Dimensions of News Media Brand Personality

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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A new research study published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly examines general and robust constructs of news media brand personality that are applicable across multiple news media outlets, including broadcast and cable news networks, national and local newspaper, and news magazines.

Through a series of rigorous exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis procedures with the final set of 48 personality traits, the authors show that that news media brand personality is composed of five dimensions: Trustworthiness, Dynamism, Sincerity, Sophistication, and Toughness.

One of the significant contributions of this study is to provide news media companies a reliable and valid method to assess their brand personality. [Read more...]

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Discussing JMC with… Jeremy Littau

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Jeremy LittauJeremy Littau has 10 years of experience in journalism after working at newspapers of different sizes, specializing in editing and writing both in print and online. He got his start at the Daily Democrat in Woodland, CA, and did the typical “move up the ladder” part of his career, landing at the Los Angeles Daily News in 2000. He spent four years at the Daily News before returning to school at Missouri. He earned his M.A. from Missouri in 2007 and is now in his final year in the Ph.D. program.

Jeremy’s research interests are found in new media trends in journalism and he is the author of several publications on the subject. He is currently an assistant professor at Lehigh University, specializing in multiplatform storytelling that makes use of audience conversation in the news process.

How do you define mass communication?

My answer probably won’t pop up in any textbooks, but I would define mass communication as the creation and transmission of messages for broad dissemination to an audience whose motives for consumption are imagined. I think that last part, the imagined audience receiving a broadly disseminated message, is the heart of mass communication. People working in the discipline are gathering information, constructing it into a message, and then sending it out to a faceless group of consumers. As a journalist, for example, I always tried to imagine who my readers were and what their needs were, and that led to a different style of communication than I would have with a friend, family member, or even a source I was interviewing.

Whether we’ve understood that audience as well as we should is a whole other can of worms, but that’s why we need research. [Read more...]

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Discussing JMC with… Bill Cassidy

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Inspired by the series on social media by Danny Brown, “Discussing JMC with…” features a collection of interviews with academics from across the U.S. and abroad discussing current topics and trends in journalism and mass communication.

Bill CassidyBill Cassidy is an Associate Professor and Journalism Area Coordinator in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University. The 2009-2010 head of the Newspaper Division of AEJMC, he teaches courses in print journalism, mass communication theory and graduate research methods.

His research examines influences on news media content, specifically in the areas of online journalism, media credibility and AIDS coverage. Cassidy’s work has been published in journals such as Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Atlantic Journal of Communication, and First Monday.

He earned his Ph.D. in Communication and Society from the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Houston and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa. Prior to entering academia, Cassidy worked for more than a decade as a columnist and correspondent for Daily Racing Form, the leading publication in the Thoroughbred horse racing industry.

How do you define mass communication?

In my classes I initially address this question from the standpoint of “What is mass media?” We start with the word media which, of course, are the different technologies that facilitate communication between the senders and receivers of messages. Then when we introduce mass into the conversation, we arrive at a definition of mass media similar to the one offered in Croteau and Hoynes’ Media Society textbook, “media that reach a relatively large audience of usually anonymous readers.” I find this definition is a good starting point in addressing the fact that the distinctions between mass communication and other forms of communication are no longer so cut-and-dried. [Read more...]

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Discussing JMC with… Amy Schmitz Weiss

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Inspired by the series on social media by Danny Brown, “Discussing JMC with…” features a collection of interviews with academics from across the U.S. and abroad discussing current topics and trends in journalism and mass communication.

Amy Schmitz WeissAmy Schmitz Weiss is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008. Dr. Schmitz Weiss is a former journalist who has been involved in new media for over a decade. She also has worked in business development, marketing analysis, and account management for several Chicago Internet media firms.

Her research interests include online journalism, media sociology, news production, and international communication. She has presented her research at several national and international conferences. Recent publications include a co-authored peer-reviewed journal article and a co-authored book that was published in December 2007. She is presently researching the role of collaborative processes in newsrooms in the United States and abroad. Dr. Schmitz Weiss is also investigating the importance and benefits of online distance education for the journalism industry as an innovative force in collaborative work and its ability to support journalistic communities of practice.

How do you define mass communication?

Mass communication aims to provide a wide lens on communication that encompasses a variety of mediums and messages and how the actors and audiences/publics interact with it. [Read more...]

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Discussing JMC with… Francesca Carpentier

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Inspired by the series on social media by Danny Brown, “Discussing JMC with…” features a collection of interviews with academics from across the U.S. and abroad discussing current topics and trends in journalism and mass communication.

Francesca CarpentierFrancesca Dillman Carpentier is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her teaching interests include television production, telecommunication management and policy, and media effects. Her research questions focus on how we process mass-mediated messages, with additional focus on understanding what motivates us to select certain media offerings over others.

Francesca’s academic work has been published in a number of journals inside and outside of the communication discipline, for example Media Psychology, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, International Journal on Media Management, Journal of School Violence, and Personality and Individual Differences. She has also written television scripts for children’s and educational videos.

How do you define mass communication?

I would broadly define ‘mass communication’ as any message delivered in any number of vehicles (high tech, low tech, or no tech) to an audience consisting of a group of individuals who might or might not share a number of similarities. [Read more...]

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Discussing JMC with… Ted Spiker

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Ted SpikerTed Spiker, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Florida, teaches Magazine Management, Magazine & Feature Writing, Advanced Magazine & Feature Writing, Finding Your Voice, Journalism as Literature, Health & Fitness Writing, and Applied Magazines—the course that produces the campus magazine, Orange & Blue. Spiker, a contributing editor to Men’s Health magazine, is also a freelance writer who specializes in health and fitness writing.

His work has also been published in Outside; O, The Oprah Magazine; Fortune; Women’s Health; Best Life; Prevention; Runner’s World; Reader’s Digest; Sports Illustrated Women; AARP The Magazine; and more. Spiker is also co-author of about a dozen books, including the national bestselling YOU: The Owner’s Manual series with Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Mike Roizen. Spiker is currently serving as the head of the AEJMC Magazine Division.

How do you define mass communication?

I think anytime we’re sending out messages to a group of people, that’s mass comm. But I tend to make a distinction depending on the audience. I think of mass communication as a form of media that sends a message to an audience that the sender doesn’t necessarily know personally. So to me, the traditional Facebook status updates (as opposed to fan pages) is merely talking to a group of friends electronically, but a Twitter update where you have followers you don’t know, that’s mass communication. The size doesn’t matter as much as the relationship. [Read more...]

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Discussing JMC with… Charles Davis

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Charles DavisCharles N. Davis is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism and the executive director for the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC), headquartered at the School.

Davis’ scholarly research focuses on access to governmental information and media law. He has published in law reviews and scholarly journals on issues ranging from federal and state freedom of information laws to libel law, privacy and broadcast regulation. He has earned a Sunshine Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his work in furthering freedom of information and the University of Missouri-Columbia Provost’s Award for Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching, as well as the Faculty-Alumni Award. In 2009, Davis was named the Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Teacher of the Year.

Davis has been a primary investigator for a research grant from the James S. and John L. Knight Foundation for NFOIC and another from the Rockefeller Family Fund for the study of homeland security and freedom of information issues. He was a co-investigator for an award from the U.S. Department of State for a curriculum reform project for Moscow State University in Russia.

Davis worked for newspapers and as a national correspondent for Lafferty Publications, a Dublin-based news wire service for financial publications, Davis reported on banking, e-commerce and regulatory issues for seven years before leaving full-time journalism in 1993.

How do you define mass communication?

Hmmm…..I wonder whether the question is whether the very nature of mass communication is changing in real time, with emphasis on the “mass.” Blogs, listservs, Twitter feeds – all can achieve what a decade ago required mass distribution. What that does to the relationship between the audience and the content mean these days, and how it works with and without interpersonal media – those are real questions worth pursuing. [Read more...]

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Discussing JMC with… David Cuillier

June 22, 2010 By 1 Comment
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David CullierDavid Cuillier joined the University of Arizona faculty in 2006 specializing in freedom of information after finishing his Ph.D. in Communication at Washington State University. His research has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Government Information Quarterly, Journalism, Newspaper Research Journal, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, and he is co-author with Charles N. Davis of The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Public Records (CQ Press, 2010, www.theartofaccess.com).

Cuillier, who was a newspaper reporter and editor for a dozen years in the Pacific Northwest before entering academia, teaches access to government records, public affairs reporting, computer-assisted reporting and other journalism courses. He is the research chair for the AEJMC Law & Policy Division, member of the International Communication Association, and is chairman of the Society of Professional Journalists Freedom of Information Committee. He was awarded the AEJMC Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award in 2007, is a four-time AEJMC Great Ideas for Teaching (GIFT) scholar, and the Promising Professor Award winner for graduate students in 2004 and for faculty in 2009.

How do you define mass communication?

The short answer: Mass communication is the communication of messages to the masses. The long answer: Mass communication includes a lot — journalism, propaganda, public relations, advertising, speech, twitter, blogs, etc., but sometimes students conflate some of these areas. I come from a journalism background and teach in a School of Journalism that has no public relations, advertising or communication studies tracks. We’re just journalism (print, broadcast, online, or any other medium for that matter). While I certainly respect someone’s decision to go into PR or another field, because those areas play an important role in society, I think we need more of a focus on journalism in college education. A student will think that writing a travel piece about a cruise line while being comped by the cruise line is journalism, when it’s not. Or they think that people yelling at each other on cable news is journalism. Or they think that exploiting celebrities on TMZ is journalism. It’s all mass communication, and it is communicated on journalism-like mediums, but it isn’t journalism.

I will go to the mat and defend to the death, from a First Amendment perspective, for the rights of people to yell, advertise, spin, and publish photos of drunk celebrities, but I don’t call it journalism. We need to make sure students understand that in journalism the first loyalty is to the citizen, not to another entity that may or may not be looking out for citizens’ interests, and that journalists verify information, get as close as they can to the truth, and seek justice and betterment of the societal good. That, in my opinion, is journalism, not mass communication. [Read more...]

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Book Review: Rhetoric Online: Persuasion and Politics on the World Wide Web

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Rhetoric Online: Persuasion and Politics on the World Wide Web. Barbara Warnick. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2007. 160 pp. $25.95 pbk.

Rhetoric Online is a concise and economical look at how the Internet affects rhetorical criticism, and how this relatively new medium has forced the communication field to examine and modify its conventional means of analysis.

The beauty of this small book is indeed its brevity and the author’s ability to pack much information in a relatively small space. Another part of its appeal is the author’s writing style; Barbara Warnick summarizes what she is about to say, she says it, and then gives a capsulized summary of what she says. [Read more...]

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No Evidence that Accredited Journalism Schools are Better than Unaccredited Ones

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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A 30-year review of research comparing and contrasting accredited journalism schools with unaccredited ones shows many more similarities than differences, and no conclusive evidence that accredited ones are significantly or consistently better than un-accredited ones in any important way.

The literature review, by Dr. Marc C. Seamon, assistant professor of communication at Robert Morris University, was printed in the Spring 2010 issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, a refereed quarterly published by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Columbia, S.C. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator is the world’s largest and oldest scholarly journal devoted entirely to education and training in journalism, media, and other mass communication. [Read more...]

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