International Journal of Communication Applied communication and policy work has a rich history in the field. However, scholarship and policy often run along different paths. In 2004, a group of department chairs and deans from communication studies programs around the country formed the Consortium on Media Policy Studies (COMPASS) for the purpose of building bridges between the academy and policy. Each summer, a group of PhD students are chosen as fellows and placed in Washington DC government and non-governmental organizations for a chance to work with policy practitioners. The placement affords fellows the opportunity to apply communication scholarship in policy settings and advance their own topical interests of study. In this Special Section titled Communication in Action: Bridging Research and Policy, the importance that communication scholarship has on ongoing policy issues regarding media studies is demonstrated. Guest-edited by Jason A. Smith, Mark Lloyd, and Victor Pickard, this Special Section features 10 original commentaries that highlight recommendations, analyses, and insights made toward policy issues that are relevant to those both in academia and policy. This collection of work highlights the critical need for communication scholars to think beyond the purely academic space that their work applies to, and to find in-roads toward subjects that can speak to other audiences. Authors for this special section include: Douglas Allen, University of Pennsylvania Cat Duffy, University of Southern California Katherine Elder, University of Southern California Michelle C. Forelle, University of Southern California Brandon Golob, University of Southern California Nicole Hentrich, University of Michigan James Losey, Stockholm University, Sweden Nathalie Maréchal, University of Southern California Aalok Mehta, University of Southern California Angeline Sangalang, University of Southern California
We invite you to read these papers that published October 15, 2015 at http://ijoc.org. Larry Gross Arlene Luck |
