The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Stockholm

An international congress of media people begins here on Sunday with a call to media scholars and professionals across the globe to come forward for facing the new challenges of media transformation in the 'globalised world'.

"We have witnessed the globalization of traditional group identities and affiliations along ideological, religious, class, gender and ethnic lines, at the same time that new transnational affiliations are being formed", Nobel laureate Dr Vandana Shiva of Sri Lanka said while inaugurating the congress.

More than 950 leading media researchers and professionals from 75 countries including Bangladesh have gathered at the 26th congress of International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) to discuss and exchange ideas on contemporary global media and communication issues.

Four participants, three professors and a journalist, from Bangladesh are also attending the congress hosted by Journalism and Mass Communication Department (JMK), Stockholm University at its historic Aula Magna campus.

"The media's increasingly complex relationships to other factors, together constitute a major challenge for media and communication research as we face the second decade of the new millennium", Dr Vandana Shiva said and urged media scholars and professionals to come forward for facing the new challenges of media transformation in the 'globalised world'.

Mohammad Sahid Ullah, a Bangladesh professor in journalism working in IAMCR at Stockholm University said the media congress will explore the pivotal yet under-researched roles of the media with regard to today's global inequalities including Bangladesh and other developing countries.

Professor Tytti Soila, head of the department, JMK, the congress opening function was followed a musical soiree by the Royal Swedish Opera School also spoke on the occasion.

The IAMCR congress is an international forum where researchers from all parts of the world meet, discuss and exchange ideas on contemporary global media and communication issues.

This years theme is 'Media and Global Divides' that touch upon many fields including globalization, religion and peace communication and role of media and communication in crisis management in the turbulent world.