ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

July 15-19, 2019

University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Deadline: March 31, 2019

In ancient Greece, a central part of social life took place at the agora. At this physical venue, citizens did not only trade all kinds of commodities, but also deliberated about important societal issues and politics. Therefore, the agora can be considered as the birthplace of democracy. Today, social media seem to bring this ancient Greek idea into a digital world: Services such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram enable citizens not only to publish political thoughts or initiatives in the form of videos, pictures, or status entries but also to have civically relevant interactions with other citizens at large scale. While this might be seen as a potentially enriching tool for democratic societies, nowadays, it also has to be discussed in the light of less desirable observations such as uncivilized exchanges (“hate speech”), the spread of misinformation (“fake news”), the presence of manipulative entities (“social bots”), or communication in ideologically homogeneous spheres (“filter bubbles” or “echo chambers”).

Empirical evidence in the field of computer-mediated political communication has grown in the last decades. Still, it remains a pressing need for researchers to systematically identify the circumstances under which politically relevant communication over network technologies can become beneficial versus detrimental for individuals and societies. What are the boundary conditions under which social media serve as marketplaces wherein citizens can contribute to deliberation and rational exchanges of arguments? Which factors influence whether this can lead to better informed (political) decisions? Which kind of citizens benefit most or least when using social media in political contexts? What are long-term consequences of political discourses via social networking platforms? How can computational methods be used to understand the mechanisms within these platforms better and to improve the conditions for the user? What are ethical implications of political deliberation online and how can we come to a well-grounded normative stance? Answering these questions clearly demands a multi-disciplinary approach combining communication studies, psychology, computer science, social media analytics, ethics, and political science. This Summer School, hosted by the Forschungsverbund “Digitale Gesellschaft NRW” and organized by the University of Duisburg-Essen and University of Bonn, intends to bring these disciplines together and to offer a fruitful setting for senior and junior scholars to jointly work on current questions of political communication in computer-mediated contexts.

The Summer School is open for a total of 40 PhD candidates with different disciplinary backgrounds who study civically relevant communication through contemporary technologies. PhD participants are offered (a) extensive training in discussing current research problems following keynote presentations and in small-group workshops, (b) the opportunity to network with other PhD students and leading scholars, and (c) an environment to present their current work in the form of a poster exposition.

Application

To apply, PhD students are asked to submit an abstract of 600 words of their own research. Accepted abstracts will be presented in a high-density session including a short presentation and a poster. Please submit your application online here.

Call for Participation here

More information here

September 26-29, 2019

Hamburg

Deadline: April 8, 2019

The Global Investigative Journalism Conference, scheduled for this September 26-29 in Hamburg, Germany, will again feature an academic research track. Journalism professors and researchers worldwide are invited to submit research paper abstracts highlighting trends, challenges, teaching methodologies, new developments and best practices in investigative and data journalism.

The conference will be co-hosted by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), Netzwerk Recherche (NR) and the Interlink Academy for International Dialog and Journalism.

Designed by journalists for journalists, GIJC19 will focus, as always, on practical skills, technology and training.

CALL FOR RESEARCH PAPERS/ABSTRACTS

This is a call for submission of abstracts by April 8, 2019, of no more than 300 words for a short paper and panel presentation at the 11th Global Investigative Journalism Conference. Abstracts and papers should be sent to research.papers@gijn.org.

Selected research papers will be presented at the 2019 Global Investigative Journalism Conference at the Spiegel Publishing House and HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany.

Decisions will be made by May 15, 2019.

Final papers will be due August 15, 2019.

The papers will be compiled in a digital publication for the conference and accepted proposals and presenters will receive invitations to attend the conference.

Topics considered although not limited to:

• Trends in investigative reporting
• Trends in computer-assisted reporting and data journalism
• Challenges in doing investigative reporting depending on country or culture
• Successful methods of teaching investigative, computer-assisted and data journalism
• Adapting investigative journalism to new technologies

Submission Requirements:

Proposals should present original research into any aspect of the aforementioned topics in an abstract of maximum 300 words. Papers must follow APA style. If the abstract is accepted, paper length is no more than 15 pages (excluding references, tables and appendices).

Papers should not have been published or presented at a prior conference.

Instructions:

• Paper must be written in English.
• Paper must be in the format of Microsoft Word (.doc or docx). No other formats will be accepted.
• If abstract is accepted, paper must be formatted to APA style and no longer than 15 pages (excluding references, tables, appendices)
• Papers should be sent with the title, but without the author’s identifying information. Please send a separate title page with the authors’ contact information. This will ensure a fair and unbiased selection process.

Funding:

The conference fee of 300€ will be waived for all selected presenters but unfortunately we are not able to cover accommodation, visa and travel costs. Presenters should reach out to their own institution of employment for such funding.

If you experience any problems in submitting your paper or have any questions, please contact Brant Houston at brant.houston@gmail.com or Jelter Meers at jelter.meers@ijec.org.

Abstracts and papers should be sent to research.papers@gijn.org.

University of Fribourg (Switzerland)

Deadline: April 1, 2019

The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) invites applications for the position of Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) in Communication Studies. The position is with the Department of Communication and Media Research DCM. The appointment begins in early 2020 and is limited to five years. In case of a positive tenure evaluation, the assistant professor will be promoted to a permanent full professorship.

Candidates may either focus on societal (macro-level) or on individual (micro-level) issues of communication and media research from a social scientific perspective. The former includes but is not limited to research fields like journalism research, democracy, political communication and the public sphere; cultural and media industries and economics; media systems; and/or media policy and regulation. The latter includes but is not limited to research fields like media reception, use, and effects; audience research; and/or media content and performance. Regardless of a candidate’s field of specialization, they should show an interest in the implications of the digital transformation of communication and media.

Candidates must have completed a Ph.D. in communication studies or a related discipline. In order to promote up-and-coming researchers, the university especially invites scholars younger than 35-40 to apply. Candidates should have demonstrated research ability, a publication record appropriate for early career scholars as well as the potential for publishing in quality journals and for attracting externally funded research. Moreover, they should be committed to teaching excellence, have some professional international experience, and have sound skills in (quantitative and/or qualitative) social scientific research methods.

The teaching load is 4 to 6 hours per week and includes courses in the French-language Bachelor program “Sciences de la communication et des medias” as well as in the bilingual French/English Master program “Business Communication”.

Candidates should have high command of both French and English. Administrative languages at the University of Fribourg are German and French. Thus, a passive knowledge of German is expected in the medium term. The salary is competitive. The University of Fribourg provides equal opportunities for women and men and aims at achieving gender balance.

Candidates should send their complete application in a single PDF file that includes

• a cover letter describing their motivation and qualification for the position;
• a CV including lists of publications, presentations, teaching experience, research grants, and academic service;
• teaching evaluations (if available);
• a one-page statement of research interests and a one-page statement of teaching philosophy;
• the names of three professional references

to the dean’s office (decanat-ses@unifr.ch) and to Mrs. Anne-Marie Carrel, administration secretary at the DCM (anne-marie.carrel@unifr.ch), until April 1, 2019.

The School of Media, Communication, and Sociology at the University of Leicester

University welcomes applications to its interdisciplinary Master’s programme in Media, Gender, and Social Justice. The first of its kind in the UK, this one-year programme offers students the opportunity to critically examine and practically apply theories, concepts, and approaches related to the use of media and communication for addressing inequalities and engaging in social justice work.

This MA is offered by one of the UK’s leading centres for research and teaching in media, communication, and sociology. In addition to offering the expertise of over 50 members of staff in areas related to media, inclusion, politics, and development, we collaborate with colleagues in Criminology, Business, History, Politics, and International Relations to offer students a wide range of courses related to social justice and possibilities for supervision in these complementary subject areas.

The University of Leicester is ideally located in the East Midlands, a well-networked and exciting hub of social, artistic, and political activism. Leicester is widely-known as a welcoming, diverse city, and the University is a socially inclusive institution that celebrates research-led teaching.

Entry Requirements

Students must have a 2:1 degree or equivalent professional qualification. We may consider relevant voluntary/work experience in grassroots, public, private or NGO sectors related to social justice internationally.

Additional information about the programme and application procedures can be found here: https://le.ac.uk/courses/media-gender-and-social-justice-ma

Ramon Lobato

How streaming services and internet distribution have transformed global television culture.

Television, once a broadcast medium, now also travels through our telephone lines, fiber optic cables, and wireless networks. It is delivered to viewers via apps, screens large and small, and media players of all kinds. In this unfamiliar environment, new global giants of television distribution are emerging—including Netflix, the world’s largest subscription video-on-demand service.

Combining media industry analysis with cultural theory, Ramon Lobato explores the political and policy tensions at the heart of the digital distribution revolution, tracing their longer history through our evolving understanding of media globalization. Netflix Nations considers the ways that subscription video-on-demand services, but most of all Netflix, have irrevocably changed the circulation of media content. It tells the story of how a global video portal interacts with national audiences, markets, and institutions, and what this means for how we understand global media in the internet age.

Netflix Nations addresses a fundamental tension in the digital media landscape – the clash between the internet’s capacity for global distribution and the territorial nature of media trade, taste, and regulation. The book also explores the failures and frictions of video-on-demand as experienced by audiences. The actual experience of using video platforms is full of subtle reminders of market boundaries and exclusions: platforms are geo-blocked for out-of-region users (“this video is not available in your region”); catalogs shrink and expand from country to country; prices appear in different currencies; and subtitles and captions are not available in local languages. These conditions offer rich insight for understanding the actual geographies of digital media distribution.

Contrary to popular belief, the story of Netflix is not just an American one. From Argentina to Australia, Netflix’s ascension from a Silicon Valley start-up to an international television service has transformed media consumption on a global scale. Netflix Nations will help readers make sense of a complex, ever-shifting streaming media environment.

April 10-12, 2019

University of Seville

IV International Congress of Communication and Reflection: The Emergent Communication

Deadline: March 11, 2019

This panel at the IV International Congress of Communication and Reflection conference seeks to reflect about the power of the audience as a producer and diffuser of content in media. We invite you to contribute with reflections about experiences with audiences related with the transformation of the cultural industry, the future of television and the risks and opportunities in the relationships with the spectators. As a matter of fact, the suggested discussion topics of this panel are:

• New ways of consuming media
• New television formats adapted into a visual environment
• Transmedia audiences
• Strategies of the television format with interactive users
• Impact factors of social audience in the audiovisual industry
• The role of the new interactive user and its enrollment in the process of production, distribution and consumption
• The impact in social media of traditional audiences.The measurement of the social audience
• Risks and opportunities of the new content consumption
• Active audiences in radio
• Active audiences in press

To participate as a speaker you must sign up in this adress.

Besides, we remind the assistants that the paper proposals might be included as book chapter. Participants will be able to defend their presentation through video conference or Skype. English papers and presentations are also accepted.

Edited by: Mette Mortensen, Christina Neumayer, Thomas Poell

Far from being neutral, social media platforms – such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WeChat – possess their own material characteristics, which shape how people engage, protest, resist, and struggle. This innovative collection advances the notion of social media materialities to draw attention to the ways in which the wires and silicon, data streams and algorithms, user and programming interfaces, business models and terms of service steer contentious practices and, inversely, how technologies and economic models are handled and performed by users. The key question is how the tension between social media’s techno-commercial infrastructures and activist agency plays out in protest. Addressing this, the volume goes beyond singular empirical examples and focuses on the characteristics of protest and social media materialities, offering further conceptualizations and guidance for this emerging field of research. The various contributions explore a wide variety of activist projects, protests, and regions, ranging from Occupy in the USA to environmental protests in China, and from the Mexican Barrio Nómada to the Copenhagen-based activist television channel TV Stop (1987–2005).

READ MORE

University of Münster

Deadline: April 14, 2019

The Department of Communication (IfK) at the University of Münster seeks to fill two positions, commencing on 1 October 2019 (or as agreed upon):

• Post Doc position (Akademische Rätin/ Akademischer Rat auf Zeit) (f/m/d) (100 %): https://www.uni-muenster.de/Rektorat/Stellen/ausschreibungen/st_20192002_tb2.html
• PhD Student/ Research Assistant (f/m/d): https://www.uni-muenster.de/Rektorat/Stellen/ausschreibungen/st_20192002_tb2.html

The positions are part of Prof. Dr. Julia Metag’s team. Research and teaching of the team focuses on political communication, science communication and implications of media change and digitalization for these fields. Deadline for applications is April 14, 2019. For further information about the positions, please contact Prof. Dr. Julia Metag: julia.metag@unifr.ch

Ulster University, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Communication and Media

Deadline: March 29, 2019

£51,660-£59,862

Ulster University (Belfast) would like to appoint a Senior Lecturer in Screen Production to lead in the development and delivery of screen production programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and contribute to an outstanding student experience in preparation for industry relevant specialisation and progression into professional life. The ideal candidate would also contribute to the school’s research outputs and environment in Panel 34 in Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management.

Ulster prides itself on its award winning, industry engaged and research led teaching in media. With the launch of the Creative Industries Institute, and the recent success of the AHRC Funded Future Screens NI project, Ulster has confirmed its position as a sector leader within the broadly defined creative industries. As part of the newly formed Ulster Screen Academy, the School of Communication and Media seeks to expand undergraduate and postgraduate provision in both traditional and emerging screen production.

This post offers an exciting opportunity to lead the development of new curriculum that brings together academic scholarship, creative practice and professional skills development. The successful candidate will lead the new degree in Screen Production, and work alongside internationally recognized researchers to design and deliver a screen production curriculum which focuses on television production but also stretches across platforms and addresses both traditional storytelling and narratives for emerging televisual platforms. In particular, they will be teaching professional industry-level practice in broadcasting within various environments – e.g. outside broadcasting, TV studio production, and live television. A strong industrial background is essential.

Closing Date: March 29, 2019

For more information on the post please visit the website

On April 14-15, 2019

European Humanities Universtiry (EHU), Vilnius

Deadline: March 15, 2019

The event is organized by Games & Scholars (Vilnius) in partnership with the Laboratory for Computer Games at the Research Center for Mediaphilosophy (Saint Petersburg) and the Laboratory of Studies of Visual Culture and Contemporary Art (European Humanities University, Vilnius). The conference became possible thanks to support from the EHU Department of Social Sciences.

The conference is a 2 day event aimed at students and young scholars of media studies, cultural studies and other areas of humanities and social sciences. The conference invites game researchers, critics and designers to talk about violence in games on a higher conceptual level than the usual media discourse.

We invite you to discuss the following topics and cases:

• The game is broken: glitch in media studies,
• Difficulty level: impossible (tortureware, exploitationware, masocore games),
• Gamer theory: violent games vs. real world oppression,
• The good, the bad and the ugly: provocative aesthetics of indie games,
• Horror and the non-human: the violent Other,
• Exploitative game design and its moral implications, and other related topics.

We are particularly interested in cases when the game takes the initiative from players and makes them do, see or feel things they would not consent to in a different context. Violence, in this case, is understood as an uncontrollable disruption of the player’s experience. The simplest example, as mundane as it could be, is Flappy Bird, which wobbly controls reportedly made its players smash their phones. That Dragon, Cancer is a more elaborate example of gameplay violence: game’s deceptive affordances frustrate the player in dramatic situations when manipulations with available objects do not produce any results. On the storyline level, disturbing and baffling Doki Doki Literature Club is a violently subversive example. Finally, visual violence comes in many forms in video games, from hyperrealistic gore in horror games to the intricate art of glitch. In the latter case, the game as an automated medium goes rogue and accidentally creates situations which the human practice fails to control.

The question is: why does the game go on, even if it abuses the player? And even deeper: how violence in games produce the epistemological rupture in the playing process? What analytical perspectives can we apply to such cases? Who is being violent, and why? Is it media technology at large, or should we look for violence in the player’s gaze? How can we compare the horror of video games to the horror of other media (to say nothing about horrors of the real world and human existence in general)? May we suggest that all games are violent when they punish players for not following their rules? We will discuss this, and similar questions, after the talks and during panel discussions.

Submission for abstracts will be open on February 19, 2019, via an online form.

Registration will be closed on March 15 for those participants who need a visa to travel to Lithuania. The deadline may be extended until March 31 for those participants who don’t need a visa to travel to Lithuania. The registration form is available online.

The final decision about the program and submitted talk will be made before April 1, and the authors of all submissions will be notified about the result of reviewing process.

The organizers provide visa support and discount prices on accommodation to the accepted speakers who submitted before March 15 and need help with finding accommodation.

Articles based on presentations at the conference will be recommended for publication in the game studies issue of the EHU academic journal Crossroads. The Crossroads is included into EBSCO-CEEAS (Central & Eastern European Academic Source) and indexed in the MLA International Bibliography.

If you have any questions, please address them to games.and.scholars@gmail.com.