ICA member Kevin G. Barnhurst responds to ICA President Sonia Livingstone's "President's Message" column in the November issue of the ICA Newsletter:
Hi, Sonia,
I thoroughly enjoyed your message in the November newsletter. There are even some alternative interpretations to the two forms. One might, for example, think that the comma in a title is marking a break (for a subtitle), as it does in my book with John Nerone: The Form of News, A History. In this case, Communication, Culture and Critique would put communication as the main topic and the other two terms as the approaches of this journal to this topic. Following that logic, the other case, Communication, Culture, and Critique, would place the three in parallel, or descending order of importance, or (as some insist) emphasizing the first and last terms in the series.
Does it matter? Yes and no, as you've shown. The relative importance of the terms will emerge slowly as the participating community of scholars turn it into a history of practices and outcomes. Then we'll be able to try figuring out what it has come to mean.
Best,
Kevin
