Dear friends and colleagues,
please find below a reminder of a conference that we're organizing in
Budapest for June next year. Please note that community and alternative
media are one of the core themes of the conference, so there should be a
number of sessions that deal with 'our' media. We hope to bring together
a number of good people, particularly from Central/Eastern Europe, who
are working with 'our' media, both practically and academically. So, if
you are from this region, it would be great to meet you at this
conference, and we could use it for a regional OURMedia gathering. But
also if you are from other parts of the world, it should be an
interesting event, as we want to look at the transformations in
Central/Eastern Europe in the context of developments taking place in
other parts of the world (Latin America, Middle East, etc).
If there are people who want to help us organizing an OURMedia
side-event or pre-conference, please get in touch.
Best,
Arne

BEYOND EAST AND WEST
TWO DECADES OF MEDIA TRANSFORMATION AFTER THE FALL OF COMMUNISM

25-27 June 2009
Central European University, Budapest

An International Conference, organized by the Center for Media and
Communication Studies (CMCS) at Central European University (CEU) and
the COST A30 Action "East of West: Setting a New Central Eastern
European Media Research Agenda", in cooperation with the International
Communication Association (ICA).

Deadline for abstracts and panel proposals: 15 November 2008
Please submit abstracts to: [log in to unmask]
Conference website: www.beyondeastandwest.net

Since 1989, a new media landscape has emerged in Central and Eastern
Europe, with new ownership patterns, forms of media organization,
journalistic practices, relationships between politics and the media,
regulation processes and modalities of media use. A new system has been
established, predominantly designed according to Western models and with
heavy influence by Western players.
Twenty years later, it is time to re-examine these changes. What went
right, what went wrong, and what can we learn from this? Were Western
media models and concepts appropriate for the post-1989 social,
political, economic and cultural realities of Central/Eastern Europe?
What are the future trajectories of media development in the region? And
how do they compare to those in other regions undergoing systemic
transformation – from Latin America to China and the Middle East?

The conference "Beyond East and West" will trace post-1989 development
and look towards the future. To build research for communication in
transition, conference participants will explore the necessary
building-blocks for a research agenda.

Speakers include Miklos Haraszti, Slavko Splichal, Karol Jakubowicz,
Colin Sparks, Monroe Price, Miklos Sukosd, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Alina
Mungiu-Pippidi, Nick Jankowski, Beata Klimkiewicz, Peter Molnar, Peter
Gross, John Downey, Inka Salovaara-Moring, Andrew Calabrese.

Core conference themes:
-> Central Eastern European Media Systems 20 Years On
-> Media Policy and Democratic Legitimacy
-> New Media Developments
-> Popular Culture: Media Uses, Media Literacy, Socialism(s) and Nostalgia
-> Political Communication between Commercialization and Political
Influence
-> Samizdat, Alternative and Community Media
-> Global Communications, Development and Transition
-> Reviewing International Media Assistance Programs

For more information on speakers, themes and program go to
_http://www.beyondeastandwest.net/_

Contact:
Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS)
Central European University (CEU)
Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>_
Website: _http://cmcs.ceu.hu <http://cmcs.ceu.hu/>_
Phone: +36 1 237 3000 ext 2607
Postal address: Nador u 9, 1051 Budapest, Hungary

COST A30 "East of West": _http://www.costa30.eu/_
International Communication Association: _http://www.icahdq.org/_
Conference website: _http://www.beyondeastandwest.net/_