I Congress 2008

Published: 12.04.2017

The very first Congress of the Polish Communication Association entitled “CREATING COMMUNICATION – CONTENTS, CONTROL, CRITIQUE”, took place in Wroclaw (September 15-17, 2008). More than 300 researchers from different national universities and colleges came to Wrocław to participate in this special event.

The Opening Ceremony took place in the historical Aula Leopoldina where the President of the Polish Communication Association Bogusława Dobek-Ostrowska welcomed all the conference guests. During the first session speeches were made by prof. Marek Bojarski (Rector of the University of Wrocław), prof. Robert Kwaśnica (Rector of the University of Lower Silesia), and prof. Wolfgang Donsbach (the Former President of International Communication Association), prof. Irmina Matonyte (International Political Science Association), prof. Irina Rozina (President of the Russian Communication Association), and Teresa Sasińska – Klas (the President of the Polish Political Science Assiciation). Honorary memberships of the Polish Communication Association were granted to Wolfgang Donbach, prof. Walery Pisarek and prof. Jerzy Mikułowski – Pomorski.

The Congress theme was broad and has been created to incorporate the activities of all 23 PCA`s research sections. Taking into account the internal conflicts in media and communication studies and two main trends: empirical and critical, two plenary sessions were organized, during which exceptional researchers on media and communication: prof. Wolfgang Donsbach, prof. Ignacy Fiut, prof. Tomasz Goban-Klas, prof. Mirosław Karwat, prof. Jerzy Mikułowski-Pomorski, prof. Graham Murdock, prof. Winfried Schulz, and prof. Donald Shaw gave their presentations. The special lecture was dedicated to the comparative approach of analyzing the contemporary media systems, where prof. Paolo Mancini copmared media systems beyond the Western World. On account of the actual problems related to the amendment of the Broadcasting Act in Poland, international experts: prof. Karol Jakubowicz, prof. Poul Erik Nielsen, and former members of the National Broadcasting Council: prof. Stanisław Jędrzejewski, prof. Danuta Waniek, discussed the future of public service broadcasting in Poland and Europe. The greatest interests among Polish media and communications researchers was related to the field of political communication and due to this reason a special plenary session, analysing election campaigns and political propaganda was introduced.

More than 20 speeches were given during five plenary sessions organizing withing the 1st Congress. 52 different panels were organized by PCA`s research sections, where 217 papers had beed discussed.

We would like to thank all the international guests who accepted our invitation for the very 1st Polish Communication Congress and will take a part in those plenary sessions: Wolfgang Donsbach, Irmina Matonyte, Graham Murdock, Paolo Mancini, Poul Erik Nielsen, Vladimir Pčolinský, Irina Rozina, Winfried Schulz, Donald Shaw, Peter Štrachoň, Antónia Štensová, Gerald Sussman, Jaromir Volek and Dominic Wring.