The Department of International Relations
2010/2011 Lecture Series
Presents
Andrew L. Giarelli, Ph.D.
Fulbright Senior Lecturer, Comenius University,
Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Visiting Professor, Anglo-American University,
Prague, Czech Republic
In a Public Lecture on
Media and Democracy in the New Mediterranean
Date: Wednesday 11th May 2011
Time: 10.00-12.00
Venue: Old Humanities 105
Democracy movements energized by social media and a new, seemingly fearless generation adept at using these
media are sweeping the greater Mediterranean, from North Africa to the Near East to the Balkans. What are the
benefits and dangers of these new media in democracy’s regional evolution? How have new and traditional media
kept pace with or failed to keep pace with the breathtaking developments of recent months? How have both
authoritarian and democratic governments, not to mention highly structured international organizations, found
their hands forced by disorganized masses of mostly youthful and politically unsophisticated citizens armed with cell
phone cameras and internet access?
Andrew Giarelli is a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the Department of English Language and
Literature, Comenius University, Bratislava and a visiting member of the journalism faculty at Anglo-American
University in Prague. He has written extensively on media and democracy issues for World Press Review, Far Eastern
Economic Review, Newsday, The Oregonian, and other print and online publications including his own blog,
www.meddemocracy.com. He was a Fulbright senior lecturer in Journalism at the University of Malta in 1993.