Call for Applications:

Political Economies of the Media. Theories and Methods, an advanced postgraduate course.
Inter-University Centre (IUC), Dubrovnik, Croatia, 11 – 15 September 2023

Keynote Speakers:

Christian Fuchs, Paderborn University, Germany
Kylie Jarrett, Maynooth University, Ireland

Course Directors:

Thomas Allmer, Paderborn University, Germany
Paško Bilić, Institute for Development and International Relations, Croatia
Benjamin Birkinbine, University of Nevada, Reno, 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 information 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. How these mechanisms will be re-considered and how private interests will shape markets and societies is an open political issue. Alternatives are being 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, 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 the 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.

Deadlines:

* 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 15 April 2023 to political.economies.of.the.media@gmail.com
* Course directors will review applications, and final decisions on acceptance will be sent by 15 May 2023.
* Accepted applicants will be invited to submit 6 to 9,000-word research papers by 1 September 2023. After completion of the course, the applicants will be encouraged to submit their papers 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 50 EUR. A limited number of partial stipends and registration waivers will be available. If you are interested in participation support, please indicate this in your application.

Venue and Location:

The Inter-University Centre (IUC) Dubrovnik is an independent centre for advanced study, grounded in and sustained by its international network of partner universities. The IUC Dubrovnik maintains high scientific quality standards and provides an open space for critical thinking and innovation. Building upon its location and its 50-year history, the IUC Dubrovnik serves as a bridge between regions within Europe and between the European region and the world by connecting scientific communities and connecting communities through science. The IUC Dubrovnik takes pride in bringing together scholars and students from different countries, cultures and academic disciplines to advanced research and higher education programmes. The IUC emphasises and supports inter-disciplinary and cross-national collaboration on global challenges such as human universal values and rights, health, education, poverty and climate, encouraging, in addition to east-west collaboration also, new north-south initiatives. The IUC Dubrovnik continues organising courses and conferences within the broad spectrum of scientific disciplines provided by scientific staff from multiple countries. The IUC Dubrovnik also stimulates the development of research activities, in particular, related to the courses and conferences within the programme and contributes to connecting leading international partner universities to regional academic institutions.

Important Information:

* More information about the IUC is available at: https://iuc.hr/
* All further details about the course will be available at: http://www.poleconmed.net/