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CFP: ICA 2024 Preconference "Reimagining Digital Activism: Navigating Complexities and Forging New Perspectives"
by Jun Liu 12 Oct '23

12 Oct '23

ICA 2024 Preconference Call for Papers: Reimagining Digital Activism: Navigating Complexities and Forging New Perspectives Date: 20 June 2024 (Thursday) Venue: Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Center (GCCEC) In collaboration with the ICA Global Communication and Social Change Division & the ICA Activism, Communication, and Social Justice Interest Group. https://cts.ku.dk/projects/to-use-or-not-to-use/events/ica-2024-preconferen… With the proliferation of digital technologies, activism has experienced exponential growth, garnering attention from public debates, journalism, and academia over the past decades. Yet, the landscape of research on digital activism presents both established and emerging hurdles that impacts its progress. For instance, the prevalent focus on single countries or single platforms in existing scholarship significantly constrains the potential for comparative analysis and theoretical innovation. Meanwhile, the scarcity of available (free) data, primarily controlled by a few Big Tech companies, poses challenges for academics to build up a meaningful, valid, and complete portrayal of digital activism. Furthermore, the initial empowerment of political activism by emerging technologies has equally led to digital repressions, as both democratic and authoritarian regimes leverage enhanced digital technologies to curb activism. At the same time, activists have adopted more sophisticated strategies for employing digital activism as part of their repertoires, though the scope and impact still need further exploration. These factors collectively necessitate a reflection and realignment of current research on digital activism across theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions. In this pre-conference, we look for original, rigorous, and innovative contributions and reflections on the intersection of activism and digital technologies. Submissions can adopt primarily theoretical frameworks or be grounded in empirical investigations, addressing both micro and macro-level research questions. Across all forms, submissions should make explicit, original, and substantial contributions to the literature on digital technologies and activism. Timeline Deadline for abstract submission: 26 January 2024 Acceptance notifications: 1 March 2024 Deadline for registration: 24 March 2024 Preconference: 20 June 2024 Submission Abstracts of 400-600 words (excluding references) must be sent to activism.preconf(a)gmail.com<mailto:activism.preconf@gmail.com> by Friday, 26 January 2024. Please include author names, affiliations, contact information of the submitter, and a brief sentence on how the submission addresses the CFP. We strongly encourage submissions that take a critical perspective on existing literature, investigate lesser-studied activist movements/platforms/ issues or that shed light on digital activities by activist minority groups and/or contentious actors of the Global South. We also welcome submissions by early career scholars and advanced PhD students. Organizers Jun Liu, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Chris Chao Su, Boston University, the U.S. Giuliana Sorce, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany Delia Dumitrica, Erasmus University Rotterdam Priyank Chandra, University of Toronto Joyce Nip, University of Sydney Sponsors The Sapere Aude: DFF-Starting Grant “To Use or Not to Use? A Relational Approach to ICTs as Repertoire of Contention<https://tech-in-movement.ku.dk/>”. College of Communication<https://www.bu.edu/com/>, Boston University The Center on Digital Culture and Society<https://www.asc.upenn.edu/research/centers/center-on-digital-culture-and-so…> at University of Pennsylvania Best, Jun Jun Liu, Ph.D., Associate Professor Center for Tracking and Society, University of Copenhagen Karen Blixens Plads 8, DK-2300 Copenhagen S Denmark Vice-chair, the ECREA Communication and Democracy Section ORCID: 0000-0001-6066-4130 The Danish Independent Research Fund’s Research Leader 2021, https://tech-in-movement.ku.dk/ **********************************************************

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Sci/Health Comm Speaker Series Autumn 2023
by Lyle Skains 12 Oct '23

12 Oct '23

The Centre for Science, Health, and Data Communications Research invites you to our Autumn 2023 speaker series. Featuring researchers from around the world, these online talks are open to the public and encompass topics on crisis communication, climate change and sustainability; media, data and AI literacy; social justice communication and how the arts and storytelling can help tackle global challenges. All events take place on zoom - Thursdays 16:00-17:00 UK time Find out more and Register for events on EventBrite.<applewebdata://D2704565-3F4A-4DE0-B569-3BCA11F8B96C/Register%20for%20events%20on%20EventBrite.>(https://bit/ly/SHDCevents) 12/10 Sarah Jones Uncovering a literacy for AI Literacies have been well documented from media to the digital and more recently immersive. With an increase in the use of generative AI tools and the impact that this is having on an increasing number of sectors, this talk will argue for the need for an AI literacy. It will examine frameworks for understanding how to use artificial intelligence and the need to be constantly evolving our thinking when it comes to technology. 19/10 Suntosh Pillay The limitations of #BlackLivesMatter for anti-racist activism in the global south It is unlikely that you know the name Collins Khosa. However, you would know the name George Floyd. This is no accident. The media, as a global epistemic authority, produces, polices and perpetuates a knowledge system that favours the Global North. I present a comparative analysis of the murders of Khosa in South Africa (April 2020) and Floyd in the U.S. (May 2020). Despite its quasi-universal appeal, Black Lives Matter (BLM) has an ironic proximity to whiteness within the United States that provide BLM with epistemic advantages not enjoyed elsewhere, especially in poor ‘township’ contexts of South Africa. I argue that anti-racist activism in global south contexts must guard against uncritically importing northern-centric forms of protest, such as #BlackLivesMatter. The US has particularities that distracts the media gaze, (mis)directing social justice activism away from black lived experiences in countries such as South Africa, reinforcing silences, epistemic injustices, and colonial continuities. 26/10 Tessa Jolls Media Literacy: A Strategy for Risk Management in an Uncertain World With new AI technologies, as well as the cacaphony of voices that have emerged through social media, it is clear that the call for a media ecosystem that only contains “the truth” or that contains little or no misinformation or disinformation is a utopian dream that only invites more discord and polarization, or worse, highly contestable labelling and censorship. Meaning lies in the minds and hearts of information users, and with this recognition, media literacy offers a pathway toward dialogue and risk management strategies that encompass both qualitative and quantitative analyses and reflection, based on a fundamental understanding of media as a global symbolic system. With this in mind, media literacy offers the questions — not “the answers” — for exploring and interrogating media in all its forms, individually and collectively. This empowerment enables wiser choices throughout life and societies. 02/11 An Nguyen Global South’s over-reliance on science news from Global North: causes, consequences and solutions Developing countries rely heavily on the developed world for not only scientific expertise but also science news output. From Africa and the Middle East to South America and developing parts of Asia, a large proportion of science news consumed in the Global South has been found to be translated or, at best, synthesised from foreign sources, especially global media outlets based in the Global North. Such reliance is a double-edged sword: while it helps to enhance general awareness and understanding of global science developments in the Global South, this double-layered structure of dependency bears many negative long-and short-term implications for local and global development. Drawing on recent content analyses and in-depth interviews with science journalists in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, this paper will address this critically important, but rarely studied, phenomenon. I will discuss the causes and impacts of such over-reliance on foreign sources and offers some thoughts on potential solutions to the problem. In general, this requires a holistic approach and international cooperation efforts to address the many traditional shortfalls of science and science news cultures in the Global South. 9/11 Sweta Baniya Transnational Assemblages: Social Justice and Communication During Disaster 16/11 Kayla Jones The Power of Podcasting: Audio Storytelling Beyond Entertainment With the rise in popularity of audio listening, podcast studies is a growing field of research that is responding to podcasts that have gone mainstream, such as Serial. Audio storytelling podcasts can be a powerful tool to advocate for, connect with, and educate global audiences. Through creating her own podcast, Kayla explored the ways storytelling podcasts can tell multilayered narratives beyond the realm of entertainment and in non-fiction settings, like heritage and tourism. 23/11 Antonio Lopez Algorithms and the Climate Emergency: An Ecomedia Literacy Perspective Whether it’s blockchain technologies or disinformation, Big Tech algorithms have a significant environmental impact. The economic models of surveillance and carbon capitalism are both based on extractivism, so data harvesting and resources extraction practices mirror each other in Big Tech algorithms. To encourage a holistic environmental analysis of algorithms, ecomedia literacy’s four zone approach enables an investigation from the perspectives of ecoculture, political ecology, ecomateriality, and lifeworld. For media literacy educators and reformers, the challenge is to develop curricula and methods that address these different standpoints, which can include critical media literacy, design justice, civic media literacies, news and misinformation literacies, and ethical algorithm audits. 30/11 Andrea Winkler-Vilhena The art of presence Throughout history the Arts have been used to address societal issues, to see and show the world in diverse ways, and to imagine and create new futures. Nowadays, every aspect of life has become so entangled with digital media that it is impossible to speak about the world without considering the effects they have on our lives. How do we relate to and interact with people when our attention is absorbed by digital gadgets? What does presence mean in a world in which a big part of human relationships and communication happens in virtual spaces? In this lecture we will explore how the Arts can be used to promote media literacy and how seeing, interacting with and making art can revive our sense of presence and promote care and imagination. 7/12 Annamaria Neag Youth digital activism and online media: from digital exclusion to the complexities of civic participation Since the second half of the 2000s, there has been an increasing interest in the relationship between internet use and civic participation. While initially this interest was geared towards the adult population, researchers have shifted their attention to young people and their activism in the digital sphere. In this talk, I will present the research findings of our ongoing project focusing on young people in the CEE region (namely, the Czech Republic and Hungary) and their (online) involvement in the Fridays for Future movement. We first mapped the online public discourse on youth civic participation in these two countries and then focused on young people’s views on activism and the digital skills needed to participate. Our results show that online commenters use specific strategies to exclude young people from the public sphere. When it comes to young people and their views on digital activism, we found that digital media plays a rather complex and contradictory role in their civic participation, with its affordances providing both opportunities and challenges in terms of mental well-being, non-formal education and community-building. 14/12 Arseli Dokumaci Shrinkage and Activist Affordances: How disabled people improvise more habitable worlds For people living with disability, everyday tasks like lifting a glass or taking off clothes can be daunting. As such, their undertakings may require ingenuity, effort and artfulness. In this talk, I draw on visual ethnographies with disabled people living in Turkey and Quebec, and trace the immense labour and creativity that it takes for them just to navigate the everyday. Bringing together theories of affordance, performance, and disability, I propose “activist affordances” as a way to name and recognize these extremely tiny and yet profoundly artistic choreographies that disabled people have to continually rehearse to make the world more habitable for themselves and others. Activist affordances, in the way I define them, are micro, often ephemeral acts of world-building, with which disabled people literally make up, and at the same time make up for, whatever affordances fail to materialize in their environments. Activist affordances are not like any other affordance in that their creation emerges from constraints, losses and precarity that I broadly conceptualize as “shrinkage”. It is within a shrinking world of possibilities, that it becomes necessary to create affordances in their physical absence, which is why I call them “activist”. Even as an environment shrinks to a set of constraints rather than opportunities, the improvisatory space of performance allows disabled people to imagine that same environment otherwise through activist affordances, presenting the potential for a more livable and accessible world. **The Centre for Science, Health, and Data CommunicationsResearch focuses on the urgent need for better science, health and data communication through ambitious cross-disciplinary collaborations. Bringing together experts from various disciplines – media and communication, computer and data sciences, health and medical sciences, environment sciences, business studies, psychology and sociology – we research and pioneer interdisciplinary solutions for contemporary communication challenges. From reporting statistics, to tackling disinformation, from health and wellness interventions to more efficient communication around environmental and humanitarian disasters, our members respond to real world issues—often in real time. For more about our centre or to get in touch, please visit https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/centre-science-he… Checkout past events and subscribe to our YouTube channel<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb5RlDCyrUrQ0efjsWq7fMw/about>(@SHDCresearch) Follow us on Instagram and X (Twitter) @SHDCresearch — Trans Rights are Human Rights — Dr. R. Lyle Skains (she/her) Associate Professor in Literary Media Senior Fellow, HEA | UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor Faculty of Media & Communication, Bournemouth University lskains(a)bournemouth.ac.uk<mailto:lskains@bournemouth.ac.uk> | Staff Profile<https://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/lskains> — Playable Comms<http://playablecomms.org/>: Interactive Digital Narrative for Health & Science Communication Winner of the 2023 N. Katherine Hayles Award<https://eliterature.org/elo-awards/> for Criticism in Electronic Literature, Neverending Stories: The Popular Emergence of Digital Fiction<https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/neverending-stories-9781501364938/> ________________________________ BU is a Disability Confident Employer and has signed up to the Mindful Employer charter. Information about the accessibility of University buildings can be found on the BU AccessAble webpages. This email is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed and may contain confidential information. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete this email, which must not be copied, distributed or disclosed to any other person. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Bournemouth University or its subsidiary companies. Nor can any contract be formed on behalf of the University or its subsidiary companies via email.

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Call for Participation: Music and Online Cultures Research Network Winter Workshop
by Dr Steven Gamble 12 Oct '23

12 Oct '23

Music and Online Cultures Research Network Winter Workshop 4–5 January 2024, Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol, UK The Winter Workshop is a practical and collaborative research development event. The goal is to bring together researchers aiming to generate innovative research on music and online cultures. The event will feature structured periods of collaborative work supplemented by instructional ‘how-to’ sessions, plus opportunities for networking. Attendees will be mostly postgraduate, postdoctoral, and early career researchers. Groups of 4 or 5 researchers will work on each project. Note that the event is not for completing existing research (e.g. individual doctoral theses) but instead facilitates the development of new collaborative projects. MOCReN will provide support to help projects develop towards publication. There are five project areas: streaming | fandom and communities | transmedia | creativity and AI | platforms. Streaming: transformations of musical mediation, consumption, and production associated with audio and video streaming platforms Fandom and communities: online collectivities and socialities formed around musical practices, values, and internet aesthetics Transmedia: music and online media in combination with video games, television, film, livestreaming and more Creativity and AI: online musical expressions, composition, songwriting, performance, and ‘content creation’ more generally, including cultural approaches to machine learning and generative artificial intelligence Platforms: musical intersections with internet technologies, power and control, commercialism, and agency Please select one of these areas and write a short statement (max 200 words) to indicate your interest in exploring this area. Briefly include methods and case studies you may wish to use, as well as your motivations for participating in collaborative research. Submit your application using this Google Form <https://forms.gle/geSVRvqmumjnh18X9> by 9 November. Applicants will be selected by the MOCReN steering committee based on the significance of their indicative interests, relevance of their methods and case studies, and collaborative fit with other applicants. We are especially looking for novel and well-informed research ideas concerning music, the internet, and online cultures. Successful applicants will be notified by the end of November 2023. Lunch and refreshments will be provided both days. There will be a half-day ‘warm-up’ event held as an online call on 15 December 2023 to meet your colleagues and do some initial preparation. Attendance at the online warm-up and both days of the in-person workshop (4–5 January 2024 in Bristol) is required, so please ensure you are free and able to attend these dates before applying. We look forward to hearing from you! MOCReN Steering Committee Joana Freitas, NOVA University of Lisbon Steven Gamble, University of Bristol Maria Perevedentseva, University of Salford Ed Katrak Spencer, University of Manchester Jenessa Williams, University of Leeds — Dr. Steven Gamble <http://stevengamble.com/> (he/him) Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Department of Music, University of Bristol <http://www.bristol.ac.uk/music/> Recent publications: It's Where You're @: Hip Hop and the Internet <https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/ghhs/2/2>, Global Hip Hop Studies 2(2) (special issue, 2023). Analyzing Hip-Hop Hacktivism and Automobility in Injury Reserve's (2019) “Jailbreak the Tesla” (Feat. Aminé) <https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003089926-4> (book chapter, 2023) Hip-hop producer-hosts, beat battles, and online music production communities on Twitch <https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/12338/10658> (open access journal article, 2022)

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WEBCAST OCT 10 – IGF 2023 DC-CIV Evolving Regulation and its impact on Core Internet Values
by Joly MacFie 11 Oct '23

11 Oct '23

The one IGF session I never miss! [image: ISOC LIVE] <https://isoc.live/16944%20>On Tuesday October 10 2023 at 16:20-17:50 JST (07:20-08:50 UTC) the *Dynamic Coalition on Core Internet Values <https://igf-dcad.org> *(DC-CIV) presents a round-table '*Evolving Regulation and its impact on Core Internet Values <https://intgovforum.org/en/content/igf-2023-dcad-re-envisioning-dcad-for-th…>*'. Our experts will examine new regulatory initiatives, and other policy proposals, and their impact on the Core Internet Values, which comprise the technical architectural values by which the Internet is built and evolves. *INTRODUCTION* *Sébastien Bachollet*, Chair, EURALO *SPEAKERS* *How have things changed over the years which the Pew Research Center has studied the Internet* *Lee Rainie* - Lee Rainie, Former Director, Internet and Technology research,Pew Research Center *How we have seen regulation erode the Internet Invariants over the years* *Jane Coffin*, formerly of Internet Society / Connect Humanaity *How AFRINIC, African's Regional Internet Registry was affected by local legislation in Mauritius - and what impact this could have or Regional Internet Registries* *Nii Quaynor*, Chairman of the Board, Ghana.Com *Protecting point to point messaging systems globally and why it is important?* *Ref <https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/point-to-p…>* *Iria Puyosa*, DFRLab, Atlantic Council Likely effects of some regulations which are well intended but may have unexpected or undesirable side-effects. *Vint Cerf*, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google *MODERATORS* *Sébastien Bachollet*, Chair, EURALO *Alejandro Pisanty*, UNAM, Mexico *LIVESTREAM https://livestream.com/internetsociety/dc-civ-igf2023 <https://livestream.com/internetsociety/dc-civ-igf2023>* *PARTICIPATE VIA ZOOM https://bit.ly/3RLguxA <https://bit.ly/3RLguxA>* *REAL TIME TEXT https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=CFI-IGF11 <https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=CFI-IGF11>* *TWITTER #CoreInternetValues <https://bit.ly/46HvEIj> #igf #IGF2023 @lrainie @jane_coffin @niinarkuquaynor @NSC @DFRLab @vgcerf @apisanty @SebBach @Olivier_CL* *MASTODON #CoreInternetValues <https://mastodon.social/tags/CoreInternetValues>* *SIMULCASTS* *https://youtu.be/6h3HysGuNhI <https://youtu.be/6h3HysGuNhI> *(IGF YouTube) *https://twitter.com/ISOC_Live <https://twitter.com/ISOC_Live>* *https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive <https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive>* *https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/ <https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/>* *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/dc-civ-igf2023 <https://archive.org/details/dc-civ-igf2023>* Permalink https://isoc.live/16944 - -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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TT Asst Prof in Digital Cultures - University of Hawaii at Manoa
by Jenifer Sunrise Winter 11 Oct '23

11 Oct '23

Dear AoIR Listers, The Communication Program in the School of Communication and Information at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is very pleased to be hiring a *tenure-track Assistant Professor in Digital Cultures*. Please see the attached PDF for details and share with any other colleagues who may be interested. Applications received by November 11, 2023 will be given priority. Please note the application link is here: https://go.hawaii.edu/q4y About the Communication Program: https://sci.manoa.hawaii.edu/programs/communication/ Aloha, Jenifer Jenifer Sunrise Winter, Ph.D. Professor of Communication, School of Communication and Information University of Hawaii at Manoa 2550 Campus Road, Crawford Hall 325, Honolulu, HI 96822 Editor-in-Chief, *Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society*Associate Editor, *Telecommunications Policy*

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Guide for academics on working with the press
by Alice E. Marwick 11 Oct '23

11 Oct '23

Hi all, Many of us who study technology are called upon by journalists fairly frequently, yet none of us are taught how to work with the press. I crowd-sourced a guide from my colleagues at CITAP: best practices for working with journalists. Hope y'all find it helpful! https://citap.pubpub.org/pub/2ie80mi4/release/1 Best Alice Alice E. Marwick, PhD (she/her) Associate Professor, Department of Communication Principal Researcher, Center for Information, Technology and Public Life (CITAP) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill amarwick(a)gmail.com http://www.tiara.org <http://www.tiara.org> http://citap.unc.edu <http://citap.unc.edu>

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some recent postings on networkcultures.org
by Geert Lovink 11 Oct '23

11 Oct '23

Dear AoIR list members, here a selection of texts our Institute of Network Cultures recently published: - A INC Longform by former intern Kate Babin, who started her PhD this month at Coventry University on the topic of toxic masculinity. In this essay she describes the months she spent on an Incel forum (her UvA Mediastudies MA thesis). https://networkcultures.org/longform/2023/09/05/condemned-to-rot-alone-the-…. - INC Lonform of Michael Mersinis from Glasgow: Transmissions for Ukraine about short wave radio experiments to reach out to Ukraine. https://networkcultures.org/longform/2023/09/14/transmissions-for-ukraine/ - Naomi Hubert on My, Myself and Miquela: Positioning the Digital Being, an INC Longform, full of design examples of virtual personas. https://networkcultures.org/longform/2023/09/14/my-myself-and-miquela-posit…. - The Kawayoku Inception, human rights violations and onlyfans streamers, unboxing and sniping, #pewpew and #militarycurves, war and ahegao: this video plus references by Noura Tafeche <https://nouratafeche.com/> is an archival project that aims to shape under a new taxonomy contemporary digital elusiveness and the ultimate stage of cute-violence sublimation. https://networkcultures.org/void/2023/09/26/kawayoku-inception/ (watch this video!) - Interview with German media theorist Vera Tollmann on her book View from Above, by Geert Lovink https://networkcultures.org/geert/2023/10/11/interview-with-german-media-th… - UKRAiNATV Manifesto (a wild and utopian streaming art initiative, webcasting out of Krakow into cyberspace) https://networkcultures.org/tactical-media-room/2023/10/05/ukrainatv-manife… - How Extinction Rebellion NL Is Using Memes to Change the Narrative Around the Climate Crisis by Chloë Arkenbout https://networkcultures.org/viralimageculture/2023/09/28/memes-as-a-portal-… Geert

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Online Event: Digital Ethnography and Online Authoritarianism
by Yonaira Rivera 11 Oct '23

11 Oct '23

Please join the Rutgers Digital Ethnography Working Group (DEWG)<https://rutgersdigitalethnography.org/> for our upcoming online panel, The Role of Digital Ethnographic Approaches in Studying and Combating Online Authoritarianism, with Rosana Pinheiro-Machado and João C. Magalhães. Friday, October 27 1:00-2:30pm EDT Online: Register Here <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/722379906747?aff=oddtdtcreator> [https://img.evbuc.com/https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.evbuc.com%2Fimages%2F601878389%2F60…]<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/722379906747?aff=oddtdtcreator> Studying Online Authoritarianism with Digital Ethnography<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/722379906747?aff=oddtdtcreator> Panel on the use of digital ethnographic methods in understanding and combating online authoritarianism. www.eventbrite.com This panel explores the use of digital ethnographic work in understanding the complex relationship between digital platforms and authoritarianism. Challenging underlying assumptions of both the nature of this relationship and typical methodological approaches, Rosana Pinheiro-Machado and João C. Magalhães discuss their own important and innovative approaches to studying these messy and deeply ambivalent spaces. First, Dr. Pinheiro-Machado discusses the radicalisation of some segments of precarious workers in Brazil. As informal workers start enterprising on digital platforms, her work investigates the extent to which these technological shifts impact political radicalisation. Is this political identification a reflection of predisposed political views that were already latent previously? Or are the digital platforms pushing them to the far right? Based on a combination of intensive long-term ethnography and extensive computational approaches, Dr. Pinheiro-Machado will explore push and pull factors that enable the encounter between precarious workers and authoritarian populism. Next, Dr. Magalhães explores the messy relationship between digital platforms, democracy, and authoritarianism. Early celebratory accounts were replaced by fears of ‘filter bubbles’ and induced polarization, which have been however constantly contradicted by empirical research. Dr. Magalhães suggests that this hazy picture is largely the consequence of a misleading assumption, one that takes exposure and consumption of “information” as the most important aspect whereby platforms affect the formation of political subjects. Reminiscent of older, deterministic views of media’s social power, and closely associated with the ‘marketplace of ideas’ paradigm, this assumption tends to flatten human agency and ignore the multiple registers, experiences, and inequalities through which political phenomena happens. Dr. Magalhães argues that an ethnographic sensibility towards the messy reality of how ordinary people imagine and engage with digital networks is needed if we are to develop a more realistic understanding of how the Internet transformed our political lives. Rosana Pinheiro-Machado<https://people.ucd.ie/rosana.pinheiro-machado> is a Professor in the School of Geography at the University College Dublin. She is the Director of the Digital Economy and Extreme Politics Lab and the Principal Investigator of the project Flexible Work, Rigid Politics in Brazil, India, and the Philippines, funded by the European Research Council, Consolidator Grant. Twitter: @_pinheira João C. Magalhães<https://jcmagalhaes.com/> is an Assistant Professor in Media, Politics, and Democracy at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen (Netherlands). His work concerns the multiple intersections of platforms and politics and has been published in the ‘Journal of Communication’, ‘International Journal of Communication’, and ‘Social Media + Society’, among others. João holds a PhD from the LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science).

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Announcement - launching accessible legal training for influencers
by Sophie Bishop 11 Oct '23

11 Oct '23

Dear all, Dr Catalina Goanta (University of Utrecht<https://www.uu.nl/staff/ECGoanta>) and I (Sophie Bishop, University of Leeds<https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/media/staff/5858/sophie-bishop>) wanted to bring to your attention an event that may be of interest for those working on influencer culture, content creation or digital advertising. Together with the European Commission, we have drawn from our research expertise in law and influencer culture to co-develop the first European legal training for influencers on the topic of consumer protection. We have helped to develop an approachable (even fun!) range of easy-to-understand resources aimed at explaining relevant regulation to influencers, their management and agency teams, brands, advertisers and audiences. The Hub includes short, animated explainer videos; helpful checklists for best practices like advertising disclosures; legal briefs and links to other important national and international authorities. The Influencer Legal Hub will be publicly available on the European Commission website after the launch event below. The Hub goes live on 16 October. We would like to invite you to attend a launching event on Monday 16 October at 10.30 CET. The programme includes a range of speakers including us, key EU consumer protection policymakers, and content creators. Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AL8oHoy9SjCudgar0343Qw#/registr… Please get in touch if you would like to know more about the resource, or the ERC project HUMANads<https://humanads.eu/> which this work is broadly a part of. Best wishes, Catalina and Sophie

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Invitation to submit articles: Journal of Applied Youth Studies
by Natalie Hendry 10 Oct '23

10 Oct '23

Hello AoIR friends and colleagues, I'm sharing this invitation to publish in the Journal of Applied Youth Studies widely, so sorry for cross-posting. I'm especially keen to share with AoIR as one of the journal's recent commentary pieces was written after we met Maria at the AoIR conference in Ireland. After her presentation at AoIR, Maria Murumaa-Mengel (University of Tartu, Estonia) contributed a commentary article about the messy challenges of youth and media research, teaching and activism in the context of war<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43151-023-00095-x>. Feel free to share our invitation below with your networks and colleagues. Thanks Natalie Invitation to submit articles: Journal of Applied Youth Studies We invite all scholars working in youth studies and youth-related fields to submit articles to the Journal of Applied Youth Studies<https://www.springer.com/journal/43151>. We’re a relatively young Springer journal (since 2020), that was first published in 2015 through the Centre for Applied Youth Research, at the University of Tasmania, Australia. The journal has recently been indexed by Scopus: Q1 for cultural studies, Q2 for social science / sociology / anthropology, and Q3 for education. We welcome submissions from researchers within and beyond academia, across the research – policy – practice – theory spectrum on issues that concern youth and young adults. The journal is interdisciplinary and welcomes papers from disciplines that engage with the diversity and complexity of young people’s lives, as well as the social, cultural, economic and political conditions that young people and their communities experience. It aims to be of relevance to researchers, students, practitioners and policy-makers internationally. The journal publishes theoretical and policy papers, and qualitative and quantitative analytical articles. We do not typically publish papers from developmental psychology, as the journal focuses on scholarship following a critical, constructivist tradition. We especially welcome contextual or critical engagement with digital media and other technologies in relation to youth. Submissions go through a double-blind peer review, and there are no article processing charges at any stage of submission through to publication. Institutions that have open access publishing agreements with Springer are welcome to arrange open access publishing for accepted articles. Please reach out to us off the email list if you have any questions. Best, JAYS Co-editors Natalie Hendry, Julia Cook, Ben Hanckel Dr Natalie Ann Hendry | Senior Lecturer in Youth Wellbeing she/they Faculty of Education 100 Leicester Street, Carlton The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia 03 834 46193 twitter.com/projectnat<https://twitter.com/projectnat> | education.unimelb.edu.au<https://education.unimelb.edu.au/> Colleagues, staff and students: Trying to resolve a "sticky" research issue related to integrity, authorship, ethics or something else? Reach out, confidentially, to me or another Research Integrity Advisor at the university.<https://gateway.research.unimelb.edu.au/resources/ethics-and-integrity/rese…> Students: Have questions about your study plan, courses or enrolment? Submit your question here.<https://forms.your.unimelb.edu.au/4747069?SID=a3x2e0000000CDW> New articles: Information, influence, ritual, participation: Defining digital sexual health<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/14407833221136579> - Kath Albury & Natalie Ann Hendry, Journal of Sociology “Hey lovely! Don’t miss this opportunity!”: Digital temporalities of wellness culture, email marketing and the promise of bodily abundance<https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833221101397> - Natalie Ann Hendry, Journal of Sociology, 2022 Health education, social media, and tensions of authenticity in the ‘influencer pedagogy’ of health influencer Ashy Bines<https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2021.2006691> - Natalie Ann Hendry, Catherine Hartung & Rosie Welch, Learning, Media & Technology, 2021 I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which I work, and pay my respects to the Elders, past and present.

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