The MEA’s annual meeting provides an opportunity for a community of academics and professionals to exchange experiences and ideas in a friendly environment. The MEA convention addresses a wide array of topics in thematic sections, panels, and working groups that explore approaches from different fields of knowledge and social practices.
The theme of the 2021 convention is DYSTOPIC FUTURES: MEDIA ECOLOGY IN AN ALGORITHM SOCIETY. Nowadays we are living in a sort of dystopic present with undesirable and frightening realities. In addition to our natural, environmental, political, ethical, cultural, health, and social problems, we have to deal with issues brought by technological advances. We are living in a Technopoly (Postman, 1992), or in what some authors call an Algorithmic Society.
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Featured speakers at the 2021 convention include Naomi Klein – activist, media critic, and author of No Logo (1999), and On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal (2019); Douglas Rushkoff – media theorist and author of the books Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture (1995) and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus (2016); Muniz Sodré – journalist, sociologist, and author of the books Antropológica do Espelho (2009) and Monopólio da Fala (2001); David Olson – leading orality-literacy scholar and author of the books The Mind on Paper: Reading, Consciousness and Rationality (2016) and Psychological Theory and Educational Reform: How Schools Remake Mind and Society (2003), among others. The list of featured speakers also includes climate activists and philosophers Déborah Danowski, author of The Ends of the World (2016) (co-authored with Eduardo V. Castro), and Alyne Costa, author of “Guerra e Paz no Antropoceno” (2017).
All plenary sessions will have the option of original audio in English and in Portuguese.
PROGRAM AT A GLANCE
The times below are all Eastern Daylight Time (UTC -4). The same goes for the times in the full program. Needless to say, the time may be different where you are. Rio de Janeiro, for instance, is 1 hour ahead of EDT. If you need to, use a time zone converter to make sure you don’t miss anything! Links to sessions are in the at-a-glance program below. Simply click on the session you wish to join and enter the passcode for the day that the MEA has emailed to you when prompted to enter a meeting passcode. Each session has its own Zoom link. For more, see CONVENTION DETAILS below.
open at all times
CONVENTION DETAILS
Click the button below to download a PDF of the program with detailed panel and participant information.
Please note: this program is subject to minor updates. For the latest version of things, please check this page, which will always contain the most recent information.
For the second straight year, the MEA’s annual convention will be held virtually via Zoom. Participants and attendees are encouraged to download the latest version of the app and familiarize themselves with its features in advance, such as screen sharing, which we plan to allow in the concurrent panel rooms so participants can share presentations, videos, etc.
All panels with take place in “meeting rooms” while plenaries and special sessions will take place in meeting rooms or be broadcast as webinars. The links to these meeting rooms and webinars are in the at-a-glance program above. Simply click on the session you wish to join. Each session has its own Zoom link.
You will need a passcode to join the meeting rooms and webinars. The passcodes will be emailed to everyone who has registered for the convention so make sure you’re registered (see below) and check the email you used to register for an email from the Media Ecology Association. In some cases, this email might get routed to your spam or junk mail folder, so be sure to check there if you don’t see it. There will be a single passcode for all sessions on a given day. Enter it when Zoom prompts you to “Enter Meeting Passcode.” The passcode will be sent out the night before.
If you have issues or questions, we recommend contacting the convention coordinator at MEA2021Convention@gmail.com. You can also try reaching out to us via our Contact Us page, or on Facebook or Twitter.
Registrants will be able to attend any session they like, even move between sessions. We ask, however, that everyone practice good “Zoom etiquette” and be cognizant of the presentations and conversations happening in each meeting room, just as you would when attending a face-to-face convention. Participants and attendees can help minimize disruptions by joining sessions before they start with their microphones, as well as perhaps their video, turned off. This can be done by updating your settings on the Zoom app. Just don’t forget to unmute yourself before speaking!
Right now the plan is that registrants will have access to video recordings of all the sessions for a limited period of time after the convention. More information about this will be emailed to registrants later.
The MEA encourages all presenters to present synchronously (i.e., live in the designated meeting room at the designated time), but if for some reason you would like to present a video instead, please be in your session in advance for testing.
REGISTRATION
Student members: $10
Regular members: $25
Non-member students: $25
Non-member registration: $50
Students may be asked to provide valid student IDs.
Registration deadline for attendees: July 10, 2021
Convention registration entitles you to attend all convention panels, plenaries, and special sessions. All prices are listed in U.S. dollars. Sustaining and Institutional members don’t have to pay for the convention, but they still must register for it.
All convention participants and attendees are encouraged to join the MEA.
Any payment questions should be directed to our treasurer Paul Soukup at treasurer@media-ecology.net or +1 (408) 554-4022.
Convention-related questions? Contact convention coordinator Adriana Braga at MEA2021Convention@gmail.com. General questions? Contact us.
Last updated on July 10, 2021. |