The International Communication Association (ICA) is a scholarly organization focused on furthering the study of human communication worldwide. Every year, ICA brings together academics to present their research at the 71st Annual ICA Conference, which will be held virtually from May 27-31. This year’s conference will feature the work of six faculty members from the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC). 

SJMC’s director, David Ryfe, will present two papers at the conference. In one of his papers, Ryfe focuses on “practice theory,” which evaluates the learning methods utilized by journalists whilst producing news.

“When we think about news practices, we tend to think of them as external to reporters and as preceding any particular interview,” said Ryfe. “So when you’re ready to conduct it, you turn to the practice of interviewing and apply it to this social situation and you’re going to interview someone. But there hasn’t really been much thinking about that last step, which is the taking up of the interview.” 

As Ryfe prepares to present his work at the conference, he’s looking forward to collaborating with and seeing the work of other experts conducting research on practice theory. The conference, composed of academics, allows researchers to confirm and strengthen their work. 

“You want to connect to what [other researchers] are doing,” said Ryfe. “You want to add value to the work of other people so that our collective practice is better because we’re contributing to one another’s work in that way.”

Like Ryfe, associate professor David Dowling will be presenting two papers. One will be in the Journalism Studies Division and focuses on activist research while the other will explore virtual reality journalism in the Communication and Technology division. 

“For my paper for the Journalism Studies Division, my attention turned to alternative media when the George Floyd killing led to a series of protests that were not adequately covered by mainstream media,” said Dowling. “I discovered an alternative news organization that captured the protests from a street level and captured the voices and stories of community members rather than simply interviewing police officials, who already have a huge voice in the media.”

Brian Ekdale, an associate professor at SJMC, along with a research group, will present a paper that aims to provide methods into studying algorithms and racial biases by using a social definition of race.

“The division we’re presenting in is Computational Methods,” said Ekdale. “We’re going to be talking to people who do these types of large-scale computerized research and one of the conversations we want to be a part of is, ‘Okay, if people want to study race, here’s a way you can do it.’” 

Associate professor Kajsa Dalrymple’s research seeks to analyze people’s motives when avoiding information about health and environmental risks. 

“There is a lot of work that is exploring why people seek out certain types of information over others,” said Dalrymple. “However, less work looks at what drives our need to avoid information. As topics like Covid-19 or global climate change continue to flood our media landscape it is growing increasingly important to not only understand what people want to watch and hear, but also what they are actively trying to avoid and why.”

SJMC faculty members Rachel Young and Melissa Tully will present a paper about respecting teenagers’ online autonomy and the correlation with safe decision making. The paper will be presented in the Children, Adolescents, and Media Division. 

“We wanted to see if teens who thought their parents respected their autonomy also had an easier time talking to parents about media use and had fewer risky online experiences, like cyberbullying or sexting,” said Young. “On the flip side, if teens find their parents to be controlling, is it harder for them to talk to parents about weird or scary experiences they may have online? We think building trust and mutual respect could be even more important than restricting or monitoring media use.” 

The six faculty members whose papers were selected for presentation at the ICA Conference will work alongside other renowned research institutions and individuals, furthering research into modern journalism and communications practices.