Letter from the Editor

Greetings and welcome to The Political Communication Report, the newsletter for the Political Communication Divisions of the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the International Communication Association (ICA)!

The 2015 conference season is over. Again, our divisions–its leadership and members–organized a great set of events to facilitate  presentation and discussion of some of the best current research in political communication. From pre- and postconferences focused on topics of special interest,themed panel and roundtable discussions through programs of our general conferences that displayed the whole range of contemporary work in political communication, our divisions againrealized diverse opportunities for face-to-face discussion of the questions we are facing in our field today.

In this fall issue of PCR, we throw two spotlights on this year’s conference activities in our divisions. First, we present to you a symposium on Jennifer Stromer-Galley’s recent book Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age, based on the contributions to an author-meets-critics roundtable at the Political Communication Preconference at the 2015 APSA meeting.

Another important part of our annual meetings is to not only discuss but also honor the best research in political communication done today. In order to further highlight this work, we also present to you in this issue of PCR a series of mini-interviews with the authors of all best-paper awards given by our divisions this year.

(a) Symposium: Jennifer Stromer-Galley’s Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age (Oxford University Press, 2014)

The 2015 APSA Political Communication Preconference last month in San Francisco saw a lively author-meets-critics roundtable on Jennifer Stromer-Galley’s (2014) Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age. We document the discussion, with contributions from all critics and including Stromer-Galley’s response. The symposium is introduced by the organizer of the preconference, Kathleen Searles, whom I thank for the organization of the debate and help with documenting it in written.

Here are direct  links to the individual contributions:

(b) Feature: Mini-Interviews with the 2015 Best-Paper Awardees

This year again, the APSA and ICA meetings not only featured outstanding research on political communication but also awarded it! We did not let them get of the hook that easily and asked the lead author of each paper a few questions. Do make sure to check out their answers and, most importantly, the excellent work of these fine political communication scholars!

(c) Announcements with particular relevance to the field and our divisions.

If you have not already done so, please also join our divisions on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels to receive the most up-to-date information on job postings, calls for papers, etc.

As always, my thanks go out to all contributors to this issue of the newsletter. We hope you will enjoy this issue and look forward to hearing your thoughts about it.

With best wishes for a wonderful, and wonderfully productive fall!

Eike Mark Rinke
University of Mannheim, Mannheim Centre for European Social Research