Submissions to the conference theme 

The conference aims to bring together scholars reflecting on the role, nature, state, management and challenges regarding diversity, equality and inclusion within journalism itself and in society through journalism.

There is consensus that journalism should reflect society in its plurality to foster multi-perspective discourse in democracies. Consequently, the diversity of news content has been discussed as a key quality feature of professional journalism for decades. However, recently the public and scholarly discourse on diversity, equality and inclusion has gained momentum also with regard to the journalists and the audience. Potential research focuses range from inequality and discrimination among journalists of different sex, gender, ethnicity or socio-economic background, or the (in)visibility of societal groups and voices in news, to challenges of engaging certain milieus in the public discourse through news.

Submissions to the conference theme may explore the normative implications and theoretical perspectives on diversity, equality and inclusion in and through journalism, discuss challenges measuring these concepts and present empirical work. Submissions can address (but are not limited to) diversity, equality and inclusion in the following areas:

• Journalism as an institution, in news media organizations and news production (e.g., the role of certain actors, practices, structures, organizations, education and technologies)
• News content (e.g., equal representation, diverse voices and inclusive language)
• Regarding the audiences (e.g., barrier-free access to news in terms of distribution, costs and imparting of information, and facets of news avoidance)

Submissions to open panels (without thematic specification)

At the same time, the conference aims to create an open forum for the latest research in European journalism studies in all its facets. Thus, there are no thematic requirements set if you submit to the open panels. Both theoretical and empirical contributions to journalism studies are welcome.

Submission guidelines

Submissions can be sent as anonymized abstracts of no more than 750 words (excl. references, tables and graphs) to ecrea2024@sheffield.ac.uk no later than November 3rd, 2023. The abstract must include an indication whether you submit to the conference theme or open panels.

We invite two types of abstracts:

• Individual or co-presented research papers of no more than 20 mins
• Pre-constituted panels - 90 mins panel of 3 x 20 mins OR 4 x 15mins thematically linked individual or co-presented research papers followed by questions

Please include the title of your paper/panel and names as well as affiliations of the authors in the email.

Only two proposals per first author can be accepted (submitting further abstracts as co-author is accepted). Notifications of acceptance will be issued early December 2023. Submission will undergo scholarly peer-review.

PhD Colloquium

The section’s YECREA representative Bissie Anderson organizes the 4th ECREA Journalism Studies Section PhD Colloquium on 10th of April 2024 at the University of Sheffield. Abstracts of 500 words should be sent to b.anderson4@rgu.ac.uk no later than 10th of December 2023. For further details please consult the separate call for the PhD Colloquium that can be found on our website.

V. Conference Organization

The conference will be hosted by Dr. Lada T. Price and her team at the School of Journalism, Media & Communication, University of Sheffield, UK. Sheffield is two hours by train from London and one hour from Manchester airport.  

If you have any questions, contact the conference organizing committee at ecrea2024@sheffield.ac.uk.

Registration will open in December 2023 and more information about the conference will be posted regularly on this webpage. 

*PLEASE NOTE*: The conference will take place in-person only and we are unable to accommodate requests for virtual presentations.