[FoME] Center for Media and Communication Studies, Budapest

[Arne Hintz]

Liebe Listenmitglieder,

auf Anraten von Christoph Dietz möchte ich mich auch mal kurz 
vorstellen. Mein Name ist Arne Hintz und ich arbeite am Center for Media 
and Communication Studies (CMCS) an der Central European University 
(CEU) in Budapest. Ich habe in Hamburg promoviert und beschäftige mich 
theoretisch und praktisch mit Community- und Alternativmedien, 
Medienaktivismus, Zivilgesellschaft, zivilgesellschaftlicher 
Partizipation in Policyprozessen, und internationaler Kommunikationspolitik.

Das CMCS macht Forschungsprojekte, Konferenzen und Veranstaltungen zu 
diesen und ähnlichen Themen, mit einem Schwerpunkt auf Medienpolitik. 
Entwicklungspolitische und Nord-Süd Themen wollen wir in Zukunft 
ebenfalls ausbauen, z.B. planen wir für kommendes Jahr eine Summer 
School zu Medien und Entwicklung (in diesem Sommer findet eine zu 
Medien, Demokratisierung und Zivilgesellschaft statt). Momentan haben 
wir gerade eine Delegation jordanischer Medienvertreter zu Gast, für die 
wir ein zweiwöchiges Besuchsprogramm zu Medien und Medienpolitik in 
Zentral-/Osteuropa zusammengestellt haben.

Weiter unten finden Sie / findet ihr den aktuellen Newsletter des CMCS. 
Vielleicht gibt es ja Überschneidungen mit den Interessen des einen oder 
der anderen.

Beste Grüße,
Arne Hintz

---

Dear friends and supporters,
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

We would like to share with you the latest information about past and 
future activities of the Center for Media and Communication Studies 
(CMCS) at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest. CMCS is 
currently conducting a number of high-profile research projects and is 
planning several events. We hope that some of these are of interest to 
you, and we are looking forward to your feedback and involvement.

CMCS newsletter 1/2008

Content:

1. Media Pluralism Study commences
2. Jordanian media professionals study tour hosted by CMCS
3. Upcoming workshop on community radio and access to digital infrastructure
4. Past workshop "From Samizdat to Blogging"
5. Conference "Two Decades After the Fall"
6. Public lectures at CEU
7. Upcoming summer school on "Media, Democratization and Civil Society"
8. Academic programs and courses at CEU
9. CMCS Visiting Fellows
10. CMCS out and about
11. Other activities


1. Media Pluralism Study commences

29 January saw the kick-off meeting for the study "Indicators for media 
pluralism in the Member States - towards a risk-based approach" in 
Brussels. Members of the consortium that has been requested to conduct 
the study - including Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (project leader), 
CMCS/CEU, Ernst & Young Belgium, and Jönköping International Business 
School - agreed on the details of the research process with 
representatives of the European Commission.

Currently, the research teams are in the process of developing the first 
set of indicators. CMCS is coordinating a research team on social 
indicators for media pluralism which includes Miklos Sükösd (CEU, CMCS), 
Laura Ranca (CEU, CMCS), Beata Klimkiewicz (Jagellonian University, 
Poland), Brankica Petkovic (Peace Institute, Slovenia), Sandra Hrvatin 
(Ljubljana University) and Artemon Vogl (Corvinus University Budapest).


2. Jordanian study tour hosted by CMCS

A delegation of media professionals from Jordan will visit Budapest in 
the first two weeks of April. The study tour, entitled "Media Systems in 
a Comparative Perspective", will explore a wide variety of issues 
related to liberalization of the media sector in Central and Eastern 
Europe with a special emphasis on Hungary. The tour is part of a 
multi-year USAID-funded Jordan Media Strengthening Program lead by CMCS 
Chair Professor Monroe Price and the Center for Global Communication 
Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication. The delegation is 
hosted by the CMCS and will attend a comprehensive agenda. Participants 
will be provided with the opportunity to study media regulation, 
industries, and practices in Hungary and exchange their views with 
relevant stakeholders.


3. Upcoming workshop on community radio and access to digital infrastructure

CMCS is the recipient of a grant from the European Science Foundation to 
hold an Exploratory Workshop on "Access to communication and democratic 
media structures in the digital environment" on 13-15 May. The workshop 
will bring together leading media scholars, social scientists, policy 
makers, technical experts and community media practitioners to discuss 
the impact of digitization on community media policy and practice. The 
workshop will follow up debates from last year's event "Broadcasting 
Community: a Workshop on Policies in Europe". It is the latest workshop 
in an emerging series of CMCS multi-stakeholder events that bring 
together academics and practitioners.


4. Past workshop "From Samizdat to Blogging"

CMCS actively participated in a workshop which took place at the Open 
Society Archives in Budapest, 20-21 February, and which explored the 
history of alternative media in Central/Eastern Europe as well as new 
forms of political expression in the age of globalization. CMCS Director 
Arne Hintz and Research Fellow Kate Coyer co-chaired roundtables on the 
role of radio and on politics of/on the Internet.

The workshop was organized in collaboration with the International 
Alternative Culture Center (IACC), the Curriculum Resource Center (CRC) 
of CEU and the international research project "Alternative Culture 
Beyond Borders: Past and Present of the Arts and Media in the Context of 
Globalization". The CMCS will continue to collaborate with other 
partners of the Alternative Culture program on future events.


5. Conference "Two Decades After the Fall"

CMCS, the European research network "East of West: Setting a New Central 
and Eastern European Media Research Agenda" and the International 
Communications Association (ICA) have teamed up to organize a conference 
on the development of media and communications in Central/Eastern Europe 
within the past 20 years and on likely future trajectories, tentatively 
entitled "Two Decades After the Fall: Communications Research on the 
consequences of Transition". A conference call will be published 
shortly; the conference is to take place in June 2009.


6. Public lectures

CMCS has continued its successful series of public lectures at CEU. 
Recent events included a discussion by Elizabeth Bucar and Barbara Falk 
on "Free Speech in WEBlogistan", focusing on the experiences of blogging 
in Iran, and a talk by Amy Walter (The Hotline) on "U.S. Elections '08: 
Current Situation and a Look Ahead" which was organized in collaboration 
with the Embassy of the United States and included opening remarks by 
U.S. Ambassador April H. Foley.

Forthcoming public speeches include the distinguished media scholar and 
CMCS Chair Monroe E. Price on "Satellite Signals in a World of New 
Information Borders" and Professor Colin Bennett on "The Privacy 
Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance".


7. Upcoming Summer School "Media, Democratization and Civil Society"

The summer school on "Media, Democratization and Civil Society", which 
CMCS, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of 
Pennsylvania and the COST research network "East of West" will hold from 
16 to 27 June 2008, has attracted an overwhelming number of highly 
qualified and interesting applicants from all over the world, including 
India, Latin America, China, Australia, and of course Central/Eastern 
Europe. The school will discuss the role of media and civil society in 
democratization processes, as well as the democratization of media and 
communications; it will explore the involvement of civil society in 
policy debates and reform; it will analyze current issues in 
Central/Eastern Europe, such as media pluralism and the emergence of 
public service broadcasting; and it will explore the role of grassroots 
and citizen-based communication models, community media and community 
ICT networks.

Directly after this summer school, the Annenberg School for 
Communication will hold its fourth annual Annenberg-Oxford Summer
Institute on "Global Media Policy: Technology and New Themes in Media 
Regulation" at St. Peter's College, Oxford.


8. Academic programs and courses at CEU

For the academic year 2008/2009 there has been a large number of 
applicants interested in becoming admitted to the MA in Public Policy in 
order to specialize on the "Media, Information and Communications Policy 
Stream", and to the MA in Political Science aiming for the certificate 
in "Political Communication".

In the past semester, CMCS staff taught courses on "Nationalism and the 
Media", "Information Privacy Protection", "Intellectual
Property Protection in Cyberspace" and "Global Media, Governance and 
Civil Society".


9. CMCS Visiting Fellows

CMCS is expanding its Visiting Fellows program which allows PhD students 
and young scholars to conduct research on innovative fields in media and 
communication. In the past three months, CMCS hosted the following 
Visiting Fellows: Oliver Leistert ("Data Retention on the Internet"), 
Mojca Plansak ("Digital Broadcasting") and Angelika Wyka ("The role of 
the mass media in the process of transformation in Poland, Hungary and 
the Czech Republic").


10. CMCS out and about

New book alert: The Handbook of Alternative Media (Routledge 2007), 
co-edited by CMCS Research Fellow Kate Coyer, Tony Dowmunt and Alan 
Fountain. The book theorizes and outlines the different types of 
'alternative media' and offers an overview of global alternative media 
activity, before moving on to provide practical information about 
alternative media production.

CMCS Research Fellow Peter Molnar is currently teaching a comparative 
course on freedom of information (FOI) and freedom of speech as a 
Fulbright Fellow at Cardozo School of Law. While in New York, Molnar has 
been representing CMCS at many conferences and events - including an 
upcoming event that he initiated at Cardozo on freedom of speech in 
Rwanda - and has been organizing a comparative project on the freedom to 
criticize public officials and public figures, which id supported by the 
Media Freedom Representative of the OSCE, the Media Law Resource Center, 
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Hungarian Civil 
Liberties Union (HCLU).

In February, CMCS Chair Monroe Price and Kate Coyer helped coordinate 
and facilitate sessions at the first annual Necessary Knowledge Workshop 
at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. 
The workshop was convened by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) 
and aimed at fostering academic-advocacy research collaborations that 
are designed to change media / telecommunications infrastructure, 
practices, or policies.


11. Other activities

CMCS continues to coordinate the Cost A30 network "East of West: Setting 
a New Central Eastern European Media Research Agenda" which brings 
together more than 60 leading European researchers from more than 20 
different countries, and its involvement in the collaborative project 
"Civicweb". More information on these and other activities is available 
on the center's website http://cmcs.ceu.hu.

+++

CMCS is a center of excellence for promoting media and communication 
studies throughout the Central and Eastern European region. Based at the 
Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, it conducts cutting-edge 
practice-oriented research, organizes workshops, lectures and 
conferences on current developments in the field, and operates within an 
international network of acclaimed scholars and academic institutions.