ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Special issue of the Journal of African Media Studies

Deadline: April 30, 2020

The Journal of African Media Studies is cordially inviting you to submit a paper to be included in a thematic issue on Media and the Corona Pandemic in Africa. Since its outbreak in China, the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has brought the world into a standstill, through various forms of lockdown, social distancing and self-quarantine. In Africa, as in other parts of the world, the pandemic is affecting every sphere of life including travel, education, business, informal sector, religion, health and entertainment. The public demand for information is unprecedented. The pandemic is attracting a huge amount of attention in media. Conversation issues in social media revolve around Covid-19. We invite articles that focus on the unfolding corona-crisis in Africa. What are the stories emerging from the continent? How is the media depicting the coronavirus pandemic? Articles for this special issue will focus on a number of issues around the Covid-19 pandemic and the media in Africa.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Media coverage and representation of the pandemic
• Mainstream media and alternative narratives about Covid-19
• Indigenous language media and Covid-19
• User-generated images and memes on Covid-19
• The use of satire, music and comedy
• Social media and proliferation of fake news, dodgy health advice and fake ‘cures’
• Conspiracy theories, misinformation, and disinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic
• Discourse about poverty, migration, racism, religion and xenophobia
• Minority voices in the media
• The role of micro-celebrities
• Media and information literacy
• Rooted cosmopolitans and support networks
• International relations, post-colonialism
• Screen media and creativity

All articles submitted should be original work and must not be under consideration by other publications. Articles published in JAMS are subjected to a blind peer-reviewing process and should not normally exceed 6,000 words in length. For more information on requirements and submission procedures see https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-african-media-studies.

If interested, please send a 300-word abstract and short biography to Martin Ndlela martin.ndlela@inn.no by 30 April 2020. The deadline for full articles is 1st September 2020

Lyon University

Laboratoire ELICO (Équipe de recherche de Lyon en sciences de l’information et de la communication), part of Lyon University, is currently looking for a PhD candidate to work on a project focussing on Open Science. The project is embedded within a larger frame of projects on scientific culture and changes that foster more reliable and better science. The project would be financed for 36 months, and is based in Lyon, France.

Candidates do not need to speak French, but must have completed a Masters degree outside of France. Coordinator of the project is Professor of Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication at Lyon University Chérifa Boukacem. As a member of ELICO, interested candidates can send her an email (cherifa.boukacem-zeghmouri@univ-lyon1.fr) with their CV, and she will contact the candidates to further discuss conditions an requirements.

The university deadline to receive the candidate’s name is April 9th.

July 9-10, 2020

Istanbul, Turkey

Deadline: May 4, 2020

The Young Researchers Conference on Cultural Policy and Cultural Diplomacy organised by Istanbul Bilgi University UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Cultural Diplomacy will be held on 9-10 July 2020 in İstanbul.

Founded in 2017, Istanbul Bilgi University UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Cultural Diplomacy aims to enhance the international cultural cooperation and dialogue, protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions, produce capacity-enhancing programmes to support participatory cultural policy-making, and support the existing international network in this field. In line with its objectives, it carries out academic works with the Cultural Policy and Management Research Centre (KPY), which publishes the Cultural Policy Yearbook in Turkish and English annually.  

Aims of the Conference:

• Raising the recognition of cultural policy and cultural diplomacy based on cultural diversity in the academic arena
• Enabling young researchers who work at the main disciplines of cultural policy and cultural diplomacy to share their research findings and open them to discussion
• Creating an international sharing and interaction platform
• Identifying the common interests of the researchers from the global South and the global North and create co-working opportunities

Eligibility

Participation is open to both national and international researchers who received their MA degrees or the ones who are still conducting their Ph.D. studies. Priority will be given to the candidates from the regions of Middle East, North Africa, Caucasia and the Balkans. As a result of the peer assessment, the travel and accommodation fees of a limited number of participants will be covered and they will be given three days of per diem allowance. 

Submission

Candidates must send their research information, affiliated institution, telephone and e-mail addresses, resumes and research abstracts (Length of the abstract should be a total of 500 words, excluding references) to yrc@bilgi.edu.tr for peer evaluation by 4 May 2020 at the latest. Each abstract will be evaluated by two reviewers.  

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Cultural Policy
• Cultural Diplomacy (and International Relations)
• Arts and Cultural Management
• Cultural Heritage
• Museum Studies
• Cultural Diversity
• Copyright and Intellectual Property
• Cultural Economy
• Cultural and Creative Industries
• Culture and Sustainable Development
• Cities and Culture

The panel topics will be determined according to the chosen abstracts. Papers presented in the conference will be reviewed by the scientific committee set up for the Conference with a view for their publication as a book in Turkish and English.

Important dates

• Abstract submission deadline: 4 May 2020
• Notification of acceptance: 25 May 2020
• Final presentation submission deadline: 22 June 2020
• Conference: 9-10 July 2020
• Final paper submission deadline: 7 September 2020
• The conference publication: mid-december 2020

*Due to the ongoing New Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, the Conference Organisation Committee reserves the rights of changing and/or postponing the dates and location of the event. All the prospective changes will be announced to the channels of Istanbul Bilgi University’s, Istanbul Bilgi University UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Cultural Diplomacy’s and conference web site within the reasonable given time as announcements. 

Young Researchers Conference on Cultural Policy and Cultural Diplomacy Organisation Committee

This conference is organized with the support of the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Brunel University London

Apply here: https://careers.brunel.ac.uk/vacancy/lecturer-in-communications-and-journalism-13445-415841.html

College / Directorate College of Business Arts & Social Sciences

Department Department of Social & Political Sciences

Full Time / Part Time Full Time

Posted Date 04/03/2020

Closing Date 02/04/2020

Ref No 1945

Full-time, permanent

Salary (Grade H3): £40,183 - £51,719 per annum (incl. of London Allowance)

Social Sciences and Communications at Brunel University London is part of a thriving interdisciplinary Department of Social and Political Sciences, which includes Sociology, Communications, Journalism, Anthropology, Politics, and Modern History. It has a superb research record with 50% of research rated as being internationally excellent or world-leading in REF 2014.

We are seeking to recruit a lecturer in Communications and Journalism. We will consider an appointment in any area of the discipline, but preference will be given for candidates who have teaching and research interests in any of the following: digital communications, digital media and journalism, digital cultures, new social media and social and political movements.

The appointment is from summer 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The appointee will join a well-established research and teaching team with an outstanding track record of success. You will also be expected to participate in at least one of the research centres and/or hubs in the College of Business, Arts & Social Sciences, or a University Research Institute.

More information about the Division can be found at:

www.brunel.ac.uk/communication-and-media-studies

www.brunel.ac.uk/journalism

www.brunel.ac.uk/sociology

Informal enquiries about the posts and the Department can be made to the Head of Department, Professor Justin Fisher (justin.fisher@brunel.ac.uk) or the Divisional Lead for Social Sciences and Communication, Dr Peter Wilkin (peter.wilkin@brunel.ac.uk).

Closing date for applications: 2 April 2020

Interviews and Presentations will be held on the 20 May 2020

For further details and to apply please visit https://careers.brunel.ac.uk

COMMITTED TO EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND REPRESENTING THE DIVERSITY OF THE COMMUNITY WE SERVE

October 23-24, 2020

Hamburg, Germany

Deadline: May 15, 2020

The particular epistemic and innovative potentials of Design Research are increasingly recognized within the wider academic sphere and are in constantly growing demand by businesses, institutions and politics alike. Yet, design research also is a field and practice that, due to its in-between nature, lacks the clear boundaries and formal dogmatisms of more traditional research disciplines, as well as their implicit notions of secured knowledge and linear progress.

Recognizing this inherent openness as one of its key qualities, the New Experimental Research in Design (in short: NERD) conference aims at providing a genuinely diverse and open platform for discussing, reflecting on and exposing to a wider public the manifold ways in which design’s unique perspective and proficiencies can intelligently be applied as a research competence. It does so by inviting presentations of empirical research projects by researchers from around the world and from all areas of design research with a focus on methodologically and thematically original approaches.

The emphasis on the empirical or the experimental – in the double sense of the researcher’s actual involvement and transformative interaction with his or her object of research and the brave and playful exploration of untrodden paths – is based on the conviction that the discussion about the merits and possibilities of design research is one that has to be led by example: What constitutes a fruitful method or approach only becomes apparent by it actually being conceptualized, worked out and eventually put into practice. For the same reason, NERD is decidedly not narrowed to a certain topic or school of thought, since the qualitatively new often exceeds such preconceived categories. Developed and realized by BIRD, the Board of International Research in Design for the eponymous design research book series published by Birkhäuser, as an annual event with changing venues, this conference format has already proven its productivity three times.

NERD, held at HAW Hamburg (Design Department) and hosted by Zentrum für Designforschung in Hamburg/Germany on 23./24.October 2020, will feature a careful selection of 30-minute presentations of research projects, each followed by another half an hour of time for questions and intense discussion with the audience. For this, we invite speakers at an advanced graduate, doctoral or early postdoctoral level to present their ongoing research or completed theses. Contributions should employ an original and well-conceived design-based and empirical/experimental approach and may deal with all kinds of interesting, engaging and socially, culturally and intellectually relevant questions.

Contributions by NERDs from other fields who share a similar commitment to new experimental approaches in design research are also welcome.

How to apply

If you would like to apply, we kindly ask for submission of an extended abstract (1000–1500 words) of your research project or the part of it that you wish to present at the conference to be sent to bird[at]bird-international-research-in-design.org until May 15, 2020.

All submissions will be blind reviewed and submitters will receive a notification about the admission of their contributions to the conference until June 15, 2020.

If you have further question, get in touch with:

Prof. Dr. Michael Erlhoff (erlhoff[at]be-design.info) or Dr. Tom Bieling(Tom.Bieling[at]haw-hamburg.de )

Deadline: May 15, 2020

The Programme will be announced in June. Admission is free! We are looking forward do seeing you at #NERDfor – New Experimental Research in Design (Hamburg, 23. – 24. October 2020).

HAW Hamburg, Department Design

Armgartstraße 24

22087 Hamburg

Germany

#NERDfor Call for Papers

https://designabilities.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/nerd_for_cfp_2020.pdf

 September 4-6, 2020

Die Wolfsburg, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, Germany

Deadline: May 22, 2020

“What would you prefer, yellow spandex…?” – X-Men (2000)

2020 marks twenty years since the release of X-Men, which sparked a re-emergence of the superhero on screen and led to a spectacular ascent towards being the most successful and globally popular genre in cinema history, with dozens of films produced and many billions of dollars earned in the last two decades – an aggressive dominance that shows no signs of receding.

In the last year, the titanic Avengers: Endgame provided the superhero film with its biggest-ever canvas and, sandwiched between /Captain Marvel/ and Spider-Man: Far From Home, brought Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a triumphant finish, after eleven years and twenty-three films. Yet, late in 2019, DC placed its most iconic villain centre stage in Todd Phillips’ Joker, which provided a truly striking take on Batman’s arch-nemesis, drawing on 70’s New Hollywood aesthetics and exploring issues such as mental health and social revolt.

The James Gunn-produced Brightburn merged the superhero genre with Horror to generate a forbiddingly dark mirror of the Superman origin story. Meanwhile, on television, the full CW line of DC Comics shows ambitiously collided in an adaptation of the signature 1980’s event Crisis on Infinite Earths, which surprisingly provided actor Brandon Routh a belated opportunity to reprise the role of Superman.

Within the source medium of Comics, the genre continued to show great diversity and invention, along with experimentation: Gene Luen Yang and Girihu’s superb Superman Smashes The Klan took a famous storyline from the 1940’s Superman radio show and used it to view The Man of Steel via the immigrant experience, while in the mainstream comics, Brian Michael Bendis controversially dispensed with a core tenet of the superhero mythology, as Superman revealed his secret identity to the world. The Unstoppable Waspwas a light-hearted wonder, firmly focused on fun and easily accessible. After decades of being rooted in science, Immortal Hulk took a sharp turn into the realms of Horror and Grant Morrison’s take on  Green Lantern vigorously resurrected the Silver Age of Comics. In Tom King’s Mister Miracle, the superhero is viewed through the lenses of mental health and political anxieties.

Soaring into its ninth decade, then, the superhero currently occupies a diverse, expansive and dominant space in modern popular culture. Perceived as a modern form of mythology or folklore, the characters signature emblems are among the most recognisable in the world, functioning as powerful, pervasive and vastly profitable brands. Yet, while still largely American in focus, the superhero has become increasingly international, capable of reflecting specific issues and operating as a powerful messenger of them - a power they have possessed since their inception.

The Superhero Project: 4th Global Meeting invites inter-disciplinary discussion on superheroes and notions of the super-heroic. Indicative themes for discussion may include but are not limited to:

1. Post-Humanism:

• Technology & augmentation / armour
• Cyborgs
• Prosthesis
• The Übermensch
• Mutations and genetic engineering

2. Dual Identities:

• The power of the mask
• Alter-egos and secret identities
• Costume and Disguise
• Cosplay

3. Gender & Ethnicity:

• Hyper-masculinity
• Depictions of the female superhero
• Ethnic diversity in superhero comics and their readership.

4. Sexuality:

• LGBT Superheroes
• Queer readings of established characters
• Gay Representation in Superhero Comics
• Camp and the Superhero
• Superheroes vs Sexual Violence

5. Deconstruction:

• The anti-hero
• The post-9/11 Superhero
• The Everyman superhero

6. Social Responsibility:

• Vigilantism
• Superheroes as role models
• Childhood play
• Heroism and cowardice

7. The Heroic & the Patriotic:

• The monomyth (the hero's journey)
• Patriotism and nationalism
• National personification
• The Soldier as Superhero
• "Truth, justice and the American way"

8. Pop Culture Depictions:

• Adaptation
• The superhero as brand
• Merchandising and franchising
• Fans and cultural capital

What to Send:

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday May 22 , 2020 to the following e-mail addresses: d.graydon@herts.ac.uk and torsten.caeners@uni-due.de.

Accepted proposals will be notified by June 8 , 2020.

Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: _SUPER4 Abstract Submission_

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost! If this is the case, please do resend to both e-mail addresses.

Organising Chairs:

Danny Graydon (University of Hertfordshire): d.graydon@herts.ac.uk

Torsten Caeners (University of Duisburg-Essen): torsten.caeners@uni-due.de

Danny Graydon, FHEA Lecturer, Screen (Digital Animation & Model Design)

Collaborative Partnership Leader, Escola Britanica des Artes Creativas (EBAC), Sao Paulo, Brazil School of Creative Arts | University of Hertfordshire | College Lane |

Hatfield AL10 9AB

Office: AB170 | Tel: +44 (0)1707 284 000 | Email: d.graydon@herts.ac.uk

Internal Ext: 5336

THE SUPERHERO PROJECT: 4th Global Meeting / 4-6 September 2020, Mulheim, Germany

Bournemouth University

Salary: from £41,526 - £49,553 per annum with further progression opportunities to £54,131

Research allowance: Up to £30,000 across three years.

Closing date: Sunday, May 10, 2020 - midnight

Please quote reference: RDS38

This intends to build on BU’s existing work within strategic communication to strengthen its emerging focus on health and science communication as an interdisciplinary area. The post holder will spend 90% of his/her time on conducting research and knowledge exchange activities in order to explore effective methods for evidence-based communication of public health across local, national and international contexts.

The post-holder will work alongside our existing experts in the field of media and communication, public health, data science and social psychology, to enhance our capacity to deliver impact and engage with industry partners and other collaborators.

This initiative primarily brings together the:

• Department of Communication & Journalism (where the post holder will be based)
• Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health

The post, by necessity, requires a combination of disciplinary knowledge and expertise, which may include — but is not limited to — strategic communication, science communication, media psychology, health statistics, data visualisation, as well as an understanding or empathy for interpersonal communication in the healthcare sector.

Research interest and expertise in health and science mis/disinformation linked with epidemics/ pandemic (such as coronavirus / COVID-19) is particularly welcome.

BU Academic Targeted Research Scheme:

https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/about/jobs/bu-academic-targeted-research-scheme

Job description:

https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/senior-lecturer-academic-health-science-communication-fixed-term

Both academic application form AND research scheme application form must be completed:

https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/admin/content/assets/view/109791

https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/sites/default/files/asset/document/Academic Application Form_0.pdf

FURTHER DETAILS

We are looking for applicants who have the potential to develop into independent academic leaders and deliver high quality research with impact. You must have significant postdoctoral expertise in the targeted research area, normally a relevant doctorate, a track record of high quality research, and be aspiring to apply for externally funded fellowships or other major grant awards. Your research interest should align with the targeted research area: Health and Science Communication.

To support you in your role and accelerate your career, you will be assigned a dedicated mentor with world-class expertise and significant research management experience. Extensive training opportunities including a bespoke personal development plan and peer support from a cross-disciplinary cohort of academic researchers will be available. In addition, you will be provided with generous start-up costs and support for mobility to work with external partners, including outside the UK and academia.

The BU support offered will be fixed-term for three years at Grade 8 (NSS BU scales) plus reasonable costs that reflect the needs of the post.

The Academic Application form must be completed together with the Scheme Application form, which will allow reasonable costs up to a maximum of £30k for a three year period. /Any academic application forms received without the scheme application form will be rejected. /

This opportunity is initially offered for a Fixed-Term period of three years.

For an informal discussion about this opportunity please contact: Einar Thorsen ethorsen@bournemouth.ac.uk, quoting ref no: RDS38

Please note that interview timelines may be affected by COVID-19 restrictions, and we will review these in light of situation as it develops.

Revue française des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication (RFSIC - French Journal of Information and Communication Sciences)

Deadline: last week of July

English papers are welcome.

https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/8519

Coordination: Céline Pascual Espuny (Univ. of Aix-Marseille, France) and Andrea Catellani (UCLouvain, Belgium) - Research group Communication, environment, science, society

Inscribed in the international public space since the 1970s, the environment is today the source of many communication practices in our societies. It covers a broad and matrix-like discursive perimeter, where notions such as ecology, ecological transition, sustainable development, corporate social responsibility (CSR, which includes an environmental dimension), Anthropocene, and even collapse, reflect physical, economic, political, scientific, but also cultural and symbolic realities that are related but different. These realities are largely present in the field of communication, public and private, professional, expert or lay, strategic or spontaneous. Communication practices are not only an expression but also a vector and a factor in the construction of the cultural presence of nature and the environment, and of the transformations of this presence. Our images of nature, the environment and ecology are (also) communicative and trivial "beings", caught in the constant interaction between science, art, economics, politics, spirituality, society - and personal, more or less mediatized, sensitive experience (that of "mega-fires" and extreme weather events, for example).

At a time when pressures are coordinated and overlapping, whether anthropogenic, climatic, biological, social, political, economic or moral, communication practices play a key role. They are called upon from all sides, invoked to raise awareness, and considered necessary in the emergence of participatory and co-constructed mechanisms. However, these practices - particularly in the area of organizational and strategic communication - are still the victims of suspicions of manipulation and "greenwashing" practiced in the previous decade and still latent and resurgent. Media information on the environment at a time of anthropogenic challenges is caught in the tensions between different economic, political, moral and societal imperatives, in a context of societies that are often themselves in contradiction between different values, and between values and practices ("values-action gap"). For some time now, the Internet has been the meeting place for different communication (and societal) projects, for awareness raising, polemics and sometimes contradictory mobilizations.

In view of these constraints and tensions, what can information and communication sciences say today, in a critical and scientific way, about this polymorphous reality constituted by environmental communication practices? How are the links between Nature and Ecology grasped, as soon as the practice of communication is practiced? Does environmental communication present a different profile within the vast field of objects analysed by information and communication sciences, given their particularly "trivial" nature as places of intersection of all tensions, expectations and disappointments?

In this issue we will focus in particular on scientific contributions that propose an analysis of the specificities of so-called environmental communication, based on a solid methodology and anchored in information and communication sciences. The aim is explicitly to collect the most recent points of view and results in order to make them visible and show the solidification of a real research sector, which tends to go beyond the dispersion of individual contributions to aim at a form of institutionalization, for example in the form of an association of researchers (IECA), sections in the major international associations (ICA, IAMCR), and in France with a GER (study and research group "Communication, environment, science and society") within the French society of information-communication (SFSIC).

This issue aims to be open to the different trends and theoretical and methodological approaches of information-communication researchers dealing with environmental themes related to communication. Contributions may be integrated into one or more of the following areas, or be of a cross-cutting nature.

Controversies, polemics and media forms

Environmental issues are at the origin of tensions, polemics and debates, which are expressed, among other things, in the media and in the different spheres of the social-digital media, but also in more "physical" events, movements and confrontations. The challenges of climate change, pollution, biodiversity and the habitability of the planet, and their variations on local and territorial issues, are giving rise to the voices (and images) of many actors in the age of digitization. This axis aims to collect the contributions of researchers who observe and analyse, with different methodologies and approaches, these controversies and other forms of polemics and agonistic issues, in order to understand their communicational dimension.

Social and environmental actors: companies, activists, associations, governments, etc.

This axis focuses on the analysis of the communication practices of different actors who enter the public sphere with an agenda of claiming, transforming or protecting interests and/or values in relation to environmental issues. Companies and the economic world speak out in the form of discourses of responsibility (CSR-CSR, discourse on the construction of shared value, "green" communication and advertising, corporate activism), to show their alignment with social norms and trends, or to protect their economic model. NGOs and associations, activist movements, "influencers" and whistle-blowers, for their part, pursue projects of social and cultural transformation. Governments and public entities also intervene, between awareness-raising and institutional and public communication issues. The list, which is not exhaustive, should also include scientists, caught between the need for objectivity and the urgency of commitment, organizations such as churches and religious and spiritual groups, think tanks and the world of politics and political communication.

Popularization of science and its challenges

How to communicate environmental science, for example on the destruction of life and biodiversity and climate change? How does scientific knowledge enter the public arena, what dynamics and distortions, what challenges to the "authority" of science? The models of popularisation and "popular science" - for example, the deficit model - are coming under tension in the face of the challenges of "post-normal" and participatory "science", and in the face of the scale of "Anthropocenical" dynamics and trends (climate change, for example) that transcend the distinctions between different disciplines and discourses and tend to create short circuits between descriptive-analytical and normative-engaged regimes. From this point of view, the notion of expertise is also to be questioned, in its forms and appearances.

Media, journalism, mediatization of the environment

Researchers in information-communication have long, in the French-speaking world as elsewhere, investigated the ways in which the environment "comes to the media”. This presence is sometimes fluctuating, event-focused, sometimes partisan, in a context of technological and economic difficulties and changes in journalism in the digital age and tensions around truth and "information disorder" (the "fake news", loss of confidence in the media, changes in information consumption). The aim of this section is to show the latest advances and results of this research, in order to explore the (often different depending on the country) ways in which the environment can be "put into information". The axis is also open to research on the presence of environmental issues in media cultures in general, the audio-visual sector, and their interaction with the logic of cultural industries and the cultural consumption practices of individuals.

The living, its representation and its communication

The Anthropocene and the culture of the beginning of the 21st century see a change in the image of the "natural" world. The social sciences have shown the cultural and situated nature of the categorizations of beings and the relations between natural and cultural, between man and animal or plant. Scientific and philosophical discourses, such as those on anti-speciesism or on the intelligence of plants, percolate through literature and the press, interacting with the search for new forms of relationship (and resonance, to quote a title by Hartmut Rosa) with the living world and creation. This axis aims to question the mutations and reconfigurations of the cultural forms that frame the relationship between man and the living, seen from a communicational point of view.

Communication and ecological transition, between criticism and instrumentalization

At the time of the "ecological transition", communication (as a persuasive signifying action that transforms mentalities and behaviours) finds itself in an ambiguous position of "pharmacon": at the same time, decried as a source of manipulation (for example, in the case of "strategies of doubt", climate denials and fake news) and invoked as a necessary lever to bring about a more sustainable society (in connection with other marketing or psychological means such as "nudging"). This position deserves a question: how to interpret critically and ethically this "role" as an instrument of transition? How to deconstruct and identify the risks, limits and problems of this posture? On another level, what are the latest advances in the search for forms of communication that are engaging, transformative, and capable of empowering people in the face of necessary changes? How can communication contribute to changing attitudes and behaviours in the face of the "dragons of inaction" (Gifford 2011) that prevent behaviour change?

Environmental discourse and narratives

In the Anthropocene era, "facing Gaia" (to use a title by Bruno Latour), our societies are crossed by different discursive forms, which represent attempts to synthesize a complex and heterogeneous reality. This is the very nature of narrative mimesis, as Paul Ricoeur pointed out, but it is also the effort of meta-narratives and, more generally, of the great discourses that are organized around values and interests. This axis aims to attract researchers who are interested in the analysis of the "discursive formations" that appear today in the face of Anthropocenical challenges and concerns, and which manifest different and sometimes opposing accents, axiological universes and narrative structures. One need only think here of the discourses on degrowth, on voluntary and happy simplicity, collapse, ecomodernism, sustainable development. Formulas and visions circulate, carried by different actors with different logics and interests; these formations take shape in the media, in speeches, initiatives and actions. Information-communication approaches, for example narratological, rhetorical and critical, have here a space to express their analysis of this co-presence and tension between different discourses.

Calendar

• Issue published in No. 20, December 2020.
• Articles are expected for the last week of July
• Back to authors: last week of October
• Return of final articles: last week of November

Proposals for articles (between 30,000 and 40,000 characters including spaces, bibliography and footnotes) should be sent to:

Céline Pascual Espuny, celine.pascual@univ-amu.fr, and Andrea Catellani, andrea.catellani@uclouvain.be.

The guide for writing articles can be consulted at the following link: https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/401

Bibliography

BERNARD, Françoise (2018), « Les SIC et l’“anthropocène” : une rencontre épistémique contre nature ? », Les cahiers du numérique, vol. 15 : 31-66.

CATELLANI A., PASCUAL ESPUNY C., MALIBALO P. JALENQUES-VIGOUROUX B. (2019), Les recherches en communication environnementale : état des lieux et perspectives, Communication, Vol. 36/2 | 2019 [en ligne], DOI : 10.4000/communication.10559.

COX, Robert, PEZZULLO, Phaedra (2016), Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere, Londres et New York, Sage (5ème édition : 2018).

COX, Robert (2015), « Scale, complexity, and communicative systems », Environmental Communication, 9(3), 370–378.

D’ALMEIDA, Nicole (2011), « Le changement climatique entre image et texte », Recherches en communication, 35 : 17-36.

EVANS COMFORT, Suzannah, EUN PARK, Young (2018), “On the Field of Environmental Communication: A Systematic Review of the Peer-Reviewed Literature”, Environmental Communication, 12:7, 862-875, DOI: 10.1080/17524032.2018.1514315.

Gifford R. (2011). The Dragons of Inaction: Psychological Barriers That Limit Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, The American psychologist, 66(4), pp. 290-302.

HANSEN, Anders et COX, Robert (dir.) (2015), The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication, London, Routledge.

LESTER, Libby (2015), “Three challenges for environmental communication research », Environmental Communication, 9(3), 392–397.

LIBAERT, Thierry (dir.) (2016), La communication environnementale, Paris, CNRS éditions.

OGRIZEK, Michel (1993), Communication et environnement, Dunod.

PASCUAL ESPUNY, Céline (2017), Communication environnementale et communication des organisations. Logiques de publicisation, de circulation et de cristallisation, Mémoire d’habilitation à diriger des recherches en SIC.

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The symposium has now been rescheduled for 28-29 September, 2020.

Centre for Media & Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands

Deadline: POSTPONED

Check: https://www.rug.nl/research/icog/news/2020-02-24-cfp-political-journalism-and-impact-of-the-market

Confirmed speakers include: Marcel Broersma, Martin Conboy, Sophie Knowles , Victor Pickard, Helle Sjøvaag

Organizer: Chrysi Dagoula

Aims of the symposium

This symposium aims to examine the effects of the market on political journalism in democratic societies in Europe, covering various national contexts with different political and financial circumstances. The measures of austerity that have been imposed either directly or indirectly on various economies in Europe and subsequently on political journalism are at the very core of what the symposium seeks to explore, as it aims to examine the effect of these policies on key areas, such as media business models, working conditions, new regulations, and perceptions of journalistic identity.

The symposium poses the question of whether the current challenges are a result of the digitization and the inclusion of a variety of platforms in the media ecology, that directly affected the economic media models across Europe, or whether these challenges reflect established market mechanisms.

Due to financial, political and technological reasons, journalism is undergoing a continuous process of redefining itself. At the same time, journalism continues to be regarded as an integral part of modern democratic societies, but also as a major historical force that contributes to important ways to so-called “epistemological politics”, according to which the politics of what we know and how we act as citizens is linked to the politics of how we know.

Main themes

Drawing on this perception of journalism and by taking into account factors both external (such as political instability) and internal to the media, as well as the fact that current media environments are characterized by a multiplicity of networks and arenas where a plethora of actors constantly act, react and interact, the symposium will focus on:

• What definitions of market logic(s) are currently being used and developed?
• How can the manifestations of market logic(s) be understood through specific neoliberal policies, austerity measures, and memoranda regulations?
• In what stages or areas of journalistic processes does market logic(s) have the most significant effect?
• What are the opportunities and challenges for political journalism presently?
• To what extent does market logic(s) allow journalists to perform their democratic role, and what is the overall effect of market logic(s) on the relationship between journalism and democracy?

Confirmed speakers

Confirmed speakers include:

• Marcel Broersma, Professor of Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen
• Martin Conboy, Professor of Journalism History, The University of Sheffield
• Sophie Knowles , Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Middlesex University
• Victor Pickard, Associate Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
• Helle Sjøvaag, Professor, Media and Social Sciences, University of Stavanger

Contact

The symposium welcomes theoretical discussions as well as methodological contributions that enhance the understanding of the effect of financial policies on political journalism, as well as the variations of this effect in a cross-national setting. For informal inquiries or for further information, please contact the organiser, Dr Chrysi Dagoula at c.dagoula@rug.nl

Send your abstracts (300 words max) at c.dagoula@rug.nl (Chrysi Dagoula)

VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture

Deadline: June 1, 2020

VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture is currently open for proposals for its next special issue on Race and Europe’s TV Histories, set to be published in fall 2021.

Co-edited by Aniko Imre and Sudeep Dasgupta, this special issue will begin the work of documenting and understanding the many ways in which television has both perpetuated and critically interrogated racialized regimes in Europe and in European countries’ ongoing relationships to their postcolonial geopolitical spheres. With this framework in mind, we welcome proposals that explore how postwar television in Europe has naturalized, confirmed and challenged racial categories and racialized relations in the course of the medium’s history, including its extended, postcolonial dimensions.

Those contributors engaging with issues of nation, region, ethnicity and culture are encouraged to situate/emphasize/explore the relation with race in their proposals.

Possible directions include:

• Representing racialized histories and racial encounters in European broadcasting
• The normalization of whiteness in and on European TV
• Race in fictional and current affairs programming
• Reality TV/ documentary programming’s engagement with multiculturalism and race
• TV’s migration crisis
• Sports programming and race
• Race and multiculturalism in the history of advertising
• Race and/in comedy
• East-West (Europe) differences in TV’s approaches to race
• The impact of American engagements with race and diversity in European TV
• Romani (on) TV
• Race, TV and the “War on Terror”
• Race, fake news, propaganda
• Race and nationalism in national broadcasting
• Streaming, quality drama and the localization of racial categories
• TV and the Holocaust
• Intersectional approaches to race
• Racialized reception histories
• Race and labor in the TV industries
• Racial policies: public broadcasting, EU policies
• Color-blind casting
• News anchors as representatives of racialized publics
• The roles of film stock and video technologies in representing people of color
• Meghan and Harry

Contributions are encouraged from authors with different kinds of expertise and interests in media studies, television and media history.

You can submit your article proposal (max. 500 words) by June 1st, 2020 and should be sent to the managing editor through e-mail: journal@euscreen.eu All articles will be peer-reviewed.

Visit our website for more information https://viewjournal.eu/announcement/

VIEW is an open-access e-journal dedicated to sharing research on European Television History and Culture. VIEW is supported by the EUscreen Network and published by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in collaboration with Utrecht University, Royal Holloway University of London, and the University of Luxembourg.