Writing the Past beyound Boundaries? Transnational versus Comparative Approaches in Communication History

sponsored by:
Fritz Thyssen Stiftung & der Münchener Universitätsgesellschaft

Public and private communication transcending national and cultural borders is not a new phenomenon since the last decades of digitalization and globalization. Since their emergence mass media expanded beyond national borders, and technologies like letterpress and telegraph connected the world and forwarded international communication flows. Merely because transnational connectivity and interrelationships become increasingly apparent given the conditions of digital and online communication does not imply that they could not also be witnessed in the past either, nor does it imply that current phenomena could be adequately understood without their historical dimension. Communicative spaces may have always overlapped with nationally defined territories but not necessarily. There might (have always been?) be more commonalities between members of respective social or cultural groups in different nations than between distinct groups within a state. Hence the concept of nation states as social entities’ containers needs to be supplemented by approaches that are sensitive to the actual transboundary character of media content, media audiences, media production and ownership as well as to the subnational cultural cleavages now and in earlier times. Communication history could combine such sensitivity with an interest for the constitution of communication spaces, for change and persistence of communication processes.

Transnational and comparative approaches in Communication history could help to raise new questions and to find new or complementary answers to existing research issues. How can communication and media history be understood beyond the context of nation and culture? Which analytical potential do transnational and comparative approaches have for the research into communication history? Where are their limits and to what extent can they be combined?

The workshop is dedicated to the reflection upon theory, the state of research as well as to methodical aspects of transnational and comparative perspectives in communication history. Its aim is to identify research potentials within international communication history research. Thus, it aims to create a discussion forum for European perspectives on transnational and comparative communication history from different disciplines such as communication studies and history. The workshop is targeted at PhD candidates concerned with communication and media history.

Program and participants of the Young Scholars Workshop (pdf)