[Commlist] CfA: Political Economies of the Media. Theories and Methods - Summer School in Šibenik, Croatia

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

Political Economies of the Media. Theories and Methods, an advanced 
postgraduate course.

Šibenik, Croatia, 9 - 12 September 2025

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Micky Lee, Suffolk University, USA
Mandy Troeger, University of Tuebingen, Germany

COURSE DIRECTORS

Thomas Allmer, Paderborn University, Germany
Paško Bilić, Institute for Development and International Relations, Croatia
Benjamin Birkinbine, University of Wisconsin, USA
Jernej Amon Prodnik, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Jaka Primorac, Institute for Development and International Relations, 
Croatia
Toni Prug, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Aleksander Slaček-Brlek, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

ECTS ACCREDITATION:

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (10 ECTS points for PhD students upon 
full completion of the course)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The media are central institutions of modern societies, providing 
channels for corporate and political control and public space for 
disseminating and consuming communication on systemic changes in 
politics, culture, and economics to the public. The media underwent 
massive restructuring through neoliberal policies in the 1970s. 
Introducing new communication technologies such as satellite and cable 
television, internet, and web platforms went hand in hand with market 
liberalisation and communication commercialisation. The multiplication 
of channels and media outlets was accompanied by concentration and 
centralisation of ownership. Recently, large transnational digital 
platforms have solidified their position as core companies within 
contemporary capitalism, restructuring the distribution of media 
advertising investments, speeding up the circulation of capital, 
automating global consumption patterns, avoiding national taxes, and 
siphoning revenues to offshore entities. At the same time, they benefit 
from automated management of their diversified and essentially 
precarious workforces of content moderators, warehouse workers, and gig 
workers, as well as from software inputs from free and open source 
communities (FLOSS) communities.

The rise of platforms reshapes traditional institutional mechanisms that 
broadly safeguard freedom of expression, media pluralism, and public 
interests. An open political issue is how these mechanisms will be 
reconsidered and how private interests will shape markets and societies. 
Alternatives are envisioned in areas ranging from platform cooperatives 
and commons projects to strategic calls for technological sovereignty 
and public wealth creation. However, such initiatives usually need 
broader political support from the public already accustomed to the 
commercial logic of the media. The commodification of everyday life 
through data capture, surveillance and privacy intrusion is easily 
dismissed by citizens as a minor side effect of free usage and 
flexibility of ubiquitous digital services.

This biennial course aims to explore traditional (e.g. ownership, 
production, content, consumption, labour, regulation) and contemporary 
(e.g. algorithms, platforms, data, artificial intelligence) perspectives 
on the media from the lens of critical political economy. The course 
will explore how capital and the state(s) control, regulate and form the 
media (broadly conceived as ranging from traditional printed press to 
algorithms and software) in societies shaped by persistent social 
inequalities. The level of analysis can vary from macro phenomena of 
geopolitics, transnational, national and institutional dynamics, through 
mid-range phenomena of the structure(s) of the public sphere(s) to 
micro-phenomena of class-based conditions shaping inequalities of access 
and skill for using the media in everyday life and for work.

The course will include presentations from keynote speakers and course 
directors and presentations by advanced MA and PhD students. Through 
lectures and discussions with international experts, students will gain 
in-depth knowledge about recent communication, media, and journalism 
developments from a critical political economy perspective. Methods and 
analytical tools commonly used in the approach will be explained and 
discussed. Presentation of the research papers (considered work in 
progress) will lead to comprehensive feedback that will help students 
develop their projects further and result in publishable academic 
writing. Discussions will be carried out collaboratively, with 
reciprocal assessment by students.

SUMMER SCHOOL VENUE

St. John's Fortress in Šibenik, Croatia, was built in 1646 in just 58 
days as the main point of the city's new defence system just before a 
major attack by the Ottoman army. The city residents built the fortress 
with their own hands and resources, and it was named after the church 
that once stood there. The fortress renovation was completed in 2022, 
with the fortress walls completely restored and new features introduced, 
including an underground campus below the so-called pliers, the northern 
part of the fortress. The campus is equipped with interactive 
classrooms, bedrooms and conference rooms. More info is available at: 
https://www.tvrdjava-kulture.hr/en/st-johns-fortress/plan-your-visit/

DEADLINES

* The course is open to advanced MA and PhD students. Please submit your 
CV (maximum two pages), title and an extended abstract of your 
presentation (maximum two pages with references) by 1 April 2025 to 
(political.economies.of.the.media /at/ gmail.com)

* Course directors will review applications and final decisions on 
acceptance will be sent by 1 May 2025.

* Accepted applicants will be invited to submit 6 to 9,000-word research 
papers by 1 July 2025. After completing the course, they will be 
encouraged to submit their manuscripts for review in an international 
peer-reviewed journal in the field of political economy.

* Note: only PhD students can receive 10 ECTS points upon course 
completion, which entails a submitted research paper, paper presentation 
and full-week active attendance participation in the course (more 
information will be published on the course website).

* Please note that all participants pay a registration fee of 60 EUR. A 
limited number of partial stipends and registration waivers will be 
available. If you need participation support, please indicate this in 
your application.

* All further details about the course will be available at 
http://www.poleconmed.net/.

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