Data:
Luogo: DAMSLab (piazzetta P. P. Pasolini 5b, Bologna)
Tipo: La Soffitta
MEDIA, DIPLOMACY AND SOFT POWER
Exploring Relations Between Emerging Markets and Western Countries
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Organized by
Marco Cucco (Università di Bologna), Gertjan Willems (University of Antwerp) and Zhan Zhang (Università della Svizzera Italiana)
The Conference is supported by
Department of the Arts - Centro La Soffitta
in partnership with DAMSLab
and is sponsored by the ECREA Film Studies Section
Media products have always been used both as soft power tools for shaping or branding the image and reputation of their producing countries, and as a diplomatic platform for facilitating international relations and trade. Soft power strategies involve public and private stakeholders working in different areas within a wide, complex and well-orchestrated plan. However, due to the fundamental role of culture, media always play a crucial role in any plan of soft power and strategic marketing.
The conference aims at understanding how media products serve for diplomatic and soft power purposes, with a focus on emerging markets. While traditional flows of communication moved from the Western world to other regions (as in the case of Hollywood films), nowadays the most sophisticated and innovative soft power plans are going in the opposite direction: from developing countries to Western Europe and the United States.
Investigating these dynamics is very challenging for scholars. Soft power strategies are often based on “unwritten” political decisions; they usually aim at reaching intangible goals, and their analysis requires expertise from several research areas (political sciences, economics, media studies, etc.). In light of these challenges, the conference aims at a better understanding of the role played by media products favoring a dialogue between scholars from different research fields and geographic areas.
