The ECREA Audience and Reception Studies Section, in cooperation with SOPCOM Portugal, Lusófona University/CICANT and NOVA University/ICNOVA, is organising a Conference: Disrupted or disruptive audiences? From reception to participation in a post-truth era? in Porto (Lusófona University), 12-14 September 2023.
Conference Call
Unpredicted events have profoundly affected the lives of citizens around the world. The pandemic disrupted everyday routines and brought about rapid mediatization of numerous practices, from education and theatre-going, to therapy and fitness to name a few. After the first period of heightened orientation towards official information audiences developed different strategies and tactics for navigating the social and media environment – reaching personal networks, looking for alternative sources of news, creating their own content, campaigning or disconnecting from news flows. As we struggled to understand these varied responses to the pandemic, new crises entered the lives of citizens – war in Ukraine, energy and financial crisis, climate crisis, and political upheaval. These created different imagery, sources and relations to be woven into audience practices. Such global occurrences pose unprecedented challenges and unforeseen human proximity to digital environments in an increasingly datafied, algorithmic world. As such, audiences are in a state between conformed and disruptive forms of thinking and acting, presenting themselves in between receptionist dynamics and (new) digital participatory habits. The conference intends to discuss these challenges in the context of our digitally saturated times.
We therefore invite submissions that focus on audiences and touch on any of the following points:
- Online hate speech
- Online (dis and mis)information disorders
- Privacy and surveillance
- Trust in (datafied) media
- Digital literacy
- Audiences in a post-truth era
- Digital disconnection
- News consumption and participation
- Ethic contexts on audience research
Application Process
Proposals for papers can be submitted in the form of 300 words abstract through the online form available here – The deadline for the submission is 25th February 2023. Submitted abstracts will be evaluated by the panel of reviewers consisting of Conference Scientific Committee, ARS and SOPCOM members. Notification of acceptance will be sent to participants by 7th April 2023. Authors of accepted abstracts are expected to attend the conference in person. Participation fee (including coffee break and lunch) is 60 EUR for all participants. Each participant should cover their travel and accommodation costs.
For more information, please contact the organisers: Jelena Kleut, University of Novi Sad, Chair of Audience and Reception Studies Section ECREA; Vivi Theodoropoulou, Vice-Chair of Audience and Reception Studies Section ECREA; Maria José Brites, Lusófona University, CICANT, Vice-Chair of Audience and Reception Studies Section ECREA, and Chair of SOPCOM WG Publics and Audiences; Marisa Torres da Silva, NOVA University, ICNOVA, Vice-Chair of SOPCOM WG Publics and Audiences.
