Leading Environmental Communications Researchers and Practitioners to Share Ideas at AEJMC Conference
DENVER – Denver, a city at the vanguard of environmental awareness and innovation, will host this year’s Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference. The Mile High City is the perfect venue for two conference panels that will offer in-depth analysis of current trends in environmental communication. These events will bring together academic researchers from multiple disciplines and practitioners from different perspectives, providing a unique opportunity to explore developing trends and exchange ideas on best practices. The presentations will take place on Tuesday, August 3, and Thursday, August 5, at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel.
If you missed Stephen Colbert’s recent analysis of the “science catfight” between meteorologists and climate scientists (also covered extensively in the “mainstream” media), you will be able to hear directly from Kris Wilson (University of Texas), a key researcher on the project, as part of a pre-conference panel on communicating climate change (and other environmental issues) on Tuesday, August 3, 2-5 pm.
This preconference session will include two panels featuring ten communications experts whose combined work comprises hundreds of articles, books, presentations and media interviews in the academic and popular press. Maxwell Boykoff (University of Colorado at Boulder) is an international expert on media coverage of the climate change issue, who has been featured in Andrew C. Revkin’s “dotearth” blog at nytimes.com. Matthew Nisbet (American University) is highly cited for his insights on media framing of environmental and scientific issues, and Susanna Hornig Priest is editor of the journal Science Communication. David Hosansky, head of media relations for University Corporation for Atmospheric Research will provide scientific perspective, and Drew Kramer (InterMountain Corporate Affairs) and Molly Williams (Craft Interactive) will provide the viewpoint of public relations practitioners. Other panelists will include Michael Palenchar (University of Tennessee), Susan Grantham (University of Hartford), and Ann Marie Major (Pennsylvania State).
The role of modern religion in the communication of environmental values will be explored in the Thursday panel (11:45 am to 1:15 pm). Connie Roser-Renouf (George Mason University) will present data from a recent national survey that connects religiosity variables with environmental attitudes. Mark Neuzil (University of St. Thomas) will provide an overview of how the ancients wrote about the intersection of spirituality and nature and identify common themes that run through various religious traditions, and Tracylee Clarke (California State University Channel Islands) will explore the multiple rhetorical interpretations of the Bible in relation to care of the environment. Rev. Peter Sawtell, founder and Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries, will summarize the transformational role religious institutions can have in revisiting deep moral questions related to man and the environment.
Event Details:
Communication and the Environment: Theory and Practice – Tuesday, August 3, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel
Environmentalism and Religiosity, Exploring the Connections – Thursday, August 5, 11:45 am to 1:15 pm, Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel
Contact:
Lee Ahern, Penn State University, laa182@psu.edu
If you are interested in attending these sessions, please contact Lee in order to arrange appropriate conference credentials.
A Crash Course in Legal Research Methods: Tips and Trends From Legal Research Experts
Moderating/Presiding: Eric Easton, Baltimore Law and Amy Gajda, Tulane Law
Panelists:
- Stacey Bowers, outreach and instructional services coordinator; Denver, Sturm College of Law
- Diane Burkhardt, faculty services librarian, Denver, Sturm College of Law
Date: August 3, 2010
Time: 1 to 7 p.m.
Location: University of Denver, Mass Communication Building
Primary Sponsor: Law and Policy
Making New Connections: Engaging Consumers and Students
Moderating/Presiding: Sheri Broyles, North Texas; Peggy Kreshel, Georgia and Jan Slater, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Panelist:
- Today’s Participatory Culture: How to Connect and Engage Consumers
Laura Bowles, vice president/group account director, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Peer Presentations:
- Getting the right start: Designing your course and creating your syllabus
Sheri Broyles, North Texas and Peggy Kreshel, Georgia - The Intro Class: Make it Real. Make it Fun. Make It Stick.
Craig Davis, Ohio and Tom Reichert, Georgia - The Research Class: Quelling the Qual/Quant Quandary
Jisu Huh, Minnesota and Alice Kendrick, Southern Methodist
Date: August 3, 2010
Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Primary Sponsor: Advertising
Effective Teaching Strategies for Junior Faculty
With lively discussions and a mentor meet-up, this interactive workshop will cover proven strategies for effective teaching and developing mentoring relationships.
Workshop participants will be paired with individual mentors and will receive a Teaching Handbook of take-home tips, readings and resources to use throughout the year. While the workshop will focus on helping those new to academe, experienced educators are welcome to participate and contribute.
The workshop speakers include winners of the Scripps Howard Journalism Administrator of the Year and Scripps Howard Journalism Teacher of the Year awards, renowned educators, and students who will celebrate and critique teaching in its current state and style. They will cover ways to incorporate assessment of learning outcomes, grade inflation, student evaluations of teaching, student apathy and related issues in an age of entitlement, research resources to enhance teaching, and the use of online tools and social media for effective teaching.
The workshop will have four parts: Part I: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teachers; Part II: “Shoulda, Coulda, Mighta, Woulda”: Exchange of Teaching Ideas; and Part III: Proven Ways to Flourish in Academe: A Mentoring Plan to Balance Teaching, Research, Service and Life; and Part IV: Mentor Meet-up. The workshop also will focus on career-advancement strategies: developing a dossier for tenure, promotion and continuing professional and scholarly development, as well as tips for balancing research, teaching, service and life.
This workshop marks a three-year pilot plan based on the “strategic directions” outlined by the AEJMC 2009 State of the Discipline report. It addresses four objectives: (i) Examine what we teach, how we teach and allay anxieties about a discipline in transition; (ii) Adapt course content to the new realities of communication and draw upon core values; (iii) Harness research, creative and professional activity, media and industry support, professional organizations and community resources to incorporate curriculum changes, technology innovations and assessment of learning outcomes; and (iv) Develop peer-to-peer and co-mentoring relationships.
Participation requires pre-registration. Cost $ 25. Sign up for “’Teaching Strategies for Junior Faculty’ (Teaching Committee)” on the AEJMC Conference Registration form . Participants will receive a Teaching Handbook. Please contact Kenneth Campbell, South Carolina or Deb Aikat, North Carolina for workshop agenda and other details.
Effective Teaching Strategies
Moderating/Presiding: Debashis “Deb” Aikat, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Scripps Howard Foundation Journalism Teacher of the Year 2003.
1:00 to 1:15 p.m.
Welcome and Introductions
1:15 to 2:15 p.m.
Part I: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teachers
Panelists:
- Sandra Chance, Florida, Scripps Howard Journalism Teacher of the Year 2004
- Charles Davis, Missouri-Columbia, Scripps Howard Journalism Teacher of the Year 2008
- Elinor Kelley Grusin, Memphis, Scripps Howard Journalism Teacher of the Year 2007
- Andrea Appelhans, Denver, M. A. student
- Kirsten Cangilla, Denver, undergraduate student
With inspiring stories and an array of individual insights, panelists will begin this interactive session with brief remarks about the challenges and joys of teaching. Participants will be invited to share their teaching tips and discuss effective teaching.
2:15 to 2:30 p.m.
Break
2:30 to 3:30 p.m.:
Part II: “Shoulda, Coulda, Mighta, Woulda”: Exchange of Teaching Ideas
Using Online Tools and Social Media for Effective Teaching
Nikhil Moro, North Texas
Temptations, Tribulations and Thrills: Lessons in Learning Academic Culture
Kenneth Campbell, South Carolina
Top Ten Teaching Errors (I’ve Made Them All!)
Debashis “Deb” Aikat, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Scripps Howard Foundation Journalism Teacher of the Year, 2003
Panelists will initiate an open exchange of teaching ideas. Send your best teaching tips to Deb Aikat at da@unc.edu by July 30, 2010. Participants will be discuss teaching ideas.
3:30 to 3:45 p.m.
Break
3:45 to 4:45 p.m.
Part III: Proven Ways to Flourish in Academe: A Mentoring Plan to Balance Teaching, Research, Service and Life
Panelists:
- Chris Callahan, Arizona State, Scripps Howard Journalism Administrator of the Year 2009
- Shirley Carter, South Carolina, Scripps Howard Journalism Administrator of the Year 2006
- Will Norton, Mississippi, Scripps Howard Journalism Administrator of the Year 2004
- John Hamilton, Louisiana State, Scripps Howard Journalism Administrator of the Year 2003
With amazing anecdotes and astute advice, panelists will share proven ways to flourish in academe and discuss varying expectations for earning tenure, promotion and career advancement for all ranks. The panelists will also cover mentoring strategies, mentoring roles, and what works in academe and what does not. Participants will discuss academic expectations and mentoring issues.
4:45 to 5 p.m.
Break
5 to 6 p.m.
Part IV: Mentor Meet-up
Through an interactive networking process, participants will form mentoring connections they can draw on during the year.
6:00 p.m.
End of workshop
Contacts: Ken Campbell of South Carolina (KCampbell@sc.edu) or, Deb Aikat of North Carolina Chapel Hill (da@unc.edu).
Day: August 3, 2010
Time: 1 to 6 p.m.
Cost: $25 (limited to 40 participants)
Primary Sponsor: AEJMC Elected Standing Committee on Teaching
Examining Gender Equity — from the College Classroom to the Corporate Boardroom
This August, clusters of women across the country will gather to celebrate 90 years of voting rights. And we have celebrated many milestones since 1920 in our fight for equality in all areas of our lives. Yet work remains to be done. Women today still make on average 79 cents for every dollar earned by a man. And in many professions, the metaphorical glass ceiling still seems to exist.
In a preconference workshop CSW has conceived for Tuesday, Aug. 3, panelists will examine gender equity in both the academy and in media industries, organizations where, as communication educators, many of us once worked and where many of our students hope to find jobs. Women have made significant strides in both fields in past decades. Yet today they represent only 25 percent of full-time faculty at research universities. Women in the news and communication professions have made better progress. They now hold 40 percent of the jobs in television news and nearly 38 percent of the editorial positions at the nation’s newspapers. Significantly, the number of women pursuing degrees in journalism and related fields has surged over the same period. For instance, females today comprise nearly two-thirds of the student body at the University of Missouri’s school of journalism.
Clearly women in both media and academia are at a “crossroads” as we move into the 21st century. The new millennium offers opportunity, but at the same time, many of the issues and challenges today remain the same as in the 1970s, when women were entering the workforce en masse. Beyond the disparity in numbers lie disparity in pay and opportunities to advance. Women are underrepresented at both the full professor rank and in administrative positions in the academy, just as they are in managerial roles in newsrooms. Family-friendly policies that recognize the value of work-life balance are also missing from many of our workplaces. In Working Woman magazine’s 2008 list of best places to work, only two universities made the cut: Cornell and Harvard. Media companies fared slightly better, with three on the list: The Discovery Channel, Turner Broadcasting Systems, parent of CNN, and the book publisher McGraw-Hill. Other industries seemed far more serious about retaining women, with higher numbers of banks, hospitals, consulting firms, even brokerage firms represented on the Working Woman list. In summary, CSW’s preconference workshop will focus on the status of women in both work environments, as well as how to best prepare our students for a future in a gendered profession.
The workshop will include three panels, as well as an interactive/breakout session on leadership training/negotiation skills, facilitated by Barbara Selvin, Stony Brook, formerly with Newsday.
Stacey Hust, CSW Vice-Chair, will introduce the workshop and discuss gender equity in the classroom and profession.
Panel 1 “Preparing Your Students for a Gendered Profession,” will include Judy Walgren, The Denver Post; Geneva Overholser, USC Annenberg School of Journalism; June Nicholson, Virginia Commonwealth University; Yolette Garcia, Southern Methodist University; and moderator Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas.
Panel 2, “Women in the Academy and the Professions in the 21st Century and Beyond,” will feature Brett Atwood, Washington State University, an expert on virtual journalism; Jill Geisler, with The Poynter Institute; Sharon Grigsby, who recently led a team of Dallas Morning News editorial writers who won the Pulitzer Prize; and moderator Camille Kraeplin, Southern Methodist University.
Panel 3 will focus on “Examining Gender Equity in the Academy.” Confirmed panelists include such female leaders in the academy as Peggy Kuhr, Montana; Linda Shipley, Nebraska, Ann Brill, Kansas; Gracie Lawson Borders, Wyoming; Barbara Hines, Howard University; and moderator Barbara Barnett, Kansas.
Date: August 3, 2010
Time: 1 to 5 p.m.
Primary Sponsor: Commission on the Status of Women
Magazines in the Mountains
Kick-off the conference with fellow educators by taking a half-day a hike in Boulder. Group will meet in hotel lobby at 10 a.m., take the RTD bus to Boulder ($9 round-trip) and do a moderately strenuous hike in Mt. Sanitas Trail (less strenuous options also possible). Group will then eat dinner in Boulder before returning to Denver around 7 p.m.
E-mail Ted Spiker at tspiker@jou.ufl.edu if you have questions or if you plan to go so we can get head count for dinner. No reservations necessary. Just show up in the lobby—with hiking shoes (and water!). Everyone is welcome.
Date: August 3, 2010
Time: 10 a.m to 7 p.m.
Cost: $9
Primary Sponsor: Magazine
Journalism Schools as News Providers: Challenges and Opportunities
As newspapers shrink, journalism schools are filling gaps in news coverage through student journalism. There are clear benefits to the students, schools and public, along with challenges. In perhaps the most widely publicized legal confrontation for a journalism school, state prosecutors subpoenaed records related to Medill’s investigation of a 31-year-old murder conviction. What kinds of journalism are schools producing for the public? What are the challenges, risks and best practices? How might your school be involved and what precautions can your school take? This four-hour pre-conference will include case studies and experts in Pro-Am journalism, journalism education and media law from journalism schools and departments nationwide and includes a networking reception. Here is our line-up of confirmed speakers:
Panel One: What Is Changing and Why
- Joshua Benton, Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University — Moderator
- Karen Dunlap, President and Managing Director of the Poynter Institute
- Lynda Kraxberger, Professor and Chair of Convergence Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism
- Nicholas Lemann , Dean, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
- Geneva Overholser, Director of the School of Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Panel Two: Grappling with Legal Risks and Other Challenges
- Geanne Rosenberg, Founding Chair, Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions, City University of New York’s Baruch College and Associate Professor of Law and Ethics, City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism — Moderator
- David Ardia, Co-founder and Director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society
- George Freeman, Assistant General Counsel and Newsroom Lawyer, The New York Times Company.
- Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota
- Rose Ann Robertson, Associate Dean, School of Communication, American University
- Steven D. Zansberg, Media Lawyer and Partner, Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, L.L.P.
Panel Three: Innovative Approaches to Community Journalism
- Steve Shepard, Founding Dean, City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism – Moderator
- Joe Bergantino, Director and Senior Investigative Reporter of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University.
- Lydia Chavez Professor, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
- Richard Jones Editor for New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute’s The Local: East Village Project
- Leonard Witt, Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University
- Monty Cook, Executive Producer, Reese Felts Newsroom, UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Preconference Co-Directors: Geanne Rosenberg and Leonard Witt
Preconference Advisors:
- Susan King, Vice President, External Affairs, Director of Journalism Initiative, Special initiatives and Strategy, Carnegie Corporation of New York
- Eric Newton, Vice President for Journalism Program, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
This event would not be possible without the generous support of the Harnisch Family Philanthropies.
Date: August 3, 2010
Time: 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Cost: $39 (limited to 100 participants)
Primary Sponsor: Civic and Citizen JournalismFor further information, please call Professor Geanne Rosenberg at (646) 312-3969.
Sign up for this session on the AEJMC Conference Registration form!
The Teach-in: Elevate Your Journalism Teaching
Scholastic journalism means kids and teachers. Although metropolitan newspapers and national journalism organizations have jumped in to help struggling inner-city student publications, it¹s often too little, too late. Since 2001, the Scholastic Journalism Division has offered a day-long “teach-in” and invited area media advisers to learn and “elevate” their knowledge. Presenters will include nationally recognized scholastic journalism educators and practitioners.
Date: August 3, 2010
Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: FREE (30 maximum)
Communicating the Environment: Theory and Practice
ComSHER and Public Relations will co-sponsor this pre-conference, focusing on the theory and practice of environmental communication, from journalism to public relations of corporations, NGOs and governmental institutions. Climate change, which has been a particular challenge to the communications disciplines because of its complexity and scientific uncertainty, will be specifically addressed. The panelists will include both practitioners and academics working in the environmental communications discipline:
Theory panel
- Matthew Nisbet (American University)
- Maxwell Boykoff (University of Colorado at Boulder)
- Susanna Hornig Priest (University of Nevada-Las Vegas)
- Michael Palenchar (University of Tennessee)
- Susan Grantham (University of Hartford)
Practitioner panel
- David Hosansky (UCAR)
- Drew Kramer (Director of Strategic Communications, InterMountain Corporate Affairs)
- Molly Williams(Co-founder, Craft Interactive)
- Kris Wilson (Texas at Austin)
- Ann Marie Major (Penn State University)
Date: August 3, 2010
Time: 2 to 5 p.m.
Cost: $10
Primary Sponsor: Public Relations
Co-Sponsor: Communicating Science, Health, Environment and RiskSign up for this session on the AEJMC Conference Registration form!
Something Old, Something New: The Advertising Division’s Teaching Workshop goes back to the future
Every day, our culture becomes a bit more participatory. Technological wizardry offers up a seemingly infinite array of new advertising options. Consumers are in control. They seek ways to avoid advertising even as they eagerly play games on product websites, consent to watch ads if it means their “tunes” will cost less, and create ads of their own in response to advertiser promotions. Consumers will play, but now we have to invite them, interact with them, engage them.
To better understand engagement advertising, we’re talking to the wizards at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. You know, the folks who had the creative audacity to sacrifice Facebook friends for Whoppers. We’ve invited them to come and interact with us at the Teaching Workshop. They’ll be with us in the morning.
In the afternoon, it’s back to basics. Back by popular demand, we’re going to focus on some of the nuts and bolts that have helped those of us who are now old-timers become better teachers. Things like how to write a syllabus that sets a positive tone for the semester. Or how to teach an Introduction to Advertising class for the masses. And the ever-popular Open Forum where we spend some time sharing concerns and ideas as a group.
It’s something old (back to the basics) and something new (as Crispin looks to the future). Plan to arrive in Denver early. The all-day teaching workshop will be on Tuesday, August 3. You’ll want to be there. We’ll see you then.
Date: August 3, 2010
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: $35
Primary Sponsor: AdvertisingSign up for this session on the AEJMC Conference Registration form!
