Dear colleague,
Welcome to the website of the Journalism Studies Interest Group (JSIG) at the International Communication Association (ICA). JSIG came to life at ICA, 2004, in New Orleans after 50 members petitioned the ICA headquarter to establish a group on their own. In the meantime, the number of our members is steadily growing, reflecting the increasing autonomy of journalism as a field of inquiry as well as of education.
The founders of the group have realized that, while journalism is widely studied, the individuals behind these different research endeavors often have no forum to communicate with one another. The first task for the Interest Group is, therefore, to create a platform with journalism study as the foundation from which scholars employing different kinds of theoretical and methodological approaches can engage in a dialogue. Another important aim is to facilitate empirical research and bring more coherence to research paradigms. In so doing, the interest group would further support the professionalization of journalism studies and journalism education.
The overall purpose of the Interest Group is to promote journalism theory and research as well as professional education in journalism. The group invites a wide array of theoretical, epistemological, and methodological approaches, all united around an interest in journalism and a desire to enhance existing understandings of how journalism works across temporal and geographic contexts. Journalism studies cut across traditional academic boundaries, and this new group places particular emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of the field.
Thomas Hanitzsch
Ilmenau University of Technology
