ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, Networking Knowledge

Deadline: September 1, 2020

The official publication of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, Networking Knowledge, invites abstracts for an upcoming Special Issue on Climate, Creatures and COVID-19: Environment and Animals in 21st Century Media Discourse. This is a fully indexed, open-access peer-reviewed journal, featuring content from postgraduate and early career researchers. The deadline for abstracts is 1st September 2020.

Please see full details of the call below. These can also be found at the following link https://www.ojs.meccsa.org.uk/index.php/netknow/announcement/view/48

We hope to feature original contributions from across disciplines and from as diverse a scholarship as possible, and would be very grateful if you could share this call widely.

Any questions or queries should be directed to rebecca.jones@strath.ac.uk

Special Issue of Sociology of Health and Illness journal and edited monograph

Deadline: August 21, 2020

The annual Sociology of Health and Illness journal monograph is this year focused on 'methodological complicity'. We are interested in scholarly reflections from beyond sociology, and would welcome contributions from media and communications scholars exploring health related issues. Global inequalities, colonial legacies, and the innumerable power imbalances striating the social world have never been more pertinent to social studies of health and illness. It is thus vital to interrogate how exactly we research these issues, as well as the ethics and politics of knowledge production relating to them. We ask, what problematic and productive complicities might we as researchers engage in as we endeavour to produce this knowledge? We understand ‘complicity’ as a broad, explorative term for thinking through the methodological politics of contemporary sociological research into health and illness.

READ MORE: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/SHI%20CfP%20July%202020-1594196597780.pdf

The University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is seeking to appoint two senior academic leaders at the level of Professor/Associate Professor in Media an Communications (1 x Journalism and 1 x Digital Cultures Specialisation). The advertisements are live on the University of Sydney website for these roles (see links below). The closing date for applications is Sunday 2 August 2020.

Professor or Associate Professor in Media and Communications (Digital Cultures Specialisation)

Professor or Associate Professor in Media and Communications (Journalism Specialisation)

A candidate information brochure is available via download from these pages. Please consider applying to join us in the Department of Media and Communications. We are a great collegial team of researchers and teachers and our department is going through a period of expansion. We have a particular focus on digital media and digital cultures scholarship.

https://www.sydney.edu.au/…tml

Special Issue of the Journal of Digital Media & Policy 

Deadline: November 20, 2020

ISSN 2516-3523 | Online ISSN 2516-3531

3 issues per volume | First published in 2010

Guest Editors

• Preeti Raghunath - Symbiosis International University (SIU), India, preetimalaraghunath@gmail.com
• Susan Koshy - Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, sude37@gmail.com

Deadlines

• Abstracts of 400 words to be received by 20 November 2020.
• Full manuscripts of 6–8,000 words, including references, by 30 June 2021.
• Final papers to be sent to the publisher by 1 December 2021.

Call for papers

The diverse and rapidly expanding media systems of the South Asian region accentuate its vast cultural diversity and various stages of democracy. The interaction between these structures presents interesting examples of how they impact the corresponding national media policies.

It becomes pertinent to understand how these policies are influenced by the hyper-nationalistic and protectionist rhetoric currently sweeping different parts of the world, further exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. At the same time, the rapidly growing presence and consequent influence of global digital media networks further confound this relationship, as they are greatly interested in the expansion of media infrastructure in the region to tap into the potential of new markets. Additionally, the changing geopolitics of the region with an increasing presence of the Chinese state and private investments in all sector  including digital media, present a new stakeholder in the media policie  of the region.

We identify South Asia not just as a geographic region, but one with cultural and socio-economic continuities. Thus, we also focus on the pressures and pulls of the countries on each other. While initiatives like the People’s South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) are useful in delineating the region as a separate block, various issues have repeatedly highlighted the limits of these strategic regional markers. This was witnessed in the Rohingya refugee crisis of Myanmar, which is officially not a part of SAARC, but one that inevitably involves both India and Bangladesh. The Indian media’s hyper-nationalist response to this crisis reflected the heightening protectionist rhetoric that has become commonplace, while also seeing an increasing amount of foreign investments flowing into its media sectors.

Meanwhile, the influence of Indian broadcast media in Nepalese media markets seek to problematize its conceptions of sovereignty (Raghunath, 2020). Bangladesh’s politicocommercial nexus has brought to the fore the practice of informal networks (Rahman, 2020). Sri Lanka has been a pioneer in communitybased broadcasting and internet-based community experiments, even as neoliberal policies and the end of the civil war have transformed the media landscape. Pakistan’s trysts with military rule and now, a civilian government has shaped the media in the country. Afghanistan’s war has meant that international media development agencies have been involved in media training and development in the country.

Myanmar’s tryst with authoritarian majoritarianism and Bhutan’s monarchy have their own influences on the media landscape in the countries. What are the effects of these ongoing political and economic shifts on media policy in South Asia? Will these changes reflect differently on the media content and infrastructure markets? Given that the nature of relationships between South Asian countries have been rapidly changing due to the influence of China, how does this reflect on the media policies? In this special issue, we seek to explore empirical and theoretical aspects of media policies in South Asia. We seek to engage with works that analyze media policies in the region, or contribute to pedagogy pertaining to the study of media policy with a focus on South Asia. The scholarship on media policy in South Asia currently draws primarily on ideas and methodologies from the Global North, especially in terms of regulatory systems. We especially look forward to decolonial approaches and theoretical perspectives to the study of media policies in the region. We welcome submissions that go beyond the study of India as synonymous with the idea of South Asia, for adequate regional rumination.

Therefore, contributors are invited to address issues such as

• socio-economic and cultural aspects of broadcasting in the region;
• platform and gig economies in the region;
• digital media economy in South Asia;
• datafication of South Asia;
• community-centric broadcasting in the region;
• telecommunication policies and foreign direct investment;
• international engagement and cooperation in multilateral forums;
• urbanism and smart cities as practices of media policies;
• public interest and normative ideals;
• decolonial approaches to the study of media policies in South Asia.

To download the full Call for Papers, click here: https://www.intellectbooks.com/…pdf

November 11-13, 2020

Valencia (Spain)

Deadline: July 25, 2020

CFP Mediaflows Conference

In order to present a paper, 250-word proposals should be sent through the specific section form to which it is addressed until July 25, 2020.

http://mediaflows.es/…rs/

The conference accepts papers in Spanish and English.

Considering the health circumstances facing Covid-19, the conference will have a semi-virtual character.

SECTIONS

The conference includes six sections, whose specific cfp can be accessed on the website http://mediaflows.es/…rs/

1. Institutional crisis, democratic representation and media coverage.

2. Media consumption, and audiences in hybrid media systems.

3. Democratic values in times of populism and emotion: communication and leadership.

4. Strategy and democratic game: Surveys, pacts and political majority.

5. Research on hate discourse and disinformation.

6. Nuts and bolts of the power: Reality and fiction.

PUBLISHING

A selection of the accepted proposals will be published in a special edition of the Dígitos journal (www.revistadigitos.es), whose deadline for submission ends on December 15, 2020. Other publishing options will be shortly announced on the conference website.

DEADLINES

• July 25, 2020: the deadline for sending abstract proposals is closed.
• July 31, 2020: communication of accepted papers.
• September 15: Registration and fees payment opening.
• November 1: deadline for sending complete proposals.
• November 11, 12 and 13, 2020: Conference celebration.

Queen’s University Belfast

Ref: 20/108274

Arts, English and Languages

The school of Arts, English and Languages seeks to appoint a Lecturer (Education) to teach at undergraduate level covering modules in the Subject Area of Film Studies and Production. The successful candidate will deliver all material on core module Introduction to Film Studies (level 1), and optional modules British Cinema (level 2) and British Film (level 3). It is anticipated that the appointee will cover a first year introductory module and offer subject level expertise for the higher level modules. On appointment, you will design and deliver teaching and assessment activities for three modules within Film Studies including lectures, setting/marking coursework, practice workshops, and fieldwork to undergraduates and postgraduates and will contribute to Area and School administration/outreach activity.

This post is available for a period of six months.

For full job details and criteria please see the Candidate Information link on our website: https://hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC107GF.open?VACANCY_ID=691522DUSP&WVID=6273090Lgx&LANG=USA____

Fixed term contract posts are available for the stated period in the

first instance but, in particular circumstances, may be renewed or made permanent, subject to availability of funding. 

The University is committed to equality of opportunity and to selection on merit. We welcome applications from all sections of society and particularly from people with a disability. 

ECREA´S 8th European Communication Conference

September 6-9, 2021

University of Minho

We would like to inform you that in consultation with the Local Organising Committee, the ECREA Executive Board has approved new dates for the 8th European Communication Conference: 6-9 September 2021.

The conference was scheduled for 2-5 October 2020 but we had to make the uneasy decision to postpone. The different timelines and strategies of gradual withdrawal of pandemic prevention measures adopted by individual European countries have made it impossible to organise the event according to our standards of academic quality and hospitality.

Planning of the postponed event will protect all the work already done in the creation of the conference's scientific programme. The review process has been concluded and the acceptance of papers and panels remains in place for the postponed conference. Over the next months, the organization department will contact all authors to confirm the approved status of previous submissions. The conference calendar will be revised and new important dates will be announced on the conference website.

We are working to prepare a safe and rewarding conference for all participants. Conferences should be exceptional moments for greater integration into our rich and diverse field for scholars of all ages, groups and research interests.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Braga from the 6th to the 9th of September 2021.

ECREA and the Communication and Society Research Centre of University of Minho are delighted to host the 8th European Communication Conference (ECC). The Conference has chosen the key theme ‘Communication and trust: building safe, sustainable and promising futures. Organisers call for proposals addressing (but not limited to) the main conference theme and relating to ECREA Sections, Networks or Temporary Working Groups.

Conference theme

What futures are we building up? What is the role of media and communication in these processes? Considering the pace of technological change and the way it is reshaping economy and culture, what type of adaptations and commitments are being asked of citizens and to what extent are institutions and policy makers engaged in achieving solutions that are both progressive and sustainable? What type of social, political and cultural futures are media and communication inducing and modelling? What relations exist between them and what are their main normative cornerstones? These are questions of critical interest for the 2020 ECREA conference. Scholars are invited to question the relevance of communication studies in face of societal challenges today and for generations to come.

Acceleration, speed and technological development are present in all dimensions of life, everywhere and at every level. Global forms of culture and global market dynamics are intensely shaping the nature of citizens’ lives and altering the way they think and relate to institutions. Trust is being eroded; some of its building blocks, such as communication for freedom, empowerment, development, and democratization are being reconfigured and gaining multiple and often contradictory meanings. Thereby, creating new inequalities and vulnerabilities in Europe and around the world whilst institutions seem weaker, more ineffective or late in their reactions.

There is a general academic perception that citizens everywhere are now inhabiting spaces of higher suspicion, uncertainty and privacy invasion at different levels of their life, which make them easy prey for different types of power brokers. Many relevant questions in communication studies can be addressed regarding ways in which fear, uncertainty, and social isolation affect citizens according to structuring variables such as race, ethnicity, gender or age.

If citizens are experiencing this general state of ontological insecurity, politicians and institutions appear to hesitate in the face of emergent problems requiring systemic, determined and eventually global scale well-sought answers. Climate change and environment urgencies are obviously requiring new insights from the media and communication field with particular attention to medium and long-term effects of human actions. The proactive actions of citizens and social movements also deserve particular attention.

Scholars are defied to address emerging responsibilities of the media and communication field vis-à-vis new social and environmental asymmetries. The quality of public information is obviously key to this debate. What role should the media play deconstruing technological determinisms and finding paths to increase trust, confidence and safety? How to manage the relationships between the local and the global so that internet giants’ activities do not govern the common symbolic environment? How to improve transparency and the defence of the public interest, and what type of public interest is still possible to identify? By proposing the theme ‘Communication and trust: building safe, sustainable and promising futures’, the conference should provide an opportunity to diagnose, discuss and rethink the role and responsibilities of academics and professionals in the reading of present circumstances and in the anticipation of future challenges.

Please consult our guidelines for submission here: http://www.ecrea2020braga.eu/2019/10/09/http-www-ecrea2020braga-eu-call-for-papers/

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2020): Videogames and Culture: Design, Art and Education

Guest Editors: Filipe Costa Luz and Conceição Costa

EDITORIAL

The present issue of IJFMA results from a peer-review selection of papers from the MILT conference - Media Literacy for Living Together: the future of media and learning in participation, and from a specific call addressing studies in visual culture and games, games and learning and pedagogies of play.

The growing numbers of researchers in contemporary game studies from the fields of Design, Art, Media Studies, Computer Sciences, Psychology, Education and Business, IJFMA open up the discussion to different domains, enabling intertextuality and cross-fertilization in this rhizomatic borders of media and art genres.

Continue reading.

University of East London 

0.8FTE

Location: Docklands Campus

Salary: Starting from £46,487 per annum inclusive of London Weighting pro rata

Post Type:  Part Time

Hours per Week:  28.8

Post Type:  Permanent

Closing Date: Friday 24 July 2020

Interview Date: Wednesday 12 August 2020

Reference: 036A2020

Do you have experience of working in the Media industry and are passionate about passing on your knowledge to students? Are you looking for a challenging role in an environment that is open, vibrant and welcomes new ideas? Then join the University of East London as a Senior Lecturer in Media and you could soon be developing and delivering high quality, innovative and engaging teaching in the Media area. At UEL we know the world of work is changing and that means our students will need to develop critical thinking, emotional intelligence and resilience to realise their potential, which is why we’ve embedded these future-proofed tools at the heart of every one of our degrees. We’re also looking for outstanding teachers who exude a love of teaching, inspire and motivate students and colleagues through their approach and are committed to achieving excellent outcomes for students.

Your challenge? To design, develop and deliver innovative Media teaching across a range of modules and courses at undergraduate level. You’ll also collaborate with colleagues and management on the development of existing and new programmes with the view of continuous improvement.

As well as a degree or equivalent in a related discipline, you’ll have a postgraduate qualification and/or significant professional experience in Media. You will have an understanding of relevant industry production, as well as experience of course development and collaboration with external stakeholders, including industry partners and a successful track record of research and/or consultancy.

We are particularly looking for academics that have experience in one or more of the following areas taught at UEL:

* Employability, enterprise and media industries

* PR, Branding and Campaign Design

* Digital and social media content design, production and post-production skills

* Media and Marketing Communication

Adept at conveying ideas to students from a range of backgrounds, you will also bring a deep commitment to closing the award gap, gender equality, and LGBTQIA awareness/visibility/empowerment. You will also enjoy developing professional relationships with students, colleagues, employers, and outside agencies alike.

At UEL, we aim to attract and retain the best possible staff and offer a working environment at the heart of a dynamic region with excellent transport links. You can look forward to a warm, sincere welcome, genuine camaraderie and mobility in an institution led with passion, visibility and purpose. Your impact, resilience and sense of collegiality will directly contribute to UEL’s future and those of the students whose lives you will touch and change forever. We also offer a great range of benefits including the Teacher’s Pension Scheme, family friendly policies and an on-site nursery and gym at our Docklands Campus.

If you would like an informal discussion about the role please email Dr Rosemary Stott, Head of Media Department, R.Stott@uel.ac.uk.

Further details: https://jobs.uel.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=036A2020

Email details to a friend: https://jobs.uel.ac.uk/…020

CVs without a completed application form will not be accepted.

At UEL we are committed to working together to build a community which values diversity in both our staff and student populations, is representative and inclusive, enabling all to progress and thrive.

Apply online: https://jobs.uel.ac.uk/…2hM

Membrana

Deadline: July 27, 2020

https://www.membrana.org/call/master-cfp-2020/

Membrana vol 5, no. 2 (The Master) investigates the dynamics of visual domination, visual presence, familiarity and iconicity of images in relation to the figure of the master.

Even before the invention of the camera, the master has always been entwined with its image – in coinage, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and other media – but it seems that photography has both continued and complicated the master-image relation.

As before, a master can stage portraits and public performances to secure domination through a public circulation of its image(s). But photography’s “contribution” to the master-image relation was not merely to enhance the intertwinement of the master with its image. At least since the beginning of the 20th century, it has become apparent that photography can simultaneously capture something else – the unexpected, the unwitting, the excess that eludes control. Moreover, the mass proliferation of image-making in the early 21st century and the changed information and communication ecosystems have made the control of one’s public image a precarious process, dictated to a large extent by an image-generating social apparatus and algorithmic logic.

To a large extent, the age-old dialectic between the master and the servant seems to be flipped on its head – the master being evermore the servant of its own representation, of its most shareable common public visual denominator, be it likable, hated or reviled. Is the master becoming ever more the servant of its own representation? Is this representation being hollowed-out, becoming “merely” an abstract visualisation of power, detached from any of the master’s traits? Have we entered a new era of a master figure without any grandeur or charisma, a master lacking any sign of dignity – a master for which the denomination only holds true in terms of political power, lacking any “grand” visual signs of the historical personas of the past?

What role do photographs play in the creation, strengthening, or subversion of (the images of) the master? Do photographs (un)wittingly legitimize the power, or do they recast power within the wider social network of signs? What is their role in the subject’s compliance with the authority, acceding to the rules of the master? Is domination via visual signs nowadays a necessary condition for social dominance or it is just a side spectacle?

We invite textual and visual contributions that explore the master, domination, and subjugation in the relation to photographs, from contemporary and historical viewpoints, and through (but not limited to) the following perspectives:

– authoritarian figures and photography

– authority, subjugation, domination through photography

– master-slave dialectics and the image

– the master, white supremacy, right-wing nationalism and photography

– the master and author (genius as the master)

– photographer as a master

– power, charisma and figures of the master

– fine-art photography and subversion of figures of the master

– visual propaganda

– social media and figures of the master

– image aesthetics and figures of the master

– photographic presence as it stabilizes or destabilizes domination

– celebrity and banality in constructions of power

– hierarchy, networks, and mastery

– masters made or undone by photography, post-truth and the master

– icons and iconicity in constructions and deconstructions of authority

– the master in relation to photography’s civil contract or democratic promise

– the master and conditions of excess, abundance, or utopian potential

– the master and the optical unconscious

– the master and public spectatorship

– the master in an ecology of images

– master-slave dichotomy, computational technologies and photography

– attracting the master’s attention: photography’s stance in contemporary art practice

Format of contributions

Essays, theoretical papers, overview articles, interviews (approx. 15,000–35,000 characters / 2,200–5,000 words), visuals encouraged.

Short essays, columns (8,000–21,000 characters / 1,200–3,000 words), visuals encouraged.

Photographic projects and artwork: proposals for non-commissioned work or samples of work.

More information about the contributions can be found here. Contributions will be published in the English edition – magazine Membrana (ISSN 2463-8501. eISSN: 2712-4894) and/or in the Slovenian edition – magazine Fotografija (ISSN 1408-3566).

Proposals and deadlines

The deadline for contribution proposals (150-word abstracts and/or visuals) is July 27, 2020. The deadline for the finished contributions from accepted proposals is September 21, 2020. Please send proposals via the online form or contact us directly at editors(at)membrana.org.

About Membrana / Fotografija

Membrana is a contemporary photography journal dedicated to promoting a profound and theoretically grounded understanding of photography. Its aim is to encourage new, bold, and alternative conceptions of photography theory as well as new and bold approaches to photography in general. Positioning itself in the space between scholarly journal and popular publications, it offers an open forum for critical reflection on the medium, presenting both analytical texts and quality visuals. The journal is published biannually in summer and inwinter in English and in Slovenian (under the title Fotografija) by the Ljubljana-based non-profit institute Membrana.