Cosmopolitan Communication Studies: Toward Deep Internationalization

This volume proposes a “deep internationalization” of media and communication studies by offering insights and guidance on how to integrate a cosmopolitan perspective in a variety of subfields of this discipline. Building on debates on de-Westernization and cosmopolitanism, the contributors advocate for the inclusion of both global and local perspectives and context-led approaches. They argue that acknowledging and incorporating epistemologies, topics, and methodologies from diverse regions, contexts, and backgrounds will enhance the comprehensiveness and relevance of their discipline and foster a more inclusive and meaningful understanding in communication studies.

Carola Richter is a professor for international communication at Freie Universität Berlin. In her research, she focuses on media systems and communication cultures in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa), foreign news coverage, media and migration as well as on public diplomacy. She is the co-founder of AREACORE, the Arab-European Association of Media and Communication Researchers, and director of the Center for Media and Information Literacy (CeMIL) at Freie Universität Berlin.

Christine Horz-Ishak (Dr. phil.) is a professor of transcultural media communication at Technische Hochschule Köln. Her research and teaching focus on media, migration and diaspora, as well as on the diversity and participation of minorities in traditional media and in the digital context. She is a scholarship holder of the Initiativprogramm of Technische Hochschule Köln and a founding member of the DFG-Network Cosmopolitan Communication Studies (KosmoKW).

Hanan Badr is Professor and Chair for Public Spheres and Inequalities at the Department of Communication, University of Salzburg, Austria. Her work focuses on the interactions between journalism, media, power, and transformation processes, focusing on digitization and globalization. She held positions at Freie Universität Berlin, Cairo University, Gulf University for Sciences and Technology, and Orient-Institut Beirut/Max Weber Foundation. Her work has been published in Digital Journalism, International Communication Gazette, Media and Communication, and Media, War & Conflict. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Communication. She serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Communication, Digital Journalism, and the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. Her awards include the Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress and the DAAD Scholarship Award. She is elected Chair for Activism, Communication and Social Change at the International Communication Association.