Advisory Board
The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) will contribute a comparative international approach to the project. The SAB members are all situated outside Europe and are experienced and internationally renowned researchers in the field of press freedom and pluralism. The SAB will moreover enlarge the dissemination of the research results via their respective international networks among researchers, the media industry and politics. The SAB will be invited to attend three project meetings followed by public conferences and contribute a comparative international view to research, discussions and publications. The members of the Scientific Advisory Board are:
Peter Gross, Professor of Journalism, University of
Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Professor Dr. Peter Gross is a specialist in international
communication. He has worked extensively in
Western and East/Central Europe, the former Soviet Republics, Taiwan,
India, China and Cuba. He has
served as a consultant on East European media issues for governmental
and non-governmental
organizations. Professor Gross has earned 47 fellowships, research,
lecture, training awards and research
grants, among them from the Harvard university’s Joan Shorenstein
Center on the Press, Politics and
Public Policy and the Fulbright Fund. Peter Gross is the author of
Media and Journalism in Romania (coauthored
with Mihai Coman, 2006), Mass Media and Democracy (2004), Entangeld
Evolutions. Media
and Democratization in Eastern Europe (2002) and many other
publications.
Guy Berger, Professor and Head of the School of Journalism
& Media Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Professor Dr. Guy Berger is active in media training and press freedom
networks in southern Africa, and
was twice elected as deputy chair of the South African National Editors
Forum. He conceptualized and
drove the development of the Africa Media Matrix and initiated the Sol
Plaatje Media Leadership
Institute. He won a Fulbright scholarship to the USA to research
‘African journalism training in an age of
globalization and the Internet’. Professor Dr. Berger focuses his
research on media coverage of poverty,
multi-media and new media issues, African media and democracy and race
and the media.
Lesley Hitchens, Professor and Associated Dean for Research,
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Professor Lesley Hitchens (BA, LLB, LLM) is Associate Dean for Research
in the Faculty of Law.
Professor Hitchens’ areas of expertise are broadcasting regulation,
communications law and media law.
Her research in communications regulation has focused on broadcasting
regulation, with particular
reference to ownership and control and content regulation. Much of her
work has a comparative focus
involving the EU, the US, and Australia. She has held a number of
research grants and has been involved
in projects advising on media reform in Russia. Among her recent
publications are Broadcasting
Pluralism and Diversity: A comparative study of policy and regulation
(2006), Citizen versus Consumer
in the Digital World (book chapter, 2007), Commercial Broadcasting
–Preserving the Public Interest
(article, 2004) and The Role of Sponsorship regulation in
Non-commercial Broadcasting (article, 2004).
Hitchens is member of the editorial board of Journal of Information Law
and Technology and member of
the editorial committee of Communications Law Bulletin.
Vidbodh Parthasarathi, Associated Professor, Centre for
Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
Vibodh Parthasarathi maintains a multidisciplinary interest in the
creative industries, cross-national communication policy, business
history of the media and governance of media infrastructure. He is
Associate Professor and Coordinator-Research & Innovation at the
Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia. He
was earlier associated with the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies,
also at Jamia, the Centre for Cooperative Research in Social Sciences
(Pune), and Manipal Institute of Communication (Manipal). He is the
co-editor of L’idiot du Village Mondial (Editions Luc Pire/ECLM, 2004),
Media and Mediation (Sage, 2005) and The Social and the Symbolic (Sage,
2007). Periodically on assignments in business development and
television production with the media industry, his last documentary
Crosscurrents: A Fijian Travelogue (2001) explored the underbelly of
‘reconciliation’ following a decade of military coups in Fiji. At
present, Vibodh serves as Board Member, Centre for Internet &
Society (Bangalore); Non Executive Director, Kadam Films Ltd. (New
Delhi); and, Independent Director, Centre for Social Ecology (Jaipur).
His research at the Centre explores Indian communication industry under
globalization, governance of media infrastructure, comparative media
policy, business history of the media and environmental movements and
communication practices.