[csaa-forum] community media seminar in Prague on 3 May 2019

Sat Apr 20 02:43:09 ACST 2019

((apologies for crossposting))

International Seminar on Community Media
3 May 2019 - 1230-1800
Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism
Charles University
Hollar Building - Room 14
Smetanovo nábř. 995/6, 110 00 Staré Město, Prague

Registration is required, but there is no registration fee. 
Unfortunately, there are not grants available. Please RSVP to Gabriela 
Skalická <gabriela.skalicka at fsv.cuni.cz>, preferably before 1 May. In 
case of extraordinary questions, feel free to contact Nico Carpentier at 
<nico.carpentier at fsv.cuni.cz>.

PROGRAMME

12:30 Welcome

12:45 Community Media Organisations as Protectors of Democracy
Nico Carpentier

13:15 Community Media as Spaces for Lifelong Learning
Helmut Peissl

13:45 Community Media and Conflict Transformation: Reflections from Cyprus
Vaia Doudaki

14:15 Break

14:45 Failure Teaches Success
Jan Křeček

15:15 The Future of Community Media in Slovak Republic
Lucia Škripcová

15:45 Community Media in the Digital Age – Uniquely Positioned for 
Success or Failure
Henry Loeser

16:15 Break

16:45 Roundtable on the Need for, and Future of, Community Media

18:00 End

ABSTRACTS

Community Media Organisations as Protectors of Democracy
Nico Carpentier
Abstract: Community media are seen in many different ways. In some parts 
of the world, they are still considered to be key components in the 
ongoing struggle for the democratisation of the media field and society 
as a whole. In other regions, this model is completely unknown, while in 
yet other parts of the world, they are now seen as outdated and 
irrelevant, made superfluous by the workings of the digital multitude. 
This talk critically revisits these different positionings, showing 
their power dynamics, in order to ground a warm plea for the 
establishment and the continuation of community media organisations in 
the 21st century, as much needed protectors of our democracies in the 
current form, but also as instruments of further deepening their 
democratic nature and increasing levels of societal participation.

Community Media as Spaces for Lifelong Learning
Helmut Peissl
Abstract: Community radio and TV stations are not only media in a narrow 
sense but offer learning environments for involved individuals and 
communities to acquire new skills and competences without the idea of 
being active to learn. The aspect of community media as non-intentional 
learning arrangements by the practice of learning-by-doing offers 
especially chances for disadvantaged individuals and groups who often 
have met negative learning experiences in institutional settings. 
Analyzing the scope and the various aspects of learning areas in 
community media leads to the conclusion that they contribute to all of 
the eight core competences for lifelong learning as they are defined by 
EU Policy. There is a challenge to make learning in community media more 
valuable and visible as an argument of personal qualification. But the 
idea of more recognized forms of learning with defined objectives also 
contradict the quality of the specific learning arrangements in 
community media.

Community Media and Conflict Transformation: Reflections from Cyprus
Vaia Doudaki
Community media are known for their participatory and horizontal 
structures of organization and decision-making, allowing for the 
inclusion of a multitude of voices. This capacity to foster diversity, 
intercultural dialogue, and tolerance has made community media 
privileged partners in peace-building, conflict transformation, and 
reconciliation processes. After a short presentation of the scholarly 
work in this area, the talk will focus on a specific island country, 
Cyprus, which is ridden by long-lasting conflict. By bringing examples 
of community media on the island, the talk will discuss what strategies 
these organisations develop, what everyday practices they engage in, and 
what content they produce, contributing to more peaceful ways of 
cohabitation and to the reduction of antagonism in the Cypriot society. 
The presentation will not disregard the problems and complexities that 
these organizations face, caused by the fallacies in the community media 
model and by the Cypriot context of conflictuality.

Failure Teaches Success
Jan Křeček
In 2014, the Czech Ministry of Culture called for projects on 
“Implementing Community Media in the Media System of the Czech 
Republic”. With myself as the principal investigator, we built a small 
team and wrote a small project proposal, which was accepted. The 
response from the general and the professional public was very limited 
and after some political changes even the Ministry of Culture lost their 
interest to implement community media legislation. In my talk, I will 
reminisce about the details of our project… and explain that, in the 
end, it was maybe better that our project was never realised.

The Future of Community Media in Slovak Republic
Lucia Škripcová
Abstract: Slovak community media are currently in a dire situation. 
Despite all the positive things community media bring to the society, 
they have never really established themselves in our region. There is a 
distinct lack of knowledge about them, not only in the scientific 
community, but within smaller communities as well. The number of 
community media, both zines and the internet-broadcasted ones, is really 
small as well. The zine situation is even further exacerbated with the 
constant influence push of social media, which do replace community 
media in some of their social aspects. In my talk, I will try to present 
some of the possible solutions to this situation, which could be grasped 
by the Slovak community media. I will also try to elaborate as to what 
could be done for their growth from other perspectives, such as the 
academic, cultural and legislative one.

Community Media in the Digital Age – Uniquely Positioned for Success or 
Failure
Henry Loeser
Resulting from the development of new digital technologies, the demise 
of traditional local radio and television broadcasting has been forecast 
for decades now. Yet these legacy broadcasters, including commercial, 
public service and community types, have yet to succumb. However, 
ongoing changes in audience preferences and industry business models 
suggest that legacy media platforms may indeed be approaching the end of 
their lifecycle. Among these traditional forms, community broadcasting 
appears to be in a somewhat unique position of both strength and 
weakness in this new media landscape.
The dynamics of these fundamental shifts in the media ecosystem are 
explored in terms of the changes, challenges and opportunities presented 
to community media stakeholders. The position of community broadcasting 
– that bastion of alternativism, access, participation, and community 
development, exhibits both similarities and differences to its 
commercial and public service counterparts. The questions raised in this 
discussion may include:
- “Can traditional community media effectively transition to online forms?”
- “Do digital natives really understand and value the concept of “local” 
communities?
- “Does community media have a role in the future of local journalism?”
These subjects are addressed in the context of social, political, 
economic, and technological frames. The future of legacy broadcasting 
may appear bleak in its current form. However, community media as we 
might imagine it, could be uniquely positioned to succeed (or fail) in 
the converged digital environment.

SHORT BIOS OF THE SPEAKERS
(in alphabetic order)

Nico Carpentier is Docent at Charles University in Prague; he also holds 
part-time positions at Uppsala University and the Vrije Universiteit 
Brussel (VUB - Free University of Brussels). Moreover, he is a Research 
Fellow at the Cyprus University of Technology and Loughborough 
University. Earlier, he was ECREA Treasurer (2005-2012) and 
Vice-President (2008-2012), and IAMCR Treasurer (2012-2016). Currently, 
he is Chair of the Participatory Communication Research Section at 
IAMCR. His last monograph is The Discursive-Material Knot: Cyprus in 
Conflict and Community Media Participation (2017, Peter Lang, New York).

Vaia Doudaki works as a Senior Researcher at Charles University in 
Prague. In the past, she worked as an Associate Professor (Docent) at 
Uppsala University, and as a Lecturer and Assistant Professor at Cyprus 
University of Technology. Her research is situated in the fields of 
alternative media studies, journalism studies and discourse studies.Her 
latest publications include: Doudaki Vaia and Boubouka Angeliki 
(forthcoming).Discourses of legitimation in the news: The case of the 
economic crisis in Greece. Routledge; Doudaki Vaia and Carpentier Nico 
(eds) (2018) Cyprus and its Conflicts. Representations, Materialities 
and Cultures. New York: Berghahn Books.

Jan Křeček is an assistant professor of Department of Media Studies at 
Charles University in Prague and a member of its Center for Media 
Studies (CEMES) research team. His teaching is focused on politics and 
media, and in 2013, he published the monograph “Political Communication 
from Res Publica to Public Relations”, the first originally Czech 
introduction to the study of political communication. Methodologically, 
Křeček works with content analysis, and he also provides technical 
expertise to the Czech media regulatory authorities. Upon request of the 
Czech Ministry of Culture, Křeček was the principal investigator of the 
project “Implementing Community Media in the Media System of the Czech 
Republic” (2014-2015).

Henry Loeser is a research fellow in MEDIT and teaching member of the 
Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School faculty. Dr. Loeser 
earned his PhD in 2016 for research into the societal attributes of 
Community Media at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, and holds a 
MA in European Politics, BS in Business Administration, and AS in 
Mechanical Engineering. He co-founded the Media Innovation Center at 
Masaryk University, establishing the new university broadcast operations 
of student radio and TV. He also is an independent media advocate, has 
proposed new community media legislation for EU member states, and 
serves on the board of directors of the Community Media Forum Europe. 
Since 2003, he is founder and director of Radioexpert, an NGO that is 
active in community media projects worldwide.

Helmut Peissl is the director of COMMIT - Community Medien Institut für 
Weiterbildung, Forschung und Beratung in Austria and works as an 
independent researcher for the Council of Europe. He holds a master 
degree on Media and Communication Science. The focus of his work lies in 
community media and its relation to lifelong learning, social inclusion, 
intercultural dialogue and multilingual media production. He realized 
several studies for the media authority and the ministry of education in 
Austrian. In 2016 he published together with his collegue Meike Lauggas 
„Ich lerne mit jeder Sendung!“ Bildungsleistungen und Beiträge zum 
lebensbegleitenden Lernen des nichtkommerziellen Rundfunks in Österreich 
(“With every show I learn something!” Educational services and 
contributions to lifelong learning by community radio and TV in Austria).

Lucia Škripcová works at the Department of mass media communication 
which is a part of the Faculty of mass media communication at the 
University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia as an 
assistant professor. She has received her degrees in mass media 
communication and journalism. The focus in her work lies in community 
media, dual and triadic electronic media systems, the possibilities of 
community media implementation into the slovak legislature and lastly 
the effects of community media on their recipients. She is also the 
managing editor of the European Journal of Media, Art & Photography, 
which is indexed in the Emerging sources citation index (WoS).

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Nico Carpentier
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Web: http://nicocarpentier.net/
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New book:
RESPUBLIKA!
Experiments in the performance of participation and democracy
Download at: http://nicocarpentier.net/respublika/
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New book:
COMMUNICATION AND DISCOURSE THEORY
Collected Works of the Brussels Discourse Theory Group
https://www.intellectbooks.com/communication-and-discourse-theory
https://vimeo.com/manage/albums/5732645
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Charles University in Prague
Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism
Smetanovo nábřeží 6, 110 01 Praha 1, Czech Republic
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) - Free University of Brussels
& Uppsala University
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The Commlist
http://commlist.org/
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International Association for Media and Communication Research
Participatory Communication Research Section
http://iamcr.org/s-wg/section/pcr-section
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E-mail (CharlesU): nico.carpentier at fsv.cuni.cz
E-mail (UUppsala): nico.carpentier at im.uu.se
E-mail (VUBrussels): nico.carpentier at vub.ac.be
Room (CharlesU): Hollar building Room 105
Phone (CharlesU): +420 222 112 134
Web: http://nicocarpentier.net/
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