8th NOLAN Conference: Struggles over resources in Latin America
ACADEMIC PANEL: CROP is co-organising the panel "Battle over meanings: Media representations of poverty and development in Latin America"
The Nordic Latin American Research Network (NOLAN) is hosting its 8th biannual conference in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the celebrations of the 375th anniversary of the University of Helsinki.
CROP has been selected to co-organise panel C1:
Battle over meanings: Media representations of poverty and development in Latin America
Paper proposals for this panel are most welcome. They should count no more than 1600 characters can be submitted in English, Spanish or Portuguese via the Conference blog. Deadline for submission is 30 March 2015.
NOLAN organising institutions can offer a limited number of travel grants to PhD Students presenting a paper with a focus on development.
A complete list of panels and submission requirements can be found on: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/nolan2015
We look forward to receiving your abstract.
DESCRIPTION OF TRACK C1
Battle over meanings: Media representations of poverty and development in Latin America
Poverty eradication has been defined as “the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development" (OWG proposal for SDGs, 2014). Media shape the public understanding of social issues, influencing also the social construction and deconstruction of poverty and development. Therefore, it is important to know how notions of poverty, and anti-poverty policies and interventions are conveyed by different types of media - from agenda-setting to social media - in Latin American countries.
The progressive turn in the region has influenced the media, contributing to more multifaceted and inclusive representations of poverty and the poor. In the new media, the poor themselves can actively participate in the production and dissemination of contents. This is happening in a context where traditional and media corporations are still dominant actors in the regional battle of meanings and politics. Power and influence are struggled over by contending sectors trying to bring their ideologies and interests forward.
We call for papers from different disciplines and theoretic-methodological backgrounds aiming to analyze the connections between media, poverty, and development in Latin America, for instance, through the following questions: What are the connections between knowledge, power and ideologies in the representations of poverty? How the media texts on poverty, inequality and development reflect, and potentially affect, the prevailing social power relations and/or social understanding of these phenomena? What consequences the representations may have to the poor themselves and to progressive social policies? How mainstream representations are challenged? How can media promote social change?
Chairs: Alberto D. Cimadamore (CROP/University of Bergen), Johanna Kivimäki (University of Jyväskylä) and Jairo Lugo-Ocando (Univesity of Sheffield)
