[Air-L] Reminder: CfP ECREA Symposium Digital Democracy: Critical Perspectives in the Age of Big Data

[Anne Kaun]

   10-11 November 2017, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden
   Joint Conference of two ECREA Sections: Communication and Democracy;
   and Media Industries and Cultural Production

   Abstract Deadline 1 June 2017

   Keynote speakers
     * Helen Kennedy (University of Sheffield)
     * Joseph Turow (University of Pennsylvania)
     * Mikkel Flyverbom (Copenhagen Business School)


   The coordinates of democracy, civic engagement and political
   participation are being fundamentally reconfigured in the context of
   digital media, Big Data and algorithmic culture, and so too are the
   media industries. This joint conference of the ECREA Communication and
   Democracy and Media Industries and Cultural Production Sections
   provides the opportunity to analyse and assess these changes.

   The constant need to measure and capture our behavior and attitudes has
   consequences for our political agency and subjectivities. What do big
   data and algorithmic culture mean in the context of democratic
   participation and engagement? What are the consequences of ubiquitous
   surveillance, preemptive policing and social bots for our understanding
   of democracy and exercise of civic rights? How do current discussions
   of political agency in the digital age compare to previous moments of
   disruption in terms of the introduction of media technologies?

   Big data and issues related to algorithmic governance have become a
   major topic of enquiry in the context of media industries as well.
   `Legacy media' are trying to respond by integrating new digital
   services with their existing ones and new data-driven journalistic and
   media production practices emerge. This presents policy challenges, as,
   for example, public service media need to adapt to a situation in which
   data is increasingly commercialized. There are implications too for
   media workers in this new moment. In this context, we wish to explore
   issues related to the integration of Big Data and the media industries
   as well as online production, creativity and digital labour.

   During this section conference, we aim to engage with questions
   concerning datafication, media industries and (digital) democracy
   through addressing topics such as (but not limited to):

     * Political subjectivities and political agency in the age of Big
       Data
     * Political consequences of storing, processing and organizing of
       data
     * Civic engagement and political participation in times of Big Data
     * Surveillance and preemptive policing
     * Materiality and environmental issues of Big Data and algorithmic
       culture
     * New actors and discourses in the context of datafication
     * Democratic potential of Big Data and algorithmic culture
     * Algorithmic taste management in the media industries
     * Archives and archiving of cultural production and civic engagement
     * Media work and labour in datafied media industries
     * Data Journalism


   A YECREA workshop on "Digital methods for studying algorithms:
   complicating the socio-technical relation" facilitated by Annette
   Markham will be arranged for doctoral students, post-docs and early
   career scholars. The workshop will take place in the afternoon of the
   9th November. More details are to follow.
   Submission details
   Please submit a 300-word abstract for individual proposals
   Panel proposals should include a 300-word panel rationale plus
   individual 200 word abstracts from a minimum of four speakers.
   All abstracts for individual as well as panel proposals should be
   submitted
   through: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ecreadigdem2017
   Deadline for submission is 1 June 2017. Notifications of acceptance
   will be issued by 15 August 2017.
   Registration and Fees
   Early bird registration EUR50 (until 1 September 2017)
   Early bird reduced student fee EUR30 (until 1 September)
   Full fees EUR75
   Reduced student fee EUR40
   Organising Committee:
   Göran Bolin, Hanne Bruun, David Hesmondhalgh, Anne Kaun, Maria
   Michalis, Maria Kyriakidou, Fredrik Stiernstedt, Julie Uldam, Julia
   Velkova

   http://www.sh.se/bigdata