[ecrea] Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism in European Media

ETHNICITY, RACE AND NATIONALISM IN EUROPEAN MEDIA: RIGHTS, 
RESPONSIBILITIES, REPRESENTATIONS

International Conference, The University of Manchester, UK
23-25 May 2013

UPDATE: Following our recent call for papers, we are pleased to report 
that we now have an extensive and exciting conference programme in 
place, including 5 excellent keynote speakers.


FOR FULL DETAILS, PLEASE SEE: 
http://www.russtvethnic.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/events/documents/Conferenceprogramme.pdf

We can still accommodate a limited number of extra papers. If you are 
interested, please email your proposals (250 words) for papers of up to 
20 minutes in length and your one-page CVs to the conference organisers 
(Prof Stephen Hutchings, Prof Vera Tolz and Dr Elisabeth Schimpfossl) at 
(RRRMediaConference /at/ manchester.ac.uk)<mailto:(RRRMediaConference /at/ manchester.ac.uk)>.

CONFERENCE THEME

The recent explosion of migration flows across the world, the crisis in 
which established models of multiculturalism find themselves in Europe 
and elsewhere, and the current global financial and economic crisis have 
combined to raise the prominence of issues of ethnicity, race and 
nationalism in most countries. Speeches made in 2011 by Angela Merkel 
and David Cameron, and controversies over the expulsion of gypsies and 
the wearing of religious attire in public places in France, indicate a 
common crisis in European tolerance. Eastern Europe demonstrates similar 
difficulties in managing ethnic diversity in the face of global mass 
population movements, of which the shocking outbreak of racial violence 
in Moscow in 2010 is just one example.

The European media play a crucial role both in exacerbating the tensions 
which inter-ethnic relations arouse (the spread of racial hate language 
and nationalist extremism on the internet; the use of ethnic profiling 
and racial stereotyping in crime reporting), and in fostering 
inter-ethnic cohesion and harmony (national policies on promoting 
diversity and equality in broadcasting). This conference aims to 
facilitate a cross-cultural, comparative study of the impact of media 
and film on the playing out of the “crisis of multiculturalism” in West 
and East European societies, and to analyse the similarities and 
differences in media and cinematic approaches to ethnic cohesion issues 
throughout Europe.

KEYNOTES

· John Downing: Reflections on racisms, ethnicities and media in a 
brand-new post-racist Europe?
John Downing is Professor Emeritus at the Department of 
Radio-Television, Southern Illinois University, USA. One of the 
preeminent scholars in media studies, Prof. Downing is co-author with 
Charles Husband of the highly influential Representing Race: Racism, 
Ethnicity and the Media (London: Sage, 2005). He has also worked on 
alternative and social media, and on the media in post-communist societies.

· Marie Gillespie: Comedy and ethnicity in European media and film
Marie Gillespie is Professor in Sociology, The Open University, UK. 
Author of pioneering books on ethnicity and television, media and 
diaspora communities, transnational audiences, and media and the 
politics of security, Professor Gillespie is Director of media research 
at the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-cultural change.

· Henri Nickels: Combating racism, xenophobia and related intolerances – 
The roles and responsibilities of the European Union
Dr. Nickels is Programme Manager for Research (Social Science) at the 
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna. Dr. Nickels 
analyses racism and xenophobia, combining research and policy work. He 
has published on media coverage of ethnic minorities in European societies.

· Sabrina P. Ramet: Solving the mystery of ethnic history: remembering 
the Yugoslav past?
Sabrina P. Ramet is Professor of Political Science at the Norwegian 
University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. Prof. Ramet is 
the author of twelve books and numerous articles on the history and 
current developments in the Balkans, where among other things she 
explores the role of ethnic relations and nationalist ideologies in the 
region.


· Richard Stone OBE.: Media in the United Kingdom: The difficulties in 
challenging racism in a liberal democracy
Dr. Stone was a panel member of the 'Stephen Lawrence Inquiry' into 
racism in policing (1997/99) as Adviser to the judge Sir William 
Macpherson. He is currently writing a book called 'Hidden stories of the 
Stephen Lawrence Inquiry - how the agenda of a major Inquiry gets 
undermined'.

The conference will address questions such as:

* In what senses are various types of media, including those reliant on 
new communication technologies, aggravating inter-ethnic tensions in Europe?
* How serious a threat to social cohesion in European societies are 
extremist websites, blogs and other new media forms of global and 
national provenance?
* Are ethnic and racial minorities accorded appropriate rights to 
representation in national broadcasting systems?
* To what extent are representations of ethnicity, race and nationhood, 
and the coverage of issues pertaining to ethnic cohesion,dependent on 
national context?
* What are the conceptual frames to which journalists and film-makers in 
various European societies resort when covering this area and what are 
their origins and consequences?
* How are European broadcasters with national responsibility dealing 
with the rise of the anti-immigration, Islamophobic right on one hand, 
and with the loss of faith in official multicultural policies on the other?
* What role does non-news broadcasting (drama serials; documentary 
programming; situation comedy; light entertainment genres) play in the 
representational process?
* How have cinematic imaginations of national and European identity 
refracted the shifting consensus on values of ethnic diversity?

It is intended that selected papers from the conference will form the 
basis for special issues of one or more prominent journals in the field. 
We already have an initial agreement with Europe-Asia Studies.




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