We have just published the 2026 call with the PhD positions at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at Charles University (Prague), for its English-language PhD programme in Media and Communication Studies. You'll find them here: iksz.fsv.cuni.cz/en/admission....

Today, the European Parliament "Strongly condemn(ed) the arrest, prosecution and sentencing of Bahruz Samadov and Igbal Abilov on politically motivated charges". Thanks to all who worked so hard to bring these dreadful events to the EP's attention. Full text: www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/docume...

The #MeDeMAP seminar "Regulating Media for Future Democracies: Political and People's Voices" will take place on 13 January 2026, from 9:30 to 11:30, in the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium. Registration is at bit.ly/FutureDemocr...

PNBonline just published a short piece on AGON: Constructions of Democracy, written by Pedro Pinto de Oliveira and Safira Campos. It's in Portuguese, and you can find it here: pnbonline.com.br/nico-carpent...

The European Journalism Observatory just published an article, by Štěpán Šanda, about the use of audiovisual/film essays in academia. In that article, our new film essay 'AGON: Constructions of Democracy' features as one of the examples. The article is here: cz.ejo-online.eu/7969/nova-me...

On 28 January 2026, from 3 to 5pm, #CULCORC is organising (in collaboration with the #MeDeMAP research project) the seminar "The Czech Citizen Parliament: Analysing Media Change, Participation, and Democracy". More at culcorc.fsv.cuni.cz/outputs/semi... All welcome!

The European research project #MeDeMAP will hold a seminar on the relationship between media, data and democracy on 13 January 2026 (from from 14:00 to 17:30). The seminar will take place at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Belgium. Registration is now open at www.medemap.eu?p=1694

Today is the letter-writing marathon at Charles University, for the release of our PhD student Bahruz Samadov. Bahruz was wrongfully convicted of high treason and sentenced by an Azerbaijani court to a prison sentence of 15 years. More at www.researchcenterdesire.eu/bahruz-samad...

Good to see the faculty of social sciences @cuni support for Bahruz Samadov

Feel welcome to join the 2 December 2025 letter-writing marathon in support of the Charles university PhD student Bahruz Samadov, convicted for his critical stances towards the regime in his native Azerbaijan. For more information, see fsv.cuni.cz/en/news/lett...

The IAMCR 2026 call for papers is out. This year's theme is "Peripheries and Connections: Media, Communication, and Transformation". More at iamcr.org/galway2026

The full video of the #MeDeMAP Round Table on "Imagining New Relations for Media and Democracy: Beyond Defeatism" is now available at bit.ly/MediaDemocra.... It took place on 8 October 25, at the Universidade Lusófona, in Lisbon. Warm thanks to CICANT.

Today, we had a great round table about "Democracy and media in Europe" in Uppsala, Sweden. Warm thanks to Göran Svensson, Johan Lindell and Matilda Tudor for joining the round table (and for all the new ideas), and to Peter Jakobsson for organising and chairing the event. Always great to be back ;)

The second #MeDeMAP save-the-date: In the morning of 13 January 2026, we will have two round tables and a film screening, in Brussels. The round tables are on the EMFA and on the results of the citizen parliaments. More information, including a pre-registration email, is at www.medemap.eu?p=1634

A first #MeDeMAP save-the-date. In the afternoon of 13 January 2026, we will organise a debate about the (future of) democracy and journalism, and a workshop on the MeDeMAP database/map, one of the major outcomes of this research project. More soon at medemap.eu and medemap.fsv.cuni.cz ...

For those in/around Uppsala, Sweden, on 13 November: we'll have another round table discussion on the Democracy and Media in Europe book. All welcome. See also www.uu.se/en/departmen...

This week at #CULCORC, we ran a PhD course on Discourse Studies and Method: Using Discourse-Theoretical Analysis and Discursive-Material Analysis. Today, the last day, we couldn't resist the opportunity for a group photo. It was a pleasure to work with all of you, and I wish you the very best :)

The report of my short visit to the Academy of Film and Creative Technology (AFCT) at XJTLU just got published, and it really captured the atmosphere of that visit (thanks to Yunyi and Wenzhen Li for the report). It shows that I had fun ;) See: www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/news/2025...

Today, we had a lovely seminar on the Czech citizen parliament on media and democracy (a part of our #MeDeMAP project). Special thanks to the Institute of Policy Studies of the National University of Singapore, and in particular Nicholas Thomas, for organising it and to Vaia Doudaki for joining me.

Today was the première of the film essay 'Agon: Constructions of Democracy' in Kino Ponrepo in Prague, followed by a round table with the directors and DoP. Most enjoyable. With my warn thanks to my colleagues and the entire cast. More about the film essay at www.constructionsofdemocracy.eu

There are still a few seats left for the première of AGON: Constructions of Democracy, on October 23, 2025, in Kino NFA Ponrepo, in Prague. You can register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... For more information about the film essay, see constructionsofdemocracy.eu

Amnesty International Belgium delivered 10,787 signatures to the Azerbaijani Embassy demanding the release of activists, academics, and journalists imprisoned there. Bahruz Samadov, a PhD student at Charles University, is one of them. Special thanks to AI for keeping his cruel destiny on the agenda.

On 8 October we had another round table on democracy and media in Europe, this time in collaboration with CICANT, in Lisbon. The report is here: cicant.ulusofona.pt/agenda-news/...

#MeDeMAP round table on democracy and media about to start in Lisbon. Special thanks for the CICANT folks for making this possible.

The print copies of the "Communication, Media, Cultural Industry" book arrived in Prague. An impressive and fitting tribute and goodbye to the dear Fausto Colombo. I was happy to have a modest contribution there, with Vaia Doudaki and Kirill Filimonov. Ciao, Fausto

Happy to see another book review on our Democracy and Media in Europe book, this time in the European Journal of Communication. Thanks to Tingting Hu and Xinyi Wu for their gracious comments (and for correctly pointing to the need to move beyond Europe). See doi.org/10.1177/0267...

CULCORC produced a one-page note on some of the outcomes of the #MeDeMAP research project. With thanks to Karolína Šimková and Jeffrey Wimmer. You can download the note here: www.medemap.eu/wp-content/u...

We'll have another #MeDeMAP roundtable on media and democracy in Europe, this time in Uppsala, Sweden, on 13 November 2025. Special thanks to Peter Jakobsson and the UU dept. of Informatics and Media for their support. All welcome ;)

Planned and published articles and books posters at the #MeDeMAP meeting, on media and democracy. Always good to take stock at a research consortium meeting, and take time to celebrate

The #culcorc team at work at the #MeDeMAP consortium meeting in St. Pölten (Austria), with the first results of the analysis of the Czech citizen parliament on media and democracy.

The sixth and last #MeDeMAP consortium meeting has begun. Three days of discussions about media en democracy in the Austrian city of St. Pölten, with a great team.

Last week, Amnesty International released another Urgent Action Alert for Bahruz Samadov and Igbal Abilov, two academics sentenced in Azerbaijan to 15 and 18 years resp., for high treason: www.amnesty.org/en/documents... For more information on Bahruz see www.researchcenterdesire.eu/bahruz-samad...

Today, on 22 September 2025, Mazlum Kemal Dağdelen successfully defended his PhD at #iksz, Charles University, on the construction of Turkishness in Turkish-Cypriot children's magazines. Congratulations to the new Doctor. #proudsupervisor #IAMCR #MeDeMAP

Happy to see that the piece I did with Ali Dokumacı for Housing Studies has been published. It's called 'Discursive constructions of the home after homelessness', and it is a case study of the Turkish YouTube channel Kadir's Eye, which documents how people leave the streets of Istanbul ...

Happy to share the good news that our new #MeDeMAP article has been published. "The Grounds of the European Democracy-Media Nexus: Four Conditions of Possibility" was published in Media Watch, written together with Vaia Doudaki and Kirill Filimonov. And it's open access at: doi.org/10.1177/0976...

Old-fashioned or not, but I like having a journal issue in my hands. Especially when it has a nice collaborative piece in it, about the institutional and popular construction of European identity ;) & when it's actually open access, at doi.org/10.24434/j.s...

On 24 October 2025, Vaia Doudaki and I will be part of the Webinar "Citizens’ Parliament: Lessons in Public Participation", organised by the Institute of Policy Studies, at the National University of Singapore. More information at lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/news-events/...

IAMCR’s INTER/ACTIONS: Multimodal Academic Communication Task Force launched its report, Media and Communication Research Through a Multimodal Lens, at the 2025 conference in Singapore. The report is short and sweet, and now available for download at: iamcr.org/MCR-report-2...

The print copy of the edited book "The European Media in the Platform Era" just landed on my desk. It has a great line-up, and I'm proud to be part of it, with a visual essay about the construction of Europeaneity. Kudos to the two editors: Stylianos Papathanassopoulos and Andrea Miconi!

Found the printed version of the #MeDeMAP Czech Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy Resolutions Report on my desk. It looks fabulous, I must say. More at medemap.fsv.cuni.cz/op/

Congratulations to Gizem Canalp and Aysu Arsoy, for their new article entitled "Echoes of home: Turkish Cypriot IDPs and home perception in the context of ruins". It's a great analysis on the construction of home (in a sad and tragic context) ... More at www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The première of our film, AGON: Constructions of Democracy, will take place at Prague's Ponrepo Kino, on 23 October 2025 at 1pm. Access is free, but prior registration is required. For more about the film essay, see constructionsofdemocracy.eu

On 8 October 2025, we'll do another seminar on our "Democracy and Media in Europe" book, this time in Lisbon. All are welcome, if you're around ... More information is at ecati.ulusofona.pt/noticias/ima.... Special thanks to the CICANT research centre for making this possible ...

Medijske studije/Media studies just published a review of our Democracy and Media in Europe book. The reviewer, Vanja Pavlov from the University of Split, did quite an exceptional job, which you can find here: hrcak.srce.hr/clanak/483389

On 18 April 2025, I did a talk at the SJTU-IAMCR emerging media forum in Shanghai. The emerging media journal then had the kindness of publishing my talk in their colloquium section. It's now available, in open access, at doi.org/10.1177/2752...

#MeDeMAP goes to Yogyakarta: On 25 July 2025, Vaia Doudaki and I did a seminar entitled "Citizen Parliament on Media and Democracy: A Tool for Democratic Renewal" at the Dept. of Communications of the Universitas Islam Indonesia. Special thanks to he entire UII team for organising.

Call for the release of Bahruz Samadov On 17 July 2025, at the closing plenary at the Singapore conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (#IAMCR), the members present condemned the conviction of IAMCR member Bahruz Samadov. Source: iamcr.org/news/release...

Started my work at the communications dept of the universitas islam Indonesia today. The banner is slightly oversized but still very appreciated, and I'm particularly pleased with the new iteration of the HEH's constructions of Europeanity exhibition.

Next stop Yogyakarta. Looking forward to engaging with the good folks (t)here, with a series of lectures and workshops. The Thursday seminar on democratic renewal and citizen parliaments is open to all - feel welcome if you're around!

Exhibition 1 @ IAMCR Singapore ready for all to see. Come and see the HEH's constructions of Europeanity visual essay, if you're around. Warm thanks to the #wkwsci, the multimodality working group and #iamcr ...