Welcome to the American Communication Journal. The Journal has been dormant for some time for a variety of reasons. I have entitled this new issue, "The Rising of the Phoenix" to indicate that it is once again alive and well -- and it has nothing to do with Harry Potter. All of those in the American Communication Association, this journal's sponsoring organization, wish to once again to have it be the premier on-line journal of communication scholarship. My aim as editor is to try to bring that about.
My own scholarship deals with international communication and public diplomacy, communication ethics, the impacts of new technologies, and cultural history. But the Journal will be far broader in scope, encompassing the study of communication in all its forms, both theoretical and practical, methodological and epistemological. We seek essays that deal with rhetoric, interpersonal and organizational communication, public relations and advertising, media and multimedia production, etc., etc. Regardless of your own intellectual interests, we hope that you will consider the American Communication Journal as a possible site for your work.
There are some new features as the Journal comes back to life. There will be blogs set up for each issue to help conversation along. If you would like to contribute there, we welcome it. And if you would like to be notified when a new essay is posted, or new book reviews come on-line, or a new special section finds the light of day, you can do that here. All of us in the Association want to do what we can to provide a sense of community, of collaboration, and of collective wisdom. We value interactivity. So I hope many of you will take this opportunity to "subscribe." Then you can keep up with what is published here, take it as an opportunity to see the developments in our field of scholarship, and ask an immediate question of those who do take us up on our offer to showcase their work.
Welcome. Welcome. Welcome as we begin this re-animated venture in on-line scholarship.
Robert S. Fortner, Editor