Book launch of Portuguese translation of "Media and Participation"

This book focuses on participation, which has become fashionable again, but at the same time it has always played a crucial role in our contemporary societies, and it has been omnipresent in a surprisingly large number of societal fields. In the case of the media sphere, the present-day media conjuncture is now considered to be the most participatory ever, but media participation has had a long and intense history. To deal with these paradoxes, Media and Participation looks at participation as a structurally unstable concept and as the object of a political-ideological struggle that makes it oscillate between minimalist and maximalist versions. This struggle is analysed in theoretical reflections in five fields (democracy, arts, development, spatial planning and media) and in eight different cases of media practice. These case studies also show participation’s close connection to power, identity, organization, technology and quality.

Paulo Faustino (Media XXI, Universidade do Porto/ Escola Superior de Comunicação Social) opened the book launch, giving the floor to two respondents, who analysed the book's merits:

Nelson Pinheiro (Universidade de Lisboa/ FLUL - Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa) and Cláudia Álvares (ULHT - Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias e CIES/ ISCTE-IUL).

After these two talks, Nico Carpentier, took the floor and provided a series contextualisations about the book. After that, there was a Q&A session.

The Portuguese translation: Media e Participação

The (original) English version, in open access: Media and Participation: A site of ideological-democratic struggle

(Image removed) Nico Carpentier at the book launch event in the Lisbon bookshop Bertrand Colombo. Photo: Rita Justino.

(Image removed) Book launch event poster.

Nico Carpentier is professor in media and communication studies at the Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University.