ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Edited by Kirill Postoutenko

Forty years ago, German historian Reinhart Koselleck coined the notion of ‘asymmetrical concepts’, pointing at the asymmetry between standard self-ascriptions, such as ‘Hellenes’ or ‘Christians’, and pejorative other-references (‘Barbarians’ or ‘Pagans’) as a powerful weapon of cultural and political domination. Advancing and refining Koselleck’s approach, Beyond ‘Hellenes’ and ‘Barbarians’ explores the use of significant conceptual asymmetries such as ‘civilization’ vs. ‘barbarity’, ‘liberalism’ vs. ‘servility’, ‘order’ vs. ‘chaos’ or even ‘masters’ vs. ‘slaves’ in political, scientific and fictional discourses of Europe from the Middle Ages to the present day. Using an interdisciplinary set of approaches, the scholars in political history, cultural sociology, intellectual history and literary criticism bolster and extend our understanding of this ever-growing area of conceptual history.

https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PostoutenkoBeyond

International Journal Film and Media Arts , Vol. 9 No. 1 (2024)

Deadline: May 10, 2023

Guest Editors:

• Niinimaki Kirsi (Aalto University)
  
• Alexandra Cruchinho (Lusófona University)
  
• José Carlos Neves (Lusófona University)
  

The International Journal of Film and Media Arts welcomes a selection of high-quality papers for an edition dedicated to FL_Fashion Sustainability – International Conference, held by Lusófona University (Lisbon, Portugal), from 3rd to 5th November 2022. This issue is aligned with the FL_Conference edition, in which the theme was - Fashion, Media and Sustainability.

This call, however, accepts proposals for papers from outside the conference.

It is increasingly important to discuss Sustainability in all its variants, at the economic, environmental, and social levels, especially when the focus is on areas such as fashion, whose industry is one of the most responsible for the environmental damage that has been observed, increasingly, over recent times.

If, on one hand, the theme of sustainability refers us to the environmental aspect, it is emergent to discuss this theme under a social perspective where minorities are involved in important processes for the communities, where knowledge and values are valued and citizens, who, at the beginning, could be kept in a much more discrete life in the environment that surrounds them, are inserted in the active life. Papers in which the sustainability approach can be widened, e.g. through lowering the environmental impacts through new design approaches, new kind of aesthetic understanding and even including critical discussions and experimentations are welcome.

Economic sustainability is crucial to the success of business, brands, industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and is also an important area to keep in focus in the discussion. A new kind of economic understanding, new business models and even the aspect of degrowth in the fashion context could be one important track in sustainability knowledge.

This issue of the International Journal of Film and Media Arts invites fashion designers, film-makers, fashion teachers, artists and researchers to submit papers that deal with but are not limited to the topics of:

- Fashion Sustainability;

- Fashion Trends Communication;

- Fashion and Audiovisual for Sustainability;

- Tradition and Identity;

- Education for Sustainability.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Full Papers are to be submitted by 10th May 2023.

Please submit to: 

anna.coutinho@ulusofona.pt  or https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ijfma/about/submissions

Schedule for publication:

Submission of full paper: 10th May 2023

Feedback on full papers: 8th September 2023

Final revisions: 30th January 2024

Publication date: May 2024

More information is available at https://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/ijfma/announcement/view/170

MADS MØLLER T. ANDERSEN

In this book, Mads Møller T. Andersen examines the methodological challenges that arise when studying creativity and creative processes in media industries, arguing that the field of media studies still has much to learn about how these industries facilitate their own creative processes. Andersen introduces and utilizes a theoretical framework of five traditions in creativity to guide readers through five different methods of approaching and understanding the concept of creativity, exploring whether media scholars should abandon current, romantic understandings of creativity in favor of more progressive and nuanced definitions. Ultimately, Andersen considers and offers examples of how, as a discipline, we can design studies of creative processes that also address what we still don’t know about creativity in these contexts. Scholars interested in media studies, cultural studies, and research methods will find this book particularly useful.

Purchase the book here: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666901696/Researching-Creativity-in-Media-Industries

Polish Communication Association

We kindly invite you to participate in the 5th edition of the Young Media and Communication Scholars Mentoring Program of the Polish Communication Association. The Mentoring Program is addressed to Ph.D. and MA students who want to develop their research competencies under the guidance of renowned Polish researchers. Participation in the program is free of charge.

Applications (in Polish or English) will be accepted until December 2, 2022. Application form and detailed information about mentors are available here: https://www.ptks.pl/en/programs/pca-mentoring-program 

We are looking forward to your applications!

If you have any additional questions, do not hesitate to contact the program coordinator, Roksana Zdunek: mentoring.fmmik@gmail.com

November 18, 2022

Online

ECREA Post-conference sponsored by Communication History section & International and Intercultural communication section 

Organizer

China Media Observatory, Università della Svizzeraitaliana (Lugano, Switzerland)

Journal of Transcultural Communication (De Gruyter)

Co-organizer

School of International Journalism and Communication, Beijing Foreign Studies University

Institute for a Community with Shared Future, Communication University of China

Program

10.00-10.15 (UTC+8) Opening Ceremony

Chair: 

Deqiang Ji, Managing editor, Journal of Transcultural Communication; Professor, Communication University of China

Opening remarks:

Gabriele Balbi (recorded), Chair of ECREA Communication History Section; Associate Professor, Institute of Media and Journalism, Università della Svizzera italiana

Mélodine Sommier (recorded), Chair of ECREA International and Intercultural Communication Section, Academy of Finland Research Fellow, University of Jyväskylä

10.15-11:30 (UTC+8) Chinese Technology Companies in Asia and Africa

Chair: Sixian Lin, Beijing Foreign Studies University

Discussant: Dianlin Huang, Communication University of China

Interdisciplinary Research in Globalization Strategies and Insights of Chinese Enterprises -- Taking performance of TikTok in India as an example

Li, Rui; Zhai, Beibei

Beijing Foreign Studies University

Politicizing the Chinese Emerging Media Companies: A Case Study of the Rise and Fall of TikTok in India

Zhang, Xiaoyu

Communication University of China

The Localization, Growth and Closure of ByteDance’s Helo in India: A Case Study of Chinese Social Media Giant’s Third-world Gold Rush

Xu, Nuo

Peking University

An abortive de-othering attempt: TikTok's discipline of African-related short videos by Chinese living in Africa and the re-stereotyping of African images

Tan, Yuchen

Communication University of China

11:30-11:45 (UTC+8) Tea Break

11:45-13:00 (UTC+8) Platforms, Globalization and Cultural Boundaries

Chair: Can Cui, Beijing Foreign Studies University

Discussant: Deqiang Ji, Communication University of China

Umbrella global platform of Tencent eSports industry in China

Zhao, Yupei;Lin, Zhongxuan

Zhejiang University;Jinan University

The cross-genre dissemination of platformed cultural contents: Computing how algorithms erode cultural boundaries in China

Ma, Lide; He, Yuan; Zhao Xiuli; Ren, Beijia

Beijing Normal University; Hebei University

The Influence of TikTok’s Involvement in Global Governance Through Cooperation with UN Agencies on Its Brand Image Building

Xia, Mengyi

University of Macau

13.00-15.00 (UTC+8) Lunch Break

15.30-17.30(UTC+8) /08.30-10.30(CET) Branding and Rebranding of Technology Companies 

Chair: Deqiang Ji, Communication University of China

Discussant: Daya Thussu, Hong Kong Baptist University

A Post-Colonial analysis of transcultural news frames – A case study of Facebook’s rebranding

Ditlhokwa, Gopolang; Cann, Victoria E.

Communication University of China; University of Colorado

The achievement and dilemma of Bytedance on glocalization

Xie, Siqi;Liu, Liuni; Li, Suju

Shenzhen University; Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd.; Zhongjin Innovation (Shenzhen) Asset Management Co., LTD

The Super App Strategy: How Tencent combines platformization, infrastructuralization, conglomeration, and financialization in China’s app economy

Jia, Lianrui; Nieborg, David; Poell, Thomas

University of Sheffield; University of Toronto; University of Amsterdam

Netflix as a policy actor: Transnational strategy in Ibero-America

Marina Fernandes, Luis Albornoz

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

17.30-19.30(UTC+8) /10.30-12.30 (CET) Keynote Roundtable Discussion

Chair: Gabriele Balbi, Università della Svizzera italiana

Invited Speakers:

Daya Thussu, Hong Kong Baptist University

Dwayne Winseck, Carleton University

Stephen Croucher, Massey University

Fei Jiang, Journal of Transcultural Communication; Beijing Foreign Studies University

*Final Remarks from Beijing site

Deqiang Ji

19.30-20.30(UTC+8) /12.30-13.30 (CET) Lunch Break 

20.30-22.30(UTC+8) /13.30-15.30 (CET) Panel FOUR: Transcultural Challenges in Business Practice and Beyond

Chair: Mélodine Sommier, University of Jyväskylä

Discussant: Mélodine Sommier, University of Jyväskylä

Huawei Space in Italy

Negro, Gianluigi

Siena University

Cultural Homogeneity or Cultural heterogeneity? Questioning the changing corporate culture among emerging technology companies

Ely Luthi, Zhan Zhang

Università della Svizzera italiana

Intercultural experience learning in Metaverse and VR world

De Masi Vincenzo

United International College (UIC) Beijing Normal University

Being Chinese Online – Discursive (Re)production of Internet-Mediated Chinese National Identity

Wang, Zhiwei

University of Edinburgh

*Final Remarks

Zhan Zhang, Università della Svizzera italiana

Mélodine Sommier, University of Jyväskylä

Special issue of New Media & Society

Deadline: February 15, 2023

Discussions about young people’s access or experiences with online pornography underpin most discussions and concerns about their experiences online more broadly. There is usually consensus among public, policy, and academic pundits that experiences with online/mediated sexual content are or can be potentially harmful for young people (Tsaliki, 2016). For instance, recent media outlets monitor the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office and call for a ‘cracking down’ of regulatory activity for online pornography sites, which will force them to prove they are preventing children’s access to their content (Solon, 02/09/2022). This pressure rejuvenates similar calls invoked by the 2017 Digital Economy Act--which required online pornographic sites to implement strict access rules to people under 18-years old--and the Online Harms White Paper that was put in force to cover the Act’s gap concerning sexual content on social media (Thurman & Obster, 2021).

Effects-laden approaches assuming online pornography’s effects on young people dominate the debates around children’s sexuality more broadly and online pornography specifically, while approaches drawing from cultural studies and porn studies contextualise young people’s negotiations with online pornography in historical, cultural, and social terms. Growing academic research is putting play and consent in the research and sex education agendas (McKee et al, 2020) and also using porn literacy as an analytical framework to understand how young people transform their experiences and their knowledge of the conventions of the genre into a discourse about sexuality (Buckingham & Chronaki, 2014). Discussions about sexting (Albury, 2016), pornography’s position in sex education (Goldstein, 2019), and porn literacy education are being shaped more systematically and are informing current debates.

A key term in almost all debates about young people’s experiences with online pornography is ‘harm’ and the ways in which it is interpreted, negotiated, discussed, and unpacked by young people themselves. This special issue will address young people’s perceptions and interpretations of the notion of harm in experiences with online sexual content. Papers should address, but are not limited to, the following questions:

• How do young people unpack the notion of harm when talking about online pornography?
  
• How do young people who acknowledge a degree of harm in their own experiences with online pornography talk about it?
  
• To what extent is harm working as an umbrella concept including negotiations about representation, consumption, intimacy, consent, or rights?
  
• How do young people account for online pornography in the broader context of sex education and porn literacy?
  
• How is the notion of harm in young people’s experiences with online pornography conceptualised in different cultural contexts and the current historical moment?
  
• What are the methodological and ethical challenges in researching young people’s experiences with online sexual content?
  

Abstract submission:

Please submit abstracts of maximum 500 words to Despina Chronaki (dchronaki@jour.auth.gr). Abstracts should include information about the epistemological stance of your research, a short methodological note, and prospective findings. Submission deadline is no later than 15 February 2023. Full papers will be due 30 October 2023.

Guest editors:

Dr Despina Chronaki, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, dchronaki@jour.auth.gr

Associate Professor Debra Dudek, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Australia, d.dudek@ecu.edu.au

Giselle Woodley, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Australia, g.woodley@ecu.edu.au

University of Vienna

The Department of Communication of the University of Vienna, a subunit of the Faculty of Social Sciences, announces one vacant post-doc position (5 years, 40h/week) and three vacant PhD/pre-doc positions (3.5 years, 30h/week each) within the field of Advertising and Media Psychology (Prof. Jörg Matthes).

For more information, see links below:

- Post doc position (deadline: November 17): https://univis.univie.ac.at/ausschreibungstellensuche/flow/bew_ausschreibung-flow?_flowExecutionKey=_cC9C679CB-2FDD-5170-8EEE-892CA7F3C5B8_kF01BC81E-A744-EE2B-6F04-000072E56522&tid=93504.28

- PhD/pre doc positions (deadline: November 17): https://univis.univie.ac.at/ausschreibungstellensuche/flow/bew_ausschreibung-flow?_flowExecutionKey=_cC9C679CB-2FDD-5170-8EEE-892CA7F3C5B8_kCC442DFC-4C79-5E96-0124-BFEF05B00049&tid=93505.28

For further questions regarding the project, please contact Prof. Jörg Matthes at joerg.matthes@univie.ac.at.

Short description:

The positions are situated within the European Research Council (ERC) funded project “Digital Hate: Perpetrators, Audiences, and (Dis)Empowered Targets (DIGIHATE)”. The research project affords a multi-disciplinary, international, and methodologically multifaceted perspective that accounts for different actor groups (perpetrators, audience members/ bystanders, targets from socially disadvantaged and socially advantaged groups) in order to advance our understanding of the emergence, perception, and individual and collective consequences of malicious online communication in a groundbreaking manner. DIGIHATE is set to play an essential part in maintaining and empowering a dignified and resilient digital society. The successful candidate would be involved in a broad range of research activities.

The positions involve conducting research within the ERC project, working together with a thriving research group, employing a rich set of innovative quantitative (and also qualitative) methodologies, working on top-level publications, and presenting at international conferences. There is an expectation of a signed doctoral thesis agreement within 12-18 months. There is also the possibility to be involved in teaching. As part of their research, candidates are expected to participate in raising third-party funding. Candidates are expected to perform administrative duties and participate in evaluation activities and quality assurance.

Deadline: November 13, 2022

We invite submission of high-quality proposed Chapters for New book publishing by IGI GLOBAL.

Please access https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/6261. 

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit, on or before November 13, 2022, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by November 27, 2022, about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by March 13, 2023, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at https://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, News Media and Hate Speech Promotion in Mediterranean Countries. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer-review editorial process.

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery® online submission manager.

More info: elias.said@unir.net 

Thursday 15 - Friday 16 June 2023

LSE  

Deadline: November 7, 2022

It’s 20 years since the Department of Media and Communications  at the LSE was formally founded. We warmly invite you to join our celebration, and to contribute to our 20th anniversary conference entitled: Media Futures.

We are living in turbulent and increasingly dangerous times which are in large part defined and influenced by the very thing we study and research, namely media, communication infrastructures, algorithms, and data. Faced with an uncertain future, we can discern both dystopian and optimistic scenarios. In terms of the former we need critique, as well as ethical norms and values to validate those critiques. Regarding the latter, alternative imaginaries of hope, social justice and solidarity need to be developed or indeed rejuvenated. 

In our 20th anniversary conference, we aim to address both the critiques of the present and to consider and imagine alternative pathways. We welcome papers aligned with our four research themes: 1) Media Culture and Identities; 2) Histories and Futures; 3) Media, Participation and Politics; and 4) Communication, Technology, Rights and Justice. More details on calls for the specific strands can be found here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/media-lse/Call-for-Papers.  

Conference Format 

Our current expectation is that the conference will hold in-person on the LSE campus in London. Any changes to this, due to developments in the COVID-19 situation in the UK, will be communicated promptly.  

Submission Guidelines 

Proposals are welcome for single or co-authored papers. Only one proposal per person should be submitted here: https://forms.office.com/r/r034jyy5dae (multiple authors welcome). Proposals must include: a title for the paper, an abstract of up to 300 words, a contact email address and indication of institutional affiliation. 

The deadline for submissions is: Monday 7 November, 2022. 

Outcomes will be communicated by: Friday 9 December 2022.  

Registration Fees 

The cost of attendance is £100. Waivers will be available on request for students and academics based in low-income countries and on hourly paid or adjunct contracts. 

Questions and Further Information  

Please forward this message to anyone who might be interested. And please direct any questions about the conference and/or the submission process to: Media.Futures@lse.ac.uk 

March 16, 2023

Lund University, Department of Communication and Media, Sweden

Deadline: December 12, 2022

International Symposium

Organisers Annette Hill, Hario Priambodho, Cheryl Fung and Martin Lundqvist - MKV Lund University

Media imaginaries are shape shifters. We can see imaginaries as make believe, as thinking outside the box, and as social practices. These multiform imaginaries coexist with the dialectics of the real and the imaginary, e.g. technological visions, or post truth politics.

The term media imaginaries refers to the cultural work of texts and artefacts, audience engagement and experiences, and the infrastructural work of commercial and civic organisations. How we create, talk about, dislike and dispute the stories and myths, facts and fictions regarding media related issues such as the environment and mobility, platforms and technologies, or inequalities and social justice, is of pressing concern for citizens, media researchers and industry professionals. We invite international scholars to consider their research contributions towards a critical media imaginaries playbook.

Key questions for this international symposium on the theme of ‘Media Imaginaries’ include:

• How do we imagine media today, yesterday or tomorrow?
  
• How do various forms of media imagine us as citizens, users, fans or producers?
  
• How do institutional organisations and professionals imagine societal contexts for a range of media-related issues, e.g. memories, technologies, communication and transportation, crises and conflict, or the environment?
  

Through an exploration and examination of media imaginaries, this international symposium will provide a scientific space for dialogue on the following topics:

• Imaginary media, e.g. texts, aesthetics and performances in television, film, journalism, platforms, games, podcasts, theatre and sports;
  
• Media imaginaries, e.g. social and technical actors, domestication and communication;
  
• Media and the mnemonic imagination, e.g. cultural memories, performance of memories and archives
  
• Media and social imaginaries, e.g. political and social movements, social inequalities;
  
• Media and cultural imaginaries, e.g. cultural meanings and resources, arts and futures;
  
• Queer and activist imaginaries, e.g. gender and intersectionality, critical disabilities, rewilding;
  
• Mobilities and imaginaries, e.g. transportation, mobilities and immobilities;
  
• Media imaginaries and the global south, e.g. diverse linguistic communities, non-Western centric approaches
  
• Media and environmental imaginaries, e.g. climate crisis, energy justice, critical infrastructures.
  

International invited speakers include Professor Deborah Chambers (Newcastle University, UK), Professor Simon Dawes (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France), Professor Joke Hermes (InHolland University, Netherlands), Professor Annette Hill (Lund University, Sweden), Dr Ignas Kalpokas  (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania), Dr Robert Willim (Lund University, Sweden), Dr Emiliano Rossi (Bologna University, Italy).

Please submit an abstract of 300 words in English by 12 December 2022 to hario.priambodho@kom.lu.se.  For further information please consult our website https://www.kom.lu.se/en/research/conferences-and-events/media-imaginaries-2023. There is a registration fee of 950 SEK (95 Euros) that covers food and drink for the day and an evening buffet.

*Download a pdf version of this CFP