On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of journal Javnost—The Public

EURICOM – European Institute for Communication and Culture, in collaboration with

DESIRE - Research centre for the study of Democracy, Signification and Resistance, and

Centre for Social Communication Research of Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, organise

The 33rd Colloquium on Communication and Culture

COMMUNICATION, DEMOCRACY AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN THE INTERNET AGE

Piran, Slovenia 31 May-2 June 2018

The journal Javnost—The Public was established in 1994 as a platform for social scientists all over the world to address, promote, share, and discuss problems, issues and developments of publicness on international and interdisciplinary levels, to stimulate the development of theory and research in the field, and to help understand and bridge the differences between cultures.

To pursue these ideas, we invite proposals for paper presentations on all aspects of publicness. The research presented should have strong theoretical foundations and transcend the limits of single case studies. Nevertheless, both empirical and theoretical studies are accepted if they offer insights into the relations between communication, democracy and the public sphere. Possible topics include but not limited to:

· the role of (media) communication in fostering human freedom and social change;

· media democratization;

· new developments in journalism and their relation to democracy;

· communication and class relationships;

· public opinion and political representation;

· media, communication and the national and transnational dimensions of political representation;

· transformations in the public sphere(s) and the development of a European public sphere;

· mediated communication, populism and anti-populism;

· the relations between discursive and material dimensions of communication and media power;

· publicness and privateness in the Internet age;

· political dimensions of visual communication;

· globalization of media and media policies;

· popular culture as political communication;

· democratic rhetoric and duty of liberation;

· potentials and threats of online networks for democratic life;

· the democratic role of public service broadcasting;

· small-scale media, community media, and media activism;

· mediated communication, activism and empowerment;

· democracy, digitization and datafication.

Programme