Conference Introduction

 

To commemorate the 50th Golden Jubilee of School of Journalism and Communication of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, an international conference “Comparative Communication Research: Reviews, Showcases, and Theoretical Advancements” is organized to bring together prominent scholars who CCR 11c_maphave been engaging in comparative research in media and communication studies to discuss the current state of the art as well as future challenges and development of comparative communication research, especially amidst rapid social, political, and technological changes. The conference will also showcase significant comparative studies worldwide while putting emphasis on the research in Greater China and East Asia region.

Social scientists have long recognized the value of comparative analysis. However, the research development in the interest of communication has only made remarkable progress in recent 20 years. Yet, the development of comparative research in the field is fairly uneven which makes it quite difficult to evaluate the state of the art in comparative communication research as a whole. Taking this conference as an opportunity, it is hoped that renowned scholars around the world can review and have a discussion on the current status and the state of the art of comparative research in communication studies.

Another focus of this conference is to discuss the epistemological and methodological challenges that new media and globalization bring to comparative communication studies. The rapid changes in society and technology can potentially challenge existing theory on comparative communication studies and provoke new thoughts on developing new theory.

This conference also aims at providing a platform for researchers from different countries to present their recent findings from their own projects while at the same time discussing some of the specific theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges to comparative studies in the East Asian contexts. It is hoped that the exchange of ideas and insight in the conference will foster collaboration between institutes and researchers and bring positive effect in realizing data exchange and intellectual sharing between East and West.

This will be a 2-day event that consists of 8 sessions including a round-table session. Articles presented in the conference will be selected to produce a book volume or a special journal issue.