Section Head Election 2018 - Call for candidates and statements

Digital Divide Working Group

The IAMCR Digital Divide Working Group will run partial elections for a co-vice chair position during its business meeting during the IAMCR2018 in Oregon.

The current chair Olga Smirnova and co-vice chair Anna Gladkova will stay in their positions having been elected in 2016 at the Leicester conference.

Massimo Ragnedda has been serving as co-vice chair on an interim basis since IAMCR2017 conference and is now seeking to formalise that position.

We hereby call for candidacies for a co-vice chair position. Please send your statement (500 words) to the Working Group chair Olga Smirnova smirnovaorama (at) gmail.com and co-vice chair Anna Gladkova gladkova_a (at) list.ru with a copy to IAMCR General Secretary Gerard Goggin gerard.goggin (at) sydney.edu.au and to the IAMCR secretariat membership (at) iamc.org by May 8, 2018.

You will find the election rules at: https://iamcr.org/governance/swg-rules

If you have any questions do contact either Olga or Anna for further information.

Candidates and statements

For Vice-Chair

  • Dr. Panayiota Tsatsou (School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester)
  • Dr Massimo Ragnedda (Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication, Northumbria University, Newcastle)
    (Interim acting co-vice chair)

Statements

Dr. Panayiota Tsatsou (School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester)

My name is Panayiota Tsatsou. I am an Associate Professor at the University of Leicester in the UK and my research aims to address ongoing and emerging phenomena relating to digital divides. For the past several years, I have been an active member of international research initiatives in the area of digital divides and I have collaborated with researchers from all over the world. Working with scholars/researchers from different corners of the planet who are experts in this area and with diverse research cultures and experiences has enabled me not only to be open to the input of different research cultures but, more importantly, to truly appreciate the added value of such input and celebrate ‘research diversity’ in all areas of my work.

More information on my work can be found at:

http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/media/people/dr-panayiota-tsatsou
https://works.bepress.com/panayiota_tsatsou/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Panayiota_Tsatsou

With this statement, I put forward my candidacy for the role of Vice Chair of the IAMCR Digital Divides Working Group. I hope that the members of this Working Group will honor me with the privilege to fruitfully represent them and make a positive contribution to future activities, initiatives and developments in the group.

My interest in this role is driven by:

  • first, my research expertise in the area of digital divides that goes back to 2004, when I started my PhD research on the role of societal culture and policy-making in digital divides in Greece. To date, I have produced original and high-quality research publications in major international outlets and I have undertaken empirically intense, theoretically informed and cutting-edge research of emerging, ongoing and evolving phenomena relating to digital divides/digital inclusion.
  • second, my long IAMCR membership and particularly my active involvement in this Working Group. I have been an active member of this Working Group for many years, while I have contributed – as paper / panel presenter and reviewer – to the group’s role and presence in the annual IAMCR conferences of the last 10 years.

Shall I be given the opportunity to be elected as Vice Chair of the Working Group, I will work with passion and dedication with the other officers and members of group towards:

  • Updating the vision of the group.
  • Producing a medium-term activity plan (e.g., 2-year) that will embrace a suite of research/scholarly and communication activities (e.g., research networking, community-building and strategic communications) so that the Working Group and its members can inform future research and policy agendas on digital divides.
  • Working on proposals that will assist the group to attract membership from currently under-represented parts of the world and will open the group to exchanges with non-research / non-academic actors in the area of digital divides.

At the same time, if elected as Vice Chair, I will strongly encourage regular exchanges across the group’s membership so as to identify other goals and areas of activity as well as to help the group thrive as a dynamic community of scholars who have a genuine passion for research and knowledge development in the area of digital divides.

For now, I am more than happy to answer any questions or receive any comments on my candidacy from members of the Working Group or other IAMCR members. I can be contacted directly via email (pt133 (at) le.ac.uk) or Twitter (@PanayTsatsou).

With best wishes,
Panayiota

Dr Massimo Ragnedda (Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication, Northumbria University, Newcastle)

I have been acting as vice-chair of the Digital Divide working group from September 2017 and I wish to continue for the next 2 years. I enjoy contributing to reviewing of papers and organizing the conferences and find it very important to continue working to promote global inclusiveness and excellence.

My aim is to stimulate the growing field of Digital Divide and Digital inequalities field. I have strongly contributed to this field in the last 5 years. Specifically, on this topic, I have published three books (with Routledge) and two more are forthcoming this year (one with Lexinghton Book and one with Amsterdam University Press) and several articles and chapters, in English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. I have also guest edited a special issue on Digital Divide for the International Journal of Communication. Additionally, on the topic of digital divide, I have organized a special track with 17 contributions (MECCSA 2015) and co-organized a preconference in Cartagena (IAMCR 2017). I wish to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences, and where possible to facilitate collaboration both among members of the Digital Divide Working Group, and external scholars from and as many different countries as possible.

I would appreciate the chance to continue to work with Olga and Anna, and to help progress the work of the Digital Divide Working Group. I am keen to continue to assist the working group in its mission to facilitate and promote better communication between researchers from different countries and continents; support innovative research in the field; and support young researchers.

Selected publications

Books:

Ragnedda, Massimo and Bruce Mutsvairo (eds), Digital Inclusion: An International Comparative Analysis, Lexington Books, 2018.  (forthcoming)

Mutsvairo Bruce and Ragnedda, Massimo (eds), Mapping Key Perspectives on Digital Divide in Africa. Amsterdam University Press (AUP), 2018. (forthcoming)

Ragnedda, Massimo, Muschert Glenn (eds), Theorizing Digital Divide, London: Routledge, 2017.

Ragnedda, Massimo (2017), The Third Digital Divide. A Weberian approach to digital inequalities, London: Routledge.

Ragnedda, Massimo, Muschert Glenn (eds), The Digital Divide: The Internet and Social Inequality in International Perspective, London/New York: Routledge, 2013.

Articles/Chapters:

Massimo Ragnedda (2018), "Reconceptualising the Digital divide". In Mutsvairo Bruce and Ragnedda, Massimo (eds), Mapping Key Perspectives on Digital Divide in Africa. Amsterdam University Press (AUP), 2018. (forthcoming).

Massimo Ragnedda (2018), "Tackling Digital Exclusion: Counter Social Inequalities Through Digital Inclusion". Agenda for Social Justice: Global solution, University of Bristol: Polity Press. (forthcoming)

Massimo Ragnedda (2018), "Il digital divide. Le disuguaglianze digitali e i suoi vari livelli d’analisi." Quaderni di Teoria Sociale, n.1, 2018, pp. 81-106.

Mutsvairo Bruce and Ragnedda, Massimo (2017), "Emerging Political Narratives on Malawian Digital Spaces", Communicatio. South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research, Routledge, 43(2): 147-167. 

Maria Laura Ruiu and Massimo Ragnedda (2017), "The Quadruple Helix Model of Libraries: The Role of Public Libraries in Newcastle upon Tyne", Public Library Quarterly.

Massimo Ragnedda and Maria Laura Ruiu (2017), "Exclusão digital: como é estar do lado errado da divisão digital", Revista Online de Comunicação, Linguagem e Mídias, 10(20): 90-113

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