MediAsia 2015 - Asian Conference on Media & Mass Communication

MediAsia2015 Conference Themes
Theme 1: “Power”
Power as a commodity has challenged the minds of social scientists and philosophers while its exercise has always fascinated historians. From classical thinkers’ works such as Aristotle’s Politka or Machiavelli’s Il Principe through modern figures who manipulate power in the media, like Silvio Berlusconi or Rupert Murdoch, to the vast networks that support major heads of state, power has been a necessity to some or like an aphrodisiac to others. The dynamics of power and its associations with wealth and status now shape the contemporary world more visibly than ever. It is a research challenge to all fields of the social sciences to offer some explanation of its magnetism and its mechanisms.
In the context of the media and communication studies, considering the ambiguous concept of power encourages questions of rights, responsibilities, and trust, as well as hegemony, ownership, and resistance; control, transparency and censorship. Similarly, relationships of power between individuals and governments are tested by issues of privacy, surveillance, freedom of speech and information. New technologies have empowered individuals to communicate with others, and facilitated such resistance movements as in Hong Kong, but have also empowered governments to unparalleled levels of surveillance and breaches of privacy, such as in the ongoing NSA revelations.
As a conference theme, power in its many aspects is a hub concept that researchers, analysts, and practitioners alike can reflect on and speak about both in the abstract and from experience.
We hope and expect the 2015 conference themes to inspire a number of research avenues, and look forward to discussing ideas, findings and synergies, in this International Academic Forum.
Theme 2: “Human Rights, Justice, Media and Culture”
Human rights praxis and ideas of justice are now core fields of investigation for media, film and cultural studies. One example of this is how cultural research into the convergence of new media with everyday life, has brought into relief the growing significance of how struggles for freedom and justice are enabled by flows of social media. Various communities and peoples are now enabled to make claims for social recognition within human rights frameworks and language like never before.
Cultural studies as a discipline is specifically attuned to studying questions of human rights and justice. As a field, it is connected to human rights discourse and praxis through its ethical foundations and ‘activating knowledge’ as Stuart Hall once put it. One of the essential motivations of cultural studies scholars is to focus on the struggles evident in structures and institutions of power, representation, identity and subjectivity. This is undertaken with specific attention to power and its manifestation and negotiation in the cultural arena of everyday life.
As a consequence, media and mass communication researchers investigate ideas of justice and agency in compelling and innovative ways. They see agency, for example, as being implicated in the formation of moral, legal, political and ethical frameworks that are experienced in everyday lives, and which can be seen explicitly in the media.
A central aim of this conference is to examine ideas of ‘justice’ and ‘human rights’ in relation to media and cultural production. The hope is to enable useful exchange, connection and dialogue around the praxis of human rights and to clarify the implications of how cultural transformation and the media are closely connected to social and political change in the everyday life of individuals, communities and nations.
We look forward to seeing you at MediAsia 2015!