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Bergen Media Use Research Group
Bergen Summer Research School

PhD course: Media use, social inequalities and citizenship

Hallvard Moe, Jan Fredrik Hovden and Kim Schrøder welcome PhD candidates to explore key challenges within media and democracy in Bergen from 8-18 June 2020.

Bergen Summer Research School
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The course «Media for democracy» is part of Bergen Summer Research School and provides an up-to-date engagement with research on the relationship between media use, social inequalities and citizenship. Particular attention is given to a critical discussion of media in a datafied age.

The course is led by Professor Hallvard Moe and Professor Jan Fredrik Hovden at the University of Bergen. Professor Kim Schrøder from Roskilde University, Denmark, will also lecture the course.

«Media for democracy»

Citizens rely on the media to help develop resources for public life. Their engagement with and views on major public issues are informed, shaped and expressed by and through their daily media use, not least via their use of social media.

However, media use has become increasingly personalized and fragmented across technologies and platforms. There is also marked evidence that citizens´ use of media to monitor and connect to such public issues are deeply characterized by social cleavages.

How can we make sense of the role of media for democracy in this situation? Are traditional user patterns transposed onto online and social media? To what extent do media facilitate a sound public connection for its citizens in different societal contexts, so much needed to counter populist propaganda, and what should we expect from citizens’ participation? And what lessons can we learn from comparing developments in different parts of the world?

Together with crosscutting keynotes and social events, the course will help participating PhD candidates to develop skills to create actionable knowledge.

You can find more information about the course here.

Credits

Participation is credited under the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Participants submitting an essay, in a form of a publishable manuscript of 10-20 pages, after the end of the summer school will receive 10 ECTS. It is also possible to participate without producing an essay. This will give you 4 ECTS.

Bergen Summer Research School welcomes a total of 100 PhD candidates to take one of six parallel PhD-level courses, including media & democracy, climate governance, sustainability, global food systems and migrant health.