Panel Presentations and Discussions

Attending a Panel

At academic conferences, individuals choose to attend panel presentations to listen to scholars present their recent research or scholarship. Panel presentations collect several paper presentations together to form a cohesive theme. In a 75-minute time slot, which is the typical time slot allotted to panels at the annual conventions of both the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association, between four and six papers are presented, allowing panelists 10 to 15 minutes for their presentations. The chair is responsible for introducing each paper and panelist, keeping track of time, and taking questions from the audience. In some cases, a respondent also provides feedback for each paper and sometimes presents an interpretation of the theme. [Page 1178]Typically, panelists present their papers first, then the respondent presents, and finally the audience can ask questions, although the order of events is determined by the chair.

Panel discussions are less structured than panel presentations and involve more discussion than presentation. They still include a chair and panelists, but the primary purpose is to engage in dialogue. The chair introduces the topic and panelists, asks questions, elicits participation from the audience, and generally maintains order during the panel. The panelists sometimes present a brief statement at the beginning, and then answer questions from the chair, other panelists, and audience members. Ideally, the panelists should not only have varied viewpoints but also come from different backgrounds, institutions, and geographical areas to provide a diversity of perspectives.

Purposes

Panel presentations and discussions serve different purposes. Panel presentations serve as an initial form of publication and testing ground for manuscripts. Authors can gauge interest in their work and gain feedback on their papers from the reviewers who select the papers for panels, the respondent, the audience, and other panelists. A paper presented at a conference can still be published in a book or journal, but manuscripts that have already been published are not accepted at conferences and are therefore not presented in panels.

Attending panel presentations allows individuals to learn about new scholarship and to meet researchers interested in similar topics. The abbreviated nature of panel presentations and the central themes of each panel allow the audience to quickly learn about multiple relevant projects. Because the manuscripts have often not yet been published, the audience is able to keep up to date on the cutting edge of scholarship in the discipline. Attending panel presentations can also spark ideas for future research directions even before the manuscripts are published and widely available.

...