What is the relations between deliberative democracy as a normative and pragmatic concept, and political and media systems in Central and Eastern European and Western European countries? How can we analyze if the media in certain specific contexts really contribute, or are detrimental, to the practice of deliberative communication and deliberative democracy? Can this relationship be more that a normative one?
This year’s course is inspired by the research in the new HORIZON 2020 project MEDIADELCOM (https://www.mediadelcom.eu, a project led by the University of Tartu, Estonia), which aims to answer just these questions. The project consortium members (from 14 European countries) argue that European political and cultural spaces evolve best if specific media related policies enhance the conditions for deliberative communication. The project aims to develop a methodology enabling the assessment and forecast of the risks and opportunities for deliberative communication emerging in the process of European media transformation in 2000-2020. A specific focus of MEDIADELCOM is to evaluate Central and Eastern European new democracies in a comparative fashion with their established Western European counterparts. The departure point for the project was the two-part question: In which domains, and in which ways does existing research depict the risks and opportunities (ROs) regarding the agency of news media in supporting deliberative communication. A broad preliminary literature review on the transformations of the news media during the past two decades, revealed four domains conditional on each other, where the risks and opportunities discourse is most clearly identifiable: journalism, legislation and ethics, media usage, and media competences. This year’s course will hear and discuss some of the first theoretical and methodological outputs stemming from the project.
The course includes a one day hands-on methodological workshop on the design and implementation of fuzzy set QCA and the accompanying statistical analysis.
Participation in the course for graduate (master and doctoral) students brings 3,5 ECTS credits, and for doctoral students who present their thesis research 6 ECTS. The course is accredited and the ECTS are awarded by the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb (www.fpzg.unizg.hr). All participants will also receive a certificate of attendance from the IUC.
To apply, send a CV and a motivation letter to the organizing course director professor Zrinjka Peruško zrinjka.perusko@gmail.com, Centre for Media and Communication Research (www.cim.fpzg.unizg.hr), Department of Media and Communication, Faculty of Political Science (www.fpzg.unizg.hr), University of Zagreb (www.unizg.hr).
Students who wish to present their doctoral research should also send a 300 word abstract. The course can accept 20 students, and the applications are received on a rolling basis. After notification of acceptance you need to register also on this web page.