A Feeling of Crisis? Part 3

posted by ush on 2009/04/27 13:21

[ Balkans ]

The fourth and last session of the Workshop was introduced by Peter Mario Kreuter's general and personal critique of the expert's dialogue with mass media. In a rather pessimistic way Kreuter concluded on the basis of his rich experience with TV stations and newspapers that any constructive and scientific cooperation with mass-media is almost impossible.

The image of the general public addressed by the mass media is constructed in total opposition to the one of the academic expert. The transformaton from scientifically based information into popularized and entertaining information addressing the construct of a scientifically rather disinterested public keeps the sytem of the production of entertainment running, but neglects both the specific public and scientific knowledge, at the same time. Thus, Kreuter pleaded for large-scale academically based media initiatives using print media and Internet, in order to create platforms for experts and the interested public.

Tatjana Markovic presented the last paper of the Workshop on the crisis and the necessary re-orientation in the music ethnology. So far the discipline is trapped in nation building and still serves the construction of national myths in many cases. Thus, music studies within Balkan Studies are oriented to the past methodically and with regard to their sources. Music as art, as well as the communicative power of music is still a desideratum in the field of Balkan Studies which willingly or unwillingly are directed by old fashioned folklorisitc stereotypes of authenticity and rurality.

The participants of the roundtable, Maria Stassinopoulou, John Paul Newman, and Melisa Slipac gave short statements on related areas and disciplines: Stassianopoulou discussed the state of art in Greek Studies and the ongoing debate of the importance of linguistic knowledge in Ancient Greek vs. Turkish which inflict the focus of the whole discipline, its orientation towards Europe or the Near East, towards the near future and the present or towards the past. She opted for the methodical cooperation with Balkan Studies as a vital and evolving discipline. The feeling of crisis would be a sign of productivity in this sense. Newman discussed the construction of crisis and danger by the incorporation of Balkan topics in War Studies that co-creates the sense of crisis in the discipline with political crises and wars. Slipac, finally, talked about the crisis in Slavic philology and discussed its diverse reasons such as lack in funding and publicity, the gap of linguistic knowledge of students (native speakers and non-native speakers), as well as the difficulties in creating a common profile with Balkan Studies.


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Einblicke in Editor's Welt. Interessiert an Geisteswissenschaften, staunend über Medien, Tendenz zum Bizzarren, vor allem in der Literatur. Über Anregungen, Kritiken, Kommentare freuen sich Usha Reber (editor@kakanien.ac.at und János Békési (webmaster@kakanien.ac.at).
The workshop Balkan Studies - quo vadis? is held on April 25, 2009.

Venue: HS, Inst. Slawistik, AAKH / Campus
The programme is to be found here, the abstracts are available as Balkan Studies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and as pdf.
Ort: HS, IOG, AAKH, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Wien
Zeit: 2. bis 4. April 2009
Veranstalter: IOG, Kk.rev
Funding: Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung, Köln

Programm, Abstracts (.pdf)
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