APSA Political Communication Section1999 Annual Business Meeting
Section Chair Thomas Patterson, Harvard, opened the meeting with several announcements. He reported that the membership of the Political Communication section places it around the median in size among APSA sections. He described the APSA web site as improved, featuring articles from P.S., job listings, an on-line paper proposal process, and other innovations. He also reported that pursuant to discussions during the previous year's meeting, a letter had been written on behalf of the section to the Gore Commission, expressing support for the principle of scholarly access to broadcast content. The session then turned to policy questions about awards. The members present voted to name the award for best paper in political communication after Paul Lazarsfeld, who was chosen in a close contest over Walter Lippmann. Members also discussed at some length criteria and procedures for the new Doris Graber Best Book award. A committee will devise proposed rules and provide final recommendations to the executive council of section; the new section chair, Ann Crigler, will appoint three members to this committee. Minutes from the 1998 business meeting were approved. Robert Entman gave the treasurer's report: $16,151.18 rests in the section's coffers, although that figure omits the cost of the 1999 section reception. The nominating committee then recommended the following slate of section officers, who were approved by the members unanimously: Chair-elect, Robert Entman; secretary-treasurer, Steven Livingston; and council at-large member, Holli Semetko. The position of annual meeting program chair for the section's 2001 panels was vacant as of the September 3, 1999, meeting. David Swanson, editor, reported on the journal, Political Communication. He said that manuscript submissions are running about the same for 1999 and for 1998. Both individual and institutional subscriptions are rising slowly. A new discount being offered to members of the National Communication Association appears to be encouraging more subscribers from that quarter. David received warm applause for his exemplary efforts. It was announced that the new editor of the section newsletter will be Kevin G. Barnhurst, who plans to make an on-line version available. This is planned as a joint undertaking with the International Communication Association Political Communication Division, which shares many members with the APSA section. Members applauded outgoing newsletter editor Richard Davis. Steve Livingston, this year's program chair, discussed his work on the 1999 conference. By using the ability to cross-list with other sections strategically, Steve managed to arrange 15 panels sponsored or co-sponsored by the section. He too received a round of thankful applause. Darrell West, program chair for 2000, announced a November 15, 1999, deadline for paper proposals and volunteering as panel chairs or discussants. Note that paper proposals for the 2000 meeting will only be accepted via the on-line procedure at the APSA Web Site www.apsanet.org . The Graber Best Paper Award for 1998 (soon to be the Lazarsfeld Award) was presented to Nicholas Valentino, University of Michigan, for his paper on crime news and priming. The Murray Edelman Career Award went to Bernard C. Cohen, University of Wisconsin, for his important contributions and especially his pioneering work in The Press and Foreign Policy on the interactions of government and media. After award presentations, attention turned to discussion of creative ways to spend the section's considerable revenue. Among the ideas raised were providing small research grants to graduate students and travel grants to graduate students or foreign scholars for attending the APSA annual meeting. Ann Crigler will appoint a committee to analyze the options and make recommendations. There was also a spirited discussion on the propriety of the section's taking policy positions. It was reported that APSA rules prohibit the association or its components from taking political stands except on issues bearing upon teaching and research in political science, such as open records laws and NSF appropriations. Members may raise such issues in the newsletter and propose resolutions at the annual business meeting. The idea of running an occasional column in the newsletter to alert members to policy issues that might affect scholarship and teaching was also broached. The executive council of the section will take this matter under advisement. In one announcement from the floor, Dominic Wring, a member of our sister organization, the Media and Politics Group of the Political Studies Association in Britain, announced a political communication research conference to be held in London April 10-14, 2000. He encouraged APSA members to consider attending and announced the Group's Web site www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/MPG/MPG.htm . With this, Ann Crigler, professor of Political Science, University of Southern California, took the gavel as section chair for 1999-2000, and the meeting adjourned and moved next door to the section's reception. A lengthy and well-provisioned session of convivial schmoozing followed. –Robert Entman
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