Minutes GCSC Meeting, ICA 2022 in Paris (May 29, 2022)

1. Chris Paterson (Chair of the Division) welcomes the audience and presents the agenda for the meeting, which is being livestreamed via Zoom and on the Cadmore platform.
2. Chris reminds participants that the minutes of the previous business meeting (2021, online) were sent out in advance and asks if anybody has any comments. No comments are raised, and the minutes are approved.
3. Chris presents the Chair report and thanks Radhika Gajjala (previous Chair of the Division) for her leadership during the previous years. Chris reports that there has been an increase in paper submissions in the division. Reminds of some of the latest activities organized by the division, including two sessions for early career scholars one before ICA 2022 (paper reviewing session), and one during ICA 2022 (publishing and career advice). During the previous year, the division returned to giving out Best Book and Best dissertation awards. Finally, Chris thanks the Dani Madrid-Morales (Secretary of the Division) for his work with social media and communications.
4. Claes de Vreese (President of ICA) comes to the room to talk about next year’s conference. ICA 2023 will be in Toronto, from 25 May to 29 May. The programme planner will be the newly elected president of ICA, her theme is “Reclaiming Authenticity in Communication”. There will be a CfP related to the theme. There will be a committee for the conference theme with people from four continents. Next year’s conference will be hybrid. Going forward the conference will have a hybrid format. There have been over 1,000 participants in the online part of the conference. There will be an escalator session offered to all the divisions. The hotel will be the Sheraton in downtown Toronto. The rates will start at 230 CAD. The hotel block will open first for Tier B and C. Claes also outlines future locations of ICA conferences:

2024 – Gold Coast

2025 – Colorado

2026 – Latin/South America

2027 – Chicago

• Claes asks if there are any questions. Rachel van der Merwe asks whether it would be possible for people to pay registration fees in a currency other than dollars. Claes says he will look into it. Daniela Dimitrova asks Claes to look into better options for a hybrid conference. Claes says that this comes with high cost, but that he will pass the information on to ICA leadership.
• Chris asks people to put their name forward for the division’s chair position. It will be elected during the next election cycle.
• Melissa Click, editor of Communication, Culture and Critique, an ICA journal, has a new initiative to make the journal more accessible to young scholars and scholars from the Global South. CCC has a new option for a pre-submission review, that will allow people to submit manuscripts to the journal, and to get feedback from a mentor before it is sent out to reviewers.
• Chris talks about the budget for the division. The division is in healthy situation. There was $8,165 in the account, $3,400 spent for pre-conferences and reception, more funds might be coming after pre-conferences are concluded. Chris asks for ideas to spend some of the other money in events.
• Chris discusses membership levels. They have increased to 425, up from 311.
• Chris acknowledges the pre and post conferences that the division sponsored. There were 7 pre or post conferences that the division organized or helped organize. Chris clarifies that affiliation does not always carry a monetary cost.
• Chris mentions that he would like to propose some changes to the bylaws because some of the wording is out of date. However, ICA does not consider voting in the business meeting as biding. Therefore, Chris will send the proposed changes that the leadership would like to make via email to all the members so that they are voted for during the elections in October.
• Chris mentions that a few journals have approached the division to be affiliated with the division. Chris mentions that the new officers will look at the proposals.
• Chris shares some details about the Board of Directors meeting. ICA wants divisions to know that the budget was passed; there was a revised political engagement policy; regional conferences committee has been renamed; mobile communication is now a division; all divisions will get a research escalator session next year in the program; dues will be drastically reduced for Tier B and C scholars; there is negotiations about a new affiliated journal; the meeting next year will be hybrid.
• Saba Bebawi (Vice-Chair of the Division) presents her report. Saba says that this the first year the division accepted extended abstracts and says the sessions have gone very well. The quality of papers was very high, and it was easy to thematize them into topics. Saba asks people to volunteer to review papers. Saba wants members to be in contact with her to give feedback on the sessions, what could be done differently, or to send ideas on how the spots on the conference programme can be filled.
• Chris explains that when members send proposals for panels, it is important to keep to the rules so that proposals don’t get rejected directly.
• Chris welcomes new officers, Lea Hellmüller (Secretary), Rachel van der Merwe (Internationalization Liaison) and Michael Kim (Student and Early Career Representative).
• Dani Madrid-Morales (Secretary of the Division) presents the communication strategies. Dani says that a new website was launched (www.ica-gcsc.org), and that around 300 people visit the site every day. Dani also reviews user engagement with Twitter (the division has surpassed 800 followers). Dani explains that ICA has a platform called The Link, and invites members to use The Link to distribute news related to the division.
• Chris reads a report prepared by Ambar Basu who is the internationalization efforts officer. Ambas’s report states that our Internationalization focus would be on colleagues in South American and African nations. Ambar explains that forging partnerships with journals/journal editors based in these countries has been a priority. He also adds that internationalization liaison officers from various divisions were invited to meet on a couple of occasions.
• Chris also presents the report submitted by Youngrim Kim, who is the student and early career scholar representative for the division. Youngrim explains that, during her tenure, she contributed to creating the GCSC division website. Youngrim also participated in organizing a reviewer workshop. As the division's student representative, Youngrim has attended meetings organized by SECR (Student and Early Career Representatives) and promoted the division's activities. Youngrim also contributed to organizing the advice session for students and early career scholars in Paris.
• Chris announces the paper award winners and presents awards to those in attendance (Dimitrova & Ozdora Aksak; Alencar, Camargo & Cogo; and Guta).

• Top Faculty Paper: "Does Context Matter? Opportunities and Challenges for Migration NGOs in Two Neighbouring Countries" by D. Dimitrova (Iowa State U) & E. Ozdora Aksak (Bilkent U). 
• Top Student Paper: "Social Media for Community Organizing: Saving Oconomowoc Dispatch" by R. Italiano & F.A. Ramirez (Louisiana State U)
• Faculty Runner-up: "Venezuelan refugees in Brazil, communication rights and digital inequalities in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic" by A. Alencar, (Erasmus U Rotterdam), J. Camargo (Federal U of Roraima) & D. Cogo (ESPM - São Paulo)
• Student Runner-up: "Social Inequality and News Media Repertoires in Seven MENA Countries" by R. Leuppert (Hochschule fur Musik Theater und Medien Hannover), I. Allagui (Northwestern U. - Qatar) & C. Klimmt (Hochschule fur Musik Theater und Medien Hannover)
  African Journalism Studies Award: "From Connective Action to Collective Action: The Role of Sudanese Professionals Association in Sudan’s 2019 Revolution" by H. A. Guta (Qatar U)

• Chris proceeds to announcing the winners of the Best Book Awards, and presenting the certificates to the two winners, both of which are in attendance.

• Winner: "Populist Communication: Ideology, Performance, Mediation" (Palgrave Macmillan) by Lone Sorensen, Leeds U, United Kingdom
• Runner-up: "Media Reform and the Climate Emergency: Rethinking Communication in the Struggle for a Sustainable Future" (University of Michigan Press) by David Park, Florida International U

Chris also thanks the committee that reviewed the awards.

• Next, the winners of the Best Dissertation Awards are announced, and certificates presented to Ryan Stoldt (attending online) and Rachel van der Merwe (in person):

• Winner: Imagining the World: Personalization Algorithms and Global Media Flows on Netflix (The U of Iowa) by Ryan Stoldt Drake U. 
• Runner-up (ex-aequo): Deep Ploughing: A Mobile Phone Company’s Technology Translation Between China and Ghana (Chinese U of Hong Kong) by Miao Lu, Chinese U of Hong Kong
• Runner-up (ex-aequo): We Are Not South African: Decolonizing National Identity in a Post-Apartheid State (U of Colorado Boulder) by Rachel van der Merwe, U of Groningen.

• Chris mentions that the division leadership is thinking about changing some of the award structure. And that the leadership of the division will put those to a vote during the elections.
• Chris mentions that the division is thinking of creating a mentorship programme and that it might be ready before the new conference in 2023 comes in.
• Chris opens the floor for suggestions and questions.
  • Emel Ozdora Aksak asks for the business meeting to be held earlier on in the conference programme. Chris explains that the time and date of the business meeting is allocated centrally by ICA:
  • Members ask about the reception and how they can join. Chris apologises to those members who cannot join, but seats were limited for the reception as it is to be held on a boat.
• There are no more questions, and the meeting is adjourned.