The symposium, co-organised by Loughborough’s Dr Yuval Katz, brought together media scholars engaged in some of the most urgent questions in the current political conjuncture, where authoritarian populism is on the rise and suffocating pressures are put on DEI initiatives.
The event explored several key questions: How should we understand and analyse the voices of marginalised communities who are challenging those in power? How can we interpret their media work, which offers alternative perspectives and challenges mainstream ways of thinking? And how can we, as media scholars, approach this work with care and sensitivity, ensuring that our research does not put them – or ourselves – at risk?
The symposium was an open invitation for scholars to think critically about counter-research and counter-discourse. It was especially valuable for early-career scholars who struggle to find institutional and peer support for work that is dangerous and difficult to explain, as it often focuses on examples outside the Anglo-American cultural spheres.
It started with a roundtable discussion with the network’s core members, asking what counter research is and what it can do. The conversation with the audience led to a deep reflection on the opportunities and risks associated with this type of research. Later, there were two further roundtables focusing on ethical challenges and the politics of representation in counter research.
One of the highlights of the symposium was the keynote address by Professor Natalie Fenton from Goldsmiths, University of London. She spoke passionately about the need to move beyond research that focuses exclusively on diagnosing problems in society, which has been the primary focus of critical media studies, and instead offer a viable, practical vision for a better future. Fenton spoke about the urgent need for honesty in academia, in which scholars “need to know where they stand and what they are going to do about it” through brave engagement with political issues.
This symposium was the starting gun of a series of events and scholarly collaborations between members of the network and beyond.