BEA2026

BEA Common Terms & Jargon

BEA’s annual convention traditionally produces over 250 sessions on media pedagogy, collaborative networking events, hands-on technology workshops, research & creative scholarship, and the Festival of Media Arts. The following are a few unique terms and/or jargon commonly used throughout the BEA convention and community:

AERho

A national honor society for media-oriented undergrads. Students apply for membership, which exemplifies excellence of work, demonstrated leadership qualities, and service to the organization, the community, and the industry. 

BEA Exhibit Hall

Make sure you stop by on the 3rd floor of the West Hall in the Convention Center to see what opportunities await you! The vendors have historically showcased, for example, new production equipment, published (text)books, study abroad initiatives, and graduate-program offerings.

BEAi

An intelligent and interactive community for BEA members. Use this platform to communicate with divisions, find books by BEA members, find teaching resources or locate an article in JoME.

Chair (of Interest Division)

A great way to gain some academic leadership experience! In most interest divisions, the vice chair assumes chair duties after 1-2 years as part of a leadership pipeline, and the chair is typically responsible for updating (as needed) the division’s bylaws, conducting the division’s business meeting, and reviewing proposed panels for the annual convention.

Collegiate Media Chapters

BEA can integrate into your respective institution, providing networking opportunities and promoting collaborative projects and discussions among your students. Each established media chapter becomes part of a national network of media students, educators, and industry professionals.

Board of Directors

Comprised of 7 academic directors and an executive committee (i.e., president, immediate past president, vice president for academic relations, vice president for industry relations, secretary/treasurer), the Board works with BEA’s executive director and professional staff to maintain the organization’s functionality and fiscal health from year to year. These are elected positions, and most have demonstrated long-standing membership and commitment to BEA through past leadership roles and contributions to the organization.

Festival of Media Arts

BEA’s international faculty and student digital media and broadcast competition for creative work. Past iterations typically include 2,000+ entries from over 300 participating schools, and the competition’s general acceptance rate hovers at or around 20%.

Ignite!

A one-hour session during the annual conference comprised of innovative teaching ideas. These top 10 have been reviewed and selected for presentation, and each presenter has only 5 minutes to share their project / assignment / exercise.

Interest Division

BEA partitions into 19 discipline-specific areas of interest. BEA members can choose up to 4 to join, providing them with opportunities to submit and review traditional research or creative scholarship; propose and present on panels that discuss research findings and/or timely topics; and network with others who share similar academic foci.

JoBEM

The Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (JoBEM) is the scholarly journal published quarterly by the Broadcast Education Association. Considered one of the leading publications in the communication field, JoBEM contains timely articles about new developments, trends and research in electronic media written by academics, researchers, and other electronic media professionals.

JoME

The Journal of Media Education (JoME) is an interactive publication designed to provide readers with a broad array of resources, including audio, video, slideshows, multimedia and Internet links related to the articles published. It is a peer-reviewed journal published four times a year by BEA and is BEA’s principal forum for peer reviewed articles on pedagogy pertinent to the various media, industry analysis, responsive essays, original research with a connection to media education, and reports on research and other work that may not fit the editorial objectives of traditional scholarly publications.

JRAM

The Journal of Radio & Audio Media (JRAM) is a semiannual publication affiliated with BEA and designed to promote scholarly dialogues generated by various disciplinary and methodological points of view. The journal welcomes interdisciplinary inquiries regarding radio’s contemporary and historical subject matter as well as those audio media that have challenged radio’s traditional use.

NAB Show / Expo

Make sure you stop by to see what opportunities await you! This is a massive showcase of “what’s new” in the media production world. BEA convention attendees get free admittance, so take advantage of this chance to see what’s on the horizon!

On-Location

While BEA’s annual convention occurs every year in April in Las Vegas (as part of the National Association of Broadcasters conference), the On Location convention typically occurs in October in different regions or states across the country. A TBD postsecondary institution serves as host, offering attendees a chance to tour peer programs and engage in typical conference activities such as research presentations, thematic panels, hands-on workshops, and/or creative competitions.

Panel

For BEA, this is usually less formal than a presentation, consisting of a group of experts who offer their perspective around a shared subject or theme. These may or may not be driven by empirical research, and the participants may speak individually and/or interact with each other, usually guided by a moderator.

Presentation

For BEA, this usually equates to a series of solo, in-depth talks around a related subject or theme. These are typically driven by empirical research conducted by each of the contributors, where each spends a TBD amount of time sharing their findings and a moderator coalesces the content.

Reviewer

BEA needs people like you to help (peer) review content for its many competitions and academic opportunities — this is a great way to get involved and add ‘service’ to your evolving résumé or CV! Reviewers are needed for academic journals, interest-division paper competitions and panel proposals, and Festival of Media Arts creative competitions for both student and faculty entries.

Sched

The app for BEA’s convention! Make sure that you download this — it’s free! — and use it strategically to select sessions that interest you, creating a distinctive ‘My Schedule’ for convenience, and to network with other convention attendees.

Scholar-to-Scholar Digital Poster Presentations
Scholar-to-Scholar presentations create a unique opportunity for one-on-one questions and exchanges not available in more formal sessions. Presenters should take advantage of the opportunity to have a dialogue with those who choose to come to the session. These are called "digital posters" because they are presented in digital format on monitors located around the exhibit hall. Poster presenters should bring presentations on flash drives that can be plugged into large monitors (they can be static or in PowerPoint form).

SIG

To address emerging issues and ongoing research transforming media and media education, BEA has created Special Interest Groups (or SIGs) to provide a forum for research-in-progress, offering opportunities to spotlight timely scholarship and discussions. A SIG is different from an interest division in that it is more fluid — often created in response to an urgent need or trend.

Vice Chair (of Interest Division)
A great way to gain some academic leadership experience! Each interest division has a business meeting where, depending on the year, an election occurs to establish a leadership pipeline, and a vice chair typically coordinates the division’s research-paper competition.