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2003 ICA Political Communication
Division Business Meeting, San Diego, CA
Division chair Christina Holtz-Bacha (University of Mainz)
conducted the meeting. ICA president-elect Wolfgang Donsbach
made a brief presentation on next year’s meeting, which
will be held at the New Orleans Sheraton on the theme of “Communication
Research in the Public Interest.” The online submission
process, which was used for the first time this year, will
be used again for next year’s meeting.
Report on the 2003 Meeting
Program chair Gianpietro Mazzoleni (University of Milan)
reported that of the 121 papers and 11 panel proposals submitted
this year, 66 papers and 6 panels were accepted. This 55%
acceptance rate was similar to the roughly 60% rate in other
years. Although the ICA program chair offered the division
more panels at the last minute, Mazzoleni declined them to
maintain the high overall quality of papers presented in the
division. A total of 57 people reviewed for the division,
which included 12 who were not members of the division but
who were recruited on an emergency basis from APSA, ISA, and
IPSA to deal with last-minute decliners.
Awards
Barbara Pfetsch (University of Hohenheim) presented the awards
for best political communication article of the year. There
was a tie for best article, but since both were written by
the same research team, the committee presented one award
to Vincent Price, Joseph Cappella, and Lilach Nir for articles
that appeared in the January–March 2001 issue of Political
Communication. The awards committee was chaired by Michael
Gurevitch (University of Maryland College Park) and included
Barbara Pfetsch, Denis McQuail (University of Southampton),
Sharon Jarvis (University of Texas Austin), and John Tedesco
(Virginia Tech).
Travel Funds
Holtz-Bacha reported that with 448 members, the Political
Communication division is the fourth largest in ICA. Travel
funds were awarded to the top student paper winners, and this
year was the first time that the division supplemented these
awards with travel support funds from ICA headquarters—ours
was one of a handful of divisions that made use of these funds
this year. To encourage better attendance among future winners,
beginning next year the division will present checks at the
panel where the papers are presented rather than mailing checks
regardless of whether the winners actually attend the conference.
Discussion
Discussion ensued about whether the division should have
a best book award, and whether the division should have a
nominating committee to make sure that division members get
nominated for ICA-level awards. It was pointed out there are
already many best book awards, but that an award for top paper
presented at the meeting might be appropriate. Support was
offered for the idea of a division nominating committee, but
no votes were taken on either issue. The traditional division
dinner was a success this year, and the division plans to
do this again at the next conference.
Minutes taken by Jill Edy (Univ. of Oklahoma)
and submitted by Scott Althaus(University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign),
Political Communication division secretary
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