The popular culture theme will consist of two strands. The first one, entitled 'Popular Culture, Media Uses and Media Literacy', will focus on the potential impact of audiences on media programs, in the light of changing media technologies, the blurring of boundaries between producers and consumers, and intense regulatory attempts to foster participation and media pluralism. The second one, entitled 'Popular Culture, Socialism(s) and Nostalgia', will explore the history of popular culture in socialist Eastern Europe.
Conveners of the popular culture theme are Peter Csigo, Sabina Mihelj and Joke Hermes from the COST A30 working group on textual analysis and media use.
Popular Culture, Socialism(s) and Nostalgia
Over the past two decades, historians, sociologists, art critics, anthropologists and media scholars have contributed to a veritable outpouring of publications exploring the role of cultural forms and practices during the Cold War. This thematic strand seeks to further the debate on these issues by focussing primarily (though not exclusively) on the history of popular culture in socialist Eastern Europe. We would welcome contributions addressing one or more of the following topics: socialist elite attitudes towards popular culture; popular culture and the legitimacy of socialist regimes; socialist cultural policies, appropriation and resistance; cross-border exchange; Western theories and socialist popular culture; post-socialist nostalgia and popular culture. Contributions taking a comparative approach, exploring developments in more than one socialist country or comparing popular culture in both the East and the West, will be particularly welcome.
Popular Culture, Media Uses and Media Literacy
What is the role of media use and impact of audiences on media programs? That audiences are able to "literate" uses of media is now a consensual conviction in audience studies. However, now that almost all media forms allow (some) participation, and the user is enabled to take part in media production, the audience literacy thesis is being put to test every day. How are "old" literacies (required by any meaning making practice) complemented by "new" ones (the know-how of producing and influencing) - now that borders between production and consumption are blurring? How to adapt the concept of literacy to the large social segments who find themselves excluded from the terrain of literate "prosumership"? Meanwhile, promoting media literacy has become a priority of the European Commission and an instrument in addressing the challenges of increasing risks to pluralism and political impartiality of the media. What are the best awareness raising and policy tools with which to consider these issues?