Call for papers for AJE 2025 Summer Conference – ‘Celebrating Journalism’

We are excited to announce the call for papers for our AJE Summer Conference 2025.

Event: Celebrating Journalism: Why it matters, how it adapts and the need for journalism education in a changing world

Dates: Thursday, June 26, and Friday, June 27, 2025

Location: University of Derby

Details: Journalism matters. It matters in our communities, in our culture, in our politics and in our lifestyles.

In a world where authoritarianism is on the rise and tolerance is in decline, to say nothing of attacks on journalists and journalism, there has never been such an abundance of creative, inspiring and useful storytelling across a myriad of platforms and spaces.

AJE UK believes it is time to celebrate this with a conference that enables journalism educators to share and explore their practice and research highlighting the ways in which journalism endures crisis and continues to play an important part in all of our lives.

Papers and presentations are sought on this wide-ranging theme that will cast a light on the positive elements of news and journalism and how this is articulated in journalism education.

Themes:

• Lifestyle & cultural journalism and how it contributes to our lives;
• Sports journalism and its importance to communities;
• Social justice journalism;
• Climate reporting;
• Solutions journalism that can solve some of the problems of our world;
• Importance of local media to local democracy;
• Alternative media and giving space to marginalised voices;
• The rise and rise of the podcast;
• Pedagogical approaches: how we bring our passion for journalism into our learning and teaching;
• Creativity in journalism teaching and practice;
• AI: the opportunities it will bring;
• Re-defining journalism for a changed world;
• Investigative reporting: new models, methods and technologies for scrutinising power;
• The importance of ethical journalism.

This list is not exhaustive and the conference provides opportunities for journalism educators to delve into their own research and practices and share how they can contribute to a re-defining of journalism and what it can do not only to survive but to thrive in a challenging environment.

We look forward to hearing your ideas. Paper abstracts will be peer-reviewed. Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a cover sheet with a brief biographical note, your institutional affiliation (where relevant) and your contact details (including your email address) by Thursday, May 1, 2025. Abstracts should be sent to: assjrned@gmail.com