IAMCR2010 - Final Remarks

IAMCR2010 begun as an idea formally put forward by Moisés Martins in Paris (2007). By then, the plan was to host a conference in Braga in 2011. When the proposal was finally accepted, a team of people begun interfacing with the organization and planning the event to the smallest detail. The project started to occupy larger and larger portions of working days of an also growing number of people since the beginning of 2009 and involved an amazing group of volunteers from early 2010.

It now seems appropriate to write a few words about them - the 'engine room' staff, the 'ask me people'.
During a very intense week they had to assist, direct, transport, and help entertain more than 1200 people from some 80 countries. They had to improvise. They had to be extremelly patient. They had to relly on each other.
Most of them will forever remember particular incidents, particular moments, particular people, but they will also remember the whole experience and the deep personal attachments that developed during this week.
In time they will also appreciate how rare that can be.

Thank you all!

(We can now focus on organizing something less demanding
...like the World Cup, or the Olympics...)

Closing ceremony

IAMCR2010's closing ceremony was a cheerful event, kicked off by the enthusiastic and witty performance of  Clarinetes ad Libitum (check out some of their videos HERE).

Istambul - the city where IAMCR2011 will take place - had the opportunity to present participants some details regarding next years' conference and the session drew to a close with informal words by Anabelle Sreberny and Hopeton Dunn on behalf of the organization, and Helena Sousa and Manuel Pinto on behalf of the local organizing comittee.

The ceremony ended with a giant applause to all those who have contributed to making IAMCR2010 a successful event.

(please click to see more photos)

Television in political campaigns

The session “Political campaigning on television”, one of the conferences included in the Political Comunication Research section, started around 14:30 with Barbara Wolf Ludwig Maximilian, Thomas Koch and Andreas Fahr, from the University of Munich, Germany. They developed “The influence of verbal and visual information on candidate evaluation in presidential debates”, a study in which they analyzed the influence of personal characteristics or any other non-verbal information of the candidates in the people’s opinion.

Marko Bachl e Arne Spieker, of Hohenheirn University, Germany, created a work called ‘Opening the Black Box: Exploring Immediate Audience Responses to Rhetorical Strategies in televised debates’. They spoke about the importance of the debates in the German television in the people’s political decision; the influence of the televised debates in the change of the opinion about some candidate.

Christina Holtz-Bacha, Jacob Leidenberger, Philippe J. Maarek, from the university of Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne, in France, and Susanne Merkle, from the Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, presented a study named “Campaigning for Europe. Political advertising in France, Germany and the UK during the European election campaign”. They compared the different mediatic formats, the most important topics approached during the campaigns in each country.

Susanne Merkle, presented another study: “«Sego», «Sarko» and the others: political TV advertising in France during the 2007 presidential election campaign”. She compared the numbers of spots each candidate used in his campaign as well as the different formats and the influence of the personal values of the political contestant.

The session ended with the presentation of Jose-Carlos Lozano, of the Technologico de Monterrey, in Mexico, with his study “Clowns as critical inquirers in Mexican national television: political humor and satire in the weekly nightly show «El Notifiero»”. He afirmed that “tv has given a new life to the elections”, and alerted for the important role of the new media in the political publicity.

Inês Espojeira and Andreia Mandim

Money, more money and sport

“Media and Sport – An historical perspective” was chaired by Deirdre Hynes and was marked by few speakers. Despite this, the session was very active, with a lot of public questions and analysis on different sports, especially cricket and football.

Mr. Leo Gertrude David, from the Dept. of Electronics and Media Tech of Karunya University, India, spoke about media and sports in India, explaining why is cricket the most famous sport. “30% of Indian children under 15 years unknown of the existence of other national sports beyond cricket. Hockey, tenis and badminton are just remember on the Olympic Games”, says Mr. David.

From Germany, Lothar Mikos approached the TV’s investments on four of the most important football leagues: Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga. Through his presentation, the public could conclude that TV channels spend a lot of money during the last years to acquire television rights of these leagues.

Based on British sports, Raymond Boyle, of University of Glasgow, gave prominence to the relationship between policy and sports, football mainly. “The Scottish sports hierarchy is football, football and football.”

Diogo Soza and Pedro Nogueira

First Plenary Session

The first Plenary session of IAMCR 2010, “Presidential Conversations: Media and Citizenship in Africa", had the presence of Annabelle Sreberny, President of IAMCR, and Carlos Lopes, Executive Director of United Nations Institute for Training and Research.
Mr. Lopes started by teasing the audience to rethink the role of new communication technologies and the different cultural identities perceptions we have developed with globalization. He also gave some interesting numbers and information related to the use of social networks, such as Facebook. “Seven years ago, English was the most used language in the internet. Now it´s Mandarim, followed by English, Spanish, Japanese and Portuguese. It is also important to notice that we can find more 200 different languages in that social network”, informed Mr. Lopes.
He continued his provocative speech by questioning how that new perspective of social networks is in Africa. According to him the social, political and economical future of the continent can be more positive than people in general imagine. “Nowadays Africa has only three civil wars and all indicators show that numbers are rising. In 2015, it is expected to 80% of Africans have cell phones and they are starting to realize that communication can be essential to their citizenship”.

Raquel Lobão e Renata Freitas

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony of IAMCR2010 will take place at Theatro Circo (Avenida da Liberdade - city centre) from 18:00.

Conference participants wishing to register can do that at the foyer of the theatre from 15:00.

All are advised to be at Theatro Circo at 17:30.

The ceremony will end with a music concert by portuguese jazz musicians Maria João and Mário Laginha.

Photo by stukinha

Final preparations

Final preparations under way...lost meals, some bruised fingers, aching muscles...and an amazing team spirit.
Let the conference begin!

More than 1000 participants

The 2010 conference will gather 1125 participants from at least 75 different countries. The announcement was made this tuesday by the organizing committee. Manuel Pinto and Helena Sousa have said that to organize the biggest IAMCR conference to date has been an enourmous collective challenge but they added that "all those who have worked very hard, especially in the last year, are now eager to welcome everyone to Braga".

Participants by continent:

Getting ready to welcome you

More than one hundred volunteers have been preparing to help participants and to make this conference a productive and enjoyable occasion.
Coordination meetings are coming to an end (after a few of those)... and finally the t-shirts have arrived!

University of Minho - the venue

The 2010 IAMCR Conference will take place at University of Minho's Braga Campus.
The university has an overall student population of 16.000 (2.000 doing postgraduate studies). The university has 1.200 teachers and 600 administrative and technical staff; The European Universities Association considered the university a case study in good practices at the European level. In the most recent evaluation process by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT), 19 out of 29 university Research Units were classified as ´Excellent´ or ´Very Good´ by international evaluation panels, making this one of the top universities in the country. The University of Minho has one campus in Braga and another one in the UNESCO world heritage city of Guimarães, some 20 km away.

The conference will take place in three buildings at the centre of the Braga Campus (Pedagogic Complex 1, Pedagogic Complex 2 and Pedagogic Complex 3).

Some general views of the Braga Campus:

Braga, the city

Braga is considered the third most important city in the country after Lisbon (capital) and Oporto.
The Portuguese Rome (an allusion to Braga's religious relevance in Iberia) is the main city of the Minho region which borders Galicia to the North and the Douro river (the world's oldest wine region - home to the production of Port Wine) to the South.
The closest international airport is Oporto, some 45Km from Braga city centre (40 minutes drive via highway). The closest Spanish international airport is Vigo at 100km also connected by highway. Lisbon airport is 350 km from Braga.

Lonely Planet Guide:
«Braga’s compact centre is packed with splendid baroque churches. Baroque churches, and the clamouring of their bells, are a constant reminder of who’s in charge here. Indeed, Braga has been a religious power centre since the conversion of the Visigoths in the 6th century. Its cathedral –built in the 12th century – is the oldest in Portugal.
But don’t come expecting piety alone: the pedestrian streets of the compact centre are lively with cafés and worldly concerns, and students from the Universidade do Minho add much youthful leavening».

Some pictures of the city centre: