Associate Professor of Online Video Cultures at the Department of Media and Journalism Studies

The School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University invites applications for the position of associate professor of online video cultures based at the Department of Media and Journalism Studies.

The appointment is full time and tenured and begins on 01/10/2022 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The School of Communication and Culture is committed to diversity and encourages all qualified applicants to apply regardless of their personal background.

The position

The field of media and journalism studies is currently undergoing significant changes not least due to the increasing digitalisation of culture and society, which has radically transformed the basic conditions under which mediated content is produced, distributed, used and experienced. These new conditions call for critical and innovative ways to prepare students of media and journalism studies for a rapidly changing job market, and to produce high-quality research that helps citizens, society and industry to make sense of and navigate contemporary media landscapes. The Department of Media and Journalism Studies at Aarhus University is taking an international lead in developing research and study programmes based on the premise that the ability to understand fully the implications of digitalisation in communication, media production and distribution necessitates new modes of enquiry in both research and teaching.

Online video cultures are evolving rapidly as norms for social media content shift and new ways of engaging viewers and stakeholders emerge in tandem with technological changes impacting proximate user contexts, and as an expression of institutional and corporate dynamics deriving from media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok that commission, produce, distribute, stream and share audiovisual content. Furthermore, burgeoning online video cultures deploy new technologies (AR, VR, projection mapping, small screens, mobile and locative technologies) to generate new professional standards, formats, genres and screen aesthetics (for example, ultrashort video formats, promo videos, innovative music video genres, vidding, fan-based remix videos, documentary videos); collaborative production and funding models (crowd funding); and user-generated and user-modified content.

Against this background, we are looking for a colleague with strong skills in the textual analysis of online video formats and aesthetics, a person who can strengthen and develop the department’s profile in online video cultures in Nordic and international contexts, and who can develop teaching and research in this area including screen theory, screen technologies and practice-based research and teaching. The successful applicant will be expected to build on and contribute to the department’s commitment to digital methods as well as to reflexive practice-based methods. Experience of producing video for online platforms is considered a strength, but not a requirement.

We are looking for applicants who can document research results at an international level in one or more of the following areas:

• contemporary online video cultures in aesthetic, commercial, historical, technological or civil society contexts
• textual analysis of audiovisual genres, formats and narratives, and/or audio storytelling including in-depth knowledge of short online video formats such as music videos, YouTube videos, TikTok videos, commercials, Vlogging and social media video platforms and phenomena
• online video culture research in a Nordic context
• new collaborative production and funding models for online videos, user-generated and user-modified content, sharing cultures, shifting norms for content commissioned/produced for streaming on social media

Deadline 24 May 2022