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Recent News
- Faculty and Graduate Students Represent CoMC at 2016 AEJMC Conference -
By: Rachel Blevins
The Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication was represented at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference on Aug. 4-7 with six "top paper" awards and 45 presentations from faculty and graduate students.
Glenn Cummins, associate dean for research, won the first place faculty paper award in the advertising division for his work on "Processing Capacity in Visual Search: The Impact of Visual Salience and Involvement on Attention."
"Conferences like AEJMC are a great way to help spread the word about what great scholars we have here at Texas Tech," Cummins said. "Researchers from other universities really do pay attention to who wins these awards, and it's great to see the College of Media & Communication win so many of these."
Nathian Rodriguez, a mass communications doctoral student, won the top student paper award in the mass communication and society division for his paper, "Negotiation of Sexual Identity in Gay On-Air Talent on West Texas Mainstream Media."
Rodriguez will start as an assistant digital studies professor at San Diego State University in the fall, and he said he was honored to receive the award for his work during his time as a graduate student at CoMC.
"It's such a great honor," Rodriguez said. "The fact that the paper is a qualitative auto-ethnography on LGBT issues in media makes it even more rewarding."
Lea Hellmueller, a former journalism professor, and Sadia Cheema, a mass communications doctoral student, received the international communication division third place faculty paper award for their work on "Construction Through the Collaboration of Global News Startups with Freelancers."
Justin Keene, an assistant electronic media & communications professor, Eric Rasmussen, an assistant public relations professor, and CoMC doctoral students Collin Berke, Travis Loof and Rebecca Densley, won the first place faculty paper award in the mass communication and society division, for their paper, "Co-viewing as Social Facilitation of Children's Cognitive Processing of Educational Television Content."
Loof said he was excited to receive national recognition for the paper, and Berke noted that it would not have been possible without the resources provided by Texas Tech within CoMC.
"Understanding how children and parents consume media is an important topic for families across the globe," Loof said. "We were excited to have a national conference showcase the important research we conduct here at Texas Tech."
Yunjuan Luo, an assistant journalism professor, and Alexander Moe, a mass communications doctoral student, won the top faculty paper award in the Communication Theory and Methodology Division for their work on, "A Meta-Analysis of News Media's Agenda-Setting Effects, 1972-2015."
Nicole Lee, a mass communications doctoral student, won the top student paper award in the Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk Division, for her paper "Testing the Effects of Dialogic Communication on Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions Related to Polarized and Non-polarized Scientific Issues."
Lee will start as an assistant public relations professor at North Carolina State University in the fall, and she said that because her submission was part of her dissertation for CoMC, she was excited to see that her hard work had paid off.
"It means a lot that my last project as a student, my dissertation, was recognized as a top student paper," Lee said. "Receiving this award was a great way to end my time at Texas Tech. It's exciting to see how many top papers our college received and to be among them."
- Berke, C. K., Loof, T., Densley, R., Rasmussen, E., Keene, J.R. (August, 2016). Co-viewing as social facilitation of children's cognitive processing of educational television content. Paper presented to the Mass Communication and Society Division at the annual meeting of the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- Nathian Rodriguez's manuscript "#FIFAputos: A Twitter Textual Analysis over "Puto" at the 2014 World Cup" has been accepted for publication in the next issue of Sports and Communication.
Coy Callison, Ph.D., associate dean of graduate programs in the College of Media & Communication, has been awarded a competitive sponsored research grant by the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation to conduct research focused on messaging related to the water scarcity-agriculture interface on the South Plains.
Callison said what inspired him to pursue the grant centered on this research topic is because water resources and water availability are areas of concern for people living in Texas.
"The population continues to grow in Texas while water availability does not," Callison said. "If something is not done to better steward our available freshwater, there will have to be dramatic changes to the West Texas way of life—in fact, there will likely need to be dramatic change regardless."
Agriculture supports the region financially and in some ways is the root of the culture in West Texas, Callison said.
"I want to be able to help farmers and other ag users sustain their business for generations to come, and to do that, we need to work together to better understand not only that water scarcity is a threat, but also that there may be some practical actions that can be implemented to sustain the resource," Callison said.
Agriculture, Callison said, accounts for the lion's share of water use from the Ogallala Aquifer, the main aquifer on the South Plains, and he is excited to apply his previous research about source and message factors in persuasion to an area that can directly improve the lives of West Texans.
"Farmers and livestock producers can be credited, along with some others, with building this state," Callison said. "Their tax money allows places like Texas Tech to exist. I like the idea of trying to help them and the rest of us who call West Texas home."
- Dr. John Velez will present his paper - "Examining educational and interactive elements in simulation interventions for reducing stigma toward Autism Spectrum Disorder" – at a pre-conference for the annual International Communication Association conference in Fukuoka, Japan this June. The pre-conference is entitled "Just Games"?
- Dr. Eko will present two papers at ICA: "Charlie Hebdo, the French and English language Media in Canada," and "Teletex and Videotext as early social media in France." He will also present as part of an AEJMC panel exploring how media law and policy are being shaped by global communication patterns and the extent to which media laws and policies are flowing across borders.
News Archive
- Dr. Lily Luo learned recently that a paper for which she is first author - Luo, Y., Burley, H., Moe, A., & Sui, M. (2016). "A meta-analysis of news media's agenda-setting effects, 1972-2015" - has won the top faculty paper and top theory paper award in the Communication Theory & Methodology Division at AEJMC in August. She will also present a second paper at AEJMC.
- Kaitlyn Kravik will soon be starting a full time production position with ESPN in Bristol, CT after working with the Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks for the past couple of years.
- May 2016 EMC graduate Daisy Brown was accepted into the creative MA program at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei, Taiwan.
- From Steven Holmes, 2010 EMC alum who works at Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, CA: "On Monday, I'm moving from my position as an Automation/Test Engineer on the BattleNet team to a Technical Designer on the Heroes of the Storm team. I'll be working on battlegrounds. Translation for the uninitiated: I'm moving from an infrastructure position onto a design team proper, something I've been wanting to do for years. Positions for the specific kind of work I'm going to do are very rare, but I finally worked my way into one. It's exactly what I want to do. And I'm ecstatic."
- Drs. Leo Eko and Lea Hellmueller will present their paper, "Charlie Hebdo and the journalistic paradigm in Europe and the US," at the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) conference in Leicester, UK this July.
- Dr. Robert Peaslee will co-chair the opening panel at the 2016 Comic Con International Comic Arts Conference in San Diego, CA, entitled "The Joker: A serious study of the Clown Prince of Crime."
- Ashlyn Tubbs, EMC 2014, picked up a Regional Edward R. Murrow award from RTNDA on April 19! Her story Love and Order that aired on KCBD-TV will be up for a national Murrow later in the year! Here's a link to the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE4jZNRd_VM
- COMC PhD student Steven Holiday's original research article, "Animal Crackers in My…Book?: Effects of Shared Reading on Parents' Memory for Product Placement in Children's Books" has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Family Studies. This study was developed as part of Steven's master's thesis at BYU and was prepared and submitted for publication as a result of Dr. Weiwu Zhang's Publishing Academic Research course.
- College of Media & Communication Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Affairs Miglena Sternadori, Ph.D., is the co-editor of "Gender and Work: Exploring Intersectionality, Resistance and Identity," which will be available for purchase May 1.
Sternadori said the book, which she co-edited with Carolyn Prentice, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of South Dakota, looks at how society defines the concepts of "work" and "having it all."
"The book's most important element, to me, is that no assumptions are to be left unchallenged and nothing is to be taken for granted," Sternadori said. "This is a theme that runs across the book's 16 chapters, which come from a variety of contributors and teams."
Sternadori said the idea for the book came from a proposal she wrote for a "Gender and Work" conference where she had the opportunity to hear insights from professors and administrators who studied implicit bias against female faculty in the workplace.
"The project took about two years, starting from the time I wrote the call for proposals for the 'Gender and Work' conference, which became the foundation for this book," Sternadori said. "The idea for the book was fully formed in the spring of 2015, after the conference, where many of the presentations were so outstanding that they clearly deserved to be shared with a wider audience."
Robert Peaslee, Ph.D., chairperson of the Department of Journalism & Electronic Media in CoMC, called Sternadori's work in gender and media studies "vital and timely."
"We are very fortunate to have her as a colleague and a leader in our college," Peaslee said. "This volume will be useful to scholars and students across a variety of disciplines and further demonstrates the quality, rigor, and diversity of research being conducted by our faculty."
Sternadori said the book is a widely interdisciplinary collection that appeals to a scholarly audience.
"It sends the message that there is no single way to investigate and define individual fulfillment and social justice," Sternadori said. "I hope any reader who leafs through the book would be willing to check out a chapter that is outside of his or her area of expertise. As Einstein said, 'If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research.'"
"Gender and Work: Exploring Intersectionality, Resistance and Identity" can be purchased from Cambridge Scholars' website and will be available for purchase on Amazon and as an e-book in coming months.
- The book "Marvel Comics into Film: Essays on Adaptions Since the 1940s," which was edited by Texas Tech faculty and staff members Robert Peaslee, Matthew McEniry and Robert Weiner, is now available for purchase.
Peaslee, chairperson of the Department of Journalism & Electronic Media in the College of Media & Communication, said the book was the result of trying to trace the early development of what has become the "Marvel Cinematic Universe."
"This book came out of a fascination with the rise of Marvel Studios as a filmmaking force in American cinema, something that one takes for granted today, but for decades prior to the late-2000s was more or less unimaginable," Peaslee said.
McEniry, an assistant metadata librarian at Texas Tech, said the project that launched the book began in September 2014, and, when the editors submitted the draft, it was a total of 570 pages.
"The volume itself is a unique look into the historical machinations of what worked and what failed before the Marvel Cinematic Universe beginning with 2008's Iron Man," McEniry said. "While some modern films appear in the chapters, most are focused on what has transpired between the 1940s and early 2000s in film, television, and other Marvel-themed media."
Weiner, a popular culture/humanities librarian at Texas Tech, called the Marvel Universe "one of the most vast and complicated networks in the history of graphic narrative storytelling," and he said that with more than 3,000 characters to work with, it is natural that many of them would have filmic iterations.
"We included essays on animated films such as the Japanese Tomb of Dracula, Black Panther, Ultimate Avengers and Planet Hulk," Weiner said. "In addition, we have essays on films that were licensed properties at the time the films were made during the 1980s like Conan, Transformers, My Little Pony and G.I. Joe."
Peaslee noted that most of the book explores lesser-known Marvel properties, their adaptation into feature film properties, their relationship to the television industry, and the way their histories underpin the phenomenon they have become today.
"We hope the book provides useful perspective on the Marvel Cinematic Universe as something long in gestation, a product of countless fits and starts, and as a network of international affiliations and relationships that go back to the earliest days of the superhero phenomenon," Peaslee said.
McEniry said the intent of the editors was to create a book that gives the most historical context of Marvel productions and includes international influences, balanced by enough theory to keep it interesting.
"If you've always wanted to know more about the Japanese and Toei influence on Marvel, the rock-and-roll adventure in Transformers: the Movie (1988), critical and post feminism commentary of the super heroine Elektra, Captain America's journey to the silver screen, or why Howard the Duck (1986) was a really bad movie, then this book has something in it that will be sure to grab your attention," McEniry said.
Weiner said he has had the idea for book for years, and he hopes readers can appreciate how much Marvel has grown and changed over the years and how that change relates to society.
"We hope readers will come away with a greater understanding of how sequential art characters are translated to film throughout history and come away with just how important these characters are to the collective consciousness of our global society," Weiner said.
- Public relations major Nicole Lundberg was recently named the runner-up with an honorable mention in the 2016 PRWeek Student of the Year competition at PRWeek's annual awards ceremony in New York City.
Lundberg, a junior PR and honors student from Albuquerque, N.M., is the second student in as many years from the Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication to make it to the final round of the competition.
Described as "a reporter's dream" by one judge, Lundberg said the Student of Year competition gave her the opportunity to network with professionals in the field and new hope for her budding career.
"Being recognized by PRWeek is a tremendous honor," Lundberg said. "As a finalist, I was able to travel to New York and meet some of the most accomplished people in the industry. It was a phenomenal opportunity for learning and professional development, and I am now more excited than ever about my future."
Sun Lee, Ph.D., started as Lundberg's professor and became her mentor during the competition. She said Lundberg's success is a testament to both the quality of the Department of Public Relations and to Lundberg's character as a student.
"Nicole is a naturally talented student in this area, but she also has a talent for seeking out advice from professors and other knowledgeable people, and she is willing to actually listen to and absorb the advice that others give her," Lee said. "I think that's when the synergy takes place, and I feel really thrilled when the synergy happens."
Trent Seltzer, Ph.D., assistant dean for graduate studies and former public relations department chair, said he hopes Lundberg's experience will inspire more CoMC students to compete in national competitions.
"Not only is this an amazing honor for Nicole, but it says a lot about the strength of our program," Seltzer said. "We've fielded two students in two years; both made it to the top five. It's just more evidence of what the faculty have known for a long time – our students are fantastic and can compete with public relations majors from any program in the country."
Lundberg said she initially entered the competition to gain experience, and she was thrilled by her success and by the fact that she was received so much support from faculty within the Department of Public Relations.
"Texas Tech has a phenomenal PR program that really sets students up to succeed," Lundberg said. "I would advise other students to take advantage of it. If you're willing to put in the work, it's a great opportunity."
- The Hub@TTU, a multimedia student-run publication within the College of Media & Communication, has been recognized with awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Barbara Jordan Media awards, and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
The Hub won multiple awards from the SPJ Region 8 Mark of Excellence awards, including Best Independent Online Student Publication for the third year in a row and Best Digital-Only Student Publication for the first time. The Hub also won the award for Best Use of Multimedia for the first time for its "West Texas Water Issues" microsite, which was created by Sarah Self-Walbrick, Nicole Molter, Kaitlin Thogmartin, and Anibal Galindo.
Sarah Self-Walbrick, the graduate executive director for the Hub, said winning national awards is very humbling, especially considering the fact that the Hub is only going into its fourth year of publication.
"I'm very proud of our past and current staff, as well as the students who frequently contribute, for making The Hub@TTU a prestigious collegiate publication," Self-Walbrick said. "For me, winning the Best Independent Online Student Publication for the third year in a row is the most exciting. That category is judged by content published this semester, so it is nice to be told that we are still doing a good job and maintaining high standards year after year."
Members of the Hub were finalists in the Mark of Excellence awards category of "Online News Reporting," including Breann Robinson's story "Does Towing Make You Trucking Mad?" and Maddy McCarty's story "Where Did the Vending Machines Go?"
The Hub also won first-time awards such as a "College Digital New Silver Crown" award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and a Barbara Jordan Media award for David Talley's story "The Navigation Equation – How Blind Students Take On Texas Tech."
Self-Walbrick noted that because of membership, this was the first year the Hub was eligible to compete in the CSPA Gold Crown Awards.
"This award is the highest given by CSPA, so even getting a Silver Crown is a big honor, especially for our first year," Self-Walbrick said. "It is a national competition, so it is always nice to receive those bigger awards. I think this is just a sign for what is to come."
Miglena Sternadori, Ph.D., the faculty adviser for the Hub, said she has watched the online publication grow over the last year in its use of multimedia elements and in its quality of news writing.
"I think the Hub has had a long history of excellence," Sternadori said. "What I have seen change since the fall is an increased use of multimedia elements, which is crucial for a digital-only publication. I have also seen a higher quality of news writing, which makes the Hub's content interesting and readable."
Rob Peaslee, Ph.D., chairperson for the Department of Journalism & Electronic Media, said he hopes the Hub's success will inspire more students within CoMC and Texas Tech as a whole to get involved.
"It gives me great pleasure to see the hard work of our students and faculty awarded at the national level," Peaslee said. "Alicia Keene, Sarah Self-Walbrick, and Dr. Miglena Sternadori should be recognized especially for their steadfast dedication to quality journalism and for bringing what is still a new enterprise to such levels of excellence."
Self-Walbrick said she believes the best is yet to come, and she credited the Hub's staff and volunteers with helping to make it the award-winning publication it is today.
"As always, The Hub@TTU has an awesome staff and volunteers," Self-Walbrick said. "Our reporters have taken on some great topics this past year, and I think the website's content has been more diverse than ever. Judging by our high page views and increased social media numbers, I think we're doing something right."
- Justin Rex, a junior electronic media & communication major, was named as a finalist in Photographer's Forum's 36th annual College & High School Photography Contest.
Rex said his entry photo depicts a candlelight vigil held by the Texas Tech French Club for the victims of the Paris, France terrorist attacks, at Memorial Circle on Nov. 18, 2015, and it was taken while he was on assignment for the Daily Toreador, the Texas Tech student newspaper.
"I learned about this competition while still in community college and had a finalist photo in last year's competition as well," Rex said. "With that experience I chose to enter three photos this year because I thought they were well suited for the competition."
Andrea Watson, an assistant director and media adviser with Texas Tech student media, said Rex's work has been a valuable asset for both the Daily Toreador and La Ventana, Texas Tech's annual yearbook.
"As a photographer for The Daily Toreador and La Ventana, Justin showed he has a great eye for capturing unique images at any type of event, and his candlelight vigil photo is a great example of that," Watson said. "This will certainly be a nice resume builder for him."
A native of Houston, Rex said he was inspired to pursue a career in photography after viewing the work of Tim Hetherington, a British photojournalist who documented the war in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2010.
"I was a senior in high school in early 2011 when I first saw his photos before he unfortunately died several months later in Libya," Rex said. "Since then, I have closely followed other photographers, but something about his images resonated with me and helped to inspire me to pursue a career in photojournalism."
The Hub@TTU was named a finalist in the College Digital News category of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association 2016 Crown Awards.
Sarah Self-Walbrick, the Hub's graduate managing director, said this is the organization's first time competing in the Crown Awards, and she is excited that the site has been named a finalist in a category that judges overall content.
"The Crown Awards recognize overall excellence, not just for one particular story, so it is nice to essentially be told that we are doing an excellent job," Self-Walbrick said. "It is very competitive, and we are just honored to be finalists. But, of course, we hope to win it all!"
Miglena Sternadori, Ph.D., the faculty adviser for the Hub, described the Columbia Scholastic Press Association as an international organization affiliated with Columbia University in New York City, which is an Ivy-League university with one of the top journalism schools in the country.
"I think it means that The Hub@TTU stands out as an online-only student publication in comparison to dozens or even hundreds of other such digital publications in the country," Sternadori said. "And this recognition is well-deserved because the Hub's content meets both high journalistic standards and the multimedia potential offered by its digital platform."
In addition to being nominated for the award, one of the highlights of Fall 2015 was the Hub's partnership with the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Sternadori said. The AJ agreed to print certain stories that were previously published on the Hub's website.
"For students who see their stories published by a professional media organization, it is an enormous recognition of their work and a valuable addition to their portfolio," Sternadori said. "Most recently, the AJ ran Maddy McCarty's investigative piece, 'Changing a culture of assault.'"
Self-Walbrick said she has watched the Hub grow and change immensely during the two years she has been involved, and she looks forward to watching it continue to develop in the coming semesters.
"I hope the Hub continues to grow and produce astounding content," Self-Walbrick said. "I think the fact that we have been so successful with such a small staff says a lot, but I would love to see our staff and production numbers increase. But, for now I think we're headed in the right direction."
Sternadori said the Hub is also working on a new investigative and features microsite looking at diversity on campus and in Lubbock that will be launched in Spring 2016.
- Texas Tech Public Media Wins Two EMMY Awards - Texas Tech University Public Media received two Emmy awards from the Lone Star Region of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences on Nov. 7 for the documentaries "Guns Up: The History of Raider Red" and "Put Me to Suffering."
Paul Hunton, the general manager for KTTZ-TV, was the director of both films. He said that while awards aren't everything, an Emmy is "one of the most recognizable symbols of excellence in television," and it reflects the commitment President Duane Nellis and his administration have made to the university.
"Awards aren't everything, but at the same time I think they reflect the hard work and passion we put into every project," Hunton said. "It also represents the generosity and confidence that the people of Lubbock entrust in us with sharing their stories with our audience."
Hunton, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Broadcast Production from Eastern New Mexico University in 2005, has worked with Texas Tech Public Media since 2011. He described "Guns Up: The History of Raider Red" as a project that was an idea for a while before it finally received the funding to become a reality.
"The Texas Tech Federal Credit Union stepped up and funded the production," Hunton said. "Working with them was a complete joy, and the film itself reflects the fun we had in making it. From a cartoon to a national icon, following the trajectory of the Raider Red story was a fascinating underdog story that really resonates with audiences."
Daniel Ballard (BA electronic media & communication, 2007), a producer with KTTZ-TV, was responsible for filming and editing portions and color correcting "Guns Up: The History of Raider Red." He said one of the most memorable parts was conducting interviews to include in the film.
"I remember a day when Paul and I traveled to Dallas to do some interviews and that it was an incredibly long day," Ballard said. "We left at 6 in the morning and didn't get back until about 10 that night. The movie was a lot of fun to work on because people were so willing and happy to talk about their experiences with or even as Raider Red."
After earning a bachelor's from Texas Tech in 2007, Ballard earned his Master of Arts in Film from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2010 and then returned to Texas Tech to work as a producer with KTTZ in 2013. He said winning an Emmy has been a goal of his, ever since he realized it was a possibility.
"Winning an Emmy has been a goal of mine since the station was nominated in 2013," Ballard said. "They were nominated for a story that was before I even worked here, but once I knew that winning an Emmy was actually a thing that we could accomplish, I was determined to do the best work I could to try and make it happen."
Reagan Doyal (BA electronic media & communication, 2012) is the education/outreach content director at KTTZ. He said he worked as a producer for "Guns Up: The History of Raider Red" and as the assistant director for "Put Me to Suffering."
"Winning an Emmy for these projects really validates all the work that we have been working on together as a team," Doyal said. "It also really makes me appreciate all the opportunities that Tech has given me as a student and an employee."
Doyal said that when working on "Guns Up: The History of Raider Red," he was inspired by the fact that Raider Red started out as a cartoon by Dirk West, which articulated the personality of Texas Tech, and was then brought to life by the Saddle Tramps.
"Working on 'Guns Up!' showed me that Raider Red is much more than just a mascot," Doyal said. "He is the embodiment of the pride that so many people have for Tech. He isn't just something that somebody thought looked cool."
Hunton said "Put Me to Suffering" was created as a segment from a larger project called "Life. Hope. Courage: Stories of Cancer."
"The story details Reverend Ted Dotts and his decision to forego treatment for cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2014," Hunton said. "It's a story of deep love and faith between Ted and his wife Betty. I wish I could have known Ted Dotts longer. The one hour I spent with him changed my life."
Doyal said the film was a very emotional project to work on, due to the subject matter, and due to the fact that Dotts died 10 days after his interview with Doyal and Hunton.
"He really lived a life that was about loving others and looking out for those who have been neglected," Doyal said. "His views on God, life, death, and grace came with the authority of someone who struggled through those concepts, but had absolute confidence in their reality."
Doyal said he and Hunton had an interview scheduled with Dotts' wife, Betty, and they expected it to be cancelled when he died the day before. However, Betty Dotts insisted on continuing with the interview at the scheduled time, and she said it was because she knew how important to project was to her husband.
"Spending time with Betty was incredibly special," Doyal said. "After so many years of marriage she was still madly in love with him and missed him terribly, but she also had this amazing hope and faith in where he was now and was more grateful for the time she did get to spend with him. Through our time with her, it also was really evident how much she cared about other people and how she wanted to be there for all the people for whom Ted meant so much."
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and College of Media & Communication alumnus and Hall of Fame member Robert Montemayor died Oct. 22 at the age of 62. He had been battled diabetes and cancer for the last several years.
Born on Jan. 31, 1953, in Tahoka, Texas, Montemayor graduated from Texas Tech University with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1975. He began his professional career as a feature and news writer at the Dallas Times Herald.
Sally Post, the senior director of communications for the Office of the Vice President for Research at Texas Tech, said she worked with Montemayor at the campus newspaper, then called the University Daily, in the early 1970s.
"Robert was one of the most dedicated, talented journalists that I've ever known," Post said. "He had a passion for journalism and telling stories that made a difference to society. Robert made a huge impact on our industry."
Montemayor served as the student newspaper's editor from 1974-1975. Jeff Klotzman, a CoMC alumnus and news anchor for Fox 34 in Lubbock, described Montemayor as an honest and ethical journalist, beginning with his time at the University Daily.
"On the masthead of the University Daily during Robert's editorship was this quote, 'It's the business of this newspaper to raise constructive hell,'" Klotzman said. "He did, and he did it so well within the confines of journalism ethics, creativity and reliability all the years of his magnificent career."
Montemayor joined the Los Angeles Times in 1978. During his time as a staff writer, he was part of a team that was awarded the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service for a 21-part series of stories on Latinos in Southern California that was later published as a book.
Jerry Hudson, Ph.D., founding dean, and now dean emeritus of CoMC, described Montemayor as "a great man and beloved patriarch" who was honored many times by his alma mater.
"Robert was more than just a journalist," Hudson said. "He was a Pulitzer Prize winner and a dedicated professional who had passion for making a difference in the lives of people through his reporting."
Montemayor earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1986. He then went on to work in New York City as a media executive specializing in consumer retention and marketing with Dow Jones & Co., BPI Communications, Inc., The McGraw-Hill Companies and Business Week Magazine.
In addition to authoring the book "Right Before Our Eyes: Latinos Past, Present and Future," Montemayor established a consulting company, served on the board of directors of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Berkeley, California, and worked as a journalism professor and director of the Latino Information Network at Rutgers University.
Montemayor was inducted into the College of Media & Communication's Hall of Fame in 2012, and a scholarship for recruiting incoming CoMC freshman students has been established in his name.
- CoMC Alumnus Demonstrates Evolution Of Digital Marketing - One graduate from the Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication is making a difference in the world of marketing by working with a company that lets its employees work when they want, where they want.
Mat Threadgill, the vice president of Client Services at Standing Dog Interactive, graduated from CoMC with a bachelor's in advertising in 2000. He described the Dallas-based company, which has been running for 10 years and currently has over 70 employees, as the perfect example of how marketing has evolved over the years.
"Standing Dog has a very flexible work environment. You can work where you want, when you want, as long as you're getting your job done," Threadgill said. "It takes a lot of responsibility, but it also makes business more efficient."
Threadgill explained that in addition to being a full service digital strategies marketing firm that specializes in search engine optimization, paid online media, search media, social media content marketing and analytics and tracking, Standing Dog strives to help its employees find a balance between work life and home life.
"Our CEO has put his money where his mouth is in terms of principles," Threadgill said. "We want people to have a good work-life balance. When people have the time to do more of the stuff they want, it makes them better employees and they work harder in return."
After graduating from Texas Tech, Threadgill said that he tried out several different areas of marketing, including working for a branding, marketing and advertising agency, and starting a small marketing firm with a partner. He then found his current job at Standing Dog two years ago.
"At Standing Dog, I am responsible for the overall marketing strategies for our clients and for making sure that what we're doing from a digital marketing standpoint positively impacts the business," Threadgill said. "We are the single point of contact for the client, and my job is to know their business really well and to make sure that what we're doing on the digital side has a positive impact."
Threadgill also has experience in recruiting, and he said that when looking for someone to hire, he generally looks for three things: a willingness to learn, a willingness to work hard, and the ability to problem solve.
"A good résumé that shows a lot of experience is key," Threadgill said. "You can get good grades in all of your classes, but in my opinion, real world experience is just as important. I think it's important to work and to have internships, because they show the seriousness of a student."
As a CoMC graduate, Threadgill said that the education he received at the college gave him a great foundation in terms of knowing how to learn. He added that he was also inspired by the professors who taught him how to think creatively and how to problem solve, because those are attributes he uses is his day-to-day life.
"I think Texas Tech offers a very good, well-rounded degree that focuses more on learning how to learn, than just learning facts," Threadgill said. "That's important in the world of marketing, because whatever we learn today will change a year from now."
- CoMC students producing content with MCTV, KTXT-FM and The Hub@TTU have been named as finalists in the list of 2015 production awards from the College Broadcaster's Inc. and the South Central Broadcasting Society.
Finalists in the 2015 CBI national production awards include MCTV in the "best video special broadcast" category, The Hub@TTU in the "best student media website" category, and KTXT-FM in the "best station imaging" category.
MCTV, a weekly newscast that showcases the anchoring, reporting and production skills of CoMC students, received a nomination for its story "2015 LIVE SGA Executive Candidate Forum" at Texas Tech in February.
Josh Robinson, the media production manager for CoMC, is in charge of editing, directing and producing MCTV's weekly newscasts. He said that this is the first year any student production units from CoMC have submitted entries to CBI's national competition.
"Both the Hub and MCTV have been finalists in other contests over the last few years," Robinson said. "But, to be honest, most of those contests have been regional-based. To have any content from either group listed as finalists in a national competition is a huge deal for MCTV, The Hub and the College of Media & Communication."
The MCTV Newscast is also a finalist in the News Program category of the South Central Broadcasting Society's competition. Three CoMC students were named as finalists in the competition: Carly Smith and Laura Duclos in the Best Television Talent category, and Sarah Self-Walbrick in the Audio Podcast category.
Smith, a spring 2015 CoMC graduate with a bachelor's in electronic media and communications, was nominated for "On Camera Weather Talent." And Duclos, a junior journalism major, was nominated for "On Camera Talent."
"I'm involved with MCTV because I know that I'm learning things and gaining experience that I wouldn't be able to get in a classroom," Duclos said. "I'm definitely a 'do-er' and helping out with MCTV is all about being hands-on and also learning by—a lot of— trial-and-error."
Self-Walbrick, a graduate student in mass communications and the Hub's graduate managing director, interned with KTTZ in spring 2015. One of the packages she did for the station, titled "John Denver at Texas Tech," led to her award nomination.
"I am very proud of how it turned out, and it is an honor to see that other people found it as interesting as I did," Self-Walbrick said. "The story ended up being shared by a Texas history page on Facebook called 'Traces of Texas,' which helped it get thousands of views. It is one of the most viewed stories of my career, and one of my favorites as well."
The Hub@TTU, a multimedia student-run publication, provides CoMC students with a "hub" of information, entertainment and news. As a finalist for the "best student media website," Robinson said that the Hub's nomination was especially significant, according to Robinson.
"The Hub is used to showcase all aspects of what we are producing here in the college," Robinson said. "Everything from video production, to photography; from journalistic writing to social media analysis – that contest really gives us a chance to show off what our students can do."
Self-Walbrick said, "The best thing about being an online media outlet is the freedom to tell a story how we want."
"The Hub@TTU is striving to have more multimedia elements, and being a finalist in the CBI National Student Publication Awards encourages to do even more," she added.
Robinson said that although the college only walked away from the CBI awards with three nominations, that is still an impressive accomplishment, considering that this is the first time entries have been submitted, and the competition is tough.
"Sometimes students have a tendency of not seeing how good of a job they are doing, and they doubt the quality of their work," Robinson said. "But when they do submit entries and become finalists or win awards, it's always rewarding to see their faces light up knowing that they actually are better than they think."
Derrick Ginter, the general manager of KTXT-FM, said that the nominations for the student-run radio station, as well as MCTV and the Hub, are proof that the educational opportunities available at both Texas Tech and CoMC are both valuable and exemplary.
"For Texas Tech to have finalists in three categories in our first year of competition is excellent! It speaks very highly of our students and their work," Ginter said. "The competition is quite stiff, so having CoMC students as contenders in these categories is an awesome achievement!"
- The Department of Journalism & Electronic Media is celebrating National News Engagement Day with a guest lecture by Dahlia Lithwick at 2 p.m. on Oct. 6, in room 281 of the College of Media & Communication.
An award-winning writer, Lithwick is currently the senior editor at Slate, a daily online magazine that covers the topics of politics, business, technology and the arts. She also writes columns for the magazine such as "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence."
Lithwick has a BA from Yale University and a JD from Stanford University. She covers political, educational and legal topics, and has been the guest on networks such as CNN and ABC, and on shows such as "The Colbert Report" and "The Rachel Maddow Show."
Rob Peaslee, Ph.D., chairperson for the Department of Journalism & Electronic Media, described Lithwick as an individual who has spent several years crafting cogent, timely, and precise writing on issues related to media, law and society.
"We are very pleased to invite her to speak to our students as part of National News Engagement Day," Peaslee said. He also noted that Lithwick is an ideal guest for this year's NNED, because the event will focus on the effect the news media have on the democratic process.
"Last year, we marked NNED with a panel discussion on what engagement looks like today, particularly from the perspective of campus and local news producers," Peaslee said. "This year, we focus on the stakes surrounding engagement and particularly on news engagement's relationship to democratic citizenship, privilege and responsibility. Ms. Lithwick is ideally placed to speak on these issues, and we feel fortunate to be hosting her at Texas Tech."
- College of Media & Communication graduate Christina Gutierrez will be featured on the new ABC Family cable channel series "Job or No Job," a reality TV show that follows her as she goes through the process of seeking a job after college.
Gutierrez graduated from CoMC in May, with a bachelor's in advertising, and she said that when she pictured her life after college, appearing on a television show was the farthest thing from her mind. However, she said it was an opportunity that came up at just the right time.
Growing up in El Paso, Gutierrez said that she was very involved with the church she attended, Abundant Living Faith Center. While in Lubbock for college, Gutierrez became involved with a local church, Experience Life, and she said that she always pictured herself moving back to El Paso and pursuing a career that revolved around her home church.
Things did not work out as planned, and on the same day Gutierrez found out that her church wouldn't be hiring when she graduated, she said she also found out about the casting call for "Job or No Job."
The show follows one young adult per episode as he or she seeks out a career and goes to a series of interviews, meeting with "Job Genius" Jane Buckingham in between to discuss tips and tricks related to the interview process, adjusting to a new city, and entering the job market.
"I sent them less than a paragraph, and told them who I was and where I went to school and what I wanted to do," Gutierrez said. After going through a series of interviews and evaluations, Gutierrez found out that she was selected as a contestant two weeks before she graduated.
While at Texas Tech, Gutierrez was a member of Bullet Advertising, CoMC's advertising student competition team, and she participated in the team's Mary Kay campaign in 2013-2014. Shannon Bichard, Ph.D., chairperson of the Department of Advertising, said that Gutierrez was both a great student and a great asset to the team.
"Christy was an amazing student, and she was always willing to challenge herself to achieve greatness," Bichard said. "I appreciated her work ethic and creative ability – she was truly an asset to the team!"
The episode of "Job or No Job" featuring Gutierrez began filming in July, and she flew to New York for five days to interview with three major advertising agencies: Deutsch Inc., Hirshorn Zuckerman Design Group, and Catch 24 Advertising and Design, Inc.
"One thing I learned from this whole experience is that it's so important to just be yourself," Gutierrez said. "You only need one person to say yes to you, and it's more important to find somewhere where you're going to be happy and you're going to thrive, then it is to just have a job and to be content with having the title."
To find out if Gutierrez's interviews resulted in job offers, tune into "Job or No Job" at 2 p.m. Oct. 1 on ABC Family EST.
- Sweethearts of the Gridiron - The film "Sweethearts of the Gridiron" will be screened on the Texas Tech University campus at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 10 in room 001 of the English/Philosophy building.
The documentary tells the story of the Kilgore College Rangerettes, the first drill team to perform during half time at a football game. Following the screening, attendees will have the opportunity to attend a Q&A session with producer Mikaela Addison, who graduated from Tech with a bachelor's degree in electronic media & communication in 2012.
The event is cosponsored by the Texas Tech International Film Series, the College of Media & Communication's Department of Journalism & Electronic Media, the Media Entrepreneurship & Innovation Group, and the Texas Tech Association of Student Electronic Media.
- Double T Insider Returns To Fox College Sports And Fox Sports Southwest
The "Double T Insider," a weekly sportscast created by students in the Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication, kicked off its second season airing on Fox College Sports and Fox Sports Southwest on Sept. 2.
The show, which was started in fall 2012 by a small group of CoMC students who partnered with Texas Tech Athletics, creates an innovative and unique opportunity for students interested in pursuing the field of sports media, according to David Hougland, director of broadcast services at Texas Tech.
The DTI is still directed, filmed and edited by CoMC students, and since its beginning it has evolved from a weekly YouTube production to the television program broadcast nationally today.
Hougland called the partnership between CoMC and Texas Tech Athletics a great way for students interested in sports media to gain experience.
"The partnership between the athletic department and the College of Media & Communication makes perfect sense and has been mutually beneficial," Hougland said. "This program provides media and communication students with real-world production experience while informing Red Raider nation about the achievements of our student-athletes."
Todd Chambers, associate dean for undergraduate affairs in CoMC and former faculty advisor to the program, agreed that working with the DTI is a unique opportunity for students to gain experience, and said that he is impressed by how far the program has progressed.
"Last year was a dream come true for graduates who got the program started and those current students who were able to see it air on major sports networks," Chambers said. "It's even more exciting this year because the word is out — this is a unique educational experience that pays off in the real-world."
The popularity of the program is increasing. Josh Robinson, media production manager for CoMC, said, "We have already gained a much larger audience, especially in areas like Dallas-Fort Worth, where our alumni base is huge. That is the big thing for us. With Fox Sports Southwest, we can get into the Dallas market, the Austin market, and the Houston market."
David Perlmutter, dean of CoMC, said, "We want the transition of our students from the classroom to the workplace to be as seamless as possible. We know getting creative professional experience while at Texas Tech is crucial to their future. The Tech Sports-DTI partnership is a model of what our majors can achieve."
- The National Communication Association has awarded Andy J. King, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Public Relations at Texas Tech University, and his collaborators, with the National Communication Association's prestigious Golden Anniversary Monograph Award for his research in the field of health communication.
The research project was a collaboration between King, and Jakob D. Jensen, Ph.D., Melinda M. Krakow, Ph.D., and N. Jewel Samadder, MD, all of the University of Utah; and Nick Carciopplo, Ph.D., and Susan Morgan, Ph. D., both of the University of Miami.
"The project was completed a few years ago, but tracked behavioral data longitudinally, as the study tested how communicating information about colorectal cancer in a certain way influenced people adhering to colorectal cancer screening recommendations," King said. "It took a total of about three years, which included designing the study and software used, carrying out the intervention, and waiting to get the tracked data."
King explained that the study looked at adherence to colorectal cancer screening recommendations from doctors through intervention among manufacturing workers and healthcare workers. He said that after being exposed to narratives and other types of messages, the respondents and their medical habits were then studied via insurance claims for the next 18 months.
"Because of that, we were able to have behavioral outcomes linked to our intervention, and we found evidence that certain types of messages positively influenced people's health behaviors," King said.
In addition to this study, King said that he is continuing work on health-related communication research related to cancer prevention and organ donation.
Trent Seltzer, Ph.D., the chairperson for the Department of Public Relations, described King as an excellent scholar and said that the department congratulates him on receiving this prestigious award.
"Dr. King continues to build a reputation as one of the most outstanding and dynamic young scholars in our field," Seltzer said.
King said, "Research is essential to being a better teacher. I'm a better teacher when I'm doing relevant research. Being a productive researcher is important to connecting with students in the classroom and preparing them for life after college."
King and his collaborators will be recognized as recipients of the 2015 Golden Anniversary Monograph Award at an annual award ceremony held by the National Communication Association this November in Las Vegas.
- The Region 8 Society of Professional Journalists honored Lucinda Holt, a recent graduate from the College of Media & Communication, as a national finalist in the Online Feature Reporting category of the 2014 Mark of Excellence competition for her story "American Dream, Mexican Nightmare."
Holt graduated from CoMC in December 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism and a minor in anthropology. She said she began working on the story in her Advanced Reporting class taught by Randy Reddick, Ph.D. After the students were told to pitch several topics, Holt said she felt that a piece on immigration was "The One."
"Immigration has always been a hot-button issue, yet very necessary," Holt said. "The first angle I chose was the one of the immigrant – an angle that is often underrepresented. I was fortunate enough to have met a family who was willing to share their heartbreaking tale of loss and unity, struggle and strife. In this process, I was also able to meet a woman who had been apprehended and detained by authorities for bringing undocumented children across the border."
Holt said she then traveled to Juarez, Mexico, to take a closer look at the perspective from "the other side of the fence." She explained that she worked closely with Reddick, who guided her with statistics, advice and encouragement.
Reddick, the Morris Professor of Journalism in CoMC, said that when students in Advanced Reporting pitch a topic, they are required to follow the "Three-D Depth Reporting" rule where their project includes documents to add their unique perspective to the story, data to help put an issue into some form of objective context, and diverse sources to give voice to all the players in an issue.
While "American Dream, Mexican Nightmare" started as a semester project, Reddick said that Holt continued to work on it, surpassing the project's requirement. "It was much more than just an assignment to her, especially as she got into it," Reddick explained. "I would send Lucinda a note about documents or data or even sources that I ran into in my reading that might help put her story into context or provide new perspective."
Reddick said that in addition to following up on leads for the story, Holt also did an incredible job of developing her own sources. "Throughout the project, it was clear Lucinda had a rare combination of compassion and healthy skepticism toward the human subjects of her story," Reddick said, and went on to explain that Holt also exhibited some "hard core courage" as she ventured into Juarez to document her own experience crossing the border.
Holt said that her "biggest break" in the investigation for the story occurred when she had the opportunity to do a personal ride-along tour with border patrol agents, which gave her insight into law enforcement operations and tactics.
"For me, this story was genuinely a labor of love and I could not have done it without the support and guidance from my family and CoMC family – specifically Dr. Reddick, Professor Brewton, and Alicia Keene," she said.
Holt is also a former Enterprise Editor at The Hub@TTU, a multimedia student-run publication in CoMC. Sarah Self-Walbrick, a CoMC master's student and the Hub's Graduate Managing Director, said that working with Holt has been one of the highlights of her time at The Hub@TTU.
"She has endless story ideas, and knows how to execute them in the most effective way possible," Self-Walbrick said of Holt. "She has a passion for reporting on issues that actually impact people, and hopes to make a change in the world through her reporting. Even though she hasn't worked for us since the fall 2014 semester, I still call and ask her advice on how to go about certain stories. She is truly an inspiration to me."
Pete Brewton, J.D., formerly the Hutcheson Professor of Professional Practice in the Department of Journalism and Electronic Media, was the journalism faculty advisor to The Hub@TTU in 2014. He described the story as one that took the kind of guts rarely if ever seen in college reporting. "Lucinda Holt went above and beyond the call of duty to get this story," Brewton said.
- Three Texas Tech students, including a College of Media & Communication major, are among 25 students who have been selected to receive scholarships from the Advertising Education Foundation of Houston. Carly Cox, a junior advertising major from Plano, Texas, won the KHOU Television Scholarship; Hannah Ford, a sophomore agricultural communications major from Peaster, Texas, won the CBS Radio Scholarship; and Jenna Hay, a junior agricultural communications major from North Richland Hills, Texas, won the Jean William Brown Scholarship. The scholarships are $2,000 each. Applicants included students from 17 different colleges and universities in the four states that make up the American Advertising Federation's Tenth District region.
- "The Joker: A Serious Study of the Clown Prince of Crime is the first book-length, academic study of the infamous villain, co-edited by Rob Weiner, a librarian at Texas Tech University, and Rob Peaslee, Ph.D., associate professor and the interim chair for the Department of Journalism & Electronic Media.
The book is a project Weiner said he first thought of eight years ago. He explained, "When I gathered my ideas for the book, I wrote a proposal and asked Rob Peaslee if he would work with me on this. It has taken us four years, but this was a project we wanted to do justice."
Peaslee explained, "We worked together on a previous volume on Spider-Man, and not long after that manuscript was at the printer, Rob asked me about doing something on the Joker. He's always been one of my favorite pop culture characters, so I immediately said 'Yes!'"
Peaslee described The Joker as a character who breaks the mold of most villains by projecting a certain aura of attraction. "Like the many archetypal and mythical characters from which he has evolved, he is not opposed to the system of social organization so much as a symptom of it. He is not black or white; he simply rejects the notion of color, and in so doing, is both horror and rebirth,"Peaslee said.
Weiner said he delved into studying The Joker, because he found it odd that there was so much literature devoted to exploring the characters of superheroes such as Spiderman, Batman and Superman, yet there was none devoted to the villains.
Weiner concluded, "You can't have a really good superhero narrative without a great villain. There are a lot of great villains and there are a lot of terrible villains, but The Joker stands apart from them all."
Peaslee said, "Contributors come at the Joker from cultural, historical, sociological, philosophical, aesthetic and mythological points of view, and the result is a collection that we think is as productively fragmented, provocative and incomplete as the Clown Prince himself."
"The Joker: A Serious Study of the Clown Prince of Crime" is available for purchase through various retailers.
- David Perlmutter, Ph.D. and Dean of the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University, will be the keynote speaker at the Dialogue Institute Luncheon Forum on March 4 in Houston.
Perlmutter will present a lecture titled, "Is This the End of the Civilized World?: Religion, Speech, Journalism and Terrorism."
Perlmutter is the author and editor of nine books on political communication and persuasion. He has also written several dozen articles for academic journals and more than 250 essays for both U.S. and international newspapers and magazines. He has done research in the fields of political communication, visual communication, social media, and individual, organizational and institutional branding.
The luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 4 at the Dialogue Institute of the Southwest - Houston at 2700 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 1750. To register for the event, go to http://www.interfaithdialog.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&Itemid=265.
- For the inaugural National News Engagement Day, the College of Media & Communication and the Society of Professional Journalists hosted a panel discussion in the Student Union Building at Texas Tech to discuss making news a national priority in the age of social media. Read more here
- Velez, J. A., Greitemeyer, T., Whitaker, J. L., Ewoldsen, D. R., & Bushman, B. J. (in press) Violent Video Games and Reciprocity: The Attenuating Effects of Cooperative Game Play on Subsequent Aggression. Communication Research. doi: 10.1177/0093650214552519
- New Advertising faculty member Bryan McLaughlin, Ph.D., was elected as the Teaching Chair for the Political Communication Interest Group at AEJMC.
- Dr. Sarge's article, "A Serial Mediation Model of Message Framing on Intentions to Receive the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine: Revisiting the Role of Threat and Efficacy Perceptions" published in Health Communication, won first place in the AEJMC ComSHER (Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk) division's 2014 Article of the Year Competition.
- Kevin Stoker, Ph.D., was recently published in the Journal of Public Relations Research with his article, "Paradox in Public Relations: Why Managing Relating Makes More Sense Than Managing Relationships." You can read the full article online here
- Melanie Sarge, Ph.D., has accepted a 2014 officer position as Awards Co-chair for AEJMC's Mass Communication and Society division.
- Second year Ph.D students in Texas Tech's College of Media & Communication Nathian Shae Rodriguez and Lindsey Erin Blumell had their manuscript, titled "What a Year' The Framing of Marriage Equality through Media's Selected Sources in 2013", accepted for publication in the Journal of Communication Inquiry. The manuscript, which investigates the framing of same sex-marriage in the New York Times, will be published in the journal's October issue.
- Congratulations to Lea Hellmueller, Ph.D., for her The Washington, DC Media Corps in the 21st Century book getting published.
- Cates, J.C., Ortiz, R.R., North, S., Martin, A., Smith, R., Coyne-Beasley, T. (In press). Partnering with middle school students to design text messages about HPV vaccination. Health Promotion and Practice.
- Former doctoral student Dane Kiambi, Ph.D., and Autumn Shafer, Ph.D., received the Ecquid Novi African Journalism Studies Best Paper Award for Journalism Research at the 2014 AEJMC conference in Montreal for their paper titled, "Country Reputation Management: Developing a Scale for Measuring the Reputation of Four African Countries in the United States." The paper was selected for the award from the submissions to the AEJMC International Communication Division's Open Paper Competition.
- Congratulations to Weiwu Zhang, Ph.D.! Zhang was selected as the research co-chair with the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) for the 2014-2015 year.
- Weiwu Zhang, Ph.D., has been selected by the Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group as the new editor for Communication Booknotes Quarterly to begin in 2015.
- Congratulations to Sungwon Chung, Ph.D.! His dissertation, "Motivated cognition in video games: the influence of emotional video game content on cognitive processing of billboard advertisements embedded in first-person shooter games," was awarded 2nd place in the Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Awards in the Social Sciences competition by the Graduate School at Texas Tech University.
- Congratulations to Adeniyi Bello for being selected by the Public Relations Division (PRD) of the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) as one of three winners of the 2014 Inez Kaiser Graduate Students of Color Award.
- Doctoral candidate Sha Li successfully defended her dissertation, "The impact of the use of Facebook interactive features on individual social capital," on Wednesday, June 25. Congratulations Dr. Sha Li!
- On May 19, 2014 HIHIC director Kent Wilkinson presented a talk about representation of social groups in U.S. media to students and faculty at the Universidade Dinamica das Cataratas in Iguazu, Brazil. Find out more.
- The following students are recipients of the College of Media and Communication Graduate Scholarships for the 2014-2015 Academic Year.
- Alan Abitbol
- Lindsey Blumell
- Roxanne Bustamante
- Harrison Gong
- Allison Matherly
- Nathian Rodriguez
- Cameron Skoczlas
- Bailey Thompson
- Matthew VanDyke
- The Texas Tech Ad Team (Bullet Advertising) won first place in the 2014 American Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition for District 10. Congratulations!
- Psychology Today blogger, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D., interviewed and quoted Eric Rasmussen, Ph.D., in a recent article "Fulfillment at Any Age." Whitbourne referenced Rasmussen's and colleague David Ewoldsen's article "Dr. Phil and Psychology Today as self-help treatments of mental illness: A content analysis of popular psychology programming. Journal of Health Communication."
- A manuscript Eric Rasmussen, Ph.D., co-authored was accepted for publication: Coyne, S. M., Linder, J. R., Rasmussen, E. E., Nelson, D. A., & Collier, K. M. (in press). It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a gender stereotype!: Longitudinal association between superhero viewing and gender stereotyped play. Sex Roles.
- Jennifer Green was awarded First Place in the Multi-disciplinary Category for her media multitasking research poster she presented in March at the Graduate Student Research Poster Competition. Congratulations!
- Dr. Robert Peaslee, Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Electronic Media, along with Dr. John Barkdull (Political Science), Dr. Kanika Batra (English), and Dr. Rich Rice (English) have been awarded a grant as part of the Transdisciplinary Research Academy to study the impact of international and intercultural programming among Texas Tech University students.
They will be investigating outcomes of on-campus programming related to intercultural and global issues as well as issues around study abroad.
- Congratulations to Alan Abitbol and Mary E. Brooks! They were both awarded a 2014 Helen DeVitt Jones Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award!
The Graduate School will provide each awardee with a certificate and a $500.00 Honorarium.
- Congratulations to the Media and Children Research Team for being admitted to the Texas Tech Transdisciplinary Research Academy.
The members of the team are:
- Eric Rasmussen, Ph.D. (COMC)
- Autumn Shafer, Ph.D. (COMC)
- Malinda Colwell, Ph.D. (College of Human Sciences)
- Narissra Punyanunt-Carter, Ph.D. (College of Arts & Sciences)
- Shawna White, M.A. (COMC graduate student)
- Congratulations to Coy Callison, Ph.D., for being selected as one of the recipients of the inaugural President's Mid-Career Faculty Awards!
This award is intended to recognize and reward faculty who are emerging leaders nationally and internationally in their disciplines and who serve as role models and mentors for our students.
- Lily Luo, Ph.D. had her article, "The Internet and Agenda Setting in China: The Influence of Online Public Opinion on Media Coverage and Government Policy," accepted for publication in the International Journal of Communication.
- Cummins, R.G., & Hahn, D. (2013). Re-presenting sport: How instant replay and perceived violence impact enjoyment of mediated sports. Mass Communication and Society, 16, 787-807.
- Cummins, R.G. (2014). Psychophysiological measurement and meaning. [Book review]. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 58, 154-156.
- Cummins, R.G. (2014). Eye tracking and visual attention to sports in new media. In A. Billings & M. Hardin (Eds.), Handbook of Sports and New Media (pp. 271-284). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Congratulations to Robert Peaslee, Ph.D., for being selected as one of the winners of the 2014 TTU President's Excellence in Teaching Awards.
- Autumn Shafer and Rebecca Ortiz had their abstract titled, "Assessing the Feasibility of Clinicians Communicating Via Social Media and Text Messaging With Adolescents about HPV Vaccination" accepted for presentation at the 2014 Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting in Vancouver, BC, Canada from May 3-6, 2014. Ortiz and Shafer are first and second authors, respectively, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Autumn Shafer, Ph.D., was invited to present information on HPV vaccination campaigns at MD Anderson Center's annual HPV and Cervical Cancer Summit on January 22, 2014. Shafer's presentation was titled "HPV Vaccine Campaigns Targeting Mothers of Adolescent Girls." - See more here.
- Congratulations to the following COMC students on the acceptance of their submissions to the student Research in Progress competition at the BEA Conference being held in Las Vegas April 6-9.
- Lindsey Blumell, Exploring Benghazi: Where the 2012 U.S. Compound Attacks Place in International News Reporting
- Priyanka Khandelwal and Erik Bucy, Ph.D., Graphication of the evening news: Evidence from two decades of presidential campaign coverage
- Nathian Rodriguez, M.A., Texas Country: A Tale of A Successful Nice in the Tall City
- Arijit Basu, MBA, Mash-up Advertising: Its potential, effects, and relevance in the 21st century as a viable advertising tool for advertising campaigns
- Zijian Gong, M.A., Redefining Rational and Emotional Advertising Appeals as Available Processing Resources: Toward an Information Processing Perspective
- Jennifer Green, Ann Rodriguez, J.D., and Coy Callison, Ph.D., The Effects of Media Multitasking on memory for TV Program Content and Advertisements
- Tune in to the Univision Television Network on Feb. 16 to watch Alumna Virginia Stille (JOUR 2012) compete in the Final Round of Nuestra Belleza Latina.
- Ph.D. student Shawna R. White won the award for top abstract in the Mass Communication & Society division at this year's AEJMC Midwinter Conference for her paper titled, "You've Been Framed: The Influence of News Frames on Attitudes Toward Hydraulic Fracturing." She will be presented an award at the conference at the end of this month. Congratulations Shawna!
- You've finally been accepted into the job of your dreams and want to rise through the ranks as fast as possible. How do you do it? - Find out here.
- Andy King, Ph.D., takes a minute to tell you why it"s important to be media literate. - See more here.
- Kelly Kaufhold, Ph.D.,, has been invited to join a panel at the Broadcast Education Association Conference on April 6 in Las Vegas. The panel is, "Top Teaching Tips, How to Incorporate Mobile Journalism Techniques in Basic TV and Radio Reporting Courses."
- The College of Media & Communication recently recruited 16 student ambassadors to promote the college with on-campus recruiting initiatives. - See more here.
- The Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics from CQ Press/Sage was recently released. Kelly Kaufhold, Ph.D., has a chapter included, Age (Social Media and Politics). It also included three chapters from Weiwu Zhang, Ph.D., and Sherice Gearhart, Ph.D.
- Gabby Garcia, junior public relations major from Arlington, Texas, worked as an intern for Kendra Scott, a fast-growing, popular jewelry company, during the summer of 2013. Kendra Scott is based in Austin, Texas, where Garcia interned at the flagship store. Find out how Garcia landed her internship here.
- Get to know your ambassador, senior public relations major Dylan Echols, in this month's Adviser.
- Assistant Professor, Eric Rasmussen, Ph.D., discusses his educational and professional experience as well as his teaching style. - See more here.
- Every spring Texas Tech University's Undergraduate Admissions office hosts Red Raider Roadshows across the state of Texas. This is an opportunity for prospective students in these cities and the surrounding areas to come and learn more about Texas Tech and the academic colleges. The College of Media & Communication will once again participate in this great event. - See more here.
- Jerod Foster, Ph.D., the Professor Spotlight this month, began teaching at the college in the fall of 2007, after finishing his master's degree in agricultural communication. Foster worked several years as a professional freelance photographer and writer, and continues to pursue his freelance work through publication in popular press and commercial industries. - See more here.
- Graduate student Desirée Markham placed in the Top 10 at the Miss New Mexico USA 2014 Pageant. Congrats!
- Alumni Carla Blumenthal tells us why it's not only okay to run down hallways, but sometimes a good idea. - See more here.
- The World Media Economics and Management Conference in May has accepted papers for honors student Katie Penkert and Geoffrey Graybeal's "Getting a Foot in New Markets: A Case Study of Television Management and Programming Strategies for Soccer in the United States."
Ph.D. student Mehrnaz Rahimi and Kent Wilkinson's paper "Sanctions and Crisis: A Study of the Translation Industry in Contemporary Iran" was also accepted. Congratulations!
- Check out what our Center for Communication Research studied during Sunday's Super Bowl: Source: myfoxlubbock.com
- Graduate student Niyi Bello's article, "Fracking: Analysis of Media Discourse and Social Movement contests" was accepted for the next AEJMC Conference at the University of Oklahoma. Bello's manuscript, "Community Radio in Africa: Catalyst or Enabler" was also accepted for this year's Broadcast Association Conference in Las Vegas. Congratulations!
- We are proud to congratulate Kevin Stoker, Ph.D., on becoming Senior Associate Dean for the college.
- The following conference abstracts were accepted to the 2014 International Public Relations Research Conference in Miami, Florida:
- Alan Abitbol. Examining Facebook message strategies during a crisis: A case study of Susan G. Komen's announcement to defund Planned Parenthood.
- Nicole Lee. Testing immediate effects of OPR cultivation strategies.
- Sun Lee, Ph.D., & Kristi Gilmore, Ph.D. Strategic ambiguity in crisis: Fracking information designed to educate or deceive.
- Matthew Van Dyke & Harrison Gong. Does green strategic communication help during environmental crises? The Influence of personal involvement and crisis history on company evaluations.
- Weiwu Zhang, Ph.D. & Alan Abitbol. The role of public relations in social capital and civic engagement.
- Congratulations to Eric Rasmussen, Ph.D., for having his manuscript accepted for publication!
Rasmussen, E.E. (in press). Proactive vs. reactive media mediation: Effects of mediation's timing on children's reactions to popular cartoon violence. Human Communication Research.
- Please join us for the first Brown Bag Discussion of 2014 on Wed., Jan. 22 from Noon - 1 p.m. Glenn Cummins, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Research and Director of the Center for Communication Research will present his discussion titled: Making sports exciting: Applying, testing, and (possibly) expanding theory in the context of broadcast sports.
Find out more at http://www.depts.ttu.edu/comc/brownbag/
- Shelley Wigley and Weiwu Zhang (in press), "Does Planning and Practice Make Perfect? A Study of Communication Culture, Autonomy and PR Practitioners' Confidence in Handling Crises" Public Relations Journal.
- Congratulations to Autumn Shafer, Ph.D.! She was invited to present at MD Anderson Center's annual HPV & Cervical Cancer Summit on Jan. 22, 2014. Her two sessions will focus on HPV Vaccine Campaigns Targeting Mothers of Adolescent Girls.
- Patel, S., Shafer, A., Bulik, C.M., Brown, J.D., & Zucker, N.L. (2014). Parents of children with eating disorders: Developing theory-based health communication messages to promote caregiver wellbeing. Journal of Health Communication. view publication
- An abstract by Rebecca Ortiz, Ph.D., and Autumn Shafer, Ph.D., was accepted to the 2014 Kentucky Health Communication Conference in Lexington, KY. The title is: "'I know you want it': How sexual media consumption may reinforce rape myth acceptance and prevalence among college students."
Ph.D. student Jessica El-Khoury and Autumn Shafer, Ph.D., also had a paper accepted. The title is: "Narrative Exemplars and the Celebrity Spokesperson in Anti-Domestic Violence Messages."
Congratulations to all!
- Nathanson, A.I., Alade, F., Sharp, M., Rasmussen. E.E., & Christy, K. (in press). The relation between television exposure and executive function among preschoolers. Developmental Psychology.
- Seltzer, T., Zhang, W., Gearhart, S., & Conduff, L. (2013). Sources of citizens' experiential and reputational relationships with political parties. Public Relations Journal, 7(4), 1-35.
- Curious about what public relations is? Find out in this month's Major Spotlight, featured in The Adviser.
- Alumni Doug Sanders on career advice, "I would like to offer up a few key pieces of advice that I wish I could go back in time and give to myself." - See more here.
- Get to know your ambassador, senior public relations major Maria Vice, in this month's Adviser.
- College of Media & Communication alumna Caroline Trujillo, from Bedford, Texas, has found success after graduating a year ago with a bachelor's degree in public relations. - See more in this month's Adviser.
- Alumni Daniel Sneed shares tips on how to land your dream job and tells us why you should treat a job search as a full-time job. - See more here.
- Find out how theHub@TTU, an online publication, created by students for students can be a useful resource in this month's Adviser.
- The Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication released an app in November dedicated to serving the college's students. - See more in this month's Adviser.
- Curious about what you can do with a journalism degree? Interested in electronic media & communication? Find out in this month's Major Spotlight, featured in The Adviser.
- Learn about Danielle Huston's internship experience in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Get to know your ambassador, senior public relations major Candice Trevino, in this month's Adviser.
- At the national Association for Women in Communication conference in Springfield, Mo., Oct. 19, Lubbock's professional chapter of the Association for Women in Communication received seven awards and one individual award. - See more here.
- The professor spotlight in this month's Adviser is Melanie Sarge, Ph.D. Read more here.
- Want to know the three steps to nailing your interview? Alumni Joe Fairless tells us what the three big steps to being a strong interviewer are here.
- The key is: if you want hard-working people, you have to hire the people who work hard. And there are plenty of them from Texas Tech University coming into the workforce. - Find out who said this here.
- Alumni Aimee Valentine gives advice on using strategic thinking to land a job. "As a communications professional, you will apply strategic thinking for clients every day. Why would you not do the same for your own career path?" - See more here.
- The College of Media & Communication released an app in November dedicated to serving the college's students. - See more here.
- Congratulations to Micaela Rosinski for designing artwork for the alumni association directory! She created the cover of the actual hard-bound directory, the CD case and the CD label that will be printed on every copy. View digital copies of her artwork at www.depts.ttu.edu/comc/students/work.php.
- Ph.D. students Harrison Gong and Desiree Markham will be presenting three conference papers they co-authored with Erik Bucy, Ph.D. this month at the National Communication Association meeting in Washington, D.C. and one at the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research in Chicago, IL.
- Bucy, Erik P., Gong, Harrison, & Markham, Desiree (2013, November 22). Losing without Saying a Word: Visual Analysis of the 2012 Presidential Debates. Paper to be presented at the National Communication Association, Political Communication Division, Washington, DC.
- Bucy, E. P., & Bauer, Nichole M. (2013, November 22). Media Experts and News Novices. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR), Chicago, IL.
- Soe, Younei, & Bucy, E. P. (2013, November 24). Civic Benefits and Civic Risks: New Media Influences on the Political Efficacy of Young Citizens. Paper to be presented at the National Communication Association, Political Communication Division, Washington, DC.
- The Thomas Jay Harris Institute for Hispanic and International Communication was pleased to be a Gold Sponsor for the 2nd Annual Hispanic Communication Conference at Florida International University's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, November 7-8, 2013. Dr. Kent Wilkinson moderated a panel regarding "Hispanics and Media Ownership: Politics, Economics, and Representation" and participated on a roundtable of industry professionals and academic researchers who discussed "Legacy and Prospects of Latin American Communication Research: Hispanic Media Markets Here and There." Dean David Perlmutter delivered the conference's closing keynote address. We look forward to further collaborations with our friends and colleagues at FIU.
- "A career is a set of accomplishments, talents and interests that will be applicable in different jobs. Odds are none of the current students will stay in the same job or company for more than 10 years meaning they will have to adapt to new options and circumstances." - Alumni Jeff Balter on building a career. See more here.
- Get to know your ambassador, senior public relations major Melissa Brisco, in this month's Adviser.
- Learn about Courtney Coombe's internship experience in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Curious about what you can do with a advertising degree? Interested in persuading and influencing consumers? Find out in this month's Major Spotlight, featured in The Adviser.
- Did you know the College of Media & Communication offers a state-of-the-art facility called the Outpost Social Media Lab? - See more here.
- Congratulations to advertising professor Rebecca Ortiz, Ph.D., for her selection as a National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) Faculty Fellowship recipient for the January 2014 NATPE Marketplace and Conference in Miami Beach, Florida!
- "Seriously Social: Young Adults, Social Media and News" by Kelly Kaufhold, Ph.D., has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies. Congratulations!
- Heads Up Display is a student production in the Texas Tech College of Media & Communication that reviews games using a panel format to give gamers a well rounded review of all the games they love. - See more here.
- Justin Keene, assistant professor in the Journalism and Electronic Media and Communication Department, is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- "Once you enter the communications field, you will be amazed at what a small world it truly is. Word gets around fast about bad actors in our profession. Hey, what else would you expect from professional communicators?" says alumni Kay Jackson. - See more here.
- Congratulations to Ph.D. student Arijit Basu. His presentation, "Mash-up Advertising: A viable advertising tool for Integrated Marketing Communication Campaigns," was awarded second place in the Texas Tech Arts & Humanities Graduate Research Conference last week. A $100 scholarship accompanied the award.
- Six students from the College of Media and Communication Ph.D. program will present papers at the Fifth Annual International Conference for Graduate Student Research on Nov. 6 - 7. Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Coy Callison, Ph.D., will also serve as moderator and discussant.
The six students are:
- Mehrnaz Rahimi & Dennis Patterson, Texas Tech University
Paper: Immigrants and Their Political Participation: An Investigation of Political Participation of Students with Immigrant Parents in the 2011 U.S. Presidential Election
- Alan Abitbol, Texas Tech University
Paper: Effects of Task Evaluation Knowledge and Leadership Style on Employee Attitude Toward a Task
- Nicole Lee, Texas Tech University, Ben Tisdale, United States Navy, & Josh Diddams, United States Marine Corps.
Paper: Public Relations Roles and Corresponding Social Media Strategies
- Shawna White, Texas Tech University
Paper: Fracking and Framing: How News Frames Interact and Influence Stance on Hydraulic Facturing
- Lindsey Blumell, Texas Tech University
Paper: Framing Benghazi: A New Chapter or Repeated Gaffe in International News Coverage?
- Nathian Rodriguez, Texas Tech University
Paper: Oh the Humanity: A Look at Framing of Gay Marriage Before and After Russia's Anti-Gay law
- Mehrnaz Rahimi & Dennis Patterson, Texas Tech University
- Congratulations to Trent Seltzer, Ph.D.! He was accepted into the inaugural class of the Texas Tech University President's Leadership Institute.
- Need some help paying for school? Consider applying for College of Media & Communication Scholarships. Read more here.
- Bill Dean, Ed.D., is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- Public relations alumni Sophia Chappell takes the time to tell us why it is important to get involved now, and what kind of impact experience can have on your job search. - See more here.
- "What are you going to do to stand out after an interview? Anyone and everyone can send out an email of appreciation for any telephone or in-person interview ... and this should be done. That's not Old School." - Find out who believes it's important to keep it old school in this month's Alumni Advantage.
- Advertising alumni Jessica Stark tells us how active participation in school can help improve your professional career, and why it's important to take advantage of every opportunity to grow your skill set. - See more here.
- Instructor Jerod Foster, Ph.D., takes undergraduate students to Junction, Texas, for a photography course focusing on landscape photography and hands-on experience. - See more here.
- When Justin Keene, Ph.D., left Texas Tech University after earning an undergraduate degree and a master's degree from the College of Media & Communication, he did not expect to be back as a faculty member four years later. - See more here.
- Jensen, J. D., Carcioppolo, N., King, A. J., Scherr, C. L., Jones, C. L., & Niederdeppe, J. (in press). The cancer information overload (CIO) scale: Establishing predictive and discriminant validity. Patient Education & Counseling.
- Senior Public Relations major Angela Barrera is representing Texas Tech in the 2013 Hispanic College Quiz Bowl, which is being aired nationwide as part of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15).
- Attend the first Brown Bach Lunch Presentation of the fall on Sept. 16 in COMC 156 from noon to 1 p.m. for a "Parade" of New Research "Pageants". Drs. Kristi Gilmore, Lea Hellmueller, Justin Keene, Andy King, Sun Lee, and Eric Rasmussen will discuss their research interests and agendas. Bring your lunch and join the conversation!
- Former Ph.D. student and current assistant professor at Scranton University Sufyan Mohammed Baksh and Coy Callison, Ph.D., will have their article titled "Hegemonic Masculinity in Hip-Hop Music? Difference in Brand Mention in Rap Music Based on the Rapper's Gender" published in the next issue of the Journal of Promotion Management. Congratulations!
- Congratulations to Rebecca Ortiz, Ph.D. Her abstract titled, "An evolutionary perspective on how Greek membership and sexual media use may reinforce rape myths, perpetration, and victimization among college students" was accepted for presentation in the "Health Care and Public Health" panel at the Thirtieth Annual Meeting of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS) to be held at Tech Oct. 25-26. Her panel will be from 1:30-3:00 p.m. on Oct. 26.
- Alumni Greg Heitzman provides some advice on how to use Twitter and other social media to make yourself stand out. Find out what else Heitzman says in this month's Alumni Advantage.
- Get to know our new dean, David D. Perlmutter, Ph.D. - Watch here.
- Instructor Jerod Foster, Ph.D., takes undergraduate students to Junction, Texas, for a photography course focusing on landscape photography and hands-on experience. - See more here.
- Congratulations to Kelly Kaufhold, Ph.D.! His manuscript, "Old Dogs, New Tricks: Online News Uses New Tools but Attracts the Same Eyeballs," has been accepted for publication in Newspaper Research Journal in fall 2014.
- An article written by recent graduate Sherice Gearhart, Ph.D., and Weiwu Zhang, Ph.D. titled "Gay Bullying and Online Opinion Expression: Testing Spiral of Silence in the Social Media Environment" will be published in an upcoming issue of the "Social Science Computer Review."
- Assistant Professor of advertising, Melissa Gotlieb, Ph.D., and May 2013 graduate Patrick Merle, Ph.D., were elected as executive board members of the Communication Theory and Methodology Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Gotlieb and Merle will respectively serve as newsletter editor and membership coordinator for the next two years.
- Weiwu Zhang, Ph.D., has been elected to serve on the Graduate Council as the representative for the College of Media & Communication for the next three year term.
- Are you planning on applying to Texas Tech University soon? Some quick tips for a smooth transition into the application process can be found here.
- Students talk about the one year master's program at the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University. - See more here.
- Director of Communications for The Independent BankersBank (TIB) Greg Todd graduated from Texas Tech in 1987 with a degree in public relations. TIB entered their 2012 Annual Report in the 2012 Vision Awards, the largest annual report contest. The report was chosen from 6,000 entries from 25 countries to receive the Platinum Award. The award is the contest's highest honor and goes to the top 100 reports. TIB ranked 59th overall. They ranked 14th in America and earned the top spot for commercial banking.
- Learn about MacKenzie Rachal's internship experience with Griffin-Wink Advertising in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Curious about what you can do with a degree in electronic media & communication? Interested in telling a story using today's technology? Find out in this month's Major Spotlight, featured in The Adviser.
- Get to know your adviser, Ryan Johnson, in this month's Adviser. Johnson is the adviser for journalism majors. Read more here.
- Shannon Bichard, associate professor in the Advertising Department, is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- Congratulations to The Raider 88.1 KTXT-FM for a successful eight-year license renewal from the FCC. We look forward to listening for years to come!
- Andy King, assistant professor in public relations had his article, "It's up to you: A multi-message, phased driver facility campaign to increase organ donor registration rates in Illinois," accepted for publication in Clinical Transplantation. Congratulations!
- An article authored by former Ph.D. student Glenda Alvarado and current professor Coy Callison, Ph.D. appearing in the current issue of the International Journal of Revenue Management reveals the results of a real-world experiment where various types of incentives were offered to survey respondents to determine how to best increase response rate. The article, "How incentives affect web-based survey response rates of athletic program donors," shared results that indicated that the inclusion of incentives did not increase survey response rate nor did value of incentive. Respondents who were offered incentives, however, were quicker in providing the requested information than those respondents not offered incentives for their participation.
- Chambers, B. & Peaslee, R.M. Reading Twilight: Fandom, romance, and gender in the age of Bella. In Bucciferro, C., ed. The Twilight Saga: Exploring the Global Phenomenon. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. In press.
- Doctoral student Mary Liz Brooks has been selected to become a TEACH Fellow. The TEACH (Teaching Effectiveness And Career enHancement) Program, which is modeled after the national Preparing Future Faculty movement, assists graduate students in further developing teaching skills and exploring faculty roles on a college or university campus.
- Curious about what you can do with a journalism degree? Interested in the legacy major of the College of Media & Communication? Learn more in this month's Major Spotlight, featured in The Adviser.
- Robert Peaslee, assistant professor in the Journalism and Electronic Media and Communication Department, is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- Learn about public relations major Grace Acuna's internship experience in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Learn about public relations major Melissa Brisco's study abroad experience in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Get to know your advisor, Rose Cruz, in this month's Adviser. Rose Cruz is the advisor for Media Strategies. Read more here.
- Congratulations to Sherice Gearhart! She has received a Graduate Student of the Year award from the Graduate Student Advisory Council and the Student Government Association.
- Electronic Media & Journalism Department Chairperson and Associate Professor Todd Chambers, Ph.D., takes a Minute to Mentor about building a personal brand and taking advantage of all of the opportunities at Texas Tech. - See more here.
- Robert B. Affe shares insight on what your most important job as a career professional is. Find out what he says in this month's Unfair Advantage.
- Craig Rettig gives us 1,791,000 reasons to make yourself extraordinary in this month's Unfair Advantage. Read more here.
- The Texas Broadcast Education Foundation awards eight $2,000 scholarships a year, and two of those scholarships belong to Blake Silverthorn and Kierra Powell, both students in the Texas Tech College of Media & Communication. - See more here.
- We are proud to announce that doctoral student Dane Kiambi has successfully defended his dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Kiambi!
- Kelly Kaufhold, assistant professor in the Journalism and Electronic Media and Communication Department, is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- Advertising alumnus Mark deTranaltes gives his insight on the "post-degree plan blues" and how to overcome any reservations you may have about searching for that first job. - See more in this month's Unfair Advantage.
- Texas Tech University's College of Media & Communication provides students with the opportunity to study exactly what they want, allowing students to major in advertising, journalism, electronic media and communication, public relations and media strategies. - See more here.
- Tim Loecker, the Senior Vice President of Weber Shandwick, shares 10 tips to elevate from intern to entry-level in this month's Unfair Advantage. - Read the full story here.
- Curious about what you can do with an advertising degree? Interested in the creative or analytical aspect of advertising? Learn more in this month's Major Spotlight, featured in The Adviser.
- Learn about public relations major Emily Kaltman's internship experience in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Get to know your advisor, Kathy Lindsey, in this month's Adviser. Kathy Lindsey is the advisor for Advertising and Texas Tech Alum. Read more here.
- Rebecca Ortiz, Ph. D., shares her advice in this month's Unfair Advantage. "Whether you are entering the workforce, looking for an internship, or considering graduate school, the piece of advice I can give is to reach out to others who have come before you." - See what else Dr. Ortiz shares here.
- The Llano Estacado Photography of West Texas exhibit opened May 3 on the third floor of the Media & Communications building. Seven students in Photography 4300 course showcased their photographs of West Texas. - See more here.
- Congratulations to Dr. Kelly Kaufhold! His paper, "You Can Fix Stupid: An Experimental Game to Teach a Need for News," was selected as the Top Paper at this summer's annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in Washington, D.C.
- Kaufhold, K. (2013, August). Seriously Social: Young Adults, Social Media and News, to be presented to the Communication Technology division at the August national conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Washington, D.C.
- Callison, C., Merle, P., & Seltzer, T. (2013, August). Smart friendly liars: Public perception of public relations practitioners over time. Paper to be presented at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication annual conference in Washington, DC.
- Merle, P., El-Khoury, J., & Rahimi, M. (2013). Revolution 2.0: Deciphering a cross-national newspaper discourse. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal.
- Congratulations to Impact PR team members Trisha Banks, Rachel Shackelford, Peyton Shea, Kendra Szymarek, Kenzie Szymarek, and Kristin Wyllys. Their team won the South Plains Center for Productivity and Innovation account in Dr. Seltzer's Public Relations Campaigns class.
- We are proud to announce that doctoral student Prisca Ngondo has successfully defended her dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Ngondo!
- We are proud to announce Dr. David Perlmutter, director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa, as the new dean of the College of Media & Communication! We are excited to welcome him to Texas Tech and our college on July 1, 2013!
- Don't miss the Texas Tech Association of Student Electronic Media Showcase tonight at 6 p.m. in CoMC Room 365. Students will showcase photography, video and other projects.
- Learn about advertising major Jessica Stark's internship experience in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Get to know your advisor, Don Ellis, in this month's Adviser. Don Ellis is the advisor for Electronic Media & Communications. He is also a Texas Tech Alum. Read more here.
- Chris Rohland, Director of Sales and Business Development at Streetwise Media shares some advice on how selling yourself, team or product is crucial to being successful. - Read more in this month's Unfair Advantage.
- Rebecca Ortiz, assistant professor in the Department of Advertising, is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- One way students can get hands-on experience working in a television studio and running a newscast is to work for Media & Communication Television, or MCTV. - See more here.
- Curious about what you can do with a degree in public relations? Interested in a fast evolving industry? Learn more in this month's Major Spotlight, featured in The Adviser.
- Adam Wells, Principal, Aars | Wells on asking questions and admitting your weaknesses, "[Employers] will appreciate the fact that you're mature enough to admit your weaknesses. They just want to see that you're willing to learn something new…that you're open minded and capable of taking on challenges." - Read the full story in this month's Unfair Advantage.
- Don't forget to check out 'The Llano Estacado: Photography of West Texas' today from 4 to 6 p.m. in the 3rd Floor Student Lounge! Photos are by students in Kippra Hopper's PHOTO 4300 class.
- Wilkinson, K. T. & Saragoza, A. M. (Univ. of California at Berkeley). Cuando potencias hegemónicas riñen: "Televisa vs. Univision" Communications vista a través de una lente de gestión de medios. ("When hegemons quarrel: Televisa vs. Univision Communications viewed through a media management lens.") Global Media Journal Mexico 9, no. 18 (Fall 2012) pp. 16-34.
- Mass Communications alumnus Tony Wright shares his view on what makes a person successful, "Always try to learn more. That's how you get ahead. That's how you succeed. Just keep learning." - Read more in this month's Unfair Advantage.
- Seltzer, T., Zhang, W., Gearhart, S., & Conduff, L. (in press). Sources of citizens' experiential and reputational relationships with political parties. Public Relations Journal.
- Congratulations to Dr. Glenn Cummins for being awarded an Outstanding Researcher award!
- Congratulations to Dr. Liz Gardner on receiving a Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award!
- Congratulations to Dr. Ann Rodriguez for receiving a President's Excellence in Teaching Award!
- Lynn Sweeney, Otis Warren, Liz Gardner, Adam Rojek, & David Lindquist. (Accepted for publication). A simulation-based training program improves emergency department staff's communication. American Journal of Medical Quality.
- Weiwu Zhang, Trent Seltzer, and Shannon Bichard have been accepted for publication in Social Science Computer Review for, "Two Sides of the Coin: Assessing the Influence of Social Network Site Use During the 2012 US Presidential Campaign."
- Congratulations to doctoral students Mehrnaz Rahimi, Niyi Bello and Boni Cui! They presented to the 2013 Cultural Awareness Seminar about cultural success in their home countries of Iran, Nigeria and China, respectively. The Seminar, focused on "Worldwide Perspectives of Cultural Success," is an annual event organized by Tech Tech's Latino/Hispanic Faculty & Staff Association.
- Please join us in Dr. Peaslee's brown bag talk titled, "Media Conduction: Exploring Power at the Intersection of Media, Tourism, and Festival Studies," April 15 from Noon to 1 p.m. in COMC 156.
- Get to know your advisor, Miranda Russell, in this month's Adviser. Miranda is the advisor for Public Relations. She is also a Texas Tech Alum. Read more here.
- Advertising Alumnus Joe Fairless tells us why you should approach networking with a "pay it forward" attitude in this month's Unfair Advantage.
- "So you're through with College. Now what?" - Find out what else telecommunications alum Rich Flora has to say in this month's Unfair Advantage.
- Congratulations to Clay Craig, Dane Kiambi and Patrick Merle! They have each been awarded a 2013 Helen DeVitt Jones Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award!
- College of Media & Communication student Taylor Shofner discusses his internship with NATPE, the National Association of Television Program Executives. - See more here.
- Learn about advertising and electronic media & communications major Taylor Shofner's internship experience in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Glen Cummins, director of the Center for Communication Research, is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- We are also proud to announce that doctoral candidate Clay Craig has successfully defended his dissertation today! Congratulations Dr. Clay Craig!
- Doctoral candidate Sherice Gearhart has successfully defended her dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Sherice Gearhart!
- We are proud to announce that doctoral student Patrick Merle has successfully defended his dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Patrick Merle!
- Graduate student Desiree Markham had her paper "One Day My Prince Will Come: A Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Kate Middleton" accepted to the 29th Annual Texas Tech Conference on the Advancement of Women "Women and Global Change: Achieving Peace Through Empowering Women." Congratulations, Desiree!
- KTXT-FM's 50+2 Anniversary Celebration will be Saturday, March 23 from 2-4 p.m. in the 3rd floor student lounge. You can RSVP to firstname.lastname@example.com
- Learn about journalism major Kasie Davis' internship experience with KCBD news channel 11 in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Every year the American Advertising Federation hosts a nationwide competition among college students. Texas Tech students have the opportunity to participate in this competitive contest by joining the ad team in the College of Media & Communication. - See more here.
- Trent Seltzer, department chairperson of public relations, is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- Congratulations to the 2011-2012 Texas Tech Advertising Competition Team on winning a gold Addy from the Lubbock Advertising Federation for the Nissan campaign! Commercials from the campaign are available to view by clicking here.
- Congratulations to Dr. Luo and co-author Dr. Hongzhong Zhang from Beijing Normal University in China! Her paper "Web Credibility in China: Is the Internet More Credible Than Traditional News Sources?" has been selected as best paper for the International Communication Division at the 2013 AEJMC midwinter conference.
- Congratulations to graduate students Clay Craig, Mary Brooks, Sherice Gearhart, Patrick Merle, Mehrnaz Rahimi and Matt Vandyke! They recently found out their papers were accepted to the World Association for Public Opinion Research. The papers are:
Gearhart, S., Merle, P., Craig, C., Vandyke, M., Rahimi, M., & Brooks, M. E. (2013, May). A revolution in survey research?: A bibliometric review of public opinion studies between 2000 and 2012. Paper to be presented at the 66th annual conference of the World Association for Public Opinion Research, Boston, MA.
Merle, P., Gearhart, S., Craig, C., Rahimi, M, Brooks, M. E., & Vandyke, M. (2013, May). Computers, tablets, & smart phones: The truth about web-based surveys. Paper to be presented at the 66th annual conference of the World Association for Public Opinion Research, Boston, MA.
- Doctoral student Patrick Merle has accepted a position as an assistant professor of public relations in the School of Communication at Florida State University. Congratulations Patrick!
- Doctoral student Clay Craig has accepted a job at Coastal Carolina University in Conway/Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Congratulations Clay!
- Curious about what you can do with a degree in media strategies? Interested in a major that gives you business experience? Learn more in this month's Major Spotlight, featured in The Adviser.
- Annie Ruland is the most recent recipient of the Staff Excellence Award in the College of Media & Communication. Senior administrative assistant to Dean Jerry Hudson, Ruland has worked for the college and Hudson for 15 years. - See more here.
- After moving into a larger building, the College of Media & Communication has seen increased enrollment over the past year. - See more here.
- Mr. Justin Keene will join the college faculty on September 1, 2013, as an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Electronic Media. Mr. Keene is completing his Ph.D. at Indiana University. He earned his B.A. and M.A. at Texas Tech University.
- Dr. Ann Rodriguez joined the Good Morning Texas Tech show to speak about the advertisements during the Super Bowl and if they were effective or not. Click here to listen
- Learn about Jennifer Powell's internship experience with Red Cross in this month's Intern Spotlight. Read the full story here.
- Get a freshman perspective of dorm life in this month's Q & A. Read the full story here.
- Cam Stone, assistant professor in the College of Media & Communications, is this month's Professor Spotlight. Read the full story in this month's Adviser.
- Video highlights of the building dedication ceremony for the College of Media & Communication. - See more here.
- The 54th Carol of Lights is featured in this month's Campus Spotlight. Read more here.
- In the past year, our graduate program has distributed $117,256 in scholarships to graduate students. Additionally, enrollment in our graduate program has grown by 133%.
- Advertising professor Rebecca Ortiz has been invited along with co-authors from UNC-Chapel Hill to the March 2013 DC Health Communication Conference in Washington D.C. Their study is titled "Middle School Students Design Text Messages to Raise Awareness of HPV Vaccine."
- Advertising professor Melanie Sarge has had the following research accepted for publication: Knobloch-Westerwick, S., & Sarge, M. Impacts of exemplification and efficacy as characteristics of an online weight loss message on selective exposure and subsequent weight loss behavior. Communication Research
- Congratulations to faculty and graduate students for having papers accepted for presentations at the ICA conference in London, June 17-21, 2013. See the list of acceptances here.
- The First Brown Bag Talk of the semester will be Jan. 28 from noon – 1 p.m. in Room 156. Bring your lunch and listen to Dr. Seth Noar discuss the effects of public figure announcements regarding cancer. The presentation will provide an overview of the topic and present many of the substantive research questions that exist. Implications for cancer communication and prevention will also be discussed.
- Doctoral candidate Sherice Gearhart has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Communication, Public Relations & Social Media in the School of Communication at the University of Nebraska – Omaha beginning in fall 2013. Congratulations Sherice!
- Electronic Media & Communication and Advertising double major Taylor Shofner created videos that have been nominated and won a Lone Star Emmy award in the Student Production-Commercial category. Shofner is also a member of the 2012-13 Texas Tech Ad Team. Watch the commercials here
- Rebecca Ortiz joined the College of Media & Communication in Summer 2012 and teaches Media Literacy and Account Planning. Ortiz taught a special topics course titled Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll this past summer. - See more here.
- Prof. Jo Grant was the recipient of the first annual Eta Omicron Nu and Phi Sigma Beta Faculty Appreciation Award. Faculty nominations were solicited from students campus wide; students were asked to nominate their favorite and most influential professors. Only four awards were given across the university.
- Congratulations to Dr. Liz Gardner for receiving a Faculty Diversity Development internal grant offered through Dr. Munoz' office. The grant is for $2,000 to conduct research to understand the effectiveness of health persuasion with Hispanic diabetics. Only three awards were given across the university.
- During the week of Oct. 14, College of Media & Communication faculty collaborated with departments across campus to be a part of the 2012 Open Teaching Concept hosted by the Cross-Cultural Academic Advancement Center. - See more here.
- The Brown bag meeting on Thursday, November 1 at Noon in Room 156 will feature three of our new faculty, Melanie Sarge, Melissa Gotlieb and Rebecca Ortiz, discussing their research areas.
- Media Psychology – ADV 6315 will be available Spring 2013.
- A brief video highlights the many new spaces, features and updated classrooms within our new home. - See more here.
- Drs. Kelly Kauhfold, Autumn Shafer and Lily Luo received a $12,500 research grant from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. They will be working with the Komen Tissue Bank to develop communication strategies for promoting breast tissue donation among Asian Americans.
- Dr. Autumn Shafer had a publication accepted: Johnston, A., Friedman, B., & Shafer, A. (In Press). Framing the problem of sex trafficking: Whose problem? What remedy? Feminist Media Studies.
- Dr. Trent Seltzer was named a 2012 Texas Tech Faculty Integrated Scholar.
- Drs. Rebecca Ortiz and Autumn Shafer are Recipients of Internal Competitive Funding Opportunity to Advance Scholarship.
- Ribbon cutting for the new Media & Communication building at Texas Tech University. - See more here.
- Meet our new professors of practice: Jerod Foster, Jo Grant and Kent Lowry. - See more here.
- Growing programs. Growing leaders. Media & Communication is moving to a new home.
- The College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University is preparing to undergo changes in the fall including a new name, a new building, and a new merged department. Also, a unique special topics course is being offered to students who are seeking a hands-on experience in the sports industry. - See more here.
- Dr. Randy Reddick, Dr. Coy Callison and graduate student Steve Peterson discuss their experiences while studying abroad in London. - See more here.
- This past spring semester, two sections of the PR 4312 course competed amongst their classmates for a chance to win the best campaign plan for the selected client, Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Southwest. - See more here.
- This past month, the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University announced Connie Watson, M.A., academic adviser for electronic media and communication, as the recipient of the Spring 2012 Staff Excellence Award. - See more here.
- Ph.D. student Robin Haislett has been selected as a TEACH Fellow for 2012–2013.
- Tech PR visited Dallas in March 2012 to tour public relations agencies and to meet with professionals in the industry. Read the full story here.
- The Career Center in the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University is a service designed specifically for mass communications students to assist them with current and future career-related topics. - See more here.
- What do professors do with their time when they are not instructing a classroom full of college students? - Find out here.
- Registration for Summer and Fall 2012 begins Thurs., April 5. View more information
- We are pleased to announce our 2012 Outstanding Alumni recipients: Marilyn Peppers-Citizen, Emily Jones, Gregg Holmes, Joe Hornaday and King Nelson. These alumni will be honored in 2012 with a coinciding celebration of the move of the college to the newly renovated Business Building.
- The deadline to apply for Tech PR officer positions has been extended through Fri., April 6. Applications are available outside Dr. Seltzer's office (MCOM 216). Elections will take place at the next membership meeting on Wed., April 11.
- Doctoral candidate Sungwon Chung was presented with an American Academy of Advertising Dissertation Proposal Award on Friday, March, 16, 2012, at the annual meeting in Myrtle Beach, SC.
- Graduate part-time instructor Brandon Nutting has been awarded a 2012 Helen DeVitt Jones Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award. This award recognizes outstanding scholarly activity and excellence in teaching.
- The first brown bag lunch presentation will be Mon. March 5 from noon-1 p.m. in MCOM 223. Dr. Boris Munoz will be discussing "Saving the Press in Venezuela from Chavez and the Opposition." Make sure to bring your lunch and come join the converstaion.
- Our very own Coy Callison, Shannon Bichard, Liz Gardner and Trent Seltzer have teamed up with physicians from the Brown University Alpert Medical Rhode Island on a research project titled Project CLEAR. The program has already seen success and has begun to gain international attention. For more information, click here.
- Congratulations to Ph.D. students Patrick Merle and Clay Craig for receiving notification that their manuscript "Economic Reporting: Soft and International Perspectives" will be published in an upcoming issue of the Newspaper Research Journal.
- Tech Impressions magazine is produced by Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication students. Three positions of the staff are paid, the editor, the photo editor and the designer. - See more here.
- This May, the Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication will offer students a chance to study abroad in London, England, for a trip of a lifetime. - See more here.
- Farnall, O., & Lyons, K. (2012). Are we there yet? A content analysis of ability integrated advertising on prime-time TV. Disability Studies Quarterly 32(1).
- Grimm, J. & Andsager, J. L. (2011). "Framing Immigration: Geo-ethnic Context in California Newspapers." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(4). 771-788.
- Chaille Steed and Robin Haislett's paper, "Framing the Mormon faith: How changes in semantic components of texts affect audience evaluation of a political candidate" has been accepted for presentation at the national annual PCA/ACA conference.
- Robin Haislett's paper, "Third Wave Feminism in Squaresoft's Video Game Final Fantasy VII" has been accepted for presentation at the 2012 AEJMC Midwinter conference at the University of Oklahoma from March 2-3.
- Kelly Kaufhold, Amber Hinsley, and Seth C. Lewis, eds. The Future of News: An Agenda of Perspectives, 2nd ed. (San Diego: Cognella, 2012).
- Dr. Autumn Shafer and Dr. Weiwu Zhang were selected to participate in TTU's Transdisciplinary Research Academy, which enhances the research missions of Texas Tech University and tackles issues of global concerns by cultivating interfacing interactions across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
- Our very own Ann Rodriguez and Jessica Smith make media appearances regarding SOPA and PIPA. Find our what these professors have to say about the anti-piracy bills by clicking on the following links.
- Ph.D. Student Sungwon Chung has been selected to receive an American Academy of Advertising Dissertation Proposal Award.
Chung's submission titled "Motivated Cognition In Video Games: The Influence Of Emotional Video Game Content On Cognitive Processing Of Billboard Advertisements Embedded In First-Person Shooter Games" was selected to receive $2000, the highest level of funding. He will receive the first of two checks at the 2012 AAA conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
- Congratulations to the Visionary Communications account team (Ann Andrews, Nicole Egan, Ashley Mcbride, Lisa Peisen, and Angie Sims). Their team won the account in Dr. Shafer's PR Campaigns class. Their client was National Safe Place.
- The TTU Graduate School is accpeting applications for 2012-2013 scholarships available for both full-time and part-time graduate students. Fill out the application here
- Zhang, W., & Gearhart, S. (in press). CHAPTER Political behavior in social network sites. In Z. Yan (ed.), Encyclopedia of Cyber Behavior. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
- Wigley, S., & Zhang, W. (in press). A study of PR practitioners' use of social media in crisis planning. Public Relations Journal.
- Seltzer, T., Gardner, L., Callison, C., & Bichard, S. (in press). PR in the ER: Managing internal organization-public relationships in a hospital emergency department. Public Relations Review.
- Johnson, T.J., Bichard, S.L., & Zhang, W. (in press). Revived and refreshed: Selective exposure to blogs and political Websites for political information. In F. Comunello (ed.), Networked sociability and individualism: Technology for personal and professional relationships. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
- Seltzer, T., & Zhang, W. (in press). Debating healthcare reform: How political parties' issue-specific communication influences citizens' perceptions of organization-public relationships. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
- Franklin, M.I. & Wilkinson, K. T. (2011). Transnational communications in action: A critical praxis. Communication, Culture & Critique, 4, 361‐381.
- Congratulations to our Fall 2011 Banner Bearer Amy Marie Ashby. Amy is a public relations major from Katy, Texas, and will carry the college banner during commencement on Saturday.
- We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Ortiz, doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has accepted an offer to join the faculty in the College of Media & Communication.
Ortiz completed her M.A. in Media Studies at Syracuse University and a B.S. in Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University. Ortiz's area of research is in Health Communication, Message Processing and Media Effects.
- Josh Grimm and Ann Rodriguez were both honored at the 2011 Mortar Board Apple Polishing Reception for their "excellence and inspiration" in the classroom. Josh was nominated by student Lisa Bruskas and Ann was nominated by student Mallory Allred. During the ceremony, the nominating students personally explain why they nominated their professor.
- Dr. Rob Peaslee has been selected as a 2012 National Television Program Executive Faculty Fellow. As part of the program, he will attend the January 2012 NATPE Marketplace and Conference in Miami Beach.
- When Derrick Ginter received a phone call from the BBC on an early morning on Sept. 15, he had only a few hours to find someone to comment on the topic of the impact of the Mexican drug wars on the community. - See more here.
- The Dayton, Ohio, native, Kelly Kaufhold, has been involved in the communications industry ever since he took a college internship one summer in Kansas City, Mo., at the local news station KMBC-TV. - See more here.
- COMC graduate students will be presenting their papers at the 3rd Annual International Research Conference for Graduate Students at Texas State University on Nov. 3.
- Congratulations to three media and communication graduate students who were recognized for the quality of the work they presented at Texas Tech's first ever Arts and Humanities Graduate Research Conference (and received scholarship awards). They are:
- Chaille Steed - Best Overall in Conference - "Texts From Last Night: Misleading the Masses with a Potent Dose of College Debauchery?" (also 1st place winner in the Mediated Experience category)
- Melody Paton - 3rd place in Mediated Experience category - "Agenda Setting and Social Media: A Research Proposal to Define Interactions between Public and Media via Facebook."
- Shankar Borua - 3rd place in the Vocal Response to the Social Environment category - "Hope is a Good Thing: An exploratory field study on the potential for digital storytelling in Assam."
- Robin Haislet and Sherice Gearhart wrote a paper that will be presented at the Gender and Identity Colloquium on campus on October 28, 2011. The presentation is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and they invite anyone to attend. The presentation will take place in the Student Union Building, upper level Mesa Room. The citation is below:
Gearhart, S., & Haislett, R. (2011, October). Misogynistic rap music & the emergence of the 'Independent' woman: A critical analysis of cultural changes in themes, identities, & desires. To be presented to the Gender and Identity Colloquium at Texas Tech University. Lubbock, TX.
- Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Coy Callison and co-authors Rhonda Gibson and Dolf Zillmann had their manuscript titled "Explicit vs. Implicit Quantification in News Reports: The Effects of Presentation Format and Message Interference on Retention of Numeric Information" accepted for publication in Newspaper Research Journal.
- Several COMC graduate students will be presenting papers at the 3rd Annual International Research Conference for Graduate Students at Texas State University on Nov. 3.
- Melissa Wofford and Josh Robinson were selected as recipients of the Distinguished Staff Awards for 2011.
- Ph.D. student Jerod Foster's new book, Storytellers: A Photographer's Guide to Developing Themes and Creating Stories with Pictures, is due out in December.
- Seltzer, T., & Zhang, W. (in press). Debating healthcare reform: How political parties' issue-specific communication influences citizens' perceptions of organization-public relationships. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
- Ph.D. student Kim Pewitt-Jones will present her top-6 paper titled "Journalists' speech: When does it Cross ethical boundaries" at the Southwest Symposium in March.
- Dr. Rob Peaslee was selected to be a part of the Texas Tech University Institute for Inclusive Excellence for 2011-2012.
- Congratulations to COMC student Ioanna Makris for being selected as this year's President's Future Journalist Award winner. Ioanna was chosen for her dedication and involvement with The Light of Day Foundation.
- Keith Samples has been chosen to join the Fall 2011 Mass Communications Hall of Fame.
- COMC National Board Member and Hall of Fame recipient Scott Pelley is featured in the October issue of Texas Monthly.
- Ph.D. student Patrick Merle presented a paper he co-authored with Ph.D. student Jerod Foster at the WAPOR conference in Amsterdam last week.
- Dr. Todd Chambers was honored with the College of Media & Communication Billy I. Ross Faculty Achievement Award.
- Dr. Weiwu Zhang was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Mass Communication and Journalism.
- COMC Career Center Director Aleesa Ross has been selected to serve as president-elect for the Association for Women in Communications - Lubbock Professional Chapter.
- Doctoral Student Dane Kiambi recently visited the St. Louis offices of the global public relations firm, Fleishman Hillard. The visit was arranged by the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
- The College of Media & Communication seems to be ever changing in numerous ways, including the new variance in its enrollment numbers. - See more here.
- View a listing of student papers presented in July at AEJMC.
- Congratulations Dane Kiambi for having his paper selected for publication in the Public Relations Review! Kiambi's paper, "Ethnic Appeal: A Self-Defense Tool for Kenyan Politicians", looks at the apologetic rhetoric strategies that Kenyan politicians use whenever they are accused of any form of wrongdoing.
- Ph.D student Shankar Borua will present a paper titled "Intervention in Public Space and Public Memory: Harlan County, USA and Bowling for Columbine" at the 2011 Global Fusion Conference in Philadelphia in October.
- Assistant Professor John Wirtz shares his view of social media rivals Google+ and Facebook.
- Ph.D. student Clay Craig has been chosen to become a TEACH Fellow. Only a select few students receive this honor.
- Assistant professor John Wirtz discusses the relevance of keeping a "low profile" on social media sites.
- Dr. Olan Farnall is a new board member for the AAF Lubbock Chapter of the American Advertising Federation.
- The Frenship newspaper features an article about the Double T Multimedia University camp that COMC hosted this summer.
- Kathy Lindsey is the Staff Excellence award recipient for July through December 2011.
- Doctoral student Patrick Merle presented "Measuring Inter-Agenda Framing Alignment" at a Media Workshop in Paris on Monday.
- Congratulations to the Fresh PR account team (Helen Oettinger, Allison Kozlowski, Lyndee Martin, Amy Speer, Macy West, and Jordan Wright). Their team won the account in Dr. Seltzer's PR Campaigns class. Their client was the United States Air Force Academy Endowment.
- Congratulations to the CaPRock Communications (Brittni Henderson, Marissa Balch, Audrey Batista, Siera Hart, Tristin Walker) and Priceless PR (Mattie Steger, Kalee Connally, Kelsey Davidson, Sydney Drake, Kelli Hanna, Bennett Jensen) account teams from Dr. Gardner's PR Campaigns classes. These teams were recognized as having the top campaigns by the Lubbock Lions Club, their client for the semester.
- PR Campaigns group wins Texas Public Relations Association award!
One of the PR Campaigns teams from the fall semester, Priority PR, has received a Best of Texas Award from the Texas Public Relations Association. The team developed the "forever hope, forever safe, forever home" campaign to increase the volunteer base for CASA of the South Plains. Their research-based strategic plan was chosen as a winner in the Best of Texas Student Category for a program or campaign. The student team will be honored with other Best of Texas winners at the May 20 TPRA awards reception in Dallas.
The members of Priority PR are Deagan Ice, Ashley Quirino, Kayla Thomas and Luke Williams.
- Dr. Weiwu Zhang was awarded the Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award.
- Trent Seltzer received the President's Excellence in Teaching Award at Texas Tech's Faculty Convocation.
- Weiwu Zhang was awarded the Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award.
- Coy Callison received the Outstanding Researcher Award at Texas Tech's Faculty Convocation.
- Congratulations to Clay Craig, Chaille Steed and Sherice Gearhart who earned a 2nd place award in the multidisciplinary category of the graduate school's tenth annual research poster competition.
- Graduate part-time instructors Barbie Chambers and Prisca Ngondo received the Teaching Effectiveness and Career Enhancement (TEACH) Award.
- Dr. Liz Gardner's paper for the 2011 ICA conference has been recognized as a top paper by the Health Communication division. Dr. Gardner will present the paper, "The Role of Narrative and Other-referencing in Attenuating Psychological Reactance to Diabetes Self-care Messages," which was co-authored with Dr. Glenn Leshner of the University of Missouri, at the ICA conference in Boston this May.
- Dr. Weiwu Zhang has been selected to be a fellow for the 2011 Institute for Inclusive Excellence, a diversity training initiative of the Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity & Community Engagement at Texas Tech University.
- We are pleased to announce the 2011 Outstanding Alumni recipients: Kay Bell, Jan Boyle, Eddie Owens, Tod Robberson, Jennifer Schuder and Rita Williams. We will honor these alumni on Saturday, October 15, prior to the Kansas State football game.
- Congratulations to Kent Lowry for his Helen DeVitt Jones Excellence in Graduate Part-Time Teaching Award.
- Doctoral student Brandon Nutting and Instructor Ann Rodriguez were honored as Texas Tech softball guest coaches for the Missouri game on March 26. They were nominated as favorite faculty members by players.
- Gibson, R., Callison, C., & Zillmann, D. (2011). Quantitative literacy and affective reactivity in processing statistical information and case histories in the News. Media Psychology, 14, 96-120.
- Congratulations to Aleesa Ross who was honored for her valuable service to students by the Mortar Board on March 29th at their Apple Polishing Ceremony.
- Instructor Ann Rodriguez was named a "Raider Who Rocks" and will be honored at a banquet at the Merket Alumni Banquet Hall on April 7. The purpose of the Raiders Who Rock program is to recognize students, faculty and staff members who exemplify values promoted by The Foundation for a Better Life through their actions and services within the Lubbock and Tech communities.
- Spring 2011 Mass Communicator is now available.
- Congratulations to Kevin Stoker, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs for Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication, for being selected as a participant for the 2011 Scripps Howard Leadership Academy (SHLA). He will join other current and rising mass communication administrators for four days of training and leadership development, with exciting speakers and sessions lined up.
- Congratulations to Dr. Shannon Bichard and her AAF student completion team for winning two ADDY awards for their NSAC State Farm Campaign for Mixed Media.
- Doctoral candidate Simon Sinaga accepted a position as an assistant professor of communication at the University of Northern Arizona.
- Ph.D. student Daewook Kim has a new publication: Choi, M. I., Kim, D., & Park, S, B.(2011). Impacts of humorous radio advertising on attitude toward advertising: mediating effect of perceived humorous and moderating effect of need for cognition. Korean Journal of Advertising and Public Relations, 13(1), 138-162.
- Ph.D. student Patrick Merle has been notified his paper titled' The U.S. Correspondents in Paris: A longitudinal study of the profession 1998-2010, has been accepted for presentation at the AEJMC/ICD Midwinter Conference, which will take place in March 4-5.
- Congratulations to Dr. Weiwu Zhang who has been selected to attend the 2011 Institute for Inclusive Excellence. He was informed that "the selection committee found your application to be an excellent demonstration of how superior scholarship contributes to diversity at Texas Tech".
- Congratulations to Coy Callison, Liz Gardner, Trent Seltzer, John Wirtz, and Weiwu Zhang for having papers accepted for presentation at the 14th Annual International Public Relations Research Conference in Miami, FL. Two of these papers were co-authored with College of Media & Communication doctoral students, including Dane Kiambi, Daewook Kim, and Prisca Ngondo.
- Congratulations to Dept. of Public Relations faculty members Lori Boyer, Coy Callison, Trent Seltzer, John Wirtz, and Weiwu Zhang for having papers accepted for presentation at the AEJMC 2010 convention in Denver, CO. Several of these papers were co-authored with Mass Communications doctoral students, including Jerod Foster, Prisca Ngondo, Phillip Poe, and Austin Sims. Dr. John Wirtz has also received a Top Faculty Paper award from the Religion and Media Interest Group.
- Linda Francis Lee, Kelly Overley, Telea Johnson Stafford, Rick Walker, Holly Williams and Clay Wright were recognized as the Mass Communications Outstanding Alumni of 2010.
- "The Joker: A Serious Study of the Clown Prince of Crime is the first book-length, academic study of the infamous villain, co-edited by Rob Weiner, a librarian at Texas Tech University, and Rob Peaslee, Ph.D., associate professor and the interim chair for the Department of Journalism & Electronic Media.
The book is a project Weiner said he first thought of eight years ago. He explained, "When I gathered my ideas for the book, I wrote a proposal and asked Rob Peaslee if he would work with me on this. It has taken us four years, but this was a project we wanted to do justice."
Peaslee explained, "We worked together on a previous volume on Spider-Man, and not long after that manuscript was at the printer, Rob asked me about doing something on the Joker. He's always been one of my favorite pop culture characters, so I immediately said 'Yes!'"
Peaslee described The Joker as a character who breaks the mold of most villains by projecting a certain aura of attraction. "Like the many archetypal and mythical characters from which he has evolved, he is not opposed to the system of social organization so much as a symptom of it. He is not black or white; he simply rejects the notion of color, and in so doing, is both horror and rebirth,"Peaslee said.
Weiner said he delved into studying The Joker, because he found it odd that there was so much literature devoted to exploring the characters of superheroes such as Spiderman, Batman and Superman, yet there was none devoted to the villains.
Weiner concluded, "You can't have a really good superhero narrative without a great villain. There are a lot of great villains and there are a lot of terrible villains, but The Joker stands apart from them all."
Peaslee said, "Contributors come at the Joker from cultural, historical, sociological, philosophical, aesthetic and mythological points of view, and the result is a collection that we think is as productively fragmented, provocative and incomplete as the Clown Prince himself."
"The Joker: A Serious Study of the Clown Prince of Crime" is available for purchase through various retailers.
- Olan Farnall, Ph.D., recently conducted research that showed the number of commercials featuring people with disabilities has increased in recent years but still does not represent the size of the disabled population. He plans to expand on his research in the future by utilizing the college's eye tracking technology. See more here
- The American Advertising Awards competition was held this past weekend. Congratulations to the following Addy winners:
- Advertising student Camille Haider and Communication Design student Clara Vaughn won a Student Bronze Addy in the local level American Advertising Awards for their rack card/poster design developed for the Department of Advertising at Texas Tech.
- The 2013 National Student Advertising Competition Team won a Student Gold Addy in the local level American Advertising Awards for their television commercial 'Color with Character' developed for Glidden. The team also won a Student Silver Addy in the local level American Advertising Awards for their integrated campaign developed for Glidden.
- Advertising student Olivia Utley won a Student Silver Addy for her 'Mocking Dead Installation Campaign'.