IAMCR - International Association for Media and Communication Research

In October 2009, IAMCR was invited to participate in a broad-based survey on the impact of the global crises on civil society organizations. The results of the survey are now available online.

The evaluation of the responses to the survey shows that although some civil society organization (CSOs) have seen increased funding, overall the survey finds a worsening financial situation for CSOs in the period 2008-2009.

The Executive Board and International Council of IAMCR have enthusiastically endorsed Istanbul as the site for IAMCR's conference in July 2011. The local organising committee is headed by Deniz Beyrakdar of Kadir Has University, Istanbul, and includes representatives from a number of Turkish universities.

The conference theme will be "Cities, Connectivity and Creativity". The Turkish organising committee will make a presentation about the university venue, Istanbul and the conference theme at our conference in Braga, Portugal 18-22 July 2010.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day (8 March), IAMCR joins UNESCO and other international and regional media organizations to launch the annual Women Make the News (WMN) initiative.

Under the theme, “Towards Gender Sensitive Indicators for Media: Best practices for gender perspective in media and in media content”, WMN 2010 is intended to initiate a global exchange on the importance and the need for gender sensitive indicators for media organizations.

At last year's conference Virginia Nightingale, chair of IAMCR's Audience Section, undertook to coordinate the preparation of a draft proposal on Ethical Guidelines for Media Practice, Education and Research. Her idea is to develop some guidelines for ethical practice to be put to IAMCR's International Council for discussion. In order to broaden the discussion she is opening this topic for discussion on IAMCR's Facebook page.

IAMCR membership is for the calendar year - from January to December - so together with wishing all the best for the new year, we remind you that it's time to renew your membership. If you haven't yet renewed, you should have received a reminder email on 14 January. If you didn't see the email, send us a message and we will make sure you get it. In the case of institutional members, the designated correspondent should have received the message.

Of course we are also inviting new members. Click here for information on how to join.

Dear Colleagues: There is a story posted on Press TV the English-language television channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran, that suggests that "International groups and news networks have condemned Arab satellite operators for taking Iran's Al-Alam television network off air."

It continues: "The following is the list of international associations and groups which have condemned the removal of Al-Alam from Arabsat and Nilesat" and the first-named organization is "The International Association for Media and Communication Research – IAMCR"

IAMCR has launched its annual membership renewal campaign with messages sent to all individual members and institutional correspondents who have not yet renewed their membership for 2010.

We are also inviting new members. IAMCR membership is for the calendar year (January to December) but if you join now, your membership will be valid until December 2010.

Current IAMCR members can pay their fees by logging into their accounts here and selecting PAYMENT from the MEMBER'S MENU.

A short report

As a member of the Swedish Delegation for the 35th UNESCO General Conference, IAMCR member Ulla Carlsson participated in the Communication and Information Commission.

Governance, freedom of expression, communication for development, journalism, media literacy and media development indicators were on the agenda.

The deadline for submission for ICA's Annual Conference in Singapore June 22-26, 2010 is November 6, 2009 (Friday, 11:00 pm EST).

The theme for 2010 ICA Annual Conference is 'Matters of Communication: Political, Cultural & Technological Challenges'. The 2010 ICA Conference submission site is live and ready for submissions. Please access the site by clicking here.

IAMCR members can attend the conference, paying the reduced ICA member fees, even if they are not ICA members.

Two reports from IAMCR's Publications Committee are now available for download.

The first is the 2008-2009 activity report prepared for the Mexico conference and the second is a report arising from the Mexico conference, where we had interesting discussions about IAMCR's publication activities. The latter report outlines some ideas for future developments to be considered by the IAMCR constituency.