Health Communication

New U.S. Government Report on the Media’s Influence on Tobacco Use
On August 21, 2008, the U.S. National Cancer Institute released The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, the 19th monograph in its Tobacco Control Monograph Series. The monograph is the most current and comprehensive summary of the scientific literature on media communications in tobacco promotion and tobacco control.  Research included in the review comes from the disciplines of marketing, psychology, communications, statistics, epidemiology, and public health. 

This 684-page monograph has involved a team of five editors, including ICA members Melanie Wakefield Ph.D. from The Cancer Council Victoria, Australia and K. “Vish” Viswanath Ph.D. from the Harvard School of Public Health, USA. Other editors were Ronald Davis, MD, Henry Ford Health System, USA; Barbara Loken, Ph.D., U of Minnesota, USA; and Elizabeth Gilpin, M.S., U of California San Diego, USA. There were 23 authors and some 62 expert reviewers, and the report used a peer review process akin to the U.S. Surgeon-General's reports.  The monograph reviews ways in which the tobacco industry uses the media to advertise and promote its products, how tobacco advertising and promotion relates to tobacco use, evidence for the effectiveness of bans on tobacco advertising and promotion, the role of news and entertainment media (including movies), and what we know about the effectiveness of mass media campaigns and other media interventions for tobacco control. 

Of note, this is the first U.S. government report to conclude that there is a causal relationship between a) tobacco advertising and promotion and tobacco use and b) depictions of smoking in movies and youth smoking initiation.  There are 15 chapters with their own chapter conclusions, and six major overarching volume conclusions.

Visit http://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tcrb/monographs/19/index.html for PDF copies of the entire report or individual chapters, an Executive Summary containing all the volume and chapter conclusions, translated versions of the Executive Summary into 6 languages, fact sheets, and other products.  You can also order a free hard copy of the Monograph and/or the Executive Summary to be posted to you.  (Even if you reside outside the US, just follow the clicks on the website and you'll find instructions to ensure they post to your non-US address.)  Alternatively, you can call the NCI Cancer Information Service direct (on 1-800-422-6237) and ask for NIH Publication No. 07-6242.

Mass Communication

Well – the time has come to recruit volunteers to serve as reviewers for conference submissions! Last year, we had 160 volunteers, and because we had so many, we was able to keep the number of papers to between 5-8 per person. I hope each of you will consider volunteering your time so this process can once again run smoothly and efficiently.

You can now sign up to be a reviewer directly through All Academic. All you need to do is log-on at  http://www.icahdq.org/cfp/.  Then click on the "Click to Access Conference Submission Site" link and look for the link to "Volunteer to be a Reviewer." Then you can enter your name and areas of expertise. Doctoral students who have completed coursework and are ABD are eligible to be reviewers. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

I wish you all good luck as you prepare your submissions, and remember to submit them by November 3 at 11:00 EDT!

Robin Nabi, Chair
nabi@comm.ucsb.edu

Organizational Communication

The division is pleased to announce the launch of a new fundraising initiative to expand the scope of the long established Redding Dissertation Award Fund. While the fund will continue to provide a monetary award to the winner of the division’s dissertation award winner, it will be expanded to offer travel support for student presenters at ICA. The division is particularly interested in supporting student presenters traveling from non-U.S. universities. If you are interested in contributing to the Redding Fund, please go to the ICA Website and click on the “Donate to ICA” button on the top right hand corner of the homepage.  Then, click on “click here to make a donation” and choose the “Organizational Communication Redding Dissertation Award Fund” from the drop down menu.  The new initiative has already received contributions from a number of senior scholars in organizational communication, including Linda Putnam, Stan Deetz, Dennis Mumby, Kathy Miller, Cynthia Stohl, and Janet Fulk. Please join us in supporting this exciting new initiative to encourage the next generation of organizational communication scholars!

Dennis Mumby, Chair
mumby@email.unc.edu

Philosophy of Communication

As in previous years, our division will organize a preconference in Chicago. The conference topic is ‘Media Ethics.’ Ethical issues have accompanied the development of media studies from its inception. However, it seems that  agreement on a broad conceptual framework for media ethics is still to be established and a broad dialogue between theoretical perspectives on ethics and contemporary media practitioners yet to be achieved. The preconference will provide a platform for these debates and abstracts (300 words) for example in the areas of transcultural discourse ethics, virtue ethics, new ethical formations (for example across communicative networks), audiences etc.

The event is organized by Philosophy of Communication, co-sponsed by Journalism Studies and Mass Communication as well as New York University (Dep. Culture and Communication). The full call is available on the ICA website. Please submit your abstract to: Amit Pinchevski: amitpi@mscc.huji.ac.il

Ingrid Volkmer, Chair
ivolkmer@unimelb.edu.au