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Dead men's propaganda: ideology and utopia in comparative communication studies

Hosted by LSE Press and the Department of Media and Communications

In-person and online public event (Old Theatre, Old Building)

Speakers

Professor Bingchun Meng

Professor Bingchun Meng

Professor Jeff Pooley

Professor Jeff Pooley

Professor Terhi Rantanen

Professor Terhi Rantanen

Dr Marsha Siefert

Dr Marsha Siefert

Dr Wendy Willems

Dr Wendy Willems

Chair

Professor Myria Georgiou

Professor Myria Georgiou

Who were the key pioneers in the formation of comparative communications between the 1920s – 1950s, and how do their legacies of scholarship and practice inform the contemporary global landscapes of news reporting on war and the dissemination of propaganda?

Exploring Terhi Rantanen’s new book, Dead Men’s Propaganda: Ideology and Utopia in Comparative Communications Studies, this panel will examine how comparative communications research, from its very beginning, can be understood as governed by the Mannheimian concepts of ideology and utopia and the power play between them. The close relationship between these two concepts resulted in a bias in knowledge production in comparative communications research, contributed to dominant narratives of generational conflicts, and to the demarcation of Insiders and Outsiders. By focusing on a generation at the forefront of comparative communications at this pivotal time, this book uses detailed archival research and case studies to challenge dominant orthodoxies in the intellectual histories of communication studies.

Meet our speakers and chair

Bingchun Meng is Professor in the Department for Media and Communications at LSE, where she also co-directs the LSE-Fudan Global Public Policy Research Centre. Professor Meng is currently the Director of LSE PhD Academy and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP).

Jeff Pooley (joining remotely) is Lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication and is Affiliated Professor of Media & Communication at Muhlenberg College. He also directs mediastudies.press, a nonprofit open access publisher in communication and media studies. His teaching and research interests center on the history of communication research, social media and identity, and scholarly communication.

Terhi Rantanen is Professor in Global Media and Communications in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. She is the founder of the Department’s two double MSc programmes, with the University of Southern California (USC), which she directed from 2000 to date, and with Fudan University, Shanghai, which she directed for its first three years.

Marsha Siefert (joining remotely) specializes in cultural and communications history, particularly media industries and public diplomacy, from the nineteenth-century to the present. The most recent of her six edited books is Labor in State-Socialist Europe, 1945-1989: Contributions to a History of Work. Since 2020 she has taught in the CEU Erasmus Master's program, History in the Public Sphere.

Wendy Willems is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. She holds a PhD in Media and Film Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, a BSc/MSc in Economics ('International Economic Studies') and a BA/MA in Cultural Studies ('Cultuur- en Wetenschapsstudies') from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

Myria Georgiou (@MyriaGeorgiou4) is Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Professor Georgiou is the author and editor of five books and more than sixty peer reviewed publications. Her work has been published in English, French, Portuguese, Japanese, and Greek. She has also worked as a consultant for a number of regional and international organisations, most importantly the Council of Europe in three different projects.

More about this event

This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

Launched in May 2018, LSE Press (@LSPress) supports the promotion of high-quality social science research and enables wide public access through the use of open, digital publication methods. We publish books and journals and encourage and facilitate innovative and experimental publications. LSE Press works with authors to develop and launch publications that reflect the LSE founding purpose and mission.

The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. The Department is ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in the field of media and communications (2021 QS World University Rankings).

This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2024, taking place from 19 October to 9 November with events across the UK.

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This public event is free and open to all. This event will be a hybrid event, with an in-person audience and an online audience. 

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For the online event: Register for this event via LSE Live at Dead men's tales: ideology and propaganda wars in comparative communications

For any queries email events@lse.ac.uk.

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