September 2010

DRAFT

 Council of Communication Associations
September 13, 2010 Minutes

Attendees:

• American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA)
  Fred Blevens, Past President, AJHA, Florida International University
• Association for Business Communication (ABC)
  Betty Johnson, Executive Director, ABC; Stephen F. Austin University
• Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC) and Association of Schools of Journalism & Mass Communication (ASJMC)
  Barbara Hines, Howard University
• Black College Communication Association (BCCA)

Jan Dates, Howard University

• Association of Schools of Journalism & Mass Communication (ASJMC)

Paul Parsons, Elon University

• Broadcast Education Association  (BEA)
  Glenda Williams, President, BEA, University of Alabama
  Max Utsler, President, BEA, University of Kansas
  Heather Birks, (CCA ED) Executive Director, BEA
• International Communication Association (ICA)
  Patrice M. Buzzanell, (CCA Chair) Past President, ICA, Purdue University

Sam Luna, Member Services Director, ICA

• National Communication Association (NCA)
  Dawn Braithwaite, President, NCA, University of Nebraska

Brad Mello, Associate Director, NCA

• Guests: Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Center for Intercultural Dialogue, Micro-Grants Project (Call-in)

Linda Putnam, University of California, Santa Barbara (Call-in)

Meeting was Called to Order Patrice Buzzanell, Chair

• Introductions
• Approval of Agenda
• Acceptance of minutes of March 1, 2010

 

The Center for Intercultural Dialogue (CID) – Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz — See Full CID Appendicies

Wendy provided an overview. Wendy’s documents were designed based on the advice of an expert from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside who is the Director of the Non-Profit Institute there, with attention to two completely different aspects (i.e., how the Center fits with the Council, and staffing structure).

Overview: 

• Advisory board members would have no direct interaction with CCA but the CID Director reports back to CCA. Wendy proposed a distinction between a Task Force and a Center (the former being more temporary, the latter being longer-term). Thus Wendy would be labeled a Director of a Center, rather than Chair of a Task Force to avoid confusion. 

Action Item: CCA members noted that CCA needs to review language in CCA bylaws that specifies CCA and CID structure and staffing.  (see CID Appendices 1 and 2)

• Job descriptions (Appendix 3). The CID Director term is 3 years and is renewable. CCA has the right to appoint Wendy for a specific time period (Wendy was agreeable to a time limit and considered this move appropriate). Members of the Advisory Board would be selected for 1-3 years (Director would need to determine a reasonable amount of time for someone’s commitment; stagger terms at the beginning but establish 3 year terms after the CID start-up period of 3 years). With this change the job descriptions were approved.
• Appendix 5—advisory board members (additions for ABC and AJHA were discussed so that all CCA associations were represented – CCA members agreed to supply names). With this addition the advisory board members were approved.
• Appendix 6 –comments on the mission/vision/objectives were made; final copy will be approved by the Center’s advisory board members.
• Appendix 7—the Center’s website has been set up as a blog for people to post comments, using the same software that CCA uses (WordPress). Thus the Clearinghouse function, requested by CCA in March 2009, has been established.

Action Item:  As CCA ED, Heather will provide a notice to member associations inviting member organizations to post comments to blog.  Newsletter announcement will announce the blog as a collaborative effort from members of CCA associations.

• Discussion of Center Activities – the work of the Center requires a fiscal agent (if CCA will be the fiscal agent and the grants are more than $25,000). Having CCA as the fiscal agent is a very clean design but it was noted that CCA would have to hire an attorney for taxes. It also was noted that a CCA member association could act as fiscal agent if this association had the appropriate tax status.

There was a discussion of CCA tax status as 501(C)(3) and of CCA’s probable annual costs (i.e., $350 would be approximate cost for taxes every year).

Discussion that it would be problematic to have a single member association as fiscal agent because this structure might raise concerns (comingling of funds). There was a discussion that this is (perhaps) the first venture of this type for CCA and member associations and that the costs are appropriate for the kind of work that would be done.

Questions were raised:

• Are there insurance issues? For example, NCA holds the money for the U.S. debate association and ran into an insurance issue. NCA redid its entire insurance structure recently.  Nancy Kidd can provide information. Brad said that students need student health and repatriation issues. The CID would require that scholars buy insurance and have insurance written into the grant.
• Was CCA in agreement that CCA would assume fiscal responsibility? CCA members wanted the Council to be fiscal agent.
• Types of grants—CCA association members and the CID Director thought that foundations as well as governmental agencies would be likely sources of funding. Funding was anticipated to be a jigsaw of small and large grants with an estimate of around 100 potential sources that can be approached. Some examples of possible funding sources are: Dept. of State, Dept. of Education, NEH, USAID, Bradley Foundation, RGK, W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, Center for Global Partnerships, Luce Foundation, Barbara Jordan Foundation, Plasaka Foundation. Specialized Foundations that may be appropriate include: Infinity, Scripps Howard. There’s also the possibility of dedicated Funding for People of Color: Walmart, Sony

The grants would be distributed before the travel–but after the ticket is bought– with the goal of encouraging more international research.  There will be a process after the travel to report back on how the grant was used. Grants will be limited to members of CCA member associations.

• Portability and sustainability–Wendy hopes that there will be enough funding available to support the Center. She would like to offer a salary for the CID Director. Funds should cover Center expenses and Director compensation after the initial 3 year start up. 

Action Items:

• Heather will talk to auditors, Sarfino and Rhodes, to discuss the tax implications/cost if CCA becomes the fiscal agent, and to attorneys for BEA. In the future and for larger grants, someone would be hired to handle management and finances.
• Wendy will talk to Nancy Kidd about the insurance ramifications with grants/travel.
• All documentation will in future be sent to the CCA President, VP, and ED (CCA Executive Committee) who then will decide whether the entire Council should be involved in individual decisions related to the Center.
• Action Items:
  • CCA will need to show in meeting minutes that CCA has the authority to receive funds.
  • CCA will provide documentation of CCA tax status for the Center to use in applying for grants.
  • The Center will provide updates at regular CCA meetings.

Motion Passed: CCA approves the documents as submitted and amended for the Center for Intercultural Dialogue.

US News & World Report – Graduate School Ratings

• Communication was not one of the fields evaluated in the ratings at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels. CCA members discussed if and how CCA should proceed.
• Some points to take into consideration were:
  • Inclusion might prompt attention to communication’s unique contributions to social sciences and humanities
  • Pursuit of inclusion might buy into commercialism and superficial appreciation of academe
  • Ratings are read by parents, university faculty and administrators, alums, students, and other stakeholders who attribute great significance to these ratings
  • Lack of inclusion might be viewed as evidence that the field lacks the credibility of other disciplines
  • Ratings can be used to gain resources at universities
  • Ratings can elevate a discipline and prompt attention to the nature of communication
• The US News posts its methodology but CCA member did not know how disciplines were included. Paul Parsons has a former advisory board member at Elon University who was at US News as a managing editor. Paul agreed to confer with this board member and other sources.
• At the undergraduate level, Communication is probably the third largest discipline after business. Education may be the second. Enrollment size and growth would be the strongest case for communication’s inclusion.
• The two undergrad disciplines in the US News are business and engineering. US News seems to have an orientation toward more professional disciplines.
• Out of different rating systems, US News has the highest visibility. In ranking universities, US News uses about 15 criteria. For the discipline rankings, they ask for reputational data.
• Consensus of CCA association members was that the issue is worth investigating further, especially who is ranked, how, and consequences. It seems that the undergraduate programs are based on a reputational survey. Perhaps CCA would want to focus on undergraduate ratings but our greatest challenge would be figuring out who to include. The more professional side of journalism and mass communication has a mechanism for evaluation. The communication studies side may not fit as well. Engineering has undergraduate (as a whole) and graduate programs (grad subsets).
• Action Item: Paul Parsons volunteered to look for information on behalf of CCA and in a fact-finding role. Process, criteria, sections for undergraduate and graduate, credibility for sources of information—our field has not collected ways to learn about these sources. Parents know. CCA can post information on its website and member associations’ websites.

 

The NRC Doctoral Survey, ISI Rankings, the Task Force on Humanities Committee – Patrice Buzzanell and Linda Putnam

Sept. 13, 2010 report on ISI:

Annamarie Hines and Jim Testa—2 new journals added to ISI listing.

Discourse and Communication

Environmental Communication

• Two journals were dropped from the communication listing: Multilingua and Translator. Cross-listed two journals from psychology: Journal of Language and Social Psychology  (edited by Giles), and Personal Relationships.
• Not all of these journals are listed on the ISI website but ISI waits until Summer 2011 to post. Now communication has 60 journals in its list.
• Game plan is to keep trying. Three are under review right now and will be reported on by the end of 2010. None that we have recommended have been recommended. ISI is interested in international journals. Ito has been trying to get Keio Communication Review, the Journal of International Communication, American Journalism (still being considered by the committee in addition to another 5 – Journal of Radio and Audio Media; Communication, Culture & Critique; Communication Education; International Communication Gazette; Journalism & Communication Monographs.
• Sage has been told that journals will be considered 3 times and then will never be considered again. They also said that the amount of time to wait for consideration is 3 years. This is supposedly a new policy. Betty requested that this new information (learned in August) be explored. 
• Impact factors are the more frequent reason for rejection. The CCA ISI Task Force has done a lot of work on international editorial boards.
• There should be panels at all the conferences about impact factors. For 54 journals, the average impact factor is now over 1.0. The information is two years behind. We need to cite our own journals.
• With regard to committee membership: Linda will check with members of the ISI Task Force to see if they’d like to continue (Mike Roloff, Beth Barnes, and probably Joe Phelps are ready to rotate off). Linda will check with committee members and then Patrice will contact CCA member associations. NCA Pub Board is David Henry. AEJMC will submit a name – Kyhouyoum—has expressed interest in these issues. Fred Blevins will stay on the committee.
• Action Item: Members will send names to Linda and Patrice for the ISI task force.
• Suggestions for journals in inclusion—should go through the CCA ISI taskforce.

The editorial board is very important. So is having senior people on the board matters – very important especially for a new journal and if you are revamping or reorienting an existing journal. Get a premier scholar to do a lit review and create a highly citable article, an overview of the field. Another way to gain attention and citations for a journal is to have trend setting, massive overviews with research agendas, cutting-edge research, etc. These qualities are the most cited articles—these up the citation indices. More critical for the social science index.

• Action Item:  Linda and the ISI Task Force will check into fixing ISI website—Journalism Quarterly and Journal of Mass Communication Quarterly (both are incorrect, correct is Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly)

 

Humanities Task Force—This task force has not met and will try to locate meeting times through use of the doodle again.

Member Association Updates:

• ABC—Approaching 75^th anniversary with conference in Chicago. Anniversary keepsake – recollections and pictorial directory to be distributed in hard copy form. Successful conferences in Belgium and Tokyo. Beginning next cycle for strategic planning. Giving student grants for the first time as a result of CCA discussions.
• ICA—Singapore in June with Nanyang was great and ICA test ran a virtual conference. Submission site for the Boston conference is open until Nov. 1. We will have submissions to the virtual conference. Redesigning website again with the new logo. Over 60% of ICA members are non-US members. There are 5 international members at large.
• NCA—NCA is working through a complicated hotel situation. Other aspects that are changing are: grants, interactive media such as webinars for professional development. Over 15,000 hits per month (a lot seems to be internal from members) in Communication Currents. Preparing for centennial in 2014 in Chicago. Have been archiving materials and have been selecting projects to move forward for the celebration. Are working on outreach and media work. NCA has been redoing all message strategies. Spectra will be changed to a magazine format with different themes four times per year. Providing information on faculty evaluations and ways to do program reviews. Funding 101 videos are being recorded. All ending up on iTunesU (Not live yet but will include major conference talks and political figures from Free Speech Week).
• BEA—Third Freedom of Speech co-partnered contest for undergraduates. Much better turn out than expected for last conference. Completely in tandem with NAB. Deadlines have been moved up and are redoing membership and website materials. BEA has been doing ePortfolio sessions for chairs to post documents in one place, coordinated. Syllabus exchange is up and running—and will be compartmentalized (e.g., documentary syllabus). Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media—call for new editor. International spot on boards.
• ASJMC—Is an association of schools. Winter meeting each year with themes of innovation, internationalization (world Congresses, best practices), fund raising.
• AEJMC—There are changes in leadership Carol Pardun steps down and Jan Slater steps in. Conference in Denver had more people attend than 100^th anniversary in 2012 in Chicago. 2012-2013—beginning centennial year and ending in DC in 2013. Have commissioned a historian from U of NC Asheville to produce research on AEJMC. Becoming very active in Facebook, twitter, with recent website redesign. Membership is down about 40 members –not a cause for alarm. Association has been investigating the outsourcing of publications and are ready to sign a contract.
• AJHA—Historians are not on twitter or Facebook. Journal submissions on google went without a hitch. Google was evaluated as fantastic for a small call for papers. Next year, conference submissions will be done by Google. Meeting in 4 weeks in Tuscon. Relocation would have cost $35,000 (a third of assets). Will have press conference and president’s panel on the issues. Distinguished Dean award. AJHA has a Journal and a newsletter editor search. Actually have excellent applications for both jobs.
• BCCA—BCCA started in the 1990s to focus on technology and helping sister schools become accredited. The website is being developed by students in keeping with new media and to make it more appealing to students. For a number of years, it was housed at Howard University. Now it will be at A&M. Student leaders have been successful at conferences (probably about 8 in the Spring) with faculty involvement.

 

NRC UPDATE

• Linda provided an overview of the study release and dates. There should be a free executive summary.
• CCA will want to do our own analyses by subfields or different breakdowns. The raw data will enable CCA Task Force members to provide a profile of the field. The percentile ranges have changed from earlier methodology reports.
• Charlotte Kuh has said that they’ll mask the identities of individual faculty members and our committees will sign confidentiality agreements but we’ll get a lot of data.
• There will be a conference about 6 months out (around January or February). Since all protocols are in place, NRC is planning to redo in a couple of years. The NRC tried to be accurate and meet the complaints of the past. But it has been a long process and we hope that it will have value.  There will be no program rankings by NRC but you’ll know your university ranking within a range.
• Need small group to analyze and will come back to CCA—needs white paper, leadership, and ways to use these data. Aggregate data and diversity will be a cause for discussion—dimensions and r ratings would be different. Every program has a range on 5 measures—r, s, and 3 dimensions.
• And NRC update will be provided at the Doctoral Chair’s Session at NCA in November.

 

REPORT ON RECENT T&F POLICY MEETING

INVITATION TO REVIEW AND COMMENT ON CCA WEBSITE

 

ABComS -- Concetta Seminara, Taylor & Francis; Heather Birks and Patrice Buzzanell

• Discussion of ABComS and Subfield Taxonomy.
• Handout on taxonomy that was developed for NRC. Two areas that are major weaknesses.  On CRTNET there was discussion that the rhetoric and journalism areas were collapsed too much or that there were journalism law and other areas missing. This taxonomy is missing. Other disciplines have recognizable areas in their taxonomies over time. They do change. CCA needs to develop a coherent base and be able to communicate to outsiders.
• ABComS—overview
• Action Item: Feminist Media Studies dropped from ISI. Linda will check into things.

 

Background on NRC categories and other category schemes for the discipline – Linda Putnam

 

ABComS Focus Group – optional meeting for CCA members to discuss ABComS key areas of interest and editorial structure

• Based on annotated bibliographic details on articles, books and CD-roms – it would be selective not representative.  It would have 8 sections and each section would have an editor.
• An in-house T&F rep would be responsible for this.
• Points for Discussion:
  • Practice vs. Theory
  • Broad concept words
  • Incorporation of film/media
  • Open submissions

How did others develop their categories? (e.g., Communication, CIOS site, Tim Stephens – http://www.cios.org – support@cios.org)

T&F is planning to have focus groups at the NCA convention in San Francisco and is working with CCA to get representatives from as many CCA member associations as possible.  The focus groups will consist of senior as well as rising scholars.

Final bit of news: NSF Directorate of social behavior and – advancing the sciences division – NCA is writing a white paper for the September 30th deadline – What are the future research needs 10 years from now. Betsy Bach, NCA is working on writing the white paper for Sept. 30th.

Adjourned regular CCA meeting by 2 pm; adjourned focus group by 3 pm

Advertisement