ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Cardiff University

Cardiff University, School of Journalism, Media and Culture, supported by the ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership for Wales, invites applications for PhD study, with the possibility of a fully-funded studentship, available to start in October 2020. We expect to make doctoral studentship awards in the area of “Journalism and Democracy”

The School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC) has a long-standing reputation as a world-leading centre for innovative teaching and research. Researchers engage with pressing contemporary issues and debates bringing together theory and practice. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework assessment, our research was ranked 2nd in the UK in terms of its quality and impact.

A key strength of JOMEC's research environment is the ongoing dialogue between research and practice-based staff delivering impactful research and policy.

JOMEC's cutting-edge research findings are shared through weekly seminars featuring speakers from across the UK and internationally. We also host the renowned biennial ‘Future of Journalism' conference bringing together scholars and practitioners from around the world contributing to a lively research environment.

JOMEC's state of the art facilities at Two Central Square situates us at the centre of local and national media, including BBC Cymru/Wales whose brand-new headquarters is situated next door. Our location facilitates building of strong industry links, boosting students' employability through access to major media organisations within the important and growing sector of the creative and cultural industries.

JOMEC academics have multi-disciplinary backgrounds from across the social sciences and humanities; have a strong tradition of teamwork and collaborative publications, and a substantial industry base. Pathway Convenor: Dr Cynthia Carter email: cartercl@cardif.ac.uk

Studentship's are ‘open' awards and applicants should consider approaching a potential supervisor before submitting their application. Information on the research interests of JOMEC staff can be found on our academic staff webpage.

STUDENTSHIP AWARD, ELIGIBILITY, TYPE OF AWARD (1+3 OR +3?)

See the ESRC Wales DTP website for further details: http://walesdtp.ac.uk/

HOW TO APPLY

A completed application form submitted to through the University's online application system (see details here) by the deadline of 12.00 noon, 3 February 2020.

The application must contain the following documents:

1. Covering letter: Please address to Dr Cynthia Carter. The covering letter must set out your reasons and motivation for applying to study at Cardiff University, and the “Journalism and Democracy” pathway; your understanding, and expectations of doctoral study; and your academic interests generally, and particularly of those relating to your proposed research. The letter should be no more than two pages and specify whether you wish to apply on a +3 or 1+3 basis.

2. Academic / Professional Qualifications and where appropriate proof of English Language Competency (7.5 IELTS with a minimum of 7.0 in each sub score).

3. References: All applications require two academic references to be submitted in support. Candidates must approach referees themselves and include references with their application.

4. Curriculum Vitae: Maximum two pages.

5. Research Proposal: A maximum of 1000 words, not including bibliographic references and we suggest the following five headings in your proposal:

• Title, aims and purpose of the research;
• Brief overview of the relevant academic literature;
• Proposed design/methods;
• Academic contributions of your research.
• Bibliographic References

Short-listed applicants will be invited to interview, which are expected to occur in late February/early March 2020. A short-list of applicants will then be put forward to a Panel from ESRC Wales DTP Management Group at which final decisions with regard to studentship awards will be made. Successful applicants can expect to hear by early April 2020.

Funding Notes

Short-listed applicants will be invited to interview, which are expected to occur in late February/early March 2020. A short-list of applicants will then be put forward to a Panel from ESRC Wales DTP Management Group at which final decisions with regard to studentship awards will be made.

Successful applicants can expect to hear by early April 2020.

The Ada Lovelace Institute

The Ada Lovelace Institute - https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/ - (Ada) and the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council are building a network to bring a humanities-led, interdisciplinary perspective to studies of AI and data ethics. This project is led by Dr Alison Powell at the Department of Media and

Communication at the London School of Economics. The project is looking for a research officer (postdoctoral scholar or experienced, non-PhD track researcher) for an initial 13-month term (starting April 2020) to work between the LSE Department of Media and Communication and Ada. This post will help create an interdisciplinary network, by:

• framing a creative, humanities-led perspective on AI and data ethics, particularly through translation across disciplines and between research, practice and policy 
• building up a repository of research 
• convening workshops and events
• mapping and managing relationships between researchers and practitioners, and contributing themselves to creative, critical and novel research on data and AI ethics.

It will involve writing, convening, commissioning and creating.

Candidates who are comfortable working across disciplines, especially between arts, design, social science and computer science are warmly welcomed.

More information is here: https://jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/5154/0/258428/15539/research-officer-data-and-ai-ethics

University of Amsterdam

At the Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam we have an opening for a PhD position in new media/software studies. The PhD student will work in the international, interdisciplinary project e-LADDA (https://e-ladda.eu), funded as a Marie Curies Innovative Training Network.

The profiles we look for (in total 14 PhD students across several organizations) are detailed here: https://www.ntnu.edu/e-ladda/individual-projects1.

Look for project ESR13 "Apps for learning: A software studies analysis of mobile applications for language development in children". We will focus in particular on atypical children (e.g., with autism, Down syndrome, etc.) so you will have the opportunity to really make a difference for these children and their families.

Deadline for applications: January 24th, 2020, 23:00 CET

Apply at https://www.ntnu.edu/e-ladda/recruitment

Curtin University (Australia)

Internet Studies at Curtin University (Perth, Western Australia) is hiring a 2-year, full-time, level B Postdoctoral Research Fellow to work on an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project looking at Social Media Influencers as Conduits of Knowledge in East Asia and Australia.

The candidate will be working closely with Dr Crystal Abidin and based in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry (MCASI), which explores new technologies and values the creative industries and social sciences. The School aims to encourage creative and critical reflection while engaging with relevant industries.

You will bring to the role:

* A PhD, preferably in Humanities or Social Sciences.

* Demonstrated experience in conducting traditional or digital ethnographic fieldwork – highly desirable.

* Competence in an East Asian language, preferably Chinese, Japanese or Korean – essential.

* A record of high-quality, peer-reviewed research publication, preferably demonstrating expertise in social media studies.

* Demonstrated high level communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to interact with students and staff with cross-cultural sensitivity.

* Demonstrated commitment to applying policies, procedures and legislation, as well as maintaining data security and confidentiality.

* Demonstrated project management skills with the ability to manage and implement project plans to achieve desired outcomes within required constraints.

Deadline for applications is 03 February 2020.

More information + Apply via the link here: https://staff.curtin.edu.au/job-vacancies/?ja-job=84194&fbclid=IwAR2rcFCAdkztZK8c-D15fKDfTDtlI0T5IlzLLifhTLE_JIJapOzmGfBT8RM

June 29-30, 2020

Loughborough University, UK

Deadline: March 13, 2020

On June 29-30, 2020, the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture at Loughborough University (United Kingdom) will host the sixth conference of the International Journal of Press/Politics, focused on academic research on the relation between media and political processes around the world. Professor Young Mie Kim from the University of Wisconsin will deliver a keynote lecture.

A selection of the best full papers presented at the conference will be published in the journal after peer review. The deadline for submission of abstracts is March 13, 2020. Attendees will be notified of acceptance by March 20, 2020. Full papers based on accepted abstracts will be due June 12, 2020.

The conference brings together scholars conducting internationally-oriented or comparative research on the intersection between news media and politics around the world. It aims to provide a forum for academics from a wide range of disciplines, countries, and methodological approaches to advance research in this area.

Examples of relevant topics include the political implications of current changes in media systems, including the increasing role of digital platforms; the importance of digital media for engaging with news and politics; analysis of the factors affecting the quality of political information and public discourse; studies of the role of entertainment and popular culture in how people engage with current affairs; studies of relations between political actors and journalists; analyses of the role of visuals and emotion in the production and processing of public information; and research on political communication during and beyond elections by government, political parties, interest groups, and social movements. The journal and the conference have a particular interest in studies that adopt comparative approaches, represent substantial theoretical or methodological advances, or focus on parts of the world that are under-researched in the international English language academic literature.

Titles and abstracts for papers (maximum 300 words) are invited by March 13, 2020. The abstract should clearly describe the key question, the theoretical and methodological approach, the evidence the argument is based on, as well as its wider implications and the extent to which they are of international relevance.

Please send submissions via the online form available at http://bit.ly/IJPP2020.

The registration fee for the conference will be GBP 250, to be paid by April 30, 2020. A limited amount of registration fee waivers will be available for early career scholars and scholars from countries that appear in Tiers B and C of the classification adopted by the International Communication Association. Applications must be made by March 13, 2020 via the abstract online submission form available at http://bit.ly/IJPP2020.

The conference is organized by Cristian Vaccari (Loughborough University, Editor-in-Chief of IJPP). Please contact Professor Vaccari with questions at c.vaccari@lboro.ac.uk.

More about the journal, the keynote speaker, the University, and the Centre:

The International Journal of Press/Politics

The International Journal of Press/Politics is an interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the media and politics in a globalized world. The journal publishes theoretical and empirical research which analyzes the linkages between the news media and political processes and actors around the world, emphasizes international and comparative work, and links research in the fields of political communication and journalism studies, and the disciplines of political science and media and communication. The journal is published by Sage Publications and is ranked 11th by Scopus (SJR) and 12th by Journal Citation Reports in Communication.

Professor Young Mie Wim, University of Wisconsin

Young-Mie-Kim-1024x683Young Mie Kim is a Professor of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a Faculty Affiliate of the Department of Political Science. Kim is a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Kim’s research concerns data-driven, algorithm-based, digitally mediated political communication. Kim’s recent research project, Project DATA (Digital Ad Tracking & Analysis), empirically investigates the sponsors, content, and targets of digital political campaigns across multiple platforms with a user-based, real-time, ad tracking tool that reverse engineers the algorithms of political campaigns. Kim and her team’s research, “The Stealth Media? Groups and Targets behind Divisive Issue Campaigns on Facebook,” identified “suspicious groups,” including Russian groups on Facebook. The work received the Kaid-Sanders Best Article of the Year in Political Communication (2018), awarded by the International Communication Association. Kim testified at the Federal Election Commission‘s hearings on the rulemaking of internet communication disclaimers and presented her research at the Congressional briefings on foreign interference in elections. Kim also spoke at the European Parliament on her research on data-driven political advertising and inequality in political involvement.

Loughborough University

1oDFxNO8_400x400Based on a 440-acre, single-site campus at the heart of the UK, Loughborough University is ranked top 10 in every British university league table. Voted University of the Year (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019) and awarded Gold in the National Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), Loughborough provides a unique student experience that is ranked first in the UK by the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2018. Loughborough University has excellent transport links to the rest of the UK. It is a short distance away from Loughborough Train station, a 15-minute drive from East Midlands Airport (near Nottingham), an hour drive from Birmingham Airport, and an hour and 15 minutes from London via train.

The Centre for Research in Communication and Culture

LU_CentreForResearch_in_Communication&Culture_COLSince our establishment in 1991, we have developed into the largest research centre of our kind in the UK, and the 2019 QS World University Ranking placed us in the top 50 for communications and media research. We are a proudly interdisciplinary centre, creatively combining social science and humanities approaches for the rigorous exploration of the production and consumption of different forms of communication and creative texts. Our research draws on and contributes to theories and methods in cultural and media studies, sociology, politics, psychology, history and memory studies, textual, visual and computational analysis, and geography. We are interested in exploring how media and cultural texts are produced, how they construct meanings, how they shape the societies we live in, and how they fit within an ever-growing creative economy.

LMU Munich

The Department of Media and Communication at LMU Munich offers a position, within the research and teaching unit of Professor Neil Thurman, as:

Postdoc (m/f/d) in Computational Journalism / Media Audiences

(subject to personal qualifications, the appointee will be appointed on the E 13 TV-L salary band, approximately €3837 - €5622 per month depending on experience)

Terms: starting 1 April 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter. The period of employment is normally for a maximum of six years. The teaching requirement with this position is approximately 5 (academic) hours/week during the semesters (1 academic hour = 45 mins).

The successful candidate will join Professor Thurman’s research and teaching unit, which is currently part-funded by the VolkswagenStiftung via two projects on computational journalism. These projects are researching topics including: the use of AI in local journalism; audiences’ perceptions of automated journalism; and the use of, and attitudes to, computational journalism in newsrooms. These projects involve collaboration with researchers, publishers, and technology providers in Germany and other countries. Professor Thurman’s research and teaching unit also focusses on media audience research more widely (‘ratings analysis’), including the behaviour of newspapers’, magazines’, and TV channels’ online and offline audiences. The unit is also involved in comparative journalism research through the Worlds of Journalism Study. Professor Thurman’s website provides more information on his research interests: https://neilthurman.com/

The candidate is expected to:

• dedicate themselves to the outlined research projects and areas;
• contribute to the development of the research design and relevant research tools;
• participate in publication activities and presentations at international conferences.

Requirements:

• University degree and PhD in media and communication or a related field.
• Strong interest in computational journalism and/or researching media audiences.
• Strong quantitative research skills (e.g. SPSS or R).
• Understanding of, and experience with, a range of research methods (e.g. content analysis, surveys, interviewing, web analytics, survey experiments).
• Fluency in English (written and oral).
• A record of publication in the English language.

What we offer:

The successful candidate will join the large and successful Media and Communications Department at one of Germany’s highest-ranked universities. LMU Munich provides excellent support and conditions for early career researchers. The specific projects the successful candidate will work on come with generous funding for research-related travel (conferences, fieldwork, etc.) and other research-related expenses.

Application procedure: Your application (in English only) should include: a motivation letter, your CV with publication list, the names and contact details of two references, copy of degree certificates and transcript of grades. Please also include a link to your Master’s or PhD thesis.

Complete applications should be submitted as a single PDF document to: sekretariat-thurman@ifkw.lmu.de or by mail to:

Liselotte Drescher

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung

Oettingenstr. 67

80538 München

Germany

Please submit copies only, as your application will not be returned to you. Applications should be submitted as soon as possible. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

IX. International Conference on Conflict, Terrorism and Society

April 14-15, 2020

Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey

Deadline: February 14, 2020

Crises signify conflicts, danger and chaos. Global crises, from political crises to climate change, from war and terror to humanitarian disasters, represent the dark side of a globalized world. This year’s conference theme focuses on how do global crises emerge from, and result in, social, political, cultural, institutional, economic, technological and environmental changes. The conference aims to analyze the ongoing multi-dimensional crisis of global world and provide interdisciplinary approaches to the current global crises. The major themes to be covered with respect to global crises may include wars and terrorism, global displacement and mass migration, legal crises and legitimacy, economic crises, disasters, catastrophes and risks, environmental challenges, poverty, politics (e.g. rise of populism, rise of nationalism), security (e.g. national security, digital security), the role of media in crisis time, disinformation and power relations. The conference also aims to understand how global crises are spawned by and shape our global age, and how they are represented in the media.

By structuring the discussion around potential topics, the 9th International Conference on Conflict, Terrorism and Society (ICCTS) welcome paper submissions that examine a key issue from different theoretical or methodological approaches. Within this perspective, the conference aims to bring together leading scholars from across disciplines to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of ‘global crises’. Potential topics for presentations include but are not limited to:

● Global crises

● Wars and terrorism

● Economic crises

● Political crises

● Legal crises

● Global displacement and mass migration

● Refugee crisis

● Contemporary risks in digital age

● Security

● Crisis in digital media

● The role of media in crisis

● Media, representation and narratives of crises

● Gender inequality

● Poverty

● Climate change

● Natural disasters

● Environmental crisis and challenges

Please, submit a maximum 300 words abstract to: Mine Bertan Yılmaz, Faculty of Communications, Kadir Has University, Istanbul-Turkey, mine.yilmaz@khas.edu.tr

Proposals should be submitted in the following order:

• Name of the author(s)
• Telephone, fax, and e-mail address
• Affiliation
• Title of proposal
• Body of proposal

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: 14.02.2020

You will be notified by 21.02.2020 regarding the status of your proposal.

Previous years the selected papers have been published in edited volumes with respected publishers.

The organizing committee is planning to edit a new volume with selected papers from this year’s conference.

For further information about conference venue, transportation and submission please visit our website: http://iccts.khas.edu.tr

For further information about the conference in general, contact: Prof. Banu Baybars-Hawks (banubhawks@khas.edu.tr)

Deadline: February 15, 2019

Editor: Heloisa Pait

Connections between the emergence of national democracies, economic development, and the introduction of mass media have been studied for many decades, but there are still missing links in this complex web. In 1949, Daniel Lerner suggested the existence of a relationship between new media and the modern mentality in developing nations. Although much criticized, his insights influenced optimistic views of the impact of television and the internet around the globe. Here we ask a different question: what is the impact of State censorship and material restrictions on the press, in countries that have been witnessing continuous economic development?

Do restrictions on the functioning of the media in the formative period of a nation have long-term impacts on economic development? Looking from a different angle, can a limited labor market, with few formal vacancies in competitive firms, make literacy less rewarding, discouraging private investment in education? How do low literacy rates influence political culture and the nature of the public sphere in a modern society? In this volume, we would like to examine the multiple relationships between economic development, adoption of new media, literacy and education, and democratic culture.

We are interested in studies of so-called developing countries, and in particular those where there have been restrictions on the printing press, such as colonial Brazil and the Ottoman Empire, or which somehow differ from the Northern European and North American model of media development. We welcome papers using a variety of methods, particularly those bridging interdisciplinary gaps. Our goal is to point to new paths in the understanding of the challenges to achieving a free and just society. We welcome papers that discuss public policy regarding educational or economic reforms within that larger investigative framework, as well as research on the experience of particular groups. Research is particularly welcome on women, the African diaspora, and/or Marranos.

The article “Liberalism Without a Press: 18th Century Minas Geraes and the Roots of Brazilian Development”, by the editor, which appeared on volume 18 of Studies in Media and Communications, further elaborates on the possible relations between media, development and the public sphere. Please send your inquiries to Dr. Heloisa Pait, heloisa.pait@fulbrightmail.org with the subject “Emerald Book Series”. Submissions should be sent by February 15, 2020.

Editor: Heloisa Pait is a tenured professor of sociology at the São Paulo State University Julio de Mesquita Filho. She has written on Brazilian telenovelas, on the role of new media in political action and on higher education in Brazil and in the United States. Heloisa Pait is an active participant of public debates; she has recently launched Revista Pasmas, an online women’s magazine. Her published articles are listed in the Lattes platform at www.bit.ly/helopaitLattes.

Contributing editor: Renata Nagamine is a postdoctoral fellow in the Graduate Program in International Relations at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. She received her PhD in international law from the University of São Paulo Law School. Nagamine has worked as a researcher at the Brazilian Centre of Analysis and Planning (Cebrap) and was a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Fellow with the Laureate Program in International Law at the University of Melbourne in 2018. Her areas of interest are international humanitarian law, human rights, and political theory.Her published articles are listed in the Lattes platform at http://lattes.cnpq.br.

May 21, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Australia

Submission Deadline: January 31, 2020

Organizers: Pablo J. Boczkowski, Eddy Borges-Rey, Miriam Hernández, Ezequiel Korin, Eugenia Mitchelstein, Magdalena Saldaña & María Celeste Wagner

This preconference aims to examine the production, distribution, and consumption of digital media in Latin America. It is a follow up to the pre-conference on Digital Journalism in Latin America that was part of the 2019 annual meeting of the International Communication Association. For this second edition, we have broadened the scope to include all digital media practices, not just journalism, to create a platform that can showcase the richness of a wider variety of relevant research in and about Latin America.

As both digital media production and consumption have featured increasingly more prominently in the information landscape of Latin America, it is worth inquiring into whether the specificity of Latin America and its culture and institutions might entail differences with digital media as it is constructed and appropriated in other parts of the world. These are some possible topics (suitable additional topics will also be considered).

• Latin American journalism has been described as less professionalized and less independent than in more stable democracies (de Albuquerque, 2005; Hallin and Papathanassopoulus, 2002; Hughes, 2006). How have these two long-standing features affected the practices of online news production and the self-perception of reporters?
• Misinformation and fake news have become a hot topic in the region, especially during the presidential elections in Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. What factors affect the spread of false information in digital environments, and how does it compare to the spread of fake news we have observed in the Global North?
• Political communication in the region has become more polarized over the past couple of years. How does this trend contrast with comparable trends in other regions of the world?
• Social movements to fight gender-based violence, such as #NiUnaMenos, have embraced the potential of digital media to self-organize and have their voices heard. How are these practices? How do these practices and results compare to other social movements outside of Latin America?
• The ongoing migration of large swaths of Latin American populations has favored the adoption of peer-to-peer networks, such as WhatsApp, and social media platforms, such as Twitter or Facebook, to maintain and actualize familial relationships and, more generally, a sense of belonging to the countries of origin in Latin America. How do these practices redefine the social dynamics, both in the country of origin and in the country of destination? How are challenges and opportunities articulated in the use of digital media among Latin American migrants?

The keynote speaker will be Ingrid Bachmann, Associate Professor in the School of Communications at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Information about submission:

Authors should submit an extended abstract of no more than 500 words (excluding references) no later than 16:00 UTC, January 31st, 2020. The following is the link to the submission form: https://forms.gle/ntdZqptWXvzZXNGx5

Authors will be notified about whether their respective abstract has been accepted by February 15th, 2020.

Attendance to the preconference has a USD 25.00 fee.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please send an e-mail to: icapreconflatam@gmail.com

June 22-26, 2020

Zurich, Switzerland

Deadline: March 1, 2020

The Doctoral Program Democracy Studies at the University of Zurich is pleased to announce the 7th Swiss Summer School of Democracy Studies 2020 on „Frontiers of Democratic Innovations”. The 2020 Summer School will be held in Zurich from 22 to 26 June 2020.

The School will bring together young scholars from all over the world with a common interest in the topic of democratic innovations, i.e. institutions and practices that increase and deepen citizen participation in political decision-making. During the Summer School participants will:

• gain theoretical, empirical, and methodological know-how on democratic innovations in various contexts, such as: in mini-publics, e-democracy, direct democracy, or participatory budgeting
• discuss their own research and receive feedback on their work from both international experts and peers in their field of research
• meet and exchange with international experts and scholars working on similar topics during networking sessions and social events

The Summer School is open to doctoral students, advanced master students and postdoctoral researchers worldwide from the social sciences, such as political science, media and communication science, political theory, sociology and related disciplines. The Summer School is limited to 20 participants. A certificate will be awarded for participation in the full academic program.

The deadline for submission is 1 March 2020. Please find the application instructions online, together with further information on fees and grants.

For more details on the program, please visit the official website of the Swiss Summer School of Democracy Studies and refer to the attached flyer. For any other enquiry, please contact Sofia Bollo in Summer School Office at democracyschool@ipz.uzh.ch.