Political Communication Division

The Political Communication Report, the online newsletter jointly sponsored by ICA's Political Communication Division and APSA's Political Communication Section, is seeking an editor to replace Richard Stanton, whose term ends this autumn. The newsletter, which traditionally has been housed at the editor's home institution, is now part of our division's website, www.politicalcommunication.org.

The editor, appointed for a 3-year term, is responsible for creating three newsletters a year. The newsletter includes essays and commentaries from various members, sections on recently published books, upcoming conferences, and calls for paper. With changing technologies, we welcome new ways of thinking about the newsletter. Some editors have had graduate student support for this position; the divisions can provide modest financial assistance.

If you are interested in taking on this position, please forward - by 27 August 2010 - a statement of interest and your visions of the Political Communication Report to the ICA-APSA Joint Publications Committee Chair, Patricia Moy, at pmoy@uw.edu. The Committee will review the applications and announce the new editor in early September.

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Communication History Interest Group

Members of the Communication History Interest Group:

I am writing to you as the incoming chair, and my first and most pleasing task is to thank David Park, the Interest Group’s founder, for his 3 years of service as chair. It was Dave who not only recognized the glaring omission of communication history in ICA’s Division lineup, but also waded the bureaucratic molasses to get the Interest Group established. I recently came across Dave’s original January 2007 e-mail floating the Interest Group idea, which many of you received. “My decision to take the initiative to create this new interest group comes from my sense," he wrote, "that there is a group of active scholars—many of them already ICA members—who do historical work in communication, and who could benefit from having the ICA more fully developed around historical approaches to communication.” Three years, two preconferences, and 25 panels later, his modest 2007 claim comes off as understatement. Dave provided the visible leadership, but also 99 percent of the backstage coordination that makes it all happen. He’s so crucial to the group that--in line with other ICA divisions--we’ve created a “past chair” role for advice and continuity. So the well-earned salute to Dave is also notice of his new (and indispensable) role.

I also want to thank outgoing secretary Stijn Reijnders for his three years of service to CHIG. Stijn was also there from the beginning, and he’s been a key part of the group--and not just for his minutes-taking skill. Those skills he does have, however, and his Singapore business meeting minutes are now online at,

http://communicationhistory.org/newsandevents/news.html

At the conclusion of the Singapore conference, Philip Lodge of Edinburgh Napier University--winner of CHIG’s first Top Paper Award---became the group’s vice-chair. The secretary slot that Stijn is leaving, as Dave has noted in previous emails, is up for election, and we have two excellent candidates. The voting opens on September 1, and you will receive a message from ICA reminding you of this.

Speaking of elections, we will also need to vote on new bylaws drafted by Dave and modeled after the bylaws of other ICA divisions. As a brand-new interest group, we had been operating under the ICA Constitution, but it’s now time to adopt our own bylaws. I am copying below the draft language that’s been submitted to ICA for the September election. If you have any serious concerns about the proposed bylaws, let Dave and/or me know as soon as possible. To go into effect, two-thirds of the CHIG membership needs to vote to approve, so I will likely implore you at least one more time to vote in this year’s election.

Boston: Most of you know that next year’s ICA conference will be in Boston, May 26 to 30. The call for papers, along with the online submission system, will go live on September 15, with a November 1 deadline. Please submit!

Please contact me (pooley@muhlenberg.edu) for anything CHIG-related...

Thanks,

Jeff Pooley, Chair
pooley@muhlenberg.edu