School of Communications faculty participate in Montreal conference

Twenty faculty members, one staff member, two alumnae and one student in the School of Communications participated in the 2014 conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Montreal Aug. 6-9. The School was the exclusive sponsor of the convention app.

Faculty participants were Dean Paul Parsons; Associate Deans Kenn Gaither and Don Grady; associate department chair Frances Ward-Johnson; professor and interim associate provost Brooke Barnett; professor Janna Anderson; associate professors Naeemah Clark, Anthony Hatcher, Dan Haygood, Byung Lee, Barbara Miller, Phillip Motley and Amanda Sturgill; assistant professors Lucinda Austin, Vanessa Bravo, Dianne Finch, William Moner, Max Negin and Qian Xu; and, incoming instructor David Bockino. The staff member was Marianne Brigola, the assistant director of Career Services for the School of Communications. The alumnae were Jill Capotosto ’14 and Margaret Sloane ’14. The student was senior Dana Gullquist. School of Communications National Advisory Board member Tim Franklin, president of The Poynter Institute, was also a part of the conference.

Here were conference highlights involving Elon:

• Lucinda Austin was named the first-place Promising Professor Faculty Winner from the Mass Communication and Society Division. She also received the Public Relations Division’s SuPRstar Award for outstanding teaching for the second year in a row. In a separate panel discussion, she offered insight on how STEM professionals might communicate with the rest of the world.
• Janna Anderson was recognized as a finalist for the Scripps Award given to the Journalism Teacher of the Year. She appeared by video as a panelist to discuss how to engage students across the curriculum.
• Byung Lee, the head AEJMC’s Visual Communication Division, moderated a workshop about Q methodology and its use in practice. He also discussed the two weeks he spent studying how the Des Moines Register leveraged its social media outlets.
• Paul Parsons and Brooke Barnett participated in a panel discussion about the next wave of academic leaders.
• Amanda Sturgill and senior Dana Gullquist ’15 examined how Twitter is used differently among newspapers of different sizes when covering a major news event.
• Amanda Sturgill, Max Negin and alumna Margaret Sloane ’14 looked at what readers want and expect from the journalists they follow on social media.
• Naeemah Clark served as a panelist in a discussion about how television and the movies may be used to teach students about diversity.
• Dianne Finch was part of a panel that looked at what faculty and students should know about teaching “big data” in the classroom.
• Amanda Sturgill discussed sustainable media models during a panel discussion.
• Tim Franklin provided his insights about the future of journalism in a panel discussion.
• Dan Haygood presented a case study of leadership at a small advertising agency in Knoxville, Tennessee. This paper won the Top Paper Award for the Advertising Division, Special Topics. He also presented research on the history the Unique Selling Proposition—a successful but polarizing advertising philosophy.
• David Bockino discussed how college newspapers may be used as a teaching tool.
• Anthony Hatcher talked about the role of religion in the retail marketplace.
• Phillip Motley moderated the teaching panel session “Best of the Web” and the panel session “Why All Your Students Must be Programmers II.”
• Marianne Brigola was a panelist in discussion moderated by Amanda Sturgill about where journalism jobs exist now in a technological age. She will also preside over the Communication Technology Division’s members’ meeting.
• Barbara Miller, Qian Xu and Brooke Barnett presented research on their investigation of how attributes of readers’ comments in response to news stories impact other readers’ perceptions of those stories.
• Frances Ward-Johnson moderated a paper research session featuring media, racial representation and the power of rhetoric. She also presided over the Minorities and Communication Division’s incoming executive committee meeting.
• Vanessa Bravo (with a colleague from another institution) proposed a research agenda for exploring the role of public relations in ethnic advocacy and activism.
• Paul Parsons was part of a panel showcasing the achievements and reflections of the recipients of the AEJMC Equity and Diversity Award.
• Barbara Miller and alumna Jill Capotosto ’14 examined the framing of climate change in environmental agency websites in Costa Rica, Norway, the United States and China.
• Barbara Miller and Kenn Gaither presented research on strategic communication strategies by the industry trade groups representing the energy interests of coal and petroleum.
• William Moner offered his reasons why communications students need to be versed in computer programming.