IAMCR Newsletter - August 2019

In this issue...

Welcome to the IAMCR newsletter

This newsletter is being sent to all current IAMCR members and to everyone who attended IAMCR 2019 in Madrid.

Letter from the president

In her letter to the association's members, Janet Wasko, president of IAMCR, talks about diversity and mutuality at IAMCR recent conference in Madrid. Read the letter >

IAMCR 2019

Letter from Madrid

Loreto Corredoira, Director of the Local Organising Committee

In her letter, Loreto Corredoira, Director of the IAMCR 2019 Local Organising Committee, thanks the participants of IAMCR 2019. Read more >

Highlights from Madrid

Whether or not you were one of the 1,785 people from 83 different countries who attended the Madrid conference, you’ll want to have a look at the conference’s Reflections & Memories page with links to the programme, the abstract books, videos of the plenary sessions, commentaries, social media pages and more. 

Tell us what you think

A few weeks ago we sent IAMCR 2019 participants a request to answer a survey to help evaluate IAMCR 2019 and make future IAMCR conferences even better. Thank you to the hundreds of you who have responded. We’ll send a reminder or two to the rest of you. 

Presentation and Participation Certificates

Do you need a certificate acknowledging you participation at IAMCR 2019 or the presentation of a paper? You can request a certificate of presentation or a certificate of participation online. Certificates must be requested by September 7. 

Awards at IAMCR 2019

Several IAMCR grants and prizes were awarded at the Madrid conference. These included: 

  • The Herbert I. Schiller Award was won by Pooja Ichplani, Archna Kumar, Rupa Upadhyay and Jessica Mayberry for their paper "Communication Processes, Community Mobilization and Normative Shifts: Learnings from Video Volunteers’ India Unheard Program".

  • The New Directions for Climate Communication Research Fellowship was awarded to John Cook, Emily Vraga, and Sojung Kim for their proposal "Countering Climate Misinformation with Humor and Active Inoculation".
  • The UCF/IAMCR Urban Communication Research Grant was awarded to Arlene Fernandez, a doctoral student and Graduate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, for her project “Meet Me at the Papi Store: Space, Place, and the ‘American Dream’ in Philadelphia Corner Stores”.
  • The Distinguished Contribution Award was presented to Helena Sousa, a long-time member and supporter of IAMCR. 
  • Twenty-one travel grants to defray the cost of attending IAMCR 2019 were awarded to 9 women and 12 men from 17 different countries. Travel grants are funded with a percentage of IAMCR membership fees and many of the recipients have sent photos and written short articles about the experience. You can find them on the IAMCR website.

Beijing 2020

IAMCR will be taking its annual conference to Beijing, China for the first time in the association’s 63 year history. IAMCR 2020 will explore the conference theme, “Reimagining the Digital Future: Building inclusiveness, respect and reciprocity”, from 12-16 July, 2020. Read more >

Clearinghouse for Public Statements

IAMCR’s Clearinghouse for Public Statements prepared two statements on behalf of the association in recent months. A statement following the arrest of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and publisher, expressed concern about his possible extradition to the United States, while a second statement called on the media and communication research and education community to lobby the UK government against proposals that threaten creative and critical scholarship in research in media and communication and to join calls for action in other countries when similar policy moves threaten education in our field.

The Clearinghouse on Public Statements processes statements and/or manages the process of signing statements generated by others when they are principally concerned with issues relating to media/communications and where IAMCR members have substantive expertise. 

Section and Working Group News

Leadership changes

Several of IAMCR’s thematic sections and working groups held elections for new heads during their business meeting in Madrid. Please join us in thanking the outgoing heads of sections and working groups and welcoming the new ones. See a list of the new heads. 

Each IAMCR section has one representative on the International Council. Salvatore Scifo has stepped down as the Community Media and Alternative Communication Section’s representative on the council, with Andrea Medrado taking his place. 

New Media Sector Development Group

The Media Sector Development Working Group (MSD) is the newest thematic group within IAMCR. The group seeks “to offer a space to debate key and emerging issues facing the media sector’s development” and to build “a bridge between concepts and action, drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives and co-created knowledge to inform and support advocacy strategies, approaches to international cooperation, policy reforms, and other interventions by local, national, and international actors”. Learn more about the working group >

Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group

The Post-Socialist and Post-Authoritarian Communication Working Group has been renamed to the Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group (CPN). The new name represents a broadened focus on societies in transition, whether emerging from an authoritarian past, or descending into an autocratic future. Read more > 

Health and HIV & AIDS merge

The Health Communication and Change and Communication and HIV & AIDS working groups have merged into the Health Communication Working Group. The merging of the two groups formalises what has been in practice for many years.

PCR conference 

The Participatory Communication Research Section co-organised the event “Participatory communication and the struggle over human rights”, in collaboration with a range of Brazilian institutions: LCD, the Laboratório de Comunicação Dialógica at UERJ; NUTES, the Institute of Educational Technology for Health at UFRJ; EMERGE, the Research and Production Centre in Communication and Emergence at UFF; and PPGMC, the Postgraduate Program on Media and Everyday Life at UFF. The seminar took place on 1 and 2 July 2019, at the Rio de Janeiro State University. See the event report > 

Upcoming section and working group events

  • The Digital Divide and Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Groups are co-organising Digitalizing Media: Communication, Audiences, Policies to be held in Moscow 17-18 October. Read more >

  • Communication Policy and Technology Section will co-organise the International Conference Communication Rights in the Digital Age to be held 24–25 October 2019 in Helsinki, Finland. Read more >

Publications

The Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture

The Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture is the fifth title in the Global Handbooks in Media and Communication Research Series, co-published by Wiley and IAMCR. Edited by Jessica Retis and Roza Tsagarousianou, this innovative and timely book helps readers to understand diasporic cultures and their impact on the globalized world. Read more >

Setting the gender agenda

Published by UNESCO in collaboration with IAMCR and the Global Alliance for Media and Gender, "Setting the Gender Agenda for Communication Policy: New proposals from the Global Alliance on Media and Gender" was launched at the Madrid conference. Read more > 

The complete book can be read online or downloaded for free from this link on the UNESCO website.

Political Economy of Communication journal

Vol.7, no.1 of the Political Economy of Communication journal is now available online. The journal of IAMCR's Political Economy Section is free and open access. Read more >

ParticipAD – Participatory advertising

ParticipAD – Participatory advertising: a global perspective with a Latin American focus is a book that grew out of a pre-conference event of the Participatory Communication Research Section held in Bogota in 2017 prior to IAMCR’s Cartagena Conference. It was published by the Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade (CECS) at the Universidade do Minho in Portugal. Read more and download the book for free.  

Internet Policy Review - Special Issue

The Communication Policy and Technology Section (CPT) prepared a special issue of the open access Internet Policy Review. The issue includes five papers on internet policy and its impacts on citizens and consumers that were presented at the 2018 IAMCR conference in Eugene, Oregon. Read more > | Download the issue > 

Recent books by IAMCR members

IAMCR's members' books section features recent books by our members. Visit the section to see all of the recent publications >