*CFP* "METHODOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS AND CHALLENGES OF RESEARCH ON DIGITALLY CONNECTED HOMES", SPECIAL ISSUE, DIGITAL CREATIVITY JOURNAL

The past few years have seen a rapid increase in the number and variety of technologies embedded in and passing through home environments. Researchers increasingly recognize the distinct nature of the home as a site of research. The past four decades have seen a significant shift in the technology environment from the "media home" (Spigel, 2001) to the "smart home" (Woods, 2021). We have seen significant additions to the abundant digital ecology of the home, increasing the number of digital access-points and available services, and intensifying the data-circulation in connected homes. The home is a site of mundane, private, usually hidden but highly significant everyday practices (Pink et al. 2017). Yet it is also increasingly becoming a part of national healthcare infrastructures through the deployment of welfare technologies, and energy policy through smart meters. During the "global lockdown" caused by the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, technologies took a prominent role as the home transformed itself into a site in which activities such as learning, parenting, work, entertainment, and remote medical care intermingled.

The increasing complexity of the digital infrastructures and the experiences, spaces, visions of the home in a current era of connected homes and connected living poses particular challenges for conducting research in such an environment. This also calls for methodological innovations that shape how we see the home as a research site and how we engage with it.

*CFP* "CRITICAL ICT INFRASTRUCTURES AND PLATFORMS", 14TH CMI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

 Critical ICT infrastructures and platforms

14th CMI International Conference

Hybrid (online/In-person): 25-26 November 2021

 

ICT infrastructures and platforms are increasingly pervasive and critical for societies, systems and organizations and for individuals. It is, therefore, of great importance that efficient and resilient infrastructures are developed and deployed and that disruptions of services caused by either cyber-attacks or other interruptions of services are mitigated. Also, as digital platforms constitute crucial communication infrastructures for societies, it is important that such platforms contribute to democratic processes and economic and social fairness.

The 14th CMI conference will be concerned with these topics from different complementary angles: The development and deployment of fast and efficient communication infrastructures including cloud and edge technologies; resilience of ICT systems in order to increase cyber security and mitigate cyber-attacks; institution of social practices and governance approaches that will promote democratic discussions and processes, contribute to economic and social development, equity and fairness, and protect privacy.

*CFP* "MEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN PÚBLICOS, CIUDADANÍA E INFLUENCIA DIGITAL EN LA ERA DE LA DESINFORMACIÓN", COMLOC 2021 XVI CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE COMUNICACIÓN LOCAL

“Medios de comunicación públicos, ciudadanía e influencia digital en la era de la desinformación”

ComLoc 2021. XVI Congreso Internacional de Comunicación Local

Universitat Jaume I

4 y 5 de noviembre de 2021

 

En los últimos años, se constata la pérdida de relevancia de los medios de comunicación públicos, en un escenario muy complejo en el que han coincidido diversos factores. Por un lado, una fuerte crisis económica que ha reducido notablemente los presupuestos de las corporaciones públicas. En segundo lugar, la irrupción de las plataformas digitales, que ha alterado los hábitos y formas de consumo de la ciudadanía. Asimismo, una fuerte pérdida de credibilidad de los medios públicos –y también privados–, por la falta de independencia del poder político y económico que muchos ciudadanos perciben. Y, finalmente, la expansión de las redes sociales ha cambiado las prácticas periodísticas, así como los modos de producción de contenidos de entretenimiento y de ficción audiovisual. En el caso de la Comunidad Valenciana, estas circunstancias han contribuido a debilitar, de manera bastante notable, el sistema comunicativo y audiovisual valenciano, sumido en una profunda crisis desde hace más de una década.

*CFP* "PEACE, INTERSECTIONALITY AND UNCERTAINTIES", THE 6TH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA STUDIES CONFERENCE

Peace, Intersectionality and Uncertainties

The 6th International Communication and Media Studies Conference

Eastern Mediterranean University (Cyprus)

Famagusta, North Cyprus: 25-26 November 2021

 

 

The Center of Research and Communication for Peace in the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at Eastern Mediterranean University invites submissions addressing the general theme of Peace, Intersectionality and Uncertainties the 6th International Communication and Media Studies Conference will be held on 25-26 November 2021 in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus. The conference is dedicated to bringing together a significant number of diverse scholarly events for presentation within the conference program. Thus, academic scientists, early-stage researchers, and graduate students are invited to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of communication. It also provides a platform for researchers to present and discuss recent innovations, trends, and concerns raised with Covid-19 pandemic as well as practical challenges encountered, and solutions adopted in the Communication and Media Studies. 

*CFP* "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE HUMAN. CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON SCIENCE AND FICTION", CONFERENCE AND EDITED VOLUME

Current debates on artificial intelligence often conflate the realities of AI technologies with the fictional renditions of what they might one day become. They are said to be able to learn, make autonomous decisions or process information much faster than humans, which raises hopes and fears alike. What if these useful technologies will one day develop their own intentions that run contrary to those of humans? The line between science and fiction is becoming increasingly blurry: what is already a fact, what is still only imagination; and is it even possible to make this clear-cut distinction? Innovation and development goals in the field of AI are inspired by popular culture, such as its portrayal in literature, comics, film or television. 

At the same time, images of these technologies drive discussions and set particular priorities in politics, business, journalism, religion, civil society, ethics or research. Fictions, potentials and scenarios inform a society about the hopes, risks, solutions and expectations associated with new technologies. But what is more, the discourses on AI, robots and intelligent, even sentient machines are nothing short of a mirror of the human condition: they renew fundamental questions on concepts such as consciousness, free will and autonomy or the ways we humans think, act and feel.

*CFP* "MAKING A MURDERER: TRUE CRIME IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE", SPECIAL ISSUE, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS CRIME FICTION STUDIES JOURNAL

“Everybody’s fascinated with the notion that there is a cause and effect,” claims notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, quoted in the Netflix original, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019) – that we can “put our finger on it,” and reassuringly rationalise the genesis of the uniquely modern phenomenon of the American serial killer. But when there is “absolutely nothing” in the background of a serial murderer that would lead one to believe they were “capable of committing murder,” how do we begin to acclimatise ourselves to this violent defect of contemporary history? More challengingly, how do we bring depth to our collective portrait of what constitutes a murderer, so that we may then self-exempt our compulsion to look more closely at these perversely familiar figures? 

Over the last 50 years, a plethora of books, magazines, film and television adaptations on the subject of true crime has captured – and held – the public imagination in a vice-like grip, ultimately achieving cult status in postwar-American society while furthermore granting the white male serial killer the kind of cultural capital usually awarded only to celebrities. With the enormous popularity of such series as Making a Murderer (2015) and Mindhunter (2017), however, it seems like now, more than ever, the uneasy question of why we continue to glorify killers by inserting them into mainstream media – and what exactly the appeal of this enduring genre and its mythologization of ultraviolent masculinities tells us about ‘who we are’ and the nature of American society itself – has acquired a new level of urgency, which, in turn, requires new depths of understanding. Likewise, with the growing Netflixisation of true crime, and the narrativization of true crime more broadly, now is the time to establish a study that evaluates the politics of the ever-increasing fine line between actual crime documentaries versus fictional shows that reference true crime.

*CFP* CALL FOR PROPOSALS, MULTIPLAY NETWORK'S FIRST CONFERENCE

MultiPlay Network 1st Conference

University of Sunderland (London)

19th January 2022

 

 

We have released a call for papers for MultiPlay network's first conference. MultiPlay is a new network for multidisciplinary research on digital play and games. It was created with the support of the University of Sunderland, which will be host our first event.

The theme of the conference is identity – how games shape identity, how gamers define themselves, how place and space in games can build a sense of identity, and how marginalised identities are depicted in games and can challenge or reinforce dominant power structures.

We are accepting submissions on this theme. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words, with an accompanying biography which should describe your fields of interest. We will respond to each applicant before October 1st to confirm whether their presentation proposal has been accepted.