Angela Schorr is President of Media Psychology and Educational Psychology at the University of Siegen, Germany. Her main focuses of research are Empathy & Emotional Intelligence; Advertising; Media Entertainment & Information; Psychological Autonomy & Reactance; Health Communication & Public Health; Reality Cognition & Presence; Youth Media Research; Media Use & Media Effects Research; Cognition & Emotion.

She has been President of the European Communication Association (ECA) from 1998 to 2003.

Jan Servaes (PhD, 1987, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium) is Professor, UNESCO Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change, and Director of the SBS Center ‘Communication for Sustainable Social Change (CSSC)’ at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA, www.csschange.org), Honorary Guest Professor at the Huazhong University of Technology and Science (HUST), Wuhan, China, Researcher at the ‘Brussels Center for Journalism Studies’ (BCJS), Belgium (http://www.hubrussel.be/eCache/IEE/18/733.html), Editor-in-Chief of ‘Telematics and Informatics: An Interdisciplinary Journal on the Social Impacts of New Technologies' (Elsevier, http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tele), Editor-in-Chief of ‘Communication for Development and Social Change: A Global Journal’ (Hampton Press, http://www.temple.edu/cdsc/), Editor of the Southbound Book Series ‘Communication for Development and Social Change’ (http://www.Southbound.com.my), and Editor of the Hampton Book Series ‘Communication, Globalization and Cultural Identity’ (http://www.hamptonpress.com/comm_global.htm).

He has been President of the European Consortium For Communications Research (ECCR, www.ecrea.eu) and Vice-President of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR, www.iamcr.org), in charge of Academic Publications and Research, from 2000 to 2004. He chaired the Scientific Committee for the World Congress on Communication for Development (Rome, 25-27 October 2006), organized by the World Bank, FAO and the Communication Initiative.

Servaes has taught International Communication and Development Communication in Australia (Brisbane), Belgium (Brussels and Antwerp), the USA (Cornell), The Netherlands (Nijmegen), and Thailand (Thammasat, Bangkok).

Servaes has undertaken research, development, and advisory work around the world and is known as the author of journal articles and books on such topics as international and development communication; ICT & media policies; intercultural communication and language; participation and social change; and human rights and conflict management. Some of his most recent book titles, include: (2008) SERVAES J., Communication for Development and Social Change, Sage, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore; (2007) SERVAES J. & LIU S. (eds.), Moving Targets. Mapping the paths between communication, technology and social change in communities, Southbound, Penang; (2006) THOMAS P & SERVAES J. (eds.), Intellectual Property Rights and Communications in Asia, Sage, New Delhi; (2006) SERVAES J. & CARPENTIER N. (eds.), Towards a Sustainable European Information Society, ECCR Book Series, Intellect, Bristol; (2005) SHI -XU, KIENPOINTNER M. & SERVAES J.(eds.), Read the Cultural Other. Forms of Otherness in the Discourses of Hong Kong’s Decolonisation, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin; (2003), SERVAES J. (ed.), The European Information Society: A reality check, ECCR Book Series, Intellect, Bristol; (2003) SERVAES J. (ed.), Approaches to Development. Studies on Communication for Development, UNESCO Publishing House, Paris; (2002) SERVAES J., Communication for Development. One World, Multiple Cultures, Hampton Press, Cresskill (Foreword by Jan Pronk).

Pertti Hurme is a communication researcher and teacher, now working as Professor of Organizational Communication and PR at the Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He also serves as the Head of the Department of Communication.

His current research interests focus on communication in networked organizations and the use and meaning of communication technologies in organizations. Recent articles deal with PR and the Internet, network organizations, mobile communication and work practices, and organizations in virtual worlds. In 2005 he published the book Viestinnästä tietoon: tiedon luominen työyhteisössä (From Communication to Knowledge: Creation of Knowledge in Work Communities) with co-authors Maija-Leena Huotari and Tarja Valkonen.

He is Past President of the European Communication Association (2003-2005) and Past Vice President of ECREA (2005-2008).