CfP: International Conference: Beyond ?Center?
and ?Periphery?: (De-)Westernization in
International and Intercultural Communication
Conference of the International and
Intercultural Communication section of the German Communication Association
Erfurt, Germany, October 27-29, 2011
URL: http://www.uni-erfurt.de/kommunikationswissenschaft/news/
Research on international and intercultural
communication is largely dominated by American
and Eurocentric perspectives. This is reflected
in the existing theoretical models and methods
as well as in the strong focus on Western nations and societies as research
areas. The resulting Western-centric systems of
analysis have long been regarded as ideal models
for research around the world. However, recent
years have witnessed a movement for the
emancipation of non-Western research.
Particularly in Latin-America and Asia, American
and Eurocentric perspectives have been perceived
as part and parcel of Western cultural
imperialism and therefore questioned from as early as the 1970s.
As part of the globalization discourse, emerging
research areas such as India, China, Africa
or Latin America, once deemed peripheral, have
increasingly come into focus. However,
the available methods and analytical models
turned out to be insufficient for explaining
media use or media effects in those regions.
But does a genuinely non-Western type of media
and communication research truly exist?
Ironically, even the critical examination of
Western models and the call for the "de-
Westernization" of media studies has largely
been voiced by Western researchers. And on
the other hand, is the dominance of Western
theories and methodological approaches
primarily rooted in cultural imperialism, or
have these research paradigms evolved and
proven fruitful in many cases of international
and intercultural communication studies?
After all, the paradigms emerging from the
Euro-American space have been subjected to
critical analysis and improvement rather than outright rejection.
Moreover, the field of Euro-American media
studies cannot be regarded as a single, uniform
block. Instead, this field consists of different
lines and traditions of research, and
there has been a continuous and reciprocal
process of theory and methods formation.
What, therefore, can Western models and methods
offer for international and intercultural
communication research today?
Through its different panels, the conference
will scrutinize Western media studies from
previously peripheral, non-Western perspectives
and research areas. And it will consider
the (potential) reciprocal impacts of these
non-Western perspectives on Western research.
The central aim is to initiate an insightful
exchange on the interrelationship of non-
Western and Western perspectives in order to
inspire research practice. The following
panels are intended to explore the theme of the conference:
Panel 1: Research landscapes: Proposals for professional reflection
This meta-discursive panel will allow a
professional self-positioning or self-reflection visà-
vis the status quo of current international and
intercultural communication studies from
different (geographical) positions.
Panel 2: Media & globalization: A critical analysis of a research construct
This multidisciplinary panel will analyze the
integration of Western and non-Western
perspectives, the discussion of proximity and
distance between media products and systems,
and thus reassess the explanatory power of
globalization theories and their terminology
in research on international and intercultural communication.
Panel 3: Journalism: Demarcating, transcending and subverting borders
This panel will explore the classical fields of
journalism research, such as foreign correspondence,
media ethics or the impact of technological innovations on journalistic work,
and consider the reciprocal influences between
?center? and ?periphery? in them.
Panel 4: Media & development: Western claims and local needs
Media assistance is becoming increasingly
important in international development efforts.
This panel will feature a critical discussion of
the theoretical foundations of the concept
of media assistance, its relation to methodology
and the empirical evaluation of its successes
and failures.
Panel 5: Diaspora & media: The periphery as a dynamic center
This panel wishes to develop different
approaches to assessing the role of media for diasporic
communities and use them as resources for the expansion of Western and non-
Western perspectives.
Submission and selection of papers:
Please send your proposal for a 20-minute
presentation to the organizers ((iic2011 /at/ uni-erfurt.de))
no later than May 15, 2011 (using a pdf or a doc
file). The abstract should not
be longer than 8000 characters (including blank
spaces) and should be assigned to one of
the panels. Submissions for the conference
should be made in English. Please add a title
page to the abstract containing the name(s) and
address(es) of the presenter(s) and the
title of the presentation. All submissions will
be subjected to anonymous review and
submitters will be informed by June 15, 2011
about the outcome of the selection process.
--
Carola Richter, M.A.
Universitaet Erfurt
Seminar fuer Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft
Nordhaeuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt
Fon: +49-361-737 4152
Fax: +49-361-737 4179
