ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

December 1, 2023 

Prague, Czech Republic 

Deadline: May 1, 2023 

www.praguemediapoint.com 

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What’s Working: Sustainable Media System for a Viable Democracy 

It is our pleasure to announce the return of the Prague Media Point Conference, which will take place on December 1, 2023, in Prague, Czech Republic!  

Our world is facing an unprecedentedly complex set of intertwined, mutually reinforcing challenges - a polycrisis, as some define it. Many find it hard to navigate such circumstances and lose faith in the public space they inhabit. The role of journalism thus becomes even more crucial for the maintenance and quality of the liberal democratic system. Today’s media need to regain readers’ trust and contribute to building an open-minded public sphere. This also requires them to cultivate a system where journalists can operate freely and safely, content can remain independent from outside influence and output can effectively reach the target audience. 

We encourage submissions of abstracts and session proposals that focus on examples in the media that appear to be working and generating impact in the following areas, though the list is not exhaustive:​

∙Boundaries of censorship, content moderation institutions/models 

∙Online and other harms, protection of journalists and their content 

∙Lessons of the Twitter affair 

∙Credibility and transparency of media resources and ownership 

∙Preserving independence from the subscribers 

∙Effective ways of fighting disinformation 

∙Innovative engaging with the audience 

∙Good practice of technological advances 

∙Media resources across generations 

∙Social media at the forefront of news delivery 

∙Media cooperation across borders  

∙Public service and social media co-existence 

∙Media platformization 

Please submit your 500-word abstracts or proposals and a short bio by May 1, 2023 to: precek@keynote.cz  

Download our abstract or session template here: http://bit.ly/2GUiqz1  

For more information on submission, deadlines, and fees go to www.praguemediapoint.com. 

To register for the conference, please go to: https://bit.ly/3RXz4Av  

Contact: Marek Přeček, Project Coordinator, precek@keynote.cz   

MedieKultur Special Issue

Theme editors: Ib T. Gulbrandsen (Associate Professor, Roskilde University), Martina S Mahnke (Associate Professor, Roskilde University), Emma Christensen (Postdoc, Roskilde University), Julie Vulpius (Postdoc, Roskilde University), and Simon Karlin (PhD Fellow, Roskilde University)

Issue editor: Martina S Mahnke (Associate Professor, Roskilde University)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not only shaping contemporary communication processes but is actively contributing to and participating in them. Customer service chatbots communicate with us, prediction and surveillance models communicate about us, and content generators communicate instead of us. AI is, in other words, influencing how communication happens, and ultimately what it means to communicate. AI is, however, not developed, adopted, and employed in isolation. Rather, how media, researchers, citizens, vendors, data scientists, etc. understand, envision, and communicate about AI is key to how AI develops, what models are constructed, and the way they take part in processes of communication (Bailey & Barley, 2020).

The entanglement of discourse and practice, of humans and AI, raises many questions and has thus become a topic of scholarly interest across a diverse set of disciplines. While much literature has sought to define AI (see e.g., Monett & Lewis, 2018 ), such definitional work tends to neglect the significance of everyday enactments of AI; how data scientists formulate assumptions that subsequently guide their code writing, how media and vendors narrate AI to influence how citizens and potential customers imagine it, or how AI shapes communication practices in organizations. Others have discussed the potential possibilities and risks of AI, including implications for work practices, trust, as well as ethics and governance (see e.g., Crawford & Calo, 2016; Newell & Marabelli, 2018; Kellogg et al., 2020; Wiesenberg & Tench, 2020; Zuboff, 2015). However, in-depth empirical explorations, methodological and theoretical explorations of the everyday impact of how AI participates in communication and how communication participates in AI are still sparse.

This special issue aims to address this gap and invites conceptual and empirical studies that examine and reflect on the role of AI in various communication processes. We especially welcome contributions that nuance and detail the interplay between humans and AI in communication practices. The special issue assembles vital insight on AI in communication and organizing processes striving for diversity in terms of nationalities and geography among the authors as well as the theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches, such as – to mention but a few – communication, organizational, and cultural studies, science and technology studies, actor-network theory, phenomenology and qualitative and quantitative studies, action research, discourse analysis, comparative approaches, (digital) ethnography, and mixed method approaches.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Empirical (case) studies on the use, application, and impact of AI in communication and organizational processes
  
• Studies in AI-narratives, imaginaries, and expectations about AI and its implications for communication processes
  
• Studies on understanding and sense-making processes in relation to the use and implementation of AI in organizations
  
• Analyses of employees’, costumer’s, individual’s or group’s conceptualizations of AI inside and outside of the traditional organizational boundaries
  
• Studies of human-AI relations, for example, the ethical dimension of AI-aided decision-making, and its opportunities and challenges for AI governance
  
• Critical and cultural perspectives: conflicts, tensions and negotiations of AI in organizational settings
  
• New, playful, and creative ways in which AI and communication practices are intertwined 
  

The special issue is related to the SCAI-projekt, funded by the VELUX FOUNDATIONS: https://scai.ruc.dk/

Submission guidelines

Abstracts should contain a maximum of 500 words excluding references. It should include the research question(s) addressed, theoretical and methodological approaches as well as preliminary conclusions. Abstracts should be submitted as a Word document via our open  journal system at www.mediekultur.dk, where you will need to create a user account if you do not already have one. Please indicate in “comments for the editor” section that you are submitting to the special issue “AI and communication practices”. In case of any questions regarding the uploading process, please contact: mahnke@ruc.dk.

Timeline

Deadline for abstract submission: May 1st, 2023

Acknowledgement of acceptance for full paper submission: May 12th, 2023

Deadline for full paper: September 11th, 2023

Notification of acceptance: November 1st, 2023

Deadline for revised articles: January 10th, 2024

Expected publication: May 2024 

References

Bailey, D. E. & Barley, S. R. (2020). Beyond design and use: How scholars should study intelligent technologies. Information and Organization, 30(2) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2019.100286

Crawford, K., & Calo, R. (2016). There is a blind spot in AI research. Nature, 538(7625), 311-313. https://doi.org/10.1038/538311a

Kellogg, K. C., Valentine, M. A. & Christin, A. (2020). Algorithms at work: The new contested terrain of control. Academy of Management Annals, 14(1): 366-410. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0174 

Monett, D, & Lewis, C. W. P. (2018). Getting clarity by defining Artificial Intelligence – A survey. In V. C. Müller (Ed.), Philosophy and theory of Artificial Intelligence 2017. Springer, pp. 212-214. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96448-5

Newell, S. & Marabelli, M. (2018). Datafication in action. Diffusion and consequences of algorithmic decision-making. In R. D. Galliers & M.-K. Stein (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Management Information Systems. Routledge. pp. 403-415. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619361-30 

Poole, D. L. & Mackworth, A. K. (2017). Artificial intelligence: Foundations of computational agents, Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108164085 

Wiesenberg, M., & Tench, R. (2020). Deep strategic mediatization: Organizational leaders' knowledge and usage of social bots in an era of disinformation. International Journal of Information Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.102042

Zerfass, A., Hagelstein, J., & Tench, R. (2020). Artificial intelligence in communication management: a cross-national study on adoption and knowledge, impact, challenges and risks. Journal of Communication Management, 24(4), 377-389. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-10-2019-0137

Zuboff, S. (2015). Big other: Surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. Journal of Information Technology, 30(1): 75-89. https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2015.5

University of Zurich

IKMZ – the Dept of Communications and Media Research at the University of Zurich – has just advertised a professorship for empirical communication/media research. We are looking for internationally renowned scholars who conduct excellent research on the use and effects of mediated communication and have a proven track record in the methods and methodology of communication/media research. Applications are due by May 1, 2023.

You will find more info under https://jobs.uzh.ch/offene-stellen/professorship-in-empirical-communication-and-media-research/376109cc-2d1e-4de6-ade3-729d66f8116a

Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS)

The Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) funds innovative projects that deal with the social opportunities and challenges of the digital transformation. We support individual researchers and groups.

You want to spend a sabbatical in a vibrant interdisciplinary research community? Become a fellow at CAIS!

A fellowship at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) releases you from your regular work obligations and opens up new perspectives.  

As a fellow, you can spend either six or three months in Bochum, Germany. During this period, we will finance your sabbatical leave from work through compensation (e.g. for a substitute). Alternatively, we will pay grants of up to 2.000 € per month. You can invite guests for collaboration and will receive financial support for research expenses. Individual offices and meeting rooms with modern facilities offer optimal working conditions. In addition, we will provide comfortable apartments free of charge.

Find out more at https://www.cais-research.de/en/cais-college/fellowships/ 

You want to boost your collaboration? Bring your group together at CAIS!

Working groups bring together experts from different locations to work on joint projects in an inspiring environment.

We provide modern meeting facilities for working groups of up to twelve members. In addition, we will cover travel and accommodation expenses. You can spend up to three weeks in Bochum or get together for several shorter meetings.  

Find out more at https://www.cais-research.de/en/cais-college/working-groups/

Application

The next deadline for applications is 30 April 2023. The earliest possible starting date for new fellowships is April 2024. The earliest possible starting date for new working groups is January 2024. You can also combine both programs. Please use the application forms provided on our website.

The funding program is open to excellent scholars and practitioners, to all career stages, disciplines and areas of investigation, as well as to pure research and to projects that are more applied in orientation.

Further questions? Please contact esther.laufer@cais-research.de.

October 19-20, 2023

Madrid, Spain/online

Deadline: May 31, 2023

Objective: The congress seeks to provide a space for reflection and synergy around the study of hate speech from the digital news media and social networks at the Ibero-American and international levels.

Dates: It will be held on October 19 and 20, 2023, in person (in the Faculty of Information Sciences of the U. Complutense of Madrid and at the International University of La Rioja - UNIR's headquarters in Madrid) and online. Reception of proposals until May 31, 2023. Submissions will be accepted in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Organization: It is organized by the Project Cartography of hate speech in Spain from communication: sports, bullfighting and political spheres (PID2019-105613GB-C31 – CARTODIOCOM), and the Project Taxonomy, presence and intensity of hate speech in environments digital media linked to the Spanish professional news media (PID2020-114584GB-I00 – HATEMEDIA). Both projects are led by the Complutense University of Madrid and the International University of La Rioja, financed by the State Research Agency - Ministry of Science and Innovation (Government of Spain).

Web for more information at: https://ciomd.es/

25 May, 2023

Toronto, Canada

It is our great pleasure to share with you an ICA pre-conference dedicated to the consideration and discussion of Elihu Katz’s ideas.

Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, registration for this pre-conference is free. To register for the pre-conference, please navigate to the registration page. 

Questions about the pre-conference should be directed to any one of the pre-conference organizers listed below.

Organized by: Menahem Blondheim (Hebrew University), David W. Park (Lake Forest College), Jeff Pooley (Muhlenberg College), and Julia Sonnevend (The New School)

Arrival, Coffee

8:30 am - 8:45 am

Opening Remarks from Pre-Conference Sponsors

8:45 am - 8:50 am

Orienting Katz Historically

8:50 am - 9:20 am

Moderator: Jeff Pooley

Peter Simonson, “Communication, Opportunity Structures, and the Making of Elihu Katz, 1926–1956: The Child is Father of the Man”

Coffee Break

9:20 am - 9:35 am

Katz on Journalism, Democracy, and the Media

9:35 am - 10:50 am

Moderator: Barbie Zelizer

Klaus Bruhn Jensen & W. Russell Neuman, “Enriching the Concept of Communication Effects: The Legacy of Elihu Katz”

Leah A. Lievrouw, “Katz, Tarde, and Theorizing Digital Communication”

Michael McDevitt, “Is the U.S. Press Invested in Democratic Crisis?”

Kimberly Meltzer, “Legacies of Elihu Katz: Contributions to Theorizing on Journalism and Television”

Patrícia Dias & Priscila Krolow, “Youth on BeReal: Emergent Uses and Sought Gratifications”

Coffee Break

10:50 am - 11:00 am

The Continuing Relevance of Media Events

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Moderator: Julia Sonnevend

Esther Hammelburg, “Being There Live: Witnessing & Belonging at Contemporary Media(tized) Events”

Johanna Sumiala & Katja Valaskivi, “Hybrid Media Environment: A Key Challenge to Contemporary Media Event Theory?”

Charlotte Knorr & Christian Pentzold, “The Craft of Data Scandals: Reassessing Contemporary Whistleblowing as Media Events”

Sachie Hamada, “Media Events in the Internet Age: From ‘Watching on Couch’ to ‘Doing Sports Together’”

Rainier Winter & Jörg-Uwe Nieland, “Rethinking ‘Media Events’: Sports Mega-Events, Authoritarian States, and the Battle for Meaning”

Lunch

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Two-Step Flow

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

Moderator: Larry Gross

Devon Powers, “From Fads to Trends: Lessons From Katz”

Laura Dilley, “The Memetics of QAnon as Dynamical System: A Historical and Forensic Analysis of Katz-Inspired Diffusion of pro-QAnon Sentiment Among Social media Micro-Influencers”

Svetlana S. Bodrunova, Kamilla Nigmatullina, Nikolay Rodossky, and Dmitry Nepiyushchikh, “The Two-Step Flow Model in a Hybrid Environment: Decentralization of Media in Discussions on User Complaints in the VK.com Social Network”

Hynek Jerabek, “Elihu Katz’s Journey From the ‘Two-Step Flow Report’ to ‘His Master’s Voice’: 65 Years of Opinion Leaders”

Elizabeth Dubois, “Strategic Personal Influence: From Political Opinion Leaders to Social Media Influencers”

Coffee Break

3:00 pm - 3:15 pm

The Multidimensional Katz: A Cross-Cutting Conversation

3:15 pm - 4:30 pm

Moderator: Menahem Blondheim

Sonia Livingstone

Jeffrey C. Alexander

Limor Shifman

Michael Schudson

Closing Words

4:30 pm - 4:45 pm

Pre-recorded video contributions pending

The Pre-Conference is Sponsored by:

The Department of Communication and the Smart Family Institute of Communications at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California; and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania

August 31 - September 1, 2023

Berlin, Germany

Deadline: March 31, 2023

The 2023 ECREA Political Communication Section Conference is taking place 31 Aug - 01 Sep in Berlin, Germany. The event is hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society and the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. The deadline for abstract submissions (400 words) is 31 March 2023.

More information about the conference and submissions can be found at https://ecreapolcomm2023.ecreapoliticalcommunication.com/

LSE

LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university 

Department of Media and Communications, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) 

Salary from £38,313 to £46,168 pa inclusive with potential to progress to £49,614 pa inclusive of London allowance 

This is a fixed-term appointment for 11 months 

Applications are invited from outstanding postdoctoral candidates in media and communications. The successful candidate will join an established and successful Department, ranked first in its field in the UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) and third in the QS World University Rankings 2022, and known for its distinctive interdisciplinary approach to the field of media and communications. You will contribute to the "Media Literacy Programme project: An evaluation of the Common Sense Digital Citizenship Curriculum", managing the day to day running of the project, engaging in high-quality research and evaluation as instructed by the PI Professor Shakuntala Banaji, and participating in the School and wider Department activities as directed. 

Candidates will have: 

. A PhD in media and communications, media education, or a closely related area. 

. Ability to conduct research using quantitative methods to evaluate interventions. 

. Ability to conduct original academic research on substantive research topics that relate to Media and Digital Literacy and educational interventions in this field 

. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and ability to communicate research findings effectively to scholarly, policy and non-academic audiences 

. Good interpersonal skills and the ability and willingness to work as part of an interdisciplinary team and with non-academic stakeholders 

. Evidence of time management skills, setting priorities and meeting tight deadlines 

. We offer an occupational pension scheme, generous annual leave and excellent training and development opportunities. 

For further information about the post, please see the how to apply document, job description and the person specification on the following webpage: https://jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/4650/0/382729/15539/research-officer-post-doc 

To apply for this post, please go to http://www.jobs.lse.ac.uk. If you have any technical queries with applying on the online system, please use the "contact us" links at the bottom of the LSE Jobs page. Should you have any queries about the role, please email Media.Research@lse.ac.uk. 

The closing date for receipt of applications is 26 March 2023 (23.55 UK time). Regrettably, we are unable to accept any late applications 

March 9, 2023

I am pleased to invite you to the next in the series of IPRA Thought Leadership webinars. The webinar The Weixin story: PR’s contribution to CSR will be presented by Zoe Chou, Dean of the Weixin Strategic Research Institute and the Head of PR at Weixin on Thursday 9 March 2023 at 12.00 GMT/UCT (unadjusted).

What is the webinar content?

The One for all Love meal Program won the 2022 Golden World Awards grand prix. The webinar will discuss the background to the program and discuss other corporate social responsibility projects from China’s Weixin and its parent company Tencent. 

How to join

Register here at Airmeet. (The time shown should adjust to your device’s time zone.) 

A reminder will be sent 1 hour before the event.

Background to IPRA

IPRA, the International Public Relations Association, was established in 1955, and is the leading global network for PR professionals in their personal capacity. IPRA aims to advance trusted communication and the ethical practice of public relations. We do this through networking, our code of conduct and intellectual leadership of the profession. IPRA is the organiser of public relations' annual global competition, the Golden World Awards for Excellence (GWA). IPRA's services enable PR professionals to collaborate and be recognised. Members create content via our Thought Leadership essays, social media and our consultative status with the United Nations. GWA winners demonstrate PR excellence. IPRA welcomes all those who share our aims and who wish to be part of the IPRA worldwide fellowship. For more see www.ipra.org

Background to Zoe Chou

Zoe Chou is Dean of the Weixin Strategic Research Institute and the Head of PR at Weixin. She is one of the pioneers of China’s Internet communications and has been a trailblazer of marketing in the digital age. Zoe has been guest lecturer at the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University and the School of Journalism, Fudan University. She has also served as a judge for a number of international marketing awards.

Contact

International Public Relations Association Secretariat

United Kingdom

secgen@ipra.org

Telephone +44 1634 818308

Nordicom Review Special Issue

Deadline: May 2, 2023

Find the full call on Nordicom’s website: https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/nordicom-review/calls-for-papers

The question of ownership has always been central in studies of news media and power. Today, this question is more important than ever, as witnessed by the focus on media ownership in the 2022 European Commission Media Freedom Act, as well as the rise and growing centrality of digital platforms that greatly influence both news media and journalism. 

With this special issue of Nordicom Review, the editors invite scholars to submit articles with a focus on the ownership and regulation of news media and digital platforms in Europe. 

Editors:

Mark Blach-Ørsten (Roskilde University)

Tobias Lindberg (Nordicom, University of Gothenburg)

Helle Sjøvaag (University of Stavanger)

Josef Trappel (University of Salzburg)

Contact:

Tobias Lindberg, tobias.lindberg@nordicom.gu.se 

Important dates:

Deadline for extended abstracts: 2 May 2023

Invitations to submit full paper sent: 15 May 2023

Deadline for full submissions: 2 October 2023

Peer review (including revisions): November 2023–January 2024

Expected publication: Spring 2024

Procedure:

Those with an interest in contributing should write an extended abstract (max. 750 words) where the main theme (or argument) of the intended article is described. The abstract should contain the preliminary title and five keywords. How the article fits with the overall aim of the issue should be mentioned.

Send your extended abstract by 2 May 2023 to Tobias Lindberg: tobias.lindberg@nordicom.gu.se.

All of Nordicom’s publications are published without publication fees or article processing charges (APC).