Roundtable on contemporary citizen activism:the "Greens" and the "Reds"

Annabelle Sreberny, the President of the IAMCR and chair of this special session, opened the Roundtable on contemporary citizen activism: the "Greens" and the "Reds"  by introducing the key-concepts of the discussion.
Pokpong Lawansiri (Thailand), who has been active in the democracy and  human rights movement in Thailand,  discoursed about "The Red Shirt Movement" and the violent governmental response to their peaceful protests. The lecturer hailed the social proposes of "The Red Shirt Movement" and their political aims,  in addition to referring to their usage of the social networks and other internet-related tools as a way to divulge the message.
Shadi Sadr (Iran), a well known iranian lawyer and women's rights activist, took the example of her own arrest and exile to shed some light on the relations between iranian activists and official authorities. A protester in the "2009 Iranian election protests", which were not remarked kindly by those in power, Shadi Sadr criticized the role of the internet on the process, since it was not only an instrument for the dissemination of the protesters cause but also became a dangerous instrument on the hands of the oppressors, for they used Facebook pictures and Youtube videos as evidence for the arrest of many protesters.
In summary, this special session presented the internet as a "double-edged sword" for the activist movements and launched a question on the privacy policies and social responsibility of the social networks.

Diana Teixeira, Eduarda Fernandes, Laura Vilaça and Neuza Alpuim

Connectivity in Media Platforms

"Notions of Connectivity across Media Platforms" was the theme of the last session of the International Communication section on IAMCR2010.

Carina Guyard, from the University of Sôdertôn, in Sweden, presented a paper about connections and disconnections between the public and a taxi call centre. The researcher studied the concept of "connectivity" in three dimensions: technical, organizational and cultural.

Janni Môller-Hartley, from the Roskilde University, in Denmark, studied online journals and the concept of connection in the new digital media. The user as a consumer, as a source or as citizen as types of user-reader constructions was another idea of this paper.

Julie Uldam, from the Copenhagen Business School, in Denmark, talked about global justice movement organisations and the online spaces where the political identities promote their work and try to gain new members or supporters.

Anne Kaun, from the University of Sôdertôn, in Sweden, presented a paper about playful public connectivity as a bigger project on public connection. The main idea of this presentation is that play is understood as transformative and therefore allowing for public connectivity.

Inês Espojeira and Sofia Gomes

Online Media and Social Movements

"Online Media and Social Movements" was the theme of the Community Communication´s morning section on Thursday, July 22, and was chaired by Gabriele Hadl.

The first speaker, Ming-Ying Lee from Providence University, Taiwan, presented "Youth use of  Internet-based Media for Social Movements: Analyzing the effect of official Blog Used in the Social Movement in Taiwan". Ming´s study takes a close look at the case of social movement in Taiwan, mixed with the characteristics of high-tech and youth use, namely "Wild Strawberries Movement", and explore the
potentials and restrictions of alternative media used by social movements. He showed how the blog has become a propaganda tool to promote and propose the movement ideals.

Chuan Yang Hsu from Tamkang University, presented "The virtual movement and online communities: a case study of T-Rex event in Taiwan" "one of major Taiwanese virtual movement events". He emphasized the role of virtual movement in the construction of imagined communities in Taiwan and raised questions about the propose of this movement."The internet is creating a new form of social movement", Mr. Hsu said.

Andrew Ó Baoill from Cazenovia College presented "Internet and Community Radio" and explained how the radio stations in United States are adapting to Internet distribution technologies. Mr. Baoill asked: "what community is served? In such a situation, what does it mean for a station to be "local" or to serve a geographic community? How are radio stations re-evaluating their missions in light of these changed circumstances?"

Diogo Soza

What kind of time to read scriptural texts?

The final session of “Media, Religion and Culture” only had one presenter. Frank Daniel Coffey, from Canada, present a paper about “Taking Time for Reading Scriptural Text – Drawing and Continuity: the Role of Mass Media”.

Mr. Coffey talked about the importance of time and referred that it is not material and not limited. In the researcher opinion, the nature of time is not sequential but it is consequential. Everything is immediately and forever new.

The Canadian researcher analyzed what kind of time we need to interpret scriptural text. He referred that everyone needs a sense of time and sequence to interpret anything. In his point of view, a religious person appreciates another kind of time. Finally, Mr. Coffey conclude that the reality isn’t the text, but the text giving us a signal of reality.

Luciana Silva

Online journalism in debate

“Ideals and practice in journalism production” was the theme of 4th session of the working group “Media Production Analysis”. The debate was chaired by Ida Willig and the several presentations showed different approaches on the journalistic area. The online journalism was the main theme in the room.

Last presentation, “O Meu Telejornal is no longer ours”, was from the portuguese Luís Loureiro. According to the RTP journalist, the public television site now allows the spectator to create his own news bulletin when and where he wants. Although this initiative had around 5 millions clicks in an one year space, just 3.3 personal sequences were produced per day. So he says “O Meu Telejornal is no longer ours and I can say that it’s no ones’ ”.

From Roskilde University, Jannie Hartley made a comparison between three danish online newspapers in order to know what the concept of breaking news is. She came to the conclusion that breaking news is “a new category of journalism” because, thought it is a very rare practice, “this is the main task to online journalism”.

Ingela Wadbring, researcher from the University of Gothenburg, spoke about the commercialisation of the journalism. The dataset contains about 3500 surveys in the years of 1989 and 2005 and the main conclusion is that “the journalist profession’s view on commercialisation has changed over time”. Wadbring also said that the work of the journalist “goes between information and entertainment”.

Finally, the speakers debated and compared theirs ideas and different points of view.


Daniel Coelho and Pedro Nogueira

Media Literacy: What future?

"Media Education Research: Developing Indicators for Media Education" was the theme of the session "Media Education Research". Maria Oralia Paredes presented three papers in representation of a researcher´s group from Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona.

Oralia explained that her objective was to think about the trends of media literacy in Europe; a new model for measuring media literacy skills (European perspective) and the indicators for assessing the critical understanding of media. In her discourse, she alerted for the fact that there is a real need to empower the literacy on young and old citizens, involving and promoting their participation. The question needs to be reinforced in the traditional media but mostly in the new media, because of the expansion and evolution that is implicit on this environment.

In this study, the authors find two key elements: personal dimension (remounts to individual skills in the use of internet contents and new technologies) and environment of context. For concluding, the researcher said that people use Internet to look for information and, mainly, to communicate. On the other hand, she alerted for the fact that in some countries the media literacy is stronger when we talk about authority.

Some of the people who were in this session gave their contribute to the discussion. Manuel Pinto, from Univgersity of Minho, said that “we need to discuss the relationship between communication and information”; and this point was very debated at the end of the presentation. The main question, exposed by Maria Oralia was: "Do we want and do we need to literate people?"

Patrícia Silveira, Sofia Gomes and Sónia Ribeiro

ICTs and Participatory Culture

ICTs and Participatory Culture was the theme of the "Participatory Communication Research" section on July 21.The session began with Emmanoel Martins Ferreira, assistant professor at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil, with his paper "New Media and Participatory Culture within the Brazilian Context".

He explained what participatory culture is and how it is facilitated by the advances in new media, mainly Web 2.0. He also wondered how young Brazilians act within the digital environment and if this participation helps their cultural and social development.

Afterwards, the paper "«Bairros» from Oporto: representing identity and exclusion through Youtube" by Anabela Gradim, António Fidalgo and Catarina Moura from Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal,was presented. The paper analysed videos about the neighborhoods from the city of Porto, with quantitative
and qualitative semiotic approach. "It is hoped to shed some light on their perceived profiles of identity and exclusion, as well as understand some of the particularities of neighborhood youth urban culture".

Christopher McConnell from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, presented his paper "Off the Computer and Into the Saddle: Local Cycling Media and Community Engagement". The paper was a study with interviews with 25 cyclists and 18 months of observation in Austin, state capital of Texas and home to the University of Texas.

From Viseu, Porto and Aveiro, cities of Portugal, Sónia Ferreira, Ana Veloso and Óscar Mealha brought their theme "A Study based on Web 2.0 Communication and Information Services in Senior Citizen Contexts of Use". Their objective was to show that senior citizens are capable and interested in digital inclusion. Their empirical research used data collecting instruments with a group of senior citizens in Portugal. Among their results were that the seniors prefer clean interfaces and Portuguese language in their computers.

Dagmar Monett Díaz from the Humboldt University, Berlin (Germany), and Beatriz Calvo Peña, from Universidad Carlos III (Spain) presented "A portrait of the Cuban bloggers based on The First Survey of the Cuban Blogosphere". This work about blogs in Cuba intends to show how the blogosphere is made up of Cubans living in the country and outside. Results were obtained from questionnaires sent to the bloggers.

Rita Santos, José Azevedo and Luís Pedro, from University of Aveiro, and Rong Wang, from the National University of Singapore were absent and did not present.

Diogo Soza, Raquel Lobao e Renata Freitas

Crisis Communication

The session of Theoretical Challenges, developed within the field of Crisis Communication, took place this morning, at 9:30. The session was chaired by S. Allern and attended by Andreas Schwarz, Eva-Karin Olson, Cheryl Mei-Xian, Charlene Quek Wei-Ling Ho and Audra Diers, among other scholars.
The first speaker, Andreas Schwarz from university of Technology (German), presented a complex and innovative study based on Kelley’s “Covariation”, concluding that there is still a long way to go before its practical application.
From University Helsingborg (Sweden), Eva-Karin Olson referred to crisis communication as a multi-level game. Analysing two communication crisis – the Australian 2007 elections and the candidates climate change policies and the 2005 “Jyllands-Posten” Muhammad cartoons controversy -, the lecturer concluded that non-linear crisis urge the individuals to show coherence throughout the whole process, specially when it concerns statements to the media and policies adopted to fight the said crisis. Nevertheless, the options taken to solve the situation must be flexible enough to adjust to the type and level of the crisis. 
Cheryl Mei-Xian and Charlene Quek Wei-Ling Ho from the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) focused their study on “media hypes”. The scholars then proceeded to explain how an organization should deal with the media during a crisis, in order to minimize the impact of the situation: firstly, the organization should have good relations with the media, which is key on a good crisis management plan. Even more essential, according to Cheryl Mei-Xian and Charlene Quek Wei-Ling Ho, is understanding how media hypes function, so the organization can avoid bad media coverage.
Audra Diers, a scholar from Marist College (EUA), pointed out five essential variables of analysis of a communication crisis: the industry, the crisis type, the nation where the crisis takes place and the channel that reports the crisis (traditional media VS. new media). Concluding, professor Diers stated that there is a need to study cross-national emerging crisis patterns, for they would serve as a comparison to national crisis, enhancing the disabilities of the national crisis. 

Diana Teixeira, Eduarda Fernandes, Laura Vilaça and Neuza Alpuim

Pop Culture: Transculturation and Regionalisation

Tuesday's 14:30 session of the Pop Culture working group focused on "Transculturation and Regionalisation" and was chaired by Fien Adriaens
The first speaker, Peichi Chung, from National University of Singapore, presented her study, "The emerging media exchange in the cultural regionalisation of Asia". The scholar reported ncreasing media and cultural exchange in Asia duo to a more liberal environment, a significant growth in the use of new technologies and rising consumption power of asian audiences. Chung advocates that this contributes to an expansion of the asian media activity, which helps shaping a self-sustainable cultural economy for Asian countries. Stating that the exchange occurs by two main processes (format and adaptation and hybrid strategic regionalism), Peichi Chung refers to this cultural phenomenon as a "hybridizing of the Asian identity", where "regionalization happens at a place of gloCalization".

Michael Preiler, the second speaker, presented an investigation entitled "Popular Culture in an anging Society: changes in Japanese advertising". Starting by briefing the audience about the increasingly aging japanese population, Preiler went on to talk about the results of his study: advertising  spots staring older people increased in Japan and the roles given to them were of major importance, thus concluding that advertising and other forms of media were adapting to the aging society in japan. The investigator concluded that advertising spots casting older people in ads will continue to rise and that  this situation, that is true for Japan, can also be true for other industrialized nations with an aging population. Moreover, Popular Culture, which is usually created by young generations, is likely to be dominated by an older population.

Catarina Burnay started her presentation by asking "Is the fiction of RTP Açores a place of presentation of açoreanidade?". After a brief exposition of the story of the channel and the reality of the azorean viewers, the lecturer then proceeded to conclude that RTP Açores is a channel based on the assumption of the difference, for it praises the particular elements that constitute the "açoreanidade" through fiction, giving the feeling of belonging while representing of costumes and local traditions. RTP Açores presents contents that are faithful to the identity of the Azores, becoming a place of presentation, production and reproduction of the azorean essence.

Yock Sian Tee became the last lecturer of the session, for Santaru Chakrabati wasn't able to appear. On "Americanizing the Chinese martial Arts Film Genre: Transcultural in Kung Fu Panda and Kill Bill", Yock Sian Tee spoke about the cinematic transculturation of the movies "Kung Fu Panda" and "Kill Bill". Borrowing elements from the "wuxia" film genre (martial arts movies), these films reconfigured traditional chinese cultural elements, in order to appeal to broader audiences. The investigator then proceeded to analyze the level of accuracy of this transculturation, concluding that "Kung Fu Panda" managed to achieve a more successful cultural hybridization than "Kill Bill", for it had studied the culture and its motif.

Daniel Coelho, Diana Teixeira, Eduarda Fernandes, Laura Vilaça and Neuza Alpuim

Communication during times of crisis

"War, Civil War and Crisis Communication" was the theme on the first session of the emerging theme Crisis Communication. The works of Azi Lev-on, Kari Andén-Papadopoulos, Evgeny Pahentsev and Stuart Allan were put forward for discussion. Aretha Asakitikpi and Aderogba Adeyemi, from the Covenant University of Nigeria, were not present at the session.

Azi Lev-on, from Israel, presented his work on "New-media uses in wartime: Internet-based collaborations during the Israel-Hezbollah war". He told that during the conflict the internet was very useful in fundraising for emergence situations and some websites"transformed themselves in order to help the population". Internet was also the main information channel. "Information always appeared on the web before it appeared on traditional media" explained Lev-on.

From Stockholm University, Kari Andén-Papadopoulos presented "Crisis Communication on Youtube", a study about the role of Youtube in keeping the memory of war. Besides creating an international solidarity community and alternative spaces for community grief, the memorial videos on Youtube are also "building an important record" of war. These videos, often made by american soldiers or their families, present a different view of war.

The issue of the raising of the citizen photojournalist and the problem of the amended photos during times of crisis were the subjects of the study "Witness of War: Photojournalism in Times of crisis", from Stuart Allan, Bournemouth University.

"Information warfare under the crisis conditions: The experience of Russia" was the work presented by Evgeny Nikolaevich Pahentsev, from the Communication Management Center, Russian Federation.

The aim of the emerging theme on Crisis Communication is to provide a forum at IAMCR conferences where communication scholars can debate the mediation of political and economic crisis, wars and disasters.

Helena Nunes and Mafalda Trindade

The importance of the new media

"The use of ICTs by activists" was the theme of one of tuesday's  sessions in the Communication Policy and Technology section. It started around 14:30 and was conducted by Bart Cammaerst from the London School of Economics.

"Internet amplified the power of public opinion in China, but the State control over the internet is more and more severe" said Fen Lin, from the City University of Hong Kong, while presenting the work "Online Activism, Framing Strategy and Media Representation - The Green Dam Youth Escort Software Incident in China". Lin asserted that despite of all the control that the chinese government has over the media, the new media "do promote citizen-centered issues, in social movements in China".

Yah-Huei Hong, from the Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan, explained the research "Third-person effect on Singaporeans' perception of censorship and information sharing toward online political information". Despite "strict regulation" of mainstream media in Singapore "the online content is much more mildly regulated". She conclude the presentation by saying that Singaporeans are used to and resigned to the censorship that the government applies.

The portuguese Flavia Santos, from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, introduced her study "Young activists online: The Political use of the Internet in the Portuguese context". She discussed the role of Internet in shaping the participation and interest of young people in the political scene, concluding that the Internet "can play an important role in motivating civic attitude, online and offline".

Rainer Rubira García, from Cuba, stated that the Internet has become a space for political participation and activism. His study, "Political communication and participation in Cuban growing blogosphere: generation Y, a case study", was about the most renowned Cuba's blog "Generation Y". In a country marked by censorship "Generation Y has had the courage to provide a place where people can discuss politics and practise their citizenship".

Helena Nunes and Mafalda Trindade

Diasporas and the Media

The 'Media Consumption' session started with Lisa Yuk Leun, from the University of Lingran, in Hong Kong, with her study "Negotiating (Diasporic) Identities: South Asians' pro/consumption of Tv Dramas on the Internet in Hong Kong". It discussed themes related with ethnic minorities: does the media help to discriminate these groups and how are they differentiated by type of consume.

From the University of London, in the United Kingdom, Ana Catarina Pereira brought "Sensing Memories and Belongings through Media Consumption among Portuguese Muslims of Indian and Mozambican Origin". She focused on the way these groups experience and deal with the contact with some cultural signs or memories of their home.

"Latin American Diaspora and the Media - a Comparative Study of Ethnic Media in Los Angeles and Madrid" by Jessica Retis, from the University of California (California State), in USA, focused on how the media controle the image of, for example, the latin population: including or excluding them in the social living.

Andreia Mandim and Inês Espojeira

Civic Journalism and Citizens

"History of civic journalism and the other forms of citizen's participation" has been the theme of Tuesday morning session on the section History. This parallel session began with Thomas Birkner from the University of Hamburg, Germany, with a paper about “Civic Journalism as a challenge for the journalist profession around 1900”. He presented a brief history of German journalism, discussing the 19th and 20th century with examples of newspapers and wondered about the future of civic journalism in the 21st century.

Sarah Lewison from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA, presented “The Land: Stabilizing the soil with words and pictures” with many illustrated examples. Her study case was “The Land”, a US independent newspaper from 1939 to 1954. She discussed its relationship with the corporate agricultural media and explained how the journal helped the education of farmers.

From the Kasembundit University, Thailand, Chanette Tinnam presented “Citizens' Consciousness of Thai Women and Thai Mass Media during the Era of Democratic Bloom”. Focusing on the years of 1973 to 1976, she presented illustrations and political cartoons, including women as a social problem and as sexual objects. She also presented the resistance of discourse in showing women as active citizens. She believes that there is no reference in the media on citizen’s consciousness of women as self reliant.

Shi Li from Indiana University, USA, presented “The April 5th Movement: Birth of China's Citizen  Photojournalism and New Social Documentary Tradition”. She showed the historical background on the April 5th Movement and explained how journalists and citizens protected their photos from Chinese authorities. “This paper, based on interviews with several of the photographers and an examination of their photographs from that time, on existing memoirs and other archival materials, intends to reconstruct the event on Tiananmen Square, and address many still unanswered questions: What prompted ordinary citizens to pick up their cameras to document what would be remembered as such a significant historical event, and this at great personal risk?”

Diogo Soza e Renata Freitas

Crisis: What Kind of Crisis?

"Media and the Global Financial Crisis: Cross-National Perspectives" was the first  session of the day on the Political Economy section.

Wayne Hope talked about challenges on global communication. Hope focused his speech on the global crisis and in the political and economical context. He closed his presentation with an explanation about the real meaning of Crisis’ concept and its characteristics.

Martín Becerra analyzed the development of telecommunications in Latin America, since 2000. The recent trends in these countries are mostly privatization and liberalization of the communication market. There is also a rising on convergence regulation, although the fact that each country has his own legislation.

Paschal Preston warned for the fact that the crisis is mainly about structural changes and specially in the case of journalism, in the last two or three years, have been increasing. For conclude, he said that the journalism crisis began before the financial crisis.

From Massachusetts, Paula Chakravartty studied the relationship between journalism and the kind of news. For the investigator, there was an exponential increase of economical news in the Asian countries.

Finally, Laura Bergés, from Barcelona, questioned what kind of crisis affect journalism. Her investigation is mainly about the evolution of spanish media business (television, radio, daily press and internet). More and more, the last one factor, depends on political and media system.

Luciana Silva, Patrícia Silveira and Sofia Gomes

Islam, Media and Public Sphere

“Islam, Media and Public Sphere”, a session included in the Islam & Media working group, started around 16:30 and was chaired by Jack Lule, from Lehigh University, USA. Martina Ambrosini and Bushra H Rahman were speakers in this session with the Islam’s influence on media as center of the discussion, in a room with few participants.

Jack Lule talked about his work, “The rise and fall of the public sphere in Muslim society: Media and Malaysia”. “The public sphere is something very complex and confuse, that mixes politics and religion”, said Jack Lule. In a muslim major society, where the media is controlled by political parties, as an attempt to minimize the public opinion, “surprisingly neither the internet or the new media are limited”. As a result, the public sphere and opinion is growing in this country.

The italian Martina Ambrosini, from the University of Pisa, explained her study “Pope Benedict XVI and the Ratisbone accident: The representation of Islam and the ‘clash of civilization’ in the Italian Media”. She compared the ways that six italian newspapers exposed the Rastibone accident and how they treat the islamic community since then, leading to a “clash of civilization”. “What people must understand is that the media scene is one, but with different points of view. The clash of civilization will continue”, said Martina Ambrosini.

Bushra H Rahman, from the University of the Punjab, Pakistan, presented her study “Coverage of women in the religious magazines of Pakistan”. She analyzed five different publications, in an attempt to understand how the women were treated in the press.

Lara Mazurski, a speaker from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, was not present in the session.

Helena Nunes and Mafalda Trindade

Television in political campaigns

The session “Political campaigning on television”, one of the conferences included in the Political Comunication Research section, started around 14:30 with Barbara Wolf Ludwig Maximilian, Thomas Koch and Andreas Fahr, from the University of Munich, Germany. They developed “The influence of verbal and visual information on candidate evaluation in presidential debates”, a study in which they analyzed the influence of personal characteristics or any other non-verbal information of the candidates in the people’s opinion.

Marko Bachl e Arne Spieker, of Hohenheirn University, Germany, created a work called ‘Opening the Black Box: Exploring Immediate Audience Responses to Rhetorical Strategies in televised debates’. They spoke about the importance of the debates in the German television in the people’s political decision; the influence of the televised debates in the change of the opinion about some candidate.

Christina Holtz-Bacha, Jacob Leidenberger, Philippe J. Maarek, from the university of Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne, in France, and Susanne Merkle, from the Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, presented a study named “Campaigning for Europe. Political advertising in France, Germany and the UK during the European election campaign”. They compared the different mediatic formats, the most important topics approached during the campaigns in each country.

Susanne Merkle, presented another study: “«Sego», «Sarko» and the others: political TV advertising in France during the 2007 presidential election campaign”. She compared the numbers of spots each candidate used in his campaign as well as the different formats and the influence of the personal values of the political contestant.

The session ended with the presentation of Jose-Carlos Lozano, of the Technologico de Monterrey, in Mexico, with his study “Clowns as critical inquirers in Mexican national television: political humor and satire in the weekly nightly show «El Notifiero»”. He afirmed that “tv has given a new life to the elections”, and alerted for the important role of the new media in the political publicity.

Inês Espojeira and Andreia Mandim

Money, more money and sport

“Media and Sport – An historical perspective” was chaired by Deirdre Hynes and was marked by few speakers. Despite this, the session was very active, with a lot of public questions and analysis on different sports, especially cricket and football.

Mr. Leo Gertrude David, from the Dept. of Electronics and Media Tech of Karunya University, India, spoke about media and sports in India, explaining why is cricket the most famous sport. “30% of Indian children under 15 years unknown of the existence of other national sports beyond cricket. Hockey, tenis and badminton are just remember on the Olympic Games”, says Mr. David.

From Germany, Lothar Mikos approached the TV’s investments on four of the most important football leagues: Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga. Through his presentation, the public could conclude that TV channels spend a lot of money during the last years to acquire television rights of these leagues.

Based on British sports, Raymond Boyle, of University of Glasgow, gave prominence to the relationship between policy and sports, football mainly. “The Scottish sports hierarchy is football, football and football.”

Diogo Soza and Pedro Nogueira

Media, Public Opinion and elections

The third session of the section “Mediated Communication, Public Opinion and Society” was about “Media, Public Opinion and Elections”. Hilled Nossek chaired the discussion.

Patricia Andrade, from Mexico, talked about her research which objective is to analyze the relation between the written press and the electoral behaviour, in Mexico.
German Sanchez was the second participant and talked about politics campaigns, particularly about Obama’s campaign. For this study, German considered many factors like the politic, social and economic environments.
Ângela Moraes, from Brazil, analyzed the media in the electoral context and the transformation of public-private relationship. Ângela concluded that the public-private sphere is seen as impenetrable categories.
Paul Schutte, original from South Africa, talk about intercultural problems, mainly in his country. Schutte concluded that the reasons to the intercultural problems are the past that is still present in the minds of everyone and therefore violence is used to solve problems.

Sofia Gomes and Luciana Silva

Emerging Scholars Network Session

The aims of ESN (Emerging Scholars Network) is to bring 'young-at-heart' scholars together and to create lines of communication with researchers internationally. Their first session started with Hyunwoo Lee from Seoul National University, who presented an analysis which regards the network pattern of a joint submitted bill in the national assembly standing commitee. His research focus is the usage of social network and to domonstrate his ideas about it, he made a case study about the Committe on Broadcasting & Communications in South Korea.
After him, the session continued with Last Moyo from University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, whose paper is "Blogging Down a Dictatorship". Human rights, citizen journalism and the right to communicate in Zimbabwe are the topics of his paper. The researcher questioned how African citizens, from Kubatana city, have been adpating their lives to the arise of new media.
Another interesting paper from this session was elaborated by Katharine Reed Allen, from Pennsylvania State University, USA. Her article title is "Generacion Y: The Emerging Voice of Cuba". From an ideological discourse analysis, the author presented her results considering the information she collected from Cuban websites.
The last paper of the session was "Terrorism and Public Opinion: Rethinking the Role of Virtual Communities". Elaborated by Dana Janbek, from Lasell College, USA, and Paola Prado, the reserarch regards concepts like cyberterrorism. Both authors made a quantitative analisys which shows that the number of that type of websites and its visitors are higly increasing during the last decades.

Raquel Lobão e Renata Freitas

PANOS panel: society and the new technologies

After Carlos Lopes’ presentation, Murali Shanmugavelan, Head of PANOS’ Information Society Programme, presented the work of his organization. With 27 offices spread through out the world, this is an institution that seeks to promote the use of new technologies to empower excluded communities.

According to Mr. Murali, “mobile phones are the most accessible technological tool” and through its use, people can get more political or health related information, for example.

Wamuyu Gatheru, a public sector Governance Adviser working in Nairobi, Kenya, showed how the local radio stations keep communities informed about the Proposed Constitution of Kenya. David Souter reinforced the importance of new technologies in social development.

Diogo Soza and Pedro Nogueira