Media, Communication & Culture

Reports

Informe de la reunión de la Sección Mass Media, Communication and Popular Culture

Vancouver, mayo 2023.

Las actividades de la sección se vieron afectadas por la pandemia y la realización de los anteriores congresos de manera virtual.

La reunión de la sección se realizó el 25 de mayo 2023 de manera híbrida. Hubo seis personas de manera presencial. Nadie se conectó por zoom y varios integrantes del grupo reportaron inconvenientes en la información sobre el enlace (link).

Se externaron varias inquietudes por parte de los asistentes, la más importante es la inconformidad ante los congresos híbridos, ya que hubo desorganización, falta de experiencia de algunas de las personas a cargo para manejar los equipos, dificultades en las conexiones, lo que causó que, en varias ocasiones, solo hubiera una persona en la sala de manera presencial y los demás de manera virtual.

Esto no favoreció el diálogo ni el intercambio de ideas. Se hizo llegar a la mesa directiva de LASA la solicitud de que en el siguiente congreso, si va a realizarse de manera híbrida, se definan mesas presenciales y mesas virtuales, para no repetir la mala experiencia.

El punto central de la reunión fue la elección de integrantes de la nueva mesa. Celia del Palacio, académica de la Universidad de Guadalajara, México, fue propuesta como coordinadora y Giuliana Cassano, académica de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú como co-coordinadora. La propuesta fue aceptada por unanimidad (6 personas presentes). Después, por WhatsApp, 8 integrantes más expresaron su voto a favor.

Dasniel Olivera Pérez, académico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México se ofreció para coordinar la comisión de premios y su propuesta fue igualmente aceptada. Posteriormente, ante la falta de otros candidatos, él mismo aceptó quedar al frente de la secretaría de la sección.

Quedan vacantes los puestos de tesorería, becas y difusión. En el periodo junio de 2022 a mayo de 2023, se organizaron para el Congreso en Vancouver 15 paneles y una mesa redonda sobre los temas de la sección. Además, como actividades de la sección, se presentó el Panel “Realidad y fantasía se entretejen en el ecosistema audiovisual” y la Mesa Redonda “The future of journalism is here. Some paradigmatic cases across the Americas”. En esta ocasión no se organizaron premios ni se otorgaron becas.

Los planes para el periodo entre mayo de 2023 y junio de 2024 incluyen la organización de paneles sobre los temas de la sección, incentivar la participación de los miembros y reactivar los premios. Estamos organizando el Premio a mejor publicación con dos menciones:

- Mejor publicación en Comunicación y Cultura Popular.

- Mejor publicación en Estudios sobre Medios.

Es importante fomentar la discusión sobre los proyectos de los integrantes y buscar las relaciones entre ellos, así como fomentar el intercambio de ideas más allá de los congresos de LASA. Un instrumento importante sigue siendo el WhatsApp que sigue funcionando para la comunicación día a día. Además, es fundamental el nombramiento de una persona encargada de redes sociales, para actualizar la página web de la sección, así como el portal de Facebook.

Mass Media, Communication and Popular Culture Section Report

Vancouver, May 2023.

The section's activities were affected by the pandemic and the holding of previous congresses virtually.

The section meeting was held on May 25, 2023 in a hybrid manner. There were six people who attended personally. No one zoomed in and they reported lack of information about how to access remotely.

The attendees expressed several concerns, the most important being the disagreement with the hybrid congresses, since there was disorganization, lack of experience of some of the people in charge to manage the equipment, difficulties in the connections, which caused, on several occasions, there was only one person in the room in person and the others virtually with serious problems to connect.

This situation did not favor dialogue or the exchange of ideas. The request was made to the board of directors of LASA that in the next congress, if it is to be held in a hybrid way, face-to-face tables and virtual tables be defined, so as not to repeat the bad experience. The central point of the meeting was the election of members of the new board. Celia del Palacio, academic from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, was proposed as coordinator and Giuliana Cassano, academic from the Catholic University of Peru as co-coordinator. The proposal was unanimously accepted (6 people present). Later, by WhatsApp, 8 more members expressed their vote in favor.

Dasniel Olivera Pérez, an academic from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, proposed himself to coordinate the Awards Commission and his proposal was also accepted. Later, due to the lack of other candidates, he himself agreed to be in charge of the section's Secretariat.

The Treasury, Scholarships and Dissemination positions remain vacant.

In the period June 2022 to May 2023, the section organized 15 panels and a round table on the themes of the section for the Congress in Vancouver. In addition, as sponsored activities of the section, the Panel "Reality and fantasy are interwoven in the audiovisual ecosystem" and the Roundtable "The future of journalism is here. Some paradigmatic cases across the Americas”. No prizes or scholarships were awarded on this occasion.

Plans for the period between May 2023 and June 2024 include organizing panels on the section's themes, encouraging member participation, and reactivating the awards to the best article on Communication and Popular Culture and Media Studies.

It is important to encourage discussion about the members' projects and seek relationships between them, as well as encourage the exchange of ideas beyond the LASA congresses. An important instrument continues to be the WhatsApp group, which works well for day-to-day communication. In addition, it is essential to appoint a person in charge of social networks, to update the section's web page, as well as the Facebook fanpage.

Chair Celia del Palacio Montiel, Universidad de Guadalajara

Co-chair Giuliana Cassano, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Secretary. Awards Chair. Dasniel Olivera Pérez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

LASA Mass Media and Popular Culture Section Annual Report 2021

During the last LASA Congress the Mass Media and Popular Section met on Thursday, May 27, 2022. Thirty-six people participated and we used the time to update each other on our research projects, discuss some proposals from members, and exchange ideas and make plans for the next congress.

One of our biggest goals as a section is to continue building the connections between Journalism Studies and Popular Culture and to strengthen our relationships especially using our WhatsApp group for day-to-day communication. The link to the group was disseminated through social media as well as email with the section membership.

This coming year we will organize the allotted number of participations for the section as round tables, to allow our members to present their research in panels in the LASA tracks as we did in the last two LASA Congresses.

We will coordinate with our membership to organize those panels once more to continue increasing participation of our section in LASA.

During LASA 2020, the section organized 11 panels and 2 roundtables.

During LASA 2021, the section organized 12 panels and 2 roundtables.

We hope that we can increase the numbers for our next Congress that will take place in San Francisco, California, May 5-8, 2022. We want to take advantage that next year LASA’s meeting won’t conflict with the International Communication Association conference, which is the biggest conflict for our section to increase participation.

Also, during the business meeting, we approved the document to support our Colombian colleagues, and new board members were introduced.

Finally, we discussed the plan to offer travel scholarships and a research award. Dasniel Olivera will oversee organizing these awards. Details on these awards will be disseminated soon.

Section Board:

• Mariana De Maio, Co-Chair (Lehigh University)

• Stella Maris Poggian, C0-chair (Universidad Nacional del Comahue / Instituto Universitario Patagónico de las Artes)

• Grisel Salazar, Secretary (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas)

• Celeste González de Bustamante, Treasurer (University of Arizona)

• Perla Rodríguez Fernández, Social Media and Student Outreach chair (Universidad de Puerto Rico)

• Dasniel Olivera Pérez, Awards Chair (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

LASA Mass Media and Popular Culture Section Annual Report 2020- Virtual

Prepared by Mariana De Maio

During the last LASA Congress the Mass Media and Popular Section met on Friday, May 15, 2020. Sixteen people participated and we used the time to exchange ideas and make plans for the next congress. We decided to continue building the connections between Journalism Studies and Popular Culture and to strengthen our relationships especially using our WhatsApp group for day to day communication. The link to the group was disseminated through social media as well as email with the section membership.

This coming year we will organize the allotted amount of participations for the section as round tables, to allow our members to present their research in panels in the LASA tracks as we did last year. We will help our membership organize those panels once more. For the last congress we were able to organize 11 panels and 2 roundtables, and we hope that we can increase the numbers this year.

Another plan for this year is to offer travel scholarships (if the congress is face-to-face) and a research award. Details on these awards will be disseminated soon.

Section Board

• Mariana De Maio, Co-Chair (Lehigh University)

• Sallie Hughes, Co-Chair (University of Miami)

• Grisel Salazar, Secretary (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas)

• Celeste González de Bustamante, treasurer (University of Arizona)

• Stella Maris Poggian, Social Media Chair (Universidad Nacional del Comahue / Instituto Universitario Patagónico de las Artes)

• Perla Rodríguez Fernández, student outreach chair (Universidad de Puerto Rico)

Section Report: Mass Media and Popular Culture LASA 2019 – Boston

Prepared by Matthew Bush

In the meeting of the Mass Media and Popular Culture section at LASA 2019, nine colleagues attended the gathering and discussed a series of topics. The most important of these issues was the announcement of the new co-chairs of the section: Mariana De Maio and Sallie Hughes. These colleagues will now take leadership of the section over the next three years, holding their first section meeting at LASA 2020 in Guadalajara. Among the other topics discussed were the use of social media to further section participation. The group was informed, as were present co-chairs Pablo Alabarces and Matthew Bush at the section chairs meeting, of LASA’s aid in configuring and maintaining Facebook and other social media accounts. There was interest among the colleagues present at the meeting to also establish a Whatsapp thread to inform colleagues of section activities and news. There was also some discussion of re-visiting the section’s mission statement whose focus is largely geared toward cultural studies, but makes little mention of the field of journalism in which many of the section’s colleagues are active. A final issue that was mentioned was the topics that could be proposed for the section’s panels for Guadalajara 2020. One possibility that was signaled was the question of security for journalists in Mexico, which was of interest to many colleagues in attendance. As Pablo Alabarces and Matthew Bush now step down from our leadership role we greatly thank Mariana De Maio and Sallie Hughes for their willingness to head the section and will help in whatever capacity we may to ensure a smooth transition.

New Section Co-Chairs

Mariana De Maio, Lehigh University, 2020-2022