Target participants: ECREA section members (but open to all)
Affiliation: ECREA section International Communication
Venue: Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels, Belgium
Date: Oct 10 2007
Contact: Leo Van Audenhove
This Symposium aims to critically reflect on the Internet as a global medium.
The deadline for submission of abstracts (max 500 words) is 15/07/2007. Please send your abstract to: Dorien Baelden
The Internet is often heralded as an open infrastructure spanning the entire globe. It allows for people of all nations to communicate over borders, to consume the growing amount of information and entertainment available, to participate in the multiple participatory platforms and web 2.0 applications.
The Internet is often identified as the key driving force in all processes of globalization. The aftermath of 9/11 seems to have considerably undermined the older myth of the media induced 'global village'. However, when it comes to the Internet the 'Myth of the Global Internet' seems to be more resilient. There are however many issues and processes which might question the 'globalness' of the Internet.
Access and speeds of networks differ considerably resulting in different uses worldwide, localization techniques and DRM systems construct new borders resulting in different Internet experiences, different governments hold different opinions on Internet governance, government firewalls keep large parts of the globe locked in filtered worlds, local uses of the Internet grow considerably faster than International uses, languages and cultures are barriers for genuine global debate.
This Symposium aims to critically reflect on the Internet as a global medium. The ECREA section on International and Intercultural Communication therefore invites scholars from different disciplines to address—empirically and/or theoretically—the following themes:
- Internet governance
- Internet and language
- Global Internet use and flows
- Internet in the developing world
- Global Internet infrastructures
- Commodification of the Internet
- Cultural diversity and the Internet
- Censorship on the Internet
- Localization strategies
- DRM strategies and consequences
- Etnographies of the Internet
The deadline for submission of abstracts (max 500 words) is 15/07/2007. Please send your abstract to: Dorien Baelden. Mention: name(s) of author(s), institution(s) and a contact e-mail address
This One-Day Symposium preceeds the ECREA Symposium 'Equal Opportunities and Communication Rights: Representation, Participation and the European Democratic Deficit' which also takes place in Brussels on 11 and 12 October 2007.
ECREA Section on International and Intercultural Communication
Leo Van Audenhove (Vrije Universiteit Brussel - chair)
Rico Lie (University of Wageningen - vice chair)
Luciano Morganti (Vrije Universiteit Brussel - vice chair)
