From the President's desk

IAMCR Newsletter - July 2016

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in planning our upcoming Leicester conference. The Local Organizing Committee, as well as Section and Working Group heads, have devoted much time and effort to making this an exciting and memorable event.

A special thanks again to UNESCO for support of the conference and for  planning a special session to present their report on World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development.  

I’d also like to remind conference participants of the other special and invited sessions that are being planned. Three regional associations will organise sessions: ECREA, ICA, and ALAIC. We also welcome two sessions from the Société Française des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication (SFSIC), and the Japan Society for Studies in Journalism and Mass Communication (JSJMC), two national organisations who will be joining us for the first time.  

Other special sessions will focus on the BBC and Public Service Broadcasting, Lusophone Media and Communication Studies and the Global Alliance for Media and Gender.  Also, the 2015 winner of the Urban Communication Association /IAMCR Communication Research Grant (Olesya Venger) will present her paper at a special session.

Consistent with the conference theme of memory and commemoration, the James Halloran Memorial Lecture, dedicated to the former IAMCR president, will be offered by Cees Hamelink and is titled "Jim Halloran and All That Jazz: It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing". Another session on "Peace Journalism and Peace Building" is dedicated to the memory of communication and peace researcher, Majid Tehranian.

We also will remember Herbert I. Schiller with the Herbert I. Schiller Prize to be presented to Kamilla Petrick (Lakehead University/York University, Canada).

Meanwhile, several other awards will be presented during the conference plenaries. The 2016 Urban Communication Research Grant will be presented to Myria Georgiou and Wallis Motta-Guarneros (London School of Economics and Political Science). Two new awards include the 2016 IAMCR Climate Change Communication Research in Action Award, which will be given to Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi, India, and the Distinguished Contribution Award. Both will be presented at the Opening Ceremony of the conference.

I also draw your attention to the record number of 12 pre-conferences associated with this year’s main conference (http://iamcr.org/leicester2016/preconf). These events indicate IAMCR’s connections with other organizations, as well as the inspiration for gatherings related to many significant themes related to media and communication. Those wondering about issues related to the “Brexit” might be especially interested in the pre-conference to be held in Leicester on July 27 on the EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign. For more information on this event, as well as a free download of a book that has been prepared about this issue, see http://iamcr.org/publications/members-books/thorsen2016.

Finally, I would like to thank the membership for their participation in our recent election. I look forward to working with the newly elected Executive Board and International Council to further build and strengthen the association. All of the candidates in the election – and other members, as well – are welcome and encouraged to join us in these efforts.

Looking forward to meeting many of you in Leicester very soon.

Cheers!

Janet Wasko, President
July 2016