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Vol. 18, No. 2
July 2013
Published three times annually by the Mass Communication Division of NCA.
Publications/Web Editor - Nicholas David Bowman, West Virginia University

In this issue:

Welcome from the Chair

Santa Barbara, CA -- This year, the Mass Communication Division (alongside an array of NCA’s divisions and interest groups) will help to honor the National Communication Association’s centennial by contributing short summaries of the insights offered in MCD scholarship to “365 Days of Communication Research”. Starting on November 28th, 2013 and throughout 2014, the NCA website will post these key research summaries on their website to celebrate and promote the important work being conducted in the field of Communication.  In this vein, we would also like to acknowledge the exemplary scholarship being conducted by the members of the Mass Communication Division by highlighting the Top Competitive Papers and Top Competitive Student Papers at the upcoming convention in Washington, DC (November 21-24, 2013).

We look forward to seeing you in DC!

Top Four Competitive Papers in Mass Communication

• Jennifer L. Borda (University of New Hampshire). Laughing Through Our Tears: Rhetorical Tensions in Roger & Me
• Robert Lewis (University of Texas at Austin) & Natalie Mitchell (University of Texas at Austin). Egoism versus Altruism in Television Content for Young Audiences
  
• Elizabeth L. Cohen (West Virginia University), Nicholas David Bowman (West Virginia University) & Alexander Lancaster (West Virginia University). Are u With Some1? Using Text Message Experience Sampling to Examine the Relationship Between Co-Viewing, Enjoyment, and Eudaimonia
  
• Karyn Riddle (University of Wisconsin, Madison). Distinguishing cultivation theory from cultivation effects: An exploration of television, violent movies, and beliefs about real-world crime.

Top Four Competitive Student Papers in Mass Communication

• Ellen Defossez (University of Pittsburgh). Putting your best brain forward: Commercial brain imaging and the semiotics of improvement.
  
• Marko Dragojevic (University of California, Santa Barbara ). Accent Representations in the Media: Information Processing and Effects.
  
• Hojin Song (University of Iowa). The Right Way to Eat: Practical Governmentality through Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee.
  
• Susannah Cobb McMonagle (Temple University). The Sportiest Catwalk on Earth: How Sport & Fashion Collide on the Olympic Stage.

Dana Mastro
Chair, Mass Communication Division
University of California, Santa Barbara
mastro@comm.ucsb.edu

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2013 Service and Teaching Awards

College Station, TX -- Nominations for the MCD Teacher and Scholar awards are now being accepted by the Division. We encourage nominations, including self-nominations, for both of these awards from the membership. Nomination information about each award can be found using the following links:

A list of past award winners can be viewed here, and further questions about the awards or the nomination process should be directed to Srividya Ramasubramanian using the contact information below.

Vice Chair-Elect
Srividya Ramasubramanian
Texas A&M University
Department of Communication
srivi@tamu.edu
(979) 845-5178

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Call for 2013-2014 MCD Officer Nominations

Siloam Springs, AR -- Want to be more active in the Mass Communication Division of the National Communication Association? Submit your name for nomination! The Mass Communication Division of the National Communication Association is gathering names of those members who are interested in being nominated for open positions. If you submit your name it will appear on the ballot at our next meeting in Washington, D.C. Elections will take place at this time. Please send nominations to Kara Gould (KGould@jbu.edu). Please consider self-nomination. Remember, only members of the MCD of NCA are eligible to serve. The following list details the positions for which we are accepting nominations and a brief description of the positions.

NOTE: Names submitted for Vice-Chair Officer Elect and Secretary Elect are not nominations, they are for the consideration of the committee which will make the final nominations for these positions.

• Vice-Chair Elect (4 years of service): In the first year of service the Vice-Chair Elect will oversee the teaching and service awards. In the second year the Vice-Chair Elect becomes the Vice-Chair and he/she must attend the program planning meeting at NCA, distribute the call for papers, and plan the program (with assistance from others in the organization). The Vice-Chair must also represent the MCD on the Legislative Council. The Vice-Chair Elect then becomes the Chair and must preside over MCD business meetings and at Executive Committee meetings and represent the MCD on the Legislative Council. In the final year of service he/she will serve as Immediate Past-Chair and represent the MCD on the Legislative Council and act as an adviser to the Chair.
• Secretary Elect (2 years of service): The Secretary Elect records notes and election results during the MCD business meeting. He/she is also responsible for distributing these notes after they have been approved. The Secretary Elect then becomes the Secretary who is responsible for distributing notes at the MCD meeting and formally presenting the notes at the meeting.
• Vice Chair Elect of Research Committee / First Year Member of Research Committee (4 years of service, 3 year term on Research Committee, one year on Nominating Committee): The Research Committee's Vice-Chair elect will serve as Vice Chair in his/her second year and Chair in his/her third year. Additionally after the third year this person will become a member of the Nominating Committee. The purpose of the research committee is to coordinate the evaluation of competitive papers submitted to the Division for the annual convention, to plan the section meetings of the annual convention that are devoted to research in Mass Communication and to coordinate and promote the research activities of the Division.
• Graduate Student Representative (1 year term): The Graduate Student Representative will represent the Division at any meetings held by the Association in which graduate student interests are discussed and in which graduate students are invited to participate.
• Representative to NCA Nominating Committee (1 year term): This person will represent the MCD on the Association's Nominating Committee which prepares a slate consisting of two or more nominees for the office of Second Vice President and two or more nominees for each at-large position vacant on the Legislative Assembly and the Committee on Committees. NCA officers and members who have served on the NCA Nominating Committee during the previous five years are not eligible to serve in this position.
• Legislative Assembly Representative (2 year term): This person will attend the Association's annual Legislative Assembly meetings and represent the interests of the Division at those meetings, record the proceedings from these meetings, and report a summary of those proceedings at the annual business meeting.
• Nominating Committee of the Division (3 positions, 2 year terms): This committee is responsible for presenting a slate of potential candidates to the membership during the business meeting. They also hand out, collect, and count ballots. The nominee who receives the most votes will be chair of the committee and therefore a member of the Executive Committee. Several positions are members of the Executive Committee, please note the additional requirements of these positions. Executive Committee Positions Vice-Chair Elect of Research Committee in three years Vice-Chair Officer Elect.

Kara Gould
Nominations Committee Chair ('14)
John Brown University
Department of Communication
KGould@jbu.edu
(479) 524-9500

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Communication scholars seek advances in media neuroscience

Santa Barbara, CA -- Scholars in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara have founded the Media Neuroscience Lab, one of a small but growing number of research groups attempting to understand the use and influence of media technologies by utilizing innovative techniques from cognitive neuroscience. In light of President Obama's recently-announced BRAIN Initiative, these researchers hope to highlight the important contributions to the social sciences which can be made through studying the brain.

The Media Neuroscience Lab, led by Rene Weber, Ph.D., M.D., studies a range of media-related topics from an interdisciplinary perspective. Current lines of research include understanding the neuroscience of persuasion in order to craft more effective public service announcements, examining the cognitive and behavioral effects of video games and other interactive computer-mediated environments, and observing the ways that mass-media narratives are designed to appeal to fundamental moral intuitions.

This type of research is increasingly influential in social science generally and the field of communication in particular. In addition to four faculty members from the Department of Communication at UCSB, the Lab also includes affiliated researchers from the UCSB Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, the University of Michigan's Communication Neuroscience Lab, as well as other universities around the world.

For more information about the Media Neuroscience Lab, contact Rene Weber at renew@comm.ucsb.edu, visit the lab website at http://www.medianeuroscience.org, or follow the lab on Twitter @MediaNeuro.

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Engaging the Media, as Media Scholars

Washington, D.C. -- [The following is excerpted from a note from Arlyn Riskind, the Director of Public Affairs and Public Information for NCA]:

"A key component of my role is to raise awareness of the discipline by sharing the newsworthy scholarship, projects, and expertise of NCA members with targeted media.

An excellent way to work toward achieving this goal is to learn about the work of your division members in order to identify news that might be of interest to reporters.

I am hoping that you would be willing to reach out to your division members to let them know of our interest in learning about what they are doing. In your communication with members, please feel free to provide them with my e-mail address: ariskind@natcom.org so that they can contact me directly with their ideas. In addition, you might want to let them know about NCA's Media Engagement Center-an online resource of information on getting involved in the association's media outreach program (http://www.natcom.org/mediaengagement/).

Of course, if you have any questions or need more information, please let me know. Thanks again for your help with this effort."

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Creighton University Professor Launches Media and Information Ethics Website

Omaha, NE -- For instructors searching for examples and case study materials related to the study of mass communication ethics, Dr. Jeffrey J. Maciejewski has compiled a open-access list of over five dozen exemplars. His website - Information Ethics Report - covers a wide range of topics, including stereotyping, sexism and racism, journalism and advertising ethics, public relations, and emerging ethical issues with the increased adoption of social media. Or, as Dr. Maciejewski puts it, "topics across the mass communication spectrum."

"Information Ethics Report covers the ethical transgressions of media professionals for use in the classroom and elsewhere," writes Dr. Maciejewski in the 'About' portion of his website. He encourages all MCD members to visit and engage the blog, as well the Information Ethics Report Twitter handle (@CUInfoEthics).

Information Ethics Report can be found at: http://creightoninfoethics.wordpress.com/.

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JournalReviewer.org looks to blind peer review research journals

The Internet -- JournalReviewer.org is an independent site that aggregates information users provide about their experience with academic journals' review processes so that others can be as informed as possible as they consider journal submissions. Our goal is to provide users with detailed information to help them choose the best journal for the specific details of their unique submission situation.

Academic journal publishers and related organizations provide a lot of information about their journals. Editors. Editorial boards. Impact factors. Submission guidelines. That information is very helpful.

If you're a researcher publishing in academic journals, though, it's very likely you've heard someone ask for, wonder about, or wish for other information about journals that isn't so easy to find. How many reviews will a manuscript get? How thorough are the reviews? How long does it actually take to get a review back? Is the feedback helpful?

JournalReviewer.org is for anyone who is considering a manuscript submission and wants to know a little bit more about what they can expect from their experience. Preparing a manuscript that's time-sensitive and trying to avoid a long review period? Hoping to get extensive feedback from reviewers? Check JournalReviewer.org to see other users' reports for that journal's time under review, number of reviewers, length of reviews, and other details about their review experiences. JournalReviewer.org collects both objective and subjective information in each user's report for a journal, providing you with a range of information as you consider what journal is right for your submission.

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CONFERENCES AND CALLS

Call for Papers
Journal of Communication, Special Issue
"Expanding the Boundaries of Research on Entertainment"
Co-Editors: Mary Beth Oliver (The Pennsylvania State University) and Arthur A. Raney (Florida State University)
Deadline: October 1, 2013

Entertainment research has represented a central area of study among many communication and media-psychology scholars over the last several decades. Foundational work in this area has understandably tended to focus on enjoyment and other hedonic outcomes as central areas of study, though researchers increasingly recognize the importance of broader conceptualizations of the entertainment experience. The purpose of this special issue is to showcase the growing body of social scientific scholarship that is encouraging the discipline to expand the boundaries of our understanding of entertainment so as to more fully capture the role that it plays in the lives of most individuals.

In this special issue we are interested in theoretical and empirical studies that exemplify the functions, experiences, and processes of entertainment that go beyond that of enjoyment per se. Because these expanded boundaries undoubtedly cover a variety of issues, we are open to a wide range of topics. Examples might include, but are not limited to, positive media psychology; cognitive and affective aspects of entertainment consumption; meaningful media experiences; implications of newer collaborative, user-generated, mobile, or interactive technologies for research and theory on entertainment; media and morality; and media and well-being, among others. We are particularly interested in social scientific research that broadens the theoretical scope of entertainment scholarship rather than critical analyses of media content or papers that merely provide literature reviews or apply existing theories to new content areas.

Whatever the specific topic, our goal is to select manuscripts that make a substantive contribution to social scientific research on entertainment and provide a roadmap for future scholars in this burgeoning area of study. If you have questions regarding the appropriateness of a potential submission, please contact Mary Beth Oliver, Co-Editor of this special issue, at mbo@psu.edu.

Deadline for submission is October 1, 2013, through http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jcom. Manuscripts must conform to all JOC guidelines, including the use of APA 6th edition format and a limit of 35 pages total manuscript length including tables, figures, and references.  Please indicate your desire to be considered for the special issue in your cover letter.

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Call for Participation
MediaRise 2013
Washington, DC
September 23-29, 2013
Deadline: October 1, 2013

The 2013 Media Rise Festival is a weeklong series of events, held on September 23-29, 2013 in Washington, D.C., will celebrate how storytelling, design, art and media can accelerate social change.

The participants are media educators/scholars, creative professionals, designers, and artists. The Youth Media Rise is a festival-within-a-festival focusing on youth (13-18 year olds).

Instead of the typical "panel discussion" and "keynote" format, we are envisioning alternative ways of engaging with participants that are experiential, interactive, and inclusive.

Signature events will be held from Sept 27-29, 2013. They include an opening party, pitch night, The Forum, The Match brunch, Youth Media Rise, networking lounges, 48 hour video challenge, unplugged spaces, and a closing party.

The festival is organized along three main themes: feeling, connecting, and inspiring. More information available at www.mediarisenow.org.

We invite you to get involved as a participant, volunteer, and/or researcher. This is a wonderful opportunity to unleash your talents for a cause, make your scholarship matter, and meet some very cool thought-leaders/change-agents. If you have speaker, partner, volunteer or sponsor suggestions, please share your ideas with us.

Follow us on: Twitter (@mediarisenow), Facebook (here), and Instagram (@mediarisenow).

Sincerely,
Srivi Ramasubramanian
Executive Director, Media Rise Festival

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Call for Participation
Can Anyone Hear Me?
New York City
March 28 2014
Deadline: November 1, 2013

Can Anyone Hear Me? is an interdisciplinary conference sponsored by the Communication Studies Program of the LaGuardia Community College Humanities Dept. in conjunction with the City University of New York’s League of Active Speech Professors (CLASP). The purpose of the conference is to showcase current research and practice in the field of communication studies with a focus on the intersections of communication studies and other disciplines and to promote dialogue around the changing landscape of communication and communication studies. Proposals from all disciplines are welcome; the conference has a special interest in proposals that focus on the intersections of STEM & Communication Studies, Social Science Research & Communication Studies, Critical Theory, and Innovative Pedagogies. Both faculty and student proposals are invited, and submitters should identify which one of the following four conference “tracks” their proposal most closely pertains.

Contact: Lisa R. Barry, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
Department of Humanities
LaGuardia Community College/CUNY
718.349.4071
LBarry@lagcc.cuny.edu

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Promotions, Awards, and Publications

Obituaries

Cleveland, OH [drafted jointly by the Cleveland State University School of Communication Faculty] -- Dr. Paul Skalski, Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Cleveland State University, died May 20, 2013, following a heart attack seven weeks earlier.

Dr. Skalski had quickly established himself as one of the foremost media and technology scholars, focusing many of his efforts on the impacts of video games and presence. His vitae shows contributions to many other streams of research, from media effects to audience analysis to humor in the mass media. He was the author or coauthor of 35 journal articles and book chapters, as well as nine published conference proceedings, 13 encyclopedia entries, and more than 70 conference papers and presentations. He was co-editor of the 2010 book, Immersed in Media: Telepresence in Everyday Life (Routledge), with Dr. Cheryl Campanella Bracken.

Dr. Skalski received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cleveland State University, where he was advised by Drs. Leo Jeffres, David Atkin, and Kim Neuendorf. He went on to receive his doctorate in communication in 2004 from Michigan State University, where his advisor was Dr. Ron Tamborini. Dr. Skalski taught at the University of Minnesota Duluth for three years before returning to become a member of the CSU faculty in 2007. He received tenure in 2011.

He is survived by his mother, Sheila Kus, his fiance, Lori Kahoe, sister Lesley Lavalais-Jacobs, and members of the Cerba, Fish, Shorb and Nemeth families of Cleveland. He is also survived by his CSU family, and by his friends and colleagues at Michigan State and at Duluth.

“Paul was a valued friend, colleague, confidant, mentor to graduate students, and positive spirit to all those he touched. He will be missed greatly,” said the director of the School of Communication at Cleveland State, Dr. George Ray.

[The above information was obtained through a special memorial post dedicated to Dr. Skalski by the International Society for Presence Research, of which Paul was an active member. The original post can be found here, along with more information and tribute to his life and career.]

Promotions and Appointments

Murali Balaji (Temple University) has accepted a position as the national director of education and curriculum reform at the Hindu American Foundation in Washington, DC.

Hugh Curnutt (Montclair State University) has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in the School of Communication and Media.

Matthew Grizzard (Ph.D., Michigan State University) has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Buffalo.

Mary L. Hurley (St. Louis Community College at Forest Park) has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Communication. Hurley is the Coordinator of Mass Communication and Adjuncts at the school.

Srividya Ramasubramanian (Texas A&M University) will be on a sabbatical as a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics (Dept. of Media & Communications) in Fall 2013 and at the National University of Singapore (Dept. of Communications & New Media) in Spring 2014.

Jeffrey Tyus (Youngstown State University) has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Communication. In April 2013, he was also named Distinguished Professor in the area of Service at YSU.

Tracy Worrell (Rochester Institute of Technology) has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Communication.

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Awards and Grants

Junior Mass Communications major Ashlee Jacobs (King’s College) was awarded one of the four top paper awards at the 2013 Rochester Institute of Technology’s Conference for Undergraduate Research in Communication on April 16, 2013. Ashlee’s paper, titled “The ‘Cesspool Culture of Corruption’: A Textual Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of a Local Scandal,” was written for Dr. Ray Gamache’s Politics and the Media class in the fall semester 2012.

Jeffrey Tyus (Youngstown State University) was named Distinguished Professor in the area of Service at YSU.

Publications and Media Mentions

Michelle Schmude (King's College) has received notification that her article, "Growth and Sustainability Through Test Optional Admission Policies," has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management.

Junior Mass Communications major Tyler Tynes (King’s College) had his article, “Jay-Z shoots, scores with NBA Finals reveal,” published on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 21, 2013.

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Position Announcements
[Don't forget to check out the latest job openings on our Facebook page, updated frequently under the "Docs" menu]

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NCA's RFP Tracker - Opportunities for Mass Communication Research

NCA's RFP Tracker identifies funding opportunities (including research grants, residential fellowships, travel funds, awards, etc.) for communication scholars. There are many grant opportunities for those interested in mass communication research. The RFP Tracker lists funding and fellowship opportunities for graduate students, post-docs, faculty, and people outside of the academy. Check out the RFP Tracker website at http://www.natcom.org/index.asp?bid=10977 and download the most recent report.

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NCA MCD OFFICERS

2012-2013 MCD Officers
Chair Dana Mastro Department of Communication University of California-Santa Barbara 5004 Social Sciences & Media Studies Bldg. Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4020 mastro@comm.ucsb.edu (805) 893-5550	Vice Chair Jennifer Stevens Aubrey Department of Communication University of Missouri-Columbia 203B Switzler Hall Columbia, MO 65211 aubreyj@missouri.edu (573) 882-0739
Vice Chair-Elect Srividya Ramasubramanian Texas A&M University Department of Communication 202D Bolton Hall College Station, TX 77843 srivi@tamu.edu (215) 298-3103	Past Chair Adam Earnheardt Youngstown State University Department of Communication 1 University Plaza Youngstown, OH  44555 acearnheardt@ysu.edu (330) 941-1845
Secretary Andrew Weaver Indiana University Department of Communication Radio-TV Center, Room 306 Bloomington, IN 47405 weaveraj@indiana.edu (812) 856-2552	Secretary-Elect Lisa Barry LaGuardia Community College Department of Humanities 31-10 Thomson Ave E200 Long Island City, NY 11101 LBarry@lagcc.cuny.edu (718) 349-4071
Publications & Web Editor (expires '15) Nicholas David Bowman West Virginia University Communication Studies 108 Armstrong Hall Morgantown, WV 26501 Nicholas.Bowman@mail.wvu.edu (304) 293-3905	Graduate Student Rep. Jenny Ungbha Korn University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Communication (MC 132) 1007 West Harrison Street Chicago, IL 60607-7137 jenkorn@uic.edu (312) 996-3187
Research Committee
Chair ('13) David Rhea Governors State University Communication Studies University Park, IL 60484 drhea@govst.edu (708) 534-4392	Chair ('14) Brent Malin University of Pittsburgh Department of Communication 1109L Cathedral of Learning  Pittsburgh, PA 15260 bmalin@pitt.edu (412) 624-6798
Chair ('15) Meagan Sanders Louisiana State University Manship School of Mass Communication 217A Journalism Building Baton Rouge, LA 70803 msand@lsu.edu (225) 578-7380	Chair ('16) Hugh Phillips Curnutt Montclair State University Communication Studies Life Hall 225A Montclair, NJ 07043 curnutth@mail.montclair.edu (973) 655-4464
Nominations Committee
Committee Chair (expires '13) Siobhan Smith University of Louisville Department of Communication siobhan.smith@louisville.edu (502) 852-6976	Committee (expires '13) Rick Busselle Bowling Green State University College of Media & Communication 314 West Hall busself@bgsu.edu
Committee Chair (expires '14) Kara Gould John Brown University Department of Communication 2000 West University Street Siloam Springs, AR 72761 KGould@jbu.edu (479) 524-9500	Nominations Committee (expires '14) Andrew Weaver Indiana University Department of Communication Radio-TV Center, Room 306 Bloomington, IN 47405 weaveraj@indiana.edu (812) 856-2552
Nominations Committee (expires '14) Tracy Worrell Rochester Institute of Technology 3041 Eastman Hall Rochester, NY 14623-5604 Tracy.Worrell@rit.edu (585) 475-2298
Representatives to NCA General Assembly
Legislative Assembly Stan Tickton Norfolk State University Mass Communication/Journalism 700 Park Ave., Unit 3249 Norfolk, Virginia 23504 stickton@nsu.edu (757) 823-2383	Legislative Assembly Shane Tilton Ohio University Electronic Media 250 Elson Hall Zanesville, OH 43701 (740) 453-0762