Dear friends and colleagues,

we would like to invite you to the conference "Beyond East and West: Two 
Decades of Media Transformation After the Fall of Communism" which will 
take place at Central European University in Budapest on 25-27 June 
2009. The conference will be an official regional conference of the 
International Communication Association (ICA). It will also mark the 
closure of the COST A30 Action  "East of West: Setting a New Central and 
Eastern European Media Research Agenda".

The conference will analyze the state of media and of communication 
research in Central/Eastern Europe after 20 years of transformation. It 
will provide an opportunity for critically re-examining the social, 
technological and policy changes in the regional media landscape and for 
exploring future trajectories of media development. Participants will 
discuss what can be learnt from these changes, compare European 
experiences to those from other regions in transition, re-examine the 
usefulness of standard Western media and communication research to study 
the media and society in regions undergoing systemic transformations, 
and explore the necessary building-blocks for a future research agenda.

Within this framework, the conference will focus on the following eight 
themes:
-> CEE Media Systems 20 Years On: An Enhanced Framework of Analysis
-> Media Policy and Democratic Legitimacy: Risks and Options in the 
Enlarged Europe
-> New Media Developments and Online Research Innovations
-> Popular Culture: Media Uses, Media Literacy, Socialism(s) and Nostalgia
-> Political Communication between Commercialization and Political 
Influence
-> Alternative and Community Media
-> Global Communications, Development and Transition
-> Reviewing International Media Assistance Programs

You can find a full Call for Papers attached to this mail (if the 
mailing list allows attachments...).

Deadline for abstracts (maximum 500 words) and panel proposals: 15 
November 2008
Deadline for paper submission: 15 April 2009
Please submit abstracts to: [log in to unmask]
Abstracts must relate to the above themes and include keywords.

Please direct queries to
Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) at Central European 
University (CEU).
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +36 1 237 3000 ext 2607
Postal address: Nador u 9, 1051 Budapest, Hungary

Further information will be posted to the conference Website at 
http://www.costa30.eu