Guest lectures at Roskilde University:
Cees Hamelink and Robin Mansell

The lectures will be held 10-12 am, Friday 27 January 2012
at Roskilde University, room 43.3.29.

Cees Hamelink:
Communication and the Escalation of Evil

The lecture is based on Cees Hamelink’s recent book Media and Conflict. The world faces explosive conflicts about the distribution and scarcity of resources, about ethnicity and religion, and about the risks of urban life. These conflicts can easily spiral out of control toward mass slaughter an evil of huge proportions that is often escalated by the media. What should be done to prevent this lethal trend? We need to understand how the spiral of escalation works. How do media create anxiety, provide space for agitation, and disconnect people?

[Both Cees Hamelink’s and Robin Mansell’s videorecorded lectures are available here.]

Robin Mansell:
Social Imaginaries of Communication Technologies

This lecture compares and contrasts two of most predominant social imaginaries of the causes and consequences of innovations in the production and use of communication technologies, critically considering the way they embrace oppositional visions of the information society and their implications for social change. The differences between them are considered in terms of the normative goals of the ‘good society’, concluding with some observations about what changes in policy and practice are essential.

For a more detailed presentation of lecturers and lectures see leaflet  here.