[ecrea] cfp- COMMUNICATION, MEDIA AND CIVIC CULTURE

COMMUNICATION, MEDIA AND CIVIC CULTURE

Bucharest, 18th - 19th May 2012



*Call for Papers

*
Traditionally, mass media is considered one of the factors that sustain 
democracy, providing information to responsible citizens. Citizens' 
agenda and the media's agenda should converge: media should monitor the 
government, so that the citizens would know how to act to better their 
lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Communication, Media and Civic Culture Conference will explore the 
manner in which mass-media contributes to the development of responsive 
and informed citizens and of civism and to the factors that nurture, or, 
on the contrary, destroy the ability of mass-media to perform.

An influent theory concerning the creation and the functioning of the 
public space belongs to Jurgen Habermas. His communicational theory was 
developed in two different ways: a vulgata which circulated in certain 
intellectual groups, that altered the initial position, and a 
theoretical debate forum, that proposed several re-evaluations.

In the first place, the subtle analysis of Habermas has been reduced to 
a few simple phrases: the public sphere is touched by an irreversible 
deterioration process; people reduced their implication in the political 
life; mass culture, especially in its television form is an 
entertainment culture: it involves demagogy, the primary impulses and it 
resigns from educating the critical spirit.

Nevertheless, the empirical research and the sound theoretical analysis 
have invalidated such stereotypes. Within this theory the press occupies 
an ambiguous and conflicting position because it functions 
simultaneously both as the debate space as well as the alternative for 
the canonical public space. As a debate space, mass-media provides the 
arena where the ideas, as objects of the public debate, are circulated 
and gain importance and the channel for the ideas to be sent. In 
addition, mass media gives life, shapes and imposes multiple public 
spaces, corresponding to the multiples communication devices and to the 
multiple cultural and social identities.

Thus, media acts like a system which creates meanings and negotiates 
different images of the world. Mass media has continuously enlarged its 
thematic sphere, dealing with the most various political problems and 
realities; it has modified the relationship between seriousness and 
entertainment, introducing in the sphere of newsworthiness topics from 
many spectacular fields of the politicians' everyday life. Thus, mass 
media has radically changed the relationship between the public and the 
private areas and it has created a global scrutiny (J.B. Thompson) by 
which the least public aspects become objects of social visibility and 
political debate.

The press takes part in the process of informing the citizens, even when 
it transforms the political life into a sensational topic - this is the 
trend of the most recent approaches of the phenomenon in the specialized 
modern bibliography.

Media offers the support for the circulation of meanings by reflecting 
or imposing on the agenda not only topics concerning the public debate 
or daily facts, but also a way of relating to the daily events. Beyond 
the informative pulse offered by the media and beyond the social agenda 
where media interferes, the press offers the public a hierarchy of ways 
to relate to the reality and implicitly, of defying reality. The 
Internet, with the increased interactivity and increased ease to 
circulate ideas, opens new opportunities and new issues for journalists, 
citizens and politicians. As all other technologies, the Internet may be 
used and misused; as it houses both media accountability tools and hate 
speech.

Presentations based on empirical research and on sound theoretical 
approaches are invited on topics such as:
Citizens' agenda, media's agenda and politicians' agenda
Media commercialization and the public space
Political pressures and media's democratic roles
Public relations and citizenship
Media accountability and online civic engagement, etc.

A special workshop on Media anthropology - new perspectives on media and 
citizenship will be held as a part of this conference

*Conference's languages are English and French.*

Please send an extended abstract, of 700 to 1000 words, to the following 
addresses: (mcoman53 /at/ yahoo.com) & (rraluca /at/ hotmail.com) by the 25th of 
January, 2012.

The submissions should contain:


Name and surname, Academic and didactic title, Institutional affiliation 
and Full contact details.
An abstract explaining the relevance to the conference theme, the links 
to previous research, the methodology used, the results of the research 
and the importance of the research.
Three to five keywords.

All submissions will be analyzed by the conference's scientific 
committee. The notification of acceptance will be send by the 15th of 
February, 2012.

Full papers should be sent by the 9th of April, 2012. Only papers 
submitted by this date may be included on the conference's CD.


P R O G R A M (DRAFT)

18th May 2012:
9.00 - 9.30 - registration
9.30 - 10.00 - conference opening
10.00 - 12.00 - papers in panels
12.00 - 13.00 - book launches
13.00 - 14.00 - lunch break
14.00 - 17.00 - papers in panels

19th May 2012:
9.30 - 11.30 - papers in panels
11.30 - 12.00 - coffee break

12.00 - The general assembly of the Romanian Association of Journalism 
and Communication Educators (AFCOM)
14.00 - participants' departure

Alternatively

From 12.30 : Discover Bucharest - A guided trip in the Romanian capital 
city


N O T E S
The participation fee is of 50 euro (or the equivalent in Romanian lei) 
and includes the conference materials and the coffee and lunch breaks.
Within the possibilities, we will provide accommodation at the Academica 
Guest House of the University of Bucharest.
Selected contributions will be published in the Romanian Journal of 
Journalism and Communication (www.jurnalismsicomunicare.eu).

Please check www.fjsc.ro for conference's details.


SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
President
Prof. Mihai COMAN, PhD, University of Bucharest
Members
Assoc. Prof. Delia BALABAN, PhD, "Babeş-Bolyai" University, Cluj-Napoca
Prof. Gheorghe CLITAN, PhD, West University, Timişoara
Prof. Laurenţiu ŞOITU, PhD, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University, Iaşi
Prof. Ştefan BRATOSIN, PhD Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France


ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE
President
Lecturer Raluca RADU, PhD, University of Bucharest
Members
Lecturer Oana BĂLUŢĂ, PhD
Lecturer Antonio MOMOC, PhD
PhD Student Valentina GHERUNDA
PhD Student Valentina MARICA



Raluca RADU, PhD,
associate professor,
(rraluca /at/ hotmail.com)
Facultatea de Jurnalism şi Ştiinţele Comunicării, Universitatea din 
Bucureşti
Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication Studies, University of 
Bucharest

Bdul Iuliu Maniu 1-3, Corp A, etaj 6, sector 6, cod 061071, Bucureşti, 
România
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www.fjsc.ro
www.jurnalismsicomunicare.eu