June 2009

Read Back Issues

SOJC RESEARCH NEWSLETTER

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Featured Book

Modern Power and Free Speech:

 Contemporary Culture and Issues of Equality

(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers)

by Chris Demaske (Ph.D., 2002)

University of Washington, Tacoma

“Modern Power and Free Speech takes a socio-political approach to question the application of the First Amendment in cases dealing with the speech rights of disempowered groups. Combining legal analysis, First Amendment theory, feminist theory, and political theory, Chris Demaske addresses the inadequacies of current free-speech doctrine.”

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Featured Summer Project

Harsha Gangadharbatla and Kim Sheehan have been named Oregon Community Credit Union Research Fellows and Page Legacy Scholars for the 2009/2010 academic year. AS OCCU Research Fellows, they received grant funds to conduct an online study examining digital communities on social networks. This study will build on Ridings and Geffen's seminal study regarding communities build via online message boards. They will begin data collection over the summer.

As Page Legacy Scholars, they received grant funds to investigate social marketing of environmental issues. Specifically, they will use the experimental method to evaluate the effectiveness of framing environmental issues from both a values perspective and a marketing perspective. The study will assess what types of messages work best to bring about desired change in attitudes and behavior (such as attitudes toward and frequency of recycling, carpooling, purchasing energy efficient appliances, etc.).

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Lauren Bratslavsky will present two papers at AEJMC/Boston in August: "Examining Humor in 30 Rock from Four Perspectives: Bergson, Frye, Freud, and Bakhtin" (Entertainment Studies Interest Group), and "The Daily Show as Scapegoat: Examining Cynicism Toward Politics and the News Media" (Radio and Television Journalism).

Gennadiy Chernov (Ph.D., 2008) presented his paper, "Commercial Speech on Television News: Why News Makers Accept Stealth Advertising" at  the Canadian Communication Association Convention in May. His paper (with S. Valenzuela and M. McCombs), "A Comparison of Two Perspectives on the Concept of Need for Orientation,” has been accepted by the Communication Theory & Methodology Division for AEJMC/Boston.

Dennis Dunleavy (Ph.D., 2004) has received the Southern Oregon University’s Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society 2009 Faculty Recognition Award in Journalism, Speech, and the Mass Media.

Tiffany Derville Gallicano's paper titled "Pretending to Care Regardless of Results: A Critical Examination of Relationship Types and a Revised Framework" was accepted by the Public Relations Division for AEJMC/Boston.  Pat Curtin, Tiffany Derville Gallicano, and Kelli Matthews' paper, "I Love What I Do, But...A Relationship Management Survey of Millennial Generation Public Relations Agency Employees" from their PRSA Foundation grant also was accepted by the Public Relations Division.

David Gracon is co-curator of "Tough Stuff from the Buff: Experimental & Activist Video from the Fringes of Buffalo, NY."  From July 17 - August 2, this media program will be presented around the Pacific Northwest (with updated tour dates). The tour will be conducted by bicycle. The website is: http://tuffstuffbuff.wordpress.com/

Cary Greenwood's paper, "Whistleblowing in Public Relations: Call for a Research Agenda," has been accepted by the Public Relations Division for presentation at the AEJMC annual conference in Boston.

Melissa Hart reports that Seal Press will publish her memoir, Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood, in September 2009.  She is teaching three workshops at the Willamette Writers' Conference in August in Portland, and working on a manuscript about domestic adoption and owl training.

Lauren Kessler just completed the manuscript for her new book, Something Unpredictable, due out from Viking next April.  The book is an exploration of teen girl culture and the high-stakes, high-drama world of mother-daughter relationships.  It's based on the notion that the two worst times in a woman's life are when she's 13 and when her daughter is 13.  Lauren completed her 20-city (well, some were towns) tour of Oregon for Oregon Reads last month.  Since then she has spoken to the Eugene Rotary, End of Life caregivers and two book groups.  Upcoming presentations this month include a talk at Fernridge Library and at the Lifelong Learning Institute.  Later in the summer, she and Tom Hager will offer a writing/publishing workshop on the Oregon Coast.

Ammina Kothari's (MA, 2008) paper was accepted for presentation for AEJMC/Boston by the International Communication Division, and also won the second place award among student papers. Her paper, "A Study of The New York Times Coverage of Darfur: July 2003 - 2006," is based on her UO master's thesis defended last spring.

Randall Livingstone will be presenting a poster session at AEJMC/Boston entitled "Intersections: Post-Colonial Theory and Communication Studies."

Mary-Kate Mackey conducted a Writer's Workout Workshop in conjunction with the Garden Writers Association meeting at the Philadelphia Flower Show in February. She was also the keynote speaker at the Boise Flower Show in March. The August issue of Fine Gardening includes her back page essay, "Plant Lust." In addition, Mary-Kay’s article, "Plants on Display," about the start of the KLCC Garden Tour, appears in the Summer issue of Eugene Magazine.

Scott Maier will present a paper based on his new line of research, "All the News Fit to Post: Comparing Online News to Newspapers, Television and Radio," at AEJMC/Boston.

Kim Mangun (Ph.D. 2005) will be presenting new research at AEJMC/Boston with her paper titled, "The Japanese 'Problem' During World War II and the Central Utah Relocation Center: Reaction and Response in The Salt Lake Tribune." Her paper received the top faculty paper award in the History Division. Also, she was awarded third place in the Best Practices for Teaching Diversity competition for an online reporting project she created called Voices Of Utah (voicesofutah.wordpress.com). She will discuss the ongoing project and accept the award at AEJMC.

Joy Chavez Mapaye will present her paper, “Viral Voters: YouTube, Social Networks, and Election 2008” at the National Communication Association conference in Chicago in November. Her paper, “Teasing Out the Promos: An Analysis of Self-Promotion Strategies in Network Newscasts” was accepted for presentation at AEJMC/Boston. Her co-author, Kathleen Ryan (Ph.D., 2008) will present the paper.

Mark Masse’s (MA, 2004) 10,000-word work of literary nonfiction on trauma journalism, "Transformer," will be published in the fall issue of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative. Mark presented a paper on this topic at the International Association of Literary Journalism Studies (IALJS) Conference at Northwestern University in May.

Sally McMillan (Ph.D., 1997) will present her paper, “Soap Box or Box of Soap:  Consumer Understanding of the News, Advertising, and Funding Sources for User-Generated Content” at AEMJC/Boston.

Tracy Miller has been hired this summer as strategic communications consultant to the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity. In cooperation with the UO Office of Communications, she will work with leaders of OIED, the Office of Multicultural Academic Support, and the Center on Community and Diversity to develop a communications strategy for the 2009-10 school year and beyond. In addition to crafting the plan, she will write, design, and create print publications and web content.

Margy Parker has been accepted for a poster presentation at the annual Travel and Tourism Research Association conference in Honolulu, June 21 - 23.  Margy will showcase a research paper derived from her thesis study titled, "Ask the Kumu," a qualitative analysis of Native Hawaiian images used in tourism promotion.

Christine Quail (Ph.D., 2004) presented a paper, “Canada and Global Reality Television Formats,” at the Canadian Communication Association conference in May. She is writing another round of articles for Flow TV this summer, the first one to appear next week as, “Towards a Typology of Dance TV Contestants.” Kathalene Razzano, Loubna Skalli, and Christine recently published a chapter titled, “The Spectacle of Reform: Vulture Culture, Youth and Television,” in Rhonda Hammer and Douglas Kellner’s Media/Cultural Studies: Critical Approaches.

Kathleen Ryan (Ph.D., 2008) is working on turning her dissertation into a documentary film and website.  The site (www.homefrontheroines.com) will go live by the end of the summer. In the meantime, a Facebook page on the status of the film is available at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Homefront-Heroines-The-WAVES-of-World-War-II/185646915093?ref=nf.  On a related note, Kathleen received a grant from Radcliffe College's Schlesinger Library to do research and digitize artifacts from the collection for the film. 

Katie Stansberry’s paper, “Redefining Cancer: A Qualitative Study of Young Adult Cancer Survivors‚ Creation of Alternative Disease Narratives,” was accepted by the Graduate Education Interest Group for AEJMC/Boston.

Leslie Steeves and Janet Kwami will begin a case study this summer of the “One Laptop per Child” project, which has recently been adopted in a rural and an urban school in Ghana. 

Jessalynn Strauss will present two papers at AEJMC in Boston: "Finding (and Defining) Corporate Social Responsibility in Sin City," (a study of Las Vegas casino websites and corporate social responsibility) in the Public Relations division, and,  "Making a Case for Religious Freedom: The Church of Scientology Responds to Claims Made in an Unauthorized Biography of Tom Cruise" in the Graduate Student Research Showcase.  Jessalynn finishes her three-year term as Head of the Graduate Education Interest Group at this year's conference. She also has been invited to participate in a panel entitled "How to Find a Good Job in a Bad Economy:  Strategies for New PhDs Entering the Job Market When the Market Is in Chaos," organized by AEJMC President-Elect Carol Pardun.

Janet Wasko has organized the Political Economy Section’s program (including 13 panels) for the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) conference to be held in Mexico City in July.

Professional News

Susan Walsh (Ph.D., 1998) was appointed full professor at Southern Oregon University, effective September 2009.

Sally McMillan (Ph.D., 1997) was promoted to full professor at University of Tennessee.

Andi Stein (Ph.D., 2000) has been appointed graduate director of the Department of Communications at Cal State Fullerton. She will oversee the department’s M.A. program, which has approximately 50 students. This summer she will also teach a graduate course in Fullerton’s joint M.A. program at the University of Hong Kong.

Joy Chavez Mapaye returns to the University of Alaska Anchorage in the fall to resume her position as a tenure-track assistant professor in journalism and public communications. She also works on special projects and reports for KTUU-TV NBC and KTUU.com. Joy will marry her fiancé Dale this summer in Seattle.

Kyu Ho Youm plans to teach international and comparative media law to American law students at the University of London in late June and in July. 

At ICA/Chicago in May, Leslie Steeves, Tom Bivins, and Bish Sen hosted a breakfast gathering of Oregon alums and continuing doctoral students, including Tien Lee (Kansas), Jane Marcellus (Middle Tennessee), Kumi Silva (Northeastern), David Monje (Northeastern), Nancy Worthington (Quinnipiac), Raul Reis  (Cal State-Long Beach), and Greg Blake Miller and Alina Padilla-Miller (continuing doctoral students).  

The SOJC RESEARCH NEWSLETTER is a monthly electronic newsletter, announcing research and creative work by SOJC faculty and graduate students. The newsletter is distributed each month during the academic year and includes:

* publications

* conference participation

* awards, grants, fellowships

* creative projects

* community projects

* theses, projects, dissertations

* work-in-progress

* other activities or achievements