Over 130 posters - representing the very best of every Division and Interest Group - were exhibited as part of the Sunday, May 24 plenary poster session of the 2009 ICA Conference in Chicago, Illinois. This year's judges for the Top Poster Awards were ICA Past Presidents Sonia Livingstone (London School of Economics) and Ron Rice (U of California - Santa Barbara), and ICA President-Elect Barbie Zelizer (U of Pennsylvania).
Following is an explanation of the judges' ranking process:
First, they obtained the respective divisions' rankings of each paper to be exhibited in the interactive paper session. Livingstone, Rice, and Zelizer then read the top-ranked papers in every division. They ranked each paper using three standard rating dimensions (on a 1-10 scale): significance (30%), concepts and theory (30%), and analysis (20%), and entered the values into a spreadsheet program. A fourth dimension, presentation and style (20%), was also entered, but left blank until the actual presentation during the plenary session.
When averaged, the judges' ratings on the first three dimensions, produced 10 top papers, to which "Top Poster" certificates were attached at the poster session held on Sunday, May 24. It was at that time that Livingston, Rice, and Zelizer filled in the "Presentation and Style" rating dimension for the top 10 papers, after visiting and closely viewing each of them. Once they had finished, the judges entered their ratings into the spreadsheet that contained the rankings of the posters and recalculated the overall scores. ICA President Patrice Buzzanell announced the winners near the end of the session:
1ST PLACE ($500):
Knowledge Gap in the Media-Saturated '08 Presidential Election
Joonghwa Lee, U of Missouri, USA
Chang Dae Ham, U of Missouri, USA
Esther Thorson, U of Missouri, USA
2ND PLACE ($250):
The Structure of International Migration
Chung Joo Chung, SUNY - Buffalo, USA
George A. Barnett, SUNY - Buffalo, USA
Yon Soo Lim, SUNY - Buffalo, USA
3RD PLACE ($100):
Authenticity and Subcultural Style in Adolescents' Self-Presentation on Social Network Sites
Katrien Van Cleemput, U of Antwerp, BELGIUM
In addition, the judges also gave an award for the Best Visual Display, designed to look at all of the posters in the Scholar to Scholar session with regard to aesthetic appeal and display of research. The criteria for this award included clarity, flow between sections, relationship of text to image, and visual appeal. The recipient of this award receives $100. There were two recipients of this award for the 2009 ICA Conference:
BEST VISUAL DISPLAY ($100):
Relocating Gamer Studies: Two Case Studies in Solitary Gaming
Adrienne Shaw, U of Pennsylvania, USA
Rethinking the Remix: Audio Mash-Ups and the Metaphysics of Recording
David J. Gunkel, Northern Illinois U, USA
The International Communication Association congratulates all presenters at the poster session, as well as all of the award winners.
