ECREA 2012 - 4th European Communication Conference

ECC 2012 conference in Istanbul, located at the crossroads of the East and West, North and South, will provide a perfect platform to meet and discuss the profound transformations that are taking place globally in the mass mediated societies. While social media will be the particular focus at this conference, contemporary topics are encouraged, regarding the old and the new within the European communicative sphere which converged under the memories of empires, hopes of western republics and harsh realities of global capitalism.
The proposed theme; “Social Media And Global Voices” aims to open up a vibrant discussion in the European academic scene in the areas of: new media, peace and conflict journalism, network society, convergence culture, cultural spaces of human interaction, social media use and access, media as a platform for democracy, legislative restrictions of the old and new media, limits of artistic expressions, issues of multiculturalism, ubiquity of the internet and digital divide, local media as community builder, diasporic media, transnational media, and the political economy of the media.
The main theme will explore questions and issues such as:
How global is social media? Being critical to the unified terminology of globalisation, we take the globe not just as a geographical term but the human settlement all around the world including history and the future.
How social is social media? There has been a long debate on the socialization effect of media; whether the press is the fourth estate or the media’s role in manipulating or constructing public opinion is still valid; “social media” as a recent term is not the same both in content and use in our lives.
What are the ethical responsibilities of social media? Ethics has to be handled by the communities, new groupings and all kinds of networks of individual in the hemisphere of still to be called citizenship.
What is the political economy of social media? Individual use of new communication and information technologies work through global media markets besides the confronting voices using social media groupings are not totally free of marketing and government controls.
Are “big audiences” dead? Who airs/publishes/tweets the “voices of the voiceless”?
Where to define the spaces bridging the academy and the everyday?