Out of the Comfort Zone: Challenges of Communication Studies in the Age of New Global Realities

The world is rapidly developing in a polycentric manner: Western dominance in globalization seems to wane, new wars are challenging the world order, migration and mobility are transforming the cultural foundations of society, and modern media environments add to a seemingly fundamental structural change. Communication and media studies must face these complex developments. Yet, so far its approach to the world has been highly selective, which is problematic given the dynamic reconfigurations of global conditions. For example, Eastern Europe and the global South are on the agenda today; however, selective interest and oversights of previous research have undermined our understanding of these developments. Therefore, not without reason, communication studies are also struggling for their societal position. In light of the contemporary global challenges, we need to ask whether our discipline risks losing its chance to contribute to the communicative restructuring of the world if it clings to old spatial references or indulges in one-sided media centrism. In which ways does communication research need to change in order to provide answers to global challenges? How can current research help to better integrate the “North“ and “South”? Which approaches need to be adapted to global realities, and how can “universalism” be achieved today? How can we identify, document, and analyze new phenomena in a more international comparative way?

This conference is held by the international and intercultural communication division of the DGPuK and the DFG-network cosmopolitan communication studies, which engages in a “deep” internationalization of the discipline. Therefore, the conference will include different formats: 1) panels with conference papers/presentations, 2) a PhD Workshop, and 3) public panel debates.

Registration and Location

The conference will take place on 16. and 17. November 2023 in Berlin-Dahlem at Freie Universität Berlin. It will start with a public panel discussion on Thursday evening (18.00 - 20.00) and continue with individual presentations on Friday (9.00 - 16.00). Conference participation is free of charge. This includes snacks and drinks during coffee breaks but no dinner or lunch invitation. Please register for the conference here until October 31, 2023.

Preliminary Program

16 November 2023

18:00 – 20:00

Public Panel Discussion / Evening Event (German language)

17 November 2023

9:00 – 9:15	Welcome Address / Introduction
	PANEL 1: Cosmopolitan communication studies: missing links and outlooks for global knowledge production
9:15 – 10:45  PANEL I	Leaving the “comfort zone”: Mediatization research from Latin America and the (missing) links to European research. The undiscovered works of Latin American scholars	Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz University of Greifswald
	Structural, cultural, and individual embeddedness of academic cosmopolitanism	Pauline Gidget Estella, Johanna Radechovsky TU Ilmenau
	The quest for deliberative communication in Europe: From research to identifying best practices, from best practices to policy recommendations	Marcus Kreutler, Susanne Fengler TU Dortmund
10:45 – 11:15	Coffee break

 

	PANEL II: Global structural change of the communicative world? Conceptual challenges of comparative media and communication studies
11:15 – 12:45  PANEL II	Fact-checkers: how to conceptualize these new actors in the public communication model	Regina Cazzamatta University of Erfurt
	Conceptual challenges and adaptions in comparative research: the concept of media accountability revisited	Judith Pies Universität der Bundeswehr
	A Comparative media literacy research in the age of digitalization in Indonesia and Germany	Danny Schmidt, Subekti Priyadharma University of Erfurt / UNPAD Bandung Padjadjaran Indonesia
12:45 – 13:45	Lunch break
	PANEL III: Global and transcultural spaces, old methods? Methodological challenges of global communication research
13:45 – 15:15  PANEL III	Deconstructing intercultural communication competence: A preliminary research on Indonesian (Elite) migrant workers in Germany	Aang Koswara LMU München
	Diversity vs. universalism - The methodological recognition of differences	Mira Keßler Ruhr-Universität Bochum
	Grasping the taboo: methods for analysing racism in public and private communication	Sabrina Schmidt University of Erfurt
15:15 – 16:00	Meeting of the DGPuK-Division “International and Intercultural Communication” (Fachgruppe Internationale und Interkulturelle Kommunikation)

Contact

Prof. Dr. Carola Richter
Freie Universität Berlin
Institute for Media and Communication Studies
Garystr. 55
14195 Berlin Germany
niik@zedat.fu-berlin.de