This issue is my last as editor of the newsletter. I have enjoyed the experience very much, largely because I have worked with so many outstanding individuals. My assistant editors, Miglena Daradanova and Joshua Compton managed mailing lists, kept up the event calendars and calls for papers, and chased down information about recently published books and funding opportunities. Laura Gibbs provided technical support and helped us to take advantage of many features of web-based publication. Sam Luna at ICA headquarters handled distribution of our newsletter announcements. The University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences and the ICA Political Communication Division provided financial support, the College funding the editorial assistants and the Division covering some travel expenses. More than a dozen well-known scholars in political communication generously agreed to contribute material to the newsletter despite their busy schedules. I am indebted to them all.

Fittingly, this newsletter is focused on the future. In his commentary essay, APSA Political Communication Division President Shanto Iyengar reports on recent developments in the ICA and APSA divisions and goes on to describe recent methodological advances in the field. Our roundtable features essays on educating a new generation of citizens by authors of some of the more popular textbooks in political communication.

In our nearer future, the APSA Annual Meeting will be held in a few weeks. This issue includes a complete panel listing as well as information about a special roundtable on “The Future of Political Communication Research” and a description of a short course on public deliberation.

There are many other meetings scheduled for this fall, including the American Sociological Association annual meeting, the National Communication Association conference and several regional and specialized association meetings. Calls for papers for the 2006 meetings of both ICA and APSA have deadlines this fall, as do a number of regional communication and political science organizations. The minutes from the ICA Political Communication Division business meeting held in New York in June list officers and award winners from the past year.

As always, the books section is filled with good reading on American politics, mass media, political theory, and national and international politics around the world.

Hope to see many of you in Washington.

Jill Edy