School of Communications faculty participate in San Francisco conference

​Seventeen faculty members in the School of Communications participated Aug. 6-9 in the 2015 conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in San Francisco, California. The school was the exclusive sponsor of the convention app.

Faculty participants were Dean Paul Parsons, Associate Dean Don Grady, Associate Provost Brooke Barnett, and faculty members Lucinda Austin, Vanessa Bravo, Naeemah Clark, Dianne Finch, Ben Hannam, Dan Haygood, Barbara Miller, Phillip Motley, Glenn Scott, Amanda Sturgill, Hal Vincent, Frances Ward-Johnson, Brian Walsh and Qian Xu.

• Molinos Verdes de Moringa, an Interactive Media master’s class project, won second place in the “Best of the Web” competition, sponsored by the Communication Technology and Visual Communication Divisions. Amanda Sturgill mentored the project.
• ​Vanessa Bravo was named the third-place Promising Professor Faculty Winner from the Mass Communication and Society Division, and subsequently presented in the teaching panel “Promising Professors.” She also became part of the executive board of the International Communication Division, after being appointed social media coordinator during the division’s business meeting.
• Lucinda Austin moderated and chaired the Public Relations Division’s offsite visit to LinkedIn San Francisco to learn about how public relations professionals and students can utilize LinkedIn to promote content and build media and business relationships. She served as a discussant for two panels, one sponsored by the Public Relations Division on “Crisis Communication” and one sponsored by the Communicating Science, Health and Environmental Risk Division on “Framing Health.” She finished service as chair of Professional Freedom and Responsibility and began service as the teaching chair for the Public Relations Division.
• Lucinda Austin and Barbara Miller authored “Campaign and Corporate Goals in Conflict: Exploring Corporate Social Initiative Types and Company Issue Congruence,” which won the top poster award from the Public Relations Division. Their research detailed how corporate social responsibility initiatives are received when campaign and organizational goals are in conflict.
• Frances Ward-Johnson, who leads the 180-member Minorities and Communication Division, was a panelist on a research panel session titled “Giving Voice: The Untold Stories from Selma to Montgomery” and served as a discussant in the refereed paper research session titled “Minorities and Communication Division Top Research Papers.” She presided over the Minorities and Communication Division’s incoming and outgoing executive committee meetings and members’ meeting, and the annual Diversity and Journalism Education luncheon. She also presided over a training session titled “Incoming Division and Interest Group Vice Heads.”
• Hal Vincent attended the Advertising Division’s annual teaching workshop pre-conference; this year’s session was a “digital bootcamp.” He also presented the Advertising Division’s membership committee’s report at its business meeting.
• Amanda Sturgill, who leads the Communication and Technology Division, moderated the teaching panel session “Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – How New Platforms are Changing Universities.” She also presided over the Communication Technology Division’s members’ meeting and served as a discussant for a refereed paper scholar-to-scholar research session titled “Top Faculty Papers in Communication Technology” and a refereed paper research session titled “Top Student Papers in CTEC.”
• Amanda Sturgill, Ben Hannam and Brian Walsh presented “External Resources Use for Undergraduates Learning Coding in Communication Classes” to the Small Programs Interest Group.
• Qian Xu presented “Credibility Judgments of Health Social Q&A: Effects of Reputation, External Source, and Social Rating.”
• Phillip Motley examined modular and symbolic typography during a Great Ideas For Teachers session.
• Glenn Scott, who heads the Participatory Journalism Interest Group, presided over the group’s members’ meeting.
• Brooke Barnett served as a panelist for a teaching panel session titled “Diversity in the Classroom: Concepts, Practices, and Conversations” and a professional freedom and responsibility panel session titled “Examining National Trends Facing the Challenges of Diverse Faculty in Reaching or Failing to Reach Academic Leadership Roles Across the Academy.” She also co-moderated a workshop session, “Insights into Academic Administration: A Collaborative on the Qualities of Stellar Academic Leaders.”
• Naeemah Clark was a panelist in teaching panel session titled “Accessing Hollywood: Using Entertainment News to Foster Learning and Understanding.”
• Paul Parsons was a panelist in a training session titled “Institute for Diverse Leadership in Journalism and Communication: Exploring Leadership,” and spoke at the “Insights into Academic Administration” pre-conference workshop.
• Dianne Finch served as a panelist for the teaching panel session, “Teaching Newsroom Math: Demystifying Data Skills in the Journalism Classroom.”
• Dan Haygood presented “‘Now We Move to Further Action,’ The Story of the Notre Dame Sunday Morning Replays” as part of the History Division’s “Sports in Media History” refereed paper research session. He also served as a discussant for a refereed paper scholar-to-scholar research session titled “Responses to Corporate and Sponsored Advertising.”

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. The association’s mission is to advance education, foster scholarly research, cultivate better professional practice and promote the free flow of communication.