UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Faculty members and graduate students from the Penn State Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, for the annual International Communication Association conference. Their research and other scholarly activities covered a variety of timely topics across many meetings and sessions. The conference was the organization’s 76th and ran from June 4-8.
Thousands of communication professionals, researchers and scholars from universities and organizations around the world attend each year. This year’s theme was “Communication and inequalities in context.” Eight Bellisario College faculty members, six graduate students and many Bellisario College alumni participated in or contributed to the ICA conference.
Like in past years, the expertise of Bellisario College scholars represented a wide range of areas, including artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, communication law and policy, health communication, misinformation, social issues, social media, virtual reality and more.
Christopher Ali, Pioneers Chair and professor of telecommunications, presented “Rethinking the multiple streams framework through the defunding of U.S. public media,” a co-authored paper with collaborators from Drexel University and the University of Virginia.
In addition to having four studies on AI trust, AI governance, AI literacy and misinformation accepted at the conference, Homero Gil de Zúñiga, distinguished professor of media studies, met with ICA fellows and attended a meeting with the board of the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication.
Associate professor of journalism Simon Licen's presentation “Sport, media and soft power” was accepted for the ICA preconference on June 3.
Chris Skurka, associate professor of media studies, presented "Persuade, rinse and repeat: Repetition effects of threat- and humor-based appeals” in the Mass Communication Division. The study won a top paper award and included co-authors Peixin Hua, a Bellisario College doctoral student, and Dave Keating of Arizona State University.
Hua also presented “The Internet is not all bad: A mixed-methods study of social media glimmers” in the conference’s Information Systems division, with Bellisario College alumna Yin Yang and former college faculty member Jessica Myrick. Hua also served as chair of the session titled “Understanding social media.”
Shyam Sundar, Evan Pugh University Professor and the James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects at Penn State, had several papers, co-authored with Bellisario College graduate students and others, selected for presentation at the conference, including “Same AI, different relationship? Device context and Human-AI communication with large language models,” “Do you mind if Alexa reads your mind? Effects of explicit vs. implicit data requests when talking with voice assistants about physical vs. mental health,” “Realistic, yet synthetic: Can AI literacy and bandwagon cues combat photorealistic misinformation?” and “AI Across Communication Fields: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Adoption, Opportunities, and Evolving Challenges."
The ICA is an academic association for scholars interested in the study, teaching and application of all aspects of communication. The Bellisario College has been well-represented and active in the organization for years.
ICA was founded nearly 80 years ago as a small association of U.S. researchers and is now an international association with more than 6,000 members from 80 countries. It aims to advance the scholarly study of human communication by encouraging and facilitating excellence in academic research worldwide. Since 2003, ICA has been officially associated with the United Nations as a nongovernmental organization.