The conference is one of the leading regional communication associations in the United States with high global recognition. It publishes two high profile jour­nals, Western Journal of Com­munication and Communication Reports.

Dr Sikanku is a leading scholar in political communication, inter­national communication, political framing, campaign strategy/com­munication, comparative commu­nication and global politics. His seminal work on one of the most iconic leaders and communica­tors of the 21st century, Barack Obama, titled “The Afrocentric Obama and lessons on politi­cal campaigns” received much acclaim.

On the other hand, N. K Osei Fordjour is an accomplished scholar in public relations, politi­cal communication, social media, political discourse and visual com­munication.

Sikanku and Fordjour’s award winning paper is titled: “Gover­nor Andrew Cuomo before things went sour: A mixed method frame analysis of his COVID-19 tweets.” The paper which was entered through the competi­tive paper submission process, examined the use of social media as a tool for crisis communication by political leaders. Using former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s tweets as data, the study examined the crisis communica­tion frames presented during the early days of the pandemic.

Some of the frames unearthed included the prevalence of leadership frames, action tweets, severity frames, reassurance and collaborative frames. The paper adopted a mixed-method ap­proach.

An email from the organisers stated that “the reviewers were so impressed with your paper that you have been awarded the Top Paper Award”.

The event was held February 18, 2023 at Arizona State Univer­sity, Arizona, USA.