Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Finding Success with Student Evaluations
By Natalie T. J. Tindall, Ph.D., APR
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
Georgia State University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, March 2015 issue)
If I had 100 professors and graduate students in a room and asked, “How many people enjoy reading student evaluations?” I doubt that even 10 hands would shoot into the air. Student evaluations are a necessary evil (or delight, depending on your mood or stance) of the academic life. The National Communication Association’s biennial survey of communication chairs found that student evaluations of teaching were the most recognized and important factor in promotion and tenure evaluations.
Beyond the surface of the evaluations lie some serious concerns of bias toward certain faculty members and toward the instructors of particular classes. Scholars have noted a gender gap in teaching evaluations, biases against professors of color and deflated scores for those professors with accents. Professors teaching large lecture classes often receive lower scores and negative feedback than those who are teaching smaller courses.
These structural issues regarding student evaluations cannot be ignored or glossed over. However, we have to contend with the micro level evaluation and implementation of these evaluations. Student evaluations—the good, the bad, and the ugly words and scores assigned to your course—can cause even the best teachers to gnash their teeth, lament their futures and start looking at the want ads for another line of work. What can a professor do to deal successfully with the scrutiny? What can instructors learn from the feedback? Here are a few tips:
Find a time and location where you can digest the evaluations without interruptions.
Understand the teaching expectations for your department and your university. Did you fall below or land above those numbers?
Pay attention to the comments. “Student comments provide valuable data about the students’ experiences,” wrote Phillip Stark in a blog post. Review the qualitative comments thematically. Search for common themes among the responses. Alan Goodboy points out several potential themes for negative feedback: unfair testing/assignments, unfair grading, classroom policies, violating the syllabus, lack of expectation and structure for group work or teams. If you see clumps of these emerge in the student feedback, a change in approach may be necessary.
Know that you aren’t alone if you get bad feedback. Every professor does not receive glowing recommendations and comments from every student.
Consider the context of the semester. Consider what else was happening in your professional and personal life this semester. Are you starting a new job on a new campus? Was this the first time teaching the course? Is this your first time teaching? Analyze your own experiences and determine if these may have had an influence on the class.
Separate personal attacks from honest concerns about the course content. I once had a teaching evaluation that claimed “my feet were too big for my body.” Thanks, anonymous student, but I can’t do much about genetics. That feedback was not useful at all, but it was one personal attack buried in a plethora of thoughtful, nuanced comments from students who wanted the class to be better. Comments from students about the order and flow of the class may sting and feel personal, but they are not. Many of these things can be adjusted the next semester. Shoe size, alas, cannot. (Note: If you receive any racist, sexist, abusive, and threatening student feedback, report those to appropriate university officials.)
Take control of the evaluation process. As professors, we have the agency to collect insight from students along key points in the semester. Do not wait until the end of the year to hear what your students think. Gather this at key semester points. During your next semester, try one or all of the following.
● Explain the intention, purpose and importance of the end-of-class evaluations.
● Ask a trusted colleague to observe your class and provide constructive feedback. Slate’s Rebecca Schuman offers an important caveat regarding peer teaching evaluations: “‘[get a] peer who actually cares about teaching in the first place—or doesn’t want to sabotage you.”
● Use your college’s teaching and learning center resources.
● Ask your students about their teaching pet peeves. Pass out index cards to students on the first day of classes and ask each student to write down any complaints regarding teaching behaviors. This anonymous feedback can be shared with professors to pinpoint pedagogical issues, not particular faculty members. This insight may help you modify and change the class, your delivery style or homework assignments. (This is based on Perlman and McCann’s article.)
● Build ongoing evaluations into the class structure to check the pulse of the class. These evaluations can be informal minute papers where students capture the one “big idea” from the lecture and address any questions they have or a “muddy points” exercise, where students write (without names) what topics in the class lecture or discussion were not clear.
After reading these tips, most people would still fail to raise their hands if asked if they are looking forward to student evaluations with joy and enthusiasm. But as Natscha Chtena noted in a ProfHacker post on evaluations, “Whether you’re for or against them, evaluations do matter, and it’s important to keep an eye on them.”
Citations:
Goodboy, A. K. (2011). Making Sense of Students’ Complaints, Criticisms, and Protests. Communication Currents. Retrieved from http://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=1042
Perlman, B. & McCann, L.I. (1998). Students’ pet peeves about teaching. Teaching of Psychology, 25, 201-202.
Schuman, R. (2014). Needs assessment. Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/04/student_evaluations_of_college_professors_are_biased_and_worthless.html
Stark, P. (2013). Do student evaluations measure teaching effectiveness? Retrieved from http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2013/10/14/do-student-evaluations-measure-teaching-effectiveness/
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Using Research to improve Teaching Skills
By Catherine Cassara
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Associate Professor
School of Media & Communication
Bowling Green State University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, November 2014 issue)
Some of the most telling lessons I have learned about teaching have come from the findings of other scholars’ research listening to students.
I am thinking about these studies particularly now because I was reminded how reluctant we are to listen to our students as members of my university faculty learning community were brainstorming topics for the year.
Our community’s focus is learning technologies and I suggested we might get student input. By the time all the topics were listed on the board, mine was not because “we have grad students in the learning community,” the facilitator said. We do have graduate students and they are very nice people who are already in the classroom our side of the student/teacher divide when it comes to discovering how students view what succeeds or fails in the classroom.
Since teaching “assessment measures”—however they are envisioned—can only be operationalized according to our teacherly understandings of how class dynamics work, they cannot measure things if we do not we address things we do not comprehend. We cannot listen to students or find out what’s there unless we are asking if other researchers have already taken it on.
Two particular threads of research have rocked my world. The first showed up as a reading assignment in a faculty learning community I participated in several years ago. Another study showed up when a graduate student brought in an article about grading writing as part of a weekly assignment in a media & communication pedagogy course I teach. I will tackle them in this order.
The Project Information Literacy surveys of undergrads on 200 campuses are always insightful, but the one that had the most impact on me was the 2009 report, where students told researchers they found library research “daunting.” They reported that because they did not understand the assignment and did not know where to start, they put off their work until the night before the paper was due. (In addition to surveying the students, the researchers review the assignments they received, but that’s another story.)
“Many students reported that they often had little or no idea how to choose, define, and limit the scope of a topic found in the library,” the PLI researchers recounted. As a result, students reported that Wikipedia served as a unique and indispensable source because it helped them obtain both the big picture on their topics and the vocabulary they needed just to begin a keyword search.
At first I relaxed, thinking that my students were better off because I always make sure they have a training session with a librarian. But, unfortunately, the students told the PLI researchers that going to the library for research training was helpful, but by the time they needed to use the information they could not remember what they had learned.
In one of the later studies, when researchers met with students in focus groups, the students revealed another reason they delayed completing the assignment until the last minute— something that would never have occurred to me. They delay deliberately in order to increase their own interest in and motivation to complete the work. A looming deadline makes an assignment much more interesting.
The research article the doctoral student shared was Still and Koerber’s 2010 article from the Journal of Business and Technical Communication that studied student reactions to an instructor’s comments on written work. In a state-of-the-art lab, the researchers watched, listened to and recorded their student research subjects as they attempted to follow the corrections on a graded assignment in return for a possible better grade.
The students are frustrated by the comments telling them a section is awkward, or marks and lines on the paper that signify something that is not clear; given their frustration, they move on to work on the easier corrections of spelling, grammar and mechanics where it is easy for them to identify what the problem is and fix it. The students were willing to correct what they understood to be the most serious problems with their work; they just did not understand what the instructor wanted.
I encountered that article several years ago. A friend had already told me that students don’t read comments so she taped comments, but given that I grade writing, that did not seem possible.
When I grade on paper — AP quizzes, etc. — I try to be neat. For stories and papers, however, I do not grade on paper. I have started grading in Word — using comments, etc. — and I have started using simple rubrics that allow me to write individualized comments. I expect that there is still frustration on the other end, but I hope the typing is an improvement on the scrawl my handwriting turns into when I am tired.
Of course, I had to be careful the first few times I used Word’s track changes function, because if I made the changes students had the option of just accepting everything except what I put in comment boxes. But since I always download all the stories or papers just to have them before I start, I knew where they started and what if anything they had done themselves to rewrite which is the point of the rewrite option.
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Enroll in Online Courses to Improve Teaching Skills
By Leslie-Jean Thornton
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Associate Professor
Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Arizona State University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, September 2014 issue)
Class had begun when I’d clicked the “play” arrow a while earlier. The professor, an esteemed and personable scholar at a top-tier university, was making a complex and considered argument about an intriguing subject. Her words, though, were slipping by. I stopped the video several times, went back a few sentences, replayed, then replayed again.
I took notes to focus my attention, but… No. Not happening. I had to figure something out before her points stood a chance of sticking, and it wasn’t an abstruse point that needed clarification. It was something painfully mundane, in fact. Was her blouse buttoned incorrectly? Was the collar poorly constructed or was it supposed to look that way? Maybe the crookedness was an optical illusion? Fortunately, I could pause and ponder: chalk one up for recorded pedagogy. But first I did the equivalent of passing a note in class: I took a screenshot of the professor and her odd blouse and sent it to a friend.
Although I’m a professor and happily so, last semester I completed four MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – as a student and I’m enrolled in three more. It’s safe to say I’m impressed and, perhaps, addicted. Much of what I’m learning, however, has less to do with mastering subjects than gaining insight into how I react as a student. By extension, I’m learning things to do and not do as a teacher. For starters, in my professor role, I’ve vowed never to wear puzzling clothes to class.
The anonymity of the MOOC plays to my dual-agenda advantage, freeing me to relate to the course simply as me, not as someone responsible for keeping up a public persona. In me-to-monitor sessions, unobserved, I am allowed degrees of focus that would be freaky in person. As a result, I can become intensely aware of my professors and the settings in which they are teaching. I’m free to acknowledge frustrations and distractions – to say “Argh!” out loud when needed. In the public forum “discussions” with fellow enrollees, a feature of many MOOCs, I can lurk as well as participate to get an idea of how the course is being received. Is my cohort on track or splintered into la-la land? I saw both, and I saw reasons for both.
I’ve gained a greater respect for students’ need for recognition. Over the years, as grading and feedback fatigue takes its toll, individual notice can recede – it takes concerted time and effort. As a MOOC student, I found myself yearning for attention, and that need awakened the professor side of me. If I had the choice now between making more assignments, thereby lessening the chance of feedback, or going for fewer and paying more attention, I’d go for the latter. I’m going to increase the number of “extra credit” assignments, too.
Here are some of the other top lessons I’ve learned from being in MOOCs:
Be highly aware of distractions. What’s written on the board or projected on the screen behind you? Are there hallway dramas visible from the class? Is the sun pouring in and hampering students’ ability to read your face as you speak? Is someone smacking gum? Don’t be so intent on your presentation that you allow such things to highjack or hamper your students’ progress.
Attention cycles matter. Timing matters. Emphasis matters. I was lucky to take a “bootcamp” in pedagogy when I began teaching at Arizona State. Ten years later, I remember what an instructor told us: after 45 minutes of listening nonstop to a lecture, learning goes in reverse. Alas, after one of my MOOCs, I truly believe. Take breaks. Diversify delivery. Emphasize points with something other than your voice – write on a board, hold something up, change where you stand. Take breaks, and encourage students to do the same. At home, plugged into my computer, I was nevertheless free to walk around while listening and set my own breaks. This helped me absorb the material. See what you can do to give your students absorption time, too.
Make-work assignments are deadly. Sure, they can reinforce a lesson point, but they build in resentment and demonstrate a lack of respect for the students’ time and effort. If a solid review of the material is necessary to bring a point or a skill home, or if simple practice is needed, at least say that. Better yet, try to incorporate that work into a meaningful assignment.
Once a bond breaks, it’s not easy to get it back. Attend to momentum. The best classes made me eager for the next ones by showing me I’d learned something and would soon be building on that knowledge. Connecting the classes is as important as connecting students to the classes. I don’t know how yet, but I’m going to be super attentive to what I teach just before and just after Thanksgiving break this year. No need to lose them in the home stretch.
It pays to switch perspectives. I recommend enrolling in a MOOC or two; you don’t have to finish… and you might discover a newfound appreciation for useful handouts, accessible material and inspirational professors. Oh, yes – and you might find inspiration itself.
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Montreal: The Best Programming on Teaching at an AEJMC Conference
By Linda Aldoory
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Director, Horowitz Center for Health Literacy
Associate Professor, Behavioral & Community Health
School of Public Health
University of Maryland
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, July 2014 issue)
When I was in graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, I started a newsletter for the graduate students in the College of Communication, and one of my first articles listed what I thought was the top five steps to better teaching. That was 1990, and I feel I have come full circle as I write this article describing what I think will be the top five teaching programs at AEJMC’s Conference this year in August in Montreal, Canada. Starting with number five…
(5) Pre-conference workshops! As custom dictates, the pre-conference options include several teaching topics, and this year, these collaborative workshops drill down into specific and current challenges. For example, a special workshop on Advertising Teaching by Sheri Broyles addresses the impact that technology and everyday culture has had on consumer buying behavior, and how to teach in order to “invite…interact…and engage” with consumers in today’s highly interactive and user generated online world. Another workshop is a “Teach-In” for school journalism educators and advisors. This will be an all-day event for secondary school and post-secondary journalism educators in the AEJMC conference host’s region. The workshop will be coordinated and hosted by the Scholastic Journalism Division, area professionals and professors from the host university (Concordia). Topics include student press freedom, diversity of story platforms and multimedia production. A unique pre-conference workshop will be focused on the effective use of adjuncts by journalism and mass communication programs to teach skills classes. Topics will include “how to guide adjuncts in syllabi development, grading and classroom management as well as how to hire, monitor and evaluate adjunct faculty to ensure high standards.”
(4) Wednesday’s highlighting of the “traditional” forms of communication! One panel called, “Using Television and Movies to Teach Students about Multicultural Connections and Diversity,” addresses race, gender, ethnicity and class issues in teaching. With television programming continually featuring stereotypes, the need to teach students about diversity and multiculturalism continues to grow. “Such instruction can be the catalyst for continued lifelong dialogue about discrimination, diversity and inclusion that hopefully will promote greater understanding,” according to panel organizers.
(3) Thursday’s cultural understandings for teaching race, gender, ethnicity and cultural diversity! For example, the panel titled, “International Engagement: Projects and Partnerships that Globalize Education,” will explore projects and strategic partnerships that allow educators to incorporate globalization and diversity that fosters cultural engagement. There will also be a special session honoring the 60th anniversary of “Brown v. Board of Education – Its Meaning: Yesterday, Today and in the Future.” According to planners, “While some have a very narrow definition of the historic 1954 Supreme Court decision, its reach is broad and not limited to K-12 schools. The decision overturned the Separate but Equal Doctrine established in 1896 by Plessy v. Ferguson, which by extension, makes Brown’s subtext justice and equality throughout the academy. This panel will explore the meaning of Brown, the status of African Americans in higher education, continued threats to Brown‘s essence and the future of AEJMC’s commitment to diversity.”
(2) Friday’s teaching innovations programming! The early morning session on “Teaching Innovations” reflects the framework for the day and showcases a panel of academic leaders who share their “inventive approaches to teaching journalism and mass communication in an age characterized by ever-changing technology, increasingly diverse classrooms and global publics.” A later session of the day, “A Year Through Glass: How We Used Google’s Newest Gadget in the Classroom,” features professors who were selected to test Google Glass during its beta phase.
And the Number One Choice in AEJMC Programming in Teaching…
(1) Teaching Plenary Session! Thursday, 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Are you one who resists or embraces online teaching? Regardless of your answer, online teaching is touted as the future of journalism and mass communication education, and this plenary offers understandings from national leadership and field experiences. The session, “The E-Learning Transformation: Promise and Challenge for Our Times,” features keynote speaker Larry Ragan, co-director for the Center for Online Innovation in Learning at Penn State University. Since 2008, Ragan has lead the design and development of Academic Outreach Faculty Development, which offers a range of professional development programming for World Campus and Penn State faculty preparing for online and continuing education teaching success. Ragan has also served as the co-director of the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning, and as co-director and faculty of the EDUCAUSE Learning Technology Leadership program. The session will address issues such as increased access from students to the online classroom, systems that adapt to the learner, global enrollments, learning experiences delivered through mobile devices, defining the role of faculty in the blended and online classroom, controlling the development and delivery costs, and quality. Following Ragan’s remarks are panelists from the field—Sharon Bramlett-Solomon, Rosental Alves and James Hamilton—who will offer lessons learned and best practices for online learning within journalism and mass communication.
AEJMC Award Recipients
Baskett Mosse Award for Faculty Development
The Baskett Mosse Award for Faculty Development was created by AEJMC and the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications in honor of the late Baskett Mosse, executive secretary of the Accrediting Committee for 26 years. The award recognizes an outstanding young or mid-career faculty member and helps fund a proposed enrichment activity. (Not awarded annually. Next award year is 2025.)
2023 — Amy Simons, Missouri
2022 — No award winner this year
2021 — Karen Assmann, University of Georgia
2019 — Michelle K. Baker, Pennsylvania State
2017 — Janice Collins, Illinois
2015 — Kim Smith, North Carolina A&T
2013 — Homero Gil de Zúñiga, Texas at Austin
2011 — Murgur Geana, Kansas
2009 — Barbara Friedman, North Carolina
2005 — Robert Kerr, Oklahoma
2003 — Sandra Chance, Florida
2002 — Laura Castañeda, Southern California
2001 — Andrew Mendelson, Temple
2000 — Jan LeBlanc Wicks, Arkansas-Fayetteville
1999 — Debashis Aikat, North Carolina
1998 — Lauren Tucker, South Carolina
1996 — Sue A. Lafky, Iowa
1995 — Kathleen Fearn-Banks, Washington
1994 — Laurence B. Alexander, Florida
1993 — Glen Cameron, Georgia
1992 — Joy Morrison, Alaska-Fairbanks
1991 — Lael Morgan, Alaska-Fairbanks
1990 — C. Zoe Smith, Marquette
1989 — Stephen R. Lacy, Michigan State
Charles Salmon, Wisconsin-Madison
1988 — Terry Hynes, California State, Fullerton
1987 — Tony Atwater, Michigan State
1986 — Patrick S. Washburn, Ohio
1985— Margaret Ann Blanchard, North Carolina
1984— Donna Lee Dickerson, South Florida (first)
Eleanor Blum Distinguished Service to Research Award
This award was created by the AEJMC Elected Standing Committee on Research to recognize a person who has devoted a substantial part of his/her career to promoting research in mass communication. It is named in honor of the first recipient, Eleanor Blum, a communication librarian. This is not an annual award.
2023 — Patricia Moy, Washington
2022 — No award winner this year
2021 — Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State
2020 — Linda Steiner, Maryland
2019 — Melvin DeFleur, Louisiana State (posthumously)
2017 — Esther Thorson, Michigan State
2016 — Paula Poindexter, Texas at Austin
2014 — Dan Riffe, North Carolina-Chapel Hill
2008 — Maurine Beasley, Maryland
2007 — Patrick Washburn, Ohio
2006 — James W. Tankard, Jr., Texas at Austin (posthumously)
2005 — Margaret Blanchard, North Carolina (posthumously)
2004 — Everette E. Dennis, Fordham
2003 — James A. Crook, Tennessee
2001 — Barbara Semouche, North Carolina
1996 — Frances Wilhoit, Indiana
1989 — Guido Stempel, III, Ohio
1986 — Ed Emery, Minnesota
1983 — Raymond B. Nixon, Minnesota
1980 — Eleanor Blum, Illinois (first)
Gene Burd Award for Excellence in Urban Journalism Winners
The Gene Burd Award for Excellence in Urban Journalism is named after Gene Burd, Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas, who endowed the Urban Communication Foundation who gives this award. The purpose of the Award is to reward and thereby improve the practice and study of journalism in the urban environment by recognizing high quality urban media reporting, critical analysis, and research relevant to that content and its communication about city problems, programs, policies, and public priorities in urban life and culture. Each year, AEJMC presents this award at the AEJMC Conference.2023 — Yvonne Latty, Temple
2022 — Natalie Moore, WBEZ in Chicago
2021 — Gabrielle Gurley, The American Prospect
2020 — No Award
2019 — Lolly Bowean, Chicago Tribune
2018 — Brian Lehere, Brian Talks New York Radio Show
2017 — Jeff McCarter, Free Spirit Media
2016 — Robert Campbell, The Boston Globe
2015 — Ben Katchor, cartoonist and author
2014 — Sommer Mathis, CityLab
2013 — Tom Condon, The Courant
2012 — Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune
2011 — Susan Szenasy, METROPOLIS Magazine
2010 — Joel Kothin, Urban Historian
and Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer
2009 — Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker
2008 — Paul Goldberger, Whole Earth Catalog
2007 — Peter Applebome, New York Times
and Joel Garreau, Washington Post
2006 — John King, San Francisco ChronicleGene Burd Award for Research in Urban Journalism Studies
The purpose of this annual grant is to stimulate research that explains, enlightens, inspires, and improves the practice and study of journalism and communication in order to advance our understanding of journalism in urban environments.2023 — Kelsey N. Whipple, Massachusetts Amherst, for Parachute Journalism: How Local and Regional U.S. Journalists Construct and Perceive National Coverage of Crises in their Communities
2022 — Ayleen Cabas-Mijares, Marquette University, and Joy Jenkins, University of Tennessee, for For the Neighborhood: Examining the Role of Local Digital News in the Creation and Disruption of Territorial Stigma
2021 — George Daniels, University of Alabama for Exploring the Role of Black Newspapers Filling Urban Government News Coverage
Paul J. Deutschmann Award for Excellence in Research
This award is named in honor of Paul J. Deutschmann, who was a central force in the movement to study journalism and mass communication scientifically. He helped establish and develop the College of Communication Arts at Michigan State University, and served as director of its Communications Research Center. This award is presented by the AEJMC Elected Standing Committee on Research. This is not an annual award.
2023 — Jane Singer, City, University of London
2022 — Annie Lang, Indiana University Bloomington
2021 — Glen T. Cameron, University of Missouri
2020 — Daniel Riffe, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2019 — Esther Thorson, Michigan State
2018 — S. Shyam Sundar, Pennsylvania State
2017 — Steve Reese, Texas at Austin
2015 — Pamela J. Shoemaker, Syracuse University
2013 — Lee Becker, Georgia
2011 — Sharon Dunwoody, Wisconsin-Madison
2010 — Stephen Lacy, Michigan State
2009 — David Weaver, Indiana
2007 — Guido H. Stempell, III, Ohio
2005 — Donald L. Shaw, North Carolina
2004 — Clifford Christians, Illinois
2003 — Melvin DeFleur, Boston
2001 — Ivan Preston, Wisconsin-Madison
2000 — James Grunig, Maryland
1999 — Steven Chaffee, Stanford
1998 — Maxwell E. McCombs, Texas at Austin
1997 — Jack M. McLeod, Wisconsin-Madison
1996 — George Gerbner, Pennsylvania
1995 — Richard F. Carter, Washington
1994 — Phillip Tichenor, Minnesota
George Donohue, Minnesota
Clarice Olien, Minnesota
1993 — Wayne Danielson, Texas at Austin
1991 — Scott Cutlip, Georgia
1985 — Bruce Westley, Kentucky
1981 — Harold L. Nelson, Wisconsin-Madison
1979— J. Edward Gerald, Minnesota
1973 — Wilbur Schramm, Iowa
1972 — Ralph O. Nafziger, Minnesota/Wisconsin-Madison
1969— Chilton R. Bush, Stanford (first)
Krieghbaum Mid-Career Award
Formerly known as Krieghbaum Under 40 Award, the Krieghbaum Mid-Career Award honors AEJMC members who have shown outstanding achievement and effort in all three AEJMC areas: teaching, research and public service. The late Hillier Krieghbaum, former New York University professor emeritus and 1972 AEJMC president, created and funded the award in 1980. Annual award.
2023 — Ryan Thomas, Washington State
2022 — Linjuan Rita Men, University of Florida
2021 — Karen McIntyre, Virginia Commonwealth
2020 — Edson C. Tandoc Jr., Nanyang Technological
Janet Yang, Buffalo-The State University of New York
2019 — Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, Georgia
2018 — Shirley S. Ho, Nanyang Technological
2017 — Jakob D. Jensen, University of Utah
2016 — Jörg Matthes, Vienna
2015 — Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna
2014 — Yan Jin, Virginia Commonwealth
2013 — John Besley, Michigan State
2012 — Susan Robinson, Wisconsin-Madison
2011 — Sri Kalyanaraman, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2010 — Dietram Scheufele, Wisconsin-Madison
2009 — Kimberly Bissell, Alabama
2008 — Patricia Moy, Washington
2007 — William P. Eveland, Jr., Ohio State
2006 — David S. Domke, Washington
2005 — Dhavan V. Shah, Wisconsin-Madison
2004 — Clay Calvert, Pennsylvania State
2003 — Julie Andsager, Washington State
2002 — David T.Z. Mindich, Saint Michael’s
2001 — Erica Weintraub Austin, Washington State
2000 — Carolyn Kitch, Temple
1999 — David Atkin, Cleveland State
1998 — Edward Adams, Angelo State
1997 — Annie Lang, Indiana
1996 — John Ferré, Louisville
1995 — Wayne Wanta, Oregon
1994 — Stephen D. Reese, Texas at Austin
1993 — Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, Texas A&M
1992 — Carroll Glynn, Cornell
1991 — Jeff Smith, Iowa
1990 — Pamela Shoemaker, Texas at Austin
1989— Robert Drechsel, Wisconsin-Madison
1988 — Jane D. Brown, North Carolina
1987 — Theodore Glasser, Minnesota
1986— Sharon Dunwoody, Wisconsin-Madison
1985— Lee Becker, Ohio State
1984— Ellen Wartella, Illinois
1983— David Weaver, Indiana
1982— Everette Dennis, Oregon
1981— David Rubin, New York (first)
Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award
This award is named for pioneering journalism and mass communication educators Ralph O. Nafziger and David Manning White, who donated the royalties from their book Introduction to Mass Communication Research to fund the award. The award recognizes and encourages outstanding dissertation research in journalism and mass communication. Michael Salwen’s name was added to the award in 2008. Salwen, who died in 2007, was a co-author of An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research, the royalties of which now help fund this award. Annual award. Year listed is year award was presented.
2023 — Chelsea Peterson-Salahuddin, Michigan
Adviser: Aymar Jean Christian, Northwestern
2022 — Rana Arafat, City University of London
Advisers: Jolanta A. Drzewiecka and Russ-Mohl
2021 — Scott Memmel, University of Minnesota
Adviser: Jane Kirtley, University of Minnesota
2020 — Qun Wang, Rutgers
Adviser: Susan Keith, Rutgers
2019 — Pallavi Guha, Maryland (Now at Towson)
Advisers: Kalyani Chadha & Linda Steiner, Maryland
2018 — Brooks Fuller, Louisiana State University
Adviser: Cathy L. Packer, professor emeritus, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2017 — Jieun Shin, University of Southern California
Adviser: Lian Jian, University of Southern California
2016 — Rodrigo Zamith, Massachusetts-Amherst
Adviser: Seth Lewis, Minnesota
2015 — Summer Harlow, Texas at Austin
Adviser: (Co-advisers) Dr. Thomas J. Johnston and Dr. Mercedes de Uriarte, Texas-Austin
2014 — Scott Parrott, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Adviser: Rhonda Gibson, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2013 — Brendan Watson, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Adviser: Daniel Riffe, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2012 — Dean Smith, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Adviser: Cathy Packer, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2011 — Matthew W. Ragas, DePaul
Adviser: Spiro Kiousis, Florida
2010 — Jeremy Littau, Lehigh
Adviser: Esther Thorson, Missouri
2009 — Leigh Moscowitz, College of Charleston
Adviser: Radhika Parameswaran, Indiana
2008 — Ronald J. “Noah” Arceneaux, San Diego State
Adviser: Jay Hamilton, Georgia
2007 — David Cuillier, Washington State
Adviser: Susan Denté Ross, Washington State
2006 — Kathy Roberts Forde, North Carolina
Adviser: Ruth Walden, North Carolina
2005 — Young Mie Kim, Illinois
Adviser: David Tewksbury, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2004 — Zala Voicic, Colorado at Boulder
Adviser: Andrew Calabrese, Colorado at Boulder
2003 — Mark Avrom Feldstein, North Carolina
Adviser: Margaret A. Blanchard, North Carolina
2002 — Carolyn Bronstein, DePaul
Adviser: James L. Baughman, Wisconsin-Madison
2001 — Edward Alwood, North Carolina
Adviser: Margaret A. Blanchard, North Carolina
2000 — Dhavan V. Shah, Wisconsin-Madison
Adviser: Daniel B. Wackman, Minnesota
1999 — Barbara Zang, Missouri
Adviser: David Nord, Indiana
1998 — Craig Trumbo, Cornell
Adviser: Garrett O’Keefe, Wisconsin-Madison
1997 — David Scott Domke, Minnesota
Adviser: Hazel F. Dicken-Garcia, Minnesota
1996 — Paul Voakes, Indiana
Adviser: Robert Drechsel, Wisconsin-Madison
1995 — Karen S. Miller, Georgia
Adviser: James L. Baughman, Wisconsin-Madison
1994 — Jane Rhodes, Indiana
Adviser: Margaret Blanchard, North Carolina
1993 — Caroline Schooler, Stanford
Adviser: Steven Chaffee, Stanford
1992 — Mark D. West, North Carolina
Adviser: Jane Brown, North Carolina
1991 — Namjun Kang, Syracuse
Adviser: George Comstock, Syracuse
1990 — Bob McChesney, Wisconsin-Madison
Adviser: William Ames, Washington
1989 — Diane C. Mutz, Wisconsin-Madison,
Adviser: Steven Chaffee, Stanford
1988 — Vincent Price, Michigan,
Adviser: Donald F. Roberts, Stanford
1987— John R. Finnegan, Jr., Minnesota,
Adviser: Hazel Dicken-Garcia, Minnesota
1986 — Jeffery Smith, Wisconsin-Madison
Adviser: Jim Baughman, Wisconsin-Madison
1985— Richard Kielbowicz, Minnesota
Advisers: Ed Emery, Minnesota; and Hazel F. Dicken-Garcia, Minnesota
1984— Ron Tamborini, Indiana (first)
Adviser: Dolf Zillmann, Indiana
AEJMC Presidential Award
Given to dedicated and long-serving AEJMC members by the current AEJMC president. The award recognizes distinguished service to journalism and mass communication education. This award is presented on an as-appropriate basis.
2023 — Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation
2020 — Kyu Ho Youm, Oregon
2019 — Special statement regarding the 2019 recipient
2018 — Charles Self, 227 International, LLC
2017 — Sharon Dunwoody, Wisconsin-Madison
2016 — Barbara Hines, Howard
2015 — Pam Bourland-Davis, Georgia Southern
2014 — Carolyn Stroman, Howard
2013 — Douglas Anderson, Pennsylvania State
2011 — David T.Z. Mindich, St. Michael’s
2010 — Suzette Heiman, Missouri
2009 — Candace Perkins Bowen, Kent State
Alexis Tan, Washington State
2008 — Keith Sanders, Missouri
Silvia Pellegrini, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago
2007 — Donald Shaw, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Maxwell McCombs, Texas at Austin
2006 — David Weaver, Indiana
Cleveland Wilhoit, Indiana
2005 — Kim Rotzell, Illinois (posthumously)
2004 — Lee Becker, Georgia
Trevor Brown, Indiana
2003 — James Carey, Columbia
Clifford Christians, Illinois
2002 — Terry Michael, Washington Center for Politics and Journalism
Roberta Win, Voice of America
2001 — Susanne Shaw, Kansas
David McHam, Houston
2000 — Karen Brown Dunlap, Poynter Institute
Oscar Gandy, Pennsylvania
1999 — Mark Goodman, Student Press Law Center
1998 — Jennifer H. McGill, AEJMC/ASJMC
1997 — Lionel Barrow, Jr., Howard
1996 — Gerald M. Sass, The Freedom Forum
Steven Chaffee, Stanford
1995 — Sue A. Lafky, Iowa
Harry Heintzen, Voice of America
1994 — Edwin Emery, Minnesota
1993 — Orlando Taylor, Howard
Vernon Stone, Missouri
1992 — Sharon Brock, Ohio State
Carol Reuss, North Carolina
1991 — Bill Taft, Missouri
John Merrill, Louisiana State
1990 — Wilma Crumley, Nebraska
1989 — Hillier Krieghbaum, New York
1988 — Fred Zwahlen, Oregon State
1987 — Félix Gutiérrez, Southern California
1985 — Al Scroggins, South Carolina
1984 — Bill Chamberlin, North Carolina
Gerald Stone, Memphis State
The Charles E. Scripps Award for the Journalism & Mass Communication Administrator of the Year
This award is given in collaboration with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). It is open to any past or present administrator of a school, department of journalism or mass communication at accredited or non-accredited schools.2022 — David D. Kurpius, Missouri (Awarded in 2023)
2021 — David Boardman, Temple University (Awarded in 2022)
2020 — Lucy Dalglish, University of Maryland (Awarded in 2021)
2019 — Susan King, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Awarded in 2020)
2018 — Diane McFarlin, University of Florida (Awarded in 2019)
2017 — Don Heider, Loyola University Chicago (Awarded in 2018)
2016 — Maryanne Reed, West Virginia University
2015 — Michael Bugeja, Iowa State
2014 — Al Tims, Minnesota
2013 — Lori Bergen, Marquette
2012 — Tim Gleason, Oregon
2011 — John Lavine, Northwestern
2010 — Paul Parsons, Elon
2009 — Chris Callahan, Arizona State
2008 — Marilyn Weaver, Ball State
2007 — David Rubin, Syracuse
2006 — Shirley Carter, South Carolina
2005 — Tom Kunkel, Maryland
2004 — Will Norton, Nebraska-Lincoln
2003 — John Hamilton, Louisiana State
2002 — Richard Lee, South Dakota State
2001 — Trevor Brown, Indiana
2000 — Jo Ann Huff Albers, Western Kentucky
1999 — No award presented this year
1998 — Bob Ruggles, Florida A&M
1997 — Terry Hynes, Florida
1996 — Doug Anderson, Arizona State
1995 — Reese Cleghorn, Maryland
1994 — Ralph Lowenstein, Florida
1993 — Ed Bassett, Washington
1992 — Richard Cole, North Carolina
1991 — Walt Bunge, Ohio State
1990 — Jim Carey, Illinois
1989 — Neale Copple, Nebraska-Lincoln (First)The Charles E. Scripps Award for the Journalism & Mass Communication Teacher of the Year
This award is given in collaboration with the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). Full-time faculty member teaching in any of the disciplines of journalism and mass communication who, over the years, has consistently demonstrated an environment of excellence by ongoing contributions to the improvement of student learning.
2022 — Rachel Young, Iowa (Awarded in 2023)
2021 — Nicole Smith Dahmen, University of Oregon (Awarded in 2022)
2020 — Kathleen Culver, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Awarded in 2021)
2019 — Jennifer Thomas, Howard University (Awarded in 2020)
2018 — Jinx Broussard, Louisiana State University (Awarded in 2019)
2017 — Sheri Broyles, University of North Texas (Awarded in 2018)
2016 — Allan Richards, Florida International University
2015 — Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Georgia
2014 — Carol Schwalbe, Arizona
2013 — Cindy Royal, Texas State San Marcos
2012 — Jennifer George-Paliliois, Ball State
2011 — Douglas Ward, Kansas
2010 — Joe Saltzman, Southern California
2009 — Chris Roush, North Carolina Chapel Hill
2008 — Charles Davis, Missouri
2007 — Elinor Grusin, Memphis
AEJMC First Amendment Award
The AEJMC First Amendment Award recognizes professionals with a strong commitment to freedom of the press, and who practice courageous journalism. Created in 2006, the award is presented by the Professional Freedom & Responsibility Committee. Annual award.
2023 — Margaret Sullivan, Syndicated Columnist
2022 — Steven Waldman, Report for America
2021 — Omar Jimenez, CNN
2020 — Shane Bauer, Mother Jones
2019 — Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine
2018 — Ronan Farrow, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, The New York Times
2017 — The Pulitzer Prizes
2016 — Reporters Without Borders
2015 — Floyd Abrams, 1st Amendment Attorney
2014 — Joel Simon, Committee to Protect Journalists
2013 — First Amendment Center, Nashville, TN
2012 — Carole Simpson, Broadcaster
2011 — Michael Kirk, Frontline Filmmaker
2010 — Nat Hentoff, Syndicated Columnist
2009 — Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker
2008 — Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune
2007 — Helen Thomas, UPI, Hearst
2006 — Molly Ivins, Synidcated Columnist (first)
AEJMC Tankard Book Award
The Tankard Book Award was established to honor James W. Tankard, Jr. of Texas at Austin. A former editor of Journalism Monographs, the award recognizes his many contributions to the field of journalism and mass communication education. Award established in 2007.
2023 — Henrik Örnebring and Michael Karlsson, Karlstad University, Sweden, for Journalistic Autonomy: The Genealogy of a Concept
2022 — Celeste González de Bustamante, University of Texas at Austin, and Jeannine E. Relly, University of Arizona, for Surviving Mexico: Resistance and Resilience among Journalists in the Twenty-First Century (University of Texas Press)
2021 — Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, & the New Protest #Journalism [New York: Oxford University Press, 2020] • Allissa V. Richardson, University of Southern California
2019 — Networked News, Racial Divides: How Power and Privilege Shape Public Discourse in Progressive Communities • Sue Robinson, Wisconsin, Madison
2018 — The News Untold: Community Journalism and the Failure to Confront Poverty in Appalachia • Michael Clay Carey, Samford University
2017 — Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism • James T. Hamilton, Stanford University
2016 — Radical Media Ethics: A Global Approach • Stephen Ward, Wisconsin-Madison
2015 — Making News at The New York Times • Nikki Usher, George Washington University
2014 — Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison • Rodney Benson, New York
2013 — Into the Fray: How NBC’s Washington Documentary Unit Reinvented the Newsby • Tom Mascaro, Bowling Green State
2012 —Radio Utopia: Postwar Audio Documentary in the Public Interest by • Matthew C. Ehrlich, Illinois
2011 —About to Die: How News Images Move the Public by • Barbie Zelizer, Pennsylvania
2010 —Journalism’s Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting by • John Maxwell Hamilton, Louisiana State
2009 — The Environment and the Press: From Adventure Writing to Advocacy by • Mark R. Neuzil, St. Thomas
2008 —Dark Days in the Newsroom: McCarthyism Aimed at the Press by • Edward M. Alwood, Quinnipiac
2007 — The African-American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom by • Patrick S. Washburn, Ohio (first)
AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Prize
The AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Prize will be given annually to a book or project concerning Latin America or coverage of issues in Latin America. The work must make an original contribution to improve knowledge about Latin America to U.S. students, journalists or the public. This award was endowed by the late Jerry Knudson, an emeritus professor at Temple University.
2023 — Claudia Labarca, Gabriel Sadi and Damion Waymer, for Special Issue: Towards a Latin American Perspective in PR Theory and Practice (Published in the May 2022 issue of Public Relations Inquiry)
2022 — Celeste González de Bustamante, University of Texas at Austin, and Jeannine E. Relly, University of Arizona, for Surviving Mexico: Resistance and Resilience among Journalists in the Twenty-First Century (University of Texas Press)
2019 — News Media Coverage of Environmental Challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean • Bruno Takahashi, Juliet Pinto, Manuel Chavez and Mercedes Vigón
2018 — Liberation Technology in El Salvador: Re-appropriating Social Media Among Alternative Media Projects • Summer Harlow, University of Houston
2017 — Media Movements: Civil Society and Media Policy Reform in Latin America • Maria Soledad Segura and Silvio Waisbord
2016 — Reporting the Cuban Revolution • Leonard Ray Teel, emeritus Georgia State
2015 — Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle That Set Them Free • Hector Tobar, University of Oregon
2014 — Crisis of Governance in Maya Guatemala: Indigenous Responses to a Failing State • John P. Hawkins, Brigham Young University, James H. McDonald, Southern Utah University, Walter Randolph Adams, Iowa State University (first)
AEJMC Equity & Diversity Award
The AEJMC Equity & Diversity Award recognizes Journalism and Mass Communication academic programs that are working toward, and have attained measurable success, in increasing equity and diversity within their units. Programs must display progress and innovation in racial, gender, and ethnic equity and diversity over the previous three-year period. Created in 2009. Annual award.
2023 — Department of Journalism and Strategic Media, University of Memphis
2022 — Department of Communications at California State University, Fullerton
2021 — University of Missouri School of Journalism
2020 — S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University
2019 — Reynolds, School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno
2018 — Klein College of Media & Communication, Temple University
2017 — Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University
2016 — Mayborn School of Journalism, University of North Texas
2015 — College of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Alabama
2014 — Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, Iowa State University
2013 — College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University
2012 — Annenberg School for Journalism, University of Southern California
2011 — School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Texas State University, San Marcos
2010 — School of Communications, Elon University
2009 — Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University (first)
Dorothy Bowles Award for Outstanding Public Service
The Dorothy Bowles Award for Outstanding Public Service will recognize an AEJMC member who has a sustained and significant public-service record that has helped build bridges between academics and professionals in mass communications either nationally or locally, and, been actively engaged within the association. Created in 2012. Annual award.
2023 — Matt Ragas, DePaul
2022 — Joe Grimm, Michigan State
2021 — Sharon Bramlett-Solomon, Arizona State University
2020 — Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois
Carol Holstead, Kansas
2019 — Jan Leach, Kent State
2018 — Donald K. Wright, Boston
2017 — Sandra Utt, Memphis
2016 — Rosental Alves, Texas at Austin
2015 — Wat Hopkins, Virginia Tech
2014 — Don W. Stacks, Miami
2013 — Judy VanSlyke Turk, Virginia Commonwealth
2012 — Candace Perkins Bowen, Kent State (first)
Outstanding Contribution to Journalism Education
This award, presented by the Commission on the Status of Women in Journalism Education, recognizes a woman who has represented women well through personal excellence and high standards in journalism and mass communication education. Not an annual award.
2023 — Cory Armstrong, Nebraska-Lincoln
2021 — Amanda Hinnant, Missouri
2020 — Nicole Kraft, Ohio State
2019 — Stacey J.T. Hust, Washington State
2017 — Lucinda Davenport, Michigan State
2016 — Mia Moody-Ramirez, Baylor
2015 — Julie Andsager, Tennessee
2014 — June Nicholson, Virginia Commonwealth
2013 — Geneva Overholser, Southern California
2012 — Barbara B. Hines, Howard
2011 — Linda Steiner, Maryland
2010 — Diane Borden, San Diego State
2009 — Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver, Florida International
2008 — Esther Thorson, Missouri
2006 — Judy VanSlyke Turk, Virginia Commonwealth
2002 — Wilma Crumley, Nebraska-Lincoln
2000 — Douglas Ann Newsom, Texas Christian
1998 — Jennifer H. McGill, AEJMC/ASJMC
1997 — Carol Oukrop, Kansas State
1996 — Carol Reuss, North Carolina
1994 — Maurine H. Beasley, Maryland
1992 — Jean Ward, Minnesota
1991 — MaryAnn Yodelis Smith, Wisconsin
1990 — Ramona Rush, Kentucky
1989 — Mary Gardner, Michigan State
1988— Donna Allen, Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, Washington, DC
1983— Cathy Covert, Syracuse
1982— Marion Marzolf, Michigan (first)
Robert Knight Multicultural Recruitment Award
This award is presented annually by the Scholastic Journalism Division to organizations or individuals who have made outstanding efforts in attracting high school minority students into journalism and mass communication. Created in 1987.
2023 — R. J. Morgan, Mississippi
2020 — Ed Madison, Oregon
2019 — Tori Smith, Northern Arizona
2018 — Acel Moore High School Journalism Workshop, The Philadelphia Media Network
2016 — Kimetris Baltrip, Kansas State
2015 — George Daniels, Alabama
2014 — Steve O’Donoghue, California Scholastic Journalism Initiative
2013 — Linda Florence Callahan, North Carolina A&T State
2012 — Illinois Press Foundation and Eastern Illinois University High School Journalism Workshop
2011 — Joseph Selden, Pennsylvania State
2010 — University of Arizona School of Journalism
2009 — Michael Days & Staff,Philadelphia Daily News
2008 — June O. Nicholson, Virginia Commonwealth
2007 — Ed Mullins,Alabama
2006 — NO AWARD GIVEN
2005 — Linda Ximenes,Ximenes & Associates
2004 — Diana Mitsu Klos,American Society of Newspaper Editors
2003 — Vanessa Shelton,Iowa
2002 — Walt Swanston,Radio and Television News Directors Foundation
2001 — Doris Giago,South Dakota State
2000 — Linda Waller, Dow Jones Newspaper Fund
1999 — Marie Parsons, Alabama
1998 — Lucy Ganje, North Dakota
1997 — California Chicano News Media Association, San Diego Chapter
1996 — Barbara Hines, Howard
1995 — Diane Hall, Florida A&M
1994 — Mary Arnold, Iowa
1993 — Alice Bonner, The Freedom Forum
1992 — Richard Lee, South Dakota State
1991 — Thomas Engleman, Dow Jones Newspaper Fund
1990 — Robert Knight, Missouri
1989 — George Curry, The Chicago Tribune, Washington, DC, Bureau
1988— Craig Trygstad, Youth Communication, Inc., Washington, DC
1987— Pittsburgh Black Media Federation (first)
MaryAnn Yodelis Smith Research Award
This award was created in 1991 by the Commission on the Status of Women in honor and memory of MaryAnn Yodelis Smith of Minnesota and Wisconsin, 1989-90 AEJMC president.
2023 — Sahar Khamis, Maryland, College Park
2021 — Lisa D. Lenoir, Missouri
2020 — Jennifer Huemmer, Ithaca
Lauren Britton, Ithaca
2019 — Karin Assmann, University of Maryland and Stine Eckert, Wayne State
2017 – Chelsea Reynolds, California State-Fullerton
2016 — Tania Rosas-Moreno, Loyola-Maryland
2015 — Dustin Harp, Texas at Arlington
2014 — Stacey J.T. Hust and Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, Washington State
2013 — Cory Armstrong, Florida
2012 — Shayla Thiel-Stern, Minnesota
2011 — Marilyn Greenwald, Ohio
2010 — Sheila Webb, Western Washington
2009 — Elizabeth Skewes, Colorado
2008 — Margaretha Geertsema, Butler
2007 — Barbara Barnett, Kansas
2006 — Marie Hardin, Pennsylvania State
2005 — Jan Whitt, Colorado
2004 — Radhika Parameswaran, Indiana
Kavitha Cardoza, Illinois at Springfield
2003 — Susan Henry, California State-Northridge
2000 — E-K Daufin, Alabama State
1999 — Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, Florida A&M
1998 — Sue A. Lafky, Iowa
1997 — Kathleen Endres, Akron
1996 — Linda Steiner, Rutgers
1995 — Carolyn Stewart Dyer, Iowa (first)
Lionel C. Barrow Jr. Award for Distinguished Achievement in Diversity Research and Education
Created in 2009, the award recognizes outstanding individual accomplishment and leadership in diversity efforts within the Journalism and Mass Communication discipline. Created by the AEJMC Minorities & Communication Division and the Commission on the Status of Minorities, the award honors Barrow’s lasting impact, and recognizes others who are making their mark in diversifying JMC education.
2023 — Bey-Ling Sha, California State Fullerton
2022 — Sharon Bramlett-Solomon, Arizona State University
2021 — Earnest Perry, University of Missouri
2020 — Meta Carstarphen, Oklahoma
2019 — Rochelle Ford, Elon
2018 — Mia Moody-Ramirez, Baylor
2017 — Loren Ghiglione, Northwestern
2016 — Joel Beeson, West Virginia
2015 — Alice Tait, Central Michigan
2014 — Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, Marketing and Media Consultant
2013 — Clint C. Wilson II, Howard
2012 — Federico Subervi, Texas State San Marcos
2011 — Félix Gutiérrez, Southern California
2010 — Robert M. Ruggles, Florida A&M
2009 — Paula M. Poindexter, Texas at Austin (first)
Lee Barrow Doctoral Minority Student Scholarship
Sponsored by the Communication Theory and Methodology Division, the scholarship is named for Dr. Lionel C. Barrow, Jr., of Howard University in recognition of his pioneering efforts in support of minority education in journalism and mass communication. The scholarship assists a minority student enrolled in a doctoral program in journalism or mass communication.
2023 — Joshua D. Cloudy, Texas Tech
2022 — Kristina Medero, Ohio State
2021 — Krishna Madhavi P. Reddi, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
2018 — Qun Wang, Rutgers
2017 — Osita Iroegbu, Virginia Commonwealth
2016 — Adrienne Muldrow, Washington State
2015 — Diane Francis, North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2014 — Jenny Korn, Harvard
2013 — Dominique Harrison, Howard
2012 — Rowena Briones, Maryland
2011 — Adrienne Chung, Ohio State
2010 — Eulalia Puig Abril,Wisconsin-Madison
2009 — Emily Elizabeth Acosta,Wisconsin-Madison
2008 — Troy Elias,Ohio State
2007 — Yusur Kalynago, Jr.,Missouri
2006 — Omotayo Banjo, Pennsylvania State
2005 — Jeanetta Simms,Central Oklahoma
2004 — Susan Chang,Michigan State
2003 — T. Kenn Gaither,North Carolina
2002 — Mia Moody-Hall,Texas at Austin
2001 — George Daniels,Georgia
2000 — Maria E. Len-Rios,Missouri
1999 — Meredith Lee Ballmer,Washington
1998 — Osei Appiah
1997 — Alice Chan Plummer, Michigan State
1996 — Dwayne Proctor,Connecticut
1995 — Dhavan Shah, Minnesota
1994 — Qingnen Dong, Washington State
1993 — Shalini Venturelli, Colorado
1991 — Diana Rios, Texas at Austin
1990 — Jose Lozano
1989 — Jane Rhodes, North Carolina
1987 — James Sumner Lee, North Carolina
1985 — Barbara McBain Brown, Stanford
1983 — Dianne L. Cherry, North Carolina
1982 — Tony Atwater, Michigan State
1981 — Sharon Bramlett, Indiana
1980 — Federico Subervi, Wisconsin-Madison
1979 — Gillian Grannum, North Carolina
1978 — Paula Poindexter, Syracuse
1977 — John J. Johnson, Ohio
1975 — Norman W. Spaulding, Illinois
1974 — Rita Fujiki, Washington
1973 — William E. Berry, Illinois
Clay Perry, Indiana
Sherrie Lee Mazingo, Michigan State
1972 — Richard Allen, Wisconsin-Madison (first)
AEJMC Presidential Leadership Excellence Award
2023 — Felicia Greenlee Brown, Assistant Director
2016 — Jennifer H. McGill, Executive Director (Retired)
2016 — Lillian Coleman, Project Director
2016 — Pamella Price, Membership Coordinator (Retired)
2015 — Richard Burke, Business Manager (Retired)
2015 — Fred Williams, Conference Manager (Retired)AEJMC Presidential Stellar Service Award
2023 — Cassidy Baird, Conference & Events Coordinator
2023 — Kyshia Brown, Website Content/Graphic Designer
2023 — Amanda Caldwell, Executive Director
2023 — Lillian Coleman, Project Director
2023 — Felicia Greenlee Brown, Assistant Director
2023 — Samantha Higgins, Communications Director
2023 — Saviela Thorne, Membership Coordinator
Past Presidents
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 1983-Present
2023 Deb Aikat, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2022 Susan Keith, Rutgers University
2021 Tim P. Vos, Michigan State University
2020 David D. Perlmutter, Texas Tech University
2019 Marie Hardin, Penn State University
2018 Jennifer D. Greer, University of Alabama
2017 Paul Voakes, University of Colorado, Boulder
2016 Lori Bergen, University of Colorado, Boulder
2015 Elizabeth Toth, University of Maryland
2014 Paula M. Poindexter, Texas at Austin
2013 Kyu Ho Youm, Oregon
2012 Linda Steiner, Maryland
2011 Jan Slater, Illinois at Urbana
2010 Carol J. Pardun, South Carolina
2009 Barbara B. Hines, Howard
2008 Charles C. Self, Oklahoma
2007 Wayne Wanta, Missouri-Columbia
2006 Sharon Dunwoody, Wisconsin-Madison
2005 Mary Alice Shaver, Central Florida
2004 Jannette L. Dates, Howard
2003 Theodore L. Glasser, Stanford
2002 Joe S. Foote, Arizona State
2001 Will Norton, Jr., Nebraska-Lincoln
2000 Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, Texas A&M
1999 Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver, Florida International
1998 Stephen R. Lacy, Michigan State
1997 Alexis Tan, Washington State
1996 Pamela J. Shoemaker, Syracuse
1995 Judy VanSlyke Turk, South Carolina
1994 Maurine Beasley, Maryland
1993 Tony Atwater, Rutgers
1992 Terry Hynes, California State, Fullerton
1991 Ralph Lowenstein, Florida
1990 MaryAnn Yodelis Smith, Wisconsin Centers
1989 Thomas A. Bowers, North Carolina
1988 David H. Weaver, Indiana
1987 Sharon M. Murphy, Marquette
1986 Dwight L. Teeter, Jr., Texas at Austin
1985 Douglas Ann Newsom, Texas Christian
1984 Everette Dennis, Oregon
1983 Richard Cole, North Carolina
Association for Education in Journalism 1951-1982
1982 Kenneth Starck, Iowa
1981 Del Brinkman, Kansas
1980 Richard G. Gray, Indiana
1979 Mary A. Gardner, Michigan State
1978 James Carey, Iowa
1977 Kenneth Devol, California State, Northridge
1976 Edward Bassett, Southern Cal
1975 Edwin Emery, Minnesota
1974 Bruce H. Westley, Kentucky
1973 R. Neale Copple, Nebraska
1972 Hillier Krieghbaum, New York U.
1971 Wayne Danielson, Texas
1970 William E. Ames, Washington
1969 James W. Schwartz, Iowa State
1968 Robert L. Jones, Minnesota
1967 Harold L. Nelson, Wisconsin
1966 DeWitt C. Reddick, Texas
1965 Edward W. Barrett, Columbia
1964 William E. Porter, Michigan
1963 Theodore E. Peterson, Illinois
1962 Kenneth N. Stewart, California-Berkeley
1961 Charles T. Duncan, Oregon
1960 Fred S. Siebert, Illinois
1959 Mitchell V. Charnley, Minnesota
1958 Warren K. Agee, Texas Christian
1957 Norval N. Luxon, North Carolina
1956 Kenneth R. Marvin, Iowa State
1955 Roscoe Ellard, Columbia
1954 George E. Simmons, Tulane
1953 Earl English, Missouri
1952 J. Edward Gerald, Minnesota
1951 Ralph O. Nafziger, Wisconsin
American Association of Teachers of Journalism 1912-1950
1950 Henry Ladd Smith, Wisconsin
1949 A. Gayle Waldrop, Colorado
1948 Roland E. Wolseley, Syracuse
1947 Marcus M. Wilkerson, Louisiana State
1946 Curtis D. MacDougall, Northwestern
1945 Frederic E. Merwin, Rutgers
1944 Frederic E. Merwin, Rutgers
1943 Douglass W. Miller, Syracuse
1942 Douglass W. Miller, Syracuse
1941 Ralph O. Nafziger, Minnesota
1940 Charles L. Allen, Northwestern
1939 Charles L. Allen, Northwestern
1938 Edward N. Doan, Ohio State
1937 Blair Converse, Iowa State
1936 C. Gayle Walker, Nebraska
1935 Kenneth E. Olson, Northwestern
1934 William L. Mapel, Washington & Lee
1933 Ralph L. Crosman, Colorado
1932 Ralph L. Crosman, Colorado
1931 Lawrence R. Murphy, Illinois
1930 John E. Drewry, Georgia
1929 E. Marion Johnson, Minnesota
1928 Grant M. Hyde, Wisconsin
1927 F.J. Lazell, Iowa
1926 M.G. Osborn, Louisiana State
1925 N.A. Crawford, Kansas State
1924 J.W. Piercy, Indiana
1923 F.W. Beckman, Iowa State
1922 E.W. Smith, Stanford
1921 Willard G. Bleyer, Wisconsin
1920 H.F. Harrington, Northwestern
1919 Wartime, no convention
1918 Wartime, no convention
1917 Fred N. Scott, Michigan
1916 James M. Lee, New York U.
1915 Merle Thorpe, Kansas
1914 Merle Thorpe, Kansas
1913 Talcott Williams, Columbia
1912 Willard G. Bleyer, Wisconsin
Past Conference Locations
AEJMC Historical Conference Locations
2022 August 3-6………………………………….. Detroit, MI
2021 August 4-7…………………………………….. Virtual Conference
The 2021 site was originally New Orleans, LA.
Scheduled as an online conference because of the continued COVID19 Pandemic.
2020 August 6-9…………………………………….. Virtual Conference
The 2020 site was originally San Francisco, CA.
Rescheduled as an online conference because of the COVID19 Pandemic.
2019 August 7-10…………………………………….. Toronto, Canada
2018 August 6-9…………………………………….. Washington, DC
2017 August 9-12…………………………………….. Chicago, IL
2016 August 4-7……………………………… Minneapolis, MN
2015 August 6-9 ……………………………. San Francisco, CA
2014 August 6 – 9 …………………………… Montréal, Canada
2013 August 8 – 11 …………………………… Washington, DC
2012 August 9- 12 ……………………………………. Chicago, IL
2011 August 10 – 13 ………………………………. St. Louis, MO
2010 August 4 – 7 ……………………………………. Denver, CO
2009 August 5 – 8 ……………………………………. Boston, MA
2008 August 6 – 9 ……………………………………. Chicago, IL
2007 August 9 – 12 …………………………… Washington, DC
2006 August 2 – 5 …………………………. San Francisco, CA
2005 August 10 – 13 …………………………. San Antonio, TX
2004 August 4 – 7 …………………………….. Toronto, Canada
2003 July 30 – August 2 …………………….. Kansas City, MO
2002 August 7 – 10 ………………………….. Miami Beach, FL
2001 August 5 – 8 …………………………….. Washington, DC
2000 August 9 – 12 ………………………………… Phoenix, AZ
1999 August 4 – 7 ……………………………. New Orleans, LA
1998 August 5 – 8 ……………………………….. Baltimore, MD
1997 July 30 – August 2 ……………………………. Chicago, IL
1996 August 10 -13 ……………………………….. Anaheim, CA
1995 August 9 – 12 …………………………… Washington, DC
1994 August 10 -13 …………………………………. Atlanta, GA
1993 August 11 – 14 ………………………… Kansas City, MO
1992 August 5 – 8 ………………………….. Montreal, Canada
1991 August 7 – 10 …………………………………. Boston, MA
1990 August 9 – 12 ………………………….. Minneapolis, MN
1989 August 10 – 13 …………………………. Washington, DC
1988 July 2 – 5 ……………………………………. Portland, OR
1987 August 1 – 4 ……… Trinity University, San Antonio, TX
1986 August 3 – 6 …………………….. University of Oklahoma
1985 August 3 – 6 ………………… Memphis State University
1984 August 5 – 8 ……………………….. University of Florida
1983 August 5 – 10 ………………… Oregon State University
1982 July 25 – 28 …………………….. Ohio University-Athens
1981 August 8 – 11 ……………… Michigan State University
1980 August 10 – 13 ………………………. Boston University
1979 August 5 – 8 ……………………… University of Houston
1978 August 13 – 16 …. University of Washington-Seattle
1977 August 21 – 24 …… University of Wisconsin-Madison
1976 July 31 – August 4 …………… University of Maryland
1975 August 16 – 20 .. Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
1974 August 18 – 21 ……………. San Diego State University
1973 August 19 – 22 …………… Colorado State University
1972 August 20 – 23 … So. Illinois University at Carbondale
1971 August 21 – 25 …………. University of South Carolina
1970 August 16 – 20 . American University, Washington, DC
1969 August 24 – 27 ……. University of California-Berkeley
1968 August 25 – 29 ……………………. University of Kansas
1967 August 27 – 31 ……… University of Colorado-Boulder
1966 August 28 – Sept 1 …….. University of Iowa-Iowa City
1965 August 22 – 26 …………………….. Syracuse University
1964 August 26 – 30 …………. University of Texas at Austin
1963 August 25 – 29 …………………. University of Nebraska
1962 August 26 – 30 ………….. University of North Carolina
1961 August 27 – 31 …… University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
1960 August 29 – Sept 2 ……….. Pennsylvania State University
1959 August 25 – 29 ………… University of Oregon-Eugene
1958 August 25 – 29 ……. University of Missouri-Columbia
1957 August 26 – 30 ………………………… Boston University
1956 August 28 – 31 ……………….. Northwestern University
1955 August 22 – 26 ……… University of Colorado-Boulder
1954 August 31 – Sept 2 . Univ of New Mexico-Albuquerque
1953 August 24 – 27 ………………… Michigan State College
1952 August 25 – 29 …………………….. Columbia University
1951 August 27 – 29 ……………………… University of Illinois
1950 August 28 – 30 …… University of Wisconsin-Madison
1949 August 30 – September 1 …. University of Minnesota
1948 September 1 – 3 … University of Colorado at Boulder
1947 December 29 – 31 ………………….. Temple University
1947 January 9 – 11 ……………………………… Lexington, KY
1946 January 24 – 26 ….. Ohio State University-Columbus
1st joint AASDJ & AATJ convention since 1941
1945 January 26 – 27 ………………………………… Chicago, IL
1944 January 14 – 15 ………………………. Chicago-informal
1943 January 8 – 9 ………………………….. Chicago-informal
1942 ………………………………………………………………….. None
1941 December 27 – 30 ………………………. Des Moines, IA
1940 December 27 – 29 Columbia & New York Universities
1939 ………………………………………………………………….. None
1938 December 27 – 29 ……………………………. Topeka, KS
Constitution changed to biennial conventions
1937 December 28 – 30 ………………… Ohio State University
1936 December 30 – 31 ……………………………. St. Louis, MO
1935 December 27 – 30 ………………………… Washington, DC
1934 December 27 – 29 ………………………………. Chicago, IL
1933 December 27 – 30 ……………………………….. Chicago, IL
1932 …………………… Convention cancelled-Great Depression
1931 December 27 – 28 …………….. University of Minnesota
1930 December 29 – 31 ………………………. Boston University
1929 December …………………………………… Baton Rouge, LA
1928 December ……………………………………… Ann Arbor, MI
1927 December ………………………………………… Iowa City, IA
1926 December …………………………………….. Columbus, OH
1925 December ……………………………………… New York City
1924 December ………………………………………….. Chicago, IL
1923 December ………………………………………….. Chicago, IL
1922 December ……………………….. Northwestern University
1921 December ………………………… University of Wisconsin
1920 December …………………………… University of Missouri
1919 no convention held, WWI
1918 no convention held, WWI
1917 April …………………………………………………. Chicago, IL
1916 April …………………………………….. University of Kansas
1915 no convention held
1914 December …………….. Columbia University, New York
1913 Nov 28-29 …………… University of Wisconsin-Madison
1912 Founded November 30 in Chicago, Illinois
Commission on the Status of Women 2014 Abstracts
Good Green Mothers: First Time Expectant Mothers’ Views on Environmental Consumption Pre- and Post- Partum • Niveen AbiGhannam, University of Texas at Austin; Lucy Atkinson • Our interest in this study is exploring the experience of women who opt for environmentally conscious approaches to pregnancy. The study will focus on how these non-conforming mothers navigate environmental risk, and how they balance dominant mothering discourses with their own sense of what it means to be a mother and the kind of pregnancy and delivery they seek. These relationships are examined in the context of information seeking and sharing communication theories.
Victimized on plain sites: Social and alternative media’s impact on the Steubenville rape case • Cory Armstrong; Kevin Hull, University of Florida; Lynsey Saunders, University of Florida • This study employs a content analysis of the Steubenville (Ohio) sexual assault case to explore the mainstream media characterization of the victim and perpetrators. Researchers examined articles from local news agencies (n= 422) and national news agencies (n= 156) to answer the overall research question centering on how new technology is being employed as sources by traditional media sources. The results outline implications for scholars and practitioners as it relates social media sources shaping the narrative characterizing the victim and perpetrators.
No Woman, No Cry: Gender and Emotional Management in U.S. Electoral Politics • Ingrid Bachmann, Catholic University of Chile • The role of a political leader often is associated with the emotional attributes of a man. This discourse analysis examines the media constructions of Hillary Clinton’s emotionality during her bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination. Clinton was described mainly as a cold and unsympathetic contender, an unwomanly woman with too much ambition, and either as fake or frail when being more emotionally open. The media thus favored determined understandings regarding women, politics and emotions.
The Everlasting Damsel in Distress?: Analyzing the evolution of the female Disney character over time • Lisa van Kessel, Radboud University Nijmegen; Serena Daalmans, Radboud University Nijmegen • The current study analyzes the evolution of female Disney characters over time, from Disney’s Snow White from 1937 to Disney/Pixar’s Brave from 2012. Gender role representations of the characters from twenty-three features (that included a human female lead or secondary character) were examined in a qualitative content analysis focused on the manifest level (representation of behaviors, goals) as well as a latent level (gender related norms and values). Results suggest that on a manifest level significant changes have occurred in how female characters have been presented over time, i.e. female characters have grown to have more agency and are less preoccupied with love as a primary goal, though these changes are not linear. Results on a latent level suggest that more stereotyped gendered norms and values have not disappeared but are now incorporated in the narrative in secondary rather than primary characters. Overall, results do seem to indicate that Disney’s representation of female (lead) characters are slowly becoming less stereotyped, most prominently so in the case of Brave’s Merida.
“Wendy and the Boys:” Having it All on the Texas Campaign Trail • Shugofa Dastgeer, Graduate student at the University of Oklahoma; Desiree Hill, University of Oklahoma • This study content analyzed news headlines on the Texas female candidate for governor, Wendy Davis, in the 2014 elections. The results demonstrate more than half of the news headlines had a neutral tone toward Davis, and less than one-fourth of the headlines were negative and positive each. While a large number of neutral headlines shows progress for female candidates, a significant number of the headlines treat Davis as a celebrity.
Creative women in Swedish advertising and the case for systemic scarcity • Jean Grow, Marquette University • This research explores the experiences of ten Swedish advertising creative directors. In-depth interviews are framed by Csikszentmihalyi’s systems model of creativity. Findings suggest that gender-neutral Swedish cultural norms and values have limited influence on the culture within advertising creative. Data highlight provocative insights about systemic power and constraints women face, suggesting that female creatives across the world most likely face roadblocks to advancement that are far more systemically embedded than may have been previously understood.
Walk like a man: A content analysis of anti-sexual assault websites for men • Leslie Howerton, University of Oregon • This study examines four websites that target men with anti-sexual assault messages. The theoretical framework used for this research is rape myth acceptance theory and the Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression scale (AMMSA). Content analysis was conducted on two websites that use traditionally masculine approaches and two websites that use androgyny advocacy approaches. All four websites contained gender stereotypes, rape myths and sexual concepts consistent with rape myth acceptance theory. The messages on these sites may explicitly endorse an anti-sexual assault agenda, but the text and images contain gender stereotypes and rape myth functions that undermine the websites’ purpose and perpetuate rape myth acceptance.
Attention to Heterosexual Scripts in Magazines: Factors associated with Intentions to Sexually Coerce or Intervene • Stacey J.T. Hust, The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University; Kathleen Rodgers, Human Development, Washington State University; Stephanie Ebreo, Washington State University; Whitney Stefani, Washington State University • Sexual coercion has gained researchers’ attention as an underreported form of sexual abuse or harm (Adams-Curtis & Forbes, 2004). The percentage of male and female college students who reported engaging in sexual coercion was as high as 82% for verbally coercive behaviors over the course of a year (Shook, Gerrity, Jurich, & Segrist, 2000). Guided by heterosexual scripting theory and the Integrated Model of Behavioral Prediction, we examine young college students’ beliefs about rape myth acceptance, perceived norms related to perpetration and intervention of sexual coercion, dating violence efficacy, and then exposure to men’s and women’s magazines in relation to intention to use coercive tactics in dating relationships, and intentions to intervene with friends who use coercive tactics in dating relationships. Results indicate rape myth acceptance, as predicted, was positively associated with intentions to sexually coerce, and negatively associated with intentions to intervene. Dating violence efficacy was negatively associated with intentions to sexually coerce, and positively associated with intentions to intervene. Exposure to the heterosexual scripts in men’s magazines, which connect sexual prowess to masculinity, was associated with intentions to sexually coerce. Overall, an understanding of the independent contribution of these factors toward sexual coercion has implications for dating violence prevention programming.
Beyond ‘the Bump’: How media portrayals of celebrity pregnancies perpetuate fertility goddess cultural norms • Nicki Karimipour, University of Florida • Modern-day pregnant celebrities share many similarities to fertility goddesses of prehistoric and ancient times: they occupy a powerful place in society; they are revered and even worshipped; average women view them as role models; and they possess comparable physical traits. The way in which the media represents pregnant celebrities (and by explicitly or implicitly portraying them as fertility goddesses) can result in the establishment of social and cultural norms. The purpose of this study is to introduce a conceptual model for evaluating the way in which media portrayals of pregnant celebrities perpetuate fertility goddess cultural norms. Variables and antecedent conditions associated with the conceptual model have been outlined within.
#ThighGap and #BikiniBridge: The New ‘Thinspo’(s)?: Examining the role of social media and dissemination of new body shape thin ideals • Nicki Karimipour, University of Florida; Kéran Billaud, University of Florida • Mass-mediated thin ideals have been a media staple for many years, but recently, two body shape trends have gone viral in mainstream and social media. The purpose of this study is to examine content being disseminated on Twitter about the thigh gap and the bikini bridge from December 1, 2013 to March 1, 2014 using a quantitative content analysis. Applications of social comparison and identity demarginalization theory are used to explain the online behavior of these users. Feminist theory is used to buttress the argument that social media interactions about the thigh gap and bikini bridge perpetuate potentially harmful aspirations and behaviors among young women.
Domestic violence as entertainment: Gender, role congruity and reality television • Carol Liebler, Syracuse University; Azeta Hatef, Syracuse University; Greg Munno, Syracuse University • This study examines how young adults react to domestic violence in reality TV, with particular attention to how gender factors into perceptions of acceptability. Data were collected via eight sessions that included pre and post-viewing questionnaires, rating an edited 24-minute video of content from three reality TV programs, and focus group discussions. Findings indicate that consistent with role congruity theory, acceptability of televised domestic violence varies contextually and with gender.
Television’s “Mean World” for Women: The Portrayal of Gender and Race on American Crime Dramas • M. Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Caroline Titcomb Parrott, The University of Alabama • A quantitative content analysis examined gender and racial stereotypes in fictional crime-based television programs that aired in the United States during a three-year period. Women were underrepresented. While black women were relatively non-existent, white women were victimized more often than male characters. Compared to men, white women stood a greater chance of being raped or sexually assaulted, suffering serious harm at the hands of an assailant, and being attacked by strangers.
Effects of Women’s Social Media Use in fostering Social Capital and Civic Participation • Maria Gomez y Patino, Universidad de Zaragoza; Magdalena Saldaña, The University of Texas at Austin; Trevor Diehl, The University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Vienna • Observing women as benchmark, this article examined how social media activities impact social capital and civic participation. Scholars concerned with the role of women in democracies have long noted a gender gap in participatory behaviors. However, social media might offer an alternative route to community engagement for women. Analyzing original US-survey-data, results (n=831) found strong statistical evidence that social media use for community involvement and news is associated with social capital and civic participation offline.
The Disney Princess Films: 72 Years of Idealized Beauty and Love • Jennifer Hecht, San Jose State University; Diana Stover Tillinghast, San Jose State University • Portrayals of dependency, confidence, rescue, and romantic love have slowly changed in the past seven decades in the nine Disney princess films examined in this study. However, the depiction of beauty has remained much the same although many of the princesses are no longer only Caucasian. Princesses have become less dependent and more confident. Love has become more realistic with fewer romantic illusions. Suitors rescued princesses and, in the newer films, princesses rescued their suitors.
Black Womanhood, Desire, and Single-doom in Television News • Timeka Tounsel, University of Michigan • Amidst shifting tides in America’s ethnic landscape, racial uplift ideology urges black women to pursue marriage as a means of demonstrating African American’s adherence to hegemonic social values. Yet, data from Hannah Brueckner at the Yale Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course and the U.S. Census Bureau (2010) suggest that 45 percent of black women over 15-years-old have never been married, and that this rate is even higher for women with post-graduate degrees. Thus, professional black women are perceived as having failed to fulfill dominant gender expectations. The consequential construction of a crisis focused on increased academic achievement, and low marriage rates offers an example of how American culture manages this supposed gender deviance. In this essay, I point to salient examples—specifically in traditional news outlets such as ABC Nightline and CNN—within a contemporary cultural environment that restrict professional black women to a distinct narrative arc. Beginning at the professional peak of black women, the arc climaxes in a black gender war, and ends with a disciplining of black women’s life desires. By burdening black women with racial uplift, this narrative neglects a rational discussion of black men, evades the impact of structural inequality, and elevates independence and autonomy as inappropriate desires for black women.
Empowerment messages with women from underserved communities: Expanding a theory of women’s communication about health • Jennifer Vardeman-Winter, University of Houston • As women’s health has received significant political and media attention recently, I proposed an expanded theory of women’s communication about health. Public relations and community health work literature framed this study. I interviewed 15 communicators and community health workers from grassroots organizations focused on women’s health. Findings suggest that women face structural, cognitive, cultural, political, and emotional/spiritual barriers to communicating about health. Participants also discussed the importance of messages of empowerment and resilience with women.
An Indian Abroad: Postulating post-colonial feminisms via Priyanka Chopra’s globality • Roshni Verghese • Priyanka Chopra’s prolific career has taken her from being the belle of Bollywood to a global celebrity as she enters Western popular culture, symbolically representing India and Indians. This paper uses visual analysis of her English music videos, select interviews with American and Indian media and other print media texts to identify how she invokes themes of globality; using sexual exoticism, racial ambiguity and cultural hybridity to successfully promote a new prototype of Indian women.
Stigmatized Presentation of Single Women: A Content Analysis of News Coverage on Single Women and Single Men in China • Gong Wanqi, City University of Hong Kong; Caixie Tu; Jiang Li • This study explored the stigmatize presentation of single women in news reports by content analyzing the news coverage of Chinese single women and single men from 2008 to 2013 in Mainland China. Among the three prevalent news frames (conflict, attribution of responsibility, and human interest), results showed that the news reports commonly employ human interest frame and concentrate on the single women’s family conflicts . News stories also unduly attributed the responsibility of the ‘single’ issue to the single women themselves. Moreover, the media tend to utilize positive tone to portray single men rather than single women. The biased standpoint in reporting single women reflect and further shape the stereotype of single women. As an exploratory study, our research shed light on the public perception of single women. Theoretical and practical implications were provided.
Mitigating the Engendered Digital Divide: Women as Active Learners in Developing Countries • Jessica Wendorf, University of Miami • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become part of modern life, but sadly developing countries are unable to benefit from this technological advancement. Consequently, the knowledge gap between information-rich and information-poor has intensified. Today, it is not the lack of physical access, but in fact, the intellectual access limitations confounded by the omitting of ethnic, racial, and cultural individualism that most affect ICT interventions focused on minority females.
Are Men from Mars and Women from Venus in Terms of Twitter and Facebook Use? And How about Whites and Non-Whites – Are They on Different Planets? • Geri Alumit Zeldes, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Elizabeth Quilliam, Michigan State University • Indeed. Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus, when it comes to the intensity in which they used Facebook and Twitter. Using Uses and Gratifications theory and Liu, Cheng & Lee’s (2010) 19-item scale to measure motivations, this study found that women are significantly more intense in their use of the two social media platforms especially when it comes to several motivations – entertainment, escapism, and medium appeal. In terms of race, Whites and Non-Whites are also on different planets. The study indicated a greater intensity to use Facebook and Twitter than their Non-White counterparts, out intensifying their Non-White counterparts in their use of Facebook except in the motivations of self-documentation and commercial interaction. The researchers recommend a replication of this study using a much more diverse population than that of students in a mass communication school at a large Midwestern university.
Sports Communication 2014 Abstracts
Sports Draped in the American Flag: Impact of the 2014 Winter Olympic Telecast on Nationalized Attitudes • Andrew Billings, University of Alabama; Kenon Brown, The University of Alabama; Natalie Brown, University of Alabama • A total of 525 U.S. respondents participated in a survey of nationalized attitudes surrounding four qualities (patriotism, nationalism, internationalism, and smugness) and their relationship to Olympic media consumption. Four data collection points were used: three months prior to the Sochi Games, immediately before the Opening Ceremonies, immediately after the Closing Ceremonies, and one month after the Sochi Games. Results indicated that the amount of Olympic media consumption significantly heightened responses on all four qualities, but that these qualities were higher before the Sochi Olympics than after. Conclusions are offered regarding the potential mitigating role of Olympic success as it relates to the bolstering of national pride through consumption of international mediated sporting events.
I know you, therefore I share: Parasocial disclosures and sharing of sport news on Twitter • Jan Boehmer, Michigan State University • The present study investigates the effects of sports journalists’ self-disclosures on Twitter. More specifically, an online experiment was conducted examining whether being exposed to self disclosures posted on Twitter influenced the audiences’ perceptions of likability and credibility, as well as the desire to interact with the sports journalist. Results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) show that self-disclosure had a positive effect on a personal dimension of likability, as predicted by Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT). Contrary to predictions, however, self-disclosure did not affect the professional dimension of likability or credibility. In addition, the results of the present study show that the development of a stronger parasocial relationship between the sports journalist and his audience, as well as professional likability are the best predictors of participants’ intentions to share the encountered content.
Making Sports Exciting: Moment-to-Moment Analysis of Crowd Noise on Audience Perception of Play • Glenn Cummins, Texas Tech University; Zijian Gong, Texas Tech University • Despite its ubiquitous presence in mediated sports, the influence of mediated crowd response on at-home spectators has escaped inquiry. Considerable evidence from both within and beyond the context of sports suggests that a co-spectator’s behavior can generate “intra-audience effects.” In this experiment, mediated spectator response was systematically altered across game play while participants provided moment-to-moment evaluations of game play. Results demonstrate mediated intra-audience effects that yield inflated perceptions of the exiting nature of play as well as a sense of spatial immersion in the mediated environment. The effect was most pronounced when game events were not intrinsically exciting.
Opening the sports closet: Media coverage of the self-outings of Jason Collins and Britney Griner • Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas; Lori Dann, Eastfield College • This study examines coverage of the coming-out revelations of two professional athletes in major sports media. When Brittney Griner of the WNBA and Jason Collins of the NBA made their announcements within two weeks of each other in April 2013, sports media embraced both athletes by praising their courage and calling for tolerance. However, the media coverage adhered to the theory of masculine hegemony by treating Collins’ revelation as big news and Griner’s as routine. Other findings are that Collins’ announcement, which was a first for an active athlete in men’s professional team sports, was controversial to some who oppose homosexuality. Griner joined several high-profile female athletes who had come out as lesbian since the 1970s, and her announcement was given minimal coverage. Griner went on to a promising career in the WNBA while Collins went unsigned for the first four months of the NBA season before being picked up by the Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 23, 2014 and retained for the remainder of the season. Despite these gender-based differences, the study found there has been a significant shift in recent years in the amount and type of media coverage given to gay athletes.
Foul Ball: Audience-held stereotypes of baseball players • Patrick Ferrucci, Bradley University; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University; Chad Painter, Eastern New Mexico University; David Wolfgang, University of Missouri • This study experimentally tested whether participants held and/or applied stereotypes of baseball players. Participants were asked to rate White, Black and Latino baseball players based on stereotypes consistently identified in previous literature. Participants saw a photo of a player and an anonymous paragraph from a newspaper that highlighted a particular stereotype. They were then asked to rate the author’s credibility. Black players were rated as higher in physical strength and natural ability, consistent with previous literature concerning how athletes were described. However, White and Latin players were not stereotyped. But, participants rated White-consistent descriptions as credible and Latin-consistent descriptions as less credible. These results are interpreted through the prism of social identity theory.
“The Ghost of Len Bias”: Race, Memory, Narrative, and Basketball • Justin Hudson, University of Maryland, College Park • The death of Maryland basketball star Len Bias in June 1986 from a cocaine overdose would quickly become a seminal moment both in the war on drugs and the fight to reform college athletics. This paper demonstrates that even two decades after his death, Bias was deployed in the media as an obstacle on the road to Maryland’s first national championship and as a cautionary tale to justify the continued policing of black athletes.
Marketing a Lemon: Student-Fan Attendance at Home Games of a Losing College Basketball Team • L. Paul Husselbee, Southern Utah University; Whitney Baum, Southern Utah University • Research has identified winning as the most significant factor motivating attendance at collegiate and professional sports events. This study employed factor analysis to identify four significant components — Optimistic Leisure, Shared Experience with Friends, Basketball Enthusiasm, and Team Spirit — that contribute to student-fans’ decisions to attend home games of a college basketball team that had lost 26 consecutive games and was widely considered the worst NCAA Division I team in the nation during the 2013-14 season. It recommends an integrated-marketing campaign using a “Big Idea” with emphasis on social media to reach the target audience.
Promoting sports networks’ interests through hybrid messages: A study of Sportscenter and Fox Sports Live • Richard Johnson, Arizona State University; Miles Romney • In sports broadcasting, a dichotomy exists between a network’s financial interests and its journalism responsibilities. Many sports networks spend billions of dollars for the rights to broadcast live sporting events as part of their network programming. Typically, these live events produce high ratings and generate significant profit for the networks. However, this conflict between a sports network’s business and journalistic affairs raises a compelling ethical debate. Working under the theoretical model of hybrid messages—the assumption that news networks include promotional themes in their journalism programming that aren’t easily recognizable to the viewer—this introductory study analyzed 2,015 news packages from the two most prominent nightly sports news programs, SportsCenter and FOX Sports Live, to examine whether sports networks more heavily promote leagues with which they are contractually affiliated. The study found that sports networks self-promote by showing more in-depth coverage of games and leagues with which they have a financial interest while also filling a significant portion of the news program’s most prominent block with programming that serves their interests. However, the relationship that exists between sports networks and sports leagues makes it difficult to ascertain whether the sports networks are employing hybrid messages in their journalism programming or simply following journalistic practices.
The Use of Twitter in Sports Image Repair: A Case Study of Ex-Heisman Reggie Bush • Hannah Mason; Mia Moody-Ramirez, Baylor University • Broadening the application of Benoit’s image repair theory, this case study looks at the image repair tactics of NFL athlete Reggie Bush in three phases following the NCAA sanctions in which he lost the Heisman Trophy. This textual analysis adds a new perspective to IRT literature by analyzing how the athlete presented himself through his Twitter feed and how traditional newspaper articles framed the case. Findings indicate Bush used a variety of image repair tactics in his Twitter posts; however, his scatter-shot approach was ineffective as he rallied back and forth between positive and negative content and perhaps waited too long to demonstrate mortification. Newspaper articles did not mention Bush’s Twitter content. However, self-presentation through social media eliminated the need for a mainstream outlet to cover his preferred themes as he was able disseminate his own messages. Findings indicate Twitter provides a viable platform for athletes to repair a tarnished image; however, they must use positive image repair tactics in a consistent manner.
Going to WAR: Online Sports Media’s Treatment of the Sabermetric Argument in the Race for 2012 American League Most Valuable Player • Joshua Murphy, The University of Iowa • Sabermetric analysis has existed since the 1970s but has recently gained widespread attention in baseball. Despite the empirical process of sabermetrics, several media sources ignore it in favor of traditional methods. This paper uses the Gramscian model of hegemony and Barthes’ work on myth to analyze sports media discussion of the 2012 American League Most Valuable Player race to evaluate the process by which new methods gain media attention and legitimacy against the status quo.
Who is to blame? An examination of American sports journalists’ Lance Armstrong Hero narrative and post-doping confession paradigm repair • Sada Reed, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • When journalism routines, like the practice of covering subjects “objectively” and not becoming personally involved with sources, result in erroneous reporting, journalists often engage in paradigm repair (Berkowitz, 1997). This is done by demonstrating that the written and unwritten rules of the paradigm really are reliable, but because of a particular reason or person, the paradigm’s rules were violated (Berkowitz, 1997). But does paradigm repair happen in the same way in sports journalism, a genre of journalism that traditionally has dual roles as watchdogs and “myth-makers”? This study examines this question in two parts: A content analysis was conducted in order to gather descriptive statistics confirming sports journalists’ reluctance to interrupt Armstrong’s Hero narrative. This analysis was done by examining the number of stories about Armstrong, published in the United States between July 25, 1999, when Armstrong first won the Tour de France, and Jan. 17, 2013, when Armstrong’s televised interview with Oprah aired, that also mention doping. The second part of this study explores the presence or absence of paradigm repair. Ethnographic content analysis was used to examine American sports journalists’ columns and editorials from Oct. 9, 2012, to Jan. 31, 2013, in order to assess how sports journalists responded to Armstrong’s “fall from grace.”
Twitter in the press box: How a new technology affects the gameday routines of print-focused sports journalists • Chris Roberts, University of Alabama; Betsy Emmons, Samford University • Sports journalists’ use of Twitter to cover live events raises questions related to institutional practices, branding of journalists, and the work patterns and work products of journalists on a gameday. Researchers analyzed 2,600 tweets sent by 51 print-focused journalists covering 11 college football games, and interviewed 10 journalists, to discern how beat writers and columnists use Twitter for gameday coverage. Results include a more opinion-based use of Twitter during live reporting.
“I hate you man!”: Exploring Maladaptive Parasocial Interaction Expressions to College Athletes via Twitter • Jimmy Sanderson, Clemson University; Carrie Truax, Clemson University • There has been an increasing trend of fans attacking college athletes via Twitter after athletic contests. These messages from fans often encompass hostile and vitriolic language that in many cases makes news headlines. The present study explored this behavior through the lens of maladaptive parasocial interaction (Kassing & Sanderson, in press) by investigating tweets sent to University of Alabama placekicker Cade Foster after Alabama lost their rivalry game against Auburn University on November 30, 2013. Using Radian6 software, a total of 939 tweets sent to Foster were analyzed. Analysis revealed that maladaptive parasocial interaction manifested in the following ways: (a) belittling; (b) blaming; (c) mocking; (d) sarcasm; and (e) threats. Interestingly and unexpectedly, a host of supportive comments were expressed to Foster as well. The results suggest that athletic department personnel must provide resources and education for college athletes on coping with these messages to mitigate potentially negative psychological effects. Additionally, the results also reveal that Twitter functions as a venue where fans discuss what it means to be a “true” fan with respect to directing abrasive comments at college athletes.
“Shit got cray cray #mybad”: An Examination of the Image Repair Discourse of Richie Incognito during the Miami Dolphins’ Bullying Scandal • Annelie Schmittel, University of Florida; Kevin Hull, University of Florida • This study examines the image repair discourse of Richie Incognito during the Miami Dolphins’ bullying scandal. Incognito conducted image repair utilizing Twitter and a traditional media outlet. Incognito’s tweets sent throughout the crisis, along with his television interview, were examined using mixed methods content analysis guided by Benoit’s image repair theory. Findings suggest Incognito used competing image repair strategies on the two platforms. We propose three new image repair strategies: blasting critics, context and self-deprecation.
Ignored by Traditional Media, Women Seek Sports Information via Social Media: A Uses and Gratification Analysis • Mary Sheffer, University of Southern Mississippi; Brad Schultz, University of Mississippi • As a follow-up to previous research, this study took a uses and gratification approach to more clearly define sports media consumption patterns among women. Based on survey data from more than 2,500 respondents nationwide, it was found that women use social media differently than men in regards to sports. Specifically, women more often use social media for information-seeking, personal/social reasons, and to access content not available in traditional media. Implications include the need for new approaches to reach a traditionally underserved audience.
Enjoyment in 140 Characters: Examining the Impact of Twitter on the Enjoyment of Football • Lauren Smith, Auburn University; Sally Ann Cruikshank, Auburn University • As sports fans increasingly turn to Twitter to experience events and receive commentary, it is imperative to understand not only why they do, but the effects that come from using social media. Using the theoretical grounding of disposition theory, this study employed a survey of sports fans who use Twitter to measure how the microblogging site influenced their enjoyment of viewing college and professional football, both on television and in person. Results found that the use of Twitter had more of an impact on fans’ enjoyment when watching a game on television than when watching in person. Additionally, variables such as age, gender, and level of Twitter use were found to have an impact on enjoyment levels. Practical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed at length.
I’m going to Instagram it!: An analysis of athlete self-presentation on Instagram • Lauren Smith, Auburn University; Jimmy Sanderson, Clemson University • Using Goffman’s notions of self-presentation and gender displays, the following study examines the Instagram feeds of 27 professional athletes to determine how athletes are using the visual social media site for self-presentation. A mixed methods approach examined the photographs and captions to determine what behaviors and themes emerged. Through content analysis, the self-presentation styles of athletes of both genders, as well as the main differences between them were examined, and significant differences emerged that confirmed the previously established gender norms. Through textual analysis, findings with respect to captions align with previous research on athlete self-presentation on social media. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for future research are discussed.
Tensions in the Press Box: Understanding Relationships between Journalists and Communications Professionals in Intercollegiate Athletics • Welch Suggs, University of Georgia • Recent events suggest that relationships between media organizations and the entities they cover are changing, particularly in the context of sports. This study proposes a neoinstitutional framework for understanding these relationships and tests resulting hypotheses among reporters and communications professionals in American intercollegiate athletics.
Media Industries and the Sport Scandal: Deadspin, Sports Illustrated, ESPN and the Manti Te’o Hoax • Travis Vogan, University of Iowa; Benjamin Burroughs, University of Iowa • The increasing body of scholarship on the sport scandal focuses principally on how media cover these incidents, how scandalized parties disrupt constructed expectations and work to repair their images, and the circumstances under which punishment and forgiveness are doled out. Building upon this work, this essay uses the hoax surrounding former Notre Dame University football player Manti Te’o to consider the institutional and industrial priorities that inform media coverage of sport scandals. Focusing on the website Deadspin, the legacy magazine Sports Illustrated, and the multiplatform sports media outlet ESPN, it argues that media outlets use sport scandals to craft their institutional identities, critique their competition, and to vie for market share. This approach to analyzing media coverage of the sport scandal, we argue, demonstrates the intimate relationship between the cultural meanings media representations of sport create and the institutional and industrial factors that govern the organizations that manufacture these powerful depictions.
Building Relationships with Fans: How Sports Organizations Use Social Media • Yuan Wang, University of Alabama; Shuhua Zhou; Yonghwan Kim, University of Alabama • Social media have been increasingly used by sports organizations to establish relationships with the public. This study explored the Twitter using practices of NBA clubs (N = 30) in the United States in building relationships with their publics. Specifically, it focused on how these clubs used Twitter as a communication tool to build professional, personal, and community relationships through a content analysis of 5561 tweets on their official Twitter sites. The results demonstrated that sports organizations tended to use social media to develop professional relationships with fans via sharing information and promoting products. They utilized several communication tools such as retweets, public messages, hyperlinks, and hashtags, among which hashtags were most frequently used. There was a significant relationship between relationship dimensions and the use of communication tools.
The Star-Ledger vs. Julie Hermann? Examining the Power of Media Campaigning • Amy Wu, University of Maryland; Pallavi Guha, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland; Jenny Glick, University of Maryland; Carole Lee, University of Maryland; Linda Steiner, University of Maryland • This study examines the impact of coverage by a major newspaper of Rutgers University’s hiring of Julie Hermann as athletic director in the spring of 2013. After the bullying charges surfaced against Julie Hermann, the prospective Athletic Director of Rutgers, The Star-Ledger took the initiative to lead the coverage demanding Hermann’s dismissal. A textual analysis of print and online news articles, editorials and columns, placed in the theoretical context of framing, suggested that the newspaper’s editorial team shifted its target from Hermann at initial stages to the university and the power brokers within the university. A time-analysis revealed that Hermann was only part of the larger target in the later stages of coverage.
The Not-So Neutral Zone: ESPN, Agenda Setting, and the National Hockey League • Jeremy Saks, Ohio University; Molly Yanity, Quinnipiac University • Given the lucrative partnerships involved with securing the rights to televise live events, ESPN is ripe for conflicts of interest as it has the potential to set the news agenda by showcasing highlights and reporting to emphasize the events for which it has exclusive deals. This is important because ESPN can determine what are considered the “most important games, athletes, and highlights for ESPN viewers” and it can use “its gate-keeping function to codify what historic achievements, displays of brilliance, and athletic renown are worthy of consideration” (Gamache, 2010, p. 166). This study will use the agenda-setting theory to explore ESPN’s gate-keeping measures in regards to the National Hockey League. A content analysis will be performed to explore if and how ESPN ranks highlights from the NHL within the “Top 10 Plays” segment in comparison to other major sports leagues.
Religion and Media 2014 Abstracts
Us and Them: A meta-analysis of research on media representation of Muslims and Islam from 2000 to 2013 • Saifuddin Ahmed, Nanyang Technological University; Joerg Matthes • This meta-analytical study provides an overview of the academic research on the portrayals of Muslims and Islam in the media worldwide from 2000 – 2013. Through an analysis of 207 studies we identify research patterns involving geographical focus, methods, theories, authorship, citations, media types, and time frame of studies. Based on our systematic evaluation we classify and discuss eight common themes explored when this topic is researched. Findings point to key directions for future research.
Just Add a Verse from the Quran: Effects of Religious Rhetoric in Gain- and Loss-Framed Anti-Alcohol Messages with a Palestinian Sample • Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Nasser Almutairi, Michigan State University; Mohammed Abu Rub, Birzeit University • An experiment investigated the effects of message frame (gain vs. loss) and religious rhetoric (religious vs. non-religious) on the expression of anti-alcohol civic intentions with a sample (N = 80) of Palestinian young adults. Results showed that the main effects of message frame (gain > loss) and religious rhetoric (non-religious > religious) on anti-alcohol civic intentions were significant. Furthermore, the study showed that viral behavioral intentions were strongly and significantly associated with expressing anti-alcohol civic intentions, with larger explanatory power for gain-framed messages that used a religious rhetoric. Findings are discussed within the framework of persuasion models.
Does Inner Peace Correlate with Giving a Piece of Your Mind? Religiosity, Media Exposure and Tolerance for Disagreement about Religion • Mariam Alkazemi, University of Florida • The current study applies the spiral of silence effect to explore the role of media exposure on tolerance for disagreement about religion. Survey data were collected from students at a large Southeastern university in February 2014. Participants self-reported data that were used to measure religiosity, media exposure and tolerance for disagreement about religion. The results show there are three underlying measures in the tolerance for disagreement about religion scale, which relate to comfort, escalation and intellect. Further, the results suggest that exposure to internet correlates negatively with the intellectual component of tolerance for disagreement about religion, while exposure to radio correlates positively with the escalation component of tolerance for disagreement about religion.
Night and day: An illustration of framing using moral foundations to examine public opinion about the 2010 Oklahoma sharia ban • Brian J. Bowe, Michigan State University; Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University • This study examines the moral foundations identifiable through the lens of framing theory with particular regard to illustrations of public opinion in the news media. Using Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) to discern one component of the framing process – moral evaluations – this paper examines the discourse present in letters to the editor in two Oklahoma newspapers during the 2010 debate over a constitutional amendment to ban the Islamic moral code often called “sharia law” in the state constitution. This study used cluster and content analysis to identify three frames in the discourse, which emphasized themes of patriotism, heritage, and the golden rule. Each of these frames was related to the moral foundations identified by MFT, particularly as they are predicted to align with political ideology. Moreover, an examination of the moral foundations as 10 distinct items rather than as five continuums based on semantic differential pairs revealed the individual items function differently when allowed to independently vary.
Facebook and revival in Appalachia: Some quantitative analyses of attitudes toward serpent-handling • Julia Duin, University of Memphis • Serpent-handling among Appalachian Pentecostals has undergone a media blitz. From The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to Buzzfeed.com, reporters have dissected the movement more than any other time in its 104-year-old history. This paper researches how the use of Facebook, with its many personal anecdotes, posts and photos of serpent handlers, has humanized the practice. The author’s recent surveys show how Facebook has led to much softening of public attitudes towards snake handling.
Newspaper Coverage of Christianity in South Korea, 1996-2005 • Taisik Hwang, University of Georgia • This study content analyzes a sample of 2,614 news articles dealing with religions published in Chosun Ilbo from 1996 to 2005, focusing on how this major newspaper covered Christianity in terms of its tone and frames. The results show that this religion was portrayed in a neutral or positive manner, and that both Protestants and megachurches were mostly considered providers of social work services. These findings have implications for academic, media, and religious sectors.
Magazine Iconography: Portrayals of Religion on Magazine Covers • Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri; Mimi Perreault, University of Missouri; Gregory Perreault • Religious themes have continually been popular topics for magazines. These topics are occasionally referenced explicitly on magazine covers, but more often, they are depicted implicitly through the use of religious imagery. Imagery may take the form of well-known narratives from religious texts or the use of religious symbols or icons. This study applied narrative theory to assess religious imagery present on magazine covers from the last 48 years as selected and recognized by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Using fantasy theme analysis, the study revealed three themes evident among the covers: the use of religious symbols to address technological anxiety, particularly the influence of Apple products; ironic or subverted presentations of female religious figures to address contemporary lifestyle topics; and the use of religion to make meaning from crises or disasters. The findings showed that religious imagery fulfilled strategic aims for magazines, highlighting implicit and explicit religious narratives through which magazines could sell products or enhance the salience of topics.
These Will Not Inherit the Kingdom of Reality TV: Media Elites’ Views on Religion and the Paradigm of Corporate Media • Rick Moore, Boise State University • This study examines the controversy surrounding religious comments made by Phil Robertson, a key figure in the reality television show Duck Dynasty. Scholars have long argued that journalism has a paradigm for determining how the profession should operate . Given the conflict resulting from Robertson’s views, the intent was to understand how journalists proposed this newer genre might deal with issues related to religion and tolerance. In studying how editorial writers and columnists wrestled with the issues of the imbroglio, I found that the elites from the papers had several complaints about Robertson and reality TV, and only a few recommendations on how the genre might deal with similar clashes in the future.
Bishop Richard R. Wright Jr., The Christian Recorder and Social Responsibility • Robbie Morganfield, University of Maryland • Many of America’s first black newspapers were edited by Christian ministers who practiced principles that came to be associated with social responsibility theory. However, their work is overlooked in histories and discussions about the theory’s development. This paper questions that pattern and examines some of the work of the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Christian Recorder, the nation’s oldest continuously published black newspaper, and Bishop Richard Robert Wright Jr., its longest serving editor.
Pop Music and the Search for the Numinous: Exploring The Emergence of the “Secular Hymn” In Post-Modern Culture • Steve Thomsen; Quint Randle, BYU; Matthew J. Lewis, Brigham Young University • A growing body of research suggests traditional religious institutions are failing to meet the spiritual needs of their adherents, who are now in search of new gods and new religious myths. This paper defines and explores the phenomenon of the “secular hymn.” While non-religious in nature or intent, the secular hymn is a pop song that allows the listener to experience the numinous by creating an affective state that parallels a spiritual or religious state of mind. This paper outlines the phenomenon of the secular hymn in pop culture, defines its characteristics and then tests several pop songs against these criteria. And while some secular hymns may be used in some church settings, the overall trend may exemplify the continuing erosion of traditional religion and the use of explicitly religious music in both public and private settings.
The New Scroll: Digital Devices in Bible Study and Worship • Kathy Richardson, Berry College; Carol Pardun, University of South Carolina • This study, using data collected from an online survey of 234 respondents, investigated the prevalence of digital tools for Bible study, religious reading and corporate and individual worship among those who described themselves as “religious” or “very religious.” Respondents were older than previous studies (59.4% over the age of 50). They were also more new technology savvy than previous research has indicated. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents used newer technology to read their Bibles at home and while traveling. Bible study and Sunday school teachers were more inclined to use newer technologies to study and for corporate church worship than were non-teachers.
Mediatization of Religion: How the Indonesian Muslim Diasporas Mediatized Islamic Practices • Yearry Setianto, Ohio University • This study explores the process of mediatization of religion in the context of how Indonesian Muslim diasporas in the United States are using media to mediatize Islamic practices. Using ethnographic observation of the Indonesia Muslim Society in America (IMSA) and their media activities, this study found Islamic practices are mediatized to deal with physical boundaries. Dependency on media for religious practice does not turn this community into secular, but makes them more religious.
The Religious and Moral Beliefs of University Leaders and the Beginnings of American Journalism Education • Jeffery Smith, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee • Journalism education programs began appearing in the United States from the Gilded Age through the Progressive Era. Administrators who launched formal instruction in the field were responding to criticism of the press and, in many cases, were evidently motivated by personal religious and moral convictions. They sought to improve the profession with spiritual perspectives at both private and public institutions.
Do You Want to Feel the Love of Christ? There’s an App For That: Understanding Tablet Media as the New Electronic Church • Jim Trammell, High Point University • As mass media evolves from broadcasting to digital media, so is the electronic church evolving from religious programs to religious apps. This manuscript addresses how mass media technologies affect Christian programming. Informed by technological determinist and mediatization frameworks, it analyzes how broadcast technologies influenced Christian broadcasting in the 1970s and 1980s, and explores how tablet medium generates new themes in the electronic church. The manuscript also considers how these themes influence twentieth-century American Christianity.
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