[ecrea] CEECOM2015 - The Digital Media Challenge

Call for papers



CEECOM2015

The Digital Media Challenge

8th Central and Eastern European Media and Communication Conference
Zagreb, 12-14 June 2015

Conference organized by the University of Zagreb in cooperation with the 
ECREA CEE Network



The transition of communication media to digital is a worldwide 
phenomenon. In Central and Eastern Europe the term “transition” is 
naturally assumed to mean democratic transition in the post-socialist 
period starting in 1990. For the past 25 years, many in these countries 
struggled to establish independent media industries with new democratic 
expectations and in a capitalist market environment. The focus was very 
much on the political and economic post-socialist transition, including 
in research in media and communication studies.

In this years’ CEECOM we wish to refocus on the challenges to media 
industries, media audiences, and media regulators posed by the digital 
transition in the Central and Eastern European region and beyond. Since 
today’s media have an increasingly global dimension that is manifesting 
together with the digital technology, we aim to discuss the 
manifestations of these global developments and their challenges in a 
regional setting.

The journalistic profession is having a hard time facing the challenges 
of the digital revolution and global economy, but also the pressures of 
commercial interests and the need for new competences of young 
journalists. As a result of that process, the trust citizens have in 
state institutions and mass media has been significantly declining. Some 
warn that the corruption of basic journalistic values – through 
infotainment, the imperative of speed and the use of digital 
technologies to raise the popularity instead of quality – has been 
undermining the very foundations of democracy. The citizens, 
paradoxically, are surrounded with media offer that has never been 
wider, while they have never been less involved. New possibilities for 
participation in the digital public sphere are being used in different 
ways by different people, are there patterns here that we can uncover?

While digital technology defines today’s media, the key to their 
understanding is beyond a technological utopia or dystopia, in the new 
social practices that media afford – in media production and use, in 
changing public communication, media organization and production, 
journalism practice and the role of audiences. Social media, 
user-generated content, crowdsourcing, rise of alternative media, 
networked distribution and promotion of content and participatory agenda 
setting characterize today’s media landscapes that comprise both the 
legacy and the digital media. Today’s mediatized cultures can no longer 
be observed outside of the media that facilitate them, but need to be 
investigated in their articulations of everyday lifeworlds.

In our attempt to understand the present manifestations of digital 
mediascapes, we might also examine how the socialist economic and 
political settings and normative assumptions of the role of media 
influence contemporary post-socialist institutional settings and the 
development of digital media cultures.

Some of the topics for which we invite contributions include, but are 
not limited to:



1.  Mediatized cultures - production, audiences and social practices

·      Self-construction and self-expression, identity performance and 
experimentation

·      Education, knowledge and learning, play and entertainment

·      Sociality - social spaces created around and through use of 
communication technology, belonging - foundation of social bonds and 
social integration, communities they create, how they engage in politics 
or civic activities

·      Privacy, security, control and surveillance (interveillance)

2. Digital democracy – mediatized political communication, digital 
citizenship, participation and the digital public sphere

3. Redefining the legacy journalism paradigm

·      At the organizational level: the role of newsroom in digital 
media environment; newsroom adjustments to media convergence.

·      At the professional level: changing practice of journalists; 
multi-platform reporting; role of social media in daily reporting, 
especially in stories and sources identification and interaction; new 
relations with audiences, participatory and collaborative journalism.

·      At the media output level: pluralism and quality of content, its 
availability and usability and, in general, public interest.

4. Digital Skills for the New Approach to Journalism Education

·      Development of the new digital skills and the basis for the new 
journalism education curricula - new forms of reporting, new genres in 
digital media, data analysis and storytelling

5. Children in the mediatized world

·      media literacy - privacy and young media consumers,

·      role of family in media literacy & media use

·      digital generation and media

6. Media and information literacy – libraries, copyright issues and open 
access, education for media and information literacy, regulation for 
media and information literacy, media literacy and social inclusion

7. The past and present of media and communication studies in CEE – 
comparing socialist and post-socialist disciplinary developments



The conference will work in plenary (keynote and special panels) and 
parallel/paper sessions. Abstracts will be double blind reviewed by 
members of the Scientific Committee.



Conference Participants



The conference aims to promote academic cooperation in the field of 
media and communication studies, broadly defined in a way to include 
trans-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches to media and 
communication, within the Central and Eastern European region and 
beyond. While the primary focus of the conference is on sharing and 
discussing new research, the conference takes a multi-stakeholder 
approach to underline the importance of dialogue between scholars of 
media, political science, sociology, regulators and policy makers, 
international and national experts, practitioners, as well as 
representatives of regulatory authorities and civil society organizations.



Co-authored proposals are accepted, including those written by master 
students and their academic supervisors. The participants are invited to 
register and to submit original papers and panels. No more than two 
submissions by one author can be accepted (including combinations of 
panels and individual papers).



Participants do not need to be members of any of the sponsoring academic 
associations. The event is also open to participants who do not plan to 
submit research proposals. All accepted attendees are asked to register 
for the Conference.





Submission, Registration and Important Dates



Conference language: English. Individual paper proposals addressed to 
one of the proposed topics should mention this in the proposal (other 
topics on CEE issues are welcome as well). Abstracts (of max. 300 words) 
will be evaluated by at least two members of the Scientific Committee. 
Panel proposals of 300 - 500 words should include the rationale and 
title of proposed panel, and name & affiliation of the Chair/Moderator 
and up to five members of the panel, and brief abstracts (150 words) for 
each participant’s contribution. Abstract & panel submission site will 
open on November 20, and individual paper and panel proposal can be 
uploaded until 20 December, 23:59 CET. The reviews will be completed and 
notifications sent by January 31, 2015.



Please contact the conference organizers if you have any questions!



Conference registration will open on 1 February 2015. Early bird 
registration ends 1 April 2015.



Summary of important dates:



November 20, 201


Abstract submission site opens

December 20, 2014


Deadline for submissions of abstracts and panel proposals

January 31, 2015


Notification of acceptance

February 1, 2015


Registration & fee site opens

April 1, 2015


Early bird registration ends

May 1, 2015


Deadline for full papers to be delivered to Chair of the working group

June 12, 2015


Opening ceremony of CEECOM 2015 conference



Conference book



Full papers should be sent to the panel chairs by May 1, 2015. An edited 
collection of the most successful papers will be published with an 
international publisher.



Conference fee



150 EUR conference participants

100 EUR doctoral students



Early bird: until April 1, 2015

100 EUR conference participants

75 EUR doctoral students



The fee covers lunches & coffe & refreshments breakes, and conference 
materials.



Conference organizers



CONFERENCE CHAIR:

Zrinjka Peruško, University of Zagreb, Croatia



SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE (MEMBERS OF CEECOM CONSORTIUM):

Aukse Balcytiene (Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania)

Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska (University of Wroclaw, Poland)

Michal Glowacki (University of Warsaw, Poland)

Epp Lauk (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

Zrinjka Peruško (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Irena Reifova (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic)

Ilija Tomanic-Trivundža (Ljubljana University, Slovenia)

Tomáš Trampota (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic)



LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Mihaela Banek Zorica (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Domagoj Bebic (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Antonija Cuvalo (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Hrvoje Jakopovic (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Iva Nenadic (University of J.J. Strossmayer, Osijek, Croatia)

Krešimir Pavlina (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Tena Perišin (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Sonja Špiranec (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Dina Vozab (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Nada Zagrabljic Rotar (University of Zagreb, Croatia)



CONTACT/CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT:

Centre for Media and Communication Research

Faculty of Political Science

University of Zagreb

Lepušiceva 6, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia

www.cim.fpzg.unizg.hr

E-mail: (ceecom2015 /at/ gmail.com)

Website: www.ceecom.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ceecom2015

Twitter: @ceecom2015 #ceecom2015

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