European Communication Research and Education Association
NECSUS (special section), Autumn 2023
Deadline: January 15, 2023
This special section invites submissions that engage with questions of cyclicality, circularity, and recursivity in relation to media. Film history is traversed by the serial logic of production (such as silent serials, B-movies, and ephemeral sub-genre cycles) as well as the embracing of tropes of circularity bound by the Deleuzian time-image. Well beyond this purview, the undoing of the finite work through the logic of migrating content also attests to the creative repositioning of authorship as rewriting and recycling across media, as the multiple rebirths of Irma Vep (as a character and as a concept in 1915, 1996, and 2022) suggest.
More recent developments in predictive computation, algorithmic control, and machine learning have led to a renewed interest in cybernetics and systems theory among media scholars. One key interest in this area is how complex systems can potentially ‘regulate themselves’ through recursive feedback loops. In these accounts, the systemic feedback loop takes on a political efficacy that potentially undermines goal-oriented intentionality of the conscious human subject. This preoccupation also manifests in popular culture. The figure of the loop has become a staple technique of contemporary art. In streaming content such as Russian Doll, Dark, or Black Mirror: Bandersnatch time loops are often deployed to convey the slow violence of unsustainable habits and ‘history in a loop’. What is the meaning of these recursive aesthetic movements? How do the underlying principles of seriality enable these loops? Also: to what extent are serial production and consumption patterns themselves caught in unsustainable loops?
Moreover, the figure of the loop connects cycles of destruction to what one might call cybernetic subjectivities. The cultural figure and meme of the NPC (non-playable character) is a good example of such a cybernetic subjectivity in current media discourse. One may also think of the figure of the sleepwalker that Tony Sampson deploys to think about the nonconscious and repetitive patterns of social media consumption. Recursive media aesthetics are perhaps most clearly present in video games, where gameplay and progression loops buttress logics of optimisation and improvement. Of course, videogames have also begun to reflect on this core dynamic of theirs in titles like Deathloop, Souls-like games, and the increasingly popular genre of rogue-like/lite games (such as Spelunky, Rogue Legacy, Dead Cells, and Hades). Following yet another line of thought, this looped construction of subjectivity can be extended to the digital mediatisation of the so-called cycles of life, through apps that track physiological cycles, such as menstrual or metabolic cycles. What does it mean that subjectivity is produced in and through recursive systems? How does this transform our understanding of subjectivity? Do (digital) media contribute to the articulation of a new, recursive understanding of subjectivity?
If the figure of the loop (often, not always) has dystopian connotations, the notion of the circle or circulation tends to carry utopian potential. Re- or upcycling practices and designs for circular economies are often invoked as ways to ‘break the loop’ of environmental destruction. How and what do media circulate? In what circular movements are media themselves embedded? In what ways can cycles of media production and consumption be said to be open or closed? The cyclicality that underpins posthuman and decolonial thought has echoes in filmmaking across the world from Zama (Lucrecia Martel, 2017) to Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021). But the aforementioned also suggests that recursive or cyclical processes cannot be easily distinguished and opposed to linear models of (Western) thought. Capitalism’s insistence on linear progress and persistent growth relies on the operations of extractive cycles which, in turn, feed on natural cycles of seasons and life more generally, for instance in agricultural and livestock farming. How are these linear and recursive logics articulated to function together? What insights – regarding ecological, social, and political problems – can be gleaned from a method that pays attention to the imbrication of cyclical and linear aspects of time? The critical re-assessment of Western and colonial knowledge formations thus involves a reckoning with the linear and nonlinear models of time that support modern extractive economies.
For this special section of NECSUS we welcome contributions on #Cycles in different media forms, including but not limited to:
# cycles of production, distribution, and consumption
# cycles of the Earth, social and political cycles in relation to media
# tracking metabolic, menstrual, circadian and other cycles
# cybernetic subjectivities
# circular (media) economies and re-/upcycling
# recursivity in media and media aesthetics
# time loop media
# gameplay loops and progression loops
# ‘smart’ infrastructures and feedback loops
# new forms of non-linear temporalities in narrative film and media
We also invite submissions on the intersection between academic research and artistic practice – especially ones drawing circularity and/or seriality conceptually or methodologically. We look forward to receiving abstracts of 300 words, 3-5 bibliographic references, and a short biography of 100 words by 15 January 2023 to necsus.info@gmail.com. On the basis of selected abstracts, writers will be invited to submit full manuscripts before 1 September 2023 (5,000-8,000 words, revised abstract, 4-5 keywords) which will subsequently go through a blind peer review process before final acceptance for publication. Please check the guidelines at: https://necsus-ejms.org/guidelines-for-submission/
NECSUS also accepts proposals throughout the year for festival, exhibition, and book reviews, as well as proposals for guest edited audiovisual essay sections. We will soon open a general call for research article proposals for the section Features, which are not tied to special section themes. Please note that we do not accept full manuscripts for consideration without an invitation.
12-14 September 2023
Porto, Portugal
Deadline: February 25, 2023
The ECREA Audience and Reception Studies Section, in cooperation with SOPCOM Portugal, Lusófona University/CICANT and NOVA University/ICNOVA, is inviting you to the conference in Porto (Lusófona University), 12-14 September 2023.
Conference call
Unpredicted events have profoundly affected the lives of citizens around the world. The pandemic disrupted everyday routines and brought about rapid mediatization of numerous practices, from education and theatre-going, to therapy and fitness to name a few. After the first period of heightened orientation towards official information audiences developed different strategies and tactics for navigating the social and media environment – reaching personal networks, looking for alternative sources of news, creating their own content, campaigning or disconnecting from news flows. As we struggled to understand these varied responses to the pandemic, new crises entered the lives of citizens – war in Ukraine, energy and financial crisis, climate crisis, and political upheaval. These created different imagery, sources and relations to be woven into audience practices.
Such global occurrences pose unprecedented challenges and unforeseen human proximity to digital environments in an increasingly datafied, algorithmic world. As such, audiences are in a state between conformed and disruptive forms of thinking and acting, presenting themselves in between receptionist dynamics and (new) digital participatory habits. The conference intends to discuss these challenges in the context of our digitally saturated times
We therefore invite submissions that focus on audiences and touch on any of the following points:
- Online hate speech
- Online (dis and mis)information disorders
- Privacy and surveillance
- Trust in (datafied) media
- Digital literacy
- Audiences in a post-truth era
- Digital disconnection
- News consumption and participation
- Ethic contexts on audience research
Application process
Proposals for papers can be submitted in the form of 300 words abstract through the online form available here.
The deadline for the submission is 25th February 2023.
Submitted abstracts will be evaluated by the panel of reviewers consisting of Conference Scientific Committee, ARS and SOPCOM members.
Notification of acceptance will be sent to participants by 7th April 2023.
Authors of accepted abstracts are expected to attend the conference in person.
Participation fee (including coffee break and lunch) is 60 EUR for all participants. Each participant should cover their travel and accommodation costs.
For further information do not hesitate to contact conference organizers:
Edited by: Dalton, D., & Ramirez Plascencia, D.
Brill (2022)
https://brill.com/view/title/38449
Imagining Latinidad examines how Latin American migrants use technology for public engagement, social activism, and to build digital, diasporic communities. Thanks to platforms like Facebook and YouTube, immigrants from Latin America can stay in contact with the culture they left behind. Members of these groups share information related to their homeland through discussions of food, music, celebrations, and other cultural elements. Despite their physical distance, these diasporic virtual communities are not far removed from the struggles in their homelands, and migrant activists play a central role in shaping politics both in their home country and in their host country.
Table of Contents:
1 Introduction: Imagining Latinidad in Digital Diasporas. David S. Dalton and David Ramírez Plascencia
Part 1 Civic and Political Engagement
2 Pleito y Piedad: Continuity in Religious Conflict and Identity in Rural Morelos and its Diaspora. Jason H. Dormady
3 Oaxacalifornia and the Shaping of Virtual Spaces for Collective Action. Anna Marta Marini
4 Exploiting Liminal Legality: Inclusive Citizenship Models in the Online Discourse of United We Dream. David S. Dalton
5 Digitizing Transit and Borders: Social Media Use during Forced Migration through Mexico to The United States. Nancy Rios-Contreras
6 Latin Americans in London: Digital Diasporas and Social Activism. Jessica Retis and Patria Román-Velázquez
7 Digital Diasporas and Civic Engagement: The Case of Venezuelan Migrants in Mexico. David Ramírez Plascencia
Part 2 Digital Media and the Construction of Diasporic Communities
8 Solidarity and Mobility of Information among Brazilian Au Pairs in Online Forums. Amanda Arrais
9 YouTube Channels of Mexicans Living in Japan: Virtual Communities and Bi-Cultural Imagery Construction. Yunuen Ysela Mandujano-Salazar
10 Radio Haitiano en Tijuana: An Alternative and Aesthetic Communication Device on the Border. Diana Denisse Merchant Ley and Karla Castillo Villapudua
11 Latinidad Ambulante: Collaborative Community Formation Week by Week. Carmen Gabriela Febles
12 Public Engagement and the Performance of Identity on Instagram of Heritage Speakers of Spanish Studying in Spain. Covadonga Lamar Prieto and Álvaro González Alba
13 Scientific Diasporas: Knowledge Production, Know-How Transfer and the Role of Virtual Platforms. The Case of Colombian Association of Researchers in Switzerland, ACIS. María del Pilar Ramírez Gröbli
14 Latin American Diasporas amid a Pandemic, Hyperconnected and Polarized Context. David Ramírez Plascencia and David S. Dalton.
Edited By: Tonny Krijnen, Paul G. Nixon, Michelle D. Ravenscroft, Cosimo Marco Scarcelli
https://www.routledge.com/Identities-and-Intimacies-on-Social-Media-Transnational-Perspectives/Krijnen-Nixon-Ravenscroft-Scarcelli/p/book/9781032169125
This edited collection illuminates the scope with which identities and intimacies interact on a wide range of social media platforms.
A varied range of international scholars examine the contexts of very different social media spaces, with topics ranging from whitewashing and memes, parental discourses in online activities, Spotify as an intimate social media platform, neoliberalisation of feminist discourses, digital sex work, social media wars in trans debates and ‘BimboTok’. The focus is on their acceleration and impact due to the specificities of social media in relation to identities, intimacies within the broad ‘political’ sphere. The geographic range of case study material reflects the global impact of social media, and includes data from Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the USA.
This enlightening and rigorous collection will be of key interest to scholars in media studies and gender studies, and to scholars and professionals of social media.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
February 1-3, 2023
Nova University of Lisbon
Deadline: December 20, 2022
Open calls for communications and artist residencies
Call for papers, artist residencies and INN 2023 Awards – Media Innovation Awards (only for Portuguese context) are open until December 20th in the scope of INN 2023 – I International Conference on Media Innovation, which will be held at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at NOVA University of Lisbon between February 1st and 3rd, 2023.
Dedicated to the theme “(Per)forming Innovation”, the first edition of this annual conference aims to explore the concept of innovation from a conceptual and performative point of view in the media sector and also the innovative use of digital media in other contexts (such as artistic, cultural or creative). The programme includes a makeathon for PhD students and young researchers, workshops and master classes, theoretical discussions, debates with professionals, hybrid sessions, artist residencies, and the first edition of media innovation awards.
Regarding abstract proposals, contributions that focus on various dimensions of innovation in the media and other creative industries are encouraged.
Concerningproposals for artist residencies, physical and virtual artistic experiences that concretize the “(Per)forming innovation” concept, capable of involving the public, are encouraged.
There are also two journals associated with the event for authors who wish to submit full papers after the conference: Media & Journalism journal will host a limited selection of the best papers subject to a prior peer review process; Journal of Communication and Languages will edit a thematic issue dedicated to media innovation in artistic and cultural contexts, to be published in 2024, with a selection of the best articles subject to a peer-review process. Both are indexed in Scopus.
All information is available in the conference area, at https://obi.media/en/inn2023/
May 29-30, 2023
Toronto, Canada
Novel Directions in Media Innovation and Funding is an ICA post-conference on innovation in journalism that will bring together global scholars and leading journalists to address three key areas:
Journalists will be invited to participate in the discussions to build bridges between academic researchers and practitioners. By assembling this shared expertise, this conference aims to galvanize those who seek meaningful repair, reform and/or transformation of journalism.
The conference will be held in a central location in downtown Toronto on the evening of Monday May 29 and the day of Tuesday May 30, 2023. A registration fee of $75 Canadian ($25 for students and scholars from the Global South) includes two meals.
We invite submissions from scholars on topics related to journalism funding and media policy, innovative funding approaches, and on the role of digital news start-ups in reimagining journalism. Please submit using this form.
The deadline for submission is January 15, 2023. Submissions will be selected by the organizers, Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young, University of British Columbia. Presenters will be notified by February 17, 2023.
Questions, comments or suggestions? Get in touch with us at journalisminnovationlab@gmail.com
Deadline for proposals: December 30, 2022
Call for Chapters
Published by Lexington Books, August 2023
Edited by Tomás Dodds (Leiden University)
VR, AR, and 360 videos are storytelling tools that require journalists to navigate new narratives and platforms. Immersive technologies can amplify feelings of presence for the audience, allowing for deeper emotional engagement and information recall. Therefore, immersive technologies present unique ethical and practical questions for journalism, as its production is linked to biometrical, sensory, and metadata collection. Consequently, conversations about future-proofing newsrooms for the metaverse have gained increasing academic and societal attention over the last few years. This edited book is one of the first to ask: How do immersive technologies affect newsmaking, and what impact do they have on journalistic norms, audience engagement, and data protection?
This volume will be divided into three sections. The first section looks at how the empathy- generating nature of 360-degree videos impacts journalists producing the news and which ethical norms and values media workers consider when making the news. The second section of this book delves deeper into platform infrastructures and the narratives allowed by their affordances. This book's third and final section explores how new users’ data is made available to journalists through these technologies and presents the ethical and regulatory challenges associated with this recent phenomenon.
• Content Production & Journalistic Cultures: This book's first section addresses how journalists use new platforms to create novel types of content. Immersive technologies allow the users to gain first-person experiences of the events presented by journalists, which radically transforms the reporters' role in constructing news narratives. This section describes how VR technologies are transforming working cultures within newsrooms, including the diversification of professional roles and the upgrade in the materiality required to produce 360-degree and VR content. Possible questions for this section include: (1) how newsrooms are adapting their infrastructure to produce VR content, (2) how journalists are navigating professional and ethical questions surrounding the production of immersive content, and (3) reporters' imaginaries about the future of the news industry across the world.
• Narratives & Platforms Infrastructures: Virtual reality has shown promising results in recent studies on information recall and emotional engagement. Unlike two- dimensional (2D) videos, immersive 360-degree videos using a VR headset impact the audience differently, even when the based content is similar between the two formats. This makes the role that third-party platforms play in constructing virtual worlds even more critical as journalists adapt to the affordances of these platforms to build the news. As journalists look for spaces in the metaverse, new processes of gathering, processing, and designing information emerge across newsrooms. Possible questions for this section include: (1) platforms' affordances and their impact on news production, (2) VR languages and platform narratives for the creation of immersive content, and (3) how immersive technologies could increase the dependency between newsrooms and third- party platforms like Facebook and Google in different countries.
• Audiences Metrics & Data Protection: The material design of virtual and augmented reality technologies allows platforms and third-party companies to collect, analyze and distribute unquantifiable amounts of individual user data. VR headsets, some of which include brainwave sensors and eye-tracking technologies, allow the collection of three distinct categories of data to create virtual worlds. Firstly, physical data, such as body motion or visual attention-cueing, is collected through new generations of headsets or hand-based inputs. Secondly, biometrical data is collected through sensors that measure and record voluntary and involuntary bodily signals. Thirdly, metadata is naturally also recorded by platforms in the metaverse. Everything becomes data points for media to better understand their users, from avatars to microtransactions to friends and interactions. Possible questions for this section include: (1) what type of ethical considerations journalists have when dealing with user data, (2) how journalists are using new types of data to construct news stories, and (3) how these new categories of data impact the construction of media’s agenda.
*Please email chapter proposals of up to 500 words in length, as well as a brief author biographical information (150 words) to Tomás Dodds (t.dodds.rojas@hum.leidenuniv.nl) – no later than Friday, December 30th. Please indicate for which section you are proposing your chapter.
*Notification of acceptance will be sent in January 2023.
*After feedback, complete chapters (6000-7000 words) are due on April 24th for editing. The book is expected to be published as a hardcover edition in August 2023.
A contract has been signed with Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group). No payment from the authors will be required.
Editor: Tomás Dodds is an Assistant Professor in Journalism and New Media at Leiden University and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is also a researcher in the AI, Media & Democracy Lab in the Netherlands and the Artificial Intelligence and Society Hub [IA+SIC] in Chile.
May 4-5, 2023
University of Bologna, Department of Arts (Italy)
Deadline for proposals: 29 January 2023
Call for Paper and Panel Proposals
Website: https://eventi.unibo.it/creative-korea
Result notification: 15 February 2023
In recent years, Korean cultural industries have established themselves as among the most dynamic and successful at the global level, both artistically and commercially. Supported by a series of worldwide successes in different areas, the Korean Wave has become one key example of non-Western cultural production that was able to engage global audiences and to influence the way in which they consume pop culture. In this process, Korean cultural production has been able to diversify its offer and to adapt to the transformative changes brought by new social and digital media technologies.
The conference will focus on exploring the different aspects of contemporary Korean cultural production, with an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspective, including the many different sectors that compose the Korean Wave: film and TV production; music; performing arts; visual art; comics, graphic novels and webtoons; animation; videogames and e-sports; fashion and food. The aim is analyzing the multiple factors that have made this growth possible, the specific characteristics of cultural industries and cultural production in the Korean context, the different influences that shaped this production and how Korea’s success is now influencing other contexts, the historical development and changes of the Korean Wave, the socio-political and economic effects and impact of the spread of Korean cultural products both inside and outside Korea. In particular, we welcome contributions dealing with recent developments and changes in Korean cultural production, the post-pandemic challenges and opportunities for cultural industries, the integration of culture and technology, new trends in the development of cultural production.
Submissions should include an abstract (300 words) and a short bio (100 words) and be sent to creativekorea2023@gmail.com before 29 January 2023.
Proposals from PhD students, early career researchers and independent scholars are welcome.
Publication plan: at the end of the conference, we will look for an opportunity to publish an edited volume.
Enquiries can be directed to: Dr. Mary Lou Emberti Gialloreti, University of Bologna, marylou.emberti@unibo.it
The event is funded by the Academy of Korean Studies.
May 24, 2023
Toronto (Canada)
The conference is organized by the Digital Democracies Institute (Simon Fraser University) and York University and will take place in Toronto on May 24, 2023 (one day before the beginning of ICA).
For this pre-conference, we seek critical explorations of authenticity and authentication as they relate to digital manipulation and digital artifice.
How is authenticity caught, created, faked, authenticated and managed through digital assemblages?
We are particularly interested in research that examines the fabrication of digitally mediated authentic experiences, be they non-conscious and habitual, or spectacular and deeply meaningful. We are interested in research that explores how objects and persons come to be seen and experienced as authentic and inauthentic, which includes paying attention to how authenticity – in its affective, emotional, non-conscious and cognitive dimensions – is constructed via technical affordances, media habits, political rhetoric, mass-personal communication, network rhythms, recommendation algorithms and targeted campaigns. Equally, we are interested in work that critically and creatively challenges the articulation of authenticity with misinformation.
We welcome a wide array of methodological approaches – qualitative, quantitative, speculative, creative, participatory, collaborative and others. We are open to different formats of intervention, from traditional papers to research-creation. We also welcome proposals for short workshops (1 hour length), demonstrations and other modes of collaborative inquiries.
A full description of the conference is available here.
Please submit 150-200 words abstract to ICA2023Preconf@gmail.com by December 20, 2022. Notices of acceptance will be sent on 11 January 2023.
Key details and dates:
Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2023. 9:00 - 17:00
Venue: York University, Toronto
Division affiliation: Communication & Technology Division
Fee: Registration will be free
Call for Abstract deadline: December 20, 2022
Organizers:
Ganaele Langlois (Communication and Media Studies, York University)
Wendy Chun (Digital Democracies Institute, Simon Fraser University)
Alberto Lusoli (Digital Democracies Institute, Simon Fraser University)
Anthony Burton (School of Communication, Simon Fraser University)
March 22 - 23, 2023
University of Pennsylvania, USA
Deadline: December 15, 2022
CARGC Fellows’ symposium
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, the 2023 biannual fellows’ symposium will reflect on evolving concepts and methodologies in the field of global communication and media studies. We are witnessing ongoing global crises, from widespread displacements and climate disasters, to pandemics and the rising threat of fascism. In light of these circumstances, we invite emerging scholars, artists, and activists to explore what a global approach to media and communication can do today. What is at stake in studying global communication and media at this historical moment?
We seek to decenter Western epistemologies by foregrounding the local, the situated, and the relational interconnectedness of cultures, institutions, and infrastructures through media. In an effort to think beyond the national frameworks typically employed by area studies, we foreground transregional methods and frameworks of study that situate the global within the local and vice versa. Bringing together questions of the global and the local allows us as scholars to be reflective and reflexive, to situate our own scholarship within the world, rather than from an imagined, 'objective' outside.
We invite scholarly and creative projects, including research papers, creative writing, video essays or documentaries, sound or audio projects, artistic installations, and performances. We welcome submissions from early career scholars, as well as artists and activists whose work engages these issues. Submissions from scholars, artists, and activists based in the Global South are particularly encouraged. Topics may include:
The keynote address will be given by Professor Purnima Mankekar.
Conference Format & Timeline
The CARGC Fellows symposium will take place at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA and online on March 22 & 23, 2023. The symposium is planned as a hybrid event, with in-person participation highly encouraged. It will feature a keynote address by Dr. Purnima Mankekar and roundtable sessions (in which participants will give 5-8 minute flash presentations of their work). Senior scholars will act as discussion facilitators for the roundtable sessions, responding to and providing feedback on participants’ work. The purpose of these roundtables is to foster discussion between participants before opening up to a wider Q&A from the audience. Accepted participants will also be invited to a professional development workshop on teaching global media studies and communication.
Keynote address and in-person roundtable sessions will be made accessible to global audiences through Zoom. Please note that the professional development workshop is for symposium presenters only.
Accepted participants with financial need may apply for a travel grant to offset a portion of the cost of travel
Timeline: Submission deadline for abstracts is December 15, 2022. Acceptance notifications will be sent to selected participants by late January 2023. Please note that although all sessions will be held in a roundtable format, participants are still asked to circulate their conference-length papers and/or creative work to their roundtable chair.
Submission Guidelines:
Important Note: Participant(s) may only submit one proposal to the conference. Proposals should be uploaded through our submission platform here
Academic Paper Submissions:
Creative and Multimodal Work Submissions:
Please note that to keep the conference interactive and to leave room for questions and discussion, participants must be available to present their work synchronously during the conference, either in person or via Zoom.
Deadline for submissions is December 15, 2022. For any questions or concerns, e-mail cargcfellowssymposium@gmail.com
Submit your proposal HERE
SUBSCRIBE!
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