Welcoming speech at the international scientific conference “Communication and information sciences in network society: experience and insights. III” by prof. dr. ANDRIUS VAIŠNYS
“A dream is a scripture, and many scriptures are nothing but dreams”
Dear Colleagues,
Is someone has not read The Name of the Rose, then he or she has at least been to Prague, or more precisely – the Prague Cemetery.
In recognising Umberto Eco’s wisdom, we have to admit: we move from century to century between and with scriptures.
And with dreams.
Today we are used to not being afraid of the flood of scriptures. And we call almost everything around us ‘media’.
I think that is why we are constantly in a maze.
How did this happen?
Here in Lithuania, we looked around one day as if we had been awakened from a dream, and saw that we were surrounded by media.
The force of the mediatised world seemed so strong that 25 years ago, we decided to found the Faculty of Communication at Vilnius University.
And 25 years later, you can say that no one lost their hair because of it; on the contrary – communication is a standard term in political, economic and military life.
However, in observing the outside world, it begins to seem that communication is a time where there is no time for a book.
The real source is the dream.
For a journalist can tell dreams, and we have to believe that it is scripture.
The journalist interviews a witch on a TV show, and she reports that – attention, please – a year or two will pass and a liberal will become president. Is that political communication?
Then I nearly believed that we need a new study programme called something along the lines of ‘Sorcery Studies’. After all, this is more viable than some kind of analysis.
Maybe it could just be called ‘Dream Communication’. A journalist who had completed studies with us would go and ask a witch who was also an alumnus.
It would be good for both of them. Political analysts are not necessary at all.
But it’s a good thing that we didn’t rush.
Now that liberal is suspected of trading in influence and is being pushed out of politics, and a search warrant has been issued for the television station.
The witch is losing popularity. It’s about time that kind of communication be studied.
In other words, we experienced just about everything over those 25 years, but we’re still holding on to our books and observing:
Who,
Is sending
What,
To whom,
Over which channel.
Enjoy your work.
Those were a few reflections dedicated to the author of The Name of the Rose.
Welcoming Speech by the President of the Lithuania Research Council prof. dr. Valdemaras RAZUMAS
Welcoming Speech by Vice-rector of Vilnius University prof. dr. Rimantas JANKAUSKAS