ECREA Elections

Dear colleagues,

as many other sections, the Digital Culture and Communication section is also approaching the end of its first official term in office.

We are therefore planning an election during the ECREA conference in Barcelona.

We would like to invite all members to consider a more active role in the section at this point and to consider standing for election for the chair and vice chair positions.

There are two possibilities to put yourselves forward for election: first of all as an individual (for the post of Vice-Chair) or second as a whole section team (i.e. three people).

The first stems from the fact that I, Maren Hartmann, will step down as chair of the section. I have other commitments that do unfortunately not allow me to continue this post at present. Caroline Bassett and Kate O'Riordan, however, have declared their willingness to stand for re-election. I fully endorse their candidacy (I could not have wished for better co-chairs) and hope that interested individuals will step forward to join them in these efforts.

Please send any nominations (individual or team) to me (hartmann@udk- berlin.de) on or before October 15th, 2008. We currently assume that the election/s of nominated candidates will take place during our business meeting during the conference in November.



Let me also take this chance to thank everyone for having made this work so rewarding and fun (especially my two co-chairs, but also everyone who has attended our events and everyone from ECREA who has supported us thus far.

With having had a very interesting stream of papers during the first ECREA conference (where we had a separate call) and a great workshop in Sussex last autumn plus yet another wonderful set of abstracts for this autumn (many of which we unfortunately had to turn down), I feel the section is beginning to have both a content identity and an organisational structure (see http:// www.digitalcultureandcommunication.blogspot.com/). Surely this work will be the continued focus of the section until the next election.

Together with my German colleagues (from the media sociology and computer-mediated communications sections of the German communication association), I will still host the section conference planned for November 2010 in Berlin.

My involvement with the section, I hope, will therefore not cease.

I am very much looking forward to your nominations as well as to the conference in November.



Regards,

Maren Hartmann

ECREA conference abstracts

We received a very high number of abstracts for our section for the ECREA conference in November.
We are currently reviewing and selecting them.
Unfortunately, we have to reject quite a few.
Fortunately, we except a great programme and good debates in Barcelona!

DIGITAL CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION (DCC) SECTION - CALL FOR PANELS AND PAPERS
European Communication Research and Education Association - ECREA

2nd ECREA CONFERENCE, Barcelona, 25-28 November 2008
Hosted by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) http:// www.ecrea2008barcelona.org

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15th February 2008

The 'Digital Culture and Communication' section invites everyone who works on these issues, within the broad theme of ECREA's 2nd international conference, 'Communication policies and culture in Europe' to submit proposals.

The section 'Digital Culture and Communication' aims to further exchange and develop research at the European level in the field of digital media and informational culture as this is broadly defined. We welcome work that crosses disciplines and that operates at the boundaries of what might generally be allowed to constitute media/ communication systems. The section actively seeks both empirical and theoretical/critical work.

Digital media technologies allow us to rethink existing media and communication theories and approaches (as well as research methods). They also force us to redefine traditional boundaries and to explore new forms of interaction. We therefore encourage work based on interdisciplinary approaches that address the broad theme of the conference call, and the section's interests. We welcome proposals which reflect both theoretical and methodological challenges in digital culture and communication research as well as those exploring new boundaries within the field.
For further information about the section please visit our (relative stable) blog at: www.digitalcultureandcommunication.blogspot.com/

or email Maren Hartmann: hartmann@udk-berlin.de and/or Caroline Bassett: C.Bassett@sussex.ac.uk, Kate O’Riordan: K.ORiordan@sussex.ac.uk

This invitation is for proposals of pre-organized panels, posters, and individual papers from established academics, young scholars, practitioners and postgraduate research students.
Individual paper proposals, individual poster proposals and panel
proposals can be submitted at the official conference website: www.ecrea2008barcelona.org

PAPER PROPOSALS: http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/eng/callfor_pa.asp
POSTER PROPOSALS: http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/eng/callfor_po.asp
PANEL PROPOSALS: http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/eng/callfor_pn.asp

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in mid-April 2008,

Paper-presenters and panellists will be asked to confirm their intention to attend by registering before October 24, 2008.

Please note that, as a policy, ECREA Candidates can submit "one proposal as first author, and more as co-author (second, ...), chair or respondent of a panel - but a participant will be allowed only one paper presentation. The length of the individual abstracts is preferably 400 and maximum 500 words. A panel proposal combines a panel abstract with the individual abstracts, of each 400-500 words. Participants will indicate their preference for a specific section (where they want to present their paper / poster / panel)".