Digital Culture and Communication

CFP: Istanbul 2012

2012-01-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

The call for proposals is open from 1st of December 2011 to 28 February 2012.

The ECC 2012 in İstanbul will offer a platform for plenary panels addressing the conference theme: SOCIAL MEDIA & GLOBAL VOICES. Proposals for panels and for individual papers and posters are encouraged but not restricted with this theme.

Digital Culture and Communication call for papers:

The Digital Culture and Communication section aims at exchanging and developing research at the European level in the developing 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. It therefore welcomes work that questions the general specificity of 'the digital' and/or uses 'the digital' to rethink existing media and communication theories and approaches (as well as research methods).

The paper proposals have to be send via ecrea conference general website:

http://www.ecrea2012istanbul.eu/

after-workshop insights

2011-12-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

Four categories of collaborative documentary

by Mandy Rose posted on COLLAB DOCS November 30, 2011

I’ve just been in Barcelona, at the ECREA (European Communication Research & Education Association) Digital Culture Workshop which looked at innovative practices and critical theories. It was a terrific gathering – small enough to get to know people, focussed enough to be productive – a great mix of conviviality and critical dialogue. (Thanks to the convenors, Caroline Basset and Elisenda Ardevol.)

I presented in the Creative Practices strand which was concerned with, “concepts of participation, co-creativity, co-design or co-innovation in creative processes involving audiences and independent creators in a wide spectrum of activities including art, photography, video, and videogames.” My paper offered a draft categorisation of the projects I write about here, according to the type of contribution made by the participants. I’ll give a brief summary of the four categories.

In “The Creative Crowd” model which covers work including Mad V’s The Message, and perry bard’s Man with a Movie Camera; the Global Remix, multiple participants contribute fragments to a highly templated whole, analogous to the separate panels within a quilt. The units of content may not make much sense on their own but value and meaning accrue as they come together producing a distinctive aesthetic that’s about energy and repetition. (Though not a documentary, The Johnny Cash Project is a prime example of this mode.)

(more at: COLLAB DOCS)

Thanks to all the participants of the dccecreabcn workshop!

2011-11-29T04:19:00.000-08:00

A Sensory Approach to Digital Media

2011-11-22T03:29:00.000-08:00

Digital Culture: Innovative practices and critical theories.
ECREA Digital Culture & Communication 3rd workshop
Barcelona, Spain, November 24-25

Abstract plenary session
Sarah Pink, Loughborough University

In recent years there has been a ‘sensory turn’ in scholarship across the social sciences and humanities. This focus on the senses has had some influence in media and communication studies and visual studies. However, the existing literature in this area remains emergent rather than proposing a wider re-thinking, and the ways the senses are understood in these fields have sometimes been rooted in approaches that focus on culture and representation. In this lecture I examine the consequences of engaging such theoretical and methodological tools for thinking about media and the senses. In doing I so argue that we need to go beyond representational approaches that simply add other senses to the audio-visuality of media, or engage with the senses as a series of separate faculties. Instead I suggest how a strand in scholarship that attends to anthropology, philosophy, and the neurosciences might offer alternative routes to understanding how digital media become implicated as part of our practical activity in perceptual and material environments.

co-organised by the
ECREA Digital Culture & Communication (DCC) section,
Humanities Department and Information and Communication Sciences Department, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya,
with support from the
Centre for Material Digital Culture (DMDC),
University of Sussex, UK

Digital Culture: Precarity, (self)exploitation and unspeakable inequalities in the cultural and creative industries

2011-11-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

Digital Culture: Innovative practices and critical theories.
ECREA Digital Culture & Communication 3rd workshop
Barcelona, Spain, November 24-25

Abstract keynote speaker Rosalind Gill, King’s college, London

This talk has three aims. Firstly, it will review “what we know” about the features of cultural and creative work, discussing issues such as precariousness, bulimic patterns of working, and the intensification and extensification of work over time and space . It will consider how these now ‘well-established’ ‘facts’ about creative work may be being challenged by co-creation. Is this the ‘ultimate’ in exploitation of ‘free labour’ or a harbinger of a different set of participatory ethical practices in the cultural sphere, a democratization of who gets to ‘make culture’?
Secondly, it will explore the notion of “self exploitation” that has emerged as a key term for theorizing the labouring conditions and subjectivities of workers involved in the cultural and creative industries. Whilst this originated as a critical term from a Foucaultian tradition concerned with theorizing new modalities of power and discipline, its usefulness both as an analytical and political tool will be interrogated. Has it become another neoliberal term of abuse–blaming workers for their own exploitation and rendering invisible the structural conditions in which work is carried out? Why has the word exploitation only become speakable when it prefixed by the notion that we are somehow doing it to ourselves? What would it take for us to start talking about exploitation again? Do we need a new vocabulary to think about labour – especially in the context of co-creation? And what kind of resistance is possible without recourse to this vocabulary?
Finally, the talk will raise questions about what still remains a largely silenced issue in debates about the conditions of cultural workers–inequalities between workers. I will develop from the notion of “unmanageable inequalities” to explore how gender, race and class inequalities have become not simply unmanageable but unspeakable in cultural work–even by those most adversely affected by them. How do we begin to challenge the toxic myths of egalitarianism and meritocracy that circulate in the cultural and creative industries–and in much writing about them? And how can we make sure that questions about inequality are on the agenda of a politics that seeks to challenge and resist contemporary labouring conditions – whether this is the labour of freelancers of employees or of hobbyists who give their time ‘freely’.

Full Abstracts and Programme ECREA DCC Workshop

2011-10-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the workshop!

Please, you can find the programme and abstracts for the workshop at:

PROGRAME AND FULL ABSTRACTS

http://www.uoc.edu/symposia/workshop_ecrea2011/programa_eng.html

updates of the ECREA Digital Culture and Communication 3rd Workshop

2011-09-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

Dear participants of the ECREA Digital Culture and Communication 3rd Workshop,

Finally we got almost 80 contributions! That's quite a lot considering that we would like to accept around 36 papers...

We are glad to announce that registration application is now available in the workshop website:

http://www.uoc.edu/symposia/workshop_ecrea2011/inscripcio_eng.html

The fee includes coffee breaks, lunch (the two days) and programme materials.

We are getting ready with the schedule arrangements and other details that we will inform you soon.

Looking forward to seeing you in Barcelona,

The organizing team

review process

2011-07-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

Digital Culture and Communication Workshop:

The review process will end by July, 12. Acceptation notification during July, 12-14.
Thanks for the patience,
the convenors

Digital Culture: Innovative practices and critical theories

2011-05-16T02:33:00.000-07:00

LAST NEWS:

For incoming information you can also consult:
http://www.uoc.edu/symposia/workshop_ecrea2011

The workshop fee is 80 Euro, it includes participants documentations and coffee breaks.

On of the workshop aims is to publish a selection of presented papers, but final details depends on the outputs of the participants.

The workshop papers are submitted to a peer-review process.

The reviewing process will finish the 7 of July.

CFP: Digital Culture: Innovative practices and critical theories

2011-03-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Digital Culture: Innovative practices and critical theories.
ECREA Digital Culture & Communication 3rd workshop
Barcelona, Spain, November 24-25

co-organised by the
ECREA Digital Culture & Communication (DCC) section,
Humanities Department and Information and Communication Sciences Department
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya,
with support from the
Centre for Material Digital Culture (DMDC), University of Sussex, UK

CALL FOR PAPERS:

This workshop seeks to explore innovative perspectives on digital
culture and the study of digital culture. Our concern is to focus on
developing forms of theorizing, critiquing, understanding and
researching digital culture, forms and practice. Our intention is to
contribute to emerging work responding (1) to ‘new’ new media
technologies of all kinds, and (2) to respond to developments in media
research on technology and innovation.

We invite contributions of all kinds, but suggest proposals for papers
may fall into three main areas. Each relates to theories, practices
and methodologies of innovation. They are:

1) Digital Media and the senses. This may include work on or related
to enhanced reality, locative media and virtual worlds.
2) Creative practices and participation in new media. Here we are
particularly concerned with discussing concepts of participation,
co-creativity, co-design or co-innovation in creative processes
involving audiences and independent creators in a wide spectrum of
activities including art, photography, video, videogames.
3) Digital research and education in digital culture.This would seek
to explore innovative theoretical and methodological approaches in
digital media studies as well as innovative teaching tools.

The workshop develops concepts and ideas developed at the previous
Digital stream workshop ‘Revisiting Digital Theories’ – our goal in
exploring innovative forms of media culture is to do so within
frameworks that are capable of thinking through technological and
critical innovation whilst also recognizing the connection of both
with earlier forms.

Please submit an extended abstract (500 words max.) by the 6th of June
2011 (and clearly stating which topic section you would like to submit
this to) to: ecreadigitalculture@gmail.com

Venue: Centre d'Estudis i Recursos Culturals, Barcelona (Spain)

Keynote speakers:

Rosalind Gill, Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries
King’s College London

Sarah Pink, Department of Social Sciences
Loughborough University, Visiting Scholar IN·3 Institute, UOC.

Coordinators:

Elisenda Ardèvol - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Caroline Basset - University of Sussex
Gemma San Cornelio - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Digital Culture and Communication ECREA section

Scientific Committee:

Katlheen O’Riordan - University of Sussex
Smiljana Antonijevic - Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Bridget Wessels – Sheffield University
Alberto García - Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Antoni Roig - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Natalia Abuin - Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Micheal Bull - University of Sussex
David Berry – Swansea University
Caja Thimm - Universität Bonn
Aristea Fotopoulou - University of Sussex
Sisse Siggaard Jensen -Roskilde University
Gemma San Cornelio - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Caroline Bassett - University of Sussex
Elisenda Ardévol - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

email
ecreadigitalculture[@]gmail.com

Mid term Section event: Barcelona 2011

2011-01-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

Digital Culture: Innovative practices and critical theories.

After the ECREA main meeting in Hamburg, we are now working on next section event to be held in Barcelona, late November, 2011.

This workshop seeks to explore innovative perspectives on digital culture and the study of digital culture. Our concern is to focus on developing forms of theorizing, critiquing, understanding and researching digital culture, forms and practice. Our intention is to contribute to emerging work responding (1) to ‘new’ new media technologies of all kinds –from videogames or locative media to social networks related to creative and participatory practices, and (2) to respond to developments in media research and education on technology and innovation.

forthcoming...

ECREA 2010 CFP

2010-01-27T01:38:00.000-08:00

CFP Digital Culture and Communication ECREA 2010

The Digital Culture and Communication section of ECREA welcomes submissions to ECREA 2010 on all aspects of the digital. However, we also aim to programme a focused stream of papers that are clustered around key themes. We particularly welcome pre-constituted panels and papers on the following thematics:

Bodies [human and non-human]
Critical digital media theory
Critical digital methods
Digital arts
Digital practice
Gender
Class
Identity
Memory
Relationality
Social media
Virtuality

Submission procedures, conference information and key dates are here:
http://www.ecrea2010hamburg.eu

Minutes ECREADCC meeting 2009

2010-01-08T02:53:00.001-08:00

Minutes of the business meeting of the Digital Culture and Communication section of ECREA, Saturday 21 November, 2009, Old Library, Berlin University of the Arts [Universitat der Kundste – Udk]

Present: Kate O’Riordan [vice-chair], Elini Ikoniadou, Martin Zierold, Oliver Quiring, Bridgette Wessels, Gemma San Cornelio, Caja Thimm, Elisenda Ardevol [Vice-chair], Caroline Bassett [Chair], Sisse Siggaard Jensen

Agenda Items

1] People present [as above]

2] Report on past section events and meetings – Amsterdam, Sussex, Barcelona, Berlin

3] Current activity

– organising the conference stream for Hamburg 12-15 October 2010

– Kate O’Riordan is the contact for this - and we asked for volunteers to help review and stream papers

– Need for an on the ground chair at Hamburg – Elisenda assisted by Bridgette

– Need for future chairs and vice chairs for the section - and also the need to delegate roles so that more people can be involved – suggested we recruit volunteers to help with publicity and other secretarial and admin roles including managing the blog and website content

– Agenda items for Hamburg

o web presence,

o creating roles within the section,

o nominating and voting for chairs/vice chairs

o Barcelona 2011

4] Future events – as above the next mid term section workshop will be in Barcelona – lead on organising: Elisenda and Gemma – either joint like the Berlin event or particular to the section like the Sussex event – depending on local interest etc

5] Any other business – feedback on the Berlin event, positive overall - but would be helpful to frame the themes more clearly at the start

KOR/26/11/09

Programme Details for Digital Technologies Revisited

2009-10-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

Programme for Digital Technologies Revisited

Please contact Julian Gebhart to register: julian.gebhardt@uni-erfurt.de

ECREA / DGPuK ‘Digital Media Technologies Revisited’ Conference

Place
University of the Arts (Universität der Künste – UdK), Hardenbergstraße 33, 10623 Berlin
Room 101 (Alte Bibliothek – Old Library)

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Programme

Thursday, 19.11.2009

19:00 Reception for all conference participants
(in parallel: registration)

Friday, 20.11.2009

9:00 – Welcome
9:10 Maren Hartmann (University of the Arts Berlin, D)

9:10- Introduction to the conference theme
9:30 Caroline Bassett (Sussex University, GB)

9:30 – Panel I: Bodies (Chair: Kate O’Riordan)
10:30
Biodigital Matter and the Modulations of the Body
Eleni Ikoniadou (University of East London, UK)

Serious games and organisations’ communication
Ghislaine Chabert & Jacques Ibanez Bueno (University of Savoie, F)

10:30 – Coffee break
11:00

11:00 – TWO PARALLEL SESSIONS
13:00
Panel II: HCI REVISITED
(Chair: Martin Emmer) Panel III: IDENTITIES 4.0 ?- 1
(Chair: Elisenda Ardevol)
WEB 2.0 affordances: theorizing interaction and communication in a CMC setting
Peter Mechant (Ghent University, BE) Revisiting obsolete media use qualities - Connecting now and then over social network activities
Jörgen Skageby (Linköping University, SE)
Online cooperation as commonsbased peer production – Social dilemmas and institutions
Christian Pentzold (Technical University Chemnitz, D) The Communicative Construction of Identities in Overlapping Structures of Everyday Life
Matthias Berg (University of Bremen, D)
Supplanting or Supplementing? Chat Communication and Social Capital
Werner Wirth & Matthias Hofer (University of Zürich, CH)
Hybrid identities 4.0? The role of digital media in the articulation process of young Russians’ identity in the German Diaspora: A typology.
Caroline Düvel (University of Bremen, D)
A socio-cultural approach to internet policy and regulation. Findings and implications of an ethnographic study
Panayiota Tsatsou (Swansea University, UK) Sexualized youth – promiscuous youth? Does sexually explicit internet-content deteriorate sexual attitudes?
Mathias Weber, Gregor Daschmann, Oliver Quiring (University of Mainz, D)

13:00 – Lunch
14:00

14:00 – Panel IV: NETWORKS & COMMUNITIES (Chair: Maren Hartmann)
15:30
Networks and culture: possibiilities for contextualised net culture research
Andreas Hepp (University of Bremen, D)

Invisible networks and location-based projects suggesting the return of the “place”
Gemma San Cornelio Esquerdo (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, ES)

“What constitutes an online community”? Presenting a heuristic model for understanding community-construction on the Internet
Katerina Diamantaki (University of Athens, GR)

15:30 – Coffee break
16:00

16:00 – COST 298 Panel (Chair: Julian Gebhardt)
18:00
Digital Media Technologies, Bodies and Emotions: Reconfiguring Subjectivities
Amparo Lasen (UCM, Spain)

Body–to–body Interaction in Broadband Society
Jane Vincent (Digital World Research Centre, UK)

A new way to see the future of print newspapers: Newspapers as “good masters” in spite of themselves
Leopoldina Fortunati (University of Udine, Italy)

Getting access to website information: Does age really matter?
Using eye-tracking data from a social semiotic perspective
Eugène Loos and Enid Mante Meijer (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)

Social movements and ICTs: a review of applied methodologies and some reflections for further research
Emiliano Trere (University of Udine, Italy)

19:30 Dinner (at participants’ own cost)

Saturday, 21.11.2009

09:30 – Parallel meetings of the sections (DGPuK-FG ‚Soziologie der Medienkommunikation’;
10:30 DGPuK-FG ‚Computer-Vermittelte Kommunikation’ ; ECREA section ‚Digital Culture and Communication’)

10:30 – Coffee break
11:00

11:00 – TWO PARALLEL SESSIONS
13:00
Panel V: DIGITALISATION & VIRTUALITY RE-THOUGHT
(Chair: Jeffrey WImmer) Panel VI: IDENTITIES 4.0? – 2
(Chair: Caroline Bassett)
Digitalization, identity and the net of social, parasocial and pseudosocial relations of the People
Friedrich Krotz (University of Erfurt, D) Identity dispositive Internet
Florian Hartling (University of Halle, D)

Theorising social relations, interactions and communication
Bridgette Wessels (University of Sheffield, UK) Identity Development in Scientific Online Communities
Frauke Zeller (Ilmenau University of Technology, D)
The Viability of the Concept “Virtuality” for Researching Network Media Development
Catherina Dürrenberg & Carsten Winter (Hannover University of Music and Drama, D)
Hybrid identities 4.0? The role of Virtual research teams – theorising on cultures, scientific domains, and the choice of digital media technologies
Marco Bräuer, Frauke Zeller (both Ilmenau University of Technology, D) & Ingmar Steinicke (University of Kassel, D)
Cyborgs and Learning Bots in Virtual Worlds
Sisse Siggard Jensen (University of Roskilde, DK) Virtually Trash: Revenge Tragedy and the Tube
Catherine Gomersall (Edith Cowan University, Australia)

13:00 – Lunch
14:00

14:00 – Panel VI: Mass media, journalism and public Communication (Part 1) (Chair: Jan
15:30 Schmidt)

Do you want to play? How making-sense of entertainment innovations relates to engaging with media products
Carrie Lynn D. Reinhard (Roskilde University, DK)

Where mass media and social production meet: change and continuity in self-produced audiovisual projects
Roig Telo (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, ES)

The fractures of photography: following the relationship between technology practices, sociality and identity formation in digital culture
Edgar Gómez Cruz & Elisenda Ardévol (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, ES)

15:30 – Coffee break
16:00

16:00 – Panel VI: Mass media, journalism and public Communication (Part 2) (Chair: Jan Schmidt)
17:00
Total Recall vs the End of Memory: Digital Media and Social Memory Studies Revisited
Martin Zierold (Justus-Liebig University Gießen, D)

flow is now viral is agency: re-working the site(s) of new television
Phil Ellis (University of Plymouth, UK)

17:15 – Final discussion
18:30 Introduced through short statements by:
Martin Emmer (Ilmenau University of Technology, D), Kate O’Riordan (Sussex University, UK), Jan Schmidt (Hans-Bredow-Institute Hamburg) & Jeffrey Wimmer (Ilmenau University of Technology, D)
Discussion led by Elisenda Ardévol (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, ES) & Maren Hartmann (University of the Arts Berlin, D)

19:00 Dinner (at participants’ own cost)

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Conference Registration

The Registration fee is 40 € (for presenters and participants alike).
Students can register for 20 € (or 10 € for one day).

Please register to the conference by emailing Julian Gebhardt (julian.gebhardt@uni-erfurt.de) BEFORE THE 8th OF NOVEMBER.
You will be able to pay the fee on site.
Please let us know at the same time whether you will be attending the reception on the first evening.

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Hotels close to the conference site

(There is no special conference rate – this is a small selection of hostels and hotels in the area – there are plenty more around).

The very cheap (it's a hostel, not a hotel!):
- AO Hostel am Zoo: http://www.aohostels.com/en/berlin/hostel-am-zoo/hostel/info/

The cheapest hotel:
- Motel One (Kantstraße): http://www.motel-one.com/

The closest hotel (but only by a few metres):
- Grand City Excelsior Hotel: http://www.grandcity-hotel-berlin-excelsior.de/

Others in a similar price range, probably a bit nicer:
- Hotel Astoria: http://www.hotelastoria.de/

- Hotel Carmer 16: http://www.hotel-carmer16.de/

For those who can afford more:
- Savoy Berlin: http://www.hotel-savoy.com/

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Information

For any questions, please contact Julian Gebhardt (julian.gebhardt@uni-erfurt.de).

CFP: Digital Media Technologies Revisited: Theorising social relations

2009-01-23T07:47:00.000-08:00

Call for Papers:

Digital Media Technologies Revisited: Theorising social relations,
interactions and communication

A two-day conference co-organised by the

ECREA Digital Culture & Communication (DCC) section,

the DGPuK Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) section and

the DGPuK Media Sociology (MS) section

with support from the Centre for Material Digital Culture (DMDC),
University of Sussex, UK

and the COST 298: Participation in the Broadband Society network

Place: University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany

Dates: Nov. 20-21, 2009

Topic:

This two-day conference on ’Digital Technologies Revisited’ aims to
understand contemporary developments in digital media and digital media
theory by looking backwards as well as forwards. We set out to explore
an in-between time: a time, when much of the hype concerning digital
media has died down, much research material has been gathered and
analyzed and quite a bit about the possibilities and limitations of
digital media (especially in comparison to older media forms) has been
understood.

Far from a communication revolution, the media landscape has nonetheless
changed substantially in recent years. In fact, we have undergone a
process of diffusion and appropriation: digital media have become an
important and ever-increasing part of our everyday lives. They suffuse
our communication, information and entertainment spheres. Not
surprisingly, the perceived connection between the internet and many
areas of social life, from work to play, has steadily increased in
recent years. However, even as digital media become pervasive,
ubiquitous, common and mundane, innovation continues to become an
integral characteristic of digital media forms, the proliferation of
which is challenging to map.

We would therefore like to return to earlier models and theories that
attempted to explain new (digital) media in its ’first wave’ forms.
Additionally, we would like to address the question of what kind of
alterations and additions can be used to adapt existing models and
theories for current purposes (e.g. mediated person-to-person
communication; para-social interactions with virtual agents;
pseudo-social interactions with intelligent machines, etc.).

The range of models and theories that can be used, re-visited, or
adapted is wide (i.e. traditional communication studies models, cultural
studies theories, anthropology, sociology and others). We want to encourage papers
that explore tensions between older and new approaches and older and
newer ?new media’ formations. Where has there been movement, where not,
and are there in fact new theories emerging?

The social world sits at the heart of these diverse concerns. Social
relations, interactions and communication are at the heart of our
questions. Within this focus, the possible range of theories and methods
used, is wide. The following provides the range of angles that we propose:

- HCI revisited:
Human-computer-interaction was an early forerunner concerning questions
of the relation between humans and computers (as well as, eventually,
humans via computers). What do we know of these relationships by now?
How do they differ from other human-object relationships? And how do
developments in these fields continue to inform, intersect and diverge
from the social life of digital media forms?

- Virtual reality and AI re-thought:
Virtual reality and AI frameworks are another reference point that
dominated earlier cybercultural theory, and design. What was specific
about these moments and intersections? Why have these frameworks become
less used by technocultural theory (at least for more popular
theorizations)? What has survived in terms of virtual reality and AI
concepts in contemporary formations such as Web 2.0, Facebook and Second
Life?

- Disappearance of the machine ? ubiquity, ambience and similar
approaches
A more recent development has been around the merging of machines, and
computational architecture with our environments. Thinking about
pervasive computing, sense perception and intimate technologies are
increasingly being used as frameworks for analysis. Where are they at in
terms of the current state of development? And what consequences would
these have for existing theoretical approaches (e.g. of appropriation of
media technologies) and questions of power? What happens to ethical and
political issues, such as privacy, monitoring, etc.? What does pervasive
computing mean for our relationships with machines?

- Identities 4.0?
Identity was a much discussed topic in early web discourses. It is one
that keeps returning in new disguises. Identity, it seems, has survived
the ’post’ in identity politics. However, the valences of identity are
now much more negative than the more utopic versions that proliferated
in early digital media cultures. Identity categories have proliferated,
and the intersections of race, nation, class, gender, sexuality and
belief play a part in generating insecurity and a lack of trust between
citizens, denizens and racialized others, the adult world and ‘youth’,
or children and potential ‘paedophiles’. Can early theorizations of
identity and digital media be brought to bear on contemporary
experiences and what would these look like?

- Bodies
Community, identity and the body were the tripartite features of digital
media theory in the 1990s. Whist community has been reformulated as SL
and social networking, and identity continues to return, the body has
also become an increasingly urgent site of enquiry as convergences of
informational and biotechnological practices of body knowledge become
materialized through digital media practices. These intersections offer
up questions about the precise contours of current biodigital identity
in the form of intersecting DNA databases, personal genomes, and
biometrics. What approaches and questions can address these informatic
corporealisations and their intersection with everyday life worlds?

- Mass media, journalism and public communication
Since the mid-1990s, a broad corpus of theories on the production,
dissemination, reception, and the public and/or personal impact of
online mass media has evolved in the social sciences. How do
journalists’ routines change in online media? Does the public relevance
of journalistic mass media decrease or increase in present and future
times? How can the (societal) diffusion or (individual) appropriation of
new media developments described or analyzed? What do mass media mean to
the audience, and what are the present and future economic perspectives
of online mass media?

- COST 298
Additionally, COST 298 members are invited to send separate abstracts
for a COST panel. COST 298 is an Action within the intergovernmental
framework for European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and
Technical Research. In COST 298 European scientists from
telecommunication research departments, universities and operators
together with independent consultants collaborate in cross-disciplinary
groups to analyze the social dimensions of people’s relationships to
information and communication technologies. In the COST 298 panel, the
same questions of older models and newer developments that guide the
overall conference are asked more specifically concerning the broadband
society. What have we learned in the last four years of the COST 298
network? Only COST 298 members will be eligible to apply for this panel.

Please submit an extended abstract (700 words max.) by the 31st of
May 2009 (and clearly stating which topic section you would like to
submit this to) to:

Prof. Dr. Maren Hartmann - University of the Arts (UdK), GWK -
Mierendorffstraße 30 - 10589 Berlin - Germany - Phone: +49 30 3185 2943

Email: hartmann@udk-berlin.de

ECREA Elections

2008-09-26T01:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-01-17T00:50:00.000-08:00

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)".

Digital Media: European Perspectives - UPDATE

2007-09-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

Digital Culture and Communication , ECREA Section event

Thursday 1st of November, 2007 - Saturday 3rd of November, 2007

Flickr photos (tag: Sussex, ECREA)

Thursday 1st November, 1600-1900, in Russell 10,
Friday 2nd of November, 0900-1600, in Arts C233, followed by reception location tbc
Saturday 3rd of November, 0900-1300, in Russell 10

This workshop, organized by the Digital Culture and Communication section of ECREA,the European Communication Research and Education Association, supported and hosted by this Research Centre, will bring together researchers from all over Europe. The aim of the day is to explore different traditions of new media investigation/theorization within Europe – and to explore ways in which they may usefully be placed in dialogue with each other. In addition workshop attendees will explore possible future activities that may be organized through the ECREA structure – including potential collaboration via European funding (FP7).

ABSTRACTS

FULL PROGRAMME:
Thursday, 1st of November

Room: EDB 341
15:30-16:00 Registration, Welcome & Coffee

Room: Russell 10
16:00–16:30 Welcome: Themes and Dialogues

Caroline Bassett, University of Sussex, UK
After Convergence?: What Connects?

Session 1: Media and methods (Chair: Irmi Karl, University of Brighton, UK)

16:30-18:30

Maren Hartmann, University of the Arts Berlin, Germany
Ethnographies as dangerous tools

Adolfo Estalella, Elisenda Ardèvol, Edgar Gómez, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Media as practice: Introducing symmetry in Internet ethnographies

Friday, 2nd of November

Room: Arts C233

Session 2: Sounds & Senses (Chair: Kate Lacey, University of Sussex, UK)

09:00-11:00
Frauke Behrendt, University of Sussex, UK
Mobile Sonic Experience: Methodological Concerns

Holger Schulze, University of the Arts Berlin, Germany
Experiencing Medialised Senses: On the Tectonics of Media

11:00-11:30 Coffee break

Session 3: Policy Issues (Chair: Bridgette Wessels)

11:30-12:30
Maria Sourbati, University of Brighton, UK
Europe’s digital media policy discourses and the problem of the user

12:30-14:00 Lunch & Coffee

Session 4: Theoretical frameworks and cyberculture (Chair: David Berry, University of Wales Swansea, UK)

14:00-16:00
Panagiota Alevizou, LSE, UK
Collective intelligence and the cult of open production: critical reflections on theory and methodology

Bridgette Wessels, University of Sheffield, UK
On digital cultures as cultural forms: participation, narrative and infrastructures in achieving digital cultural engagement

17:00 Reception

Saturday 3rd of November

Room: Russell 10
Session 5: Theorizing (digital) television (Chair: Holger Schulze - TBC)

09:00-11:00
Fonta Group, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
The theory of swarms in the models of organization of the audio-visual companies of digital television

Emma Hemmingway, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Actor Network Theory and Media: A new approach to theorising media practice

11:00-11:30 Coffee break

11:30-13:00 Panel: The Disappearance of the Digital Distinction?
Research Challenges, New media scholarship in Europe, Collaborative Funding?

Panelists: Holger Schulze, and TBA.
Led by: Kate O’Riordan, University of Sussex, UK

REGISTRATION:
Fee £35, this includes lunch, coffee and a drinks reception. It does not include accommodation and travel costs. To register email: V.A.Sammut@sussex.ac.uk

TRAVEL
How to find us
University of Sussex Campus Map

ACCOMODATION
University approved hotels.

Further hotels in the Brighton area:
http://tourism.brighton.co.uk/accommodation/

Rooms on Campus – please contact Vanessa Sammut V.A.Sammut@sussex.ac.uk to organise this option (subject to availability)
http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/aboutids/accom.html

FURTHER INFORMATION
For more information please contact Maren Hartmann at hartmann@udk-berlin.de

For information about Digital Culture streams of ECREA see http://www.ecrea.eu/divisions/section/id/5.

CALL FOR PAPERS (CLOSED)
Call for Papers

Digital Culture and Communication Section Meeting

2007-01-31T03:12:00.000-08:00

The Digital Communication and Culture (DCC) section is organising a workshop in November 2007.

Title: Digital Media - European Perspectives

Date: 2 and 3 November 2007
University of Sussex, Centre for Material Digital CultureUK

The aim is to explore distinctive critical, theoretical and methodological perspectives around networked and pervasive media emerging in European research.

More detailed plans to follow.

Fibreculture CFP

2006-11-17T11:23:00.001-08:00

Fibreculture Journal
http://journal.fibreculture.org

Call for papers

After convergence, what connects?

:: fibreculture :: has established itself as Australasia’s leading forum for discussion of internet theory, culture, and research. The Fibreculture Journal is a peer-reviewed journal that explores the issues and ideas of concern and interest to both the Fibreculture network and wider social formations.

Papers are invited for the ‘After convergence’ issue of the Fibreculture Journal, to be published early in 2008. Guest editors are Caroline Bassett (Sussex, UK), Maren Hartmann (Bremen, Germany) and Kate O’Riordan (Lancaster/Sussex, UK).

There are guidelines for the format and submission of contributions at http://journal.fibreculture.org

These guidelines need to be followed in all cases. Contributions should be sent electronically, as word attachments, to:

Guest editors:
Caroline Bassett (c.bassett@sussex.ac.uk)
Maren Hartmann (hartmann@udk-berlin.de)
Kate O’Riordan (k.oriordan@sussex.ac.uk)

Everything that arises does not converge. A more variegated landscape emerges as processes of digitalization, crystallizations of an intrinsically technological-social, continue re-shaping cultures and re-working societies, not in their image, but into something new. It is increasingly obvious that there is no digital behemoth, no single form, no single function, no New World Order. Rather a series of reconfigurations, reformulations, new functions, new contents, new spaces, new grounds, new uses, have emerged and are emerging within global media networks.

In response to the (not unexpected) non-arrival of the unifying beast, which is to say in response to the perceived exhaustion of convergence (or the re-definition of its limits), new disciplinary islands are being declared with ‘keep out’ and ‘invented here’ signs all over their beaches. In other words there has been a balkanization of techno-cultural investigation. Thus gaming scholars define themselves against internet scholars, or film scholars, locatives stand distinct from screeners. Particular groups of sub-specialists claim particular modes of inquiry: ethnographers for everyday life, speculative theory for digital art, for instance. Indeed, entire vocabularies, originally invoked in a spirit of general experimentation, are now corralled, restricted and defended by particular groups. If these vocabularies often seize up in the process, refusing to say more than they were meant to say, and in particular refusing the unorthodox connections between the empirical and the speculative, the possible and the desirable, that gave them their energy in the first place, nobody seems to notice.

So, there is no behemoth. At the same time we insist that connections are produced and so a question we consider worth addressing is not what unites digital forms as one, but what connects them together as many. Further we want to explore how these connections are made. We are less interested in doing that through mainstreaming a particular critical approach (which is to say drawing different areas back under one critical umbrella, making that the connection), than we are in trying to think about exploring/defining/critiquing some of the shared characteristics of different digital media formations. We believe that despite the exhaustion of convergence metaphors, and the rise of disciplinary sub-divisions, these connections remain crucial.

Papers addressing but not limited to the following topics are welcome:

• Media/Medium Theory

• Difference between and specificity of New Media forms

• Issues, Limits, Problems of Convergence.

• Re-thinking the vocabulary of Affect/Emotion/Perception

• Histories of New Media Theory

• ‘Technology and Cultural Form’ revisited?

• Methodologies

Deadlines:

• 250 word abstracts: due February 28th 2007

• Completed Paper: due September 30th 2007

• Expected Publication: February 28th 2008.

Section Aims

2006-10-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

The digital culture and communication section of the ECREA defines its main objectives as being to exchange and develop research and to build a research culture at the European level in the developing 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. Since digital culture and communication is one of the newest topics within the realm of media and communication research, it is (and should be) an important part of the European research agendas and deserves our full academic attention.

The section defines its work as follows:

1. To provide a forum for researchers who work on digital culture and
communication in the broad sense.
2. To develop further research in the field.
3. To build the basis for collaboration at all levels.
4. To encourage junior researchers.
5. To communicate existing work in the section to the broader academic world and to the public (at ECREA events, at other conferences, through talks at nonacademic events, through publications, etc.).
6. To liaise with other sections within the ECREA wherever possible.
7. To further the European research area.

Digital media technologies allow us – indeed force us – to rethink existing media and communication theories and approaches (as well as research methods). They also force us to redefine traditional boundaries – for instance those between traditional broadcast media and interpersonal communication – and to explore new forms of interaction. Developments in this field have repercussions for the field of media and communication research as a whole. Exchange with others in the wider field is therefore crucial.

Full version here: Digital Culture and Communication Section