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The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Annual Conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)

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Location

Hyderabad, India

"The different interwoven strands represent the movement of people across distance and time to draw and redraw the shifting boundaries of region. Within these imagined spaces people commune, connect and sometimes move away and beyond to create new formations, new networks, that are in some ways the same, yet in others, diverse and unforeseen."

Above is a description of the logo for a Hyderabad, India, event - July 15-19 2014 - exploring the dynamics of media systems, communication patterns, and organisational relationships within a new "framing" of region as a physical and conceptual category. The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) holds that the breaking down of some the world's walls has created an uncertainty about the geographies and substantive nature of the regions they had once defined. This includes physical, ideological, economic, and cultural boundaries. "Mobility, migration and disembodied interactions by cyberspace further complicate the notion of region as a conceptual and experiential category." In this context, some of the questions that conference participants will explore include:

  • What are the politics that drive media discourse, organisation, and economics?
  • What kind of presence is possible in this redefined regional space, and how does region become a real and imagined construct across new media presences?
  • What sorts of practices then become key to media and communication spaces enclosed in or defined by this new frame?

The Department of Communication at the University of Hyderabad and the School of Media and Communication at the English and Foreign Languages University Hyderabad are jointly hosting the event, which will feature plenary and special sessions relating to the broad thematic umbrella, in addition to the peer-reviewed paper presentations organised by various sections and working groups.

Prior to the conference itself, there will be a number of events. For example, Communication for Sustainable Rural Development and Social Change (July 14) is organised around the notion that "[f]or many scholars in communication and innovation studies in the life sciences, India is a good case of a country where rural development and agriculture are directly linked to communication processes, including those mediated by technologies such as video and mobile phones. Being hosted by the Indian local organizers provides a unique opportunity to pay attention to issues of communication for rural innovation, food security, equity and access, rural extension and knowledge circulation."

The (extended) deadline to submit abstracts for the conference is Monday February 17 at 24:00 GMT.

Registration details for the conference can be found here. In brief, the registration fee differs based on your country of residence (income level). Student participants receive an additional discount on the registration fee. The dates for registration are:

  • Early Bird : March 24 - April 30 2014
  • Regular: May 1-31 2014
  • Late: June 1-20 2014

For more information, visit:

Source
Email from Dr. Kanchan K. Malik to The Communication Initiative on February 4 2014; and IAMCR 2014 website and IAMCR 2014 on Facebook - both accessed on February 13 2014.