2004 ICA Political Communication Division Business Meeting, New Orleans, LA

Overall Convention Attendance: 1800 (smaller than last year)

Division Membership: 488 (3rd largest division of ICA)

Program Planner’s Report (Gianpietro Mazzoleni)

The online submission and review process worked much better this year.
141 papers were submitted in the division (20 more than last year)
111 people served as reviewers (double the number that served in 2003)
88 papers were accepted (62% acceptance rate, compared to 60% last year)
9 panels were submitted, 6 were accepted (67% acceptance rate, similar to last year)
Papers were scheduled into 22 competitive paper panels, 6 submitted panels, 2 panels by the ICA program planners, and one co-sponsored panel with the communication law and policy division.

The incoming program planner for the New York City (2005) and Dresden (2006) meetings is Patricia Moy.

ICA Representative’s Report (Wolfgang Donsbach)

Responding to questions about a shortage of LCD projectors at the meeting, Donsbach explained that the association found it too expensive to have projectors in every meeting room.

Newsletter Report (Jill Edy)

Edy reminded members that they need to submit calls for papers with January deadlines to the newsletter by mid-July in order to have their calls published in a timely fashion. She also reminded the members that next year, her term would end and that the ICA Political Communication Division would be responsible for appointing the next editor.

Division Website (Christina Holtz-Bacha)

Holtz-Bacha asked if anyone was interested in creating a website for the division. Anyone interested was asked to contact incoming president Gianpietro Mazzoleni.

Political Communication Report (David Paletz)

Paletz expressed a need for more reviewers who can review in a thoughtful and timely fashion.

Report on the Joint Publications Committee (Christina Holtz-Bacha)

The division chair expressed her thanks to David Weaver whose term is ending.
Montague Kern and Dhavan Shah have agreed to continue to serve on the committee
Barbara Pfetsch has been appointed by the division chair to fill the seat being vacated by Weaver.

Top Student Paper Awards (presented by Christina Holtz-Bacha)

Three awards were given for the top graduate student papers presented at the meeting:

Lilach Nir (University of Pennsylvania – Annenberg School for Communication) “Ambivalent Social Networks and Their Consequences for Participation."

Erik Nisbet and Zuoming Lang (Cornell University) “Polarization versus the Mainstream: Differentiating the Effects of the News Media.”

Russ Tisinger, Kimberly D. Meltzer, Talia Jomini, Brett A. Mueller, Rachel M. Gans (University of Pennsylvania – Annenberg School for Communication) “Engaging the Electronic Electorate: The Effective Presentation of Online Political Information.”

Because the authors of “Polarization versus the Mainstream” were not present at the meeting, Holtz-Bacha was unable to award them their check.

Those who attended the business meeting were encouraged to attend the student paper panel as well.

Best Article of 2003 Award (presented by Wayne Wanta, award committee chair)

Five scholars served on the committee this year:

Wayne Wanta, University of Missouri – Columbia (chair)
Carroll Glynn, Ohio State Univeristy
Yoram Peri, Tel Aviv University
Vincent Price, University of Pennsylvania – Annenberg School for Communication
Katrin Voltmer, University of Leeds

Each journal containing relevant articles was examined by two readers, a process that produced 20 semifinalists which was then reduced to 6 finalists. Winners are:

Kees Aarts and Holli Semetko, “The Divided Electorate: Media Use and Political Involvement,” Journal of Politics.

Finalists were:

Scott Althaus, “When News Norms Collide, Follow the Lead: New Evidence for Press Independence,” Political Communication.

David Dutwin, “The Character of Deliberation: Equality, Argument, and the Formation of Public Opinion,” International Journal of Public Opinion Research.

Sonia Livingstone, “On the Challenges of Cross-National, Comparative Media Research,” European Journal of Communication.

Jochen Peter and Claes H. deVreese, “Agenda Rich, Agenda Poor: A Cross-National Comparative Investigation of Nominal and Thematic Public Agenda Diversity,” International Journal of Public Opinion Research.

Jochen Peter, “Country Characteristics as Contingent Conditions of Agenda Setting: The Moderating Influence of Polarized Elite Opinion,” Communication Research.

At the conclusion of the meeting, outgoing division president Christina Holtz-Bacha turned the gavel over to new president Gianpietro Mazzoleni.

Submitted by: Jill Edy, Divsion Secretary