This Jean Monnet Chair, recently awarded to University Professor Katharine Sarikakis, entails a programme of research and outreach on two interrelated strands: the Europe of crisis and European media freedom.
Europe at what price? Answers beyond silos and post-truths
High-Profile Vienna University Event to Focus on Media Freedom in Crisis-Riven Europe
Round Table launching the Jean Monnet Chair of European Media Governance and Integration
On January 17, the Media Governance & Industries Research Lab has launched the Jean Monnet Chair of European Media Governance and Integration held by Professor Katharine Sarikakis with a round table entitled "Europe at what price? Answers beyond silos and post-truths".
Date & Time: January 17, 2017, 7:00 pm
Location: Großer Festsaal, University of Vienna (Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien)
Panelists
Moderation
European integration is in the midst of financial and political crisis. Increasing economic, social and political polarisation, manifested in the rise of populist parties across the continent, and anti-integration political outcomes such as Brexit, is creating pressure challenges for younger generations, as well as for historically marginalised and new vulnerable groups. Within this context, the idea of Europe has been questioned repeatedly, as seen in media and political rhetoric of Euroscepticism and xenophobia. It has also been steered problematically by European institutions and the Eurogroup, losing much of its legitimacy as an aspiring model in the eyes of European citizens, but also globally. This Europe of crisis and challenged media freedoms will form the topical core of this high-profile panel discussion. Among the key questions to be discussed: How can we move ahead on the issue of Europe, countering communicative silos and the undermining of accurate information and democratic debate? What path can we open up, as a community of experts, journalists, institutions and engaged citizens to respond to the pressures Europe is facing? What mechanisms might lead to effective self-reflection and accountability of European institutions with regard their role in upholding fundamental rights?
Biographies of Participants
Dr. Giovanna Dell'Orto is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Minneapolis, USA), where she teaches and researches the interplay between news, journalistic practices and international affairs, topics she has lectured about to academic and professional audiences across Europe and from China to Chile. She is the author of AP Foreign Correspondents in Action: World War II to the Present and American Journalism and International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2015 and 2013), which analyses foreign correspondence's impact on American foreign policy by studying both news discourses and reporting practices over the last 160 years. She is also the author or editor of three other books on journalism and international affairs, including Reporting at the Southern Borders: Journalism and Public Debates on Immigration in the U.S. and the E.U. (Routledge: 2013).
Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos is heading the Department "Equality and Citizens' Rights" at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). His areas of expertise include equality and non-discrimination, social inclusion, hate crime, and child rights. He studied social science in the United Kingdom and since 1983 has worked in academic institutions, where he lectured and conducted quantitative and qualitative social research. In parallel, during the 1990s he worked in local and regional government, and coordinated national and transnational research projects. Since 2003, when he started working for the Agency, he has been responsible for several of its major publications and contributed extensively to a number of policy documents.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Juliet Lodge (BA MA MPhil PhD DLitt) Emerita, University of Leeds, UK, was co-founder of, and director of the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence and has held a Jean Monnet chair since the Jean Monnet chairs were first launched. She is senior researcher with Saher UK, and Member of the Expert Group on Privacy of the Biometrics Institute, London. She was elected by a European jury European Woman of Europe in 1992 (having been selected as UK Woman of Europe the previous year, and honoured with a Golden ECU and European Woman of Achievement awards). She has published widely on Europe, has worked with academic partners, industry and European agencies in several EU framework research programmes. She created many Jean Monnet courses, held a special chair in European and International politics at the Vrieje Universitet Brussel, and taught at the Institut fuer Hoehere Studien Wien. She engages widely with parliaments, civic society and the private sector on Europe; and presents evidence on many aspects of the EU to parliamentary committees of inquiry, as well as to the European Parliament, European Agency for Fundamental Rights, and other agencies.
Stefania Maurizi works for the Italian newsmagazine "l'Espresso" and for the Italian daily "la Repubblica" as an investigative journalist. She has worked on all WikiLeaks releases of secret documents, partnered with Glenn Greenwald to work on the Snowden files about Italy. She has also interviewed A.Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani atomic bomb, revealed the condolence payment agreement between the US government and the family of the Italian aid worker, Giovanni Lo Porto, killed in a US drone strike, and investigated the harsh working conditions of Pakistani workers in a major Italian garment factory in Karachi. Her educational background includes a degree in Mathematics and an MSc at Imperial College London. Among her publications, "Dossier WikiLeaks. Segreti Italiani" and "Una Bomba, Dieci Storie", translated into Japanese.
Prof. Dr. Katharine Sarikakis is Professor of Communication Science with specialisation in Media Governance, Media Organisation and Media Industries at the Dept. of Communication Science, University of Vienna. She holds the Jean Monnet Chair of European Media Governance and Integration and leads the Media governance and industries research lab, which aims to research and analyse issues, contexts, actors and impacts of media and cultural governance and their underexplored interconnections to citizenship, autonomy and control as they are articulated in the shapes of media landscapes and the relation of citizens-at-large to dimensions of interlocution.
Corinna Milborn is head of news for the Austrian TV broadcaster PULS 4, and anchor of the PULS 4 News Talks show "Pro & Contra". Ms. Milborn also leads political news interviews across the broadcaster. She is particularly interested in the issues of migration, integration, globalisation and human rights. She is the recipient of numerous prizes, among which the Concordia Prize for human rights, the European Award for Excellence in Journalism, the humanitarian prize of the Red Cross from the Heinrich Treichl Stiftung and the Dr. Karl-Renner-Publizistikpreis.