News

The General Assembly of ECREA will convene at the 11th European Communication Conference in Brno. The General Assembly will take place on Thursday, September 10th at 18:00 - 19:30 in FSS Aula, Faculty of Social Sciences, Joštova 10, Brno.

Agenda

1. Approval of the minutes of the previous General Assembly (15-19 June 2026)
   
2. ECREA Governing Body Report on state of Association and activities 2024-2026
   
3. Information about Sections, Networks and Temporary Working groups elections
   
4. Any other business

The ECREA Governing Body welcomes suggestions and proposals for discussion and invites all members to submit items for Any Other Business no later than 30 days before the General Assembly (11th August) by emailing info@ecrea.eu.

Who can vote?

Following our Statutes (see: https://ecrea.eu/Statutes) each individual member has one vote, and each coordinator of an institutional member has one vote that counts for five votes.

The General Assembly election desk, where the voting members can collect their voting cards, will open at 15:45 on 10 September 2026 in front of FSS Aula, Faculty of Social Sciences, Joštova 10, Brno. Please collect your voting cards as soon as possible to avoid the cues and delays.

Since the Assembly will meet in a physical space, there will be no online voting.

If you are an institutional coordinator, you should reach out to the members covered by your institutional membership and coordinate with them.

If you are an ECREA member through an institutional membership and you are not the institutional coordinator, you cannot vote, but need to communicate with your institutional coordinator. If you do not know who your institutional coordinator is, please ask Herminder Kaur, the General Secretary of ECREA (generalsecretary@ecrea.eu) and ECREA Administrator in cc (info@ecrea.eu).

How to vote if you cannot attend this General Assembly?

If you, as coordinator of an institutional member, or as individual member cannot attend the assembly, you can mandate another ECREA member to vote on your behalf, by proxy. This also applies to institutional coordinators who will be represented by another member of their institution.

Please keep in mind that an ECREA member can only represent one other ECREA member.

For the proxy you will need to complete and sign the form below and send it to the ECREA Administrator on info@ecrea.eumail cc’ing in Herminder Kaur, ECREA’s General Secretary, generalsecretary@ecrea.eu via email by Thursday, 3 September 2026.

You can download the form here (log in is required):

https://ecrea.eu/resources/Documents/Document%20archive%20-%20general%20assembly/GA%20September%202026/GA_Sept_2026_proxy_form.docx

The quorum

Please note that the ECREA Statutes (Title III.) stipulates that “Without prejudice to legal or statutory provisions requiring specific attendance and/or voting majorities, no attendance quorum is in place for the General Assembly, which is as such duly convened regardless of the number of members in attendance or being represented, and which resolves by way of simple majority of those (re)present(ed).”

Amendments to agenda

If you wish to amend the agenda of the General Assembly, please, contact ECREA Administrator at info@ecrea.eu no later than 11 August 2026 (30 days prior the General Assembly).

ECC2026 has announced its keynote speakers, bringing together leading scholars whose workaddresses some of the most pressing transformations shaping communication and media research today.

The opening plenary, Shifting Grounds: Paths, Connections, and Futures, reflects on the conference theme through a cumulative roundtable discussion featuring Sandra Banjac, Emilija Garčin, Michael Bossetta, and Monika Metyková. Additional keynote lectures will be delivered by Lenka Waschková Císařová and Frank Esser. Lenka Waschková Císařová’s lecture, Exemplary Journalistic Actors: What Can the Core Learn from the Exemplary?, examines power relations within journalism and the lessons that research and practice can draw from actors at the periphery. Frank Esser’s keynote, The Price of Democracy: How Digital Platforms Make Illiberalism Cheap, presents a conceptual framework for understanding communicative democratic erosion and the role of political communication in contemporary democratic challenges.

More information about the keynote speakers and programme is available here: https://ecrea2026brno.eu/keynote-speakers/

Method Workshops are part of the series of pre-conferences organised within European Communication Conference 2026 in Brno. It is open to ECREA members and offers a space for in-depth methodological engagement, exchange, and hands-on learning in a smaller and more interactive setting ahead of the main conference. There are two streams running concurrently – stream 1 consists of 4 separate workshops and stream 2 is a full-day event.

Registration fee: The participation fee is €12/stream and covers coffee breaks throughout the day.

Lunch is not included, but a variety of restaurants and cafés are located within a short walking distance from the venue.

Stream 1: Methods in Motion: Navigating Complexity, Participation and Simulation in Contemporary Communication Research

Date: Monday, 7 September 2026, 9:30-17:45

Location: Room U42, Faculty of Social Studies, Brno (Czech Republic)

More information and full programme HERE.

Registration is available through the Conference registration form HERE.

Stream 2: Rethinking Research ‘Failure’: What and how we can learn from things that don’t go as planned?

Date: Monday, 7 September 2026, 9:30-18:00

Location: Room U43, Faculty of Social Studies, Brno (Czech Republic)

More information and full programme HERE.

Registration is available through the Conference registration HERE.

Session Time and Date: May 22, 2.30 pm CET 

Presenter: Dr. Lily Herakova, Associate Professor and Director of Communication Education, University of Maine, Orono, USA

Presenter bio: Dr. Herakova utilizes critical narrative, performance, and autoethnographic methodologies to study the production and negotiation of relational identities and cultures of support and equity in interpersonal, health, and higher education contexts. She is moved by a lasting interest in engaging (with) differences toward world-building. Methodologically, this translates into bringing  in dialogue critical social scientific and creative, arts-based approaches. Her work is published in international journals and edited collections across communication, education, healthcare, library science, and feminist pedagogies. Personally, Dr. Herakova is rooted in the traditions and rituals of her intercultural and transnational family, her love of Bulgarian language, storytelling, and poetry, and her experiences of immigration, parenting, and activism. 

Title: Autoethnography as a Method of Cultural Analysis, Critique, and Healing

Abstract: This workshop introduces autoethnography as a critical interdisciplinary research method, focusing both on its epistemological and ontological underpinnings and on practical steps. We will review a succinct genealogy of autoethnography and its movement from the academic fringes toward becoming more widely used and recognized. Participants will learn autoethnography's connection to broader calls for and processes of de-westernizing Communication Studies and academia as a whole. Through guided discussion and practical exercises, we will explore what kinds of questions are best addressed autoethnographically and how to move from questions and aha-moments to narrative to analysis and back again. We will consider the frequent critique that autoethnography lacks rigor and reflect on how relational ethics, vulnerability, and accountability can re-define rigor, especially in collaborative and engaged autoethnographies.  

Sign up here: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=yQ1AlSA5YEykGP68wJ74WjrFKC1ckK1LntgpE2HyBK5UNVhRSzNPWlFXTkdET09UMUw3MVVLSkpYVy4u&route=shorturl

Once you have signed up, you will receive a zoom link to join the workshop as a calendar invite a week before the session.  

May 29, 2026, 14.30 CET (1 hour, 30 mins)

Presenter: Dr. Hugo Martins, University of Lisbon

An exploration of digital cinema and the creative process, the workshop delves into cinematic works by contemporary, out-of-the-box filmmakers who use accessible technologies in their work, segueing into an involved discussion on how select filmic examples speak to the participants´ own research and/or creative work. Beginning with an analysis of innovative films, the presentation will demonstrate how the cinematic application of available (and often everyday) technological tools is influencing filmmaking processes and advancing distinct aesthetics and narrative forms. Select scenes will be made available to participants for viewing, leading to a dialogue. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on the relationship between art forms, media, and the creative act by relating one of the scenes to their ongoing research or creative work. The authorial voice and intention of the filmmaker, creator, or writer in the digital realm will be a subject of consideration, as will the rising influence of AI. This workshop is aimed at members in early stages of their doctoral study/research journey, filmmakers, and other creatives with an interest in cinema, film studies, digital technologies, aesthetics, and the arts in general. 

Sign Up Here: https://forms.office.com/e/0ph3dZw8z3 

ECREA will convene the 2026 ordinary General Assembly from 15–19 June. This Assembly will gather in an online space. Links to documents and voting tool will be shared with members when the General Assembly is opened the latest.

During the Assembly, ECREA members will be asked to approve the Annual Report 2025 as well as the budget for 2026. 

The Agenda Draft is as follows:

1. Approval of the minutes of the previous General Assembly (16-20 June, 2025)
   
2. Approval of the ECREA Governing Body Report for 2025 (including the ECREA accounts)
   
3. Approval of the ECREA budget for the budget year 2026
   
4. Any other business
   

If you wish to amend the agenda of the General Assembly, please, contact ECREA Administrator at info@ecrea.eu no langer than 15 May 2026 (30 days prior the General Assembly).

WHO CAN VOTE

Following our statutes (see http://www.ecrea.eu/about/statutes), each individual member has one vote, and each coordinator of an institutional member holds five votes. If you are an ECREA member through an institutional membership and you are not the institutional coordinator, you cannot vote but need to communicate with your institutional coordinator. If you do not know who your institutional coordinator is, please ask ECREA’s General Secretary Herminder Kaur (generalsecretary@ecrea.eu) and ECREA Administrator (info@ecrea.eu) in cc.

A special issue of Media Studies, titled “Emerging topics of media and communication scholarship in Europe: Alumni of the ECREA doctoral school 2023 and 2024”, has been published. It features contributions from students of the ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School. You can read the issue here:  https://medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/2026-special-issue-1/.

Media Studies (Mediální studia) is a peer-reviewed journal that explores contemporary issues in media, communication, and culture. 

Editors: Anne Mollen, Fieke Jansen, Sigrid Kannengießer, Julia Velkova

This open access book assembles cutting-edge research in media and communication exploring AI infrastructures and sustainability. It builds upon and expands perspectives on media infrastructure, addressing critical issues such as environmental impacts, economic concentration, and social justice – areas that have not been comprehensively examined under the umbrella term “sustainability” within discussions on AI. The authors explore the complex social, economic and material processes through which AI formations take shape, and offer novel perspectives on the entanglement of digital media, AI and sustainability discourses as they manifest in the shaping of futures with AI.

Purchase HERE.

March 30, 2026

Online

The ECREA Ukraine Task Force, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communication, invites media and communication researchers, as well as scholars from related fields, to a webinar on publishing in top-tier academic journals, with a specific focus on the United States.

Approaches and expectations in U.S. academic journals often differ significantly from publication practices in other regions. This webinar will explore key aspects of American academic culture and provide practical guidance on manuscript preparation, helping participants better understand the requirements that increase the chances of successful publication.

Speaker:

Jasper Fessmann, PhD, University of Memphis. Since 2023, he has served as a faculty member in the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media. Previously, he worked at West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media. Before entering academia, he gained over 15 years of experience in international PR agencies. His research focuses on public interest communications, international PR, disinformation, and crisis communication. He is also a member of the editorial boards of two US-based academic journals.

Date and time:

March 30, 2026, 17:00 (EET)

Webinar format includes two parts:

• A short presentation with practical advice on publishing in U.S. academic journals
  
• A discussion involving Roman Horbyk and other members of the ECREA Ukraine Task Force on the challenges faced by Ukrainian scholars in the publication process and possible ways to address them.
  

Duration: 45 minutes

Language: English

Participation is free and available through registration. Registered participants will receive the Zoom link and other details in advance. 

We are pleased to announce that ECREA will award YECREA and EDI grants to participants of the 11th European Communication Conference, which will take place from 8–11 September 2026 in Brno, Czech Republic.

Together with Local organising committee of the ECC 2026 in Brno,  ECREA calls for following grants applications:

• Parental and Caregiver Support Grants (LOC)

• YECREA Early-career fee waivers and travel grants (ECREA)

• ECREA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) grants (ECREA)

More about the LOC grants can be found here: https://ecrea2026brno.eu/grants/

YECREA Early-Career Fee Waivers and Travel Grants

ECREA and its Young Scholars Network (YECREA) invite applications from early-career scholars whose presentations have been accepted for ECC 2026 and who lack sufficient funding opportunities. 

• Travel grants for early-career scholars - ECREA will offer up to 5 travel and accommodation grants for early-career scholars. The travel grant reimburses travel and accommodation costs up to 310 EUR. Further information and application form here: https://ecrea.eu/event-6608245
  
• Fee waivers - YECREA will offer 10 grants for early-career scholars in the form of conference fee waivers. At least 5 grants will be awarded to applicants from low- and middle-income countries (see the list here: https://ecrea.eu/Low-income-and-Middle-income-counries). Further information and application form here: https://ecrea.eu/event-6608234
  

 Applicants may apply for and receive both grants.

Application deadline: 17 April 2026 (23:59 CEST).

Questions? Email us at yecreanetwork@gmail.com. 

The ECREA Equity, Diversity and  Inclusion (EDI) Grants 

The ECREA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) grants are offered to support conference participation of scholars who experience various barriers and biases to conference participation, including oppression, threats to academic freedom, financial hardship, precarity, and other forms of exclusion, and participants from underrepresented groups. Through these grants, we aim to make ECREA more equitable, diverse and inclusive.

These EDI grants are offered in addition to the existing YECREA grants. If you are an Early Career Scholar (PhD student or up to one year post-PhD), please apply for the YECREA grants (see above).

Applicants will need to identify the barriers and limitations affecting their ability to attend. In addition, the EDI Sub-committee will prioritise applications that further demonstrate:

• Long-term commitment and contribution to ECREA’s organisation and the community's future.
  
• Applicants from countries or regions that have been less involved in ECC previously.
  

To accommodate different circumstances, the EDI grants offer different types of support to reflect the applicants’ different needs. Applicants can apply for conference participation fee only, for travel or accommodation grants, or a combination of these options. Awards may be granted in full or in part:

• Up to 15 grants in the form of conference fee vouchers will be offered by ECREA to scholars who would otherwise have difficulties accessing the conference.
  
• Up to 5 travel and 5 accommodation grants will be offered by ECREA to scholars who would otherwise have difficulties accessing the conference.
  

Deadline for applications: 20th April 2026 (23:59 CEST).

Please apply here: https://forms.gle/rJdgEyrmHjrDu4uy7

Questions? Email us at info@ecrea.eu.