[ecrea] CfA Communication Studies Spring School 2017 - *“Media, Culture and Power*”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Call for Applications: *4^th Communication Studies Spring School *

Deadline for Applications is*January 21st 2017*

*“Media, Culture and Power*”

April 3^rd – 7^th 2017, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal

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.*

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

For  ore details about the conference and the submission guidelines, 
please visit the event’s website: 
http://springschool.wixsite.com/springschool2017

or contact the Organizing Committee: (springschool.fch /at/ lisboa.ucp.pt) 
<mailto:(springschool.fch /at/ lisboa.ucp.pt)>

---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please
use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------