[ecrea] Communication Studies Spring School 2017 - Call for Applications

After the success of its past editions, it is with great pleasure that 
we invite you to participate in the *4th Communication Studies Spring 
School*, that will be held in Lisbon between *April 3rd and 7th 2017*. 
This is an international joint event of the PhD program in Communication 
Studies of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Södertörn University 
and Lund University, Sweden.

  This Spring School edition will focus on *“Media, Culture and Power”* 
from European cultural perspectives, combining a mixture of lectures and 
seminars from leading researchers in the field, with student 
presentations of ongoing research. Lecturers will include Professors 
Annette Hill, Göran Bolin and Rita Figueiras.

  We look forward to receiving your applications.

*Call for Applications: *

Media, culture and the dynamics of power are central to media and 
communication research. Understanding the various ways to research power 
across media structures and processes is crucial. Throughout history, 
the degree to which media’s power has been theorized has varied, from 
cultural imperialism, or the uses and gratifications perspectives of 
limited power, to powerful and creative audiences and participants. The 
place of media power has been ascribed to technology itself, such as 
platform power, to organizational and financial conditions, such as 
systemic power, in representations, genres and narratives, such as 
symbolic power, or in the very act of communication or political 
participation, including the power of voice and the power of voting. The 
media, as technologies, institutions and textual or symbolic structures, 
affect the economic, political, and cultural spheres in society, often 
in contradictory ways, and in complex patterns of influence.

A strong line of research on media and power includes the media-politics 
relationship. Political control of the media, by different means, is a 
common feature in non-democratic regimes; under democratic settings the 
media-politics relationship can be characterized by high levels of 
complicity, tension and ambivalence, highlighting the contradictory 
nature of systemic power within institutions, policy and political 
economic spheres. The idea of soft power connects with the power to 
represent social reality, or the performance of power in fiction and 
factuality, or social interaction. Increasingly, we see the rise of 
technological forms of power, through algorithms or social media 
platforms. There are also forms of power that relate to diffuse and 
transnational audiences, whose actions are monitored by the media 
industries, and through behaviour can affect production practices, but 
also can voice opinion and raise criticism as fans and activists.

This spring school 2017 will thematise these different forms of power 
during an intense week, combining a mixture of lectures and seminars 
from leading researchers in the field, with student presentations of 
ongoing research. Lecturers will include Professors Annette Hill, Göran 
Bolin and Rita Figueiras.

Topics will include (but are not restricted to):

  * -  media, power and politics
  * -  performing power/cultural participation
  * -  the power of genre and narration
  * -  symbolic power and everyday life
  * -  the power dynamics of audiences
  * -  the power of technology / algorithmic power
  * -  media and alternative political participation

Applicants are invited to submit a 400-word abstract on a suggested 
topic of presentation at the Spring School, and a 200-word rationale for 
how participation in the Spring School will benefit their PhD studies. 
Submissions should include paper title, name, e-mail address, 
institutional affiliation and a brief biography (max. 50 words). *Send 
applications to (springschool.fch /at/ lisboa.ucp.pt) no later than January 
21st, 2017.*

The organizing committee will notify all applicants by January 30^th  2017.

Participants are requested to arrive 2 April. Over 5 full working days 
(Monday- Friday) they will attend lectures and take part in discussion 
groups where they will present their research projects.

Participants will have 15 minutes to deliver their presentations, after 
which there will be 30 minutes for questions and discussion of each 
presentation with the chairs and the other participants.

The working language is English. All participants will receive a 
Certificate of Completion.

Fee: The enrolment fee is *100 Euro*, to be paid only on acceptance of 
the application.

Best regards,

Lorena Lamin

Organising Committee

*Contacts & Info **
*

E-mail: (springschool.fch /at/ lisboa.ucp.pt) 
<mailto:(springschool.fch /at/ lisboa.ucp.pt)> 


Website: http://springschool.wix.com/springschool2017

Address: Palma de Cima 1649-023, Lisbon (Portugal)

Fax: +351 21 727 17 00 


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