DENVER, CO | Jan Slater, Illinois, was officially installed as the president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) during a special ceremony at the association’s annual conference in Denver on Friday, August 6.
Slater will succeed Carol J. Pardun, South Carolina, as the 92nd President of AEJMC. Slater will officially begin her term on October 1.
To help kick off the new year, we asked Jan in an email to share some of her thoughts and plans for AEJMC during her term as president.
In your campaign platform, you say that our focus should be on keeping AEJMC distinctive and adaptive in today’s media landscape, while keeping an eye on “what’s next”. Now that your time is here, how will you take on this mission? What’s next for AEJMC?
We must look at the changes in our disciplines, changes in the media and changes in our own academic institutions as opportunities. Some very exciting possibilities are surfacing that will help us in the classroom and in our research. Yet – we must engage with the profession to ensure that the education we provide is relevant and respected. AEJMC must be part of this charge and provide the means for the continuous exchange of ideas between the practitioners and the professors so that together we all can make meaningful contributions to educating the next generation. To that end, we will provide the forum for these discussion in a series of regional Idea Summits for Journalism and Mass Communication Education, where industry / education panels set the context for the future, followed by participant proposals and the development of a range of actions/activities to strengthen/support the evolving field. These will involve professionals, professors, educational administrators, students, and scholars. A planning committee is working on this during the Denver convention and we hope to have information out to the membership very soon.
Describe one way you plan to accomplish each of the following:
- strengthen the voice for journalism and mass communication education
- support research and professional activity
I’m hopeful that the Idea Summits will strengthen our voice among the professions, among our institutions and among our members. The stronger we connect with the professions and the communities we serve, I believe we help to solidify the importance of journalism and mass communication in general and journalism and mass communication education specifically.
We took a big step in this last year by developing the Scholar’s Program – which was a tactic born out of the strategic plan. The AEJMC Scholars Program awards $2,500 research and teaching grants to up to four AEJMC teams to encourage innovative and timely projects in journalism and mass communication. This program was very successful the first time. The other types of support are extending the reach of our journals, collaborating on projects and research with the professions and professional organizations, and using our Research You Can Use mechanism to tout the work of our members to a broader audience.
In your campaign platform, you compared your earliest experiences at AEJMC conferences to “having a back stage pass to a rock concert,” and feeling “star struck” by senior scholars. Now that you’re the star, how will you engage junior scholars while also charting the future of the association?
Well, I am certainly not the star! Senior – maybe!!!!!
Seriously, I believe we are setting up several good programs that will help junior scholars succeed – both in research and in teaching. The Standing Committee on Teaching hosted a pre-conference workshop on effective teaching and providing mentors for all participants. This committee also organizes the Doctors Are In session at the conference, where participants participate in 10 simultaneous discussion groups of rapid-sharing ideas and Q&A. (Think of it like speed dating meets group therapy for effective teaching.) The Scholars Program is also one of those opportunities.
As far as charting the future – our future is in those junior faculty. We all must work to engage them in the divisions, the standing committees, appointed committees, as part of panels and research presentations, workshops – all that we do should have junior faculty representation. That is what happened to me, senior people in the advertising division made me feel welcome and gave me a job the first year. The faculty at Syracuse – where I received my doctorate – made certain that all doctoral students submitted papers; worked with us on learning how to present research; and provided some funding for our travel to the conference. It was very empowering. We can all do that – within our divisions, within our departments, within our schools or colleges. We, as AEJMC members, should make every junior faculty member feel as if they have a back stage pass to our conference.
You have indicated that you believe AEJMC “should be driving the future” of the field as a “resource for those who are directing traffic.” What are some of the specfic goals you would like AEJMC to reach in order to do this, and how will you help the association achieve them during your term as president?
I hate to repeat myself – yet I have great hope that the outcome of the Idea Summits will be actionable deliverables that will be mutually beneficial to the professions as well as to our educational missions. I have also felt that there are opportunities to do research for the professions – that would provide insights on critical issues or unanswered problems. To do that, we have to be closer to the front lines of our industry and by working together we can enhance JMC education and JMC professions. The Idea Summits can be the mechanism for meaningful discussions that result in long term collaborations. That is how we help drive the future and direct the traffic. Stay tuned!
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Jan Slater is the newly appointed Interim Dean of the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (August 16, 2010). Slater will serve a two-year term extending through summer 2012.
Prior to her appointment at Illinois, Slater was an associate professor and the associate director of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University for nine years. She joined the academy following a long career as an advertising practitioner, working in private industry, as well as advertising agencies in Omaha, Nebraska. When she left the business, she was running a successful advertising agency, J. Slater & Associates.
Slater has been an active member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication since 1995. She has served on the Advertising Division’s executive committee – as research chair, teaching chair, vice head and head. She continues to work in the division as a co-chair of the Pre-conference Teaching Workshop, which is one of the longest running pre-conference programs. She served as vice chair and chair of the Council of Divisions for four years, and was a member of the AEJMC Strategic Planning Design Team. Slater is also a member of the Academic Committee of the American Advertising Federation.
Slater’s primary research focus is on brand strategy, media strategy and building brand relationships. Her research has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, MediaWeek, the Journal of Advertising Education, and Advances in Consumer Research. She is a contributing author to a series of advertising books published by Sage and co-author of “What’s in a Name? Advertising and the Concept of Brands.” She continues to consult for national and international companies and was recently invited to China to discuss automobile branding in China.
CONTACT: College of Media | University of Illinois | 810 South Wright Street, 103 Gregory Hall, Urbana, Illinois 61801 | (217) 333-1602 | slaterj@illinois.edu
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About AEJMC
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. Founded in 1912, the association is the oldest and largest alliance of journalism and mass communication educators and administrators at the college level. The association’s mission is to advance education, foster scholarly research, cultivate better professional practice and promote the free flow of communication. For more information about AEJMC, visit AEJMC.org.