From the conference website:
Ubiquitous and indispensable, media technologies have taken on an epistemological or even ontological significance:we learn what we know, and we become what we are, through print, tv,digital, mobile and other communications. “No part of the world, no humanactivity,” as Sonia Livingstone says, “is untouched . . . Societies worldwide arebeing reshaped, for better or for worse, by changes in the global media and informationenvironment.” Seeing media as a lens or even as an a priori conditionfor understanding historical, social and cultural change has become increasinglyprevalent and urgent on both sides of the Atlantic. However, with somenotable exceptions, this work has been developing independently, producing awide-ranging if fruitful heterogeneity. On the one side are the interdisciplinaryand theoretically-engaged Medienwissenschaften (media studies), with oversixty programs in universities in Germany alone. On the other side is work developingout of the Toronto school and a variety of theoretical and disciplinarytraditions. The purpose of this conference is to deepen and expand transatlanticdialogue between North America and German-speaking Europe (Germany,Austria and Switzerland) in the area of media theory.
The conference website provides audio-files of the talks.