Our APSA program in Boston this year should be a good one. From an impressive group of submissions, we will field twenty-one panels. Eleven were organized entirely by the Political Communication Division, and ten were developed with other divisions: four with Elections and Voting Behavior, two with Presidency Research and one each with Computers and Multimedia,  Public Opinion and Participation, Women and Politics and  Race, Ethnicity and Politics.

Panels address a broad range of concerns from media effects to the role news and a variety of old and new media, including entertainment formats, play in the political process. Strategic media also emerge as a concern for scholars who focus on persuasion and framing in electoral, executive, and legislative contexts. A panel on event-driven news attempts to bridge the divide between the liberal-pluralist and critical traditions. Three panels target issues relating to civic engagement, one devoted to U.S. high schools, one to the Internet and Civic Culture, and one to political manipulation and the loss of democratic responsiveness.

Three panels take a global perspective, probing issues in Western Europe, Latin America, and the post-Soviet case. Two other panels address problems relating to race and women’s issues in the strategic use of media.

With terrorism a particular concern this year, two conference panels are devoted to the topic. An impressive research effort has been undertaken by numerous conferees for the preconference symposium, “Terrorism, The Media, and Civic Life,” co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center at Harvard. The program will take place Wednesday, August 28. Information is available in this issue of the newsletter, under Symposium, and on the section Web site: http://www.apsanet.org/~polcomm/

The full Political Communication Section program is included at the Conference program site: http://www.apsanet.org/mtgs/program/ Click on the link to Political Communication (Division 38). Or, to determine when a participant will present, enter the name in the Advanced Search Engine on the first page of the Conference program.

Thanks to all who are participating in what promises to be an exciting program. I look forward to seeing you in Boston and Cambridge.

Montague Kern, Rutgers University
2002 Conference Program Chair
<mkern@scils.rutgers.edu>