Summer University, Budapest Style

Greetings from Budapest! As a student of CEU's Summer University program, I've taken part in a two-week course centered around the theme of media, democratization, and civil society, co-sponsored by the CGCS at ASC, of which I am now halfway through.


Upon orientation I was thrilled to discover that I'd be part of a class of 35 students representing at least 20 countries, most of which are from Central and Eastern Europe and some from Latin America and Asia. Aside from being great company, some of their own shared stories have since placed my own rather abstract and piecemealed understanding of foreign histories and politics in mcuh more meaningful contexts. My peers at CEU also represent a variety of fields and occupations, including law, journalism and NGO advocacy work, bringing valuable insights to the course discussions and prompting me to consider very seriously the challenges of global and comparative communication studies.

Here are some highlights of the course thus far:

-Dr. Hakan Seckinelgin from the London School of Economics visited us on Tuesday, where he provided a detailed outline of the prevailing contemporary liberal theories of "civil society" and underlined some of their major criticisms and shortcomings. We then discussed the ambiguity of the concept of civil society, including the various interpretations of social relations denoted by the term as well as obstacles to operationalizing the concept due to its intangibility. Most debated were the prevailing definitions of civil society-- the class attempted to tackle questions such as the inclusion of violence as a potentially legitimate force in civil society, as well as the applicability of the concept outside of western contexts.

-On Thursday we took a field trip to the Open Society Archives where we viewed some original pieces of the Samizdat collection, the work of those who independently published and distributed materials using innovative technologies through clandestine networks in resistance to censorship under repressive Communist regimes throughout Central and Eastern Europe. My favorite part of the collection (probably in large part due to my inability to read Russian or Hungarian) were the stamps that were produced and distributed by groups such as the trade union Solidarnost, and, due to the popularity of the movements in Hungary and Poland, regularly accepted by the postal service.

Samizdat works is just one example used in our ongoing discussion of the role of alternative and radical media in the public sphere and civil society. Since the introduction of this topic it has also been hotly debated whether there exists of parallel forms of underground grassroots communication anywhere in the world today.

-We've had the pleasure of a two-day appearance by none other than ASC Dean Dr. Michael X. Delli Carpini during the week, who gave lectures on media effects on political and civic participation and the impact of entertainment media on news and 'civic cultures.' He offered us a historical overview of the changing notions of communicating information to publics, effectively suggesting that news and entertainment, as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries, were not inherently strictly delineated categories of media content. We also considered the possible risks and advantages of the breakdown of this "new" trend of 'entertaining politics.'

Later in the day we engaged in productive (and by that I mean frustrating) deliberation of how to best ensure that the ethical norms of journalism can be applied to entertainment media, which is clearly much the same as news media in its potential consequences (both beneficial and detrimental) for democratic discourse. We essentially concluded that in cases where the right to freedom of expression exercised in entertainment media may be at odds with the norms of democratic media-- such as verisimilitude (my favorite example of such a case being the television series "24")-- the most feasible and effective response is that of critical discourse that perhaps may provide an additional or counter narrative to those posed.

-Finally, the last three days of the curriculum have included student presentations of completed, current, or future research related to the course's theme. They have spanned a wide range of fields and subjects, including media coverage of the Zapatista movement, graffitti in Buenos Aires, online alternative media in China, blogging politics in Romania, and children's media literacy initiatives in Croatia.

On Friday I presented my most recent project, in which I explored the underlying normative and ideological assumptions behind prevailing academic and civic models of global and comparative media systems analysis. I examined Hallin and Mancini's model (2004) categorizing media systems in Western and Southern Europe and William Rugh's (2004) typology of Arab media alongside the annual global press freedom rankings published by international NGO's Reporters without Borders and Freedom House.

I somewhat forcefully insinuated that these academic models are just as normative as the rankings of press freedom, to which some responded with an expected and healthy dose of skepticism. Yet interestingly, and much to my excitement, some students explained their doubts that any of these models could agree with not only the structure of media and political systems in their regions, but also with the views of the people within them as to whether democracy itself is even the ultimate end goal. We then had a fruitful back-and-forth as a class on the feasbility as well as potential benefits and limitations and of bridging the gap between scholarly analysis and civil society.

Pursuing a daily itinerary packed with guest lectures, presentations, and field trips, and of course using the relatively little time left for sightseeing and fun-having, it is no wonder I've squashed my naively optimistic expectations of blogging on a fairly regular basis while here. I've had an awesome time exploring Budapest and learning about its history and culture, sampling its food, and going out with new friends in the evenings to wonderful open-air bars and clubs. The weather is hot but thankfully not as muggy as Philly, and the city has a few great outdoor baths, some of which are even open late-night. In fact, it's a lovely Sunday-- my only one here-- so I better get out now and enjoy it! Ciao!