The International Communication Association presented seven prestigious research awards to 12 communication scholars at its annual business meeting in Montreal on Saturday, May 23. Nurit Guttman (Tel Aviv U) chaired the ICA Research Awards Committee, which selected the winners. The 2009 honorees included:

• Tarleton Gillespie, Outstanding Book Award
• Boris H.J.M. Brummans, Linda L. Putnam, Barbara Gray, Ralph Hanke, Roy J. Lewicki, and Carolyn Wiethoff, Outstanding Article Award
• Steven R. Corman, Applied/Public Policy Research Award
• Jochen Peter, Young Scholar Award
• Rohan Samarajiva, Communication as Agent of Change Award
• Arvind Singhal, Communication Research as Collaborative Practice
• S. Elizabeth Bird, Communication as Open Field Award

The 2009 Outstanding Book Award-for a book published in the past 2 years and distinguished by its importance to the disciplines represented in ICA for the problem it addresses, and for its quality of writing and argument, and quality of evidence-went to Tarleton Gillespie, Assistant Professor of Communication at Cornell U, publication Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture (MIT Press, 2007). "Gillespie convincingly shows that the current debate over digital rights has been largely one sided," said the Outstanding Book Award Subcommittee of the ICA Research Awards Committee, "with the corporations that stand to profit gaining increasing control over the law and increasing sophistication in 'wiring shut' the technology by incorporating hard-wired schemes to limit copying. As one nominator stated, 'Thanks to his exceptionally thorough research, his fluency with the traditions of legal, technological and media scholarship, and his lively prose style, Gillespie has created a model of digital-era communication analysis.'"

Boris H.J.M. Brummans (U de Montreal), Linda Putnam (U of California - Santa Barbara), Barbara Gray (Pennsylvania State U), Ralph Hanke (Bowling Green State U), Roy J. Lewicki (Ohio State U), and Carolyn Wiethoff (Indiana U) were selected to receive the 2009 Outstanding Article Award for their paper "Making Sense of Intractable Multiparty Conflict: A Study of Framing in Four Environmental Disputes" (Communication Monographs, 75(1)). The Award honors an article published in a refereed journal during the previous 2 years. "'Making Sense of Intractable Multiparty conflict' used a mixed-method approach to investigate the use of framing repertoires in disputes," said the Outstanding Article Award Subcommittee of the ICA Research Awards Committee. "This high quality research represents what one nominator called 'a model of engaged scholarship' in that researchers were concerned with creating findings that could have wide applicability in dispute resolution. Our committee observed that the scholarship was particularly strong in argument development, in the elegant way it integrated qualitative and quantitative methods, and in the ways it attended not only to the behavioral aspects of human conflict but also to the affective. We believe the article takes its place among the classic work in our field, leading the way in showing how conflict at both interpersonal and group levels might be studied with respect to communication."

The Applied/Public Policy Research Award, which recognizes a scholar or group of researchers who have produced a systematic body of research in communication studying a particular applied or policy problem for the betterment of society during the previous 2 years, went to Steven R. Corman, Professor of Communication at Arizona State U. "Corman and his group of interdisciplinary collaborators have conducted impressive research since 2005 that applies knowledge of human communication in an effort to counter ideological support for terrorism," said the Outstanding Applied/Public Policy Award Subcommittee of the ICA Awards Committee. "Their recent book, entitled Weapons of Mass Persuasion: Strategic Communication to Combat Violent Extremism, offers analysis and policy recommendations that have been praised as valuable scholarship by leaders at the U.S. Department of State and in the U.S. military. Corman's research employs diverse aspects of communication theory and research to address a significant social issue, and thus reflects the highest traditions of this award."

For the Young Scholar Award, given for a body of work following receipt of the Ph.D. that contributes to the field of communication and shows promise for continued development, based on the work's conceptual foundations and argumentative clarity, its rigor, and the recipient's productivity, the Awards Committee selected Jochen Peter, Associate Professor in the Amsterdam School of Communications Research, ASCoR, at the U of Amsterdam. "Dr Jochen Peter is one of the most talented young communication scholars worldwide," wrote Claes de Vreese, chair of the Young Scholar Award Subcommittee of the ICA Research Awards Committee. "his resumé counts 41 peer-reviewed articles most of which have appeared in top-cited communication and psychology journals. The quality of Jochen Peter's publications has been recognized by no fewer than 17 awards. In 2005, he received the prestigious and highly competitive VENI-grant for talented young academics from the Dutch Science foundation. This grant has enabled him to develop his own research line and has resulted in 27 published articles in the past four years."

Arvind Singhal, Professor of Communication at Ohio State University, was selected as the winner of the 2009 "Communication Research as Collaborative Practice" (CRCP) Award, which recognizes research that has a demonstrable impact on practice outside the academy, with clear benefits to the community. Professor Singhal has amassed a distinguished record of collaborative scholarship over the past decades… [that] has been admirably collaborative in several ways," said the CRCP subcommittee of the ICA Research Awards Committee in selecting Singhal. "He has worked sedulously as a co-author on many research reports; he has been developing a theoretical stance to this research which requires collaborative efforts not only between members of research teams but between a research team and local communities. Further, this stance has not just been asserted in general, but applied in the methodology of several research projects. The latter engages people in their home communities and asks what their sense of things are, and for Singhal and his collaborators this focuses on issues of health, among various other social issues."

The winner of the "Communication Research as an Agent of Change" (CRAC) Award, recognizes research that has a demonstrable impact on practice outside the academy, with clear benefits to the community, was Rohan Samarajiva, executive director of LIRNEasia. "Dr. Rohan Samarajiva has coedited a volume, ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks, that exemplifies the intention of this award, i.e., to show ways in which significant engagement with research can influence communication change," said the CRAC subcommittee of the ICA Research Awards Committee in selecting Samarajiva. "This work highlights a very important but often under researched region focusing on five Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka. A central thread underpinning all the viewpoints provided in the book is that technology by itself cannot improve access to ICTs; policy and regulatory reform is critical. In providing data that challenges the vested and frequently dysfunctional interests which have underpinned past and present governance structures this important research becomes in itself a significant marker of ways to work towards policy and regulatory reform."

S. Elizabeth Bird, Chair and Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida, was selected to receive the 2009 "Communication Research as Open Field" (CROF) Award. The Award recognizes researchers who have made important contributions to the field of communication from outside the discipline. " Elizabeth Bird was chosen to receive the Communication Research as an Open Field Award for 2009," said the CROF subcommittee of the ICA Research Awards Committee, "because the committee appreciates the extent to which her work bridging anthropology and communication has not only brought the two disciplines together, but also had an impact within each discipline. Her oeuvre is strong and rich. Each book takes a significant step forward intellectually, and each has influenced the research approaches and programs of others. Finally, we believe she is deserving of the award because the quality of her work has increased the standing of qualitative research within communication."

ICA solicits nominations for these awards through the Newsletter each spring and makes the presentations at the annual conference. The awards competition, now in its tenth year, draws numerous nominations in all categories each year.