Communications faculty share expertise at AEJMC national conference

With nearly a dozen faculty members in attendance, Elon University's School of Communications was well represented at the 2017 national convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

In total, more than 2,000 journalism and mass communication administrators, educators and media professionals attended the 100th annual conference hosted Aug. 9-12 in Chicago. The school was the exclusive sponsor of the convention app.

This year’s Elon participants included Dean Paul Parsons, Associate Dean Don Grady and faculty members Vanessa Bravo, Kelly Furnas, Denise Hill, Barbara Miller Gaither, Kathleen Stansberry, Amanda Sturgill, Hal Vincent and Qian Xu.

Among the highlights was Miller Gaither earning the conference’s top poster award from the association’s Public Relations Division. Miller Gaither collaborated with former Elon colleague Lucinda Austin to author a paper titled “Risky Business: Exploring Differences in Marketplace Advocacy and High-fit CSR on Public Perceptions of Companies.” The strategic communications professors conducted a between-subjects experiment exploring differences in outcomes for high-fit corporate social responsibility (CSR) versus marketplace advocacy programs.

Other Elon-related presentations and activities at the AEJMC convention included:

• Amanda Sturgill served as a panelist in the “Ph.D. Student/Early Career Pre-Conference Workshop,” providing feedback on dissertation/research work and advice on succeeding in the academic job market. She served as a discussant for the “I've Lost the Weight, Now Feed Me Upvotes!” entry in the Jung-Sook Lee Competition, recognizing top student papers. She also served as a panelist on the “10 Ways to Integrate Social Media in Your Courses and Your Student Newsrooms” teaching panel session. Additionally, Sturgill presented a paper she co-wrote with Kelly Furnas, Ben Hannam and Hal Vincent titled “Learning to Lead: Factors in Leadership Development for Communication."
• Paul Parsons served as a panelist for the “Closing the Gap: Media, Research and the Profession” task force panel session and the “Assessment: Come Get Your Questions Answered” plenary session. He also participated in AEJMC’s roundtable discussion and its steering committee’s off-site business session.
• Barbara Miller Gaither presented “What's the ‘Right’ Thing to Do? How Ethical Expectations for CSR Influence Company Support” as part of a scholar-to-scholar refereed paper research session. She collaborated with Lucinda Austin and Seoyeon Kim of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Hal Vincent served as a panelist for the “Creative Engagement: Classroom Exercises That Develop Creative and Strategic Thinking” teaching panel session. Additionally, Vincent, who is the teaching standards chair of the Advertising Division Executive Committee, presented the division’s annual Distinguished Teaching Award and inaugural Early Career Teaching Excellence Award.
• Kathleen Stansberry presented “UnVaxxed: A Cultural Study of the Online Anti-Vaccination Movement” as part of a scholar-to-scholar refereed paper research session. Stansberry collaborated with Carlina DiRusso, formerly a master’s student at Cleveland State and currently a Ph.D. candidate at Penn State.
• Denise Hill was a panelist for a teaching panel session titled “Public Relations History in the Classroom: Making More Time for Meaning-Making.”
• Xi Cui of College of Charleston presented a paper she co-wrote with Qian Xu in a referred paper research session. The paper’s title is “Television, Emotion, and Social Integration: Testing the Effect of Media Event with the 2017 US Presidential Inauguration.”

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.