ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

August 18-25, 2024

Jönköping University Sweden

Deadline: May 17, 2024

Democracy depends on engaged citizens. And yet, the most powerful discourses surrounding engagement are strategically designed to drive commercial markets. As a counterpoint to this horizon, the main purpose of this PhD residential course is to understand theories and methods of media engagement not as a metric but as a marker of power relations.

This 7.5 credit course offers an international platform for PhD researchers to write, present and receive feedback on work in progress from global experts on theories and methods for media engagement. The course will cover key concepts for engagement, including political and public spheres, digital media and AI related technologies, social movements and mobilisation, transmedia engagement, and cultural citizenship and popular culture.

Key Highlights: Mentoring and networking with world leading scholars and international doctoral researchers; slow thinking, with time to write thesis chapters and peer reviewed journal articles; residential setting of Gränna Campus, overlooking the great lake of Vättern, with easy access to local food and crafts, clear water swimming, nature walks and mountain views; social events, including trips to the historical island of Visingsö.

Teaching Team: course leader Annette Hill (co author with Dahlgren of Media Engagement Routledge 2023), and Peter Dahlgren (author of Media and Political Engagement 2009), Renira Rampazzo Gambarato (co-author of Theory, Strategy, and Development in Transmedia Storytelling 2020), and Joke Hermes (author of Cultural Citizenship and Popular Culture 2023).

Website and application: for information on the course, application process, fees, and key dates (deadline soon!) see https://ju.se/mediaengagement. Contact Annette Hill (Annette.hill@ju.se)

September 26-28, 2024

Piedmont (Italy)

Deadline: May 18, 2024

This is to let you know that we are now accepting abstract proposals for the stream on Food Media and Communication in the congress of the International Society for Gastronomic Sciences and Studies (ISGSS) titled Shaping Gastronomy: Regenerating Food Systems and Societies. The deadline is the 18th of May. If you wish you can associate your abstract to the panel Taste Experience and Media in Contemporary Society or send it as an independent oral contribution. Here is the link to the call: https://www.internationalgastronomicsociety.org/calls/food-media-and-communication

The congress takes place in Piedmont (Italy) between the 26th and the 28th of September 2024. For details on our organization, on the congress and its beautiful locations, please follow this link: https://www.internationalgastronomicsociety.org/congress-overview

Contact (stream): Luca Antoniazzi, l.antoniazzi@unisg.it

Media and Communication researchers, please consider taking part in the study “Affecting research in media and communication”, which aims to map and quantify emotional risks and emotional labour of conducting research in our disciplines, its impact on job stress, burnout and satisfaction, as well as best practice in supporting researchers’ well-being.

The survey is in English, anonymous, takes around 10 minutes to complete, and is open to media and communication researchers from across the world.

Survey link: https://eu.surveymonkey.com/r/KHGGDF2

As we are increasingly working in precarious environments, investigating the emotional toll of media and communication production and consumption, as well as studying distressing content, we should also be acknowledging our own experiences of working in these fields and ways in which we can be best supported.

If you need any further information about participation in the study then please contact Dr Maja Simunjak (Middlesex University London) - M.Simunjak@mdx.ac.uk

mediastudies.press

mediastudies.press, the scholar-led and nonprofit OA publisher, is happy to announce our annual proposal window from 1 June to 30 July, 2024. During this date window, authors are encouraged to submit a proposal for review.

mediastudies.press welcomes submissions from scholars across media, communication, and film studies. We currently publish in four series:

• Media Manifold series — monographs and other book-length works of contemporary media scholarship
  
• Public Domain series — reprints of neglected classics, in new critical editions anchored by framing introductions
  
• Open Reader series — themed collections of openly licensed, public domain, and linked materials curated and introduced by leading experts
  
• History of Media Studies series — monographs and other original scholarly works centered on history of media, communication, and film studies
  

We are small and artisanal by mission, and aim to publish just five books a year. Given the volume of proposals that we receive—and with our production schedule in mind—we maintain an annual proposal window (1 June to 30 July), for the review of manuscripts slated for publication in the following calendar year. You are welcome to send informal queries outside these dates, but our general practice is to only consider proposals within the annual window. Each year, we review proposals with an initial reply by August 15, with the aim to conduct peer review of proposals of expressed interest by the end of September.

mediastudies.press is an open-access publisher for the media and communication studies fields. The press is nonprofit and scholar-led. We publish living works, with iterative updates stitched into our process. And we encourage multi-modal submissions that reflect the mediated environments our authors study. 

Publishing with mediastudies.press is free on principle. Our aim is to demonstrate, on a small scale, an open-access publishing model supported by libraries rather than author fees, via the Open Book Collective. Open access for readers, we believe, should not be traded for new barriers to authorship. 

All our published works are rigorously peer-reviewed, and receive unusual editorial attention. We prioritize discoverability through careful metadata, library records, and directory listings. As a scholar-run operation, our publicity outreach is uncommonly informed by the fields’ intellectual contours. 

We kindly ask that proposals be submitted as a single PDF. Proposals should include the following elements, in addition to at least one draft chapter:

1. Proposed title and subtitle
   
2. A 500- to 1000-word narrative description of the book
   
3. Short bios of author(s) and/or editor(s)
   
4. Proposed series (see above)
   
5. Tentative table of contents, preferably annotated
   
6. Estimated word-length
   
7. Multi-modal components, if any
   
8. Status of the book (i.e., expectation of completion date, the portion now complete)
   
9. At least one draft chapter
   

To submit your work to mediastudies.press please follow our submission link.

If you have any questions at all about the proposal process for books, please contact us at press@mediastudies.press

Jeff Pooley, director of mediastudies.press

Dave Park, associate director of mediastudies.press

September 23, 2024

Ljubljana, Slovenia

The registration for the ECREA preconference 'Exploring the Dynamics of Digital Disconnection - Disruption, Inequalities, and Norms' is now open.

Date: September 23rd, 2024

Full-day, in-person conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

There is no registration fee. 

To register, visit the conference website using the following link: https://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/projects/digital-disconnection/events/conferences/ECREA-preconference-ljubljana.html

Please note that acceptance notifications for presenters have already been sent out. This is invitation directed towards non-presenting attendees who may be interested in participating.

October 26-28, 2024

Cairo, Egypt

Deadline: May 30, 2024

The Twenty-Eighth Annual Conference of the AUSACE-Arab-US Association for Communication Educators will be held at Ahram Canadian University (ACU) in Cairo, Egypt on October 26-28, 2024. 

Theme: Media Coverage and its Effects in Times of Crisis

Special topics panels are also available for submission

Important Deadlines:

1. Abstract Submission:

Abstract submission deadline: May 30th, 2024.

2. Acceptance Letter:

Acceptance letters to be sent to participants: June 30th, 2024.

3. Full Paper Submission:

Full papers must be submitted by participants: September 30th, 2024.

For the submission deadlines and other details, please check the updated call for papers in both English and Arabic:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1maYeTvXocvP55IMhwY4xdYTZy-U93OkN?usp=drive_link

Send abstracts and questions to:

A conference-designated email: ausace2024@acu.edu.eg

We are pleased to announce the publication of a free downloadable report on young audiences (16-34) in the Netherlands (2024) and their engagement with British screen entertainment. This adds to previous AHRC-funded reports on Germany and Denmark. Please download and share with colleagues, students and whoever else might be interested. 

Netherlands:  Esser, A., Hilborn, M., & Steemers, J. (2024). Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Netherlands: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture? . King's College London. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-177

Link here: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/252948260/FINAL_Netherlands_Interim_Report_April_5_2024.pdf

Germany: Esser, A., Hilborn, M., & Steemers, J. (2023). Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Germany: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture?. King's College London. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-139

Link here: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/229064486/FINAL_Germany_Interim_Report_Sept_4_2023.pdf

Denmark: Esser, A., Hilborn, M., & Steemers, J. (2023). Screen Encounters with Britain - Interim Report Denmark: What do young Europeans make of Britain and its digital screen culture?. King's College London. https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-118

Link here: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/229063246/Final_Denmark_Interim_Report_Revd_Sep_4_2023.pdf

EEMC – www.electionsmonitoringcenter.eu - is an international research centre in studies and monitoring of European elections and electoral campaigns. Its research projects, backed by national and European institutions, have seen participation from over 100 researchers representing more than 40 European universities.

Among the achievement of EEMC's activity is the creation of the biggest archive of European electoral campaigns, housing over 10,000 materials that are freely accessible online.

For the 2024 European elections, as for those of 2014 and 2019, EEMC is promoting an international research on the EU electoral campaign in the 27 member countries.

The research involves collecting and analysing the electoral materials (posters, TV ads, and Social network content) produced by the main political parties in the 27 EU Member States.

The main objectives of the research are:

• the comparative analysis of the media, communication styles and formats of the electoral campaign;
  
• the investigation of the different communication cultures and traditions and their political or geographical origins;
  
• the analysis of the contents and issues of the campaign and their ideological and political roots;
  
• update the European elections archive with the 2024 electoral campaign materials
  

EEMC is selecting the National Research Groups eager to join a dynamic international research team at the forefront of political communication studies for the following EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Each National Research Group, must be led by a senior scholar, and will play a pivotal role in this research. Tasks of national teams are: to research, collect, and analyse the electoral materials produced in their nation by the main political parties. For these activities, the research tools and IT applications developed by the EEMC will be made available. At the end of the research, the national data set will be made available to the National Research Groups.

Researchers and research groups interested in participating in the project can send their application including their CVs and participation in international projects to: eemc@uniroma3.it.

Problemi dell'Informazione (Special Issue) n. 1/2025

Deadline: May 30, 2024

Guest editors: Sergio Splendore & Elena Valentini

Description

For a long time, studying journalism has meant studying its newsrooms. The paradigm of Newsroom Studies, sometimes also referred to as the sociology of news, precisely because it analyses how journalistically relevant information is produced and distributed, was capable of laying the foundations of journalism studies (Kunelius & Waisbord, 2023). What happens with the sociology of news is an accurate and meticulous sociological analysis of the work of journalism, where not only the mechanisms of social control attributable to editors or those in influential positions in the newsroom are taken into account but also the broader context of socialization to professionalism and the way it is exercised. With Newsroom Studies, the focus shifts from the individual choices of editors or journalists to the complex processes involved in the production of information and involving various actors. Newsroom Studies have also been able to identify the process of professionalization innovatively, considering the inclusion of objectivity and impartiality in practices and products of professional journalism a mean to make it more autonomous. On the contrary, it is argued here that those values could also be a way of strengthening dominant positions and cementing the status quo. Professionalization as a project was aimed not at increasing journalists’ independence but at co-opting them.

While Newsroom Studies has been regarded as a paradigm, the field’s contextual broadening and fragmentation make this approach less central. The contemporary media ecology has radically changed this context: recent work and analysis suggest that the supposed core of journalism and the assumed consistency of the inner workings of news organizations are problematic starting points for journalism studies.

Among the many terms to identify this change (hybrid journalism, convergent journalism, ambient journalism, collaborative journalism) Deuze and Witschge (2018) talk about beyond journalism. With this locution, they precisely indicate the context of profound transformations in the professional, business, technological, and social context of journalism, which is now pervaded by the rejection of professionalism, but at the same time, the need to affirm as reliable and true the production of information from actors outside the journalistic field, through alternative ways and different types of informational flows. For example, Peters and Allan (2022) study memes as new forms of digital communication to disrupt, undermine, attack, resist or reappropriate discursive positions pertaining to public affairs narratives in the news. Moreover, the recognition of a broader arena of news production and consumption implies the need to break established routines, the start-up culture, and a radical turn towards the audience (Swart et al. 2022), shifting the focus from what counts as news use to what is experienced as informative and positing many different audiences as active agents.

The role of the public at multiple levels is at the heart of new relational approaches in journalism studies. Recent works recognize relational work as part of journalistic professionalism in different forms: from engaged reporting to collaboration with the local community to organizing journalism festivals or social events such as opening the newsroom to the public (Koliska et al., 2023). These forms contribute to repositioning the role of journalists and journalism in society.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, scholars have investigated participatory practices in newsrooms. These practices have been at the centre of journalists’ meta discourses, often considered an obligation to respond to and embrace or vital for the future of journalism (Vos & Ryan, 2023). At the same time, journalistic-centric visions of the audience prevailed (Carlson & Peters, 2023), also considering the contribution and the role of other actors from the point of view of journalists. Most recently, the discourse about participatory journalism has shifted to concerns and has declined (Vos & Ryan, 2023), opening new perspectives about audience engagement and the work beyond newsrooms.

Moreover, several scholars support an expansive view of journalism situated more broadly (Reese, 2021; Zelizer et al., 2022) and promote a decentralized vision of journalism based on experiences rather than norms, identifying the range of actors and institutions that provide people with knowledge and information about the world (Carlson & Peters, 2023).

However, it is argued here that these new perspectives do not intend to question the centrality and importance of journalism in society but aim to reflect on the redefinition of the “places” and practices of information production and consumption. This call for papers, therefore, seeks to study and analyse the production and consumption of information that does not take place in traditional contexts, which goes beyond newsrooms.

The proposed empirical and theoretical analysis needs to stress the new perspectives necessary to grasp this change (or the old one still able to reach the scope) and propose the new meaning of professionalism that arises.

This group therefore includes, but is not limited to:

- Platformized news sources and products (forms of news initiatives embedded within social media);

- Journalism initiatives beyond newsrooms (journalists or media outlets themselves which meet audiences outside the newsrooms);

- Journalism Festivals;

- Media activism projects;

- Civic Journalism, Engaged reporting and other forms of community voices’ inclusion in news reports;

- New perspectives on participatory journalism;

- Debunking and fact-checking activities;

- Information production by nonjournalist actors;

- Audience consumption concerning what publics consider and consume as informative products beyond the traditional ones;

- New perspectives on the conception of what journalism is for and its role in society.

Key dates:

• Deadline for abstract submissions: May 30, 2024
  
• Decision by issue editors sent by: June 15, 2024
  
• Full paper submissions: September 30, 2024
  
• First round of reviews completed by: November 20, 2024
  
• Resubmissions of papers: December 20, 2024
  
• Second round of reviews completed by: January 15, 2025
  
• Submission of final manuscripts: February 15, 2025
  

Abstracts (300-500 words plus references) in English or in Italian should be submitted at: https://submission.rivisteweb.it/index.php/pdi 

Abstracts should be proposed for the section “Saggi”. Please indicate that the proposal is for the special issue edited by Splendore and Valentini in the box “Comments for the editor”.

For further information about the submission process, please contact: elena.valentini@uniroma1.it, sergio.splendore@unimi.it

There are no APC (article processing charge) for authors.

About the venue

Established in 1976, Problemi dell’Informazione (PdI) has been the first Italian scientific journal focusing specifically on journalism and communication studies. Since then, PdI has represented a dedicated venue for the development of a vivid debate on these topics, fueled both by academic research and by contributions from professionals. More recently PdI has expanded its aims and scope by broadly considering all forms of communication, also to keep pace with the latest transformations in the field of journalism and of journalism studies. PdI publishes contributions in Italian and in English after a rigorous double-blind peer review process.

Principal Editor: Carlo Sorrentino.

Here: https://www.mulino.it/riviste/issn/0390-5195 its national and international board.

Problemi dell'Informazione is A-class rated journal by ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems) in Sociology of culture and communication

November 7-8,2024

University of Salzburg (Austria)

Deadline: July 28, 2024

Workshop 2024 of the Network Media Structures

Organiser: Network Media Structures and Dept. of Communication Studies at the University of Salzburg

Extended Abstracts: 500-1.000 words including references

Submission: 28 July 2024 as PDF to the address tales.tomaz@plus.ac.at (Subject: “Abstract NMS24”)

Context

The Network Media Structures offers a transnational platform for researchers who deal with media structures and media organisations from a political, historical, economic, legal or sociological perspective. The Network is originally based in German-speaking countries, but this workshop also invites the international community to participate.

Theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions, case studies and comparative work that address one or more aspects of the broad understanding of media structures are welcome. All those interested in researching media structures – especially early career scholars (doctoral candidates, students) – are invited to submit papers.

This workshop will focus in particular on questions of European platform policy. Digital platforms have become a key element of contemporary communication systems (Flensburg & Lai, 2020; Humprecht et al., 2022). They increasingly play an intermediary role in the distribution of media content, structuring its consumption across the globe. In addition, they have become crucial spaces of civic discourse and cultural expression beyond the media themselves.

After an early phase in which these developments were seen as “democratisers”, this optimism has vanished. Digital platforms are now held responsible for several problems such as the spread of misinformation, hate speech and privacy infringements (Miller & Vaccari, 2020). On top of that, they are often held responsible for undermining the sustainability of the business model of many media organisations, deemed essential for an informed citizenry (Trappel & Tomaz, 2021). Accordingly, these developments may be regarded as a threat to democracy.

The European Union has reacted to this context introducing a comprehensive package of media and platform legislation. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) establishes a baseline for data collection and processing, drawing on the understanding that data is central in the business model of Internet companies and prone to privacy infringements. The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) introduce specific responsibilities on platforms, requiring more transparency in their moderation and recommendation processes and limiting abuse of market power by very large platforms. In 2024, the AI Act and the Media Freedom Act (EMFA) have expanded this framework, striving respectively for a safe adoption of automated decision-making and for protection of media independence vis-a-vis interference both from politics and digital intermediaries. This is not to mention the amendment of already existing legislation, such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), to account for the interaction between media and platforms.

This approach differs considerably from early communication policy in the EU, which clearly distinguished between content producers and distributors, and was more concerned with issues such as media ownership concentration, must-carry obligations, universality, and promotion of public interest content, to name a few (Picard & Pickard, 2017). Communication policy was also often a matter of concern for member states, with the EU refraining from intervention. But there are also continuities. The EMFA indicates some prevalence of the idea of promoting findability and discoverability of public interest content, and some aspects of the DSA can also be interpreted as an updated version of must-carry obligations.

In the context, the workshop is particularly interested in the following questions:

• How are EU policymakers conceiving the relation between media and platforms in their regulatory proposals since the rise of the digital intermediaries?

• Which ideas from the toolkit of traditional media policy remain present in the new EU media and platform regulatory framework? Which ones are absent?

• How are the German-speaking countries interpreting and applying these ideas in their specific contexts? Are there specific developments that diverge from the EU trend?

• How are different stakeholders, such as media groups, digital companies, politicians, journalists and activists reacting to these developments?

• What should we expect as further developments in the European media and platform regulation?

In addition to contributions on these questions, open-topic submissions are also possible and welcome. If you are planning a contribution or a discourse format with a different thematic focus that could be of interest to members of the network, we will be happy to create a space/time for it. Please also submit your proposal with the same deadline and format (extended abstract). We will then try to find a suitable slot.

We expect abstracts of 500 to 1.000 words. Submissions are requested by 28 July 2024 and should be sent to tales.tomaz@plus.ac.at with the subject "Abstract NMS24". We kindly ask you to submit your abstract in anonymised form, i.e. with a separate cover sheet on which the title of the article, names of authors and contact details are noted.

Contacts & further information

Organisers:

Josef Trappel (josef.trappel@plus.ac.at)

Tales Tomaz (tales.tomaz@plus.ac.at)

Division of Media Policy and Media Economics, Dept. of Communication Studies

University of Salzburg

Network head:

Leyla Dogruel: leyla.dogruel@uni-erfurt.de

Dirk Arnold: dirk.arnold@uni-leipzig.de

References 

Flensburg, S., & Lai, S. S. (2020). Comparing Digital Communication Systems: An empirical framework for analysing the political economy of digital infrastructures. Nordicom Review, 41(2), 127–145. https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2020-0019

Griffin, R. (2023). Public and private power in social media governance: Multistakeholderism, the rule of law and democratic accountability. Transnational Legal Theory, 14(1), 46–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/20414005.2023.2203538

Humprecht, E., Castro Herrero, L., Blassnig, S., Brüggemann, M., & Engesser, S. (2022). Media systems in the digital age: An empirical comparison of 30 countries. Journal of Communication, 72(2), 145–164. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab054

Miller, M. L., & Vaccari, C. (2020). Digital threats to democracy: Comparative lessons and possible remedies. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 25(3), 333–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161220922323

Picard, R. G., & Pickard, V. (2017). Essential principles for contemporary media and communications policymaking. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/essential-principles-contemporary-media-and-communications-policymaking

Rahman, K. S., & Teachout, Z. (2020). From private bads to public goods: Adapting public utility regulation for informational infrastructure. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. https://knightcolumbia.org/content/from-private-bads-to-public-goods-adapting-public-utility-regulation-for-informational-infrastructure

Trappel, J., & Tomaz, T. (2021). Democratic performance of news media: Dimensions and indicators for comparative studies. In J. Trappel & T. Tomaz (Hrsg.), The Media for Democracy Monitor 2021: How leading news media survive digital transformation (Bd. 1, S. 11–53). Nordicom. https://doi.org/10.48335/9789188855404-1