Global Media and the ‘War on Terror’: an international conference

When:
13 September 2010 @ 7:00 am – 10:00 pm
2010-09-13T07:00:00+01:00
2010-09-13T22:00:00+01:00
Where:
University of Westminster
309 Regent St
Marylebone, London W1B 2HT
UK
Cost:
£50 - £150

Organized by the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) of the University of Westminster, London, in collaboration with the Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London.

As we enter the tenth year after the events of 9/11, it is an appropriate time to evaluate the media’s relationship to a changed geo-political environment and to pose questions about media performance and influence in relation to this post-9/11 period.

Have the media contributed to exacerbating the political, cultural and religious divides within Western societies and the world at large? Has the digital revolution given voice to a multiplicity of views that have helped to counter hegemonic media discourses? How can media be deployed to enrich not inhibit dialogue and to what extent has the media, in all its forms, questioned, celebrated or simply accepted the unleashing of a ‘war on terror’? This international conference brings together leading scholars and eminent journalists from across the globe to examine and discuss how the world’s media have been influenced by 9/11 and its aftermath.

Although nearly a decade has passed, the continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the persistent phenomenon of terrorism, and the domestic repercussions of the ‘war on terror’ (including Islamophobia, a growing surveillance culture and restrictions on civil liberties) still shape media discourses around the world today.

Over 100 papers have been accepted for the conference and tackle a
range of issues including:

  • Rethinking the politics of terroris:m – global and national perspectives
  • Representations of terrorism in popular culture – from TV to gaming
  • Public opinion in the post-9/11 era
  • Surveillance, spying and subversion of democracy
  • Comparative studies of global terrorism
  • Cultural contexts of 9/11-demonization of Islam and the West
  • Spinning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
  • Reporting and conducting the wars online
  • Media strategies of terrorists
  • Frontline forum – journalistic experiences of covering terrorism
  • Hollywoodization and Bollywoodization of the ‘war on terror’
  • Evaluating the ‘al-Jazeera effect’

Keynote speakers

Professor Todd Gitlin

Columbia University, USA

Professor Tariq Ramadan

University of Oxford, UK

Danny Schechter

Television producer and director and author of ‘Embedded: Weapons of Mass
Deception: How the Media Failed to Cover the Iraq War’

Other plenary speakers to include Professor Jean Seaton, University
of Westminster; Professor Rune Ottosen (Norway); Dahr Jamal (US-based
independent journalist); Professor Stig Arne-Nohrstedt (Sweden);
Professor Elena Vartanova (Russia); Professor Lena Jayyusi (UAE); and
Professor Toby Miller (USA).

The conference reflects the substantial and growing research in international journalism within CAMRI which runs numerous innovative and international conferences every year. In its 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the UK’s Higher Education Funding Council ranked CAMRI as the best media and communication research centre in the country.

Conference fee

£150, with a concessionary rate of £50 for students, to cover attendance at all sessions, refreshments, lunches and wine receptions, together with conference documentation.

The conference registration is open to all and not conditional upon presenting a paper.

If you are interested in attending, please download the registration form and send back to Helen Cohen H.Cohen02@westminster.ac.uk

Conference organizers: Professor Daya Thussu, University of Westminster,
and Dr Des Freedman, Goldsmiths, University of London

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