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

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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