ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

Are you interested and engaged in the social and political debates on AI? Do you question why the trolley problem has been at the centre of these debates for so long and wonder whether AI is more than just deep learning? Are you interested and experienced in interdisciplinary research on digitisation and society? Then we look forward to receiving your application!

The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) is looking for a committed postdoc for the Shaping AI project.

The successful candidate will work in the research project “Shaping 21st Century AI. Controversies and Closure in Media, Policy, and Research” (SHAPING AI) for 3 years, in an 80% capacity (TVL 13 or 14, depending on your qualification) in cooperation with the head of research programme “The evolving digital society” and in close coordination with the research directorate. Family & travel support, as well as support for the procurement of research materials are included. Starting date for the position is February 1, 2021.

This international joint project – with partners in the UK, France and Canada – empirically investigates the formation of “artificial intelligence” (AI) as a central socio-technical institution in contemporary societies. Over a ten-year period (2012-2021), we will conduct a comparative study of the issue career, framing and problematisation of AI in the four participating countries and in three domains: media, politics and technical research. The HIIG will act as consortium lead.

Key Responsibilities

• Joint responsibility and scope for development in the design of the research topic and the implementation of the research project

• Coordination of the international research network together with project management, cooperation in communication and coordination with project partners

• Development of comparative research designs for the comparison of empirical results at the consortium level

• Supervision of sub-studies, executed by PhD candidate and graduate students (e.g. on policy debates and regulation of AI, on media debate and on technical research in Germany)

• Publication of scientific articles in leading international journals, submission of conference papers and development of formats of knowledge transfer for a broader public, e.g. through events, blog posts, etc.

• Support and expansion of existing scientific networks of the institute

• Monitoring of funding lines and tenders, raising of third-party funds by participating in public tenders or by supporting the fundraising activities of the HIIG, especially in the field of AI and society

Requirements and Preferred Qualifications

• Eligible candidates will have an outstanding university degree and a completed doctorate in social sciences, ideally related to the above-mentioned field

• Experience in social-science based internet research, documented by relevant publications and lectures, ideally with a focus on one or more of the following fields: AI, regulation/governance/ethics, science communication, controversies about science and technology.

• Empirical experience with document analysis, discourse analysis and/or critical data and algorithm research, including digital methods, are desirable

• Great interest in interdisciplinary research, ideally already experience in interdisciplinary cooperation

• Open-mindedness for international scientific cooperation, ideally substantiated by relevant experience abroad or within existing cooperations

• Initial experience in project management and the coordination of distributed work processes as well as very good communication skills are desirable

• Independence, creative will, sense of responsibility, motivation and teamwork

• Fluent business English is mandatory, good command of German is desirable

Resources & Benefits

• Independent research and creative opportunities to develop your own scientific profile, gain visibility and publish at a high level

• Development and establishment of a new research project with leeway for your own ideas and agenda in cooperation with the research programme manager and in close coordination with the research directorate

• International project context with a highly visible and relevant topic

• Strong international and interdisciplinary networking and cooperation with renowned project partners

• An attractive and family-friendly working environment with flexible working hours, flat hierarchies in an embodied alternative to the traditional science business

• A highly motivated team that works very closely together and committed colleagues from various disciplines in a forward-looking institute in the heart of Berlin

Application Instructions

Do you recognize yourself in the profile described? Then we are looking forward to receiving your application along with a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, and relevant certificates. Please include a 1-2 page research sketch with first ideas of how you imagine the empirical implementation of the above mentioned topics of the project “Shaping AI”. Please submit the documents using the online form below. The review of applications will start on November 2, 2020 and the call for applications will remain open until a suitable applicant is found. The careful screening and selection of our new team members is very important to us and we ask for your patience that we will conduct several interviews during the process. If you have any questions regarding the content of the job advertisement, please contact project lead Dr. Christian Katzenbach (katzenbach@hiig.de).

https://www.hiig.de/en/postdoktorandin-m-w-d-fuer-das-projekt-shaping-ai/

University of Sheffield

I am currently hiring a postdoc to work with me on my new project.

Drones in Visual Culture: Developing a New Theory of Visual Mobile Communication, led by Dr Elisa Serafinelli (me) & funded by the AHRC, aims to understand whether and how the use of drone technology in society is changing the way people see the world and our visual culture more broadly, and to extend and innovate current theoretical approaches to visual mobile communication. More information can be found here: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT012528%2F1 .

I am appointing a post-doctoral research associate for one year, 50% FTE. The successful applicant will have, or be in the process of submitting, a PhD in a relevant area. Knowledge of relevant theories in the fields of visual communication, cultural studies and digital media, along with experience in qualitative research and visual analysis would be advantageous. Experience of conducting research under the national research ethics framework is essential. Effective communication skills, both written and verbal, report writing skills, and experience of delivering presentations are also essential along with strong IT skills.

Job Reference Number: UOS026614

Contract Type: Fixed-term for 12 months

Working Pattern: Part-time working 50% FTE, days of working to be agreed

Salary: Grade 7: £31,866 - £34,804 pro-rata per annum.

Closing Date: 11th November 2020

More details of the post can be found HERE, or you can email me  (e.serafinelli@sheffield.ac.uk)

Call for Chapters: Edited Collection

Deadline: December 21, 2020

Co-editors:

• Dr Kath Dooley (Curtin University)
• Dr Alex Munt (University of Technology, Sydney)

Calling for chapters for an edited collection for proposal to the Palgrave Series on Screenwriting devoted to the concepts, practices, challenges and opportunities associated with narrative screenwriting for virtual reality media.

In recent years, a new wave of virtual reality technologies has transformed the notion of immersive narrative-based storytelling, creating powerful opportunities for the creation of embodied works that foreground the experience of the viewer/user. Drawing upon the visual language and tropes inherited from film and television, video games, theatre, video art, historical and contemporary art/architecture, VR technologies allow writers and creators to reimagine relationships between narrative agents and audience and to explore new forms of screen-based interactivity. Such writing calls for new considerations of ‘story world,’ point of view and viewer agency.

Writing on screenwriting in the digital age in 2014, Kathryn Millard observes that “screenwriting is a living art, constantly in transition” uncovering innovative forms of development, collaborative ecologies, and digital writing tools. Emerging scholarship published in the /Journal of Screenwriting/ expands this notion for the VR context (see Dooley 2018; Larsen 2018; Ross and Munt 2018) and now calls for the undertaking of further research to illuminate this exciting and dynamic area of screenwriting for virtual reality.

This edited collection will explore how VR technologies such as 360-degree production, game engines, and development software continue to evolve the notion of writing for the screen, defined by innovative and creative approaches and/or divergences from screenwriting/screenplay practices associated with prior media. What can emerging screenwriting practices in this new domain tell us about the future of screenwriting – and the screenplay redesign for immersive contexts?

We seek reflections on creative approaches, analysis of narrative strategies and case-studies in screenwriting, scripting and the screenplay for virtual reality media. Chapters may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Auteur VR case studies of ‘trailblazers’
• Artists’ Moving image VR ‘writing’ for the gallery and installation spaces
• Cinematic virtual reality ‘CVR’ approaches
• Writing interactive elements
• VR screenwriting ethics- what experience are you offering?
• Accessibility and appropriation in VR storytelling
• Character positioning and point of view- writing in the first-person
• The spatialised screenplay- formats and templates
• VR script development practices
• Directing attention within a 360-world- creating agency for the viewer/user
• Conceptualising immersive storytelling models
• VR spinoffs from traditional film/television projects
• The embodied VR screenplay
• Writing the real- VR documentary
• The influence of film and/or theatre grammars on VR writing

Submission Guidelines:

Please send an abstract of 350 words, along with a brief bibliography (3-5 sources) demonstrating the proposed chapter’s theoretical foundations, and a short biography (100 words) by Monday 21st December 2020 to Dr Kath Dooley (kath.dooley@curtin.edu.au) and Dr Alex Munt (alex.munt@uts.edu.au).

Please include “Screenwriting for Virtual Reality Media” in the subject header, and copy both editors on initial submissions and any further correspondence.

Chapter Guidelines:

Once abstracts are collected, they will be proposed to series editors and the publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, for a collection to be included in their ‘Studies in Screenwriting ’series. No payment from authors is required.

After abstract acceptance from the publisher, selected authors will be asked to write chapters of 7,000 to 8,000 words including references by an agreed-upon date to be determined (depending on publisher’s timetable) aligned with the Palgrave house style for the series.

References

Dooley, K. (2018). Scripting the virtual: Formats and development paths for recent Australian narrative 360-degree virtual reality projects. /Journal of Screenwriting/, /9/(2), 175-189.

Larsen, M. (2018). Virtual sidekick: Second-person POV in narrative VR. /Journal of screenwriting/, /9/(1), 73-83.

Millard, K. (2014). /Screenwriting in a digital era/. Springer.

Ross, M., & Munt, A. (2018). Cinematic virtual reality: Towards the spatialized screenplay. /Journal of Screenwriting/, /9/(2), 191-209.

October 26-29, 2020

ICRRA online conference

Please see below details of a forthcoming international conference that is being convened by The International Cultural Relations Research Alliance (ICRRA) - a global network of researchers and practitioners from across the world who are interested in research on international cultural relations.

Free to attend and open to all, but advance registration required. To register, visit: https://www.ifa.de/en/conference/cultural-relations-and-crisis/

This ICRRA conference examines the state, shape and role of international cultural relations at a time of global crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic and other longstanding global challenges and crises and the intersections between them – including the climate emergency, rising geopolitical tensions, population displacement, and persistent social injustice and inequality – are having a profound impact on efforts to build trust, enhance cooperation and understanding across national borders, and develop intercultural dialogue. How should cultural relations researchers and practitioners respond to this? What can we learn from each other? What are the emerging themes and priorities for future research, practice and policy insight? From 26-29 October 2020 researchers, practitioners, policy makers and others interested in the above topics and questions are warmly invited to join ICRRA members to discuss international cultural relations under the overarching theme ‘Cultural Relations and Crisis: Results, Impact, New Questions’.

Keynote speakers:

• Ilhem Allagui, Northwestern University, Qatar
• Ivan Krastev, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia
• Nasar Meer, University of Edinburgh

Other contributions include members of the ICRRA network and a panel discussion drawing on the experiences of those actively involved in shaping cultural relations through programmes, movements, actions and initiatives on the ground in different parts of the world.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference!

• Jana Scheible

Programme Coordinator,

Dialogue and Research “Culture and Foreign Policy”

ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)

• James Perkins

Senior Research Advisor

Research & Policy Insight

British Council

(On behalf of ICRRA)

University of Houston

The Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position to teach courses in media production beginning in Fall of 2021.

The candidate will need to have demonstrated a substantive record of research, or the potential thereof. The successful candidate would be expected to teach undergraduate courses in media production and/or multimedia and visual journalism, and graduate courses in journalism/mass communication. The successful candidate will have teaching or professional experience in areas such as narrative or documentary production, broadcast journalism, multimedia storytelling, podcasting, and/or data visualization. We welcome candidates whose experience in teaching, research, or community service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence.

Valenti hosts ~500 undergraduate students majoring in media production, and these students gain real-world experience taking classes and producing content in our Lance T. Funston Communication Center, which is a state-of-the-art media and content production facility at the Valenti School of Communication (https://uh.edu/…CC/). The Center encompasses 3,300 square-feet of production space between its two studios, complete with high definition studio camera.

The University of Houston is responsive to the needs of dual career couples. The University of Houston is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Qualifications: The successful candidate will have teaching or professional experience in areas such as narrative or documentary production, broadcast journalism, multimedia storytelling, podcasting, and/or data visualization. A Ph.D. is required.

Notes to Applicant: Official transcripts are required for a faculty appointment and will be requested upon selection of final candidate. All positions at the University of Houston are security sensitive and will require a criminal history check. Incomplete applications may not be considered.

Required Attachments by Candidate: Curriculum Vitae, Cover Letter/Letter of Application

For more information, visit: https://uhs.taleo.net/…497

You can also contact the chair of the Search Committee, Dr. Beth Olson (bmolson@Central.UH.EDU)

Journal: Media and Communication

Submission of Abstracts: December 15, 2020

Submission of Full Papers: April 15-30, 2021

Publication of the Issue: October/December 2021

https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication

Editors: Salla-Maaria Laaksonen (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Mikko Villi (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

The thematic issue explores the widening scope of media work and the institutional and organizational conditions that support new forms of media work. Media work has been affected, for example, by the emergence of new digital players and changes in consumers’ media behavior. The changes give rise to new forms of work in the media but also to media work in organizations in other fields. Forms of media work are emerging, for example, in various organizations who aim for professional, media-like content production as a part of their communication strategy, or communications agencies who produce communication and marketing content for their customers.

For this issue, we invite theoretical and empirical papers that study the changing nature of media work as well as the new institutional environments for media work from different perspectives, including but not limited to:

• New professional roles and responsibilities emerging inside the media industry
• Theoretical and conceptual development of media work in the social media era
• Institutional responses to environmental changes in media organizations
• Media work in entrepreneurial media outlets
• Practices of media work in organizations in other fields than the media (e.g. corporate media, public organization media)
• Mixing of strategic communications and journalistic work
• Organizational communication approaches on media work, such as internal mediated practices and their functions in organizations

More information: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/nextissues#NewFormsMedia

December 3, 2020

Virtual Conference

The use of automation in journalism is encroaching more and more on what many would consider to be journalists’ core professional roles, such as the identification of story leads, verification, and decisions about which stories are shown, and with what prominence. Automation has also started to play a role in the creation of news texts, initially by helping to generate natural language—the written word—but now also in the production of news videos.

The proportion of consumers who watch online news videos each week has increased substantially—from 24% in 2016 to 67% in 2020 (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism / Digital News Report 2020). Over the same period, there has been an increase in the use of automation in news video production.

This online event brings together researchers (including Irene Costera Meijer, Nick Diakopoulos, Michael Koliska, Sally Stares, Kim Schrøder, and Neil Thurman) technology-providers (Wibbitz), and publishers (PA Media, Deutsche Welle, and Conde Nast) to explore what audiences want from online news video, and whether automation can help deliver.

For registration, conference program and the full list of speakers, please visit the event website: https://sites.ifkw.lmu.de/video-automation/

We look forward to welcoming you to the virtual conference.

Best wishes

Prof. Dr. Neil Thurman, LMU Munich, Department of Media and Communication

Organizing Team & Support:

• Sina Thäsler-Kordonouri
• Florian Stalph
• Bartosz Wilczek

UAntwerp

UAntwerp is opening two PhD Positions for Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN Early Stage Researcher (ESR) at the‘Network for Training on Hate’ (NETHATE) to be funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme.

Deadline for application is 22 November 2020 at 23:00 CET (Brussels time).

The vision for NETHATE is to examine the dynamics of the spread of hatred in society, including online fora, as well as mitigation and reconciliation strategies, and the impact on victims and bystanders.

PROJECT 1: Helping victims of online sexual harassment through online reporting and supporting systems

To investigate how reports about online sexual harassment can be dealt with by Social Networking Sites in an efficient, desirable and effective way. This will also include investigating whether and how interface design features can be used to support victims, for instance, by exposing them to narratives (i.e. stories) of fellow victims who coped successfully with the distressing events related to online sexual harassment.

More information: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/jobs/vacancies/academic-staff/2020bapfswef12/

PROJECT 2: Countering online hate-speech through technological interventions

Development and testing of prototypes of technological interventions to prevent or counter online hate speech based on current and newly acquired knowledge on motivations and contexts of online hate speech. Development of insights on user acceptance, user experience and efficacy of the (prototype) technological tools to prevent or counter online hate by means of a range of lab and field studies. Human Rights Analysis of the (prototype) technological tools.

More information: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/jobs/vacancies/academic-staff/2020bapfswef11/

March 25-27, 2021

Warsaw, Poland

Deadline: November 1, 2020

We would kindly like to remind you about the Call for Papers for the conference “Religious Identity and the Media. Methods, concepts, and new research avenues”, organized by the team of the DFG and NCN funded research project “Minorities and the media. The communicative construction of religious identity in times of deep mediatisation” (https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/religionswissenschaft/forschung/forschungsprojekte/minorities-and-the-media).

The conference theme discusses the manifold relationships between creating, negotiating, maintaining and challenging religious and religion-related identities, and various types of media and forms of media use.

It will be hosted by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. The keynote lectures will be held by Mia Lövheim (Uppsala University) and Christoph Günther (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz).

For the CALL FOR PAPERS see the attached file and/or visit the conference website: https://media.religion2021.uni-bremen.de/

The deadline for paper proposals is November 1st, 2020.

We are able to financially support two PhD students with the amount of up to 300€ for travel and accommodation costs. For more information on the travel allowance visit: https://media.religion2021.uni-bremen.de/WordPress/travel-allowance/

We will continue to monitor the situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and we will comply with any relevant administrative regulations. We also consider hosting a partially or fully online conference if that is the best solution.

Kind Regards from the organizing committee:

Kerstin Radde-Antweiler, head of project (University of Bremen)

Dorota Hall, head of project (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences)

Łukasz Fajfer, research associate (University of Bremen)

Marta Kołodziejska, research associate (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences)

Carolin Müller, research assistant

Istanbul University Press

Chapter Proposals: December 1, 2020

Chapter Drafts: June 1, 2021

New Media / New Society? will focus effects of new media on social relations. This volume has a question: Can we describe our society as a new media society? It intends to open new discussions on new media and social relations. The volume interrogates the question of whether (or not), and to what extent, new media have spawned new varieties of social organization, new practices of social interaction and identity, and new structures of material or symbolic social relations. There have been so many claims regarding how postmodern/postindustrial media modalities are contributing to various iterations of utopian and anti-utopian futures, beyond those traditional views of Orwell, Huxley, Marx, and Weber, for example. In the past decades, we have heard academic claims about a variety of effects, for example, including (but not limited to) simulation, misinformation, balkanization, intersectionality, assemblages, affordances, liquification, disruption, fragmentization, saturation/distraction, propaganda, mediatization, culture wars, (de/post/neo)colonization, modes of signification, gamification, crowdsourcing, participatory media, hypertextualization, assimilation, chaos, spectacles, virtuality, augmented reality, digitization, disconnection, mass surveillance, and cyborgology. On the other hand, there have been so many descriptions of society, for example including (but not limited to) information society, post-emotional society, consumption society, network society, internet society, cyber society, new media society, post-modernism, post-humanism, the Anthropocene, and digital society.

The volume New Media / New Society?  interrogates these claims from the perspective of the long view, meaning it looks at such changes over the last half-century (since 1970), and for the same period moving forward (until 2070). Also, there are methodological questions within sociology regarding the examination of new media forms and their relation to the social construction of reality. How media studies/social theory can explain the nature and nuance of new social relations under new media forms, if such new social realities exist?

This volume will be an “agenda for new media and new society discussions,” in that it will clarify the effect of new media on social relations, including specific recommendations for action by researchers, policy makers, and the public. The volume will provide new topics for our projects and books.

This work is tentatively to be published in electronic format by Istanbul University Press, an academic publisher at the Istanbul University, Turkey (https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/en/). As a project in academic sociology, the volume will cover important national-level and international-level new media and society.

We ask you, individually or with colleagues, to consider submitting a brief proposal (500 words max.) identifying a significant idea/trend from media studies/social theory, to include the following items:

1.Clarify the emergence and development of one or more key concepts from media studies/social theory.

2.Clarify key media technologies and techniques which are interwoven in such dynamics.

3.Explore conceptual and/or empirical aspects of the concept and media practices over the last half century (since 1970).

4.Take stock of the development at the present moment (year 2020).

5.Offer insight into future directions foreseen for the next half century (until 2070).

6.Assess whether (or to what extent) these new media dynamics have resulted in new social forms. That is, clarify if new media leads to new society or vice versa.

We invite researchers to prepare draft statements for proposed contributions to this volume. Please submit a copy of your 1- to 2-page proposal via email to each of the editors by December 1, 2020. Final contributions will be limited to 5000 words maximum (or roughly twenty double-spaced manuscript pages). Chapter drafts will be due June 1, 2021, and final manuscripts will be due November 1, 2021. The e-volume is expected to launch in February 2021.

Papers could address, but are not limited to, the following subjects:

• Alienation
• Authority
• Communities
• Crime, Violence
• Drugs, Alcohol, Addictions
• Economy, Work
• Education
• Environment, Technology
• Ethics
• Family, Marriage
• Globalization
• Health Care, Mental Health
• Inequality, Poverty, Wealth
• Law, Justice
• Media, Communications
• Methods
• Modernity
• Politics
• Pop Culture, Sport, Leisure
• Population, Migration
• Privacy / Surveillance
• Race, Ethnicity
• Religion, Cultural Issues
• Secularization
• Social Conflict, Social Change
• Social Movements
• Social Welfare
• Theoretical Perspectives
• Urban Issues, Rural Issues
• Youth, Aging, Life Course

Important Dates

• 5 October 2020: Call for Chapter Proposals Sent Out to Contributors for
• Books.
• 1 December 2020: Proposed Abstracts Due for Chapters.
• 1 January 2021: Invitations to Contribute & Author Guidelines Distributed.
• 1 June 2021: Full Manuscripts Due / Begin Review Process.
• 1 September 2021: First Round of Reviews Completed / Revisions Start.
• 1 November 2021: Revised Manuscripts Due.
• 1 December 2021: Submission of Book to Publisher.
• 1 February 2022: Publication

Editors

Murat Şentürk, Istanbul University, Turkey, murat.senturk@istanbul.edu.tr

Massimo Ragnedda, Northumbria Universtiy, UK, massimo.ragnedda@northumbria.ac.uk

Glenn W. Muschert, Khalifa University, UAE, glenn.muschert@ku.ac.ae

Managing Editor

Hamdüsena Eşrefoğlu, Istanbul University, Turkey, hamdusenaesrefoglu@istanbul.edu.tr