Chair Report: Margaret Haefner, Illinois State University
 

I look forward to seeing many of you in Chicago and also at the Mass Communication Division Newcomers' Reception and Business Meeting on Friday, November 5, 5:00-7:45 p.m. in PDR 2, Third Floor, Chicago Hilton. For those of you who are not newcomers, it is especially important that you attend the reception so that they can meet members of the group.
 

Special thanks go Rebecca Lind (Vice-Chair) and Mary Beth Oliver (Research Committee Chair) for putting together an excellent set of programs for the convention.
 

Here is a tentative agenda for the MCD Business meeting:

1. Call to order and distribution of agenda (Chair, Margaret Haefner)

    

2. Introduction of Mass Communication Division officers

    

3. Minutes of 1998 business meeting (Secretary: Don Taylor) The minutes are in the February, 1999 MCD Newsletter.

    

4. Reports and Announcements from Committee officers
   • Nominating Committee and election of new officers (Nominating Chair: Betsy Perse)
   • Report: 1998 Convention Program (Vice-Chair: Rebecca Lind)
   • Awards: Top three competitive papers, top student paper, top poster presentation (Research Committee Chair: Mary Beth Oliver)
   • Report: Legislative Council (Chair: Margaret Haefner)

    

5. Old Business
   • Report on Media Literacy Task Force (Karen Webster)
   • Report on success of electronic newsletter, "The Gatekeeper" (Publications Committee Chair: Doug Ferguson)
   • Report on the Web page (Web Wizard: Jeff Shires)
   • Installation of new officers (Chair: Rebecca Lind)
   • Report: 2000 Convention Program (Vice-Chair: Mary Beth Oliver; Research Committee Chair: Shing Ling Chen)

    

Research Committee Report
 

Mary Beth Oliver, Penn State University
Research Committee Chair
 

Eleven programs were created and proposed from the accepted papers, and NCA accepted all of the proposed programs for presentation in Chicago. These programs reflect a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to mass communication research. In addition, slightly over one quarter of the presenters are students. Congratulations to them and to all of our presenters!

Summary of Results:
Division Paper Review 1999
Scale: 0=lowest; 10=highest

I very much appreciate of all of the people who volunteered to serve as reviewers for the competitive papers this year. In alphabetical order, they are: Charles Aust, Ronnie Bankston, Robert Bellamy, Rebecca Carrier, Shing-Ling Sarina Chen, Ginger Clark, Robbin Crabtree, Patricia Darlington, Travis Dixon, Beth Dobkin, Qingwen Dong, Nannetta Y. Durnell, Vincent M. Fitzgerald, Kelly Fudge, Robert Gobetz, Margaret Haefner, Catherine M. Hastings, Cynthia Hoffner, Kevin Howley, Amy B. Jordan, David D. Knapp, Marina Krcmar, Rebecca Ann Lind, Pamela Marsh, Barbara J. Mayo, Matthew McAllister, Trevy A. McDonald, Wayne J. McMullen, Shane Miller, Andrea Mitnick, Larry Mullen, Norbert Mundorf, Eve Munson, Michael D. Murray, Michael I. Niman, Peter Oehlkers, Ronald E. Ostman, A. Susan Owen, Betsy Perse, Arthur A. Raney, Robert Reich, Alan Rubin, Stephanie Lee Sargent, Chris Schroll, Mehdi Semati, Jeff Shires, Len Shyles, Glenn Sparks, Mary M. Step, David Sullivan, John Sumser, Donald Taylor, Judith Thorpe, Stan Tickton, Laura A. Wackwitz, James R. Walker, James B. Weaver, III, Charles Whitney, J. Emmett Winn, and Greg Wise.

I would also like to express a special thanks to several people who went the extra mile by either reviewing a larger number of papers than usual and/or reviewing papers under tight deadline pressures: Shing-Ling Sarina Chen, Norbert Mundorf, Robbin Crabtree, Matthew McAllister, Rebecca Ann Lind, and Margaret Haefner.

We were very lucky to have such a large group of people who agreed to review papers -- it served to distribute the work load, and it also allowed for each submitted paper to receive reviews from three separate readers. Thanks to everyone for their careful reviews, and particularly to those readers who provided extensive feedback and suggestions for revision and improvement. It is because of the hard work of our members that we continue to thrive as a division. Thank you again.

Sessions at the 1999 National Communication
Convention
 

The Media Literacy Task Force
 

The past few months were busy ones for the Mass Communication Division's media literacy education committee, and the process, in retrospect, even logical! The committee wants to thank Sherwyn Morreale, NCA's associate director, for her assistance in sorting out some of the differences that emerged between the mass communication and speech communication divisions.

A goal for 1998-99 included developing a K-12 Curricular Teaching Activities Document. This has been rescheduled for the 99-00 year. Another publication, Teacher Education Preparation Document, is near completion. Karen Duffy-Webster worked on this document over the summer. The last scheduled publication, Assessing Communication Education K-12: A Guidelines Document, will be developed in collaboration with the K-12 curricular effort.

The publications, however, only mark the beginning of our activities. Developing the actual teacher education programs (pre and in-service), plus adapting NCA's publications and guidelines to specific state or local classroom and assessment criteria, still lie ahead. There is plenty of work for additional volunteers.

One reason for revising the publication schedule involved the committee being asked to develop "curricular teaching activities." For some, this was a theoretical challenge. "Activities do not teach; teachers teach." For others, the concept of developing "anything" without representation in the development process was a concern. In the words of Pamela Cooper, chair of the NCA Educational Policy Board, "We did not know that we did not know how different the two divisions were!" She went on to say that only through trial and error, and the willingness of all players to continue to work together, did it become clear that the media literacy team needed to be directly involved in the development of all Communication Education publications concerning media literacy.

Through the efforts of our committee and division chair Margaret Haefner, supported by Dr. Morreale and Professor Cooper, mass communication is now recognized as an essential component of media literacy education. Professor Cooper has joined Professor Haefner in calling for the appointment of a mass communication representative to the Education Policy Board and to expand the dialogue between the speech and mass communication divisions.

These are historical times for media literacy education-and for Communication Education. On behalf of the Media Literacy Task Force, we would like to extend our gratitude to everyone who helped make our progress possible. A more complete review and discussion of these and future media literacy issues will take place during the Mass Communication Division's Annual Business Meeting, Friday Nov. 5, beginning at 5 p.m. Please plan to attend.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Please contact Karen Duffy-Webster

Division Nominations
 

The Nominations Committee has created the following list of nominees for Mass Communication Division offices. Election of officers will take place at the Division's Business Meeting on Friday, November 5, 1999 from 5:00-7:45PM in room PDR 2, 3rd floor of the Chicago Hilton & Towers. Additional nominations are encouraged and can be made at the meeting.