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Peter Bajomi-Lazar, Budapest Business School The world wide web has eased access to information for all, and yet it has de- stabilised knowledge. How is this possible? A very brief overview of the history of knowledge tells us that the rise in the number of information sources has been coupled with a growth in the unreliability of information. Users of the net may rightly feel they live in an era of misinformation and disinformation, online propaganda and fake news, conspiracy theories and urban legends.  It was 75 years ago, in July 1945, that Vannevar Bush published his now famous paper in the Atlantic magazine, presenting the idea of the ‘memex.’ The inventor sug- gested to link distant computers in order to create a huge network where “wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear.” The new technology would make information accessible for all and serve the whole of society, he argued. The intelligence thus gathered and catalogued would stabilise human knowledge. The world wide web, created in 1990, is based on the principles outlined by Bush. But users of…

By Péter Bajomi-Lázár, Budapest Business School. Suppose your father gave you an Agatha Christie crime novel when you were young, and suppose you liked it. You read it in a day, and what you did next was, of course, you went to the bookshelf yourself, you picked another Christie novel, and you read it, too. When your household library was running out of the stories of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, you went to the local bookstore to buy more of the same. This is how we all are. We do things that we enjoy. Our interests, our preferences are part of our identity. Whenever experts speak of the new, digital, social media platforms, one of the first things they express concerns about is the algorithmic nature thereof. Facebook and Instagram, they will say, deliver you content similar to what you have liked before. This is how their algorithms, based on artificial intelligence, work. But they are bad for you, they will add, because the use of algorithms will encage you in “filter bubbles” or “echo chambers,” offering…

By Péter Bajomi-Lázár, Budapest Business School. Media effects research and reception studies affirm that, contrary to popular belief, and even though we are permanently exposed to media content, legacy media have relatively little impact upon public opinion and voting behaviour in pluralist societies such as the United Kingdom and the United States. For example, Stuart Hall, of the Birmingham School, argues that media users are free to either subscribe to, or reject, or negotiate the dominant meaning encoded in media messages. But what explains the limited impact of media? Here are three explanations for your consideration. Early research refers to Leon Festinger’s influential cognitive dissonance theory. For example, Josepf Klapper argues that we use media selectively: we primarily read, listen to and watch outlets that reinforce our pre-existing attitudes and opinions so that we do not need to reconsider our position on issues that construct the very bases of our identity. The ritual theory of communication makes a similar argument. James Carey suggests that media establish a domain “for the creation, representation and celebration of shared … beliefs…

by Peter Bajomi-Lazar, Budapest Business School I am 50 years old and struggling with digital technology on a daily basis. CooSpace, Zoom, Teams, and Modulo: these are just some of the new terms that the current COVID-19 pandemic has taught the people of my age working in higher educational institutions. The current task of swiftly switching to online teaching has been an unexpected and often painful challenge for many of us, as now we are supposed to transfer knowledge to students via a technology that they know much more about than we ever will. When I started working as a journalist in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I wrote my first articles on an old green transportable typewriter. Then I called my editor on the phone, and I faxed him the text. My students, born in the late 1990s, have been raised with smart phones in their hands, and have been mastering digital skills since their early years. The Children of the Digital Age do not learn to cope with digital technology; they live digital. Starting to…

Wir laden herzlich ein zum EU-CAB Tag am 6. März, 9:00 bis 16:00 Uhr. Hier gibt es für alle Interessierten Gelegenheit, das Projekt und seine Methoden kennenzulernen. Dazu wird Dr. Stefan Seidendorf vom Deutsch-Französischen Institut Ludwigsburg den Tag mit einem Vortrag zur Frage „Warum reden wir über Identität?“ bereichern. Wir bitten herzlich um Voranmeldung an ulrike.schneider@dhbw-karlsruhe.de Das Programm des Tages finden Sie hier:Herunterladen

https://youtu.be/oysx8d1M_CE During our Study Programme in Porto, our wonderful colleague Cristina Rebelo from ISMAI organized a panel discussion on topics of Europe and European identity. Here is the video that documents the interesting viewpoints and commentaries of the speakers:- Professor Doctor Alexandra Neves – Vice-Rector of ISMAI-IU- Professor Doctor Angela Becker-  Coordinator of the EU-CAB  Project- Lieutenant Commander Mário Miguel Cortes Sanches (OF-3) - (videoconference)- Doctor Jaime Quesado, Economist and author of the book "MY Europe"- Doctor Luísa Verdelho Alves, Lawyer - European Law and European Integration Debate Moderator: Professor Doctor Cristina Tereza Rebelo

A summary of the project, dating November 2019, established by Prof. Dr. Angela Diehl-Becker for the Conference "InterScience - International Conference on Management and Social Sciences (ICMSS), Modern Management – Directions, Challenges and Changes", that took place on 29-30 November 2019 in Łódź (Poland). Diehl-Becker, Angela: Comparative Analyses of European Identities in Business – and Every-Day Behaviour: Working and Living Together in Europe Sośnicka, Joanna: Identity – a Brief Humanistic Perspective from: Facets of Managing in Cross-Cultural Diversity, Edited by Ilona Świątek-Barylska and Udaya Mohan Devadas, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95NUjDtOHC0 About the framework of the project An interview with Prof. Dr. Angela Diehl-Becker, coordinator of the EU-CAB project, about the project's issues and design, and impressions of the Study Programmes in Cergy/Paris, Budapest, and Porto.