Global Communication & Social Change Division

Greetings Global Comm. and Social Change Division Members,

We're a month away from the Singapore conference and I wanted to give members a "heads up" on the business meeting, reception, and dinner (thanks a million to David Schaefer and Kavita Karan for helpful logistical assistance with this year's dinner).

Please mark your calendars now:

1. Business Meeting: 4-5:15 p.m. Thursday, 24 June
2. Division Reception: 5:30-6:45 p.m. Thursday, 24 June 
3. Division Dinner: 8 p.m. Thursday, 24 June
   Indian Wok Restaurant
   79A Syed Alwi Road, Singapore, 207658
   Set in the Little India district, India Wok serves a fusion of Chinese-Indian cuisine - http://www.indianwok.com.sg/. It's located across from Mustafa's, Singapore's only 24-hour indoor shopping bazaar with products from all over the world. The restaurant is located on a street that is always teeming with people from a wide range of nationalities.
   COST: Moderate pricing.
   GETTING THERE: 5-10 minute cab ride.
   MENU: Choices to be determined.

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Language & Social Interaction Division

For the Singapore conference, the LSI Division is programming 10 panels and

cosponsoring the preconference, “Intercultural Dialogue,” on Tuesday, 22 June. 

A panel of special interest for understanding the region is: “Public and Private Discourse in Multilingual Malaysia: Relating Microlevel Linguistic Strategies to Macrolevel Social Realities,” Saturday, 10:00-11:15.  The LSI Division Business Meeting is on Wednesday, 23 June, from 4:00-5:15 pm in SUNTEC 207 followed immediately afterwards by an LSI off-site reception at the Suanthai Restaurant,

101 Killiney Road tel: 6235 4126.

In other news, last summer the LSI membership voted to move to an “abstracts only” submission policy for competitive papers which we implemented for this year.  The Top Paper and Top Student Paper Award will be determined by inviting the top 10% of abstracts to submit complete papers by 1 May and then a panel of judges will select the award winners.

The Top Abstracts:

1. Alena Vasilyeva, Rutgers U student: "References as Indication of Being On-Task/Off-Task in the Course of Mediation Sessions"
2. Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Lodz Academy of International Studies, Dept of British and American Studies & Jerzy Tomaszczyk, U of Lodz: "Context, Reconceptualization, and the Emergence of Meaning in Intercultural Communication"
3. Anupam Das, Indiana U student: "Politeness Practice and Social Distance: The Bulge Found in Bangla Social Media"
4. Wing-Ki Ho, The Chinese U of Hong Kong: "The Discursive Construction of a Credible Astrology in a Call-In Radio Show"
5. Mari Lehtinen; U of Helsinki: "Features of Nonverbal Communication of Youngsters Afflicted With Asperger Syndrome"
6. Karen Tracy, U of Colorado & Russell Parks, U of Colorado: "Decisional Implications of Justices’ Oral Argument Styles: Eight Cases About Same-Sex Marriage"

Todd Sandal, Oklahoma University, began as LSI Secretary after Theresa Castor, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, served for many years. Theresa began the LSI/ICA website:  http://www.icahdq.org/sections/cms/LanguageSocialInteraction/.

The Division will elect a new Vice-Chair in the fall of 2010, who will step into the Chair role in 2 years. The nomination Committee will be soliciting names from the division members some time over the summer.

Richard Buttny, Chair

rbuttny@syr.edu

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Political Communication Division

One hundred and six papers and five panels will be presented at the ICA conference in Singapore as part of the paper and panel competition of the Political Communication Division. We will also be cosponsoring a preconference on "Cultural Research and Political Theory" and a cross-unit session titled "Thinking that 'Communication Matters' Matters". A special memorial session honoring distinguished political communication and public opinion scholar Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (who passed away in March at the age of 94) was added to the program and scheduled for Wednesday at 5:30 pm in Room 303.

Please plan to attend our business meeting to learn more on our division's activities. More information on our off-site reception (to be held at a downtown bar) will be provided at the business meeting, and emailed to participants in the weeks prior to the conference.

Looking forward to seeing you in Singapore,

Yariv Tsfati, Vice-Chair
ytsfati@com.haifa.ac.il

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Popular Communication Division

Dear Colleagues,

Below please find the programme for the preconference by the Popular Communication Division. There are still places available but early registration fees end today, so please use the opportunity to register.

RESEARCHING (POPULAR) MEDIA IN THE AGE OF CONVERGENCE: METHODOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN THE STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA INDUSTRIES, TEXTS, TECHNOLOGIES AND AUDIENCES

Preconference by the ICA Popular Communication Division, Singapore, 22 June 2010, Singapore

Overview:
The processes of digitization and deregulation have transformed the production, distribution and consumption of information and entertainment media over the past three decades. Today, researchers are confronted with profoundly different landscapes of domestic and personal media than the pioneers of qualitative audience research that came to form much of the conceptual basis of Cultural Studies first in Britain and North America and subsequently across all global regions.

The process of media convergence, as a consequence of the dual forces of digitisation and deregulation, thus constitutes a central concept in the analysis of popular mass media. From the study of the internationalisation and globalisation of media content, changing regimes of media production, via the social shaping and communication technologies and conversely the impact of communication technology on social, cultural and political realities, to the emergence of transmedia storytelling, the interplay of intertextuality and genre and the formation of mediated social networks, convergence informs and shapes contemporary conceptual debates in the field of popular communication and beyond.

However, media convergence challenges not only the conceptual canon of
(popular) communication research, but poses profound methodological challenges. As boundaries between producers and consumers are increasingly fluent, formerly stable fields and categories of research such as industries, texts and audiences intersect and overlap, requiring combined and new research strategies.

This preconference aims to offer a forum to present and discuss methodological innovations in the study of contemporary media and the analysis of the social, cultural,and political impact and challenges arising through media convergence. The preconference thus aims to focus on the following methodological questions and challenges:

• New strategies of audience research responding to the increasing individualisation of popular media consumption.
• Methods of data triangulation in and through the integrated study of media production, distribution and consumption.
• Bridging the methodological and often associated conceptual gap between qualitative and quantitative research in the study of popular media.
• The future of ethnographic audience and production research in light of blurring boundaries between media producers and consumers.
• A critical re-examination of which textual configurations can be meaningfully described and studied as text.
• Methodological innovations aimed at assessing the macro social, cultural and political impact of mediatization (including, but not limited to, "creative methods").
• Methodological responses to the globalisation of popular media and practicalities of international and transnational comparative research.
• An exploration of new methods required in the study of media flow and intertextuality.

Programme:
Welcome and Introductions (9:00 - 9:15)

Session 1: From Text to Reader (9:15 - 10:30)

Ranjana Das (LSE)
"Methodological Priorities in Transmedia Audience/User Research: Five Concepts in a Textreader Analysis of the Web 2.0 World"

Cornel Sandvoss (Surrey U)
"Methodologies of Studying The Act of Reading: Finding texts and audiences in the age of Convergence"

Lothar Mikos (HFF Potsdam) and Illona Ammann (LMU Munich)
"Convergence Culture and the Archive: Methodological Challenges for Textual Analysis and Audience Studies"

Session 2: New Realms of Popular Communication Research (10:30 - 11:45)

Andy Ruddock (Monash U)
"Political Celebrity and Public Opinion: Reality Media and the Changing Parameters of Political Communication Research"

Nele Simons (U of Antwerp)
"Television 2.0: How to Study Contemporary Television Fiction Viewing Practices?"

Lynn Comella (U of Nevada, Las Vegas)
"Studying Adult Entertainment: Producers, Consumers, Texts, and Contexts"

Session 3: Roundtable Discussion: Cultural science and methodological challenge! (12:00 -13:15)

John Hartley (Queensland U of Technology)

Jean Burgess (Queensland U of Technology)

Axel Bruns (Queensland U of Technology)

Lucy Montgomery (Queensland U of Technology)

Lunch Break (13:15 - 14:15)

Session 4: Research Audiences Online (14:15 - 15:30)

Knut Arne Futsaeter (Gallup, Norway)
"Diffusion of Social Networking Sites: Expansion and Use of Facebook in Norway"

Russel Stockard (California Lutheran U)
"Studying Convergence by Listening to Blogs"

Carrielynn Reinhard (Roskilde U)
"Interviews Within an Experimental Framework: A Potential on How to Make Sense of Sensemaking in Virtual Worlds"

Debahis Aikat (U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
"Conceptualizing Convergence: The Transformation of Social Media Convergence Theories and Concepts"

Session 5: Traditions and Innovations in Popular Communication Research (15:35 - 16:45)

Denise D. Bielby (UCSB) and Stacie R Furia (Northland College, Ashland) Taking Risks in Trading Zones: Bridging Gaps in Conceptual and Methodological Innovation

Linda Duits and Marlene Wolf (AscoR, Amsterdam) Understanding the audience: Focus groups and communication research

Stephanie Geise (U of Hohenheim) and Marko Bachl (U of Hohenheim) What They See is What You Get: Using Cluster Analysis of Eye Tracking Data for Advanced Identification of Visual Perception Types

Session 6: Closing Discussion (16:45-17:15)

All Participants.