For most of us, summer is the time to wind down and get much-needed (and deserved!) rest, but ICA never sleeps. For the first time in my career, I had the pleasure of attending the IAMCR annual conference in July, which was held in Lyon, France. The ICA partner session, 'Trustworthy and Responsible AI: Communication Perspectives,' consisted of four scholars who tackle the questions of what challenges and opportunities recent advancements in AI have presented in different communication contexts, from sociocultural, psychological, journalistic perspectives: Dr. Maximilian Eder (LMU Munich), Dr. Andrea Guzman (Northern Illinois U), Dr. Sun Sun Lim (Singapore Management U), and Dr. S. Shyam Sundar (Pennsylvania State). Our well-attended session was officially scheduled for 90 minutes but lasted for two hours with a vibrant Q & A session.
At the ICA Headquarters, we have been busy comprising task forces on several important fronts. Among them is the Strategic Planning Task Force, with Drs. Cynthia Stohl (ICA Past President; U of California, Santa Barbara) and Karin Wilkins (U of Miami) as its Co-Chairs. The SPTF aims to identify strategic issues that ICA should address within the next five years and develop a vision that reflects ICA's mission and core values. The recommendations the SPTF will deliver at the June 2024 Board of Directors' meeting will play a critical role in guiding how ICA navigates amid continued shifts in the sociocultural, political, technological, environmental, publishing, and education landscapes. I'm truly excited to see this task force moving forward and immensely grateful to those who will take part in this significant endeavor to shape ICA's future.
I was also tremendously encouraged to see how actively our colleagues in different corners of the world are making efforts (and progress!) in engaging communication scholars in their respective regions. In October, Shanghai Jiao Tong U in China will celebrate its 11th ICA-Affiliated New Media International Conference, which has successfully established itself as a fruitful venue showcasing top-notch scholarship from Chinese communication and media scholars and beyond. The much-awaited ICA Regional Conference in Africa, originally planned for 2020 but delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will finally take place in Cape Town, South Africa, in November 2023, welcoming remote participants through its hybrid format. In March 2024, another ICA regional conference with the theme, 'Human Tech Transition: Crises in Mediatized Politics, Society & Economy,' will be held in Warsaw, Poland. Last but not least, there will be an ICA Regional Conference on 'Food and Communication' in Dijon, France, organized by our colleagues at the U of Burgundy in May 2024. I firmly believe that these and other year-round academic gatherings in various regions will play a pivotal role in strengthening the ICA community as a whole.
Another piece of upbeat news for communication scholars was brought to my attention by the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Communication, Dr. Lance Holbert. According to the recently released 2022 Journal Citations Report, seven Communication journals have a 2-year Impact Factor of 6 or above, surpassing many of our neighboring fields, such as Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, and Social Psychology. While we acknowledge that an academic journal's Impact Factor is not necessarily diagnostic of the quality of scholarship it publishes, it is still gratifying to see our field's research increasingly gaining the recognition it deserves. Enjoy the rest of the summer, and keep up the good work!