Dear OURMedia list,
I'm sending you the most recent newsletter of the Center for Media and
Communication Studies (CMCS) at Central European University (CEU) in
Budapest. It includes information on our recent summer school (which was
attended by several community media scholars) and our recent workshop on
the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation for community radio.
If any of you would like to receive this newsletter regularly (4 times a
year), just send me a brief email.
In a separate mail, I will send an announcement for a conference in
Budapest next year. This conference could be interesting particularly
for OURMedia members from Europe, and we could think about organising an
OURMedia event around that conference.
Best,
Arne
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Dear CMCS friends and supporters,
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
We would like to share with you the latest information about recent
activities of the Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) at
the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest. Over the past months
CMCS has been immersed in a number of exciting research projects, and
has hosted several engaging events. If you would like to find out more,
or if you have any general feedback, feel free to contact us at
[log in to unmask] If you no longer wish to receive this quarterly newsletter,
just send an email to the same address.
CMCS newsletter 2/2008
Contents:
1. Summer School on "Media, Democratization and Civil Society"
2. Exploratory Workshop on community radio and access to digital
infrastructures
3. Media Pluralism Study: First interim report submitted
4. Jordanian study tour of Hungarian media
5. "East of West" in Sarajevo
6. "Mapping Global Media Policy": Workshop in Venice
7. Past public lectures at CEU
8. Successful CEU graduates
9. CMCS Visiting Fellows
10. Upcoming Course Innovation Workshop on Audiovisual Mass Media:
Between Politics and Regulation
11. Conference plans: "Beyond East and West"
12. CMCS book alert
13. CMCS out and about
1. Summer School on "Media, Democratization and Civil Society"
Thirty-three international students, young and senior scholars, and
civil society experts met in Budapest this June for the summer school
"Media, Democratization and Civil Society". Over two weeks they
discussed the role of media and civil society in democratization
processes as well as the democratization of media and communications.
They explored the involvement of civil society in policy processes, the
role of grassroots, citizen-based and community media, analyzed
challenges around media pluralism and political as well as economic
pressures on media, and compared the situation in Central/Eastern Europe
with other regions in transition.
The school was hosted by the CMCS, the Annenberg School for
Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the COST research
network "East of West". Faculty included international scholars such as
Monroe Price, Michael Delli Carpini, Karol Jakubowicz, Beata
Klimkiewicz, Hakan Seckinelgin, Nick Jankowski. Core organizers of the
summer school were Miklos Sükösd, Kate Coyer, Laura Ranca and Arne Hintz
from CMCS. Participants came from a wide variety of countries and
regions, including India, Russia, China, Pakistan, Mexico, the US,
Western and Eastern Europe, and represented leading universities, NGOs
and international institutions.
Summer school participants and faculty plan to publish an edited book
emerging from the topics of lectures and discussions. Look for details
in future newsletters! Preparations are also starting for a summer
school on "Media and Development" in summer 2009.
2. European Science Foundation (ESF) Exploratory Workshop on community
radio and access to digital infrastructures
Thirty international experts on community media, radio and spectrum
policy participated in the workshop "Access to communication and
democratic media structures in the digital environment" which took place
at CEU on 13-15 May. They discussed the opportunities and challenges of
the current digitalization of broadcasting, particularly for small,
community and citizen-based radios, explored innovative forms of
connecting 'old' broadcasting platforms with new media, and developed
cornerstones of appropriate policy frameworks for digital transitions.
Workshop participants produced a policy paper and explored ideas for
further research collaborations.
The event was funded by a grant from the European Science Foundation
(ESF) as part of its 'Exploratory Workshops' program. The workshop
brought together academics with policy-makers, technical experts and
civil society activists and thus continued CMCS' quest for creating
multi-stakeholder connections. Participants included the Presidents of
the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) and the
Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE), representatives from national
regulators and from the European Commission, as well as renowned
academics. The workshop served to deepen CMCS' work in the fields of
community media, new technologies and media policy, and it connected
with current policy debates in Europe surrounding community media,
minority media and digitalization.
3. Media Pluralism Study: First interim report submitted
In May, the research consortium conducting the study "Indicators for
media pluralism in the Member States - towards a risk-based approach"
submitted its first interim report to the European Commission. The
report included a broad range of proposed indicators which will be
condensed and connected towards a practical risk assessment framework in
the next work phase. The outcome of the study will help monitor, assess
and advance media pluralism in Europe.
The study commenced in January 2008 and will conclude in spring 2009.
CMCS/CEU is leading one of four research teams to develop social
indicators, with other teams focusing on legal and economic indicators.
CMCS' team includes researchers from Jagellonian University, Poland;
Peace Institute, Slovenia; Ljubljana University, Slovenia; Corvinus
University, Budapest; and CEU. Team leader is Miklos Sükösd from CMCS,
overall project leader is the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
4. Jordanian study tour of Hungarian media
A delegation of media professionals from Jordan visited Budapest in the
first two weeks of April. The study tour, entitled "Media Systems in a
Comparative Perspective", helped delegates explore a wide variety of
issues related to the liberalization of the media sector in Central and
Eastern Europe with a special emphasis on Hungary. Through meetings with
relevant stakeholders and visits of core institutions, the delegation
studied media regulation, industries, and practices. Participants
included two newspaper journalists, a commercial radio director, a media
regulator, a scholar and a human rights activist.
The tour was part of a multi-year USAID-funded Jordan Media
Strengthening Program lead by CMCS Chair Professor Monroe Price and the
Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for
Communication. The delegation was hosted by the CMCS and coordinated by
CMCS Research Fellow Kate Coyer.
5. "East of West" in Sarajevo
Fourty European media scholars met in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina in
June for the bi-annual management and working group meetings of the COST
A30 Action "East of West: Setting a New Central Eastern European Media
Research Agenda". "East of West" is a network of leading European
researchers from more than 20 countries, funded by the European Science
Foundation as part of its COST program and coordinated by the CMCS. The
Sarajevo meeting allowed for scholarly exchange on current research in
the fields of media policy, democratic performance of the media, and new
media developments. Entering its final year of collaborative work under
this Action, the network took stock of its achievements and developed
plans for several publications. Local host of the meeting was the
Mediacenter Sarajevo.
6. "Mapping Global Media Policy": Workshop in Venice
CMCS members Kate Coyer and Arne Hintz participated in an expert Meeting
"Mapping Global Media Policy: concepts, frameworks, methods", organized
by the University of Padova in collaboration with McGill University,
Montreal, University of Trento and the Global Media Policy Working Group
of the International Association of Media and Communication Research
(IAMCR). The workshop served as a space for dialogue among scholars
involved in research activities on media policy, and specifically, to
develop plans for a collaborative project that will map policy processes
on a global level with the aim of creating an important resource for
both scholars and policy-makers.
7. Public lectures
CMCS has continued its successful series of public lectures at CEU.
Recent events included the following talks by distinguished media scholars:
- Professor Monroe E. Price, Annenberg School for Communication and
Chair of CMCS: "Satellite Signals in a World of New Information Borders"
- Professor Colin Bennett, University of Victoria, Canada: ”The Privacy
Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance”
- Professor Tudor Vlad, Associate Director of the James M. Cox Jr.
Center for International Mass Communication Training &
Research at University of Georgia, US: "Media Freedom on a Scale from 0
to Democracy? Rationales and Policy Implications of Measuring Press
Freedom"
8. Successful CEU graduates
19 June marked the graduation ceremonies at CEU. Speakers including
George Soros and Kofi Annan congratulated the new graduates for their
achievements and encouraged them to apply their knowledge for positive
global change. Five students received the Certificate in Political
Communication as part of their MA in Political Science, and another five
are about to complete the “Media, Information and Communications Policy
Stream” as part of their MA in Public Policy . Both programs are
media-related specializations that the CMCS offers in collaboration with
the respective CEU departments.
9. CMCS Visiting Fellows
Andreas Masouras, PhD candidate at University of Brighton, spent one
month at CMCS (April-May) as a Visiting Fellow to work on his PhD thesis
on media diversity. Amy Sapan, PhD student at the Benjamin N. Cardozo
School of Law, started a one-month visiting fellowship at CMCS on 30
June to research digital libraries.
CMCS is expanding its Visiting Fellows program which allows PhD students
and young scholars to conduct research on innovative fields in media and
communication. In the first three months of this year, CMCS already
hosted Visiting Fellows working on online privacy, digital broadcasting,
and the role of mass media in processes of transformation. If you are
interested in applying for the program, please contact us on email and
send us your research proposal and CV.
10. Upcoming Course Innovation Workshop on Audiovisual Mass Media:
Between Politics and Regulation
CMCS, the Department of Political Science, the Department of Public
Policy and the CEU Curriculum Resource Center will host a workshop for
young faculty with teaching interests in the audiovisual sector in the
context of political communications and media policy. The workshop is
thematically located at the intersection of politics and public policy
of the media sector. It will compare policy objectives, instruments and
outcomes with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe, discuss the role of
stakeholders in shaping media policy, look at the agendas of a variety
of social, political and economic forces, and put a particular spotlight
on debates around media pluralism. The objective of the course is to
develop curricula around these subjects. The course will take place
13-17 October, deadline for applications is 1 September 2008. For
further information
on eligibility and funding please visit
http://web.ceu.hu/crc/crc_visit_upc.html.
11. Conference plans: "Beyond East and West"
CMCS, the COST A30 network "East of West: Setting a New Central and
Eastern European Media Research Agenda" and the International
Communications Association (ICA) will co-organize a conference on the
development of media and communications in Central/Eastern Europe within
the past 20 years and on likely future trajectories, entitled "Beyond
East and West: Two Decades of Media Transformation After the Fall of
Communism".
The conference was announced at the recent ICA convention in Montreal as
an official regional ICA conference. A call for papers will be published
shortly. Deadline for abstract submission will be 15 November, the
conference dates will be 25-27 June 2009.
12. CMCS book alert
"Finding the Right Place on the Map: Central and Eastern European Media
Change in a Global Perspective", edited by Karol Jakubowicz and Miklos
Sükösd, is an international comparison of the media systems and
democratic performance of the media in post-communist countries. It
highlights current trends and problems surrounding international media.
The volume is an outcome of the COST A30 action "East of West" and is
published by intellect books.
13. CMCS out and about
CMCS Senior Research Fellow Peter Molnar has been teaching a course on
freedom of information (FOI) and freedom of speech as a Fulbright Fellow
at Cardozo School of Law where he also co-organized a public discussion
on freedom of speech in Rwanda. Molnar gave talks at numerous
conferences in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, and he gave a
lecture at the Communication, Culture and Technology Program of
Georgetown University.
Monroe Price, Kate Coyer and Arne Hintz represented CMCS at the annual
convention of the International Communications Association (ICA) in
Montreal, 22-26 May, and at several ICA pre-conferences. They discussed
plans for future activities with ICA members and leadership, including
the ICA regional conference in Budapest in June 2009 (see above). Monroe
Price and Arne Hintz are also part of the ICA Communications Policy Task
Force. Kate Coyer presented a paper based on her ongoing research
related to community broadcasting policy and practice.
CEU Assistant Professor Kristina Irion has been teaching at the 2008
Annenberg / Oxford Summer Institute on Global Media Policy "Technology
and New Themes in Media Regulation" which is taking place 30 June 30 to
11 July. The goal of this program is to help broaden and expand the pool
of talented young scholars committed to careers in media, law and other
disciplines.
CMCS Researcher Eva Bognar presented the paper "Web 2.0 enabled
inclusion for minorities or just another segregated space?: a case study
of 'Zhoriben'" at the international conference "Politics: Web 2.0" in
London, 17-18 April. She participated in a panel introducing the
EU-funded collaborative research project "Civicweb: Young People, the
Internet and Civic Participation" in which CMCS is a partner.
+++
CMCS is a center of excellence for promoting media and communication
studies throughout the Central and Eastern European region. Based at the
Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, it conducts cutting-edge
practice-oriented research, organizes workshops, lectures and
conferences on current developments in the field, and operates within an
international network of acclaimed scholars and academic institutions.
More information on these and other activities is available on the
center's website http://cmcs.ceu.hu.
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