Archive for 2022

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[Commlist] CFP Truth, Transparency, Controversy seminar: Critical perspectives on media ideologies

Sat Jan 15 22:16:45 GMT 2022





Truth, transparency and controversy.

Critical perspectives on media ideologies

International Seminar

23-25 May 2022

University of Amsterdam

In current discourses and representations, controversy is assumed to be the driver of media debates, whether these are professional or amateur, top-down structured or seemingly horizontally-participative. The tools of controversies that influence public debates are known as duel scenographies, rhetorical battles, polarizing opinion polling (see, e.g., Angenot 2008, Amossy 2014), and their cultural and organizational forms are troll factories, fake news, conspiracy theories and Twitter storms. To give but two examples: governments’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, and /pro vs contra/ positions on climate change politics are mediated as controversial issues that generate heated political debates. In an environment of pervasive digitally mediated communication, digital media anticipate, in their editorial enunciation and escort discourses, the material writing of these controversies and predefine the roles allocated to its users. Some authors have even argued that the archiving of the Internet itself relies on building and moderating infrastructures that shape an agonistic public space (de Kosnick 2016, 57).

Latour (Latour 1987) famously argued in the 1980’s that truth was the /result/ of the settlement of a controversy, not its cause. In our current situation we should ask what are the possible relationships between truth and controversy? This simple question raises new ones. Is the settlement of controversies the ideal of democratic citizenship (Mouffe 2016)? And, on a more pragmatic level, are fact-checking and procedural transparency appropriate tools for settling controversies, as almost all professional journalists and internet platforms, but also several media education organizations argue today? Or should we be “objecting to objective journalism” (Winston & Winston 2020)? What affective patterns (Lordon 2013) are used by, and generated through, controversies and their struggle for and around truth? And with the media being at the same time messenger and battlefield of controversies, what is the role of media critique in the current conjuncture? These are the questions this workshop wants to address by reflecting on the structuring notions of /controversy/, /transparency/ or /truth/ themselves, in order to identify the diverse and sometimes antagonistic axiological backgrounds these notions refer to.

The discussions will take place in a series of workshops and panels at the University of Amsterdam, 23-25 May, with 45 minutes presentations for each presenter. This means that places are limited, and selection will be strict. If you are interested in participating, please send a 300 word abstract as well as a short biographical note to (j.a.teurlings /at/ uva.nl) <mailto:(j.a.teurlings /at/ uva.nl)>and (elise.schurgers /at/ uliege.be) <mailto:(elise.schurgers /at/ uliege.be)>before 1 February 2022. Answer will be given to the submitters on March 1 2022 the latest. The /Truth, Transparency and Controversy seminar/ is a collaboration between the University of Liège and the University of Amsterdam.

Amossy (Ruth) 2014. /Apologie de la polémique/. Paris: PUF.

Angenot (Marc) 2008. /Dialogues de sourds. Traité de rhétorique antilogique/. Paris: Mille et une nuits.

De Kosnik (Abigail) 2016. « Memory Machine Myth: The Memex, Media Archaeology, and Repertoires of Archiving ». In /Rogue Archives: Digital Cultural Memory and Media Fandom/, 41-61. MIT Press.

Latour (Bruno) 1987. /Science in Action : How to follow Scientists and Engineers through Society/. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Lordon (Frédéric) 2013. /La société des affects. Pour un structuralisme des passions/. Paris: Seuil.

Mouffe (Chantal) 2016. /L’Illusion du consensus/. Paris: Albin Michel.

Winston (Brian) & Winston (Matthew) 2020. /The Roots of Fake News: Objecting to Objective Journalism/. London: Routledge.

*Organizing comittee*

Jeremy Hamers – University of Liège

Ingrid Mayeur – University of Liège

François Provenzano – University of Liège

Elise Schürgers – F.N.R.S/University of Liège

Jan Teurlings – University of Amsterdam

University of Amsterdam - Short Term Programs

	
	

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