28 - 31 August 2013
Torino, Italy

RN18 – Sociology of Communications and Media Research

Coordinator:
Christian Fuchs christian.fuchs@uti.at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Communication, Crisis, Critique and Change

ESA RN18 focuses in its conference stream on the discussion of how crisis, critique and societal changes shape the study of media, communication & society today. The overall questions we want to address are:

Which crises (including the financial and economic crisis of capitalism, global wars and conflicts, ecological crisis, the crisis of democracy, legitimation crisis, etc) are we experiencing today and how do they influence media and communication in contemporary society?

What are the major changes of society, the media, and communication that we are experiencing today?

What forms of political critique (political movements) and academic critique (critical studies, critical media sociology, critical theory, etc) are emerging today and are needed for interpreting and changing media, communication and society?

ESA RN18 is calling for both general submissions on “Communication, Crisis, Critique and Change” that address these questions as well as more specific submissions that address a number of specific session topics.

Sessions

  • DELETED_01RN18 Capitalism, Communication, Crisis & Critique Today

    This session focuses on how to critically study the connection of capitalism and communication in times of crisis. Questions to be addressed include for example:

    • How has the crisis affected various media and cultural industries?
    • What is the role of media and communication technologies in the financialization, acceleration, and globalization of the capitalist economy?
    • What are the ideological implications of the crisis for the media? What is the role of critical and alternative views of the crisis in the media and what are the conditions of conducting critical reporting of the crisis?
  • DELETED_02RN18 Communication, Crisis and Change in Europe

    This session focuses on media and communication in Europe in times of crisis and change. We are especially interested in presentations that cover Europe as a whole and go beyond single-country studies.

    • How has the crisis affected the various media and communication industries (advertising, broadcasting, Internet, press, film, music, etc) in Europe as a whole and what are the differences between various parts of Europe?
    • What have been policy ideas of how to overcome the crisis and deal with contemporary changes in relation to European media and communication industries?
    • How have the crisis and its appearances (protests, riots, civil unrest, unemployment, rising inequality, bankruptcy, discussions about European banks, the austerity measures against Greece, Spain, etc) been reflected in the European media’s reporting? What has the role been of ideologies and alternative reporting in this context?
  • DELETED_03RN18 Knowledge Labour in the Media and Communication Industries in Times of Crisis
    • What are the conditions of working in the media and communication industries in the contemporary crisis times?
    • What changes has knowledge and creative labour been undergoing?
    • What is the role of class and precariousness in knowledge labour?

    How do new forms of exploitation and unremunerated labour (“free labour”) look like in the media sector (e.g. in the context of Internet platforms like Facebook or Google)?

    • What is the connection of value creation and knowledge labour?
    • What has been the changing role of the state in relation to “creative labour”?
  • DELETED_04RN18 Critical Social Theory and the Media: Studying Media, Communication and Society Critically
    • What does critique mean in the contemporary times of crisis?
    • What is critical sociology and what is its role for studying media and communication’s role in society?
    • Which social theories do we need today for adequately understanding media & society in a critical way?
    • How shall we best theorize the media and society for understanding their connection?
    • What are the major changes of society and the media today and how can they be theoretically understood?
  • DELETED_05RN18 Sociology of Communications and Media Research (open)

    ESA RN18 welcomes papers that address the study of the relationship of media and society in times of crisis, change, and the renewal of critique. Questions that can for example be addressed include, but are not limited to the following ones:

    • What connections are there between the financial/economic crisis and other crises and media and communication?
    • What are the links of crisis, communication, and political critique (e.g. media use in the Arab spring, the Occupy movement, the protests in Greece and Spain, contemporary student protests)?
    • What does and should it mean to be a critical media sociologist today? What are topics of the critical study of media and communication? Which social theories and theorists do we need today to critically understand media and communication and their connection to the sociology of power structures? What methods do we need for critically studying media and communication? How does critical media sociology relate to politics and political movements?
    • How have the media conveyed the social and economic crises of recent years to citizens and what are the consequences of this flow of ideas and explanations?
    • Are the media part of the problem or part of the solution of the crisis?
  • DELETED_a03RN18 Media & Marxism Today 2: Critically Theorizing Communications in Capitalism
    Chair: Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@uti.at>, University of Westminster;
  • DELETED_a04RN18 Occupy Everywhere: The Media, Protests and Social Movements in Times of Crisis 1
    Chair: Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@uti.at>, University of Westminster;
  • DELETED_a06RN18 Social Media Sociology and Contemporary Society 2
    Chair: Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@uti.at>, University of Westminster;
  • DELETED_b04RN18 The Sociology of News and Journalism in Times of Crisis 1
    Chair: Peter Ludes <p.ludes@jacobs-university.de>, Jacobs University Bremen;
  • DELETED_b07RN18 Digital Media Sociology in Disruptive Times
    Chair: John Downey <J.W.Downey@lboro.ac.uk>, Loughborough University;
  • DELETED_b08RN18 Media in the Context of Nature, Disasters, Shocks and Epidemics
    Chair: John Downey <J.W.Downey@lboro.ac.uk>, Loughborough University;
  • DELETED_b09RN18 Analyzing Mediated Communication of Patriots, Nationalists, Racists and Fascists in Times of Crisis
    Chair: John Downey <J.W.Downey@lboro.ac.uk>, Loughborough University;
  • 02RN18 Media & Marxism Today
    Chair: Peter Golding <peter.golding@northumbria.ac.uk>, Northumbria University;
  • 03RN18 Media Sociology Today
    Chair: Peter Golding <peter.golding@northumbria.ac.uk>, Northumbria University;
  • a04RN18 Advertising, Marketing and Commercial Culture in Times of Capitalist Crisis
    Chair: Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@uti.at>, University of Westminster;
  • b04RN18 Journalism, News and Media Coverage in Times of the Big Crisis 1
    Chair: George Pleios <gplios@media.uoa.gr>, University of Athens;
  • a05RN18 Social Media Sociology and Contemporary Society
    Chair: Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@uti.at>, University of Westminster;
  • b05RN18 The Sociology of News and Journalism in Times of Crisis
    Chair: Peter Ludes <p.ludes@jacobs-university.de>, Jacobs University Bremen;
  • a07RN18 Sociology of Knowledge Labour 2
    Chair: Romina Surugiu <rominasurugiu@yahoo.com>, University of Bucharest;
  • b07RN18 The Media, Protests, Social Movements and Struggles for Alternatives in Times of Crisis
    Chair: John Downey <J.W.Downey@lboro.ac.uk>, Loughborough University;
  • 09RN18 Sociology of Knowledge Labour 1
    Chair: Romina Surugiu <rominasurugiu@yahoo.com>, University of Bucharest;
  • a10RN18 Journalism, News and Media Coverage in Times of the Big Crisis 2
    Chair: Roy Panagiotopoulou rpanag@media.uoa.gr, University of Athens;
  • b10RN18 The Public Sphere in Times of Crisis
    Chair: John Downey <J.W.Downey@lboro.ac.uk>, Loughborough University;
  • DELETEDRN18 Media Sociology in Times of Crisis
    Chair: Peter Ludes <p.ludes@jacobs-university.de>, Jacobs University Bremen;

Joint Sessions

  • DELETED_06JS18Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communication in Times of Capitalist Crisis and Change

    Joint session with RN06 – Critical Political Economy

    Chairs: Ian Bruff & Christian Fuchs

    This joint panel with RN18 invites submissions on the theme of ‘Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communication in Times of Capitalist Crisis and Change’. Abstract submissions could, for example, focus on the role of media and communication in critical political economy approaches to the crisis, the role of critical political economy approaches in the sociology of communications and the media, or indeed any other aspects of topics and issues linked to this theme. In other words, this joint session focuses on the intersection of Critical Political Economy and the Sociology of the Media and Communication. It is interested in contributions that focus on one or more of the following questions:

    • Which approaches that are based on Marx, Critical Political Economy, or Marxism are there today for understanding the current crisis and ongoing changes?
    • What is the role of the media and communication in these approaches?
    • What is the role of Critical Political Economy, Marx, and Marxism in the Sociology of the Media and Communication?
    • What is the role and value of Marx today for understanding crisis, change, capitalism, communication, and critique?
  • DELETED_18JS29Social Theory and Media Sociology Today

    Joint session with RN29 – Social Theory

    Chair: George Pleios and Csaba Szalo

    This joint session of RN18 and RN29 focuses on the intersection of Social Theory and Sociology of the Media and Communication. It is interested in contributions that focus on one or more of the following questions:

    What are the best social theories that sociology provides for understanding contemporary society that is undergoing transitions and crises? What is the role of the media and communication in such contemporary social theories? Which of these theories do we need for understanding society and the media in the current times of crisis and change?

    How can one best theorize various societal phenomena (such as: the relationship of structures and agency, power, domination, class, inequality, stratification, violence, struggles, capitalism, the state, crisis, critique, societal change, revolution, social movements, modernity, space, time, the public sphere, democracy, globalization, ideology, hegemony, the self, identity, culture, racism, gender, the relationship of the private and the public, etc) and then use these theoretical concepts for theorizing and understanding the role of the media in contemporary society that is experiencing crisis and manifold changes?

  • 01JS06JS18Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communications in Times of Capitalist Crisis and Change

    Joint session with RN06 – Critical Political Economy

    Co-Chair: Ian Bruff, ianbruff@gmail.com, University of Manchester; Co-Chair: Christian Fuchs, christian.fuchs@uti.at, University of Westminster;

    Joint Session of RN06 and RN18

  • 06JS18JS29Social Theory and Media Sociology Today 1

    Joint session with RN29 – Social Theory

    Co-Chair: George Pleios <gplios@media.uoa.gr>, University of Athens; Co-Chair: Csaba Szalo <szalo@fss.muni.cz>, Masaryk University;

    Joint Session of RN18 and RN29

  • 08JS18JS29Social Theory and Media Sociology Today 2

    Joint session with RN29 – Social Theory

    Co-Chair: George Pleios <gplios@media.uoa.gr>, University of Athens; Co-Chair: Csaba Szalo <szalo@fss.muni.cz>, Masaryk University;

    Joint Session of RN18 and RN29


Thank you very much to all participants for making esa torino an outstanding conference.