Greetings from the Board of Directors of the Media Ecology Association!
We are starting a new calendar year, which means that membership fees for 2012 are due. For those who joined MEA last year, it is time to renew. For those who joined in previous years but let membership lapse, it is time to return to the fold. For those who have never been a member, we hope you will consider joining this year. We especially invite those who have already participated in MEA activities but are not yet members to join the MEA now.
By joining the MEA, you are engaging in a public good and partnering with a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the study, research, criticism, and application of media ecology in educational, industry, political, civic, social, cultural, and artistic contexts. The open exchange of ideas, information, and research among the Association’s members and the larger community is part of our ongoing passion and effort to continue the work of scholars such as Gregory
Bateson, Edmund Carpenter, Elizabeth Eisenstein, Jacques Ellul, Erving Goffman, Edward T. Hall, Eric Havelock, Harold Innis, Susanne Langer, Marshall McLuhan, Lewis Mumford, Walter Ong, and Neil Postman.
Joining the MEA is easier than ever. To join online and pay via PayPal, see instructions on our Web site (http://www.media-ecology.org/joinmea).
To use regular postal service, you can download a printable membership form on our Web site
(http://www.media-ecology.org/joinmea/mea-memform2012.pdf), and then mail it to the address indicated on the form, with a check made payable to the Media Ecology Association. Whichever way you choose, we encourage you to join soon, so you can enjoy in full the benefits that MEA membership includes, such as:
* Venues for showcasing your own scholarly work, such as the annual MEA Convention, as well as featured panels at the yearly NCA, ECA, ICA, NJCA, and NYSCA conventions
* Forums for professional and intellectual exchange with other MEA associates, including our active electronic discussion list, where you can «talk» directly with leading media ecology scholars and practitioners from around the world
* Special rates for membership in sister organizations and attendance at their conventions
* Discounts on selected books and publications
* Participation in MEA elections and governance
* Opportunities to contribute professional service and to help shape the direction of this new field
* Annual subscription to our print journal, Explorations in Media Ecology {EME}, published quarterly (2012 membership includes Volume 11 of EME, in its entirety)
We also encourage you to become further acquainted with the wider membership and friends of the MEA by participating in our electronic discussion list. The MEA list is the online conversation of friends and members of the Association, a space for reasoned, informed, and civil discussion about communication, media, and culture among persons interested in themes or subjects relevant to the field of media ecology.
Subscribers use this list to share views, exchange information, and learn about interesting events related to media ecology. If you are not already subscribed to the MEA list, we invite you to visit the MEA Web site for further details (http://www.media-ecology.org/list). Questions relating to the list may be directed to the list managers
(listhelp@media-ecology.org).
As you renew your membership, you may notice we have increased our fees for the first time since 2008. It was inevitable that we would have to raise our membership and convention fees because our operating expenses continue to increase, and institutions which in the past subsidized some MEA expenses no longer are able to do so. Now, the MEA must stand on its
own, and we hope you will see, as we do, that your interest in and commitment to the MEA are essential to our work and our future.
So we encourage you who are involved in media ecology to demonstrate your support of our emerging field of inquiry by becoming a 2012 MEA member. and making the Media Ecology Association your intellectual home.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors of the Media Ecology Association
Blog de Octavio Islas 