Call for applications: Postgraduate course and research conference on Comparative Media Systems: Audience Transformations.

Comparative Media Systems: Audience Transformations

Postgraduate course & research conference, Inter University Center, Dubrovnik, April 8-12, 2013

Course directors:

Zrinjka Peruško, University of Zagreb and member of COST IS0906
Slavko Splichal, University of Ljubljana and member of COST IS0906
Snjezana Milivojević, University of Belgrade
Carmen Ciller, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Kim Christian Schrøder, Roskilde University and member of COST IS0906
Klaus Bruhn Jensen, University of Copenhagen and member of COST IS0906

Course description

In recent years the interest in comparative study of media systems has perked up within the field of media/mass communication studies. The course aims to contribute to this growing interest in understanding what shapes media systems and how they in turn shape societies. The course will address media systems in Europe and the world in relation to technological, economic, political, social and cultural changes that influence their development. The course will analyze these changes in a comparative way, engaging with recent methods of comparative analyses of media systems.

In 2013 the course will be focusing on changes in audience practices related to the changes in the media environment, technologies and contents, which in turn transform media systems. We will examine the results of recent and on-going pan-European comparative research projects on media audiences across different platforms, content (especially information), environments, and social uses, developed and discussed within the EU COST network action “Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies”. The course will also host a methodological workshop with new insights into novel media audience research methods.

Each year the topic of the course will focus on one, or a combination, of areas which define media systems: media markets (including aspects of ownership structures, concentration, audience behavior and media use, etc.), media and state (including media policy and regulation), political parallelism (or the relationship of the media, journalists, and the political sphere, including political communication and political culture), and professionalization of the journalists and the media.

The Inter-University Centre was founded in Dubrovnik in 1972 as an independent, autonomous academic institution with the aim of promoting international co-operation between academic institutions throughout the world. Courses are held in all scientific disciplines around the year, with participation of member and affiliated universities.

A limited number of HESP/OSI scholarships are available for doctoral (PhD) students from selected eastern European countries.

To apply to this course and the scholarships go to: http://www.iuc.hr/course-details.php?id=734

For further academic information contact the organizing director professor Zrinjka Peruško, Centre for Media and Communication Research, Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, zperusko@fpzg.hr; www.cim.fpzg.unizg.hr; www.fpzg.unizg.hr.