With over eighty delegates, fifty papers and 13 panels, the annual conference of the European Media Management Education Association took place at the University of Westminster in 2010. The most well attended EMMA conference to date it is also the first time the conference has taken place in the United Kingdom.
Delegates were welcomed by EMMA president Lucy Küng and the research director of the University’s School of Media Arts and Design, Peter Goodwin.
Paper topics ranged the role of public service broadcasters as ‘culture hubs’ in networked society through to on-line innovation in publishing companies, strategic human resource management in digital broadcast organisations, and the impact of the internet on changing radio consumption patterns.
“It has been gratifying to see the sheer breadth of the submissions,” said EMMA president, Lucy Küng. “As might be expected in a diverse organization like EMMA, the variety of approaches to the conference theme has been extremely wide. Nonetheless, the membership has taken to the core theme The Changing Ecology of Media with considerable enthusiasm.”
Küng added: “As well as looking at the changing environment, many of the papers are looking at new models and approaches for the future – just as we hoped.”
The challenges of growth occupied much of the debate at EMMA’s Annual General Meeting which charged the incoming board with the task of introducing mechanisms for electing future boards and presidents.
The AGM thanked departing board members Paolo Faustino, Cinzia dal Zotto and Antti Paasio for their contribution to EMMA. Special thanks are due to Lucy Küng, said Charles Brown, who steps into the role of president: “Lucy has overseen the transformation of EMMA and has taken it to new levels of success.
The new board has been joined by Gregory Ferrell Lowe of the University of Tampere, Finland and Bjørn von Rimscha of IPMZ, University of Zurich. The board’s first task will be to plan the 2010 Summer School, to be hosted at the University of Navarra. EMMA 2011 will be hosted by Moscow State University. EMMA 2010 ended with a gala dinner at the Radisson Blue Portman Square and the awarding of the EMMA Best Paper Prize and EMMA 2010 Award.
Best Paper went to George Tsourvakas, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Roumiana Konstantinova, International University College, Sofia and Kostas Agas, University of Thessaly, Greece for their paper Advertisers’ New Selection Criteria for Newspapers.
Announcing the 2010 EMMA Award Küng said: “The EMMA Award was given to Robert Picard in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the field of media management and media economics, to the collegiality and support he has shown to so many researchers and scholars over the years, and of course, as founder and originator of EMMA.”