Editorial Essay

Abstract

We have an exciting year ahead! It might be hard to believe, but this is the 100th volume of our journal, which means we will be celebrating the journal’s Centennial. There are a number of planned activities designed to highlight this major milestone, starting with a special issue. The special issue co-edited by Editorial Board members Jeong-Nam Kim and Homero Gil de Zúñiga aims to capture the journal’s evolution over the years with the use of computational methods. Leading scholars in the field have been invited to contribute to this special issue to map changes in journalism and mass communication research from the inception of refereed journal publishing to today. As part of the Centennial celebration, Book Review Editor Gregory Perreault is also working tirelessly to select some classic media texts to feature in the special issue. The choice of books and relevant reviewers was made with direct input from each AEJMC division because we truly are an association journal. Celebrating a 100-year anniversary is quite significant. Therefore, I established a taskforce chaired by Patricia Moy to help us recognize this milestone and our journal’s long history and strong reputation in the field. Taskforce members include Editorial Board members Michael Chan, Christina Holtz-Bacha, Tom Johnson, Claudia Mellado, and Esther Thorson. I wish to thank each of them for volunteering to serve on the JMCQ Anniversary Taskforce to highlight the journal’s impact over the years. In keeping with the social media evolution, I am also glad to report that we have established an engagement editor position. Our inaugural Engagement Editor is Viorela Dan from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, who will support not only JMCQ, but also the other two AEJMC journals. This new position made possible by the AEJMC board will help increase journal visibility and continue to grow our audience, both nationally and internationally, with more efforts to reach beyond the Global North. There will be new opportunities for engagement with our dedicated readers, so stay tuned. Much has changed in our field over the years, yet much has remained the same. If you have specific ideas or would like to propose new activities to help us celebrate the establishment of the journal back in 1924, please do not hesitate to reach out. The Centennial celebration will continue throughout the year and will culminate with a series of events at AEJMC 2024 in Philadelphia, where former journal editors will also be invited and recognized.