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