Peter A. Bruck (Austria) is an internationally known specialist in new media, information business and telecommunications. He studied law, economics, sociology and communications at universities in Austria, USA and Canada and held professorships at Carleton University, Ottawa, University of Salzburg, the Hebrew University and others. He has founded the University for Applied Information and Communication Studies in Salzburg, and headed a number of IT and multimedia research organisations. He is founder of the European Multimedia award for best practice in e-content creation, EUROPRIX, special advisor on new media to consulting organisations, and also managing director of the ICCM-International Centre for Culture and Management and its New Media Department. He has served on the management board of Jet2Web Internet Services GmbH as head of the business unit interactive media within the Austrian Telekom Group. He is currently heading up the Research Studios Austria within the Austrian Research Centers-ARC. In 2001, Bruck has been elected chairman of the Advisory Panel on Media Diversity of the Council of Europe.

Bertrand Cabedoche is Professor in Information and Communication at the University of Grenoble III. He has been working for thirty years on journalistic productions about North-South relations as well as on the representations of the European Union in the main newspapers of the member states. His publications include a report of an extensive study on the CEA's (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique) public communication, entitled: 'Ce nucléaire qu’on nous montre. Construire la socialité dans le débat sur les énergies' [The nuclear that's being shown to us. Constructing the social in the energy debate], L’Harmattan, 2003, 592 pages. His recent research focuses on scientific and technology communication (nanotechnologies), the education and position of journalists and journalism, and the evolution of information and communication theories in the face of globalization (development and communication).

Dr. Ulla Carlsson (Sweden) is Professor and Director of Nordicom (Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research) and the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media at the University of Gothenburg.
She is a founding and continuing editor of the refereed journal Nordicom Review and the Clearinghouse’ Yearbooks.

Ulla Carlsson has edited many publications on media development, media statistics, media history, popular culture, media theory, children and media, the globalization of media, media governance, media literacy, etc.

Ulla Carlsson is a member of the board of many international research organizations and committees, and is on the editorial board of several leading journals in the field. Most of Ulla Carlsson’s own research focuses on international communication and the globalization of media. She has published several books and reports in this field.

Farrel Corcoran (Ireland) (Ph.D. University of Oregon) is Professor of Communication at Dublin City University, where he has also served as Head of the School of Communication and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. Before coming to Dublin, he worked in the University of New Mexico and Northern Illinois University. In 1995, the Irish Government appointed him Chairman of RTE, the Irish public service broadcasting organisation, where he supervised the development of a digital policy. His teaching and research interests include Global Communication, the Political Economy of Broadcasting, Media and Cultural Identity and European Media Policy. His study of Irish broadcasting - RTE and the Globalisation of Irish Television (Intellect Books: 2004) - was funded with a Government of Ireland Senior
Research Fellowship.

Professor of Communication, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Director of the Olympic Studies Centre (UAB) (since its creation in 1988), and Director of the Institute of Communication (UAB) (since its creation in 1998).

Margaret Gallagher (Ireland) is an independent researcher and writer specialising in gender and media. She started her career at the BBC (London), before moving to the Open University where she was Deputy Head of the Audiovisual Media Research Group. For the past thirty years she has been a free-lance consultant, and has carried out research, training and evaluation projects for the United Nations and its agencies, the European Commission, international development agencies and broadcasting organisations. Widely published on gender and media, her recent works include Gender Setting: New Agendas for Media Monitoring and Advocacy (Zed Books, 2001) and Who Makes the News? Global Media Monitoring Project 2005 (WACC, 2006). She serves on the editorial boards of International Communication Gazette, Feminist Media Studies, Media Development, Communication for Development and Social Change, and Communication, Culture and Critique. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Panos Institute, London

Cees J. Hamelink (The Netherlands) is Professor Emeritus of International Communication at the University of Amsterdam, and Professor Emeritus of Media, Religion and Culture at the Free University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is Professor Human Rights and Public Health at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and Professor of Information & Knowledge Management at the University of Aruba. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Communication Gazette. He is also Honorary President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), and founder of the People's Communication Charter. Among the sixteen books he has authored are Cultural Autonomy in Global Communications (1983), Finance and Information (1983), The Technology Gamble (1988), The Politics of World Communication (1994), World Communication (1995), and The Ethics of Cyberspace (2000).

Alan Hancock (U.K.) has more than forty five years of international experience in communication development, spanning production, planning, evaluation and research. Originally a BBC producer, he was a founder member of the production team for the Open University. He was subsequently a staff member of UNESCO for more than twenty-five years, working for much of this time in Asia. After a number of years as Director of the Communication Division in Paris, he went on to establish a new intersectoral programme for Central and Eastern Europe. In 1996 he became an independent consultant and has since worked as a communication adviser for a number of international agencies, including the European Commission, the World Bank and DFID. Dr. Hancock is the author of more than twenty publications on communication planning and development.

Dr.Joke Hermes has published widely in the area of popular culture, with an emphasis on gender and audience studies. From her Ph.D. research on how women's magazines are read (published by Polity Press, 1995) she has turned to television. Recent work has dealt with crime fiction. Her current work is on the qualities of television, as judged by different reader communities and in children's television (and especially in the construction of the child as television viewer). She is founder and co-editor of the European journal of Cultural Studies.

Dr. Karol Jakubowicz is Chairman, Intergovernmental Council of the Information for All Programme, UNESCO. He worked as a journalist and executive in the Polish press, radio and television for many years. He has been Vice-President, Television, Polish Radio and Television; Chairman, Supervisory Board, Polish Television and Head of Strategic Planning and Development at Polish Television, and then Director, Strategy and Analysis Department, the National Broadcasting Council of Poland, the broadcasting regulatory authority (2004-2006). He has taught at the Institute of Journalism, University of Warsaw (1997-2002) and has been Visiting Professor at the Institute of Journalism, University of Dortmund, and at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of Amsterdam. He is leader of Working Group 2 (“Democratic Performance of the Media”) of the COST A 30 Programme of the European Science Foundation. He has been active in the Council of Europe, in part as former Chairman of the Committee of Experts on Media Concentrations and Pluralism (1995-1996), Vice-Chairman and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Transfrontier Television (1995-2002), and as Chairman of the Steering Committee on the Media and New Communication Services (2005-2006).
He has been a member of the Digital Strategy Group of the European Broadcasting Union and contributed to writing its report Media with a purpose. Public Service Broadcasting in the digital era (2002). He was involved in preparing the 2004 Final Report of the Working Group on Digital Terrestrial Television of the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities. He helped write the report Public Service Broadcasting in Europe which was adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Jan. 27, 2004. His scholarly and other publications have been published widely in Poland and internationally. They include the books Rude Awakening: Social And Media Change in Central and Eastern Europe. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, Inc., 2007; Public Service Broadcasting: The Beginning of the End, or a New Beginning? (2007; in Polish) and Media Policy and the Electronic Media (2008; in Polish).

Knut Lundby (Norway) (born 1948, Dr.philos in sociology, 1986) educated at and working with the University of Oslo, Norway. With the Department of media and communication since the establisment in 1988. Professor of media studies 1998. Director of InterMedia, University of Oslo 1998–2004, an interdisciplinary centre focusing research on design, communication and learning in digital environments. Publications on local media and the relationship between media, religion, and culture. University co-operation in media studies with the University of Zimbabwe 1990-1998. Member of the International council, IAMCR, 1992-2000. Participated in the team on convergence and fragmentation, European Science Foundation programme on 'Changing Media - Changing Europe' (1999-2004). Director of the international research project Mediatized Stories: Mediation perspectives on digital storytelling (2006-2011). Edited 'Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in New Media' (Peter Lang 2008).

Stefano Martelli (Italy) is Full Professor in Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes, in the Faculty of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Bologna “Alma Mater Studiorum”; also he is a Member of the Department of Education Sciences “G.M.Bertin” in the same University.

Before he teached sociologies in the Universities of Naples "Federico II" (1984-1998), Verona (1994-1998) Palermo (1998-2005) and "Sr. O. Benincasa" (1993-2005).

Denis McQuail is emeritus professor and honorary fellow at ASCOR, University of Amsterdam, but resident in the UK. Main areas of research and study have been in political communication, audience research, communication theory, and media policy. Most recent book publications include: McQuail's Mass Communication Theory (5th ed. 2005); Mass Communication (Sage Benchmarks in Communication, 2006); Media Accountability and Freedom of Publication, OUP, 2003; Normative Theories of the Press (with others) U. of Illinois Press, forthcoming 2009. He is an editor of European Journal of Communication and advisory member of Euromedia Research Group. He is currently working on theory of journalism.

Kaarle Nordenstreng (born 1941, PhD University of Helsinki 1969) is Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Tampere (Finland). Before appointment to this position in 1971 he was head of research in the Finnish Broadcasting Company since 1967. Earlier he worked as freelance journalist and editor of youth programmes in Finnish national radio (1956-63) and instructor at the University of Tampere (1965-67). He was member of Unesco's panel of consultants on communication research (1971-76), Vice-President of the International Association for Mass Communication Research IAMCR (1972-88), President of the International Organization of Journalists IOJ (1976-90), and Steering Committee member of the European Science Foundation research programme ‘Changing Media – Changing Europe’ (2000-2004). His research specialities are communication theory, international communication and media ethics on which he has written or edited over 30 books (alone and with others) and published over 400 book chapters or journal articles. Books include Communication Studies (1975-1978, in Finnish Swedish and Hungarian), The Mass Media Declaration of UNESCO (1984, Norwood, NJ: Ablex), International Media Monitoring (1999, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton).

Robert G.Picard is Hamrin professor of media economics and director of the Media Management and Transformation Centre, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Sweden. His research focuses on media economics and its effects on media operations and content. Picard is author and editor of eighteen books, including The Economics and Financing of Media Companies, Digital Terrestrial Television in Europe, Media Firms: Structures, Operations, and Performance, Evolving Media Markets: Effects of Economics and Policy Changes; The Newspaper Publishing Industry; Media Economics: Concepts and Issues, The Cable Networks Handbook, and Press Concentration and Monopoly: New Perspectives on Newspaper Ownership and Operation. He is editor of the Journal of Media Business Studies and was founding editor of The Journal of Media Economics, which he guided it through its first decade of operation. He has received numerous grants and contracts from organisations including the European Commission, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the Economic Foundation for Mass Communication Research, and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Picard has been a consultant to ministries and government agencies and numerous of media companies and media labour organisations in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Mogens Schmidt (Denmark - France) (born 1950) is Deputy Assistant Director General for Communication and Information at UNESCO and Director of the Division of Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace, UNESCO. He previously was Assistant Director General of The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and Director of The World Editors Forum in Paris, France, since 2001. Before that he has been Associate Professor in Scandinavian Language and Literature at the University of Aarhus, Denmark (1976 - 1981), Member of the Board of the Nordic Mass Communication Researchers Association (1978 - 1980), Head of Unit (Development and coordination of study programmes), Faculty of Humanities, University of Aarhus, (1981 - 1988), Managing Director, The Danish School of Journalism, Aarhus, (1988 - 1995), first (from 1995 to 1997) Programme Director, then Managing Director (1997-1999) and consecutively Director (1999-2001) of the European Journalism Centre (EJC) in Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Since 1998 he is also Fellow and Member of the Advisory Committee, The European Institute for the Media, Düsseldorf, Germany. Consultant on journalism training, communication and media affairs for the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the World Bank, the Dutch Foreign Ministry (especially in Central and Eastern Europe and in developing countries). Author of several articles and books on journalism training, media and mass communication.

Slavko Splichal is Professor of Communication at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and associate member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is founder (1987) and convenor of the annual International Colloquia on Communication and Culture, director of the European Institute for Communication and Culture, and Editor of its journal Javnost-The Public. He was member of the International Council (1984-92) and the deputy secretary general of the International Association for Mass Communication Research (1992-1996), and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana (1991-93). In 2006, he was a Visiting Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. He has been member of editorial boards of International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Journal of Communication, Journalism Studies, Gazette, New Media & Society, Reseaux-The French Journal of Communication, and several national journals in Europe. His primary areas of research include communication theory, public opinion and public sphere, political communication, and communication research methods. His English language books include Principles of Publicity and Press Freedom (2002), Toennies on Public Opinion: Selections and Analyses (2000, co-authored with H. Hardt); Public Opinion: Developments and Controversies in the 20th Century (1999); Media Beyond Socialism (1994), Journalists for the 21st Century (1994; co-authored with C. Sparks).

Pal Tamas is director of the Sociology Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. Trained as a computer scientist, later received Doctorates in Sociology and Economics. Visiting Professor and Researcher at MIT, Wesleyan University - CT, USA, Vienna Technical University, Frei University Berlin, Concordia University - Montreal, Carlton University - Ottawa, Academic Center, St. Petersburg - Russia, Moscow State University, etc. His ongoing research is focused on technology policy and development, global civil society, vulnerability of industrial societies, models of sustainability.

Jan van Cuilenburg (Netherlands) (1946) is professor of media and telecommunications policy and management at the University of Amsterdam. As of October 1, 2001, Van Cuilenburg has become the Director of the Dutch Media Authority, an independent authority which upholds the rules that are formulated in the Dutch Media Act as well as in the regulations based on this act. In the past, Van Cuilenburg has been dean of the The Amsterdam School of Communications Research ASCoR. Next to that, Van Cuilenburg has been director of the Netherlands Press Foundation, a national research organization in the field of publishing and journalism. Van Cuilenburg has been chairing the Netherlands Press Fund, an independent governmental agency for financially supporting newspapers and magazines that are temporarily lacking sufficient means. For years, Van Cuilenburg has been member of the Netherlands Media Council and the Netherlands Advisory Committee on Post and Telecommunications. Van Cuilenburg's main research interest is communications policy (media policy and telecommunications policy). Currently his research focuses on the relationship between media competition, media innovation and media diversity. Most extra-academic activities are located in the sphere of advising the Dutch government for communications and media.

Liesbet van Zoonen is professor in Media and Popular Culture at the University of Amsterdam, and professor II in Media Studies at Oslo University. She is currently head of the Department of Communication in Amsterdam.

She has written over 100 articles and chapters, and several books. Her 1994 book Feminist Media Studies has been used in academic curricula all over the world. Her latest book is Entertaining the Citizen: when politics and popular culture converge (2005).

Van Zoonen’s research covers a wide range of social and cultural genres, often from the perspective of gender and diversity studies. She has written on gender and journalism, talk shows, internet, television, sports and popular music. In 1998 she founded the Centre for Popular Culture at the University of Amsterdam.

Sjoerd de Vries is Assistant Professor at the University of Twente. His research is in the field of design and implementation of networked communication. He is involved in projects concerning knowledge networks, communities of practice, and virtual projects. He is also co-founder of Konict, a communication consultancy bureau and active service provider in networked communication applications. As a senior consultant, he is involved in national and international consultancy and development projects. More information can be found on the Center for Networked Communıcation website.
He is a former Board Member of ECA.

Dr. Nishan Havandjian is a professor of journalism at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He obtained his PhD in Mass Communication, with emphasis on International Communication at the University of Texas, Austin, on a Fulbright Fellowship. He served as faculty adviser for the student daily at Cal Poly for six years, and as head of the journalism department for 15 years. He is currently teaching courses in news writing and reporting, mass media in a multicultural society, journalism ethics and global communication. He was awarded a Journalism Excellence award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 2006. For the past four years, he has spent two summers teaching news writing and reporting in Beirut, Lebanon. His research interests center around ethnic media and international journalism.
He is a former Board Member of ECREA and ECA.

Annette Hill is Professor of Media at the Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster, UK.

She is the author of Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television (Routledge 2005), and Restyling Factual TV: the Reception of News, Documentary and Reality Genres (Routledge 2007). Her previous books include Shocking Entertainment (1997), TV Living: Television, Audiences and Everyday Life (with David Gauntlett 1999), as well as a variety of articles on audiences and popular culture. She is the co-editor (with Robert C Allen) of the Television Studies Reader (Routledge 2003).

As a former member of the ECCR and ECREA Board she participated in the doctoral summer school and established the ECREA Newsletter.

Lars Nyre (born 1969) is an associate professor at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, and has a research position at the School of Journalism, Volda University College.

Nyre tries out experimental methods in media and information research, and currently co-directs a project called Demostation. The project tests out various interfaces for journalism on the mobile phone. Nyre has previously written about the democratic potential of new media; see Nyre (2007) "Minimum Journalism. Experimental procedures for democratic participation in sound media", in Journalism Studies, issue 3, and the history of sound media; see Nyre (2008) Sound Media. From Live Journalism to Musical Recording. London: Routledge.

Nyre is the editor of Norsk medietidsskrift [Norwegian Journal of Media Research]. Nyre is chair of the research group Digital Radio Cultures in Europe (see www.drace.org ), originally established as part of the EU-funded COST A20 network "The Impact of the Internet on the mass media in Europe". Between 2005 and 2008 Nyre was Board Member of ECREA and, previously, of ECA.

Andrea Pitasi is a Tenured Associate Professor at the "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti and Pescara and an Adjunct Professor at "Suor Orsola Benincasa" University of Naples. Besides, he is the Senior Editor of a book series titled "Teoria dei sistemi e complessità" for Aracne Publishing in Rome. He is Life Member of the International Communication Association (ICA, serving member of the Liason Committee for the relations with the UN Dept of Information), Life member of the International J. A. Schumpeter Society and member of the AAAI . He authored over 40 scientific publications and has been Guest Editor for the three- issue work "Future Trends of Communication Strategies" appeared in nr. 4, 5 and 6 of the 57/2001 issue of the journal World Futures run by Ervin Laszlo, published by Taylor and Francis, New York.
He is a former Board Member of ECREA and ECCR.

John Rosenbaum began his career in media and education as a radio and television producer, writer, and director. Then he entered academia, serving for many years on the communication faculties at Bucks College and Ithaca College.

During that time he also was a Regional Visiting Scholar at Cornell University’s Institute for European Studies and a Fulbright scholar in Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

His current research focuses on the relationship between media policy and culture.

Prof. Rosenbaum has co-edited the anthology Shaping the Future of Communication Research in Europe and co-authored the fourth edition of the McGraw-Hill textbook Television Production. His articles have appeared in various books and journals, and his research papers have received awards from the Broadcast Education Association and the International Communication Association.

Prof. Rosenbaum received the doctoral degree from Columbia University, master’s degrees from Columbia University and Temple University, and the bachelor’s degree from the Pennsylvania State University.
He is former Board Member of ECREA and ECA.

Ayseli Usluata received her BA from Istanbul University; her MA from University of Kansas, Lawrence; and her PhD degree from Bogazici University, Istanbul. Currently she's a full professor and Head of Public Relations and Publicity Department teaching: Mass Communication, Communication, Intercultural Communication, Communication Theories. She was a member of IAMCR (International Association of Mass Communication Research) between 1987-1999; she was on the board of ILAD (Communication Research Association) in Turkey in the years 1997-98; and a member of Sietar between 1998 and 2002. She has been a member of ABC (Association of Business Communication) since 1995; She holds the "Abdi Ipekci peace prize" for her article written to promote peace between Greece and Turkey and was the project coordinator of Turkey for the Global Project of Women in Media for the years 1995 and 2000. She is the author of a book on communication in Turkish (Iletisim 1994;1995); co-author (with M. Martin), of Political Cartoons of Female Power: A comparative Study of Canada and Turkey (2001); co-author (with J. Rosenbaum) of "Shaping the Future of Communication Research in Europe (2005). She contributed chapters to Images of the U.S. Around the World (1998); Communication Research and Media Science in Europe (2003); Multiculturalism: Identity and Otherness (1997); Bilim Politikasi ve Üniversiteler (Politics of Science and Universities) (1997) and Ana Dilde Çocuk Olmak (Being a Child in Mother Tongue) (1998). She has articles published in journals and newspapers both in English and Turkish.
She was a member of the Executive Council of ECA (European Communication Association) between 2003 and 2005.

Elena Vartanova is Full Professor, Dean and Chair in Media Theory and Media Economics at the Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University. Her PhD was on Finnish Newspaper System (1982), her Doctoral dissertation on Information Society Concepts and Their Impact on Media Practice in EU and Nordic Countries (1999). Her research interests include media systems in Nordic countries, information society, post-Soviet transformation of Russian media, media economics. Vartanova is an author of three books and an editor of six books (in Russian) on Nordic media systems, Information society, media economics. Published more than 100 research articles in Russian academic magazines. Co-editor of the 'Russian Media Challenge' (ed. by K. Nordenstreng, E. Vartanova, Y. Zassoursky, Helsinki, 2001) and the author of the chapter "Media Structures: Changed and Unchanged" for this book. Editor of four monographs in English, incl. Media and Change (2007). Her articles have been published by European Journal of Communication, Gazette.

Editor-in-chief of the Faculty research journal Mediaalmanac, editor-in-chief of on-line research magazine Mediascope.
Expert of Russian Federation in the Council of Europe for the group on media diversity.
Member of the IAMCR International Council
Chair of the Digital Divide Working Group, IAMCR.
She is a former Board Member of ECCR.

Annaleena Ylinen (Finland) (born 1978) is a Licentiate in Philosophy (2005) in Speech Communication. In her licentiate thesis, she examined technologically mediated communication in close relationships. Annaleena Ylinen is a PhD student in Speech Communication at the Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She was General Secretary and Member of the Executive Board of ECREA in 2005-2008, and Treasurer and Member of the Executive Council of the European Communication Association (ECA) in 2003-2005.