Alternative Media and New Public Settings - CALL FOR PAPERS

23 February 2006

The Peace Institute, Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies, Ljubljana, together with the Slovenian Communication Association, Ljubljana, and Masaryk University, Brno will hold an international conference (Ljubljana, 13-14 October 2006) to discuss how new media development has influenced the terrain for alternative media use in its relation to citizens' empowerment.

Activisms that have mobilized citizens in new, post-Westphalian settings can nowadays hardly be imagined without the potential of new media communication, i.e. digital coordination and practice. Alternative and counter-active engagement brings forward both alternative media use and transformed public spaces. While new media praxis is seen as an empowerment of citizens' potential for public action and an arena to offer alternative media-making as compared to mass mediated frameworks, alternative media power to create or trigger engagement is also criticized as limited.

What are alternative media potentials/limits and how are they related to citizenship? What are their practices in comparison to mass media news repertoire? Can global issues (environmentalism, migration, wars etc.) mobilize vital energies in various local and transnational public settings?

Original papers locating and tracing theoretical claims and/or practical, empirical application of alternative media in relation to new public settings are welcome to be submitted.

Selected papers will be considered for publication.

Deadline for abstracts: April 25, 2006

Deadline for papers: September 5, 2006

Please send inquiries to:

Dr. Mojca Pajnik
E.mail: mojca.pajnik@mirovni-institut.si, mpajnik@yahoo.com
Peace Institute,
Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies
Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Tel.: +386 1 234 77 20
Fax.: +386 1 234 77 22

and/or

Dr. Andrej Pinter
E.mail: andrej.pinter@guest.arnes.si
UP ZRS Science and Research Center of Koper,
University of Primorska
Garibaldijeva 1, 6000 Koper, Slovenia
Tel.: +386 5 66 37 700
Fax.: +386 5 66 37 710