On 14 January 2014 Professor Slavko Splichal held a guest lecture at the Society of University Professors in Zagreb, organized by the Institute for Development and International Relations and the Media sociology section of the Croatian Sociological Association. Splichal, PhD, is professor of communication at the University of Ljubljana and a member of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Science. He is the initiator of the yearly colloquium on communication and culture, director of the European Institute for Communication and editor of the journal Javnost. Between 1991 and 1993 he was Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. In 2006 he was a visiting professor at Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania. He actively participated in organizational committees of several international, professional associations and editorial boards of international journals. He published more than 500 expert and scientific works. His latest books in English include: Transnationalization of the Public Sphereand the Fate of the Public from 2011, Principles of Publicity and Press Freedom from 2002, Toennies on Public Opinion: Selections and Analyses from 2000 (co-authored with Hanno Hardtom), Public Opinion: Developments and Controversies in the 20th Century from 1999, Media Beyond Socialism from 1994, etc.
At the lecture Dr. Splichal talked about concepts and paradigms in media and communication research looking back at the long history of the theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of this area. In the debate a discussion arose about current developments in Slovenian and Croatian academic communities, sources of financing and evaluating scientific research, problems that may arise due to the fragmentary nature of the media research field, the connection between fundamental and policy research, etc.
