FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 7, 2009

Contacts:
Carol Pardun, AEJMC President (803) 777-3244, pardunc@mailbox.sc.edu
Charles N. Davis, AEJMC Law & Policy Division Chair, (573) 882-5736 daviscn@missouri.edu

AEJMC Supports Free Flow of Information Act

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) joins the dozens of news organizations supporting the Free Flow of Information Act (FFIA), a federal shield law that passed the House and is now under debate in the Senate. A key component of the bill is how a journalist will be defined. The current definition, attached to the bill as an amendment, is too restrictive.

The definition of those who gather and disseminate news and information of public interest should not be predicated on an individual’s employment, but instead on an individual’s journalistic practice.

Freelance journalists (who disseminate their work in a variety of ways, including through reputable blogs) and student journalists need the protections extended through the FFIA.

The AEJMC encourages lawmakers to expand the definition of a journalist to be more inclusive so that this important law will be strengthened.

This statement was issued by the President of AEJMC and through the President’s Advisory Council.

About AEJMC

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 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.

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October 1, 2009 — Dr. Carol J. Pardun succeeds Barbara Hines, Howard, as the 91st* President of AEJMC.

Pardun is the director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Prior to her appointment at USC, Pardun was the director of the School of Journalism at Middle Tennessee State University from August 2005 through July 2008. She has held faculty positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1997-2005) and Kansas State University (1992-97).

Pardun sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journalism and Communication Monographs, Journal of Media & Religion, Simile, Mass Communication & Society, and Journal of Advertising. She was the co-principal investigator with Jane Brown (UNC-Chapel Hill) from 2001-06 for a $2.6 million grant investigating the impact of the media on adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behavior funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Pardun’s research has been published in the Journal of Early Adolescent Research, Pediatrics, Newspaper Research Journal, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journal of Advertising Research, Public Relations Review, and elsewhere. Her current research investigates the prevalence of co-existing messages of nutrition and physical activity in entertainment programming, and advertising aimed at young elementary school-aged children. Her new book, Advertising and Society: Controversies and Consequences, is published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Pardun holds a PhD from the University of Georgia in mass communications, an MA from Wheaton (IL) College Graduate School in communications, and a BA in English Literature from Wheaton College.

CONTACT: University of South Carolina, Office: (803) 777-3244 E-mail: pardunc@mailbox.sc.edu

*Historical records indicate no sitting president or convention from 1918-20. Additionally, several presidents served two consecutive terms, including: Merle Thorpe, Kansas, 1914-16; Ralph L. Crossman, Colorado, 1932-34; Charles L. Allen, Northwestern, 1939-41; Douglas W. Miller, Syracuse, 1942-44; and Frederic E. Merwin, Rutgers, 1944-46, making Pardun the 91st person elected to lead AEJMC.

The Future of AEJMC

To help kick off the new year, we sat down with Carol and asked her to share some of her thoughts and plans for AEJMC during her term as president. (more…)

The Chronicle of Higher Education • 09-21-09
Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Stop-the-Presses-Revamped/48497/

Stop the Presses! Revamped Journalism Courses Attract Hordes of Students
Even as job prospects dim, a focus on new media and entrepreneurship produces record enrollments
By Katherine Mangan

At a time when the newspaper industry is in free fall and thousands of jobs are being cut each year, one would think that the halls of the nation’s journalism schools would be awfully quiet. Think again.

Many universities report that journalism enrollments are up this year. Over the past few weeks, a lot of these budding journalists have been blogging, broadcasting, and tweeting their way through introductory courses that have been revamped to embrace the digital age.

Applications to Columbia University’s master-of-science program in journalism rose 44 percent, to 1,181, for the class entering this fall, and an investigative-journalism specialty drew more than twice as many applications this year than last year, up from 54 in 2008 to 121 this year.

Elsewhere, applications to master’s programs were up 30 percent at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 25 percent at the University of Maryland at College Park, and 24 percent at Stanford University.

Students in Temple U.’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab interview people in Philadelphia neighborhoods where stories often go unreported, the program’s director says.

Enrollment in undergraduate journalism programs nationwide has grown 35 percent over the past 10 years, to 201,477, and was up slightly in 2008, the most recent year for which data are available.

“There are still plenty of people who love to write and think that their journalism degree will serve as an entree to just about any field they could go into,” says Barbara B. Hines, president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. (more…)

Research shows for many career women the presence of the “glass ceiling” is very real and because of this scholars say women should prepare to face inequality in the workplace.

 “Women look around and the lack of men in their classes makes them think that gender isn’t an issue. But in reality that’s not the case. They need to broaden their horizons, top of the class doesn’t mean top of your business,” said Stacey Hust, assistant professor at Washington State University.

In a panel discussion at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Boston, six women presented their research about the role of women in the workplace and discussed the looming presence of the “glass ceiling” and its impact on the careers of women around the globe.

Temple University Professor Donnalyn Pompper said although there is research showing women are often not treated equally in the workplace, she has a hard time getting that message through to her students.

“We need to do a better job educating our students about gender. But it’s difficult because even when I tell them that equality is not absolute, there is a hesitancy to accept that,” Pompper said.

The research showed women in mid-career are becoming unhappy with the state of their careers, saying they had to work twice as hard to meet the expectations of their bosses. This has resulted in health issues, concerns about retiring and an overall feeling of disappointment and frustration.

 Katie Place, a graduate student from the University of Maryland, said many women say they feel they have to work longer and harder in an organization to achieve some kind of success and this has greatly reduced job satisfaction.

In her presentation on the “glass ceiling” effects on women of color, Pompper cited statistics indicating women make up 3 percent of Fortune 500 chief executive officers, of which only two are women of color.

Professor Kathryn Jenson White of Oklahoma University suggested this gap is created partly because of the gender roles and stereotypes still alive in and out of the workplace.

“In our culture there are distinct ideas about gender that impact the way we think. When we think ‘man’ we immediately think leader.’ Whereas when we hear female leader, we think it’s atypical,” White said.

Pompper said the stereotyping of women of color is still apparent. She found diversity often is not a priority when it comes to higher positions.

“Many women told me that although diversity exists at the lower and middle levels, once you reach a high position there is no such thing as diversity,” Pompper said.

Another important topic up for discussion was age and the growing importance of appearance. Pompper spoke of the pressures women at mid-career feel to adhere to the standards of a “youth-obsessed culture,” even citing a woman who referred to her own body as “the enemy.”

Looking back to the 1970s, University of Ohio Professor Sarah Guthrie cited Alison Owings, a reporter for CBS and a radical feminist who fought for women to be heard on the news. Guthrie noted although there has been much advancement for women in journalism, she wonders how much has really changed since Owings’ struggles.

“Have we really made it?” Guthrie asked.

The government’s historical role in supporting the news industry could be strengthened in this current economic crisis, though the industry needs to pioneer new ways to bail out itself, two senior fellows from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center said.

At the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications annual conference in Boston the two fellows discussed the findings of upcoming report.  They said private foundations and non-governmental organizations, along with the federal government, could work independently to raise money and support for journalistic ventures.

Dave Westphal, a senior fellow and executive in residence at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication, spoke on behalf of the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy’s upcoming report, saying, “There’s plenty of room to widen tax breaks for publishers.” Westphal cited postal rates and antitrust regulations among other federal regulations that could be rewritten.

But Westphal said, so far, the government is staying out.

“And this may be exactly the right choice,” Westphal said.  “The odds that policymakers would make a helpful response may not be very high.”

Westphal also said it’s time foundations and NGOs start exploring ways they can keep the power of the press alive by funding news organizations and other journalistic ventures.

The exciting bells and whistles that come with new media aren’t necessarily the saving grace for newsrooms. Instead, Westphal said, that government should remain involved in the reinvention of the dissemination of news.

“Government support for the news business, direct and indirect, was present at the country’s founding. It continues today,” Westphal wrote in a handout given to attendees of the breakfast Communication Leadership Research Presentation, The Future of News.

Westphal colleague Adam Clayton Powell III suggested news organizations build on their existing brands in search of revenue, citing a radio station that used its own airtime to promote its Web site, leading to a surge in traffic online and in ad revenue.

Powell said news organizations can create multiple products out of a single brand.

Jody Brannon, the National Director for News21, Phoenix, said after attending the event she was skeptical these means would save journalism.

“The struggles across the country are really shaking the souls of newsrooms,” Brannon said. “I left [the presentation] feeling like we have a lot of forward progress to make.”

Brannon said the old principles of journalism will not stick as the future of the industry becomes more of an everyday reality, and while these ideas presented may not be the cure, she’s glad academia is talking.

“The industry would love to have some help.”

How can anyone love a character like Tony Soprano? It’s not easy and requires a person to have a high tolerance for ambiguity, says Maja Krakowiak, a graduate student at the University of Colorado.

“Although these characters possess good and bad qualities, they are extremely popular which is what motivated me to do this research,” Krakowiak said at the Entertainment Studies Interest Group’s presentation of “The Best of ESIG” at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications convention in Boston.

Krakowiak discussed why people tend to enjoy morally ambiguous characters such as Severus Snape from “Harry Potter” and Dexter Morgan from the television show “Dexter.”

Krakowiak discovered that people who have a higher tolerance for ambiguity tend to enjoy characters that are not completely good or bad. She also found that a higher ambiguity tolerance may lead to more cognitive enjoyment and therefore those individuals may enjoy reading more than people who have a low tolerance for ambiguity.

In another presentation on the way in which we select media, Mary Beth Oliver from Pennsylvania State University, asked,  “Does sadness predict the selection of sad media?”

Through her research, Oliver suggests it isn’t sadness that predicts the choosing of sad media but rather a desire to seek the truth, and to experience something meaningful. She uses the term “mixed affect” to describe an emotional state of being that stimulates a desire for media that will be equally as emotional and that which tends to be more serious rather than light hearted.

“When you feel meaningful you want to see things that elicit that effect, which is why often times ‘sad’ movies are chosen rather than something like Wedding Crashers,” Oliver said.

In an examination of the television show “30 Rock,” Lauren Bratslavsky, a graduate student from Oregon, looked at the way humor is presented from the perspective of four thinkers, Bergson, Freud, Frye and Bakhtin. She says the show combines several elements of each of their philosophies including the use of laughter as a social function and satire.

“The show is interesting because it offers critical humor about the television industry and yet it is a product within the industry. NBC is willing to be the butt of the jokes and so the show acts as a release valve for this social commentary and that’s why there is so much to look at in terms of its humor,” Bratslavsky said.

Stepping away from the world of television and film, Ashleigh Shelton, a graduate student from Minnesota, said she wanted to determine the effect of temperature on the gaming experience. Shelton found when the temperature of a room where matches were played mirrored the temperature of what was going on in a game, it made for a more enjoyable experience. This discovery she said may be beneficial to the videogame industry and could lead to new ideas for future technology.