communication is in particular the emergence and development of the various media and their interplay with each other, the history of communication and the social change of the public sphere, also from the perspective of communication and media ethics as well as in inter/transnational comparison. The study of communication and media change is linked with the history of ideas on communication, media and the public sphere, or the history of the subject and theory of newspaper, journalism and communication studies. Also relevant is methodological research on the history of communication and media, e.g. on (qualitative) content analysis, historical document analysis and digital methods.

Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research

The Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) is one of nine central academic institutions at the University of Bremen and is one of the most important European institutions for research into questions of media and communication change at the interface of cultural and social sciences on the one hand and technical sciences on the other. A special focus of the research is the emerging digital society with regard to existing inequalities, both in terms of historical questions of their genesis and current challenges of algorithms, automation and data. The ZeMKI carries the research focus "Audiovisual Cultures and Communicative Appropriations of Historical Images: New Inequalities in Digital Society".

A163/21

The Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) at the University of Bremen offers – under the condition of job release – a three-year doctoral position to be based in the Lab "Media and Religion" and co-supervised by the Lab "Film, Media Art and Popular Culture as soon as possible:

Doctoral student (f/m/d)

Remuneration group 13 TV-L

with 50% of the regular working time

for a period of three years

in the field of "Colonialism in Video Gaming: Audiovisual Histospheres and Communicative Appropriations of Historical Images as Processes of Othering".

The employment relationship is fixed-term and serves to attain academic advancement as regulated by the act on academic fixed-term contracts, §2 (1) (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz). Therefore, applicants can only be considered for the position if they still dispose of the relevant qualification periods according to §2 (1) WissZeitVG.

The doctoral student will work on the above-mentioned topic with the lab leaders Prof. Dr. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler and Prof. Dr. Winfried Pauleit. The project is part of the ZeMKI research focus "Audiovisual Cultures and Communicative Appropriations of Historical Images: New Inequalities in Digital Society".

Tasks:

- Research in the field of colonialism in video gaming under two perspectives:

A) media-centred investigation of colonial aesthetics through audio-visual modelling of immersive historical space-time structures (audio-visual histospheres) and/or

B) actor-centred communication about colonial historical images from the perspective of communicative figuration with regard to attribution and negotiation processes as well as the appropriation of colonial stereotypes by players.

- Writing a dissertation with a focus on one of the research areas of the participating labs on the topic of "Colonialism in Video Gaming: Audiovisual Histospheres and Communicative Appropriations of Historical Images as Processes of Othering".

- Testing new methodological approaches for combining object-centred media research and actor-centred media research

- Research interest in the analysis of audiovisual cultures and communicative appropriations of historical images as well as in the topic of inequality in digital society.

- Conducting courses in the amount of 2 SCH (semester contact hours per week) in the Communication and Media Studies programmes, participation in the conduct of examinations.

Recruitment requirements:

- Above-average Master's degree in communication and/or media studies or comparable degree that indicates an aptitude for working on a doctorate in the aforementioned field

- Knowledge of media-aesthetic analysis and/or socio-empirical qualitative methods

- Knowledge in the field of video gaming / game studies

- Interdisciplinary research interest

- Experience with data analysis of social media is desirable

- Good command of English

- Ability to organise and work in a team

- Participation in the ZeMKI doctoral programme

The University of Bremen is committed to increasing the proportion of women in academia and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. Severely disabled applicants will be given priority if they have essentially the same professional and personal qualifications. Applications from people with a migration background are welcome.

Questions should be addressed to Prof. Dr. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler radde@uni-bremen.de or Prof. Dr. Winfried Pauleit pauleit@uni-bremen.de.

Application

Applications should include the following documents:

- A two-page letter of motivation. Page 1 should describe your interests in terms of content and methodology and explain why you believe your profile fits the research focus "Audiovisual Cultures and Communicative Appropriations of Images of History: New Inequalities in Digital Society"

- Curriculum vitae

- A copy of your academic transcripts

- A writing sample (research paper, publication or master's thesis)

- Names of two reviewers who can assess your previous academic expertise

Please send applications with the reference number A163/21 by September 9th, 2021 to

Universität Bremen

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler

Bibliothekstr. 1

28359 Bremen

or as PDF by e-mail (single file) to: bewerbungen-zemki@uni-bremen.de

Further information:

Lab "Media and Religion

The Lab Media and Religion deals with the connection between media and religions and their change. The perspective is twofold: on the one hand, current and historical religious discourses and their authorities are shaped by the media. On the other hand, religious practices are always media practices, and religious identities are always media identities. Thus, actors or groups present, discuss and organise their religious ideas by means of diverse media (books, images, video, virtual worlds, etc.). In this sense, religion is also a mediatised phenomenon that needs to be analysed with regard to questions of media communication.

Lab "Film, Media Art and Popular Culture

The Lab "Film, Media Art and Popular Culture" deals with visual and audio-visual media, their aesthetics and history, as well as their change in the context of digitalisation and globalisation. A special focus of the research is on the specific forms and dispositives of film, media art and popular culture, their production, distribution, broadcasting, exhibition, mediation and appropriation, as well as their storage and collection in archives. In addition to media products and media artworks, their aesthetic experience through communal and individual use, as well as the discourses and cultural interactions that flank them, are also examined.

Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research

As an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Bremen, the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) deals with questions of media and communication change at the interface of cultural and social sciences on the one hand and technical sciences on the other. The special feature here is the interdisciplinary orientation of the research institute: it involves researchers from film studies and media aesthetics, history, information management, communication and media studies, cultural and religious studies and media education. The ZeMKI carries the research focus "Audiovisual cultures and communicative appropriations of historical images: New Inequalities in Digital Society." The aim of the ZeMKI doctoral programme at the University of Bremen is to provide cooperative and collegial supervision for its doctoral students. Participants must be registered as doctoral students at the University of Bremen and be supervised by professors working at the ZeMKI. The doctoral programme is based on a binding doctoral agreement, separates supervision from peer review and gives doctoral candidates broad opportunities to develop and complete their dissertation projects in a constructive environment.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Noah Mozes Department of Communication and Journalism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem invites outstanding candidates to apply for a tenure-track position starting July, 2022.

Excellent candidates in all areas of communications are invited to apply.

The successful applicant will join a dynamic research-oriented faculty offering innovative undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs. For more information about our faculty and research please visit: https://scholars.huji.ac.il/smart/faculty

Applicants must hold a Ph.D. degree at the time of hire, and demonstrate an active research program, indicating the potential for outstanding scholarship. The person hired will teach introductory and advanced courses in communications in their areas of specialization. They will also be expected to supervise Masters and Ph.D. students and to contribute to departmental and university service.

Applications should include the following documents in a single PDF file. Documents should be in English in the order described below.

• Candidate’s letter of application (cover letter).
• Detailed CV (including email address).
• Full list of publications. Please present each of the following as separate categories: books (authored and edited), articles in refereed journals, chapters in books, other publications.
• Scientific biography outlining research and teaching interests and research plans for the next several years (3-4 pages long).
• Two letters of recommendation (at least), to be sent directly by the referees to the Head of the Department of Communication by the deadline noted below. The application packet should include the names, addresses, affiliation, academic status, and email addresses of these referees, who are qualified and willing to assess the candidate's achievements and potential.
• Brief description of 3-4 potential courses that the candidate would be able to teach. For each proposed course please include the following information: Title, type of course, brief description, and specify whether the candidate has taught it before.
• Teaching evaluations (if such exist).
• Copies of three selected recent publications that best showcase the candidate’s scholarship (these may also include articles or book chapters accepted but not yet published).

Applicants will compete with candidates of other departments in the Faculty of Social Sciences for academic positions.

Appointment procedures will be conducted in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Hebrew University and are subject to the approval of the university authorities. The university is not obliged to appoint any of the candidates who apply for the position.

PLEASE SEND THESE DOCUMENTS IN ONE SINGLE PDF ATTACHED FILE TO: paul.frosh@mail.huji.ac.il

Inquiries should be directed to:

Professor Paul Frosh

Head, Department of Communication and Journalism,

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Mount Scopus

Jerusalem 91905

Israel

Email: paul.frosh@mail.huji.ac.il

Deadline for applications: September 30th, 2021.

Please inform your referees that their letters should also arrive by the deadline.

Sharable link to this Job Ad: https://communication.huji.ac.il/מידע-למתעניינים/מידע-למועמדים-לסגל-המחלקה

Special issue in Tourism Geographies

Deadline: October 15, 2021

This special issue examines practices, meanings and impacts of emerging media technologies: digital, mobile, geo/locative and augmented reality technologies within tourism geographies. The special issue aims to situate emerging media technologies within processes of the production and transformation of space, spatial knowledge and social relations within the tourist encounter. We ask contributors to the special issue to consider: What are the configurations of different technologies involved with tourist experiences? In what ways do emerging media technologies shape tourism imaginaries and experiences? What are the particular cultural inflections in the relationship between digital and tourist practices? How do broader infrastructural and economic conditions shape the relationships between digital and tourist practices?

Papers in this special issue will explore the unfolding contexts of media, digital and emerging technologies in tourism geographies across breadth and depth and may include the following topics:

-Culturally and geographically situated explorations of digital practices in tourist sites (including empirical investigations into travel photography, virtual reality headsets, online travel writing, and travel vlogs)

-The role of emerging media technologies for wayfinding and placemaking

-Digital practices and infrastructures in relationship to tourism work and livelihoods

-Specific studies of social and digital media platforms and apps and tourist practices (eg. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp)

-Specific studies of geo/locative and augmented reality technologies and tourist practices (eg. GoPro, WallaMe)

-Non-use and non-digital environments such as sacred and religious sites

-In-depth qualitative or ethnographic studies of emerging media technologies in literary tourism, film tourism, theme parks, fan tourism, music tourism, food tourism, heritage tourism, or roots tourism in comparative contexts (we particularly welcome studies situated in countries in the Global South)

-Tourism locations and technologies and of visual cultures

Guest Editors:

• Jolynna Sinanan, University of Manchester
• Christian Ritter, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Contact email: emergingmediatourism@gmail.com

Abstract submission: 15 Oct 2021

Full publication timeline: https://www.tgjournal.com/emerging-technologies.html

(No payments are required from authors of accepted articles.)

We are looking forward to receiving your contributions.

University of Salzburg, Austria

The Department of Communication Studies at the University of Salzburg, Austria, is pleased to be able to staff a Full Professorship in Journalism Studies as of October 1st, 2022. The deadline for applications is October 13th, 2021.

The Paris Lodron University Salzburg (PLUS) is an up-and-coming Austrian university with outstanding achievements in research and teaching in the fields of (digital) humanities, life sciences, sustainable (social) development and interconnections of art and science. With its four guiding principles “Art in Context”, “Development and Sustainability”, “Digital Life”, and “Health and Mind”, the PLUS offers researchers excellent inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration opportunities.

As of 1st October 2022, the permanent position of a full professorship in “journalism studies” at the department of communication studies at the PLUS is to be staffed.

This professorship covers communication studies in general, with a research and teaching focus on journalism studies. This focus covers in particular critical inquiry of the social role of journalism in times of political, socio-cultural, economic and media-technological change. This includes also digital and non-editorial forms of journalism. Internationally-oriented candidates familiar and consistent with the department’s mission statement are given priority. The future professor will contribute to the Bachelor-, Master- and PhD programmes at the department, in particular with regard to journalism theories and empirical methods, as well as projects in cooperation with the professional field. Solid knowledge of the Austrian media landscape is an asset. The professor is expected to cooperate closely with all other divisions of the department in Salzburg, and the department aims at increasing the number of female professors.

General requirements include:

1. appropriate PhD / disseration;

2. appropriate „Habilitation“ (venia docendi) in communication, media or journalism studies, or equivalent scientific qualification;

3. excellent scientific (publication) record;

4. excellent teaching record;

5. leadership skills in the academic context;

6. strong international scientific network;

7. very good command of English and German language.

Specific requirements:

1. research and teaching on the digital transformation of journalism from a societyoriented perspective, and engagement with the professional field;

2. experience and knowledge in applying qualitative and quantitative methods to empirical journalism studies, skills in digital methods;

3. experience in conducting basic research and in third-party funded research projects;

4. participation in academic administrative self-governance;

5. experience in up-to-date knowledge management;

6. social skills, cooperation and interdisciplinarity;

7. leadership skills;

8. teaching in English and German, including exams.

The Paris Lodron University Salzburg appoints professors full-time on a tenured contract according to the regulations of the Austrian Universities Act, the Law on Employees (Angestelltengesetz), and the collective contractual agreement (Kollektivvertrag) for university employees (group A1 / https://www.plus.ac.at/personalabteilung-amt-der-universitaet/rechtliche-grundlagen/kollektivvertrag-2/). The legal minimum of salary negotiations is € 5,321.70 before taxes (in 14 monthly payments). A higher salary may be subject of contract negotiations.

The Paris Lodron University Salzburg seeks to increase the proportion of women on its staff and therefore especially welcomes applications from suitably qualified female candidates. In cases where successful candidates possess equal qualifications, priority will be given to women.

Persons with disabilities or chronic illnesses who meet the required qualification criteria are expressly invited to apply.

Unfortunately, any travel and accommodation expenses incurred during the admission procedure cannot be reimbursed.

Applications have to include teaching and research objectives as well as the usual documents such as curriculum vitae, list of academic publications, conference contributions and courses held, teaching evaluations, didactical certificates, record of research projects and external funding, activities in academic self-governance and other relevant activities. Applications are to be adressed to the president of the Paris Lodron University Salzburg, Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hendrik Lehnert. They have to be submitted by 13th October 2021 per email to bewerbung@plus.ac.at, stating the reference number of the vacancy GZ B0010/1-2021. 

Ines Drefs

Berlin, 2021

DOI 10.48541/dcr.v7.0 (SSOAR) | ISBN 978-3-945681-07-0

The value of online user comments is a much-debated issue. In journalism, the newly arising possibility for readers and viewers to easily and instantaneously share their views on journalistic output was welcomed at first. Compared to the conventional letter to the editor it represented a democratized form of audience feedback. News organizations increased their presence in the social web and gained more and more experience with user comments. Over time, however, discontent towards the quality of online user comments seemed to grow. But what is the responsibility of journalism in this respect? How do news organizations use the social web? How do they handle online user comments? To what extent do they tap the dialogical potential of the social web for facilitating exchange and understanding between different viewpoints? This study pursues these questions by investigating the case of Germany’s international public service broadcaster Deutsche Welle with its explicit dialogical mandate. It provides an in-depth examination of a transition period in which the news organization is grappling with its self-conception as a serious news provider in the casual social web environment, in which social media editors struggle for recognition from their established colleagues, and in which “stepping back and letting the discussion unfold on its own” serves as a strategy to avoid censorship accusations from users. Based on a specially developed analytical grid the study offers a democracy-theoretical evaluation of the user comments and their handling by Deutsche Welle.

November 24-29, 2021

Online

Deadline: September 24, 2021

The Media Literacy and Civic Cultures (MeLCi Lab) Autumn School “Science bootcamp to improve research hands-on skills”, to be held 24th to 29th November 2021, aims to capacitate PhD students with a set of hands-on research skills that help them in their projects, supporting their professional development. By adopting an integrative and multidisciplinary approach, the School will bring together several scholars for a set of workshops and communications to foster research skills related to scientific writing and innovative methodologies. We will address topics about civic engagement, arts-based research, participation, citizen science, datafication, and ethics research. Moreover, the school also intends to be a space for the production of tangible outcomes, through its “72h Paper Development Marathon”. MeLCi Autumn School intends to be an inclusive space, and three equity grants will be available for students from underrepresented communities.

MeLCi Lab is currently looking for proposals of PhD students who want to apply for the Autumn School. These applications can be submitted until the 24th of September.

More information and application: https://cicant.ulusofona.pt/agenda-news/news-events/396-melci-lab-autumn-school

Editors: Irena Reifová, Martin Hájek

The key concepts of the book are media, class, poverty, and shaming. The contributors to this book examine how certain social relations and their cultural meanings in the media, namely class and poverty, are transformed into factual or moral attributes of people and situations. Class and poverty are not understood as certain things and actions, or concepts and numbers; both class and poverty are assumed to be, above all, particular social relationships or a set of relations between people, things and symbols.

Without denying that contempt for the destitute Other is an affect found throughout history and in various socioeconomic contexts, the chapters in this book – through their concern with the mediated gaze on class – narrate predominantly the challenges brought about by the media’s spectacular take on poverty and low status as they (at least) coincide with the neoliberal era.

This volume will be essential reading for the scholars specialising in the study of media and social inequalities form the vantage points of Media Studies, Sociology, Anthropology or European Studies.

https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030735425?fbclid=IwAR2N6kYQ7sQ6y5ov_I5Y6UQ0AGOUyH4IlG6Lrw2sMDI7ieqo4oGEICVB_u0

University of Bern

At the Institute of Communication and Media Studies (ikmb) of the University of Bern, a position is available as a Phd-Student / Post-doc researcher(80-100%).

The position will be available from October 1st, 2021 (or by appointment) for an initial period of three years. It is intended to serve the purpose of scientific qualification.

Tasks:

• Research in existing SNF-sponsored project:
• • Processing and analysis of large sets of web tracking data (html files)
  • Designing mechanism for identifying sensitive information in large text-based datasets
  • Developing automated text classification models for political / online communication research
  • Conducting various forms of statistical analyses (e.g. regression / cluster models)
• Writing of outstanding publications
• Contribution to the general tasks of the Institute
• Teaching (starting mid 2023)

Requirements:

• Outstanding PhD (for Post-doc position) / Master (for Phd position) in communication science, a related social science discipline and/or in informatics, data science, computational linguistics
• Strong skills in computational methods, especially data cleaning and processing, as well as automated content analysis and text classification (Python). Experience with parallel programming / multi-threading and deep learning (transformers / RNNs) is beneficial.
• Strong interest in political communication and/or online communication
• Very good skills in the methods of empirical social science
• Ability to work in a team

We offer:

An attractive working environment awaits you at the Institute for Communication and Media Science at the University of Bern: a collegial team, cooperation and exchange, as well as the freedom to develop your own ideas. Employment adheres to the regulations of the Canton of Berne.

The University of Bern strives to increase the proportion of women in research and teaching and therefore urges qualified female candidates to apply.

Applications (letter of motivation including research interests / ideas, CV, publication list, certificates; for Phds: one central chapter of the MA-thesis or another publication; for Post-docs: 1-2 central articles) should be mailed as a pdf file by September 2nd, 2021 to Prof. Dr. Silke Adam (silke.adam@unibe.ch). For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Silke Adam. The job interviews will take place on the 10th / 13th of September.

Comparative Cinema (issue 18)

Deadline: October 1, 2021

https://raco.cat/index.php/Comparativecinema/announcement/view/92

Guest Editor: Lourdes Monterrubio Ibáñez

Born out of modern cinema, the essay film departed from the dominant forms of fiction and documentary cinema in order to explore an unknown territory defined by subjectivity, hybridization and reflection, evolving to become “a form that thinks,” as Jean-Luc Godard defined it. The final decades of the 20th century witnessed the consolidation of the essay film, which was enabled by postmodern thought and culture, as well as by the development of video recording technology. In this mode, works by Chris Marker, Roberto Rossellini, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jonas Mekas, Harun Farocki, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, Guy Maddin, Peter Watkins, Chantal Akerman, Alexander Kluge or Johan van der Keuken, among many others, developed a practice of audiovisual thinking for which Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998) could be considered the epitome, marking a turning point that also took place at the century’s end. Over the last twenty years, this essayistic practice has proliferated due to the digital revolution, facilitating diverse experiences of subjectivity and intimacy, and multiplying the possibilities of audiovisual editing; that is, of the very thinking process that defines this filmic form. Taking this itinerary into account, the 18th issue of Comparative Cinema proposes to address the specificities of the audiovisual thinking process in the contemporary essay film.

The most notable studies devoted to the essay film have established its key traits – the audiovisual expression of the thinking process and the self-reflexiveness of subjectivity – and its specificities – issues related to its genealogy, historical path and bond with the literary essay – allowing for the consolidation of this research area. Several edited volumes have been decisive in this regard, including: L’essai et le cinéma (Liandrat-Guigues and Gagnebin, 2004); La forma que piensa (Weinrichter, 2007); Jeux sérieux. Cinéma et art contemporains transforment l’essai (Bacqué et al., 2015); and Essays on the Essay Film (Alter and Corrigan, 2018). Beyond these collections, numerous authors have studied the growing corpus of essay films from various perspectives, producing key monographs such as: Laura Rascaroli’s The Personal Camera: Subjective Cinema and the Essay Film (2009) and How the Essay Film Thinks (2017); Timothy Corrigan’s The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker (2011); David Montero’s The Essay Film as a Dialogic Form in European Cinema (2012); Josep Maria Català’s Estética del ensayo. La forma ensayo, de Montaigne a Godard (2014); and Nora N. Alter’s The Essay Film After Fact and Fiction (2018), among others. The most recent collections already show the breadth of approaches through which contemporary practices of the essay film can be analyzed: The Essay Film: Dialogue, Politics, Utopia (Papazian and Eades, 2016), World Cinema and the Essay Film (Hollweg and Krstic, 2019), and Beyond the Essay Film: Subjectivity, Textuality and Technology (Vassilieva and Williams, 2020) number among a growing field.

The 18th issue of Comparative Cinema invites contributors to analyze the manifestations of the contemporary essay film in relation to its audiovisual thinking process from a comparative perspective, which addresses the comparative analysis of different essay films, in search of the connotations, tendencies, specificities and evolution of this audiovisual form in the 21st century. Analyses may include, among other aspects:

- Subjectivity: the inscription of subjectivity in the essay film has been an issue of key concern during the 20th century, partly as a discursive need for the consolidation of this audiovisual form. Does the contemporary essay film present new tendencies, needs, or methods in this respect? Are new expressions of subjectivity emerging, such as multiple or collective subjectivities?

- Materials and procedures: the hybridization of materials in the essay film mostly included analogue, digital and photographic supports, as well as the relevant presence of found footage. With regard to audiovisual procedures, the voice-over, for instance, has been a common element of the essay film of the 20th century. Does the contemporary essay film introduce new materials or generate new hybridizations? Are animation or infographics incorporated to a greater extent in the essay film today, and do they serve specific aims? Are new procedures appearing to replace the voice-over and to what purpose?

- Subject matter: the essay film has covered a range of topics during the 20th century, suggesting an evolution from the social and political to the personal and intimate. Are new trends or hybridizations of subject matter emerging in contemporary essay films, as for instance in terms of emotional reflection?

- Artistic practices: by the end of the 20th century, the essay film had been consolidated in the museum space. Which specificities does audiovisual thinking present in these expanded practices? Has there been an evolution in this regard over the last two decades?

- Dialogism and critical thinking: the essay film has been defined by its dialogic characteristics and its capacity for critical thinking both on the part of the author and of his/her spectator. Have contemporary practices seen an evolution or greater depth in these aspects?

Comparative Cinema invites the submission of complete articles addressing the audiovisual thinking process in contemporary essay films from a comparative perspective, which must be between 5500 and 7000 words long, including footnotes. Articles (in MS Word) and any accompanying images must be sent through the RACO platform, available on the journal website.

Timeline:

Deadline for submission of complete articles: 01/10/2021

Peer review: 01/10/2021-15/11/2021

Final copy deadline: 31/01/2022

Publication: Spring 2022

Lourdes Monterrubio Ibáñez currently develops the research project EDEF – Enunciative Devices of the European Francophone Essay Film, at the Institut ACTE, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie grant agreement No 896941. Author of the monographic book De un cine epistolar. La presencia de la misiva en el cine francés moderno y contemporáneo (Shangrila, 2018) and editor of the monographic issue Epistolary Enunciation in Contemporary Cinema (Área Abierta, 2019), her publications on the essay film include: “Correspondências by Rita Azevedo Gomes. The Complex Hybrid Image of Contemporary Epistolary Cinema and Contemporary Essay Film” (Visual Studies, 2020), “Enunciative Devices of the Contemporary Spanish Essay Film. Evolution of the Essayistic Subjectivity and its Thinking in Act” (Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas, 2019) and “La Morte Rouge (soliloquio) by Víctor Erice. From trauma to fraternity: the interstice between reality and fiction” (book chapter in Itinerarios y formas del ensayo audiovisual, 2019).

Contact:

• comparativecinema@upf.edu
• lourdes.monterrubio-ibanez@univ-paris1.fr

Journal of Radio & Audio Media Symposium

Deadline: October 1, 2021

Editor: Nelson Ribeiro

The emergence of radio introduced profound changes in public communication, changing patterns of information dissemination at local, national and international levels. In the case of the Imperial nations this role was extended overseas with radio becoming the most important medium for uniting the home countries with the expats living in the far reaches of the empires, though not unproblematically.

A growing body of literature on the history of imperial and colonial broadcasting, as well as of sound, have been contributing to the understanding of the role of radio technologies, broadcasting and music in the 20th century in forging audible and sonorous empires. However, the ways in which different imperial countries used radio to create a sense of nation and colonial identities among those living in different geographies remains an open question. On the other hand, in the last decades works dealing with the media during decolonization have called attention to the significant role played by the audio medium in promoting independence from colonial powers and giving visibility to forms of culture that would become part of national identities of the new-born countries. What research has also revealed is that much is still to be understood about the relation between radio and decolonization practices and processes. Thus, this special issue seeks to publish manuscripts dealing with how broadcasting was incorporated and appropriated within different colonial and decolonial settings.

Hence, papers dealing with the following topics will be highly appreciated (non-exhaustive list):

• Radio and national identities;
• Imperial and colonial broadcasting institutions;
• Radio professionals in imperial and colonial broadcasting contexts;
• Programming in international broadcasts;
• Reception of Imperial and colonial broadcasts;
• Technologies used for international broadcasting;
• Radio, ethnicity and race;
• Radio and practices of resistance;
• Broadcasting and colonial subjectivities;
• Radio and colonial independences;
• Radio and decolonization;
• Intermedial approaches to radio history in colonial contexts;
• Radio and music market in imperial and colonial contexts;
• Radio in postcolonialism.

The topics above are merely suggestions. We welcome submissions that explore other aspects of colonial and imperial broadcasting. Submissions for this symposium are due by October 1, 2021. Submitted manuscripts undergo a blind peer review. Manuscripts should be submitted through Manuscript Central link on https://www.beaweb.org/wp/?page_id=571 or https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hjrs

Documents prepared in Microsoft Word are preferred and should APA for style and citation. Manuscripts should not exceed 6500 words and should include an abstract of no more than 100 words. In addition to the manuscript with no reference to the author(s), the author(s) should include a separate attachment with contact information. Please fill in the manuscript information as directed on the site.

For more information on the Journal of Radio & Audio Media, click here.

Please direct any questions in advance of your submission to the symposium editor: Nelson Ribeiro (nelson.ribeiro@ucp.pt) subject line JRAM Colonial Broadcasting.