Information Systems

I hope you all are enjoying the summer months—finding them relaxing and rejuvenating.  I thought I’d pass along an ICA version of a summer reading list…just some things to think about while sitting at the beach…waiting in airports…or procrastinating the prep for your summer courses.

1.  Start dreaming about next year's ICA...May 21-25 in Chicago.  In conjunction with the conference theme KEYWORDS IN COMMUNICATION, Barbie Zelizer, the Program Chair, is encouraging the submission of Cross Unit Programming which is described "as a way of creating cross-unit dialogue about issues relevant to communication, cross-unit sessions should have at least four participants who are active members of four different divisions or interest groups."

A "Cross-Unit" panel is something that only the unit planner (me) will be able to submit.  And it won't count against the normal Info Systems allotment of sessions, as Barbie has donated a plenary back to the ICA membership as a way of facilitating this.

So....be thinking about what keyword you would like Info Sys to organize a discussion around.  Then, email me your suggestions.  It would be best if you could not only give me topics...but also people from different divisions that you think might be good participants.

2. Visit the Information Systems Forum on the ICA Website.  The home office has made it possible for division members to discuss a wide variety of subjects like “Grants,” “Inspiring Reading Ideas,” and “Job Opportunities.” It’s pretty easy to find…just logon to the ICA homepage and then surf over to MyICA and look for My Section Forums.

3. If you aren’t a registered user of the Info Systems listserv, take a minute to sign up.  Send an email to listserv@listserv.temple.edu with the following command in the body:  "SUBSCRIBE INFOSYS-L Joe H. Smith".  Just replace Joe H. Smith with your name.  Or, if you want to be mysterious, replace Joe’s name with anonymous.  The listserv is just one of several ways members communicate with each other…and if you aren’t registered, you might miss something!

That’s it for now.

Rob Potter, Vice-Chair
rfpotter@indiana.edu

Mass Communication

It’s a quiet summer in terms of Mass Communication Division news. However, there are two important pieces of business we need to take care of in the coming weeks. We are holding elections for the positions of Vice-Chair and Secretary. We have 4 excellent nominees for Vice-Chair (in alphabetical order):

      Rick Busselle, Washington State University
      Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Southern Mississippi
      David Tewksbury, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
      Jan Van den Bulck, Leuven School for Mass Communication Research

We also have 2 wonderful candidates for secretary (also in alphabetical order):

      Francesca Dillman Carpentier, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
      Mina Tsay, University of  Kentucky

Their personal statements will be available on the election website. I encourage all members to respond to the call for elections that will circulate soon, read about the candidates, and cast your vote!

Best wishes,
Robin Nabi, Chair
nabi@comm.ucsb.edu

Popular Communication

Graduate Student Representative

The Popular Communication Division will be electing its first a graduate student representative this autumn. We would very much like to encourage interested candidates to consider standing for this post. Please contact us with any questions or to discuss the details of the role.

Special Issue of Popular Communication

The editorial team of our Division’s Journal Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture is pleased to announce the release of its special issue "Euro Visions: Culture, Identity and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest." Papers include ‘Why is the Eurovision Song Contest Ridiculous? Exploring a Spectacle of Embarrassment, Irony and Identity’ by Stephen Coleman, ‘“In the End, Germany will Always Resort to Hot Pants”: Watching Europe Singing, Constructing the Stereotype’ by Myria Georgiou, ‘The After-Life of Eurovision 2003: Turkish and European Social Imaginaries and Ephemeral Communicative Space’ by Miyase and Christian Christensen, ‘Wild Dances and Dying Wolves: Simulation, Essentialization, and National Identity at the Eurovision Song Contest’ by Catherine Baker and ‘On the Couch with Europe: The Eurovision Song Contest,
the European Broadcast Union and Belonging on the Old Continent’ by Cornel Sandvoss.

All Division members have a free subscription to the journal. You can access the journal via your personal Informaworld account. Routledge will have recently sent you an e-voucher to add to your Informaworld account. If you have problems accessing the journal, please contact either the Division or Routledge directly.

Looking ahead to Chicago 2009

Thank you for all your feedback on the 2008 Pop Comm conference programme. Based on your feedback I will be looking at organising another keynote panel. If you have suggestions for either themes or speakers, please contact me. We will also no longer schedule respondents for paper panels.

I wish you all a happy, productive but also relaxing summer!

Cornel Sandvoss, chair
C.Sandvoss@surrey.ac.uk

Public Relations

Announcements from ICA Public Relations division:

Shannon A. Bowen has joined the Public Relations Department in S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communicaitons at Syrcause University and was promoted to Associate Professor.

Samuel Martin-Barbero, Dean of the IE School of Communication will be leading a study of the division membership on the resonance of the division’s name with its members around the world.

The Public Relations division has created an endowment for the Grunig and Grunig Dissertation and Thesis Award. Shannon A. Bowen, Syracuse U, will be chairing the endowment.