mbz. https://mbz.xyz About & Connect with me Mon, 31 Jul 2023 13:55:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://mbz.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/cropped-cropped-Z2-mbz-32x32.png mbz. https://mbz.xyz 32 32 Europe in need of a mission… (I) https://mbz.xyz/big-picture/mission-economy/ Mon, 10 May 2021 17:00:00 +0000 https://epics.fyi/?p=98

“I’m helping put a man on the moon!”

says a Janitor according to legend to President Kennedy after being asked what he does at NASA.
Cover Mission Economy

Mariana Mazzucato (2021)
Mission Economy
A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism

https://marianamazzucato.com/books/mission-economy

Mariana Mazzucato describes a utopian world in her book: Capitalism has been tamed for the common good and the state acts as a competent institution that coordinates the economy, community interests, public institutions, civil society and regulates them through funding and spending policies. At the same time, she shows in numerous examples how exactly such control has already been used and is in use – on a smaller scale, but still.

But back to the beginning: With the subtitle ‘A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism’ the book already reveals the central figure of the argument. With the Moonshot, the mission ‘to bring a man to the moon and safely back again by the end of the decade’, US President John F. Kennedy formulated an ambitious plan that required a national show of strength and was successful as history books show us. This moonshot as an organizational masterpiece should now serve as the basis for the great future challenges – from dealing with the climate catastrophe, curing cancer, and the challenges operationalized in the UN Millennium Goals.

Operationalization is also the big keyword here, a moonshot, a mission is not a linear plan that has to be worked through, but rather a clearly defined, measurable goal, which, however, requires the solution of many small challenges through innovative individual steps. These small challenges have also a problematic property. They are only realized, made visible in their wide-ranging complexity while working on their role as puzzle-part of the mission.
In addition, only as a potential puzzle piece, which is also in competition with other solutions. However, these have one thing in common: the problems to be solved are so new that there is hardly any previous experience or prior knowledge as to which path to take.

As you can see from this brief description, the idea of the mission is a concept to tackle the organizational problem of cross-societal cooperation, but it has to face an opponent in addition to the habits of the individual and the – in many cases desirable – inertia of established structures, the lived capitalism. It is therefore also a pamphlet against market thinking, for which the state – in the opinion of many – should only create framework conditions and only intervene in justified individual cases, in the event of market failure.

Shaping markets competently

“Along with new policy instruments, missions need a new approach to governance. New kinds of governance include financing operations differently so that public finance is seen as an investor of first resort, not just a lender of the last resort.”

Mazzucato 2021: 126

Based on the basic idea that the state – as with the Apollo mission – should not create the legal framework for profit-oriented competition between companies but should itself create markets that promote community-oriented missions, Mazzucato analyzes the individual challenges that arise if such a re-design is to be considered. If you will, the book is a mission briefing for the social change of a society that should be mission-oriented.

To do this, her book is divided into four sections:

In part one she discusses why we need missions to solve global challenges and why the apollo mission is a good blueprint for that, but she also explains what went wrong since the sixties regarding state administration and governance. Namely, the dismantling of state competence to be able to assess problems and solutions without resorting to external advice. To show this, she presents five myths about the role of the state in capitalism and uses examples to show that these assumptions about the state, but also innovative companies in the market, are incorrect.

Part two is about the Apollo mission, showing its historical success, to solve the techno-scientific problem of bringing a man to the moon and safely back and how much new organizational thinking on all levels was needed for that, but she also admits that wouldn’t be enough to solve our current challenges. Nowadays, these aren’t only techno-scientific problems to be solved, but problems that emerge from our way of living and can only be solved by changing that through involving all societal stakeholders till the individual citizen.

The next part is about how to structure such more comprehensive missions: Re-building state competence for a different form of governance, re-defying the role of companies (and capitalism), and how to involve citizens individually but also as a part of the civil society. She brings many examples of such mission-oriented governance, often based on her involvement in such activities. Examples range from the UN SDGs, mission orientation within the European Union, to the governance of highstreets as places of interaction between all social classes.

As in many of such books the final part of the book is about defining seven key principles of such a new political economy, showing how a large such a vision of social change has to be thought.

Another Utopia?

You could say this book is another brilliant utopia of how society should be, but it is not at all suitable to be implemented, as it turns against the core of being human and that we will not abandon our practices, even if they do us harm.

At the same time, however, the task of every utopia – beginning with Utopia by Thomas More more than 500 years ago – is to show us which “better” societies are imaginable. The book seems almost too down-to-earth to me for the latter, it is not enthusiastic. But perhaps it needs such a grounded focus today to see it as just an organizational problem and show how feasible it is to face current challenges.

Overall, the book shows the importance of missions as a potential method of collaboration within complex weird larger-than-live demands and so it is on the shortlist to encounter the challenge to build a shared space for a European Public that should be open to any kind of actors, foster European integration while being feasible economic space for any kind of digital communication, media, and interaction.

To be continued…

Copyrights • Creative Commons
© Cover by HarperCollins Publishers
(CC) BY-NC-SA 2.0 Moonshot Photo by Havoc315

The concept of “mission-orientation” seems to be a feasible part of the way to the realization of a Digital European Public Sphere, a specific European kind of Internet and digital infrastructure. With this basic review of the book and concept, I want to start a series of articles that explore the idea further and ideally operationalize it as a concept of intervention when encountering stakeholders and actors of a European Public Information & Communication Space (EPICS).

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How to explore a digital public open space? [Guest Lecture] https://mbz.xyz/presentations/guest-lecture-university-of-vienna/ Thu, 06 May 2021 12:15:00 +0000 https://epics.fyi/?p=202 I am proud to have been invited to the lecture “VO INSOWI A: VO SOFRA Current Social Issues and Sociological Aspects” again as a guest lecturer. Many thanks to Univ.-Prof. Dr. Roman Hummel and his team.

The presentation slides for this online lecture can be found here. The Presentation was held in German.

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Fostering Media Literacy Competencies for Navigating Digital Media Cultures [Paper Presentation] https://mbz.xyz/medlit/fostering-media-literacy-competencies-for-navigating-digital-media-cultures-paper-presentation/ Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:57:54 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=612 Paper Presentation (December 15th, 2017) @ SNDT Women’s University (Mumbai, India) within International Communication Association Asia Regional Conference Communications Research in Digital Age (Conference Website) (ICA ARC 2017)

Abstract: Media literacy has become a crucial competency in the digital age. Following the idea that media literacy goes beyond technical skills, our research interest is to identify core competencies to enhance the proficiency of rational-critical media use, with the goal to strengthen people’s participation in social and cultural change. In this collaborative effort of researchers from Asia and Europe (2015-2018, funded by the EU), we applied a comparative Delphi study in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to reveal similarities and differences concerning their respective media systems and media cultures as preconditions for media literacy enhancement, and stocks of knowledge to enhance media literacy. We will present and discuss selected results (1) about highlighted stocks of media knowledge and literacy competencies, and (2) about similarities and differences of media systemic and media cultural aspects in the three countries.

As a theoretical framework for media literacy competencies we applied Livingstone’s dimensions (2004): to access, evaluate, analyze, and create. For selecting items of media systems, we used the structure-conduct-performance scheme (van Summeren & d’Haenens 2004). Furthermore, we employed our own three-level model approaching media culture on a phenomenological, epistemic, and normative level. Based on this theoretical framework, each Asian research team generated a specific empirical design in line with our culture-sensitive approach. We may thus account for country-specific media perceptions and identify the differential requirements for media literacy enhancement and empowerment in these societies. We applied a facet-and-dimension approach (e.g. Guttman & Greenbaum 1998) to ensure comparability of country results for similar dimensions.

In our empirical design, we applied a two-wave Delphi study, prepended by qualitative expert interviews. The 1st wave’s questionnaire consisted of open-ended and closed questions (rating scale 1-6), the 2nd wave aimed to confirm, rank and elaborate the findings of the 1st wave. Interviewees of both waves were professionals from several stakeholder categories: Media educators and scholars, media practitioners, professional associations, politicians, regulatory bodies, NGOs, civil society organizations, and activists (up to 140 respondents per country). (Field work: May 2016 to February 2017.)

Stakeholders in all three countries emphasize the importance of knowledge about laws and regulations, media reality, media ethics, responsible media use, and the role of media in digital societies. Highlighted issues for single countries are as follows: in Malaysia, ethical and moral aspects of media production and use; in Thailand, critical thinking, as well as technical competencies; in Vietnam, media systemic and legal knowledge.
The project’s objective is to convert the findings into a massive open online course (MOOC), and to use our results for practical societal education programs in Southeast Asia.

Slides: Fostering Media Literacy Competencies for Navigating Digital Media Cultures [Session A2: Digital Media Applications] // DOI10.13140/RG.2.2.15009.92000

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Make them love the Sea… https://mbz.xyz/blog/make-them-love-the-sea/ Sun, 24 Sep 2017 20:57:38 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=583 …and see all of media and communication – A Personal Reminder by Michael-Bernhard Zita, MEDLIT Project Manager

In panels and lectures, our friend Wolfgang Renner (Wiener Zeitung) is often telling a story, that is originally awarded to Antoine de Saint-Exupery. He says, if you want to build a boat or more sustainable, if you want to feed your family for the rest of your life as a fisher, you shouldn’t teach to fish or instruct and assign them tasks to build a boat step by step. No, you should teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

You could now discuss if the love to travel the sea alone would make you a great boat builder or fisherman but in the end, there is a little truth in it. But how could we use this realization for our project? Aren’t scientist already in the lucky position, to do what they love? Look for more knowledge, share this knowledge and get paid for it. Yes, ideally we are lucky, but as we all know the reality is often different with more and more documentation needs, more and more administrative work.

But perhaps we look in the wrong direction, doing MOOCs shouldn’t be limited to transfer knowledge and test the learning outcomes OR make it easy to finish all assignments, so the number of graduates grows. Don’t get me wrong, all of this is important, but as communication and media scholars we probably should teach them to love communication and learn them to see the myriad of wonders. It isn’t a matter of fact that communication works, it is a miracle – especially when you are looking at the growing numbers of different perspectives and the polarization that comes with it when everybody insists that there is only their own truth.

Understanding communication means to understand that there is no simple truth, but the need of empathy to understand others and only if we all try to understand and accept that others not only can but are allowed to think different, we can take steps to close the growing gaps again.

We could learn and discuss the importance of diversity but there are others (!sic), that can and love to lecture about that. So let’s start with simple things and make our audience love the endless colors, shallows, and depths of the sea of media and communication and perhaps we will find the time to remind ourselves why we started to do these things and why they are important.

During the MOOC roadshow, the prototypes of the Media Literacy MOOCs for Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam were finished. Next step will be extensive testing and work with the audience to create the best MOOCs possible during the project time.

Cross-Posting: First posted at medlit.univie.ac.at

Picture: CC0 Public Domain

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Communicate & Collaborate https://mbz.xyz/blog/communicate-collaborate/ Tue, 18 Jul 2017 23:03:53 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=385 Looking for the Key of Realisation – A Personal Advice by Michael-Bernhard Zita, MEDLIT Project Manager

Communication in intercultural context is one challenge, output-oriented project communication another one – together you call them a research field of its own.

A (written) plan is only the first step of implementation
Getting things done in time with available resources, everybody together, being one gearwheel of a machine, ideally efficient is what we call the modern division of labor. Optimizing these structures and limiting risks are the goals management should achieve.

But what to do, if the parts aren’t trying to work together on their own, ask how fast to turn while already knowing what to do? Isn’t that what we would expect? The role of management is so often, change parts, optimize the collaboration and limit the time, the machine isn’t producing.

But in a project you have to do the opposite – you have to build a working machine, often for an abstract, unknown goal out of parts, that weren’t designed to work together: Working at different speeds because of different free time, understanding and implementing different things because of different goals, languages and motivations.

So you can only try to motivate, explain risks and consequences that will occur when objectives and deadlines aren’t met. That is one part, but more importantly, you have to bring these parts together, so they start speaking to each other. What are the needs and motivations of the organizations and people that came together to collaborate on a project, should be the guideline for any project activity.

Listen, but more importantly act
In an early course paper, I described the role of leading by two qualities: The ability to listen, but also the ability to decide and act based on this decision, also against different views and opinions. Perfect Win-Win situations may occur but because of external conditions, they are very rare.

So the way to go is to communicate, motivate and convince the others to work together, always trying to get close to the proposed outcomes – that can in the end also mean to change the proposed outcomes or that it is better if others take over responsibilities and tasks, because they fit better into the plan or simply just have more time. Working together on a project is an activity that happens on a day-to-day basis. What was possible in one week, can become impossible in another week. Leading so becomes the question of listening, juggling, while staying on course. That is a set of activities that can’t be split nor can they be delegated.

As an active lead someone has to have a definition what they want AND need to achieve, with that the project management can help. Also, we can help with bringing the people together that should collaborate or try to assemble different teams. With what we can’t help is to speak with each other, find a common base and motivate. In the end, every team, led by a partner institution is a machine of each one, with its own clock, plan and decision-making structure, that would break and would need to be rebuilt if heavily manipulated from outside. Some would say it is a self-organised social system.

So remember, as a lead in a project you have the ability to influence the output but you aren’t the one achieving it alone – but listening, motivating, while being actively approaching others are the keys of realization. Reducing complexity by developing options is a more advanced technique, anticipating needs and motivations of other the golden way.

Just to wait that someone waits for your plan and act on your word is a dead end in a project that leads often will experience as it is the way of non-project machines but not one of voluntarily systems of change.

The Face-to-Face communication at project management-related meetings & the Train-the-Faculty workshops was very important to get to know each other and to built trust. But with the changed “Smarter Steering & Monitoring Structures” and especially multiple parallel work packages the need and the active demanding of “Online Communication” is essential for the success of the project. But with the flaws of such channels, the quality of communication and collaboration strategies make the real difference.

Cross-Posting: First posted at medlit.univie.ac.at

Picture (CC): UBC Learning Commons

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Steering Smarter… https://mbz.xyz/blog/steering-smarter/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 17:47:44 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=340 …for a more sustainable outcome – A Personal Report by Michael-Bernhard Zita, MEDLIT Project Manager

Communication and Decision-Making processes are closely tied, but they are also culturally determined. The intention of the MEDLIT project management structures was always to implement democratic structures, open to discussion, exchange – giving the involved partners the chance to make the project idea, a project of their own.

This basic idea was laid down by basic rules: Communicate and document transparently, stay in contact and discuss. Perhaps too little was thought about, how much documents will be produced, how much has to be read and that often there isn’t enough time to be prepared well, especially by all project members that fulfill (another) full-time job.

While the European Higher Education system has been largely transformed already to project-ready or sometimes even project-driven (time) structures, in other parts of the world this hasn’t happened yet and perhaps won’t happen on its own ever.

This transformation to more time- and task-differentiated structures, especially boundary work between different projects and responsibilities, is mostly economically determined with the crucial goal to be more efficient and reduce risks. Or more simply said: Have just the right amount of time to do your work in the best possible manner. This should reduce costs of many different kinds, but is also based on two general ideas: “Collaborative Work” & “Know your and be prepared for your Job”.

In project work this transforms in two important different but also supplementary approaches:

Starting there, that means the best way to collaborate is, to be proactive but also be able to listen and be flexible. All of these sound very easy and manageable till it meets the cliffs of reality. And within international and so intercultural collaboration these cliffs are more like mountains, well hidden in a sea of clouds.

Our approach within the Project Management Team in Vienna was always to try to make it easy for the project partners, trying to give them information in time, be there to discuss and explain guidelines. We called it Callcenter approach, but had always one thought, back in our mind, these major efforts will be temporary, giving the partners time to understand rules, structures, and system on their own.

While this worked, in terms of producing project progress – it didn’t work, in terms of the area of responsibility and willingness to make it a project of their own.

We thought much about reasons, may that be the long-distances, web-based (and so reduced) communication or the one-reason-to-catch-them-all: Different cultural backgrounds. Or perhaps it has more to do with structural reasons, like when there is coordinating institution, that decides about eligibility while being the main risk-taking organization, this institution has to say how it has to be done, killing initiative or just making it easier for others, limiting them to be vicarious agents.

Hierarchical structures and thinking are always easier if you want to reach specific goals but it is very limiting if you want to make structures sustainable when funds will expire after the project.

So with the window of opportunity, that the review of the Mid-Term-Report opened, we try something new: Smarter structures, in the sense of more, locally made decisions, more shared responsibilities and very important: the opportunity to make the experience that collaboration is a two-way street.

The new “Smarter Steering & Monitoring Structures” were announced at the Steering Board Meeting on April, 12th 2017, and discussed, formed & agreed on at the Change Board Meeting during the TtF-Workshop at the University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria.

Cross-Posting: First posted at medlit.univie.ac.at
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The Filter Bubble of Journalism & its consequences [Talk] https://mbz.xyz/presentations/talk-the-filter-bubble-of-journalism-its-consequences/ Mon, 29 May 2017 22:00:53 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=327 Guest Talk (May 30th, 2017) @ Department of Communication, University of Vienna
within SPEZI Special Lecture Digital Journalism & Society 
(Univ. Prof. Dr. Homero Gil de Zúñiga, PhD)

Slides: 20170530 The Filter Bubble of Journalism (SPEZI HGZ)

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Internet Audience Measurements – A Cultural View on Targeting, Algorithms & Responsibilities [Talk] https://mbz.xyz/presentations/talk-internet-audience-measurements-a-cultural-view-on-targeting-algorithms-responsibilities/ Mon, 05 Dec 2016 22:00:34 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=375 Guest Talk (December 6th, 2016) @ Department of Communication, University of Vienna
within SPEZI Special Lecture Digital Storytelling
(Univ. Prof. Dr. Homero Gil de Zúñiga, PhD)

Slides: 20161206 Internet Audience Measurements – A Cultural View on Targeting, Algorithms & Responsibilities

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After the Kick-Off https://mbz.xyz/blog/after-the-kick-off/ Tue, 01 Mar 2016 00:23:05 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=197 The Road so far – A Personal Report by Michael-Bernhard Zita, MEDLIT Project Manager

So this really had happened now. What has started in October 2014 with an idea to try to apply for European Union funds to bring together multiple local efforts by Thomas A. Bauer becomes now a real project.

It felt very unrealistic when I got the message in August 2015, during an exam supervision for American guest students that our proposal was chosen for funding. At that point it felt already like something from the past, a project proposal that was written over multiple months, coordinating multiple authors and handed-in on the last possible day: February, 10th 2015. These are probably some dates I’ll remember for the rest of my life, there is nothing like the first project you got funded.

Another date to remember: December, 23rd 2015 – the day the Grant Agreement was submitted after being signed by the EACEA Agency in the name of the European Commission. Again there was some work to do between August and December, some documents were missing, some things had to be re-done. Understanding and implementing the validation process for all partner universities needed some conversations with local administrations but also the validation bureau in Brussels. That was only possible via telephone – and even this number was only found after a long search – as they normally only use an internal messaging system, but which is only accessible for organizational representatives for their individual validation processes.

So yes, it was already a long way to get there, but it was a way worth going when seeing all these people coming together now in Heerlen. It was an intensive first week about the basics of Media Literacy, theories behind this concept, the method of the Delphi study and a few things about the project organization, but more importantly it was about getting to know new people, understand why they join the project and what they expect from it. “Changing societies through understanding and changing their media usage” sounds like something really, really big, and in the end: Yes, it is a very large project we are trying to implement. But only when we think it is possible, it can be done. So, the thing I have to report from this first meeting is: Yes, we can.

The Kick-Off-Meeting happened at the Open Universiteit in Heerlen, Netherlands between Monday, the 22nd and Friday, the 26th of February 2016.

Cross-Posting: First posted at medlit.univie.ac.at

Picture (C): OU NL

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Project MEDLIT https://mbz.xyz/medlit/project-medlit/ Tue, 22 Dec 2015 22:00:56 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=298

Position: Overall MEDLIT Project Manager
[October 15th, 2015 – February 28nd, 2020]

University of Vienna
Department of Communication
Währinger Strasse 29
1090 Vienna, Austria
publizistik.univie.ac.at

michael.zita@univie.ac.at

MEDLIT – International Media Studies: Media Literacy as a Media Competence Program for Social Change
Erasmus+ Capacity Building for Higher Education Project
561719-EPP-1-2015-1-AT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP
medlit.univie.ac.at
medlit.vision


The MEDLIT-project has officially been established in October 2015 by a grant from the European Commission within the framework of the Erasmus Plus programme, specifically the call for Capacity-building in the Field of Higher-Education. The mission for the consortium is to expand academic structures of knowledge exchange and transnational knowledge development in the field of Media Literacy.

It is meant to build capacities for a broad educational program of awareness and societal reasonability for the social and cultural usage of media in the interest of maintaining and developing individual motifs of meaningful and mindful participation in society-relevant discourses and social life.

Speaking about the consortium, the project network consists of three European Universities from Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands and altogether six Universities from Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam (see the partners section for details).

The geographical focus on South-East-Asia is interesting because of many reasons: The phenomena of globalization are mirrored differently, in Asia more in terms of technology, as in Europe more in terms of culture. Both dimensions are important levels of development and in that meaning areas of social change to be societally understood, to be considered and reflected in the frame of social, cultural and media studies.

Furthermore, the South-East-Asia Region became a strong partner for academic cooperation for the Department of Communication, which we want to deepen, to widen and to strengthen with effects in a sustainable programme of diversification of teaching and research.

The main parts of the projects are:

  • an Action-Research oriented Delphi Study to do research on the current knowledge and demands in Media Literacy combined with the attempt to find and activate stakeholders
  • a series of Train-the-Faculty workshops that should present different perspectives and tools within a diverse theoretical concept of Media Literacy and its educational institutionalization
  • the capacity to develop eLearning materials based on the findings of the Delphi Study and the study programmes in the partner countries
  • based on this eLearning training MOOCs should be developed and tested in the partner countries that address study beginners but also larger groups of stakeholders and awaken an interest in Media Literacy
  • furthermore, the consortium should be extended – especially from the pool of addressed stakeholders – into a Media Literacy Cluster/Network that tries to promote Media Literacy and develop future projects beyond the project duration
Co-Funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

See all posts about the MEDLIT project

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learn · moodle https://mbz.xyz/cv/learn-%c2%b7-moodle/ Sun, 01 Feb 2015 21:47:42 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=506 Completed eLearning MOOCs based on and about using moodle for eLearning – issued by Learn.Moodle.net

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Understanding Europe & Intercultural Media Education [Course UniVie/PSU] https://mbz.xyz/cv/course-understanding-europe-intercultural-media-education/ Mon, 04 Aug 2014 08:00:23 +0000 http://michaelzita.at/?p=492 Since August 2014 the University of Vienna and the PennState University collaborate on Joint Courses at the Department of Communication during Summer Time.


Position: Course Coordination / Teaching Assistance / Tutoring
Lectures about “Why to do Social Science” & “Introduction to Methods”
Summer 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 / 2019


To understand Europe, first of all, one has to understand there is no simple answer to questions about Europe. Europe is and always was a place of big diversity, different cultures, multiple historical narrations, societal value systems and last but not least systems of communication within nations and Europe. This course starts with an introduction of communication and media systems within and across the European Union. To understand the differences but also similarities between these systems the theoretical concept of Media Culture(s) will be proposed and discussed. After these descriptive and theoretical lectures, additional lectures are dedicated to discussing practices, knowledge, and examples that bridge these borders within Europe.

Course Instructors

emer. o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Thomas A. Bauer (UniVie)

Ines Meyer-Hoess (PSU)

Learning Objectives

  1. Understanding media and society as (transactional) interconnected entities.
  2. Using communication theory as media literacy for critical and emancipatory thinking
    • Understanding media as a culture of communication.
    • Approaching communication as observation of media processes.
    • Understanding Communication Science as a discipline dedicated to the observation of human communication.
    • Understanding theories as abstract, yet interconnected descriptions and tools for observing and shaping communication.
  3. Understanding empirical communication research and strengthening practical skills in this field.
  4. Understanding Europe from the inside and reflect existing expectations of it.

Joint Courses Design

In the last years two courses – one of each University – were conceptualized to intertwine. UniVie students (Master Level) used the course as an opportunity to (learn to) teach media studies related topics, based on an annually changed concept to reflect the number of participants

UniVie students (Master Level) used the course FOSE (Research Seminare) as an opportunity to (learn to) teach media studies related topics, based on an annually changed concept to reflect the number of participants from each University and latest developments. They also practiced comparative analysis of the media systems, culture and practice in Europe and the United States.

PSU students (Undergraduate Level) had an introductory course to “Communication in the European Union. Politics, Policies, and Practices” that consisted of

  • Lectures on “Media Theory and Media Philosophy”
  • above mentioned Learning Modules by UniVie students – mostly based on more practical topics (e.g. Public Value, Community Media, Welfare State,…)
  • Lectures on “Methods of Social Science” and/or “Why to do Social Science”
  • Excursions to Media Organizations, Institutions of the European Union and/or Facilities of Austrian Digital Art, Creative Industries & Culture

This PSU course was accompanied by a second course about “Intercultural Communication in Action: The Case of Austria” that introduced Austrian Culture, History, and Communication. UniVie students who joined single classes had the opportunity to see how their own culture, nation, and history was imparted to foreigners and so they had the chance to learn much about their own heritage through the eyes of strangers.

Picture (C): PSU / UniVie / Ines Meyer-Hoess / Veronica Hicks / Michael-Bernhard Zita

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