25 May, 2023
Toronto, Canada
It is our great pleasure to share with you an ICA pre-conference dedicated to the consideration and discussion of Elihu Katz’s ideas.
Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, registration for this pre-conference is free. To register for the pre-conference, please navigate to the registration page.
Questions about the pre-conference should be directed to any one of the pre-conference organizers listed below.
Organized by: Menahem Blondheim (Hebrew University), David W. Park (Lake Forest College), Jeff Pooley (Muhlenberg College), and Julia Sonnevend (The New School)
Arrival, Coffee
8:30 am - 8:45 am
Opening Remarks from Pre-Conference Sponsors
8:45 am - 8:50 am
Orienting Katz Historically
8:50 am - 9:20 am
Moderator: Jeff Pooley
Peter Simonson, “Communication, Opportunity Structures, and the Making of Elihu Katz, 1926–1956: The Child is Father of the Man”
Coffee Break
9:20 am - 9:35 am
Katz on Journalism, Democracy, and the Media
9:35 am - 10:50 am
Moderator: Barbie Zelizer
Klaus Bruhn Jensen & W. Russell Neuman, “Enriching the Concept of Communication Effects: The Legacy of Elihu Katz”
Leah A. Lievrouw, “Katz, Tarde, and Theorizing Digital Communication”
Michael McDevitt, “Is the U.S. Press Invested in Democratic Crisis?”
Kimberly Meltzer, “Legacies of Elihu Katz: Contributions to Theorizing on Journalism and Television”
Patrícia Dias & Priscila Krolow, “Youth on BeReal: Emergent Uses and Sought Gratifications”
Coffee Break
10:50 am - 11:00 am
The Continuing Relevance of Media Events
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Moderator: Julia Sonnevend
Esther Hammelburg, “Being There Live: Witnessing & Belonging at Contemporary Media(tized) Events”
Johanna Sumiala & Katja Valaskivi, “Hybrid Media Environment: A Key Challenge to Contemporary Media Event Theory?”
Charlotte Knorr & Christian Pentzold, “The Craft of Data Scandals: Reassessing Contemporary Whistleblowing as Media Events”
Sachie Hamada, “Media Events in the Internet Age: From ‘Watching on Couch’ to ‘Doing Sports Together’”
Rainier Winter & Jörg-Uwe Nieland, “Rethinking ‘Media Events’: Sports Mega-Events, Authoritarian States, and the Battle for Meaning”
Lunch
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Two-Step Flow
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Moderator: Larry Gross
Devon Powers, “From Fads to Trends: Lessons From Katz”
Laura Dilley, “The Memetics of QAnon as Dynamical System: A Historical and Forensic Analysis of Katz-Inspired Diffusion of pro-QAnon Sentiment Among Social media Micro-Influencers”
Svetlana S. Bodrunova, Kamilla Nigmatullina, Nikolay Rodossky, and Dmitry Nepiyushchikh, “The Two-Step Flow Model in a Hybrid Environment: Decentralization of Media in Discussions on User Complaints in the VK.com Social Network”
Hynek Jerabek, “Elihu Katz’s Journey From the ‘Two-Step Flow Report’ to ‘His Master’s Voice’: 65 Years of Opinion Leaders”
Elizabeth Dubois, “Strategic Personal Influence: From Political Opinion Leaders to Social Media Influencers”
Coffee Break
3:00 pm - 3:15 pm
The Multidimensional Katz: A Cross-Cutting Conversation
3:15 pm - 4:30 pm
Moderator: Menahem Blondheim
Sonia Livingstone
Jeffrey C. Alexander
Limor Shifman
Michael Schudson
Closing Words
4:30 pm - 4:45 pm
Pre-recorded video contributions pending
The Pre-Conference is Sponsored by:
The Department of Communication and the Smart Family Institute of Communications at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California; and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
