Global Media and the ‘War on Terror’: an international conference
Organized by Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) of the
University of Westminster, London, in collaboration with the Department
of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Venue: University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London
Dates: Monday 13 - Tuesday 14 September 2010
Conference organizers: Professor Daya Thussu, University of
Westminster, and Dr Des Freedman, Goldsmiths, University of London.
As we enter the tenth year after the events of 9/11, it is an appropriate
time to evaluate the media’s relationship to a changed geo-political
environment and to pose questions about media performance and influence
in relation to this post-9/11 period. Have the media contributed to
exacerbating the political, cultural and religious divides within Western
societies and the world at large? Has the digital revolution given voice
to a multiplicity of views that have helped to counter hegemonic media
discourses? How can media be deployed to enrich not inhibit dialogue and
to what extent has the media, in all its forms, questioned, celebrated or
simply accepted the unleashing of a ‘war on terror’? This international
conference brings together leading scholars and eminent journalists from
across the globe to examine and discuss how the world’s media have been
influenced by 9/11 and its aftermath.
Although nearly a decade has passed, the continuing conflicts in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the persistent phenomenon of terrorism, and the domestic
repercussions of the ‘war on terror’ (including Islamophobia, a growing
surveillance culture and restrictions on civil liberties) still shape
media discourses around the world today.
Suggested topics for papers include, but are not restricted to, the
following:
- Rethinking the politics of terrorism – global and national
perspectives
- Representations of terrorism in popular culture – from TV to gaming
- Public opinion in the post-9/11 era
- Surveillance, spying and subversion of democracy
- Comparative studies of global terrorism
- Cultural contexts of 9/11demonization of Islam and the West
- Spinning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Reporting and conducting the wars online
- Media strategies of terrorists
- Frontline forum – journalistic experiences of covering terrorism
- Hollywoodization and Bollywoodization of the ‘war on terror’
- Evaluating the ‘al-Jazeera effect’
Keynote speakers:
Professor Todd Gitlin
Columbia University, USA
Professor Tariq Ramadan
University of Oxford, UK
Professor Barbie Zelizer
Annenberg School of Communication, USA
Other plenary speakers to include Professor Jean Seaton, University of
Westminster; Professor Rune Ottosen (Norway); Dahr Jamal (US-based
independent journalist); Professor Toby Miller (USA); Professor Stig
Arne-Nohrstedt (Sweden); Professor Elena Vartanova (Russia) and Professor
Lena Jayyusi (UAE).
The conference reflects the substantial and growing research in
international journalism within CAMRI which runs numerous innovative and
international conferences every year. In its 2008 Research Assessment
Exercise, the UK’s Higher Education Funding Council ranked CAMRI as the
best media and communication research centre in the country.
Conference fee: £150, with a concessionary rate of £50 for
students, to cover attendance at all sessions, refreshments and lunches
as well as conference documentation. Conference registration will be open
to all and not conditional upon presenting a paper.
Abstracts: These should be between 200-350 words and must include the
presenter’s name, institutional affiliation, email and postal address,
together with the title of the paper and a brief biographical note. Two
copies of the abstract should be sent, one to Professor Daya Thussu at
(D.K.Thussu /at/ westminster.ac.uk) and another to Helen Cohen, Events
Administrator for the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at
(journalism /at/ westminster.ac.uk).
New extended deadline for abstracts: Friday, 28 May 2010. The
abstracts will be peer reviewed and successful submissions will be
notified asap.
A selection of the best papers will be published in a book and in a
special themed issue of the journal Global Media and
Communication, which is supporting the conference.
