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The History and Future of the Communication and Technology Division

Sat, May 27, 9:30 to 10:45, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, Floor: 2, Indigo Ballroom A

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel brings together former Chairs of the Communication and Technology Division to discuss the past and debate the future of the division. The CAT division is united around the study of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the processes of human communication. CAT works to enhance theory and methodology pertaining to adoption, usage, message content, communication networks, effects, and policy of ICTs. As of 2016, CAT is now the largest division of ICA both by membership and submissions to the annual conference. Questions concerning the role of technology are central to interpersonal, organizational, political, health, intercultural, and journalistic communication, among other subfields. In light of this rapid growth and increased blurring, how will CAT define and differentiate within ICA and the communication field more broadly? Is CAT in the midst of an identity crisis or have we always been?

One of the challenges our division faces is how to distinguish itself across the discipline. Numerous academic fields now claim ownership to the study of communication technologies. Outside of ICA, information science has numerous conferences, most notably, Computer-Human Interaction and Computer-Supported Collaborative Work, in which very similar kinds of questions regarding the roles of technology are asked. Similarly, AoIR, the CITAMS section of the American Sociological Association, and IAMCR’s Communication Technology and Policy section also overlap with CAT. Within ICA, numerous interest groups have emerged over the past ten years out of and alongside of CAT, such as Game Studies, Mobile Communication, and Computational Methods. How does CAT continue to differentiate itself from and contribute back to these other groups?

This panel will explore how communication and information technologies have changed since the inception of the division. By looking back at the history of the division, this panel explores how the identity of CAT has shifted over time. More specifically, this panel reveals how new technological platforms and processes brought about different questions and tensions regarding human communication and technology, yet some similar questions remain. What has united CAT as a division and will continue to do so into the future?

This panel brings together leaders in the history of the division over the past twenty years to explore the changing contours of our community of scholars. As former Vice Chairs and Chairs of the division, they wrote the calls for papers, found reviewers, and programmed our annual conferences and are uniquely positioned to reflect and project on the Division.

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