Welcome

The Political Communication section of APSA brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners interested in communication and politics.  Our section members, numbering near 500, engage in research spanning an array of research questions, methodological approaches and regions of the world.

Research from Political Communication section members addresses critical questions in our increasingly connected world.  From broad questions about how the fundamental changes of the digital era affect global communication to cross-national studies of the effects of Instant Messaging on political engagement – our research interrogates questions about communication, power and governance in domestic and international settings.

Our section sponsors an annual pre-conference held on the day prior to the opening of the APSA conference. The day-long conference typically is held at a university venue in the host city for APSA and features scholars from all over the world. The pre-conference program features traditional research panels along with expert roundtables and noteworthy keynote speakers, and provides an opportunity for a small conference setting in the midst of the large, and ever-growing, APSA meeting.

The section also holds an annual business meeting and reception at the APSA conference. During the business meeting, awards are given for best paper, best book, best graduate paper, best dissertation, and career achievement. In addition, the section co-sponsors the flagship journal for our subfield, Political Communication, our regular newsletter, the Political Communication Report, and this website.

Please browse through this website to learn more about the APSA section as well as other political communication divisions and our current activities. We invite you to join us as new members of our respective organizations.

PolCom Chair Sharon Jarvis

Sharon Jarvis

Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas at Austin


Chair of APSA Political Communication Section, 2022-24