2002 ICA Political Communication Division Business Meeting, Seoul, South Korea

Division chair Steve Reese (University of Texas at Austin) conducted the meeting. He was pleased to report that the political communication division is doing quite well financially, having one of the largest budgets of ICA’s divisions, as well as the largest year-to-year carryover of unused funds.

Report on the 2002 Meeting

Program chair Christina Holtz-Bacha (University of Mainz) reported that 60 papers and one panel proposal were submitted this year, and 40 papers were accepted. This 66% acceptance rate was similar to the roughly 60% rate in other years, despite the fact that a smaller number of papers was submitted this year.

Awards

Lars Willnat (George Washington University) presented the awards for best political communication article of the year. Since no awards committee was constituted last year, this year’s committee presented two awards. The winner of the 2000 best article award is Michael McDevitt and Steven Chaffee (2000). “Closing Gaps in Political Communication and Knowledge.” Communication Research, 27(3): 259-292. The 2001 winner is Christina Holtz-Bacha and Pippa Norris (2001). "To Entertain, Inform, and Educate: Still the Role of Public Television." Political Communication, 18(2): 123-140. Thanks go to the awards committee for their diligent work. The committee was chaired by Kathleen Kendall (University of Maryland) and included Anne Johnston (University of North Carolina), Paolo Mancini (University of Perugia), Patricia Moy (University of Washington), and Lars Willnat (George Washington University).

New Officers

The division’s new advisory group members for the Political Communication journal have now been appointed. Division members David Weaver (Indiana University), Diana Owen, and Dhavan Shah (University of Wisconsin at Madison) will be assisting editor David Paletz (Duke University) along with three appointees from the APSA political communication division.

Reese closed the meeting by welcoming Christina Holtz-Bacha as the incoming division chair, and Gianpietro Mazzoleni (University of Milan) as the incoming program chair.

Calls for Nominations

Steve Reese thanked Kevin Barnhurst (University of Illinois at Chicago) for his excellent work editing the Political Communication Report. Now that Kevin will be stepping down from that position to pursue other activities, division members interested in taking over as editsor of the report are invited to contact Christina Holtz-Bacha. Members interested in being nominated for any other division positions are also encouraged to notify Holtz-Bacha.

2003 Meeting -- San Diego, California

Incoming ICA president-elect Bob Craig and San Diego Host Committee director Bill Eadie made brief presentations on next year’s meeting. Craig is soliciting ideas for plenary speakers, and welcomes suggestions from division members. Eadie mentioned that local grad students will be arranging particularly affordable housing alternatives for graduate students interested in coming to the San Diego meeting next year. Reese also inquired whether the division should schedule a post-business-meeting dinner at the San Diego meeting next year, and there was broad agreement among those attending to resume this tradition.

Submitted by Scott Althaus, Political Communication division secretary