While finalizing proposals for ICA's 2012 annual conference, many of us have thought about the impact of our scholarship. Should we focus on contributing to a dialogue within the scholarly community or should we primarily aim at benefitting broader communities? Should communication scholarship address social issues? If so, which ones, to what extent, and in what formats?

We approached these issues by asking several established communication scholars to share their thoughts on the social impact of communication scholarship. The scholars, interviewed over e-mail by Diana Nastasia, reflected on both the social issues that their own scholarship addresses, and their opinion on what social issues emerging communication scholars could consider addressing themselves.

Cynthia Stohl, President-Elect of the International Communication Association and Professor at U of California - Santa Barbara, USA, remarked:

"In the past two decades, there have been deep-rooted transformations in the texture and experience of social life. Boundaries and physical distances matter less in determining the shapes of societies, organizations, groups, and relationships than they did in the past. Today, the problems we face are more interconnected, interdependent, and complex than ever before; the solutions require global collaborations across multiple sectors of society. My work focuses on the intensification of global communicative linkages across organizational and interpersonal domains viewed through the lens of the contemporary media environment. From terrorism to corporate social responsibility, workplace participation to collective action, I have always been interested in issues of social responsibility, voice, and the interactional tensions of integration and fragmentation unfolding at every level of community.

"Given the volatility and turbulence of contemporary life, there is clearly not one set of social issues that we can identify as the most important ones to study. Rather, I believe that whatever our focus, be it human rights, the environment, public health, the games people play, or the words people use to name just a few, what makes communication scholarship valuable is when it is theoretically motivated, socially relevant, pragmatically oriented, and methodologically rigorous. It is through communication we evolve our culture, our social structure, our world views and shape our perceptions of what is and what could be. To conceive of and study the world in terms of our communicative connections produces I believe exciting possibilities and great responsibilities."

Michael Bromley, ICA Board Member at Large for Africa-Oceania and Professor at the U of Queensland, Australia, wrote:

"I think the biggest social issue facing communication scholars is communication itself: the modes of communication are evidently changing, but what social realities lie behind this? In my own work, I am looking at so-called citizen journalism, although that has taken me far away from journalism as we understand it normatively, from a view of 'journalism' as one toward a set of social actions among others. We possibly need to think again about what roles communication plays in our social lives, and how it does so, particularly with regard to institutionalization. One the one hand, there is a tendency to see the Arab Spring as a communication revolution driven by social media; on the other hand, there are calls to protect legacy media as vital to democracy. It looks to me like we should be trying to reconnect some of the dots."

Rohan Samarajiva, ICA Board Member at Large for West Asia and CEO of LIRNEasia, provided the following ideas on the issue:

"My answer is influenced by where I stand: South Asia, with 1.5 billion people in economies growing fast, but still with the world's largest concentration of poor people. The biggest challenge for communication scholarship is that of understanding how different groups in society deal with rapid change. The issues range from understanding the lack of trust in the political system, even in nominally democratic countries, to how families deal with extended separations they experience because of the massive growth of migrant labor. Many among the poor (and even the middle classes) are new to electronic connectivity. How does this ability to communicate cheaply across distance affect social, economic and political processes? Perhaps the last question is unique to my region, but the others are possibly not."

Radhika Gajjala, Chair of ICA's Feminist Scholarship Division and Director of American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State U, USA, commented:

"What technologies of power, literacy, and culture play into the 'inter-nets' that weave the online and offline through the rural and urban, through the private and the public through the nation-state and scattered hegemonies? When, how, and why do these "inter-nets" contribute to the production of 'trans' flows of capital? What kind of communicative and technical labor shapes and structures these so-called 'flows?' When is the subaltern brought online and for what purpose? For the subaltern to access capital or for Capital to access the subaltern? These are some key issues explored in my research in relation to neoliberalism, empowerment, voice and socio-economic globalization. In my forthcoming book Weavings of the Virtual and Real: Cyberculture and the Subaltern, I map a particular path in examining how voice and silence shape online space in relation to offline actualities. I examine various relevant sites and intersections through critical lenses enabled by conversations and writings in postcolonial feminist theory, critical cultural studies, development studies, and science and technology studies. In attempting to investigate socioeconomic formations and cultural practices around technology in relation to global/local contexts, I engage in partnerships (local and international). Thus what I consider most important for communication and media scholars to examine are issues related to issues of social change, nonprofit advocacy formats, globalization, feminized and affective labor, and the production of voice and identity in mediated environments.

"Social issues that emerging scholars could address include: communication and social change - globalization, digitalization of finance and representation versus production - affective/precarious labor, consumer culture, neocolonial framings of rural Others."

Laurie Ouellette, Chair of ICA's Philosophy of Communication Division and Associate Professor at the U of Minnesota, USA, discussed the issue in the following terms:

"There are so many social issues to be addressed; my own scholarship investigates the production and regulation of 'ideal" citizens within the context of normalizing technologies, neoliberal social currents and inequalities of class, gender and race. Media plays an important role in defining what and who count within discourses of "good" citizenship, and so I monitor trends across television, online media, and to some extent print and film.

The Philosophy of Communication Division, which I oversee as Chair, has historically been deeply committed to the investigation of power and culture, including the possibilities and constraints of mediated pubic spheres as forums for democratic dialogue; the division has also been a home for critical discussions of neoliberalism, democracy, commodification, subjectification, and other critical issues (see our description pasted below). At this juncture, with growing inequalities across the globe and intensified struggles over the politics of inclusion and exclusion, communication scholars can and should address social issues in their own work. As a discipline, we are poised to help understand the cultural and communicative aspects of emerging social movements for economic equality as well as deepening trends of privatization and inequality."

Dr. Diana Cismaru, ICA member and Associate Professor at the National U for Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest, Romania, wrote:

"At the present time, communication studies should enhance their social impact because communication is a discipline with a rapid development, and also one that has bridged between several social sectors. In order to obtain a stronger impact of communication studies, two factors should be emphasized: the social needs (which involve communication as a solution or as a way to implement the solution) and the social trends (which announce future problems and allow for a proactive attitude). For example, if the actual trends in education show a need to personalize learning content and teaching methods, then research could explore the composition of the learning groups, or new ways of communication among students (e.g. social media as a teaching tool).

"My research topics have social relevance in several areas: (in what concerns energy policies) building public support for measures to diminish gas emissions in the atmosphere; (in what concerns organizational practices) improving internal communication such as to give voice to all employees and to increase team work; (in regards to educational policies) examining public attitudes towards fostering or, on the contrary, limiting the access of high school students to the academic level. All of these topics have a social impact, and have been pursued through interdisciplinary projects which also outline a practical set of solutions in the end. Another topic I have approached recently is the social integration of underprivileged populations such as children with special needs (autism and ADHD), and the communication between majorities and minorities regarding such issues. The outcomes of my research are utilized by NGOs having as a goal the increase in social and educational opportunities of children with special needs.

"The social problems of today's societies (of the Romanian society and of Easter European societies in particular) ask for a stronger connection between scholars and the civil society, and for enhanced application of research results to social settings."