Welcome to the Winter, 2003 Issue

Kevin Barnhurst has left some big shoes to fill. As the editor of this newsletter for the past three years, he has supervised the final phase of its transition from a 20th century ink-on-paper enterprise to a 21st century electronic publication. Three times each year, he made sure that the content was interesting and accurate and that all the links worked. More than that, he has been unfailingly generous during the editorial transition that has been underway this fall, patiently answering my myriad questions about how all of this gets done. By way of thanks, I have shamelessly stolen his graphic design. Thanks for everything, Kevin.

I am pleased to inaugurate my tenure as editor with an article by Tom Patterson based upon his mammoth research undertaking during the 2000 election campaign, the Vanishing Voter project. Patterson, who won both the Graber award for best book and the Edelman award for career achievement at the 2002 American Political Science Association meeting, has argued in previous work that the move from a partisan-based to a media-based campaign system has had dire consequences for American elections. Here, he expands his analysis to consider the impact of money and interest groups and of increasingly non-competitive races for many elective offices on the electoral process, and he extends his critique of excessively long races and poor quality campaign communication.

Scott Althaus sends us the latest news from ICA’s political communication section business meeting in Seoul, South Korea..

NCA and AEJMC have issued calls for papers for their 2003 conferences, and there are a variety of meetings scheduled for winter and early spring.

A list of recent and forthcoming books relevant to our field reflects a growing interest in international and comparative aspects of political communication.

I have expanded our section on funding opportunities and included some fellowships and awards that have specific deadlines during the winter months.

A new element in this issue is the “Featured Resource.” In an interdisciplinary field like ours, many of us expend considerable effort seeking data resources that will speak to our research questions. My hope is that the Featured Resource section will provide a place for researchers to share their knowledge about publicly available data sources. I have begun close to home, with the Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive, but I hope to hear from scholars who have interesting resources in their basements as well. If you know of or use a resource that you would like to share, please contact me.

Wishing you all the best in 2003,

Jill Edy