COST A30: East of West

CMCS coordinated the collaborative research network East of West: Setting a New Central and Eastern European Media Research Agenda (2005-2009), which was funded as a European COST initiative by the European Science Foundation (ESF).

The project brought together some 60 outstanding scholars from 27 European countries. The main objective of the Action was to develop a cutting edge, joint European social science research agenda with a clear focus on newly emerging problems of Central and Eastern European media in a comparative perspective.

The project culminated in the three-day conference Beyond East & West – Two Decades of Media Transformation after the Fall of Communism, which was organised by the CMCS at the Central European University, its partners in the COST A30 project and the International Communication Association (ICA), and hosted by the CEU in Budapest on 25-27 June 2009. The conference brought together 250 leading and emerging media scholars in over fifty parallel sessions, with plenaries featuring Miklós Haraszti, Sonia Livingstone, Elihu Katz, Barbie Zelizer, Monroe Price, Slavko Splichal, Colin Sparks and James Curran.

The conference website includes an overview of themes and speakers. Following up on the conference, the CMCS will publish two edited volumes, one around the conference theme, and another with selected papers from the freedom of speech sessions.

Publications:

• Media, Nationalism and European Identites
• Media Freedom and Pluralism - Media Policy Challenges in the Enlarged Europe
• Comparative Media Systems: European and Global Perspectives