Cosmopolitan Communication Studies: Toward Deep Internationalization - Paperback

by Carola Richter (Editor), Melanie Radue (Editor), Christine Horz-Ishak (Editor)

This volume proposes a "deep internationalization" of media and communication studies by offering insights and guidance on how to integrate a cosmopolitan perspective in a variety of subfields of this discipline. Building on debates on de-Westernization and cosmopolitanism, the contributors advocate for the inclusion of both global and local perspectives and context-led approaches. They argue that acknowledging and incorporating epistemologies, topics, and methodologies from diverse regions, contexts, and backgrounds will enhance the comprehensiveness and relevance of their discipline and foster a more inclusive and meaningful understanding in communication studies.

Author Biography

Carola Richter (Dr. phil.) is a professor for international communication at Freie Universität Berlin. In her research, she focuses on media systems and communication cultures in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa), foreign news coverage, media and migration as well as on public diplomacy. She is the co-founder of AREACORE, the Arab-European Association of Media and Communication Researchers, and director of the Center for Media and Information Literacy (CeMIL) at Freie Universität Berlin. Melanie Radue (Dr. rer. pol.) is a research fellow at the Chair of Development Politics at the Universität of Passau and works on topics of international communication with a specification in de-Westernization. She completed her doctorate at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg on the topic of "Media Systems in Non-Western Contexts. Freedom of the Media in Southeast Asia". Her research interest lies in media freedom, comparative media systems and social movements. Beyond her academic work she is engaged in the design, implementation, and management of media assistance projects. Anna Litvinenko (Dr. phil.) is a researcher at the Digitalization and Participation department at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, and an associated researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. After receiving her PhD in 2007 and until 2015, she was an associate professor at Saint Petersburg State University. There, she headed the German-Russian Centre of Journalism, as well as the Office for International Scientific Exchange. Her research focuses on political communication in authoritarian regimes, internet governance, as well as on comparing mediated communication across different contexts. Hanan Badr (Dr. phil.) is a full professor and head of the Public Spheres and Inequalities Unit at the Department of Communication Studies at Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg, Austria. Her academic socialization has evolved between European and Arab universities where she studied journalism and international communication in Cairo and Erfurt. Her work focuses on global inequalities and communication, journalism and media coverage, comparing media systems, activism and transformation. Anke Fiedler (Dr. phil.) is a researcher and lecturer at the Universität of Greifswald. Her research focuses on media structures in (post-)conflict and transitional states, media and migration, and the role of media development in democratic transitions. Her research has taken her to countries in North and Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. She is a founding member of the DFG network Cosmopolitan Communication Studies (KosmoKW).