ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Deadline for submitting full texts:  March 10, 2019

Please submit your manuscripts via e-mail address medialnistudia@fsv.cuni.cz

Paper types

Studies are based on original research, solving the issue raised empirically, theoretically or methodologically. The recommended length of the studies is 6000-8000 words, including footnotes and references with an abstract of up to 150 words, up to 10 keywords, and brief information about the author up to 100 words.

Essays explore upcoming or current media trends or events and discuss their relevance. Or, they ruminate upon different conceptual or methodological approaches. The recommended length of the essays is 3000-4000 words, including footnotes and references with an abstract of up to 150 words, up to 10 keywords, and brief information about the author up to 150 words.

Polemics brings discussions on actual theoretical, or methodological, or empirical studies previously published. The recommended length of the polemics is 3000-4000 words, including footnotes and references. Interviews introduce inspiring personalities within the media and communication field, both from academia and practical operation. The recommended length of the interview is 3000-4000 words including footnotes and references. The interviews include brief information about the interviewee.

Book reviews introduce and critically evaluate new books emerging within the field of study. The recommended length of studies is 2000-4000 words, including footnotes and references.

Reports inform about interesting events connected with media life (conferences, workshops, festivals, summer schools etc.). The recommended length of studies is 1000-2000 words, including footnotes and references.

For a more detailed description of papers types and other information, please follow the guidelines for authors (see https://www.medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/autor-s-manual).

About the Journal

Mediální studia / Media Studies is a peer-reviewed journal based in disciplines of media and communication studies. Nonetheless, it also is open to contributions from close research fields such as cultural studies, sociology, social and cultural anthropology, gender studies, or linguistics. We publish original research papers investigating media texts or mechanisms of their production or ways of their reception.

We especially welcome papers focused upon media in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe which do not separate the region from its wider social or political ties. We endeavour to emphasise the dynamics of local-global knowledge on media and its mutual connections. Also for these reasons, we prefer texts written in English. In exceptional cases, however, we publish also manuscripts in Czech or Slovak.

August 7-10, 2019 

Toronto, Canada 

Deadline: April 1, 2019

The Media Management, Economics, and Entrepreneurship Division (MMEE)  invites original research paper submissions to be considered for  presentation at the 2019 AEJMC conference in Toronto, Canada. August  7-10, 2019. Researchers interested in any aspect of media management,  media economics, or entrepreneurship are encouraged to submit papers. 

The division welcomes the use of diverse theoretical and methodological  approaches to relevant topics. Papers presented at the AEJMC Midwinter  Conference and then revised are also welcome for submission.  The division gives awards to recognize the top three submissions from  faculty, and the top three submissions from graduate students (faculty  members cannot be included on student competition papers). Top graduate  papers also receive monetary awards to help offset the cost of attending  the conference, and there are no division membership fees for graduate  students. 

Paper Topics: As a division, we are proud to encourage submissions from  a diverse array of topic areas. Some examples of relevant topic areas  include, but are not limited to: analysis of economic or managerial  questions affecting media firms and media industries; strategic  management aspects and business models of media firms, crowdfunding and  other innovative funding methods for media products and industries;  strategic leadership challenges faced by media companies; media  ownership; management and economic issues from the public-interest  perspective (e.g., effects on reporting or content); historical  discussions of relevant developments in the field; policy issues from a  legal, regulatory, or economic perspective; technology and its effects  on management or economics; political economy; international and  cross-cultural studies; the sociology and culture of media  organizations; media audience analysis; teaching media management and  economics; and other related topics. 

In 2014 the division changed its name to expand its focus on  entrepreneurship. Accordingly, we also encourage and welcome submissions  within the following topic areas: opportunities and challenges for media  startups; intrapreneurship and innovation within legacy media companies;  the role of higher education in the context of media entrepreneurship;  and other media entrepreneurship related topics. 

Guidelines for all Submissions: All papers must be submitted  electronically at the AEJMC website, by accessing the All-Academic  submission portal. A link to All-Academic is available via the AEJMC  website. Papers must be uploaded to the All-Academic server no later  than 11:59 P.M. (Central Daylight Time) Monday, April 1, 2019. All  submissions must follow the guidelines from the AEJMC uniform call for  all paper competitions. 

Paper Formatting: All papers should use 12-point Times New Roman, Times  or Arial font and have 1-inch margins. Authors should use the style  appropriate for the discipline, including APA, Chicago, MLA, Harvard,  and other styles. Format should be Word, WordPerfect, or a PDF. PDF  format is strongly encouraged. 

Author Identification: Please remove all potentially identifying author  information from submissions. Failure to do so will automatically  disqualify the paper from consideration. Examples of information to be  removed include citations of the author’s previous work, individually or  with co-authors; related reference list information; and file  properties. Take every precaution to ensure that your self-citations DO NOT in any way reveal your identity. Instructions for how to remove  identifying information from files can be found on the AEJMC website. 

For questions about submissions, contact the Media Management,  Economics, and Entrepreneurship (MMEE) Division Research Chair, Jiyoung  Cha, San Francisco State University, jycha@sfsu.edu . 

Deadline: May 15, 2019

Sharing (intimate) photos has become an integral part of close relationships in the age of social media. Particularly young people use social media as a way to establish and maintain strong social ties rather than a way of connecting to public life. This use pattern includes the sharing of photos and videos with intimate and sexual content such as nudes, intimate situations and other types of self-disclosure. As most public and academic interests has been related to situations where the process has gone wrong and people have been hurt, they are often associated with risk, worries and, indeed, moral disdain. Yet these cases are part of a much broader social practice, which is for the most part unproblematic and mundane. The sharing of intimate photos can be seen as part of a more general act of (mutual) self-disclosure in order to establish trust, and it can be seen as an exploration of sexuality and social identities. In both cases the sharing of intimate photos becomes part of more general processes of intimacy and close relationships that we should be careful not to reject or problematize as a whole.

Accordingly, in this themed issue we would like to move beyond the ‘stories of problem youth’ and toward a more empirically grounded and systematic analysis of the complex ways in which the sharing of intimate photos becomes part of everyday life practices including friendships, courtships, trust and intimacy – across all life phases. This may include studies of the roles intimate photos may have in the maintenance of friendships and romantic partnerships, the ways in which people negotiate trust and responsibilities in relation to this, and the specific place of risk in these interactions. It may also include more historical studies foregrounding differences and similarities to earlier practices of intimacy, friendships and sexual partnerships, and the ways gender and life phase condition and is conditioned by such practices.

It may include case studies zooming in on specific turning points where unproblematic practices turns into contested or even criminal offences. Further, articles could also focus on situations where people restrict or prevent others from using photos in an undisclosed matter. Finally it may include more political-economic analyses of the way specific social platforms condition such practices and capitalize on them, and the wider implications this may have for citizens’ rights and security in the digital network society.

Please submit an extended abstract of 1000 words by May 15 on MedieKultur’s website: http://www.tidsskrift.dk/mediekultur

Authors will be notified by May 30^th, and the deadline for final submissions is August 31st .

Articles that are accepted for further process by the editors will go into peer-review in September. Expect to have decisions on manuscripts and potential further revisions end of September. Publication is planned for the end of 2019. 

Closing Date: March 15, 2019

Faculty:Humanities and Social Sciences

School:School of Arts

Stipend:Fees paid, plus £15,072 living allowance

Tenure:Up to 3 years

Hours of Work: Full time

The School of the Arts is offering up to six fully funded PhD  studentships, to cover fees and living allowance, to commence on 1st  October 2019.

Successful candidates will have a good BA and MA degree  in a relevant area. Candidates should submit a full C.V. and a research  proposal detailing their intended research topic (maximum 1,500 words),  and should nominate two suitable supervisors from the staff in the  School of the Arts.

The School is home to five academic departments:  Architecture, Communication and Media, English, Music, Philosophy.

Full details of the studentship is available here.

Research in Department of Communication and Media is conducted within four research clusters

• Screen & Film Studies.
• Culture, Space and Memory
• Discourse & Society
• Media, Politics and Society

Areas of staff expertise include: 

• Film; Television; Media industries; Adaptation; Celebrity and stardom; 
• Visual, promotional and material cultures; Media identity and community; 
• Space and place; Memory; Social Media; Immersive media; Digital and 
• cultural policy; Audiences; Media, politics, governance and news; Media, 
• ethnicity, race and Human Rights; Journalism; Anthropology and 
• Ethnography; Strategic Communication; Discourse Analysis. 

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/communication-and-media/staff/

Special edition of Journalism Practice

Deadline: June 18, 2019

Guest editors: Andrea Baker (Monash University), Usha M. Rodrigues, (Deakin University)

Theme rationale and scope:

Beginning in 2006, the #MeToo hashtag was created by African American civil rights advocate Tarana Burke to deal with sexual violence (sexism, misogyny, sexual harassment, assault and rape) amongst the black community in the US. In October 2017 allegation by Hollywood actor, Alyssa Milano, against prolific film director Harvey Weinstein, co-owner of US Entertainment Company (Miramax Films), led to the revitalisation of #MeToo. #MeToo sparked a movement across the US, UK, Canada, Israel, India and Australia, with more than 85 million people sharing the hashtag (Kunst, Bailey, Prendergas & Gundersen, 2018). Since then other hashtags, such as #MeNoMore; #TrustWomen; #BelieveWomen; #BeenRapedNeverReported; #YesAllWomen; #HimToo, #BlackLivesMatter, #TimesUpand #NowAustralia have emerged, each reflecting an intersectionality between sexual violence, identity politics, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, language, poverty and human rights in our daily lives (Rodino-Colocino, 2018; Menzies, Ringrose & Keller, 2018).

Research in the post #MeToo era has been tied to film studies, feminist media studies, (Rodino-Colocino, 2018; Marghitu, 2018), criminology (Mack & McCann, 2018), psychology (Jokic, 2018) or studies examining digital hashtags (Menzies et al., 2018). Post #MeToo, minimal academic research has explored how the journalism industry has reported on the sexual violence and the impact of such reportage on journalism practice and society as a whole (Mack & McCann, 2018). Historically, reports of sexual violence made the news when it was related to a known personality (for example, Weinstein) or was so extreme in nature that it was categorised as having ‘unusual’ news value (Gilchrist 2010; Rodrigues 2013; Rodino-Colocino, 2018). As Ursula Macfarlane's hard-hitting documentary /Untouchable/, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2019 notes, Weinstein often said to his victims and the press investigating the allegations: “Don’t you know who I am!?” (Cited in Debruge, 2019). However, as film critic, Peter Debruge (2019, p.1) from Variety magazine adds, “separate from the issue of Weinstein’s influence was the fact that news outlets have a legal and journalistic responsibility to get victims to go on the record before running such an incendiary story”. Reportage by US journalists, Ronan Farrow from The New Yorker, and Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey from The New York Times about abusers, have been painful, but important pieces of journalism (Cobb & Horeck, 2018). As the #MeToo hashtag went viral, the Weinstein scandal became a trial by media with the public “blaming and shaming” of more than 200 powerful men “from a range of sectors, including the film, music, literary, media, sports, fashion and the food industries...for their predatory, abusive behaviour” (Cobb & Horeck, 2018, p.1). The post Weinstein #MeToo erahasalso resulted in increased level of reporting of sexual violence cases by the mainstreamand social media. However, scholars have raised concerns that some of the media coverage for being misogynistic, sensational and insensitive. Questions remain whether journalism can help mitigate threats of sexual and physical violence trolled against women who speak up about #MeToo (Cole, 2018).

The guest editors of Journalism Practice invite rigorous empirical scholarly work related to the theme of journalism practice, sexual violence, pre or post the #MeToo era. Papers need to delineate their use of the concept of sexual violence and examine how it is reported on, or distributed by legacy or social media. Research should be based around either quantitative, qualitative, computational and/or mixed research methods. Papers are also encouraged to assess the implications or impact of such reportage, and where appropriate offer recommendations to improve journalism practice vis-à-vis reporting of sexual violence.

Possible areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Journalism, sexual violence, race and ethnicity;
• Journalism, sexual violence and the gendered culture;
• Journalism, sexual violence and human rights;
• Journalism, sexual violence and ethics/legal considerations and guidelines;
• Journalism news values, news language, news traditions and sexual violence;
• Solution Journalism and sexual violence reporting; and
• Reporting sexual violence and journalism training/education.

INFORMATION ABOUT SUBMISSION: 

We invite research papers between 7000 to 8000s words, (including references, notes, tables, figures) relating to this themed issue, and an abbreviated author(s) bio.

Deadline for full papers to Journalism Practice’s Scholar One by 18 June, 2019

Following the peer review process, accepted papers will be notified by mid-August, 2019 for final revisions.

Revised articles need to be ready by December 1, 2019, to be published in the Journalism Practice, 2020, Vol 14, No 1.

Oxford Brookes University - Technology, Design and Environment

Salary: £31,302 rising annually to £34,189

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Deadline: March 17, 2019

Job Ref: 063425

The School of Arts has a vibrant research environment that produces world-leading research outputs in the fields of Art & Design, Film Studies, Music, Publishing and Sound Arts.

You will contribute to the research culture of the school and in particular to one of the existing areas of research excellence: Audience Studies, Critical and historical musicology, Book History, Composition, Digital and media Arts, Film Theory, Fine Arts Theory and Practice, Sound Arts and Sound Studies.

The Research Fellow will carry out their own research and help staff in the School with the development of grant applications, networking and dissemination activities, and research outputs.

We are recuriting for 3 full time, fixed term positions, for 36 months.

As Research Fellow you will be responsible for:

• Carrying out research related to one of the areas of research excellence identified by the SoA: Audience Studies, Critical and historical musicology, Book History, Digital and media Arts, Film Theory, Fine Arts Practice, Sound Arts, Sound Studies
• Publishing REF returnable outputs
• Assisting staff in the School with the development of grant proposals, networking and dissemination activities, and outputs for publication
• Attending conferences/workshops and presenting papers, work-in-progress, creative outcomes as required
• Contributing to the research culture of the school

You should have:

• A good degree and PhD in in an appropriate discipline (Music, Arts, Film, Publishing)
• Demonstrable experience of working in an academic, arts practice or industry-led research environment
• Knowledge in one of the key areas of research excellence in order to develop a coherent research programme that is well-organised and deliverable
• Ability to contribute to one of the existing research groups within the SoA
• Excellent skills in the preparation of research for publication and dissemination
• Record of published outputs with REF return potential
• Good time management skills, including the ability to set priorities and meet deadlines
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Commitment to the values and mission of the University.
• Applicants are asked to submit an outline of their proposed research project (2 pages maximum) with their application. The outline should include:
• Details of the significance of the project, and the contribution it will make to enhancing understanding, knowledge, insights or creativity
• A definition of the research questions, issues or problems to be addressed
• An overview of the proposed research methods and/or approach and their appropriateness, effectiveness and feasibility
• A feasible project management plan that will allow the project to be completed within the project time

Details of the proposed dissemination methods and impact plans (including potential reach and significance of impacts on the economy, society and/or culture and discussion of intended research beneficiaries and proposed ways of engaging with them).

Informal enquiries should be directed to Professor Paul Whitty, Professor in Composition: pwhitty@brookes.ac.uk

As one of the largest employers in Oxford we pride ourselves in the great experience we offer our staff. You'll be joining a friendly, professional environment where every member of staff is recognised as important to the success of Oxford Brookes University. To find out more about the benefits of working for Oxford Brookes please visit: www.brookes.ac.uk/job-vacancies/working-at-brookes.

The University has adopted equality, diversity and inclusion as core values. We welcome applications from suitably qualified candidates whatever their background, and especially from BAME candidates who are under-represented in our workforce.

Poznan

September 12-13, 2019

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 25, 2019

The Political Communication Section of ECREA welcomes the submission of abstracts for presentation at the next Interim Conference to be held in Poznan on 12 to 13 September 2019. Local host will be Agnieszka Stepinska from the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland.

The organizers call for proposals in all sub-fields of political communication research but particularly invite conceptual, empirical, and methodological proposals on changes, shifts, and developments in political communication and their consequences. Experience of transformation in the Central and Eastern European countries as well as the current situation in other parts of Europe clearly stress the important role of communication in the fall of old borders as well as in creating new ones. Undoubtedly, communication was and still is used to overcome borders within and between countries in Europe (e.g., in the context of the peaceful revolution in East Germany and Roundtable negotiations in Poland in the past, or with regards to establishing and strengthening European integration and a European Public Sphere). The most recent digital transformation of the media has resulted in an environment where political actors, journalists, and citizens may easily and quickly disseminate messages across borders in order to achieve their goals. Undoubtedly, these new communication channels are often used to intensify communication accross borders, to solve problems and to fight for demoractic values. At the same time, however, communication is used to build new borders between (e.g., in the European debate on refugees) or within countries (e.g., when populist parties and politicians aim at mobilizing support for their goals at the expense of polarizing and dividing society). Communication clearly can cause problems when it is used to spread misinformation and hate speech or when it is used to discriminate against certain groups in society, thereby contributing to new borders.

How can the mechanisms of using political communication for building or tearing down borders be described theoretically and empirically, referring to examples from the present and the past? Which kinds of communicative tools and strategies do different political actors use to build or tear down borders? Which transnational, cross-border patterns of such forms of political communication do we find around the world? Which contextual conditions favor or hinder the use of political communication for building or tearing down borders? Which methods do we need to investigate questions like these?

The conference will feature both individual research papers and thematic panels. Paper submissions will be grouped in sessions of 4-5 papers by the conference program chair. A limited number of slots will be available for coherent panels where one topic is addressed in four to five presentations, followed by a respondent. Preference will be given to panels with presenters from diverse backgrounds and affiliations.

Submissions:

Submissions should be sent to poznan.polcomm@gmail.com no later than 25 February 2019.

Paper submissions: Please include in the email (a) the title of your paper, (b) an abstract of no more than 400 words, and (c) names and affiliations of the authors.

Panel submissions: To submit a panel proposal, a 300 words rationale should be sent alongside a 150 words explanation per presentation, as well as the names and affiliations of presenters and respondent.

Submission will undergo scholarly peer-review.

Only one proposal per first author can be accepted.

Notifications of acceptance will be issued at the earliest appropriate time.

READ MORE

May 9, 2019

Dublin City University, Ireland

Deadline for submitting paper proposals: February 28, 2019

Deliberative democracy in theory and in practice has been developing rapidly over the last decade enriching significantly the study of democratic politics. The strong philosophical foundations of deliberation (Habermas 1996; Rawls 1993) were followed by an important development of arguments and strands within deliberative democracy (eg Dryzek 1994, Gutmann and Thompson 2003). In addition to the always-challenging theoretical discussion on several procedural and conceptual aspects of deliberation, the empirical applications of deliberative democracy have equally experienced a remarkable rise (Thompson 2008) as well as in online domains. A growing number of deliberative experiments and platforms have complimented the theoretical principles of deliberative theory with ‘real politics’ initiatives in which citizens can deliberate, exchange ideas and potentially contribute to decision making. We can argue that in deliberative democracy there is often a cross fertilization between theory and practice (Cavalier, 2011: 21).

The informed, active and engaged citizen stands at the very heart of deliberative democracy re-introducing, thus, a participatory turn in democratic theory. The purpose of deliberative fora is to enhance knowledge, foster dialogue between interlocutors and reach well-reasoned and well balanced decisions. Although not all strands of deliberative democracy agree on the whole procedure feeding a well balanced decision making, deliberative procedures provide a substantive locus for public discussion and public reasoning for policies that are about to be implemented.

Deliberative democracy both in relation to its origins and its actual implementation is closely associated with legal procedures as law making constitutes the main institutional process by which policies are decided, enacted and implemented. Law making in representative democracies is reflective of the normative stance that legislatures are representatives of people and therefore law making is also illustrative of peoples’ needs and interests. However, ‘strong democracies’ (Barber 2004) require that citizens are constantly present in politics and are able to influence decisions not only during elections but on other given instances as well. Presumably, if this continuous presence of citizens in political affairs is maintained, the feeling of “trust” which is closely associated with how citizens understand and address democratic procedures will be restored in modern representative democracies. Trust is considered a basic factor and quality indicator for democracy and low levels of political trust are associated with less support for law compliance and may undermine democratic procedures (Marien and Hooghe 2011: 282).

By fulfilling and realizing this normative assumption for the importance of citizens participation in politics, real world cases have shown that citizens can have a more substantial role in law making even to the highest level of legal hierarchy which is the Constitution. In addition, a number of e-rulemaking initiatives with the most prominent of them being the US e-rulemaking initiative have developed a long term culture for a more institutional approach in public participation in relation to legislative procedures. The EU has also adopted consultation and feedback procedures throughout the law making cycle.

This one-day workshop aims to explore new trends and innovations in deliberative democracy with specific attention to deliberative procedures in legislative politics and law making. We welcome papers and contributions predominantly on the following topics but also on other relevant topics.

• Innovations in participatory democracy and results reported
• How public deliberation can feed law-making procedures?
• Potential and preconditions for institutionalization of deliberative procedures in legislative politics
• Deliberative procedures and law making in the EU
• E-rulemaking and deliberation
• How participation and deliberation in law making procedures can enhance the feeling of trust in institutions and reinvigorate modern representative democracies?
• How important is trust between deliberators and trust in procedures for the procedure of deliberation and its success?
• How deliberation can fit in an institutional design. Preconditions, problems, benefits
• Evaluation and incorporation of citizens’ consultation and input in legislative politics
• Indicators of trust in law making procedures

Submission details

Please submit a short abstract of no more than 300 words to anastasia.deligkiaouri@dcu.ie with cc to jane.suiter@dcu.ie, david.farrell@ucd.ie by February 28th, 2019 by indicating at the topic of the email “Workshop submission PEREDEP 2019”. All submissions will be peer –reviewed by the organizing committee and external reviewers. Please indicate at your abstract if it is part of a research project. Authors will be notified of the decision for their paper proposal by 15 March 2019.

Further information: Participants are expected to cover their own accommodation and travel costs. Due to the kind support of PSAI a limited number of travel (within Ireland) and accommodation bursaries are available for PhD students if their participation in the conference is not funded by their University. Please indicate if you require a bursary at your abstract submission.

Registration:

Participation in the conference is free but all participants are required to register by filling in the Registration Form for PEREDEP – E-Rule Making Workshop. Please register by April 30th, 2019 by sending the registration form with your details to anastasia.deligkiaouri@dcu.ie

Organizing Committee:

Dr Anastasia Deligiaouri (Marie Curie Experienced Research Fellow, MSCA-IF), Dublin City University, Ireland, anastasia.deligkiaouri@dcu.ie

Dr Jane Suiter, Associate Professor, School of Communications, Director of the Institute for Future Media and Journalism, Dublin City University, Ireland, jane.suiter@dcu.ie

Professor David Farrell, Head, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, Ireland david.farrell@ucd.ie

With the support of Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) and the specialist group of Participatory Deliberative Democracy.

This workshop in organized as part of the project “PEREDEP” [Promoting E-Rulemaking in the EU through Deliberative Procedures]. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 798502.

https://fujomedia.eu/call-papers-workshop-deliberative-democracy/

If you are from the United States, South Korea, Japan, Italy, or Germany and interested in working on an exciting project for your PhD or postdoc studies (starting summer/fall 2019), this could be a terrific fit for you.

The project examines how values are constructed in digital spheres through a comparative analysis of user-generated content in five languages. The positions are fully funded: up to 5 years for PhD students and 2 years (with an extension option) for postdoctoral students. The team will be based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Dept. of communication) with trips to the relevant countries for interview purposes. Candidates with qualitative and/or quantitative training in the social sciences, humanities and computer science are encouraged to apply.

For more information, see https://limorshifman.huji.ac.il.

To start the application process, please send your CV to the principal investigator, Limor Shifman, at: limor.shifman@mail.huji.ac.il

Conference in comparative political communication

July 1-2, 2019

Nice, France

Deadline: February 27, 2019

Elections to the European Parliament have long been considered "second class" elections (Reif & Schmitt, 1980). Two main factors have been put forward in order to justify this assessment: the persistent low level of participation in this election in most of the European Union countries and the weakness of the European Parliament in regard to the capabilities and powers of the different national parliaments. As a result, mainstream political parties - in office locally sooner or later - have somewhat neglected these elections, often perceived by the public at large as a "sideline" for politicians having lost momentum or at the end of their careers. However, marginal political parties, or those representing the extremes of the political spectrum, have benefited from the weak investment of mainstream parties, making their voices heard and advancing their ideas.

While the 2014 European elections did not directly change the situation, the influence of this vote is far from negligible. Indeed, the political communication of the marginal and extreme parties during this election has influenced the opinion of its tone even more demagogic and populist than before, with speeches attacking the European Union and its Brussels institutions, or those opposed to immigration or advocating a return to national borders, sometimes with some violence unheard since the first half of the 20th century. More than ever, mainstream parties have been blamed as "complicit" in this surrender of sovereignty.

With this frontal denunciation of mainstream parties, but also with the rebuttal of the ideas of political consensus inherent to the usual democratic debates, the political communication of the 2014 European elections has become the testing ground of several demagogic parties, frequently characterized as "populists". They took advantage of this platform to make their voices heard, and then grasped power in several countries of the European Union. One can also glimpse in this movement the birth of the idea of "clearing off" (politicians and parties), which made the later happiness of some newcomers on the political chess boards of several countries of the Union, with notably the 2017 "party-less" victory Emmanuel Macron in France in 2017.

Looking at the political communication flows of the 2014 European elections thus made it possible to show that their "second-order" status had become questionable: if their immediate result - the composition of the European Parliament - did not change very much, the influence of these elections on the internal votes that followed in the EU countries is far from negligible.

This conference proposes to its contributors to draw up an initial assessment of the political communication of the 2019 European elections by particularly exploring three points:

• a comparative analysis of the political communication strategies and tactics of the campaign in the European Union, through all the communication tools and methods, including possible subversive uses of social networks and the deliberate use of fake news;
• linking content and programs with the political evolution of many EU countries since the previous European elections, which will lead to consider the balance between national issues and European issues, some seemingly becoming crucial for politicians in office (starting with France);
• finally, the evaluation of the "disruptive" or, on the contrary, more classical feature of political communication at the European level; will we be witnessing a banal practice of political communication across the countries of the Union? Or will the diversity and fragmentation of political landscapes and the increased growth of social networks spark innovation and creativity?

These central questions will be the subject of the international conference on Comparative Political Communication to be held in Nice on July 1st and 2nd, 2019, in the framework of cooperation between the "Sic.Lab Méditerranée" laboratory of the Côte d'Azur University (www.siclab.fr) and the Center for Comparative Studies in Political and Public Communication (www.ceccopop.eu). This scientific event will bring together researchers and communication professionals on the Carlone Campus of the LASH Faculty of the Côte d'Azur University and at the Mediterranean University Center, located on the "Promenade des Anglais".

The conference is organized by Philippe J. Maarek, Professor specialized in Political Communication at the Paris Est Créteil University (UPEC), former president of the Political Communication Research Sections of IPSA and IAMCR, associate member of the Sic.Lab and head of CECCOPOP. He ensures its scientific coordination with Nicolas Pelissier, Professor of Information Sciences and Communication at the University of Côte d'Azur and Head of Sic.Lab Méditerranée (EA 3280).

The event will be bilingual, French-English. Colleagues wishing to present a paper are invited to send a request to participate before February 27, 2019, to the following email address: ceccopop@gmail.com. Proposals must include an abstract of 250 to 500 words (one or two sheets) and a one-page Vitae. They will be subject to a double-blind evaluation by the Scientific Board. Proposals must include an abstract of 250 to 500 words (one or two sheets) and a one-page Vitae. They will be subject to a double-blind evaluation by the Scientific Board.