Section Head Election 2020 - Call for candidates and statements

Global Media Policy Working Group

The IAMCR Global Media Policy (GMP) Working Group will hold online elections in 2020 for the positions of two Chairs and two Vice-chairs.

Both co-Chairs, Arne Hintz and Claudia Padovani, and Veronique Wavre as Vice-chair, will stand for re-election for a second term.

Other IAMCR members in good standing, who are also members of the Working Group are welcome to put forward their candidacy. They can do so by writing to the current co-chairs (claudia.padovani [at] unipd.it; arne.hintz [at] gmail.com), with a copy to IAMCR General Secretary Gerard Goggin (gerard.goggin [at] ntu.edu.sg) and to the IAMCR secretariat (membership [at] iamcr.org), by 10 June 2020, indicating: their name, institutional position, a statement of no more than 400 words and, optionally, a photograph.

The elections will be held online from 6 to 12 July 2020 using the SurveyMonkey platform. Voting lists will be generated on 10 June 2020. Individual members and representatives of institutional members who are also registered as members of the GMP Working Group at the time the voting lists are generated will be sent ballots. Members who join the Working Group after the voting list has been generated will not be able to vote.

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

Candidates

For Co Chair:

For Vice-chair:

  • Preeti Raghunath (Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication [SIMC], Symbiosis International [Deemed University], Pune, India)
  • Veronique Wavre (University of St-Gallen, Switzerland)

Statements

Arne Hintz (Cardiff University, United Kingdom)

I am a Reader at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, UK, where I am co-Director of the Data Justice Lab and Director of the MA Digital Media and Society. I joined the Global Media Policy Working Group as a participant in the mid-2000s, became a Vice Chair in 2008 and a co-Chair in 2016. During this time, I have helped advance both the regular sessions of the Working Group during the annual conferences and the Groups’ further projects, including the Mapping Global Media Policy project and the Rapid Response Grants. Thematically, my main focus has been on the role of citizens and civil society in governance processes and the shaping of policy, and on policy frameworks that enhance citizen media initiatives and affect digital rights (e.g., surveillance, data). As the Group’s projects and multistakeholder roundtables at conferences have shown, it has a unique character and role in the IAMCR universe as it intervenes into current debates and engages with academic deliberation in ways that complement (and sometimes challenge) the conference routines. While I strongly support this distinct approach, the Group’s purpose and role in IAMCR need to be reviewed as both the association and the world around us have changed during the more than 20 years since the Working Group was created. What can it contribute to our understanding of global governance, what new policy issues should it focus on, and how can it enrich IAMCR in new ways? We have started this rethinking of the Group and I would be very happy to continue with this effort during another term as co-Chair.

Claudia Padovani (University of Padova, Italy)

I work at the University of Padova where I teach and conduct research on issues pertaining the governance of global communication since the early 2000s. Over the past twenty years my engagement with the IAMCR Working Group on Global Media Policy has been intense: as a curious young researcher first; then as one of the IAMCR members involved with the World Summit on the Information Society, and as one of the promoters of the Mapping Global Media Policy project. Later, as a chair of the Working Group, I believe I have contributed to strengthen this space of intellectual exchange as a locus for academics to address emerging issues, follow policy debates and engage with the practical knowledges of civic groups and networks that foster a vision of global communication grounded in human rights and public values. Today, as scholars and educators we face major challenges, due to communication environments characterized by complexities and challenges, all of which require grounded and shared commitment to understand the conditions that may foster or constrain that vision. Issues of growing inequalities, violations of fundamental rights, transformed communication processes and the redefinition of power relations between public and private actors, are all matters that require new research approaches and sustained efforts to develop and share necessary knowledges. Twenty years after its establishment, the Working group faces the challenge to rethink its mandate and focus, in due consideration of the above; it is called to reinforce its cooperation with other sections and working groups; and it should support the association’s positioning in relevant global debates around communication and its governance. The coming years require energy and creativity, interdisciplinary and intergenerational dialogues; and a special attention to the articulation of voices between global Norths and Souths, in research and in policy advocacy. I’d be honoured to be part of this effort once more.

Preeti Raghunath (Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication [SIMC], Symbiosis International [Deemed University], Pune, India)

I am an Assistant Professor at the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC), Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India. I have worked on policymaking for community radio in South Asia, and my current work is on non-personal data in India. I have been a member of the Global Media Policy Working Group since 2013 and consider it my home-ground at IAMCR. The GMP is a unique space in that while it is part of the formal conferences of the IAMCR, it also provides space to explore the arena of the making and workings of global media policy as a distinct sub-field of Communication and Media Studies. I have been a direct beneficiary of the kind of work the Working Group does, as a recipient of the Rapid Response Grant on Media Policy, to contribute to the Mapping Media Policy Project. Since my own doctoral and subsequent research is in media policy, I see myself as a stakeholder of the Working Group. I believe that it is time we push the boundaries of the Working Group in terms of exploring methodologies, geographies and thematic areas of focus. Towards this end, I believe that as someone who has worked with a distinct methodology and theoretical premise for media policy research, I have much to contribute academically. Besides that, as someone who understands precarity of early career researchers, and the need to be a truly international Working Group, I believe that I can contribute towards these ends. I also feel certain that I can work with the leadership to provide continuity in terms of previous work that the Working Group has managed to achieve. Therefore, I put forth this statement as a contender for the position of Co-Vice Chair of the Global Media Policy Working Group, with the hope that it speaks to your interests and concerns for research and networking. 

Veronique Wavre (University of St-Gallen, Switzerland)

I am a post-doctoral researcher at the University of St-Gallen. I finalised a PhD thesis in 2016 at the University of Exeter, UK, in telecommunications regulation in the Middle East and North Africa, which was translated in a book, published in 2018 with Palgrave “Telecommunications Regulation and Policy Diffusion”. Since 2016, I have developed the project ‘Telecommunications Ownership and Control’ with Prof Tina Freyburg. The major achievements include the Telecommunication Ownership and Control (TOSCO) dataset of all internet services providers (ISP) active in Africa between 2000-2016 and their owners, which has received a very positive welcome from academics and practitioners alike. The publication of the dataset is in progress. I believe my work as a researcher in telecommunications and media policy with a focus on the African continent is an interesting addition to the GMP group. I bring the insights from both a young scholar and a focus on topics going beyond Europe. I have been part of the IAMCR’c conferences since the early years of my PhD and I was lucky to be one of the rapid response grantees, offered by the GMP group and the Open Society Foundation in 2014. Since then, I have been very interested in the GMP group’s activities and it was my pleasure to accept the role of co-vice chair in 2016. I believe the GMP group is at a moment of change, where its goals and purpose have to be re-defined. The work started in Cartagena and Madrid, but there is room for advancing the discussion and bringing the group to a new stage. I have enjoyed my work as co-vice chair lot, working with new colleagues, learning about organizing conferences panels and discussion sessions and advancing the groups’ goals in a collaborative and creative manner. I am happy to extend my mandate and further the discussion on the direction the GMP wishes to take.

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