Católica debates ambivalence and the media at the 4th Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication

The 4th Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication is dedicated to the theme "Media and Ambivalence". It takes place between January 9 and 12 at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) headquarters and at Culturgest.

At the opening session, the President of UCP highlighted the programme's theme as "a timely topic in our uncertain times". Isabel Capeloa Gil emphasised the importance of reflecting on this subject, focusing on some key issues, such as the "increasingly polarized global environment where populism thrives on the critique of ambivalence", the "critical issue in the development of AI in coding an algorithm with ambivalence", and the growing demand on the traditional media for "fast disclosure".

Nelson Ribeiro, Director of the Faculty of Human Sciences, explained that this topic was chosen for the Winter School because, among other reasons, "it is largely absent from the discussions within media and communication studies".

Despite this, Nelson Ribeiro explained that "ambivalence is a key feature of current societies marked by rapid social change that alters established hierarchies and social values".

On the other hand, Alexandra Lopes, Director of the Research Centre for Communication and Culture, suggested that "ambivalence is perhaps a first world privilege, as more and more parts of the world seem to be steeped in black and white perceptions and experiences where the clear-cut mentality of 'us' versus 'them' dominates".

In this context, "ambivalence with its undecidedness, its hesitations, its nuances, may well embody the very possibility of debate and may open up a space that welcomes different takes, different positions, different temporalities," explained Alexandra Lopes. "Understood as such it may represent a trace of democracy, a strategy of resistance against monolithic views of the world, a refusal of rigidit," she added.

The 4th Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication brings together academics and doctoral and post-doctoral students for several days of debate. Guest speakers include Guobin Yang (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania), Dimitria Gatzia (University of Akron), Valerie Traub (University of Michigan), Francis Lee (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Barbie Zelizer, (Annenberg School for Communication) who is also part of the organising committee and was awarded an honorary doctorate by UCP in 2023.