As I noted in this newsletter in August, specifying the charges for ICA's standing committees was one of my first and most important tasks as president. Under the 'leadership' heading on the website, you can see the committee members and their broad charges. I've been working further on the details of these charges with the committee chairs in the last few months. But the committees don't cover everything the association may want done, and each president also establishes one or more task forces to undertake more short-term or exploratory matters as they arise.
In this issue, I report on the two task forces I've just established. They will each complete their work during this year, reporting to the May 2008 Board meeting in Montreal. It will be up to the incoming president, Patrice Buzzanell, to determine whether they are to continue their role.
The first task force was requested by the online Board of Directors' Meeting held in January 2007 and it focuses on fund raising. Undoubtedly, the more money the association can raise, the more it can do, and I probably resemble previous presidents in wanting to take on more than is strictly feasible given existing resources. Its formal membership, and charge, is as follows:
ICA Fund Raising Task Force
Membership:
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Stewart Hoover, U of Colorado (Chair)
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Jennings Bryant, U of Alabama
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Noshir Contractor, Northwestern U
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Ellen Wartella, U of California - Riverside
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John Wiemann, U of California - Santa Barbara
This 1-year task force was formed as requested by the ICA Board of Directors (January 2007). It has a brief to:
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Identify ICA's priorities for external funding;
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Identify likely sources of funds;
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Identify possible contacts or liaison people to request funding from these sources;
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Raise funds!
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Report to the ICA Board Meeting, May 2008.
More informally, as I've noted to the committee, just what ICA needs funds for should be part of the discussion. The key things that occur to me are (a) travel support for the annual conference for faculty travelling from overseas (or, specifically, from UN B and C countries), (b) travel support for the annual conference for students, (c) travel support for an ICA representative to attend ICA-cosponsored conferences (e.g. the regional Inter-America conferences, thus expanding our links with currently underrepresented regions), (d) financial support for those (nonnative English speakers) who could benefit from the Blackwell author assistance programme (to facilitate a greater diversity of scholars to get published in ICA journals), (e) the building in Washington DC (e.g. to 'name' a room/door), (f) awards for ICA members or for specific divisions, or (g) anything else that the association might like to sponsor.
Well, spending money is not the hard part, and of course this task force has no easy brief. We are all, in various ways, already expected to raise funds for our departments, our institutions, perhaps our national communication association, and so forth. Identifying sources of funding for ICA may therefore require some ingenuity and determination from the task force members. However, if anyone reading this has some good ideas or contacts, do please let Stewart Hoover know. And thanks!
The second task force has an easier charge, perhaps, in terms of outcomes, since dollars are harder to come by than ideas, at least for academics. But it has a tricky charge intellectually and politically, I think, both within and beyond the association, for it focuses on media and communication policy. This interest arises from my broad commitment to enhance the visibility of our association's work, and was triggered by a series of recent policy deliberations in which I and others have felt, frustratingly, that communication research was too little recognised, or too often forgotten, in terms of its potential contribution.
For example, in many countries (including my own), there are periodic public policy debates regarding potential media harms to children - most recently, an international discussion over junk-food advertising. But often it is psychological or medical associations - such as the APA in the US - that formally reports, advises, or gets involved, even drawing on scholars who could, with another hat on, contribute to a communication response. In a completely different domain, it appears that media reform movements, or citizens' media initiatives, are gaining impetus in many countries. Again, communication scholars are often involved, but this may not show up in records of ICA's activities. Nor, in many cases, will ICA necessarily have played a role in supporting its scholars as they enter such debates. I have phrased the last sentence carefully, for the role of our association is not to take sides or push a particular agenda. Nor is it to lobby policy makers directly.
However, since many researchers in our field do conduct policy-relevant research, undertake consultancy reports, sit on expert committees, and many other public policy activities, it does seem to me that ICA could support its members in networking, sharing ideas, publicising members' efforts, and so forth, and this would, in turn, enhance the visibility of our association. We do, certainly, hope that policy makers will approach communication scholars, invite our views, learn from our research, even heed our warnings and critiques. Drawing on the expertise of the Communication Law and Policy section in particular, this task force will explore - again I use the word advisedly - the possibilities and the pitfalls in this domain. I do think there may be some activities ICA could undertake fairly easily - networking scholars so those in one country can learn from the experiences of those in another, or publicising in the newsletter and the website the efforts of one or another group of researchers, or monitoring calls for evidence or information and disseminating these among members to encourage participation. I'm sure the task force will come up with some great proposals.
So, the formal membership and charge for this task force is as follows:
Media and Communication Policy Task Force
Membership:
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Bruce Williams, U of Virginia (Chair)
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Georgina Born, Cambridge U
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Susan Douglas, U of Michigan
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Arne Hintz, Central European U
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Haksoo Kim, Sogang U
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Dale Kunkel, U of Arizona
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Shih-hung Lo, U of Taiwan
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Monroe Price, U of Pennsylvania
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Amit Schejter, Pennsylvania State U
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Sharon Strover, U of Texas
This 1-year task force, with members selected by the president, has an exploratory role, namely to consider the following and make recommendations to the Board as appropriate:
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How can ICA support its members in ensuring that their scholarship reaches those actively engaged in media and communications policy making?
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What are the key policy making organizations with which ICA could or should be in active contact (nationally, internationally, United Nations, etc)?
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Are there effective ways in which ICA can liaise with other communication associations to 'speak with one voice' on particular issues?
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How can ICA ensure that its members are kept informed (or can inform each other) of key policy issues and deliberations in the media and communications domain?
I wish to thank the members - and especially the chairs - of both task forces for undertaking this work. We will look forward to the results of their deliberations in due course.
That's it for now. There are lots of other things going on, including preparations for the next Board Meeting (to take place online in January), enhancing transparency by posting all Board agendas and minutes (check this out under 'Governance' on your MyICA page on the website), and much more. Also, the call for nominations for awards is now out - please do take a little time to consider nominating the good work in our field if you possibly can. And happy holidays to all.
