"When we think about journalism, we typically think of the present: headlines, scoops, news updates, and breaking news. But journalism is also about the past." It was with these words that Barbie Zelizer, a specialist in journalism studies, began the conference entitled "When the Past Drives the News, and Why We Should Care", at the headquarters of Universidade Católica Portuguesa, one day before being awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the university.

Director of the Center for Media at Risk at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, Barbie Zelizer is an award-winning journalism researcher specializing in crisis, culture, memory, and images. She is co-founder of the Lisbon Winter School for the Study of Communication, at the Faculty of Human Sciences (FCH). "Professor Zelizer has authored or edited 16 books, including several award winning books, and has published more than 150 articles, book chapters and essays," explained Nelson Ribeiro, Dean of the FCH.

"In her most recent book, The Journalism Manifesto, that she co-authored, she explains quite brilliantly how and why journalism needs to change if it wants to remain as a pillar of democracy", added the Dean.

Her next book, which she is now finishing, will be about the Cold War and how it drives journalism today. A topic she chose to present at the conference, sharing the research she has been developing.

"I really started thinking about the Cold War and what journalism looked like in the Cold War in my earliest days here at Católica. I remember coming to conferences about latency, and peripheral modernities and the Cold War was just everywhere in my thinking", Zelizer shared, adding she consolidated her thoughts on this topic. "thanks to this collaboration that has been ongoing with Católica and the Faculty of Human Sciences."

"The increasing relevance of the Cold War, right now, has intensified almost beyond comparison, and it is certainly more relevant now than it was to begin with", she explained, also highlighting the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine. "It has become painfully clear that mindsets from the past go where they want, they go at their own vallition, they travel across geographies in unreliable, unpredictable, and often irrelevant ways. So Cold War mindedness, though it started as a pact within the United Stated, permeates newsmaking in many places", she clarified.

Zelizer looks at the past to understand current journalism. "I'm not just thinking of news archives, I'm thinking about routines for breaking news, sourcing conventions, storytelling formula, rules for using images. Decision making in journalism comes from the past, a fact that simplfies how journalists make news, and signals when certain positions and pratices work and don't", she argued. 

Her conference centered on "only one way how the past drives the news, through ingraned mindsets that offer a mode of understanding the world and help journalists determine what's newsworthy and why". The scholar is referring to a "mindset that comes from the Cold War and continues to haunt US journalism as much today as it did then."

Barbie Zelizer's work has been recognized with several awards and distinctions, such as her election to the American and British Academies of Arts and Sciences. For her contribution to the area of Social Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa will distinguish the researcher with the award of Doctor Honoris Causa on February 2nd.

Applications are now open for the Bachelor's and Integrated Master's programmes of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, for the academic year 2023/2024.

From 28 August to 6 September, the 3rd phase of applications for the Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and International Relations will take place, while from 29 August to 1 September, the 2nd phase of applications for the Integrated Master's Degree in Medicine, in Lisbon, will take place.

All the information for applications is available here. See the application calendar. 

Apply here! Join our League.

 

The Universidade Católica Portuguesa is organising the Conference "When the Past Drives the News, and Why We Should Care" with Barbie Zelizer, Director of the Center for Media at Risk at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, on 1 February, at its headquarters in Lisbon.

Known for her work in the field of journalism, crises, culture, memory and images, Barbie Zelizer is the Raymond Williams Professor of Communication. The guest speaker for this session is also co-editor of the academic journal Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism and former President of the International Journalism Association.

The conference will take place in the Sala de Exposições, at the University's headquarters in Lisbon.

The registration period has already closed.

Applications for the Bachelor's and Integrated Master's programmes at Universidade Católica Portuguesa are now open!

The first phase runs from 3 June to 19 July for the courses at the Lisbon campi, with the exception of the International Degrees at the Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, which end on 12 June, and the Medicine course, whose first phase has already closed.

See the full calendar and more information on applying here 

Apply now! This is your dream | Join our League.

The Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the Instituto Português do Sangue e da Transplantação (IPST) organise once again the usual blood collection on November 9 and 10, at Lisbon-Headquarters.

"Giving blood is giving life. A blood donation can save up to three lives and in many situations blood cannot be substituted by any other therapy. A single donation can generate more than 10 blood products of great use for a huge number of patients," emphasises António Medina de Almeida, haematologist and Dean of the Católica Medical School.

The blood collection will take place between 9.15 a.m. and 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., in the room Descobrimentos Portugueses, on Floor 1 of the Library Building. You can also help all those who are in need of a transplant by indicating your willingness to be listed as a possible donor in the National Registry of Bone Marrow Donors (CEDACE).

To take part in the blood collection, you should:

• Be over 50kg;
• be + 18 years old;
• Have breakfast;
• Have a 3-hour lunch digestion;
• Present identification document with photo;
• Hydrate with non-alcoholic liquids before and after the donation.

For further information: Information Office | Floor 2 of the Library Building.

Thanks to Galp's Smart Store, users of the headquarters of the Universidade Católica can now buy convenience products without having to leave the campus.

Located in the headquarters car park in Lisbon, the Smart Store is open 24 hours a day and offers a selection of food, hygiene products and other gadgets. To access it, simply download the Sensei app, which gives users a totally autonomous and fast shopping experience.

Resulting from a partnership between the Retail Innovation Lab (RIL) of the Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Galp and Sensei, the Smart Store was designed to broaden the options available to Católica students, teachers, researchers and staff.

The products available were chosen on the basis of a market study carried out by RIL, ensuring that the offer corresponds to the daily needs of the academic community.
 

Download the app and start enjoying Galp's Smart Store!