Thomas A. Bauer
Thomas A. Bauer, now Professor Emeritus at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna, started employment there in 1993 as Chair of Audio-visual Media. Over the years he developed a working program in Media Culture, Media Literacy Studies, and Media Theory.
Additional fields of research and teaching so far are: Future Studies, Environmental Communication, Health Communication, Transcultural Dialogue of Religions, Cultural Studies, Migration, Minorities and Social Change Issues.
In addition to theoretical work he is engaged in maintaining a critically reflexive interrelation between theoretical analysis and innovative practice. This has been the reason for co-founding OKTO Community TV Vienna in 2005 as a model of alternative media-work as well as other projects in the field of media magazines.
Among other functions he has been the the publisher of OKTO Community TV Vienna, now Honorary President, and since 2010 the acting president of the ESEC (the European Society for Education and Communication). His academic work always has been oriented to international relations. Based on this interest, he accepted several invitations as a visiting professor at universities in different countries of Asia, Latin America, the USA, and the Balkans. Since 2015 he has been the scientific coordinator of a Media Literacy Program, co-founded by the EU, realized with academic partners from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Netherlands and Germany.
Born in 1945, Diessen/Ammersee. After completing the studies in Philosophy and Theology at several German universities (1971), he completed the studies in Communication and Media Studies as well as in Cultural Sociology as Dr. phil at the University of Salzburg (1973), followed by a Diploma in Group Dynamics, Media- and Communication Training at the “Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Kommuniation und Medien” [International Working Group for Communication and Media] (Graz, Zürich, Amsterdam) in 1976.
Working as an external lecturer at several Austrian universities and publishing a three-volume book on Media Education, in 1980 he received the academic certification of teaching and research (habilitation) at the University of Salzburg. In 1993 he accepted the appointment for a chair-holding professorship at the University of Vienna, in the status of Prof. emeritus since 2013.
Among many books and articles on media literacy, media theory, transcultural communication, his last comprehensive book was published in 2014 as a theoretical framework of cultural studies of societal communication and its relation to media literacy and social change: “Kommunikation wissenschaftlich denken” – [Thinking Communication Scientifically. After that, books and articles on the Mediology of Teaching and Learning have been brought to publication.
