IAMCR - International Association for Media and Communication Research

The Legal Committee of IAMCR was requested by the International Council and the President to draft the changes in the statutes and the by-laws needed to enact Electronic Voting for the IAMCR Executive Board and the elected members of the International Council in the future. The President of IAMCR, Annabelle Sreberny, will bring these changes to the General Assembly in Durban.

IAMCR and the Urban Communication Foundation offer an annual prize for the best paper by an IAMCR member that critically addresses issues in urban communication. This year's prize will be awarded at IAMCR's conference in Durban, South Africa to an original paper which shows scholarly excellence in critical and innovative engagement with issues in urban communication.

The deadline for submission of papers for the 2012 prize is 10 June.

In recent years free, on line journals, many of them open access and peer-reviewed, have begun to both challenge and complement traditional academic publishing. This is a welcome development and IAMCR is developing a resource on its website with links to journals in the field of media and communications.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day (8 March), IAMCR joins UNESCO and other international and regional media organizations to celebrate the annual Women Make the News (WMN) initiative. WMN is a global policy advocacy initiative aimed at promoting gender equality in the media.

The theme for this year, Rural women’s access to media and information, seeks to underscore and stimulate knowledge exchange on: the importance of policies in favour of access to media and information in rural communities, particularly for women; and good practices undertaken by public service broadcasters, commercial and community media, and NGOs.

It's time for IAMCR members to renew their membership for 2012. All individual and institutional members should have received an email recently reminding them that their 2012 membership fees are due.

If you aren't yet a member, join online and become part of the worldwide professional organisation in the field of media and communication research.

The International Association for Media and Communication Research invites submissions of abstracts for papers and panel proposals for the 2012 IAMCR conference to be held from July 15-19, 2012 at the Howard College Campus of the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa.

The conference will be held under the general theme, 'South-North Conversations'. The theme reflects the asymmetry of global communication flows, but without implying the negatives that usually accompany discussions of the 'digital divide'. The theme also calls for balanced and empowering narratives that do not regard those in ‘the South’ as victims primarily in need of handouts from the more affluent.

The deadline for submissions is February 14, 2012.

IAMCR Secretary General, Hopeton Dunn, has been reappointed for a second five-year term as chairman of the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica, the regulatory body for radio, television, and cable TV in Jamaica.

In addition to his position with IAMCR, Professor Dunn is director of the Telecommunications Policy and Management programme at the Mona School of Business, University of the West Indies (UWI) and professor of Communications Policy and Digital Media at the UWI.

News article: Dunn reappointed Broadcasting Commission chairman, Daily Gleaner (Jamaica), 4 November 2011.

In 2011, IAMCR offered a travel grant to a student of the University of Minho -host of IAMCR's 2010 conference.

Read below Carla Cerqueira's account of the 2011 conference and how it provided her with an ideal framework for networking opportunities and cultural experiences.

Participants at the International Communications Association's (ICA) 2011 annual conference are invited to the IAMCR panel Critical Approaches to Communication @ the Center which will take place on Friday, 27 May, 15:00-16:15, at Paine Room.

We, the members of the Executive Board of the International Association for Media and Communication Research, based in six different countries, wish to state our support for the restoration of free public communication and the move to an authentic democracy for all Egyptian and Tunisian citizens, as for the citizens of other nations who suffer from the violent repression of these rights.