Preconferences

Pre-conference 1

Unifying and Advancing Children, Adolescents, and Media Research: A Pre-Conference for Enhanced Collaboration

Location: Plate

The 'Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap' stands as a pivotal annual event for scholars from Dutch and Flemish universities, providing an excellent platform to showcase and discuss the latest developments in communication science. However, amidst this celebration of the wide range of research conducted at various institutions, there emerges a distinct need for a specialized forum that can unify these insights but also encourage deeper dialogue and stronger collaboration. This is particularly crucial in the realm of Children, Adolescents, and Media (CAM) research, a field marked by its interdisciplinary scope and richness. Often, during the main conference, CAM researchers find themselves dispersed across sessions from different divisions such as Health Communication, Media Psychology, or Human-Machine Communication, potentially leading to missed opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange. Additionally, colleagues from adjacent disciplines like developmental psychology or pedagogical science may not be fully integrated into these critical discussions.

In light of these challenges, we are organizing a pre-conference centered on enhancing CAM research. Our goal is to establish a collaborative hub for both intellectual engagement and practical action. By bringing together researchers from the broad spectrum of CAM research, this event aims to spark in-depth discussions on the future of CAM research. It will also be a platform to pragmatically address how we, as a research community, can optimize our collaborative efforts, minimize overlap in research efforts, and increase our collective impact through coordinated action. Our pre-conference is designed as a dynamic series of moderated round table discussions, focusing on key aspects of advancing CAM research. We believe that through this event, we can significantly enhance the scope and depth of CAM research, ultimately leading to more impactful and comprehensive outcomes in this vital area of study.

Pre-conference 2

Diversity and Inclusion in Organizational Communication

Location: Van Rijckevorsel

Management of workplace diversity is considered to be increasingly important for modern organizations (Galinsky et al., 2015; Plaut, 2010). Previous research shows that successful workplace inclusion of individuals with different cultural backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, etc. can have a profound impact on equality in society, and can simultaneously provide benefits for organizational productivity (Homan, 2019). 

Most of us have seen organizations express their commitment to workplace diversity, equality and inclusion on, for example, company websites, social media posts, and in periodicals such as annual reports. Such communication can be an important resource for social change (Christensen et al., 2013). However, a major issue with diversity communication is that it is often met with skepticism by the public. Any organization can say it wants to fight discrimination and reap the benefits of diversity, but do they actually deliver on these promises? An inauthentic approach to diversity communication may have a detrimental effect on an organization’s reputation, as well as the overall effectiveness of existing or future diversity interventions (Schoeneborn et al., 2020; Ginder et al., 2021). As such, we urgently need to study the reasons why organizations communicate about diversity, and the different motivations and rationales that are used, so that we can gain a better understanding of the role of diversity in strategic communication, and how this impacts different stakeholder groups.

The aim of this preconference is to present some of the most recent advances in this field of study, by scholars from the Netherlands-Flanders region. We also aim to build a bridge between research and practice, and discuss the possibilities of applying our work to tackling urgent societal challenges around diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Pre-conference 3

Analyzing Visual Communication

Location: Ruys

In this pre-conference, we will explore and discuss possibilities, challenges and practical insights concerning the analysis of visual communication. We will focus on bringing together different methodological approaches toward the analysis of (moving) images. Through three introductory presentations in the first half of the workshop, the participants will get acquainted with different applications of visual analysis: a) a comparative analysis of a single photograph, b) a quantitative analysis of a corpus of visual data from social media, and c) an anthropological approach and analysis of moving images.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own visual material that they are working on in order to discuss possibilities for their analysis in small thematic groups in the second half of this pre-conference.  All and any forms of visual data are accepted as working material to expand and diversify the discussion on what constitutes an image and how to study it. 

The workshop is aimed at researchers who are interested in improving their practical and methodological understanding of visual communication. Master students and researchers of all levels and from all disciplines are welcome.