The 6th Meeting of the Committee on Social Communication and Media Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Structures, Awards, and the Development Strategy of the Discipline

On 14 October 2024, the 6th meeting of the Committee on Social Communication and Media Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences was held online. The proceedings were largely organizational and structural in nature and focused on key decisions concerning the Committee’s further functioning. One of the main items on the agenda was the establishment of seven thematic sections along with the appointment of their chairs, as well as the supplementation of section memberships with external experts. These measures were intended to strengthen the substantive quality of the Committee’s work and to better reflect the complexity of research on media and communication.

An important part of the meeting was also devoted to a discussion of the Regulations of the Committee’s Scientific Award. After taking into account the submitted comments, including those concerning the linguistic scope of publications and the forms of achievements eligible for submission, the regulations were unanimously adopted. The meeting also addressed the planning of applications for funding of science dissemination activities under the Polish Academy of Sciences’ “Open Science” program, including proposals for academic conferences and monographic publications with potential international reach and social impact.

In the section devoted to current matters, the Chair of the Committee, Prof. Iwona Hofman, presented information on changes to the panel system of the National Science Centre relevant to the development of the discipline of social communication and media sciences, and referred to the ongoing debate surrounding the amendment of the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences. Attention was also drawn to the need for statutory empowerment of scholarly associations and to the importance of international research cooperation. The meeting concluded with the announcement of further academic initiatives, including a series of presentations of new books in the field.