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[Commlist] CfA: Political Economies of the Media. Theories and Methods - Summer School in Šibenik, Croatia
Wed Jan 22 14:08:13 GMT 2025
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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