Newswise — WASHINGTON, DC (November 12, 2014) – From November 20 to 23, the National Communication Association (NCA) will gather thousands of scholars, teachers, and practitioners at its 100th Annual Convention in Chicago, the city where the association was founded in 1914. What began as a group of 17 college and university Speech teachers has today grown into a group representing thousands of members engaged in scholarship and teaching across a wide range of the Communication discipline.

TO ATTEND:Journalists are invited to attend the convention to learn more about the research highlighted below and to select from among more than 1,000 other sessions in which NCA members will present new research and discuss emerging issues in Communication. Register in advance with our external affairs staff, or go to the registration desk onsite.

WHEN: November 20–23, 2014

WHERE: Hilton Chicago720 S. Michigan AvenueChicago, IL

Palmer House Hilton17 E. Monroe StreetChicago, IL HIGHLIGHTS: For more detailed information about sessions, papers, and presenters at the convention, search the online program. A sample of the diversity of sessions includes:

Bullying• Violence, Bullying, Women and Race Online: Analyzing an Intersectional Conversation (11/20, 3:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago–PDR Room 2)• Behaving Badly: Whistleblowing, Bullying, and Unethical Behavior (11/21, 8:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–PDR Room 2)• Cyberbullying, Surveillance, and Stress: The Dark Side of Communication Technology Use (11/21, 12:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago– Room 4B)• Addressing Bullying in Academia from Multiple Communication Perspectives (11/21, 2:00 p.m., Palmer House Hilton–Price Room)

Family Communication• Career-friendly Families and Family-friendly Careers: Considering Gender and Work-life (11/20, 11:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–Salon A1)• Families Managing Uncertainty: Studies Across the Lifespan (11/20, 11:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–Room 4D)• Family Communication Patterns: Influences in Varied Contexts (11/22, 11:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–Room 4D)

Health Communication• Reconstituting Citizenship, Race, Consent, and Medical Diagnosis through Legal Communication (11/20, 2:00 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Room 4A)• Communication and Well-Being (11/21, 12:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Continental Ballroom B)• Can We Talk about Death? Enhancing End-of-Life Experiences through Interpersonal Communication (11/22, 2:00 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Room 4J)

Political Communication• The “Rules” of Ridicule: Questioning the Efficacy, Function, and Limits of Satire (11/20, 2:00 p.m., Hilton Chicago–PDR Room 7)• When the Political Gets Personal: Electoral-Sexual Politics in the Media (11/20, 2:00 p.m., Hilton Chicago–PDR Room 2)• The Perils and Promise of Online Political Journalism (11/21, 8:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–Boulevard Room A)• The Rhetorical Legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan (11/21, 2:00 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Room 4J)

Race & Gender• Black Cultural Performance: Televised Representations of Race, Criminality, and Beauty (11/20, 12:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Continental Ballroom C)• Redefining What Lies Out of Bounds: Sport, Sexuality, and Gender (11/21, 9:30 a.m., Hilton Chicago–Salon A4)• Women in Prison: Past, Present, and Future (11/21, 11:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–Continental Ballroom A)• Masculinity, Monsters, and the Modern Spitfire: Latin@s in Magazines, Cartoons, and Television (11/22, 12:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Continental Ballroom A)

Relationships• The Complexities of Sexual Interaction: Persuasion, Risk, and Navigating Ambiguous Relationship Contexts (11/20, 12:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago–PDR Room 1)• Mediated Romance in the Age of Online Dating Sites, Facebook, and Cell Phones (11/20, 2:00 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Boulevard Room B)• Attraction, Flirtation, and Deception: Examining the Process of Relationship Initiation (11/20, 3:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Continental Ballroom B)• Hassles and Irritations in Interpersonal Relationships (11/21, 9:30 a.m., Hilton Chicago–PDR Room 4)

Teachers & Students• Exploring Students' Communication and Well-Being: The First Year Transition and Beyond (11/20, 12:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Joliet Room)• Cultural Adjustment, Acculturation, and Accommodation Experiences of International Students and Expatriates (11/20, 12:30 p.m., Palmer House Hilton–Crystal Room)• Controversial Teacher Communication Behaviors: Exploring Effects on Student Learning (11/21, 11:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–PDR Room 3)• College Students, Classroom Contexts, and What the Communication Teacher Needs to Know about Teaching in Globally Diverse Classrooms (11/22, 11:00 a.m., Palmer House Hilton–Salon 7)

Communication Technology• Explorations into Gaming: Assessing Identity, Identification, and Experience (11/20, 11:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–Williford Room A)• Social Media and Public Relations (11/20, 3:30 p.m., Hilton Chicago–Room 4K)• Community Issues and the Digital Divide (11/21, 8:00 a.m., Palmer House Hilton–Salon 8)• China In the Net: Governance, Growth, and Conflicts in a Networked Society (11/21, 8:00 a.m., Palmer House Hilton–Salon 2)

Veterans• Transitioning from the Battlefield to the Classroom: The Dynamics of Student Veterans and Educators (11/20, 11:00 a.m., Hilton Chicago–PDR Room 5)• Envisioning the Temporal Folds of Combat Trauma: Visual “Treatments” of Veterans and the In/Visible Presences of Combat's Past (11/20, 12:30 p.m., Palmer House Hilton–Salon 6)

###About the National Communication AssociationThe National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems.

For more information, visit natcom.org, follow us on Twitter at @natcomm, and find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalCommunicationAssociation.