Mass Communication

I hope you all are enjoying a productive summer! We've got only 2 issues on this month's agenda.

First, I will soon be sending around an e-mail asking for volunteers to review the submissions for the 2008 conference. Last year, we hade 140 reviewers volunteer and we needed every one of them. Because we had so many, I was able to keep the number of papers to between 5-8 per person, so it was not too onerous a task. I hope each of you will consider volunteering your time to this very worthy and needed endeavor. Of note, we have a new feature on All Academic this year that allows you to enter your information online so it is far easier for the programmers to manage this task. Again, I'll send information about this process to all Division members in September.

Second, at the business meeting, the Division agreed to participate in an initiative proposed by Annie Lang for a "Conference within a Conference" (CinC) during the Montreal convention. However, given the technicalities involved, the CinC will be delayed a year so the details can be worked out more carefully before we move forward. But thanks to all of you who have expressed your interest and support, and stay tuned for information on the CinC for 2009.

Robin Nabi, Chair
nabi@comm.ucsb.edu

Philosophy of Communication

The conference in San Francisco has helped in a number of ways to increase the role of Phil Comm as an ICA platform for the discussion of new conceptual frameworks of communication.

The preconference on 'Methodologies of International Comparative Research,' organized by Phil Comm and co-sponsored by Intercultural Communication, Public Relations divisions and the Project for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School (Phildelphia) discussed new approaches to globalized media research.

Around 50 papers presented concepts of comparative studies in political communication, popular culture and journalism. As participants felt that this is a much needed debate, it has been suggested to organize a second preconference in Montreal.

It seems that in particular Habermas' paper in Dresden has inspired a variety of Phil Comm presentations in San Francisco, addressing the issues of discourse and power, mediation in new epistemological terrains as well as public communication.

At the business meeting and the reception, the division thanked Christina Slade, Macquarie University, Australia, for serving as a Vice Chair (New Orleans, New York) and Chair (Dresden and San Francisco). During these years, Phil Comm has not only increased the number of members but has also gained visibility in the ICA. Nick Couldry, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, has taken up the Vice Chair role and Ingrid Volkmer, University of Melbourne, Australia, has become Chair of Phil Comm. As an indication of the desire to develop the Division website, Radhika Gajjala has kindly agreed to be the division's Webmaster, while our new Treasurer and Secretary is Des Freedman (Goldsmiths, UK).

We see the next two years as a period of growth for the division and would warmly welcome new members. As the division where we try to put philosophy to work in expanding the agenda of communication research. We welcome new initiatives on the topics of global media ethics, media and citizenship, and the interconnections between communication and political theory.

Ingrid Volkmer, Chair
ivolkmer@unimelb.edu.au

Popular Communication

Hello division members! Please note that you will soon be receiving the ICA ballot for division officers. This year we’re voting on Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Secretary, and Webmaster positions, as well as for an addition to the by-laws. Also, the Division is pleased to congratulate former Chair Barbie Zelizer, who has been nominated and is running for ICA President this year. As an ICA and Popular Communication division member, you are eligible to vote in both of these elections. Please remember to cast your vote!

Popular Communication currently has several exciting pre-conference ideas in the works both for the 2008 conference in Montreal and the 2009 conference in Chicago. Stay tuned! More immediately, if you are willing to serve as a reviewer for Popular Communication this November, please contact Vice Chair and Program Planner Cornel Sandvoss at: C.Sandvoss@surrey.ac.uk.

If you’re organizing a conference, or if you’ve published a book or article recently, gotten a new position, or received a promotion, please let members of the Popular Communication division know by contacting Isabel Molina Guzman at IMolina@ad.uiuc.edu. She’ll put your announcement in the Fall newsletter if you get it to her quickly.

Finally, included below is the division's Call for Papers for the Montreal Conference in 2008.

Lynn Schofield Clark, Chair
Lynn.Clark@du.edu

Call for Papers - Popular Communication Division
The Popular Communication Division provides a forum for scholarly investigation, analysis, and dialogue among communication researchers interested in popular, (mass-)mediated communication and popular culture. The division invites papers and panels that employ diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to explore texts, industries and/or audiences in investigating the range of artifacts, processes, effects, and meanings that are associated with the shaping of popular communication and popular culture. The division particularly values critical research that studies forms of popular and mediated communication and popular culture in order to pose key questions about everyday life and its social, cultural and political context. Submissions that address the conference theme are particularly encouraged.

The division accepts full papers and panel proposals (panels and roundtables) only. Panel submissions must include the following:

1. Official panel listing as it would appear in the program,

2. 400-word rationale for the panel,

3. 150-word abstract of each of the papers on the panel,

4. Description of panelists’ qualifications regarding proposed topic, and

5. Complete contact information for each panelist.

6. A 75-word synopsis of the panel