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“Trial and Error. Media Education in a Changing Media World”
3rd annual conference of the Journalism & Communication Education TWG
Tilburg, The Netherlands, May 18/19, 2017
This is a quick reminder that the DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS is fast
approaching! Please send your 500-word proposals by next Monday, Feb.
20, 2017, to: michael.harnischmacher[at]uni-passau.de
As any other educational field, media education needs to address generic
21st century skills, such as problem solving, entrepreneurship or
working as a reflective practitioner. However, media education faces a
distinctive challenge considering the fundamental changes of its own
professional field. Media professionals work under increasingly complex
conditions due to the increasing overlap between different media
professions, major accelerations in production and distribution, the
rise of an interactive and critical audience and changing dynamics in
media ownership. Traditionally distinct disciplines as advertising,
journalism, film production and media design are converging, putting
specific demands on professional legitimacy and operational processes.
Consequently media graduates “need to be prepared for a lifelong journey
of adaptation in a relentlessly changing media landscape” (Pavlik, 2013,
215)1 and they have to “balance the competing demands of creativity
versus commerce, of producing content versus exploring opportunities for
connectivity and of translating the accelerated demands of a
competitive, technology driven (…) work environment into meaningful
actions, values and ideas.” (Deuze, 2013, 85)2.
In order to prepare students for such a complex professional field,
media educators have to reinvent or at least reset themselves. From
teaching ‘how the world is’, to training ‘how to relate to a constantly
changing world’. Not only do they need to keep up with ongoing
innovation, they need to contribute to innovation as well as foster
their professional legitimacy. Just as innovation, so is media education
in the 21st century a process of trial and error. The inevitable
question is: How do we do this?
This question we would like to address at the 3rd conference of the
ECREA working group Journalism and Communication Education Research,
which will take place in The Netherlands at the School of Journalism in
Tilburg, Fontys University of Applied Sciences. We invite you to attend
the conference and to submit contributions on media education.
Contributions may be theoretical, methodological or empirical in nature
and can touch upon, but are not restricted to, the following topics:
- media education as contributing to gradual or disruptive innovations
in the profession
- media education as responding or contributing to fundamental changes
in society, technology and/or economy.
- (alternative) pedagogical approaches fitting the changing needs and
expectations of media graduates
- the changing nature of media work in terms of professional culture,
accountability, employment, organization, diversity or media production.
- the increasing role of the audience in media production
- blurring boundaries between media professions and related phenomena,
such as professional autonomy, professional values, legal and regulatory
issues etc.
- expectations of media companies, professionals or institutions
regarding media graduates
- media graduate characteristics, such as demographics, previous
education, training needs, or self-perception
- profound automation of media production and distribution, e.g.
automated newsrooms, robot art, algorithm advertising.
- aspects of media literacy, public interest, national security or
freedom of speech in media development
- the role of accrediting systems; inhibiting or stim
ulating media
education change
Please note that we invite workshops, panels and conference presentations.
- Workshops sessions deal in a practical way (‘hands on’) with a current
aspect of media education. Proposals for workshop sessions should
include a clearly defined workshop topic and goal, and a number of
questions or assignments for the discussion as well as an indication for
the length of the session. Please submit a short workshop description
(max. 500 words).
- Conference presentations involve research results and/or theoretical
work relevant to the conference theme. Please submit an abstract (max.
500 words, not including references), outlining the state of the study
or research project, as well as the research question(s) or hypotheses,
findings and conclusion(s). We also encourage submitting work in
progress, e.g. new theoretical or methodological ideas you want to
discuss with peers at the conference.
- Panels consist of various presentations addressing a common topic from
different perspectives. Panels are planned for of 1 hour, including
discussions. Panel proposals should include a description of the topic
and overall goal of the panel, addressing the relevance of the topic to
the conference theme (400 words). The proposal should also name a chair
who serves as a moderator and include a short abstract of each of the
presentations (max. 200 words each).
True to the interdisciplinary nature of this conference, we encourage
contributors to combine education of various media fields (PR,
journalism, advertising…) or address applicability/relevance of their
topic for programs from different areas of media education.
Deadline for abstract submission: Monday, February 20, 2017 Accepted
presenters will be informed by Monday, March 20, 2017 The conference
will take place Thursday, May 18 and Friday, May 19, 2017
Please submit abstracts as anonymized Word- or pdf-documents to
[michael.harnischmacher[at]uni-passau.de]. Please include your author
information (name, institution, contact) in the accompanying e-mail.
Conference is organized by the ECREA Journalism & Communication
Education TWG management team:
Dr. Michael Harnischmacher (Chair) / University of Passau / Passau,
Germany
Dr. Carlos Barrera (Vice chair) / Universidad de Navarra / Facultad de
Communicación / Pamplona, Spain
Dr. Harmen Groenhart (Vice chair) / Fontys University of Applied
Sciences / School of Journalism / Tilburg, The Netherlands
