Latvian Scientists at ECREA Conference in Germany

ECREA is the leading European media scholars association, and Professors and PhD students of Communications Science have been its members for several years. ECREA organises conferences every two years (the last one took place in 2008, in Barcelona, Spain, while the next is expected in 2012, in Istanbul, Turkey). Prior to each conference a thorough application selection takes place. This year the event gathered nearly 1000 participants from 57 countries (not only from Europe, but also, from New Zealand and Canada); and about 790 papers were presented at the Conference. This year the delegates from Latvia discussed 4 of 17 parallel thematic sections: Audience, Gender, History of Communication and Journalism Studies. At the Conference keynote speeches where made by a number of European and world known scientists, whose works had been previously referred to by many students. For instance, Kevin Robin, a researcher of identity, spoke about multicultural communication, Paolo Mancini, a media system expert, discussed the causes and consequences of the little popularity of comparative studies, while the discursive structure of crises in Europe was explained by Ruta Wodak, one of the Discourse Theory and Methodology founders. Her research on national identity, discrimination and qualitative study methods of media texts is also topical at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Within the framework of the Conference the PhD students had the opportunity to talk to the notable Scholar, who also expressed a wish of visiting Riga and, possibly, co-operating with the teaching staff and students of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Denis McQuail, the well-known scholar of Mass Communication, was also among the participants of the Conference and presented already the sixth edition of his major work McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory. In the preface to this book he expresses gratitude to the Professors of UL – Inta Brikše and Vita Zelče, and, in a later conversation, the Scholar also recalled his visit in Riga three years ago, when he held a guest lecture and a seminar for PhD students at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Translated by students of the professional study programme Translator of the University of Latvia.