[ Call for Papers ]

The Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) at Central European University (CEU, Budapest) has just released its very last call for papers for the conference Beyond East and West. Two Decades of Media Transformation after the Fall of Communism (see website) to be held 25-27 June, 2009 in Budapest. Deadline: November 15, 2008.

Papers are expected for the international conference, organized by the Center for Media and
Communication Studies at 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).

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, Sonia Livingstone, Colin Sparks, Monroe Price, Miklós Sükösd, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Nick Jankowski, Beata Klimkiewicz, Péter Molnár, 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
• Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Information

For more information on speakers, themes and program visit the conference's website.

Contact:
Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS)
Central European University (CEU)
Email: cmcs@ceu.hu
Website: http://cmcs.ceu.hu
Phone: +36 1 237 3000 ext 2607
Postal address: Nádor u. 9., 1051 Budapest, Hungary