Below you will find the call for papers of the pre-conference to the 10th European Communication Conference in Ljubljana called “MAPPING AI ACTOR CONSTELLATIONS IN NEWS MEDIA AND JOURNALISM – Critical Perspectives on Power (Im-)balances, Limited Autonomy, and Reconfigured Practices“. The pre-conference will take place on September 24, 2024, at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana, and it is endorsed by the ECREA Journalism Studies Section. You can download a copy of the call for papers here.
Conference Topic
AI, algorithms, and automation are increasingly becoming part of newsrooms, influencing nearly every aspect of journalism (Cools, 2022; Zamith, 2020). Both the pervasiveness (Thurman, Lewis & Kunert, 2019) of these innovative tools and their disruptive potential in restructuring news work and professional roles become central elements worth studying (Lewis et al., 2019). Even more so, as the pervasiveness of automation entails new relational dynamics in the newsroom (Wu, Tandoc & Salmon, 2019), but also with the audience (van Dalen, 2012), and other intermediaries and tech companies. This process leads to creating a new hybrid scenario (Porlezza & Di Salvo, 2020), where the boundaries of journalism are increasingly contested, and new skills and competencies are required. In this context, journalists are forced to renegotiate their communicative space as news work is confronted with shifting human-machine relationships that could result in ‘shared decision-making’ between the ‘human’ and ‘the machine’. Similarly, AI, algorithms, and automation also lead to new actor categories and professional roles such as programmers, designers, legal, and cybersecurity experts, both internal and external to media organizations. These changes entail both opportunities and challenges regarding journalistic relevance and authority (Amigo et al., 2023; Carlson, 2015; Wu et al., 2019), the internal organization of newsrooms (Thurman, Dörr & Kunert, 2017), and ethical (Porlezza & Ferri, 2021) as well as governance issues (Porlezza, 2023).
The pre-conference aims to explore new AI actor constellations in the journalism field to identify central players and map new interrelations, power imbalances, new dependencies, potential instances of boundary crossing, or even dissolving boundaries in the wider journalistic field. Overall, the pre-conference aims at overcoming newsroom-centered perspectives on the design and use of AI in journalism by focusing on emerging actors such as tech companies as well as intermediaries, who exert an increasing social and economic influence on journalism and the news industry (Simon, 2022). The pervasiveness of AI in the whole news cycle and the restricted capacity to develop AI systems on their own is likely to increase the news media’s dependence on tech and platform companies, challenging not only journalism’s autonomy, but also the news-making process itself in terms of shifting practices, roles, and an ethical as well as responsible design and adoption of these systems. Such an approach aims at challenging predefined conceptions about the impact of AI in the news while expanding our understanding of how the technology reshapes actor-related questions about autonomy, dependence, and governance:
Submissions may focus on – but are by no means limited to – the following themes and perspectives:
- What kind of actor constellations (within and outside the news organization) deal with AI systems and their development and/or implementation?
- Which actors are involved, what kind of roles do they have, and how are they contributing to the development/implementation processes regarding AI systems?
- What kind of AI literacy skills and competencies are required to navigate a datafied media environment?
- What kind of practices, skills, and knowledge are involved?
- How are ethical issues dealt with in such an AI actor constellation?
- What kind of governance structures are needed to avoid power imbalances?
Different types of submissions are possible. You can submit a traditional research talk on one of the pre-conference topics, but you can also submit “work-in-progress” contributions on research projects that are still in progress. For those, the conference provides an opportunity to discuss questions about their theoretical and methodological approach, research design, data collection as well as other matters of interest.
The pre-conference would like to bring together researchers from different backgrounds. Experts from outside academia are also welcome, particularly to foster the discussion between scholars and practitioners on central actors when it comes to the implementation of AI in journalism. In addition, we specifically encourage submissions from young and emerging scholars, particularly from the YECREA network.
When submitting, please note
- The conference will be held in English.
- Speakers are expected to be present. Virtual presentations are not possible.
- Submissions have to be in English and should be submitted as a .pdf file.
- Please state whether your contribution is a research talk or a work-in-progress talk.
- Please indicate whether the first author is a PhD student.
- The abstracts should include the main idea/argument, research questions, theoretical perspectives and/or information on methodology and empirical findings (if relevant).
What, where, and when to submit
- Abstracts of no more than 500 words (references excluded) should be sent to aiactorconstellations@gmail.com by 17 March 2024, 23:59 (Central European Time)
- All submitted abstracts will undergo a review. Acceptance notifications will be sent out on March 31, 2024.
- Deadline for confirmation of participation is April 10, 2024.
The pre-conference will take place on September 24, 2024, at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana.
The conference fee will be kept to a minimum, with lower prices for PhD students in part-time positions. Participants with special needs are kindly asked to get in touch with the organizers.
| Conference Organization and Contact Colin Porlezza, Università della Svizzera italiana; City, University of London Laura Amigo, Università della Svizzera italiana Hannes Cools, University of Amsterdam; Georgetown University Philip Di Salvo, University of St. Gallen Tomás Dodds, Leiden University; Harvard University URL: https://ecrea2024journalismai.wordpress.com/ E-Mail: aiactorconstellations@gmail.com You can download a copy of the call for papers here. |
Mapping AI Actor Constellations in News Media and Journalism 