The Individual Advanced Research Opportunities Program (IARO) provides students, scholars and professionals with support to perform policy relevant field research, in the countries of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. This is an IREX program. [Read more...]
Studies on Vanishing Jobs Aren’t Enough
September 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Journalists who are concerned about the loss of jobs at traditional news organizations do not have to look far for company. [Read more...]
AEJMC 2011 Southeast Colloquium
September 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The 2011 AEJMC Southeast Colloquium will take place March 17 to 19 at the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The Colloquium is co-sponsored by five AEJMC divisions: History, Law, Magazine, Newspaper, and Radio-Television Journalism. [Read more...]
Knight News Flash: Queens University of Charlotte receives $5.75 million from Knight Foundation
September 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Queens University of Charlotte becomes digital literacy pioneer with $5.75 million in support from Knight Foundation; School of Communication to be named for James L. Knight.
Half-Truths about a Journalism School
September 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Michael Bugeja
Earlier this month, the chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Phil DiStefano, announced his institution would explore discontinuation of the journalism school, noting that a committee has been formed to consider how to organize a new “information, communication and technology program.” [Read more...]
Book Review: Understanding Community Media
September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Understanding Community Media. Howley, Kevin (ed.) (2010). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. pp. 410.
Understanding Community Media, a new compilation edited by media scholar Kevin Howley, fills a gap in current literature as it provides a contemporary overview of the area of study that is often referred to as community media, but as Howley notes, other nomenclature has also been used to refer to it including “participatory,” “alternative,” and “citizen” (pp. 2-3). However, according to Howley, what this book attempts to do with its wide-ranging collection of articles, many of which are written as case studies, is “to capture the multidimensional character of community media through an examination of a geographically diverse field of countervailing structures, practices, and orientations to dominant media” (p. 3). [Read more...]
Book Review[s]: Changing Face of Journalism, New New Media, Mass Media Scholarship
September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The Changing Faces of Journalism: Tabloidization, Technology and Truthiness. Zelizer, Barbie (ed.) (2009). New York: Routledge. pp. 174.
New New Media. Levinson, Paul (2009). Boston: Allyn & Bacon Penguin Academics. pp. 226.
Arguing for a General Framework for Mass Media Scholarship. Potter, W. James (2009). Los Angeles: SAGE. pp. 394.
An impressive group of scholars weighs in on changing journalistic norms, and Barbie Zelizer does so understanding the challenge: “The very presence of change in academic inquiry has long been seen as a necessary but often risky aspect of the landscape of knowledge acquisition” (p. 1). Drawing upon sociology of knowledge, Zelizer sees “slow and gradual incorporation of change into academic thought” (p. 2). To the extent that we are in the business of creating new knowledge, change threatens to undo our treasured life’s work. Thus, Zelizer sees that “degrees of dissonance exist because journalism scholars have not sufficiently navigated pathways between journalism we imagine and journalism we have” (p. 3). The reminder is that journalistic realities may be diverse, even if we have greater consensus on ideals. The organizational structure of The Changing Faces of Journalism: Tabloidization, Technology and Truthiness divides essays along the three dimensions of tabloidization, technology, and truthiness—all popular concepts with limited theoretical development. [Read more...]
Book Review: Patronizing the Public: American Philanthropy’s Transformation of Culture, Communication, and the Humanities
September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Patronizing the Public: American Philanthropy’s Transformation of Culture, Communication, and the Humanities. Buxton, William J. (ed.) (2009). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. pp. 350.
Communication scholars increasingly are interested in philanthropies and philanthropic activities. Scholar-ship, courses, and new programs are devoted to the study of philanthropies. Typically, the focus is on how the study of communication can contribute to philanthropies and philanthropic activities. The University of Northern Iowa, for instance, offers an M.A. degree in philanthropic development, and the Department of Communication Studies offers courses in support of this program. The courses focus on how an understanding of communication can assist in the design of philanthropic campaigns and how communication theory can inform the choices philanthropies make. [Read more...]
Book Review: International News Reporting: Frontlines and Deadlines
September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
International News Reporting: Frontlines and Deadlines. Owen, John and Heather Purdey (eds.) (2009). West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 280.
This collection, nicely put together by John Owen and Heather Purdey (both faculty of City University of London), is devoted to the nuts and bolts, as well as the real challenges, facing international news reporting. The book is composed of fourteen articles written by widely seasoned news professionals. The topics of the book include traumas and crises that reporters face: news staff’s personal safety, overall trends in international news, the operation and business of news agencies around the world, challenges derived from new media technologies, photo journalism, different kinds of reporting staff/careers, news sources, and diplomacy and international relations. One can immediately recognize from this list of topics that the book is rather comprehensive and incorporates all key issues that students who aspire to become international journalists must grasp. It is extremely rich with up-to-date information about the field and is full of details from great experiences that these veteran journalists and news managers share in their articles. [Read more...]
Book Review: Examining Identity in Sports Media
September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Examining Identity in Sports Media. Hundley, Heather L. and Andrew C. Billings (eds.) (2010). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. pp. 279.
In an era of news media cutbacks, layoffs, and closures, the sports mass media segment of the industry is booming. Ratings for programming on sports cable channels are on the rise, and sports-oriented social media sites are expanding. Experts tout increased sports coverage and team-centered, subscriber-based Web sites as ways for newspapers to “rejuvenate themselves,” as veteran journalist Tim McGuire put it recently. [Read more...]