Last call: The International Association for Media and Communication Research, IAMCR, invites submissions of abstracts for papers and panel proposals for its conference to be held 15-19 July 2012 in Durban, South Africa.

Deadline for submissions is 14 February 2012.

The conference will be held under the general theme, ‘South-North Conversations’. The theme reflects the asymmetry of global communication flows, but without implying the negatives that usually accompany those discussions.

More information here.

The European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) and the Turkish Communication Research Association (ILAD) welcome the submission of abstracts for the 4th European Communication Conference to be held in Istanbul 24-27 October 2012.

The general theme of the conference is ‘Social Media-Global Voices’. More information on www.ecrea2012istanbul.eu. Deadline for abstracts is 28 February 2012.

The candidate needs to show an active research profile within the broad field of media and development, preferably with a focus on one of the regions of the SOAS remit.  A critical engagement with development theory and practice is welcome, involving not only economic but political, social and cultural change, as having impacts on the environment and cultural habitus and as best determined by people themselves rather than by external agencies.

Closing date: 2 March 2012. More info here.

Lectures by Cees Hamelink and Robin Mansell are available online here.

The Catholic Media Council (CAMECO), Aachen Germany, has its library catalogue available online here. To get acquainted with it, you could use the list function. Searches can be restricted to publications available online. From the homepage there are links to other publications and resources.

The Nordic Africa Institute invites applications for two positions as Researcher. One position is with focus on North Africa and one with focus on southern Africa Closing date for applications: 7 February 2012.

The researchers will conduct research with a focus on North Africa and southern Africa respectively from April 2012 to March 2013. The institute’s research has been organized around 4 distinct clusters in order to deepen intellectual interaction and collaboration between researchers. The researchers will be part of the cluster for conflict, security and democratic transformation. For further details of the positions, go here.

During the past months the debate on SOPA and PIPA has been intense – in the USA (SOPA=Stop Online Piracy Act; PIPA=Protect Intellectual Property Act). The proposed laws would have consequences far beyond the U.S. borders, and protests were worldwide. They culminated in a “blackout” of service of many websites for 24 hours on 18 January, 2012. Among blackout participants was Wikipedia.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is now on the European agenda. ACTA has already been signed by the Australia, Canada, Japan, U.S. … and few days ago it was also “signed” by 22 of the EU member states, including Denmark and Sweden. The process has been characterised by very little transparency, but this will change. The debate promises to become fierce during the next months. The ACTA cannot be implemented before it has been ratified both by the European Parliament and by the parliaments of each participating country.

The laws and agreements mentioned are supposed to combat piracy – and much else. The piracy aspect has been treated in depth in the SSRC report Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, previously mentioned on orecomm.net.

Photo above: Polish members of parliament hold up Guy Fawkes masks in protest of the treaty, 24 January 2012. A balanced, brief collection of articles on ACTA has been published – in Danish – by the newspaper Informatíon here.

John Postill reflects on Digital media and social change on his media/anthropology blog :

All digital media scholars study social change- yet surprisingly undertheorised.

We tend to fall into vague present continuous (-ing) of how people and technologies are constantly chang-ing, what people are now do-ing with this or that digital tech, etc.

… in pursuit of next big technology, we often neglect historical and diachronic in favour of contemporary and synchronic.

Dubious idea that a technology now trending in global North will soon be trending worldwide (‘imminentism’).

In fact, different neighbourhoods, cities, countries, regions, are following their own digital paths. No sign yet that the digital cultures of South Korea, Brazil, Senegal, the Vatican and Finland are on the brink of merging into some ‘global’ sameness. If anything, they continue to diverge. /…/

What is sought: Qualifications & Skills:

• Master in Public Health
• Knowledge in Gender Mainstreaming
• Excellent command of English (written & oral) and communication skills

General Professional Experience:

• At least 10 years’ experience
• Development and implementation of Health Education curricula and professional accreditation schemes and their implementation in European institutional context
• University level teaching experience

Specific Professional Experience:

• Experience in planning and implementation of distance education courses in New Public Health and related fields addressing the European learning environment
• Experience in developing and reviewing content of educational courses from a gender perspective and in addressing issues related to discrimination, marginalization, and inequality in health and in engendering curricula and educational events, with particular reference to the European context
• Experience of Public Health Systems in South Asia and/or in developing countries would be an asset

As would be evident, we are looking for a person with a strong academic & teaching background in the European learning environment with an understanding of health systems in the developing world – something which the EC has strongly desired. We request you to kindly let us know of someone who has the kind of qualification and experience required and would be willing to take this position full-time at New Delhi. Remuneration would not be a constraint.

Contact persons: Sanjay Tripathi [stripathi@ipeglobal.com] and

Birte Holm Sørensen, MD, MPH
Svejgårdsvej 21, DK-2900 Hellerup
+4539610366, +4561606147
[birsor@dadlnet.dk]

The African Communication Research journal has devoted its recent issue (4)2 mainly to “The State of Media Freedom in Africa”, with case studies covering Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi.