Feminist Scholarship Division

Dear Members,

These minutes (unapproved) will also be placed on the FSD website.

Big THANKS to Lisa Brooten for taking minutes.

Big THANKS to Carolyn Byerly for facilitating the meeting.

Big THANKS to all ICA FSD officers, reviewers, panelists, volunteers and allies.

Best Regards,

Diana Rios, Chair
diana.rios@uconn.edu

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Minutes of the Feminist Scholarship Division Business Meeting, Singapore June 24, 2010, 4:00 pm---Submitted Summer 2010 to be approved in 2011

Minutes from the 2009 FSD business meeting were unanimously approved.

The meeting was facilitated by former FSD chair Carolyn Byerly, in the absence of FSD chair Diana Rios and vice chair Radhika Gajjala, neither of whom could be present.

I. Introductions and personal news. 
The approximately 16 persons who attended the meeting introduced themselves and shared personal notes.

II. Facilitator’s remarks. 
1) Carolyn the noted that FSD, the Philosophy of Communication Division, the GLBT interest group and the Ethnicity and Race in Communication (ERIC) division are all part of an informal alliance aimed at strengthening each other’s membership numbers and offering mutual support on shared concerns.  She urged those present to join all of these groups and to participate in their sessions and business meetings. 

2) Everyone was invited to stay for the Theresa Award ceremony after the business meeting. Carolyn explained that the award was developed through an endowment from Dr. Yoo Jae Song, professor emerita of Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea, who generously provided an initial grant of $10,000 in honor of her mother Theresa. Yoo Jae continues to build the endowment, which also has received generous contributions from other FSD members.  The award is given annually to someone who has advanced feminist scholarship in the field. The first award went last year to Dafna Lemish of Tel Aviv University, Israel; this year’s award will go Lana Rakow, University of North Dakota, USA.

III. Report on ICA Board Meeting
Carolyn attended the full-day ICA board meeting on Tuesday as FSD’s representative. She explained that ICA is run differently than many other communication organizations, using a model of “representative democracy” as the board is made up of the chairs of ICA’s divisions.  Business of interest to FSD members follows.[Note: this report was interrupted by Michael Haley’s visit, which is summarized in the next section.]

1) Socially responsible investments.  The Board approved a proposal from FSD to move ICA’s assets from traditional investments into socially responsible funds, which avoid investing weapon-related, environmentally detrimental, etc. activities.  The proposal was developed by Carolyn and Marian Meyers (both former FSD chairs), and FSD Chair Diana Rios and Vice Chair Radhika Gajjala.

2) Controversy over the 2012 Conference in Phoenix.  ICA board members are concerned about the plan to hold the 2012 conference in Phoenix, Arizona.  Arizona recently passed a law requiring police who stop motorists to check to see if motorists are in the US legally (i.e., with proper visa). Those without them can be jailed or deported. There are now many legal efforts afoot to block this law or overturn it. ICA has had the contract with the hotel in Arizona for at least two years, and stands to lose $250,000 if we cancel. On the positive side, the city of Pheonix where the conference is scheduled to be held has taken a political position against the law, and the company who owns the hotel has agreed to lower penalties in case the rooms do not fill due to a potential boycott by ICA members. The larger issue is that ICA has no formal philosophy or principal to guide the board in this kind of controversy. There is a history of such controversies over past conference sites, including Israel (1998) and Singapore (2010), both of which drew opposition from some ICA members. The Board decided to keep the contract, hoping for a political resolution between now and 2012 to stop the law. In addition, incoming President Larry Gross will appoint an ad-hoc committee to try and develop some kind of guiding principal for the ICA when these debates arise. Carolyn asked for feedback from division members. She noted that a spectrum of possibilities was discussed at the meeting, and that the Board chose what they saw as the most viable option.

Some ICA board members had suggested an extra donation mechanism set up to enable ICA members to contribute to a fund for an immigrant rights organization. Other members noted that anywhere we go will have problems, including the USA. In Singapore a controversial issue was the country’s stance on LGBT issues, and the answer in this case was to have a panel to address the issue. Carolyn noted that the Board discussed ways we might engage the issues at hand surrounding any particular conference site through panels or special sessions, or through attending events in the local community.  Some have asked why we should isolate our colleagues who live in these contested conference locations by refusing to go and take part in the conference.

IV. ICA Conference in Boston, 2011. 
Michael Haley, Executive Director of ICA, visited briefly to provide details about next year’s conference, which will take place in Boston from May 26-30th at the Westin Waterfront Hotel, in old south Boston, about a 20 minute walk from downtown, with accessibility by mass transit from the airport. Larry Gross, next year’s program chair, has chosen the theme “Communication at the Center.” Michael explained that this theme will challenge ICA members to interrogate how communication scholarship can be at the center of helping to resolve crises and provide relevant information and direction. The submission deadline will again be Nov 1st with notification of acceptance by mid-January.

Michael noted that when members submit papers they will have three choices, and they can choose any or all three. These include 1) to have their paper considered for traditional panels,
2) for poster sessions or 3) for the online “virtual conference” sessions. The online “virtual conference” will be new to ICA, and will start a week before the conference and end a few weeks after the conference. FSD will have roughly the same number of spots in the virtual conference as it does currently in the traditional conference. Haley explained the reasons why a person might want to choose this option, such as if the work includes audio or visual screening, or for those unable to get a visa to the US or who cannot physically get to Boston. All panels at the virtual conference will have respondents, and there will be some prerecorded plenary sessions that will be available to view online. The exhibitors will have online bookstores. Thus, ICA is moving several parts of the traditional conference online. Larry Gross will try to have one session a day devoted to interaction about what has been posted online. Some divisions are reportedly trying to figure out how to make their feedback interactive. Haley explained that ICA is trying an experiment this year in Singapore and that more than 500 people have signed up to take part. He requests feedback from FSD members be sent to FSD Chair Diana Rios for what might work for FSD with regard to online programming. Online panels will be peer-reviewed and listed in printed program, thus there will be no distinction in importance between these and traditional panels (i.e., those presented on site).

Michael said that Boston hotel rooms will be $130/night for single/double, and there will be some additional rooms in other hotels nearby. ICA gives out about $60,000/year in travel grants, and he encouraged people to apply.

V. FSD awards committees and candidates for FSD leaders. 
1)  Awards committees.  FSD has two awards committees that we need to staff. The Theresa Award will continue to be co-chaired by Marian Meyers and Carolyn, but they need the input of 4 or 5 more people.  Four persons volunteered to be on this committee, including Louise North, Lana Rakow, Eva Reimers, and Shobha Mocherla.

The FSD Committee to Nominate for ICA Awards has the broader task of identifying worthy nominees for the numerous categories of awards that the association gives out each year.  This committee is chaired by the Immediate Past Chair of FSD, who is presently Vicki Mayer.  She has a small group of FSD members who work with her.  Three persons volunteered to be on this committee, including Lisa Brooten, Lana Rakow (if needed), and Frances Shaw.

2)  Candidates for FSD leadership positions.  Feminist Scholarship Division needs candidates for two positions.  One of these is secretary-historian, a two-year position.  At present, we have two candidates, Yu Shi and Rebecca Hains, both of whom have been involved in the division’s work.  We can add additional names.  We also need two candidates for the vice chair position.  This is really a six-year commitment, consisting of two years as vice chair, responsible for organizing the conference program; two years as chair, which entails representing FSD at the ICA Board of Directors’ meetings and facilitating the FSD business meeting; and two years as immediate past chair overseeing the committee to nominate for ICA awards. Carolyn invited members to go to the newly revamped FSD website that provides a history of the division and bylaws (which spell out the duties of the officers). The FSD website is found by going first to the ICA website, then “sections” then FSD, which is #13.

VI. Input about FSD’s work and direction
We discussed what FSD members want to see the division doing.
1)  One member raised the issue of soliciting members from developing countries. Carolyn agreed that while the division has made some efforts, we need to do more. She suggested that those attending for the first time get involved by signing up for one of the awards committees, and reading the FSD and ICA bylaws so they have some orientation to how the organization “works”.
2) Another suggestion was that the division have more committees to enable more people to get involved.
3) The question was raised: how do we mentor and develop leaders for the division? What do members need to feel more a part of the division? What drew attendees to this meeting? One person asked how members can get to be paper reviewers. Carolyn answered that paid members of the division get an e-mail solicitation to be paper reviewers.  FSD added an extra $3 surcharge a few years back for members to help support student travel grants and other division functions.
There was then recognition of member Debbie Goh, who was this year’s top FSD paper award winner; she told us briefly about her paper.

4) One member in attendance thanked FSD for providing a space in the mini-plenary to hear from a women’s group from Singapore, and asked that we continue to do so with local groups in the conference city, and perhaps expand this practice by including them earlier in the conference. 5) There were then some ideas floated for Boston, such as maybe to get Boston-based FSD members to find ways of involving local women’s groups to be part of our sessions, such as the Boston-based women’s collective that authored the classic text, Our Bodies, Our Selves.  Another suggestion was that we could suggest to ICA that mini-plenaries be staggered and not held at the same time – or at the same time as lunch.

Adjournment.  The Meeting adjourned at 5:15p.m.

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Political Communication Division

Overall, we have had a very successful, large and diverse conference. Our division directly sponsored 29 paper sessions and panels (not counting the business meeting and reception), and cosponsored 10 sessions and a preconference.

The top faculty paper was "Terrorism, Communication, and the War of Ideas: Al-Qaida's Strategic Narrative as a Brand," by Cristina Archetti, U of Salford.

Our top student papers were:  "A Holey Web: The European Network of News Flows - A Network Analysis" by  Judith Moller, U of Amsterdam; "All the News You Want to Hear: The Impact of Partisan News Consumption on Political Participation" by Susanna Dilliplane, U of Pennsylvania, and "Contextualizing Frames in Political Discourse: Using Semantic Network Analysis to Investigate Political Parties' Framing Strategies" by Christian Baden, U of Amsterdam.

The full planners' report is available through the division's website.

The Division's awards were presented at our business meeting.  The Best Political Communication Article Award was awarded to Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt, U of Pennsylvania, for her paper "Where Is Jack Bauer When You Need Him?' The Uses of Television Drama in Mediated Political Discourse," published in Political Communication, 26 (4).  Thank you to Liesbet van Zoonen for chairing the award committee and to Maria Jose Canel, Kevin Coe, Robert Hariman, and David Ryfe, for their service as committee members.

The David Swanson Award was awarded to Doris Graber, U of Illinois. Thank you to Víctor Sampedro and Wolfgang Donsbach, who cochaired the award committee, and to Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Philippe J. Maarek, and Thomas Patterson, who served as members.

This is an opportunity to thank all of the Division members who gave their time to the conference as presenters, respondents, and other duties. In particular I'd like to thank the reviewers for their hard work, my assistant Mary Katsman who helped me managing the review process, and my predecessors Patricia Moy and Kevin Barnhurst for their help and advice. Special thanks to Marko Skoric who helped us coordinate the reception. 

Claes de Vreese will serve as program planner for the Boston conference. The call for papers will be disseminated in the next few weeks.

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

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Popular Communication Division

Greetings Popcomers,

Since this is my first official pronouncement as Chair of the Popular Communication Division, I hope you'll bear with me while I work on getting the tone right. Somewhere between a pub chat, a facebook post and a parking fine payment reminder strikes me as appropriate, but please forgive me if I stray too close to one or the other extreme. In any event, brace yourselves: this is going to be somewhat lengthy.

1. THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING.
The place of the sovereign is never truly empty in Popcom, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Chair, Cornel Sandvoss, for four years of dedicated service (2 as Vice Chair, and 2 as Chair). In addition to organizing two stellar conference programmes (Montreal and Chicago), and eloquently representing the (how shall I put it?) more politically engaged spectrum of views to the ICA board, he also organized a fantastic pre-conference in Singapore, as well as one of his famously delicious and pleasantly inebriating division receptions. He was, and remains, a pleasure to work with. I'd also like to welcome my new Vice-Chair, Jonathan Gray. Jonathan will be the conference planner and scapegoat for Phoenix in 2012 and London in 2013.

2. ELECTIONS FOR THE DIVISION SECRETARY AND GRADUATE REPRESENTATIVE As Cornell mentioned in his last e-mail to you, our current Secretary Kati Lustyik, and our Graduate Student Representative, Jonathan Corpus Ong, will be ceremonially purged after the Boston conference in May 2011. Elections for their replacements, however, need to be held this Autumn. Details of the positions can be found in our division bylaws: http://www.popularcommunication.org/bylaws/.
NOW THIS IS IMPORTANT, SO PAY ATTENTION: Anyone wishing to stand is invited to send me an 'election statement' of at most 300 words, modestly outlining why they are undeniably perfect for the position, as well as their (relevant) experience and plans (for the division). This needs to reach me by July 30th, so that I can forward it to the central ICA politburo and it can be published with the official ICA election announcements. If anyone would like any further details about these positions, please contact me: msfrosh@mscc.huji.ac.il.

3. GREETINGS FROM THE GRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE This bulletin just in from Jonathan Corpus Ong:

Dear PopComm members and fellow students, I hope you had an enjoyable ICA conference as I did. I met graduate students from many different divisions working on very different--but at times also very similar--topics. This made for highly interesting discussions and productive networking. If you have any concerns/suggestions/stories to share about the ICA Conference, and your membership with Popular Communication, do email me at jo296@cam.ac.uk. As graduate students, it is important for us to assert our presence and find new ways to participate in Division activities. Your voice, your visibility, are of top significance to Pop Comm!

Best wishes,
Jonathan Corpus Ong
Department of Sociology
University of Cambridge
Email: jo296@cam.ac.uk

4. PITHY ITEMS FOR THE NEWSLETTER
Confusingly, we plan to publish the Autumn edition of the Division Newsletter in the Fall. Those of you with news of interest that you would relish sharing with all and sundry, including job announcements in your departments, shameless promotion of any books you have published or conferences you are organizing, or news of any career developments such as relocation to other institutions, humungous grants awarded, new positions achieved, scholarly heights scaled, and appearances in sell-out concert tours, are invited to send them directly to Kati Lustyik at klustyik@ithaca.edu. The deadline is September 1st.

5. BOSTON PRECONFERENCE
Among the possible subjects suggested for a Popcom sponsored pre-conference at next year's Boston conference, the vague but promising topic of 'aesthetics' seemed to gain the most interest at this year's division business meeting. Anyone who would like to be part of the organizing team for this is welcome to contact me.

6. FACEBOOK PAGE
Happily forfeiting all privacy rights, last year we launched a facebook page for the division. Please feel free to join and post items of interest to the membership. There are currently no plans afoot to develop a Popcom Farmville farm.

That's all folks! Have a good summer.
Paul

Paul Frosh, chair
msfrosh@mscc.huji.ac.

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Communication History Interest Group

Members of the ICA Communication History Interest Group:

It has been a wild ride since 2006, when we first started to get petitioners for the creation of a Communication History Interest Group in ICA. I am stepping down as chair, as my term as chair has expired. But before I hand in my badge and sidearm to the chief, I've got a few things to share with you all:

1) SECRETARY ELECTION: If you have any interest in running for the position of CHIG secretary, please let me (park@lakeforest.edu) or Jeff Pooley (pooley@muhlenberg.edu) know as soon as possible. Those interested in running must be members of the CHIG, and must have a statement for their own candidacy prepared for ICA before the (online) election starts, on August 1, 2010.

2) ANOTHER ELECTION: Next year, we will have an election for vice-chair of the CHIG. If you're interested in running for vice-chair next year, please do discuss this with me or with Jeff. We are *very* interested in working more people into CHIG leadership. If you hear the call, please heed it.

3) WHAT ELSE? NO, REALLY... When we created the CHIG, it was always conceptualized as part of a long list of things that should be done to enhance the place of historically-based communication inquiry. As I step down, I very much want to hear your ideas regarding the following very big question. I'm being perfectly serious when I ask this, and I humbly request your close attention to the question.
So:
What else needs to be done to advance the cause of historical inquiry in the field of communication?
To answer this question, please simply reply to this message, and tell me.

I close with a tribute to Jeff Pooley and Philip Lodge. With them in charge of things, I know the CHIG is in very good hands. Please commit yourselves to helping them in any way you can.

Thanks for everything,
Dave Park, chair
park@lakeforest.edu