Media, Communication, Information:
Celebrating 50 Years of Theories and Practices

These last fifty years have seen a number of theoretical evolutions and practical advances in the domains which relate media to the inter-or multi-disciplinary field of information and communication. Some of them have emanated from European and Western research centres, others from diverse regions of the world scientific community. These various bodies of research have supplied analytical tools that cover the whole range of the field of media, information and communication, in a global perspective: from the production and the international circulation of news and data, images and texts, to their reception, by a wide range of publics. They have critically examined such issues as public space and democracy, actor networks and agency or technological mediation and its modalities.

New theoretical spaces of development and applications are also emerging, apparent in a number of pioneering works, with original and innovative approaches. Issues such as internet governance and co-regulation of the media resonate with questions on diasporic publics, cultural and trans-cultural diversities. The theoretical contributions of other fields, such as economics, cognition, politics, or urban studies, to name a few, have been facilitating new readings of semiotic processes and media representations, and fostering a deeper understanding of the tensions between genres and gender, minorities and communities, “youth” cultures and subcultures, worldwide. The modifications of the market and the political economy of the media in the context of globalization have cast in new perspectives such issues as cultural goods and services, e-learning industries and media literacies, not to mention sustainable development alternatives via media and new technologies for information and communication.

These developments, old and new, coincide with the areas of inquiry and the directions for research that IAMCR has fully embraced over the past fifty years. The abstracts and papers submitted to the various sections of IAMCR for the 2007 conference will need to reflect these tendencies while intersecting with their dominant thematic strand such as media history, political communication, political economy, participatory communication, media education, information and ICT policy, etc.  Working groups are encouraged to organize joint sessions with the sections to better ensure that their emerging trends and perspectives can be accommodated.

The abstracts and papers will also need to make innovative connections between theory and  practice, notably by underlining the contribution of empirical work to research and by proposing original methodologies, protocols and appropriate indicators. Perspectives and trends for the future should also be delineated, so as to provide new paths for investigation by IAMCR members in the next 50 years.

Rules for Paper Submission: You may submit the same abstract or paper to ONE section only. You may submit different papers to different sections or, as the case may be, different papers to the same section. If we find the same paper submitted to different sections or working groups, we will work with the organisers of the conference to withdraw the paper so that it is (if accepted) presented in only ONE section/working group. Abstracts (500 words at most) must be sent to the section heads and working group chairs by January 15th 2007.  The final decisions will be notified by March 1st 2007.