Hello, Jeremy.  Happy New Year and hope you're well.
 
Could you please post the following notice about the June 1998 Union for
Democratic Communications (UDC) meetings in San Francisco to SCREEN-L.
 
(This presumes you've not already done so, from another source, but I
doubt it, as I'm the member of UDC who volunteered to post things to
Screen-L and H-Film.  I just say this as I'm not currently on SCREEN-L
myself--my having needed to cut back from all the volume of on-line mail
I was getting!)
 
Please let me know if there's any problem with this, OK?    Thanks!
 
Best, Ramona Curry
[log in to unmask]
 
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The Union for Democratic Communications (UDC) invites participation in
its next international meeting, June 11-14, 1998, in San Francisco,
California, addressing the topic "Media, Democracy and the Public Sphere."
 
UDC welcomes papers, audiovisual works, panels, workshops and projects
that break with traditional, monological approaches, to promote dialogue
and interaction around questions of critical communications and media
activism, as suggested below.  Please send proposals for presentations
by no later than MARCH 1, 1998, to
 
        Prof. Bernadette Barker-Plummer
        1998 UDC Conference Chair
        Department of Communication
        University of San Francisco
        2130 Fulton Street
        San Francisco, CA 94117     email: [log in to unmask]
 
 
The UDC steering committee suggests the following perspectives on
the conference topic, "Media, Democracy and the Public Sphere":  the mass
media are flourishing today;  a democratic public sphere is not.  What,
then, are the possibilities of resolving the conflicts between
a "mass" media and a "democratic" public sphere?
 
Facets of this question which participants may wish to address include
the concept of "the public interest"; the role of public media systems in
the creation of a democratic public sphere; the role of media policy in
helping or hindering democracy; the role of media in (trans)national
"democratization" processes; the dissemination of radical claims through
alternative, community and mainstream media; the ways in which the
everyday media practices of the public help or hinder the creation of a
democratic public sphere; the education of media workers in the interest
of democracy; and the utilization of information technolgies for and
against democracy.
 
The host institution is arranging affordable conference housing on the
campus of the University of San Francisco, which, however, requires timely
registration.  Please send in your proposal early to faciliate
rapid notification of acceptances in early March!  The San Francisco host
committee is also scheduling plenary sessions with featured speakers and
joint evening outings into the city.  This promises to be an very engaged
and productive gathering of international media activists, practitioners,
theorists and historians. Please contact Prof. Barker-Plummer, conference
chair, with any questions, Email: [log in to unmask]
 
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