Rosental Alves eleito presidente da Orbicom

Rosental C. Alves, the Knight Chair in Journalism and UNESCO Chair in Communication at The University of Texas at Austin, has been elected president of Orbicom, a UNESCO network that links international communication leaders in an effort to affect social justice, democracy and good governance.

Alves, who was unanimously elected by the Orbicom board of directors, will serve a two-year term. He succeeds outgoing president Alain Modoux, a communication consultant from Geneva, Switzerland.

As the chairman of the board of Orbicom, Alves will work with the organization's secretariat based in Montreal, Canada, to coordinate the efforts of the network, especially in research of global communication issues.

Jointly created in 1994 by UNESCO and Université du Québec à Montréal, Orbicom is a network of 250 associate members and 31 UNESCO chairs in communication from around the world. These communication leaders represent academic, media, corporate and government circles and take a multinational, multisectorial and multilingual approach to seven key issues:

• Communication and international development
• National information policies and communications law
• Access to, transfer and use of new technologies
• Strategic development with reference to communications training, conflict resolution and inter- or intra-institutional communications
• Media development and management
• Public relations, public affairs and advertising
• Professional training and ethics in journalism, public relations and other communications activities