If you are a college student, you have a vast number of professional
experts available to you! Be sure to take advantage of your easy access to these
experts to learn the current research and suggestions for making your presentation
credible.
In addition,
there are professional organizations for nearly every subject imaginable. For
example, the communication field has a number of professional organizations
for those interested in networking with other communication experts. Check these
out:
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- National
Communication Association, http://www.natcom.org. This association allows viewing of departmental membership, journal archives, and info on starting a student group. The homepage reports over 5,400 having attended the 2005 convention, with a call for papers to be presented at the 2006 convention.
- International
Communication Association, http://www.icahdq.org/. This group has 3,500 members in 65 countries and provides email addresses for contact members in various geographic areas.
- International Federation of Communication Associations, http://ifca.ucalgary.ca/. This site offers a list of member organizations and contacts, archived newsletters, web links to a number of professional journals, and a search function
- Eastern
Communication Association, http://www.ecasite.org/. This site provides links to several regional communication organizations and info on its members.
- Southern
States Communication Association, http://ssca.net/. Offers info on the association convention, its membership, and its journal, as well as links to other communication groups.
- Central
States Communication Association, http://www.csca-net.org/. This site provides info on departmental members plus its convention and journal.
- Western
States Communication Association, http://www.westcomm.org. With almost 1,000 members this site provides info on its activities and future convention plans.
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Beyond the university
are a number of research institutes called, "think tanks." Some are
conversative, others quite liberal so be sure to explore several to get balanced
perspectives.
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NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks is a survey of think tanks conducted by the Center for Policy Research Information of the National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA). More than 300 specialty public policy research institutes from more than 70 countries and regions are involved. Check these out at http://www.nira.go.jp/ice/nwdtt. Go all the way down to bottom to click on NWDTT Index, then scroll down to do an A-Z search, either by English name of the organization or by world country. |
