IAMCR 2022 featured five plenary sessions: the opening and closing plenaries and three thematic plenary sessions. These videos will remain online and freely accessible to all, whether IAMCR members or not.

Choose the plenary you want to see from the list below. 

Opening Plenary

Welcome remarks

Prof. Xiqin WANG, President of Tsinghua University

Prof. Nico Carpentier, President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), together with vice-presidents Prof. Usha Raman and Dr. Andrea Medrado followed by the awarding of the IAMCR Prize in Memory of Herbert Schiller, the Urban Communication Research Grant and the Climate Change Communication Award

Prof. Changfeng CHEN, Executive Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, President of the Asian-Pacific Communication Alliance (APCA) & Honorary President of the Chinese Association for History of Journalism and Communication

Prof. Chris Harris, Vice President of Academic Affairs, together with Prof. Xiaoling ZHANG, Head of the Department of Media and Communication, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), China

This session is hosted by Kai KUANG, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University. It also features a virtual tour of the Tsinghua University campus and an introduction to its School of Journalism and Communication

Keynote

Prof. Manuel Castells (University of Southern California, USA)
Rethinking the Information Age: Communication in the Network Society

Dr. Manuel Castells is University Professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair of Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California. He is as well Professor of Sociology at the Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology and of City Planning at the University of California at Berkeley. In 2019 he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor of Communication at Tsinghua University. He is the only scholar to have received the two most prestigious awards in social sciences: the Holberg Prize (2012) and the Balzan Prize (2013).

Communication and Media Research in the Era of Neo-Globalization: Asian Perspectives

The two years of the COVID pandemic have seen great contributions from communication and media scholarship in shaping and influencing public policies, health promotion initiatives, and global health (in) equalities. In the post-pandemic era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, however, communication researchers who seek to build on prior work and address real-world issues such as public health, climate change, and sustainability need to situate their research within the broader social, cultural, and political era of neo-globalisation. 

The agenda of the neo-globalization era grounds itself on trade exchange and intercultural communication, highlighting the centrality of soft power and co-cultural harmony in the course of reorganizing the world order with the West as its core. Accordingly, in the contemporary world, communication researchers need to respond to emerging questions and challenges in ever-changing global media contexts. 

This plenary session, which includes a keynote speech and four shorter statements by a group of panelists, seeks to sketch out and develop the central theme of IAMCR 2022, bringing together different perspectives from global and Asian communication scholars into a productive conversation, and exploring future agendas for research in the era of neo-globalisation. 

Keynote

Prof. Changfeng CHEN, Tsinghua University, China
The localized eagerness with global inclusiveness: to face the paradox of communication and media research in Asia

Dr. Changfeng Chen is a professor and the Executive Dean at the School of Journalism and Communication, and the Head of AI Media Research Center at Tsinghua University. Specializing in ethics and values of technology, she has published more than 200 papers and works, and won many national academic awards. She is the member of the Academic Committee of the State Council of China, vice chair of the National Journalism and Communication Steering Committee of China. She was the President of Chinese Association of Journalism & Communication History, the only national academic association for journalism and communication studies in China and led it to develop during her 5-year term. She is elected as the founding President of the AsiaPacific Communication Alliance, which unites researchers and educators from more than twenty communication associations from sixteen countries.

Panel

Prof. Zhengrong HU, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
Upgrading Journalism and Communication Research & Education in the Post-Globalization and the Post-Pandemic World

Dr. Zhengrong HU, Director, Institute of Journalism and Communication Research, China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Dean, School of Journalism and Communication, University of China Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS).

Prof. Jantima Kheokao, Asian Network for Public Opinion Research, Thailand
The long and winding road of Asian communication research toward the global internet village

Dr. Jantima Kheokao is President of Asian Network for Public Opinion Research (ANPOR)And Associate Professor, School of Communication Arts,University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Thailand.

Prof. Dadang Rahmat Hidayat, Padjadjaran University, Indonesia
Communication and media relations from an Indonesian perspective

Dr. Dadang Rahmat Hidayat (Head Lector/Associate Professor), has served at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Padjadjaran University (Fikom Unpad) for 28 years. He has served as Head of Journalism Departement (2014-2016), Deputy Dean (2003-2007) and currently he serves as Dean of Faculty of Communication Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran for the second period (2021-2026). Has been the Chairman of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (2010-2013). Currently, he is also the President of the Indonesian Communication Scholars Association (2021-2024) and Vice President of the Asia Pacific Communication Alliance (APCA).

Prof. Yu-li LIU, City University of Hong Kong, China
User, Technology, and Law in the Age of AI

Dr. Yu-li Liu is Head and Professor of the Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong. She has authored/edited 15 books and numerous journal articles around various aspects of communication policies and new media business strategies. Her research interests include new media and telecommunications policy, new media and business models, big data and privacy protection, AI ethics and governance. She serves as a member of the editorial board of 4 SSCI journals and other three journals.

Talking with Technology: Global Dialogues and Diverse Civilizations

Developments in communication technologies continue to influence the ways in which people construct their identities and values, interact with close others, acquaintances, and strangers around the world, and their engagement in local and global civic life. 

Nowadays, people are more than ever connected through communication technologies and different media systems, especially in the globally isolated world due to the pandemic. The recent fascination with the so-called ‘metaverse’ as a virtual universe that blends aspects of digital and communication technologies such as live-streaming, gaming, cryptocurrencies, augmented reality, and social media is just one example among many that underscore how technologies enable the merge of physical and mediated worlds. 

With the changing landscape of media systems and possibilities of simulated media environments, boundaries between virtual, augmented reality versus the physical, real-world reality are becoming even more blurred. Associated with these phenomena are questions concerning revised definitions of cultures, communities, and connections.  

With a keynote speech and four shorter statements by a group of panelists, this session centers upon the influence of global communication technologies and media systems on the construction of cultural communities, identities, and values, and vice-versa. Specifically, it looks at the economic, political, cultural, and ethical questions for media and communications research arising from new forms of communication and social construction, and explores the ways of enhancing the dialogue of diverse civilizations, societies, and groups with resort to emerging social and cultural dynamics shaping media technologies and new communication platforms.

Keynote

Prof. Daya Thussu, Hong Kong Baptist University, China
From a "clash" to "conversation" of civilizations

Dr. Daya Kishan Thussu is Professor of International Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University. Author or editor of 20 books, he is the founder and Managing Editor of the journal Global Media and Communication. He was Visiting Professor and Inaugural Disney Chair in Global Media at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University. For many years he was Professor of International Communication at the University of Westminster and Co-Director of India Media Centre as well as research advisor to the China Media Centre.

Panel

Prof. Yuezhi ZHAO, Tsinghua University, China
Talking from my Positionality: With Technology, across Civilizations, and Against Domination

Dr. Yuezhi ZHAO is Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University, Humanities Chair Professor at Tsinghua University, as well as the Founding Executive Director of the Heyang Institute for Rural Studies, Jinyun County, Zhejiang, China. A Fellow of Royal Society of Canada and a Recipient of both the Dallas Smythe Award and C. Edwin Baker Award for her scholarly achievements, Dr. Zhao has written extensively in both English and Chinese on the domestic and global dimensions of China's rapidly transforming communication system. Her current research centers on the transcultural political economy of global communication as a scholarly praxis. 

Prof. Terry Flew, University of Sydney, Australia
Public Spheres Old and New: From Mass Communication to Digital Platforms

Dr. Terry Flew is Professor of Digital Communication and Culture at The University of Sydney. His books include The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy (SAGE, 2012), Global Creative Industries (Polity, 2013), Media Economics (Palgrave, 2015), Understanding Global Media (Palgrave, 2018), and Regulating Platforms (Polity, 2021). He was President of the International Communications Association (ICA) from 2019 to 2020 and was elected an ICA Fellow in 2019. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA). He has advised companies including Facebook, Cisco Systems and the Special Broadcasting Service, and government agencies in Australia and internationally, including the Australian Communication and Media Authority and the Singapore Broadcasting Authority. He has held Visiting Professor roles at City University, London, and George Washington University, and is currently a Distinguished Professor with the Communications University of China and an Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China.

Prof. Viola Milton, University of South Africa
Technological dialogues and dialogues with technology

Viola Candice Milton is a professor in media studies in the Department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa. Her research focuses on the negotiation of media policy, citizenship and identity in Southern Africa. In addition to articles in national and international journals, viola co-edited the Routledge Handbook of African Media and Communication Studies with Winston Mano and co-authored New Voices Over the Air: The Transformation of the South African Broadcasting Corporation in a Changing South Africa with P. Eric Louw. She is editor-in-chief of Communication: South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research.

Prof. Rasha Abdulla, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Towards a Proactive Research Agenda

Dr. Rasha Abdulla is Professor (tenured) of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo. She is a member of the board of Global Voices, and the MENA board of Article 19, and a former member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum.

Research (Ex)tensions: When Academia Meets Policy

Media and communication researchers have for long been working across academic-industry-social sector divides, and each such engagement brings a different set of challenges and tensions between the world of research and that of policy. 

The desires and commitments of researchers to circulate their work outside the academy, and gain influence and take-up from policy-makers, journalists, media makers, and designers, as well as the technology and communication industry, civil society, and institutions have been complicated by new developments and challenges – just as new avenues for collaboration and communication have been opened up, not least by digital media platforms, and the urgent health, social, political, and policy challenges of the pandemic.

Recent years have seen a growing pressure on academics in the social sciences and humanities to demonstrate “relevance” in terms of applicability of their work, particularly in fields that seem to more readily connect to social policy and programming. Even at early career stages, scholars are encouraged to apply for grants that involve collaborations that make possible such extensions of their work into the practical realm.

New issues may surface (in good and problematic ways) when the collaborations are inter- or transnational, with multiple institutions bringing in a variety of different perspectives and values about society, polity, and economy. Add to which, the contexts and dynamics for such collaborative relations vary greatly across different locations, institutions, and kinds of universities and partner organization settings. 

This panel explores these challenges and tensions across different forms of collaborations and how they shape not only the projects themselves but thinking about research and practice. Panelists will also consider the routes to influence policy circles, agenda, and actors.

Chair: Gerard Goggin

Panellists: Sonia Livingstone (London School of Economics), Vinod Pavarala (University of Hyderabad), Julie Posetti (Deputy Vice President, International Centre for Journalists), Eduardo Villanueva (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú)

Roundtable / The Future of (IAMCR) Conferencing

Closing Remarks / Farewell Beijing - Hello Lyon.

The first segment of the closing plenary features a roundtable discussion exploring the future of IAMCR conferencing. This conversation will be followed by closing remarks from IAMCR, the IAMCR 2022 conference hosts – Tsinghua University and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) –and a presentation of next year’s conference – IAMCR Lyon 2023. 

Part 1: Roundtable / The future of (IAMCR) conferencing

Prof. Kaarle Nordenstreng, Chair of the Local Organizing Committee, IAMCR 2020

Prof. Dorothy Njoroge, Chair of the Local Organizing Committee, IAMCR 2021

Prof. Anbin SHI, Professor of the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University

Prof. Tabe Bergman, Assistant Professor of Xi’an Jiaotong- Liverpool University (XJTLU)

Part 2: Closing Remarks / Farewell Beijing - Hello Lyon

Prof. Nico Carpentier, President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research
Prof. Yu HU, Dean for Administration, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, Local Organizing Committee, IAMCR 2022
Prof. Xiaoling ZHANG, Head of the Department of Media and Communication, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), China.
Prof. Françoise Paquienséguy, Chair, Local Organizing Committee, IAMCR 2023