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Dresden
The first session of the 56th annual International Communication Association conference has started now - and as always I'll do my best to report what I see. There may be some delays in getting this out, though - surprisingly, it looks as if the only Internet access made available here to conference delegates is by way of a handful of machines in the Cybercafe. No wireless - a very disappointing start to this event... I should also note that of course there's a plethora of papers being presented here - so what I cover may not at all be representative for the conference as such.

Dresden
The next session is a panel facilitated by Nick Coundry, which presents findings from a comparative study of media consumption practices and their effects on public connection. If voter turnout at national elections is low and in decline, and if simultaneously citizen and participatory media rises, does this lead to a greater fragmentation of media audiences and the overall citizenry? What does it feel like to be a citizen-consumer in this media environment?

First off, there still is a sense of 'public connection', an orientation of citizens towards public issues - but at the same time, this is severely altered by the changing, convergent media environment. What, indeed, constitutes the public/private distinction - it surely still exists, but in what form, and where? The UK side of this project worked with written and taped diaries, interviews, and focus groups across the UK - from this, various patterns emerged: there is a range from media world connectors to public world connectors - for the former: the sense of being a member of the media audience is the key factor, while for the letter there is a sense of connection with the public beyond the media alone. The former is not necessarily a lack, however, as there may still remain a strong family connection or other factors.

Dresden
Finally for today I'm in a session on convergence and networking which, perhaps unsurprisingly, has a strong representation of Korean and Japanese researchers. The first paper is by Euchiul Jung and is presented in absentia - it is motivated by the increasing flow of people, culture and information beyond national boundaries, and looks at ethnicity-based public spheres at local levels. Diasporic identity is a reconstructed and transformed cultural identity - a hybrid identity.

The paper found that new media technologies were helpful in keeping the members of such communities in touch with their cultures of origin, and increased the close connection between them and their home culture. Key media here were both the Internet, which allowed more access to information and culture from the culture of origin, and the mobile phone, which allowed for more mobility and flexibility. Both increased the intra-cultural communication within the diasporic community. This also led to a growth in the cultural politics of distinction, recognition, and identification, and allowed for the emergence of mediated, ethnicity-based public spheres and communication networks. The result was a transformed, hybridised cultural identity.