News archives

September 8, 2012 · by Department of Communication · in Department News, News

CityClub hosts election debates Sept. 18

On Tuesday, Sept. 18 at Town Hall Seattle, Seattle CityClub will host debates with candidates for Attorney General and Secretary of State. Registration is at 11:30 a.m. and the program is noon to 1:30 p.m. Bring your own brown bag lunch to this free program. Coffee and dessert will be provided. Moderated by Kellye Y. Testy, Dean & James W. Mifflin University.

There is no shortage of attention on the Attorney General race as the current AG runs for Governor. Pivotal decisions await the next Attorney General. How will the candidates’ views on the current AG’s decision to join the lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) shape this race?

Also this fall, voters will be electing a new Secretary of State to replace Sam Reed, who has been in office for 12 years. Some of the key responsibilities of this statewide office include preserving the integrity of elections and performing public outreach to improve civic knowledge and participation, not only for candidate elections but also for citizen-led initiatives and statewide referendums. With a growing number of initiatives and referenda on the ballot in 2012, key questions to consider are should this process be reformed, what is the appropriate role for corporate support of initiatives, and how do we maintain strong voter participation?

Join us with your own questions as we discover the candidates’ positions on upcoming hot button initiatives and referenda and see if these views will affect their ability to enforce the will of the people.

Posted: September 11, 2012

Domke begins SAL U series on campaign

Thursday, Sept. 13 marks the first of five lectures by Chair David Domke and Mark Smith (political science) on the 2012 presidential election. Presented by Seattle Arts and Lectures and the University of Washington Alumni Association, Domke and Smith will address the heated debate over topics like the quality of the economic recovery and which candidate can more effectively restore U.S. economic health. Throughout the five-lecture series, the duo will also speak on the personal wealth of the candidates and their ability to relate to the economic concerns of ordinary Americans. The lectures are open to the public and take place on the UW Seattle campus in Kane Hall, beginning at 7 p.m. each evening.

Learn more and purchase tickets >>

Posted: September 11, 2012

Communication and culture collide at conference

Conference attendees June was an exciting time for some faculty members and PhD graduates of the Department. For three days, Lisa Coutu, Gerry Philipsen, and 14 UW Communication doctorates joined 24 other scholars of Ethnography of Communication (EoC) at “The Ethnography of Communication: Ways Forward,” a conference in Omaha at Creighton University.

Ethnography of communication refers to the study of how people communicate with each other, taking both language and culture into consideration. Scholars identify communication acts, codes, rules, functions, and norms when conducting empirical research. Either members of specific cultures or “speech communities,” which create and establish their own speaking codes/norms, are studied. In his 1975 article, “Speaking ‘like a man’ in Teamsterville: Culture patterns of role enactment in an urban neighborhood” (Quarterly Journal of Speech), Philipsen explains, “Each community has its own cultural values about speaking and these are linked to judgments of situational appropriateness.”

The new scoop on political journalism

Excerpted from Columns Magazine. By Derek Belt (BA, ’04; MCDM ’11).

The UW Election Eye team had a hunch Colorado could be big for Rick Santorum. The former Pennsylvania senator was gaining momentum in his quest to become the Republican Party nominee for president, and for 72 hours before the GOP primary, an intrepid crew of six students and two faculty from the UW Department of Communication fanned out across the Centennial State. They interviewed religious leaders in Colorado Springs, sat down with U.S. Army personnel at Fort Carson, and enjoyed brownies served up by Santorum’s children at a Denver rally.

“You just don’t get that in the classroom,” says David Domke, chair of the Communication Department and the driving force behind UW Election Eye, a unique blogging partnership between the UW and The Seattle Times. “This is the future of higher education. I call it ‘the immersion experience,’ and it makes me a better professor.”

What I learned from a Medal of Honor recipient

Excerpted from Columns Magazine. By Alex Quade (BA, ’92).

Alex Quade In combat, you learn quickly: life is too short. As a war reporter, I often turn to our nation’s Medal of Honor recipients, not only for advice on surviving the frontlines but also on leading a meaningful life. As a fellow UW alum, there is no one better to ask than Col. Bruce Crandall, ’52 (U.S. Army, retired). Crandall is one of eight UW Medal of Honor recipients honored by the stone monument on Memorial Way near Parrington Hall.

“Students need to understand that everyone, every name listed on that UW memorial to the Medal of Honor recipients … those names, those people had no idea that day (that they would do what they did to earn recognition),” Crandall says. “Any person, any one of us, can be called upon again to make a decision. They were just regular people. Those names on that memorial were just regular persons, just doing their duty.”

Underwood talks with Crosscut about latest book

Professor Doug Underwood’s latest book, Chronicling Trauma: Journalists and Writers on Violence and Loss (University of Illinois Press), was the topic of a Crosscut article on Aug. 28. Underwood spoke with Robin Lindley about his research on how trauma affected the work of 150 American and British journalists. Some of the well-known authors included in the book are Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Charles Dickens, Maya Angelou, Kurt Vonnegut, and Mark Twain. Read more >>

The full interview is available here >>

Posted: August 29, 2012

Diana Smith retires after 16 years in Advising

When Program Coordinator Diana Smith retires at the end of the summer after 16 years in the Advising Office, she will turn in her keys but not her dance shoes. Smith, who has been a “mother hen” for undergraduate students, as Chair David Domke put it, has passions that extend beyond the walls of the Communications Building. She has taught tap dance for the ASUW Experimental College, has her art displayed at UW Hall Health, and is a volunteer for Hope for Horses. She also loves to travel. She recently spent one week in Sicily, and another in London.

Smith said she won’t miss the hectic pace at the beginning of every quarter. But she will miss students and colleagues. “I like working with the students. It’s cool to see them come in and mature, and grow up and then go out and join the real world. It’s really good to know that I’m helping somebody do something good.”

Posted: August 29, 2012

Bennett, Wells, Freelon awarded top 2011 paper

An article by Prof. Lance Bennett and recent Ph.D. graduates Chris Wells and Deen Freelon was selected by the Political Communication Interest Group (PCIG) of the AEJMC as top research paper published in 2011. The article, “Communicating Civic Engagement: Contrasting Models of Citizenship in the Youth Web Sphere” was published in the Journal of Communication.

The authors will be recognized at this year’s AEJMC Conference in Chicago at the PCIG members meeting on Aug. 11.

Posted: August 3, 2012

Students study public discourse on Occupy

Communication students in lecturer Amoshaun Toft‘s Qualitative Inquiry and Discourse classes have worked all Spring quarter to produce the website, ‘Change the Discourse’, focusing on how the public talks about the Occupy movement. According to the website, “Change the Discourse is a collaborative project engaged in analyzing the following question: How is the Occupy/99% movement represented through discourse in the public sphere?”

Toft says, “The site presents 23 collaborative original discourse analysis research projects that students completed looking at how the Occupy/99% movement has been produced through language use in the public sphere.”

Check out the website here >>

Posted: June 15, 2012

Digital Media in a day: MCDM launches executive training

The University of Washington’s Masters of Communication in Digital Media program held its inaugural Four Peaks Executive Summit this week in Seattle. Approximately 30 executives spent the day listening to and learning from MCDM’s faculty on topics ranging from the transformative power of story telling to analytics, digital law and engaging with audiences in a multi–screen era.

The day is pitched as an “intense bootcamp-like curriculum” where “TED meets graduate school; a mind-shift for entrepreneurially focused professionals now looking to media as a point of innovation, connection, and creation.”

Posted: June 15, 2012

Carmichael: No matter the job, experience helps

By Amanda Weber

On May 22, Britt Carmichael (BA, 1997) stopped by to share her 15 years of workplace wisdom with Communication undergrads. A paralegal in the anti-piracy division of Microsoft’s legal and corporate affairs group, Carmichael has worked in many vastly different fields of communication. While, traditionally, a resume displaying a number of seemingly incomparable jobs would not be appealing to an employer, Carmichael insists that “all experience is good experience.” Communication skills translate across many professional fields, no matter what kind of project you’re working on.

Posted: June 12, 2012

Catalinich highlights importance of internships

Libby Catalinich (BA, ’82) sat down with a group of undergrads on May 16 to speak with them on what she’s learned about creating a successful career in communications over the past 30 years. Currently the director of corporate communications for REI, Catalinich couldn’t stress enough to the students how important internships are for the future of their careers.

Posted: June 8, 2012

Department celebrates 2011-12 graduates

Graduating students During the Department of Communication Graduation Celebration, hundreds of students walked across the stage despite the pouring rain, received warmly by family and friends watching them in the Quad. Graduates from Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012 and Summer 2012 participated in the ceremony. Congratuations to all!

Department Chair David Domke presented Rita Brogan (BA, 1972; MA, 1975) the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Brogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of PRR, Inc., gave the keynote address.

View photos and read Brogan’s keynote speech >>

Posted: June 8, 2012

Rain will not dampen graduation

In a remarkable moment of campus colleagiality, we are partnering with the College of Education and the ROTCs of Air Force and Army to get tents for our commencement and commissioning for the ROTC ceremonies. We will have a total of three tents, and they will cover the stage and the north half of the quad which will cover more than 2000 seats. So if it pours rain tomorrow for our ceremony, we will have coverage! Spread the word!

Posted June 6, 2012

McFarling writes on Japan tsunami debris, impact on West Coast

Artist In Residence, Usha Lee McFarling, recently wrote an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times on the debris from last year’s tsunami making its way from Japan to the West Coast. With things like motorcycles, ghost ships, and soccer balls appearing on our shores, people are understandably concerned about the impact this will have on the environment.

“How much debris is still out there? Headlines about the ‘staggering mess’ reported that 20 million tons of flotsam — a ‘garbage wave’ — could wash up on Hawaii’s beaches. Other reports claimed 100 million tons of tsunami debris is on its way to the West Coast.”

Seattle Times editor and UW alumna Lynn Jacobson (’84) visits News Lab

By Alexis Krell
UW News Lab

Lynn Jacobson’s first interest in life was dance. She did ballet growing up, danced professionally after college, and now works as the features editor of The Seattle Times.

That’s not as much of a stretch as it may seem, though. Jacobson visited UW journalism students this month in the News Lab class, and told them that finding a specialty – such as she did with dance – can help start a journalism career.

She oversees the arts and entertainment, travel and Sunday magazine content at The Times, and has seen the news industry change throughout the years.

“It’s been kind of a blessing and a curse to work in this period of kind of seismic change in journalism,” Jacobson said. “The hard part is watching people around you freak out because they’re worried that their … jobs might go away.”

Posted: May 31, 2012

Indian Country film screening in Kane

Wednesday, May 30 at 7pm, join long-time tribal leader and Chairman Billy Frank Jr. and filmmaker Michael Harris
(Political Science, BA, ’87)for a special sneak preview of their long-awaited national series, “This Is Indian Country with Billy Frank Jr.”

This event takes place in Kane Hall, room 110. It is free and open to the public.
The evening includes a screening of “The Iñupiat, Hanging On at the Top of the World,” a timely and evocative special exploring from a Native Alaskan perspective how the climate crisis is impacting villages, threatening a whaling and subsistence culture thousands of years old.

Also, they will be speaking about the first “Billy Frank Jr. Scholarship,” an annual financial aid and professional mentoring program for promising young Native journalists, in partnership with the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Speakers include Billy’s old friend from the Fish Wars days, William H. Rodgers Jr., distinguished Stimson Bullitt Professor of Law at The University of Washington and author of such books as “Environmental Law in Indian Country” and “Climate Change: A Reader.”

Posted: May 29, 2012

CLP team wins big at SPJ awards

At last Saturday’s SPJ Northwest Excellence in Journalism Awards Banquet, the Department’s own Sarah Stuteville and Alex Stonehill walked away with five awards for their journalistic talents.

Stuteville won two first-place awards, one under the online special report/enterprise category for her story published on the Common Language Project website, “Never going home: young Iraqi refugees dream of Seattle, wait in limbo in Syria.” The same story won first place for long feature story published in large-sized daily newspapers for its appearance in The Seattle Times. Stuteville also won a second-place award under the personalities reporting for a magazine category for her story published in Pacific Northwest Magazine, “The return: one Marine’s story of a mission accomplished, but not really over.”

Stonehill also has reason to celebrate as he won a first-place award for his online video, “Never going home: young Iraqi refugees dream of Seattle, wait in limbo in Syria.” Along with our CLP lecturers, alumna and CLP Fellow Chantal Anderson (BA, 2011) received a third-place award for her online gallery/slideshow, “Born in Bangladesh.”

Posted: May 22, 2012

Alumna Ellen Cockrill on the world of animated television and the entertainment industry

Students from all majors are invited to join the Communication Department in welcoming Ellen Cockrill (BA 1980 Communication; Senior VP, Animation, Universal Studios) back to campus for an alumni mentor presentation. Ellen will give an overview of her career path and take questions about film and television production (both animation and live-action) and the L.A. entertainment industry. More about Ellen’s work below.

Time: 11:30am to 12:45pm
Date: Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Place: Communications Building, Room 126
RSVP to Communication Alumni Relations Manager Victoria Sprang at vsprang@uw.edu
Space is limited; reserve your spot early. Pizza will be provided!

Posted: May 18, 2012

UW among the top ten Social Media Colleges in the country

Demonstrating “remarkable ingenuity and innovation,” the University of Washington has broken into the top ten Social Media Colleges in the country, according to a new ranking by Student Advisor. UW jumped up six spots to #9 by “actively creating programs focusing on social media,” the group says, citing last week’s Video Bootcamp tutorial session as an oustanding example.

“Social media has revolutionized how colleges communicate. These are the ones to watch,” said Dean Tsouvalas, Student Advisor’s Editor-In-Chief.”

Posted: May 15, 2012

John Hammerback: A tremendous man, a huge heart, a real loss

The Department of Communication is deeply saddened by the news of John Hammerback’s passing. John was a valued affiliate faculty member and member of the graduate faculty in the UW Department of Communication, as well as professor emeritus in the Department of Communication at California State University, East Bay. “I got to know John through his ties to the UW Department of Communication,” said David Domke. “He taught for us occasionally, and he would stop by to talk. He was always upbeat, always creative, always supportive. He really cared about people. We will miss him. I will miss him.”

Posted: May 14, 2012

Have RV, will travel: Faculty, students in Oregon to talk with citizens

Communication faculty and students are in Oregon May 11-14 as part of our UW Election Eye coverage. They will talk politics and see what issues matter for Oregonians. An RV seemed like the only way to travel!

Posted: May 11, 2012

Graduation keynote speaker: Alumna Rita Brogan

Sanjay Bhatt The UW Department of Communication is proud to announce Rita Brogan as our 2012 Distinguished Alumna. Ms. Brogan will deliver the keynote address at our Graduation Celebration on June 7. The event is a celebration for the family and friends of graduating students. We are honored to have Ms. Brogan address the class of 2012.

Read Brogan’s exceptional biography here >>

Posted: May 11, 2012

From UW Election Eye: Get to know your candidates for State House and Senate

State legislature races can get confusing, and we understand that here at UW Election Eye.

Some might think of the state’s assembly as small potatoes, but it really does matter. Our state legislature’s decisions impact us in many ways, whether that’s through taxes, Washington’s education system, transportation systems or passing the same-sex marriage bill this past session. But its hyper-local nature, crossed with wonky policy details, can sometimes make it difficult to follow.

Read the rest on the UW Election Eye blog >>

Posted: May 11, 2012

The power of blogging: Two incredible cancer survivors linked through social media

By Collin Denton

My Tam Nguyen (BA, ’06) and Rose Egge (MCDM, ’11) were shining stars beating on the door of success when they were diagnosed with cancer. They both were in their early to mid-twenties and led healthy and active lifestyles. Neither thought of themselves as being at risk for cancer. Fortunately, they both beat the odds, finding solace in one another’s experiences and sharing their own inspirational stories through blogging and social media.

Calling all graduating students!

Spring quarter is almost through, and that means it’s time to register to walk in the Department of Communication Graduation Celebration. Our graduation will be held on Thursday, June 7, from 1-3pm in the UW Quad. Students participating in the ceremony will be expected to arrive at the Communication Building at 11:45am to get ready for lineup. If you would like to walk in the Communication Graduation Celebration you will need to fill out our Catalyst survey. The survey will be open until May 31st. Register here (no late registrations will be accepted): bit.ly/UWCommGrad12

All registered students will receive detailed instructions for graduation via email by June 1. If you have any questions concerning the event, please contact event coordinator Amanda Weber at anweber@uw.edu.

Posted: May 2, 2012

Middle-schoolers excited by visit to Department

Matt McGarrity speaking to students On April 18, the Department of Communication hosted about 25 energetic middle-school children on an outing to learn about the social sciences. The school children are part of a group of non-traditional schools emphasizing real-world connections and they were here to see Communication studies at work. They visited The Daily and saw advertising and journalism in action courtesy of Advertising Director Michael Richard and then spent about 30 minutes talking to professor Matt McGarrity about what you can do with a degree in Communication. The visit was short, lively and the students had great questions. They were especially impressed with the size if the Communications building and the campus. We hope to see them here in about 5-6 years!

Our visitors came from middle school at Highline Big Picture High School and they were accompanied by UW alumni Katharine Chen (2011, English), working with the school as part of Americorp VISTA, and Emily Bylin (2012, Communication), also a mentor to the students.

Posted: April 27, 2012

Common Language Project launching “hyperglobal” blog this week

Saturday, April 28th is the official launch (and launch party) of the Seattle Globalist, a “hyperglobal” blog celebrating the region’s international community and many connections to the rest of the world.

The Seattle Globalist offers a fun, interesting and unexpected take on international travel, culture, development, Seattle’s global-local connection and our region’s diverse communities.

Seattle has been named a hyperdiverse city by the Migration Policy Institute — with more than 250,000 foreign-born residents, representing every region in the world, and no one country of origin makes up more than a quarter of that group.

The Globalist is co-sponsored by the Department of Communication and Brown Paper Tickets. Check out the free launch party on Saturday at Washington Hall from 6-10pm. All ages welcome!

RSVP and learn more about the launch party >>

Posted: April 24, 2012

Media retreat to promote collaboration

collaborationsforcause Collaborations for Cause is a unique two day event bringing together media producers, journalists, photographers, non-profit executives, funding organizations, corporate communications and PR professionals, educators, students and engaged citizens to share skills, strategies and techniques critical to successful cause-driven communication in today’s rapidly evolving new media environment.

The event, being held May 4th and 5th in lovely Langley Washington, on Whidbey Island, has been created by the non-profit Blue Earth Alliance which supports documentary story telling about social and environmental issues. It is produced by the Langley Center for New Media. The University of Washington Master of Communication in Digital Media program is the retreat’s academic partner.

Click here or here to register. Students get the special “early bird” rate regardless of registration date!

Posted: April 24, 2012

WNC deliberation holds valuable lesson for young journalists

By Collin Denton

tao A Washington News Council deliberation over a radio story reported by a University of Washington Communication graduate holds some important lessons for any journalism student. On March 31, the Department of Communication hosted the Washington News Council for a hearing of documentation of records, pertaining to a formal complaint made by the Vitae Foundation against Puget Sound Public Radio (KUOW).

UW Communication alumna and current KUOW freelance reporter, Meghan Walker (BA, 2011), was closely scrutinized for her news story, “Controversy Surrounding Limited Service Pregnancy Centers”, broadcast April 13, 2011.

Posted: April 19, 2012

Four Peaks taping at HuskyFest

Huskyfest

This Thursday, April 19, the Four Peaks UWTV show will be taping their episode, “Hacking Edu: From Tower to Town Square,” on Red Square as a feature HuskyFest event at 6pm. The free show will accommodate up to 600 students and community members in the main pavilion at HuskyFest.

Show host and Director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media program, Hanson Hosein, said, “Our special Four Peaks ‘Hacking Edu’ show is perfectly timed for HuskyFest. It’ll give students, parents, and the larger community a chance to hear first-hand from four innovators on how we address this upheaval in higher education.”

Posted: April 19, 2012

Election Eye in WA, East Coast

The UW Election Eye 2012 team is at it again. This time they’re busy gathering stories in and around Washington State and the East Coast. On Monday, David Domke and two student reporters, Lisa Kenelly, of the Master of Communication in Digital Media program, and Azusa Uchikura, a Communication undergraduate, made an appearance on KUOW.

“These students this weekend got in five different U-Cars and travelled around the state to interview people there, out there, as opposed to drawing impressions of them from sitting there in Seattle,” said Domke of the visits around Washington. Teams travelled to Roslyn, the Olympic Peninsula, Vancouver and the Canadian border to look into everything from coal to the state’s oldest bar.

Since last Sunday, and continuing throughout the week leading up to the next set of presidential primaries, team reporters have also been traveling through Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware to see what matters to voters as the Republican presidential primary transitions into the general election.

Listen to the interview on KUOW >>

Posted: April 17, 2012

UW Libraries hosts political discourse symposium

On Saturday, April 21, UW Libraries is hosting the symposium, “Taking It To The Street: Public Voices & Political Discourse,” which will bring together local activists and scholars to discuss why the urgent social issues of the time have generated an upsurge of populist demonstrations, including the Tea Party Patriots and Occupy Seattle Movements.

The symposium features panels on the Occupy movement, at which Communication Ph.D. candidate Sheetal Agarwal and Professor Lance Bennett will be speaking, as well as a panel on the Tea Party in which Communication Ph.D. candidates Damon Di Cicco and Colin Lingle will take part.

UW Libraries will also have the exhibit, “Taking It to the Street: Protests, Strikes and Activism in Seattle,” open for viewing. The exhibit examines Washington State’s long history of street protest as a means of political expression, highlighting civic activism and citizen engagement in the contemporary political, social, and economic debates through materials from the UW Libraries’ collections of newspapers, ephemera, photographs, and documents.

The half-day symposium and exhibit will run from 1-5pm in the Research Commons, the ground floor of Allen Library South. It is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to register online.

For more information on the symposium, visit UW Libraries >>

Posted: April 11, 2012

Harold interviewed on Chicago’s WBEZ

Associate professor, Christine Harold, was recently interviewed on Chicago Public Radio’s Afternoon Shift. Together with host Steve Edwards, architect Michael Graves, and Editor at Large of Architecture magazine, Ed Keegan, the group discussed the democratization of design and what the benefits and drawbacks are for our culture and for the environment.

The conversation was based, in part, on the book she’s working on: De/signing Discourse: Production, Consumption, and Sustainability in the ‘Age of Aesthetics’.

Listen as Harold weighs in on the trend that some say is leading to a whole new design sophistication in America >>

Posted: April 10, 2012

Stuteville wins national SPJ award

Huge congratulations are in order for Sarah Stuteville, an instructor in the journalism program and one of the founders of the Common Language Project. Stuteville is the recipient of the national 2011 Sigma Delta Chi Award for magazine writing from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Her article, “The Return: One Marine’s story of a mission accomplished, but not really over,” received the award for best article in a regional or local magazine. It was the cover story in the May 29, 2011 issue of Pacific Northwest Magazine.

Judges chose the winners from more than 1,700 entries in categories covering print, radio, television and online. The awards recognize outstanding work published or broadcast in 2011.

Read Stuteville’s winning story here >>

Posted: April 10, 2012

Bennett lecture to air on UWTV

Bennet Last November, Lance Bennett, Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor of Communication and Professor of Political Science, gave the 36th annual University Faculty Lecture. His talk was titled, “The Democratization of Truth: Communications and the Crisis of Contemporary Politics.” His lecture is now available online, and it will be aired on Tuesday, April 24 at 8pm on UWTV.

The Annual Faculty Lecture was established in 1976 when members of the UW faculty began choosing one of their faculty peers who made a demonstrable impact on their profession to deliver the lecture. Bennett joins a distinguished roster of Nobel laureates, historians, artists, scientists and authors who have participated in this series. The University Faculty Lecture Award Selection Committee is administered by the Office of the Provost. It is the highest honor the University of Washington faculty can bestow on one of their own.

Watch Bennett’s lecture here >>

Posted: April 6, 2012

Holtz-Bacha to speak on political advertising

Holtz Bacha Next Wednesday, April 11, Professor Christina Holtz-Bacha, from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, will speak to the regulation, content, and effects of political advertising around the world for the first spring quarter colloquium. The colloquium will take place in Communications Building room 120 at 3:30pm. It is free and open to the public.

Christina Holtz-Bacha is Professor of Communication at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. She has published widely in the area of political communication and media policy. Among her most recent publications are the two-volume Encyclopedia of Political Communication (co-edited with Lynda L. Kaid) and two books about the media policy of the EU and of the Council of Europe.

Across the world, political actors rely on TV advertising to address citizens and to sell their policies and promote their candidates. While the U.S. features a no limits-model, most other countries regulate electoral advertising or even prohibit TV ads completely. In addition to regulation, the relevance attributed to TV ads as well as their contents and style differ according to political cultures. At this colloquium, Holtz-Bacha will provide a comparative overview of regulations for electoral advertising on television and also reports finding from studies comparing the advertising in different countries.

Posted: April 5, 2012

Tellies finally in hand

telly It was a year ago that Media Space TV, now Four Peaks, was awarded a Telly award for Outstanding Acheivement for its 2010 episode “Media Space: Entertainment & Content.”

Now, Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media program and host of the TV show, and MCDM Associate Director Scott Macklin, the show’s Executive Producer, can finally add the awards to the MCDM display cabinet.

The Telly Awards are a nationally respected competition for the broadcast industry, honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and web commercials, videos and films. The field of over 13,000 entries includes work from advertising agencies, production companies, and network TV stations. For the 31st annual awards, three UWTV programs, including the Media Space episode, received recognition. The other two were “Fostering Leadership,” and “Husky Softball: A Championship Journey.”

When Media Space was awarded its Telly in 2011, Hosein commented, “Media Space is our very public effort to connect to what’s next in technology and communication. Elan Lee’s pioneering work in reinventing storytelling clearly foreshadows how we’ll all be interacting with media in the years to come. I’m thrilled that we’ve won this recognition for such cutting-edge subject matter – it’s truly the best of what we do.”

Catch more episodes of Four Peaks here >>

Posted: March 27, 2012

Kaifu on digital media in US and Japan

The world of digital media is expanding, and in Japan it is a multi-billion dollar business. Join Masaki Kaifu of Wowmax Media! as he makes a presentation comparing digital media in US and Japan. The talk will take place on Thursday, April 4 from 3:30-5:20pm in Thomson Hall 317. The event is free and open to the public.

In his talk, Kaifu will share his experience in the business, comparing the similarities and differences between US and Japanese creative style, business scheme (financing) consumer tastes, devices, distribution and content.

Communication undergrads strengthen research

chad_jess_claire A recent decision to add communication students Claire Palay, Chad Robischon, and Jessica Naluai to a directed research course that usually only includes architecture and construction management students has turned up positive results. Assistant professor Gina Neff, and Carrie Dossick, associate professor in construction management, are continuing their research on how Building Information Modeling (BIM), information communication software that turns blueprints into three-dimensional digital renderings, supports collaboration among builders, architects, engineers and contractors throughout the building process.

To augment her data-collecting efforts as well as provide students a learning experience, Neff had Palay, Robischon, and Naluai each join one of Dossick’s three teams (architecture, construction management, and dual degree students) in order to ethnographically observe the communication methods.

Comm alums receive UW Timeless Awards

In recognition of the 150th anniversary, the College of Arts and Sciences is honoring 150 distinguished living alumni for their contributions and accomplishments with the Timeless Awards. Celebrating leaders of the past, present and future, we will bring back former recipients of the College’s Distinguished Alumnus and UWAA’s Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus awards. There are 13 Department of Communication alumni on the list, and three of the past winners now folded into the Timeless awards list are also from the Department.

Crofts to teach photography, storytelling in Sudan

anita_crofts_sudan Ever since she was a teenager, Anita Verna Crofts, Associate Director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program, has been a lover of photography. Beginning March 13, she will be sharing her passion and lessons on photographic storytelling with humanitarian leaders in Khartoum, Sudan. For three days, she will be presenting training on behalf of GOAL, an international humanitarian agency that, according to the group’s website, is “dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poorest of the poor.”

Posted: March 9, 2012

COM Program Digital Media Mavens hit SXSW in Austin, Texas

sxsw2012

Flip the Media is heading off to Austin, Texas this week for the SXSW interactive festival and oh, what a trip it’s shapin’ up to be.

Six students from the Master’s in Digital Media program are setting out on the road for a vagabond adventure fit for Jack Kerouac. It took awhile to get the final team assembled, but you can trust we’ve got the right balance of rowdy techies, artists, musicians, technologists, and geeks (like me) to make a five day interactive event a worthwhile adventure.

So how did this whole random adventure begin? Social media and Facebook of course, how else would a random road-trip start in a digital media program. To get a good perspective on how this all came about let’s to go back a few weeks to a Flip the Media Blog meeting where co-editor Jonathan Cunningham posted the question on Facebook “Who is going to SXSW in Austin this year?” Two minutes later a thread began and the rest is history.

Election Eye crashes set of KCTS

Last Friday, David Domke and two members of the UW Election Eye 2012 team, Ilona Idlis and Will Mari, were interviewed on KCTS Connects with Enrique Cerna. The team spoke about the unique experience of collaborating as undergraduates, graduate students and faculty alike, in a realm where usually only the big news organizations can be found.

“We’re trying to tell the stories from a behind-the-scenes or on-the-ground perspective,” said Domke. “One of the things we’ve been astounded by is that we often constitute far more people on the ground at these locations than any mainstream news organization more than CNN, New York Times, MSNBC.”

The group also shared their perceptions on how the Republican race is going, especially now that the Washington state caucuses are under way. “In the three states we’ve been in, South Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, there was a clear person who was emerging as we got to the voting date,” recalled Domke. “Here, I don’t have a real sense of who that’s going to be. I think this is going to be great for the state, great for public conversation.”

Click here to watch >>

Posted: March 7, 2012

Silberner blogging for CLP on cancer

Artist in Residence Joanne Silberner, a longtime reporter on global health issues, is blogging from the field for the Common Language Project, as she covers the topic of cancer in the developing world. Keep up with her as she travels from Uganda to India to Haiti in the span of three weeks, meeting and talking with cancer patients and survivors, oncologists, and pain and cervical cancer specialists.

“Worldwide, more people die from cancer than from HIV, TB and malaria – combined,” she wrote. “Yet until recently, cancer was almost ignored by the health groups, charitable organizations and governments working to improve health in developing countries.”

Her stories on cancer in the developing world will be aired on KUOW and Public Radio International’s (PRI) The World at the start of summer.

Follow Silberner’s blogs here >>

Posted: March 2, 2012

Women Who Rock Collective hosts conference and film festival

For its second “(un)conference,” the UW-based Women Who Rock Collective is expanding, going multimedia and bringing in new community friends as it continues to explore the unheralded roles of women — especially women of color — in music. This Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3, the conference will form a dialogue around female representation and access for women within music scenes under the theme, “Making Scenes and Building Communities.”

Join two keynote speakers, Alice Bag, author of the book “Violence Girl: From East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage — a Chicana Punk Story”; and Medusa, known as the Godmother of West Coast Hip Hop, at Washington Hall, 153 14th Ave. in Seattle, for an “alternative genealogy of rock.”

The gathering will host a Women Who Rock Film Festival from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, March 2. On Saturday, March 3, events will run from 8:30 a.m. to midnight. The conference is completely open to the public.

Check out the flyer for the event for more info >>

Posted: March 1, 2012

Sir Mix-a-Lot talks social media with Flip the Media blogger

At last Wednesday’s IN-NW social media conference, hosted by the Seattle Chamber and sponsored by the MCDM, Flip the Media blogger Jonathan Cunningham got the chance to sit down with the legendary Sir Mix-a-Lot, the hip-hop artist who has become a veritable social media maven. Mix-a-Lot was a guest on a panel about music and social interaction at the conference.

In his new biweekly digital music column, Sound Bytes, Cunningham recalls his interview with the artist surrounding a topic that one couldn’t have imagined back in Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” heyday. Cunningham writes, “I. . .got to pick his brain on a variety of subjects such as the future of digital music, why he thinks SOPA failed and how he personally likes to utilize social media.”

Rolling Stone also picked up the story of the artist’s appearance, linking to Cunningham’s blog entry.

Connect with businesses at the Internship Fair this week!

At 1 p.m. on Friday, March 2, join local and national businesses and organizations for an Internship Fair in CMU 126. Companies attending include Seattle Weekly, Abercrombie & Fitch, EarthCorps, the Puget Sound Business Journal, and more.

Local employers and hiring managers will be on hand to provide advice and feedback on how to land that internship you want! Bring your resume and learn to refine your approach. We look forward to your participation, and helping you reach your goals!

To sign up and see the full list of companies, click here.

Posted: February 27, 2012

Learn from the pros: three upcoming mentor lunches

The Department of Communication is pleased to announce three upcoming mentor lunches! Don’t miss these opportunities to learn about potential careers, the realities of modern-day industry, and how to achieve success.

Tom Douthitt, a leader in sales and marketing who has held key management positions in Fortune 500 and startup companies, will be here on February 28 from 12:00-1:00 p.m.

Julie Peterson-Snyder, a longtime Technical Writer for Costco Wholesale, will be here on March 1 from 12:00-1:00 p.m.

And Ann Powers, National Public Radio’s Music critic and correspondent, will be here on March 2 from 11:15-12:30 p.m.

Reserve your spot early by emailing vsprang@uw.edu before the RSVP date, because space is limited! All threee events take place CMU 102E.

Posted: February 24, 2012

Nishime selected for research by Simpson Center

Assistant Professor LeiLani Nishime has been selected as a member of the Simpson Center Society of Scholars next year. In this position (which carries a research release for two courses) she will research mass media images of multiracial Asian Americans to understand what the visual representation of multiracial people can tell us about the cultural invention and perpetuation of hierarchical racial categories. The Society of Scholars brings together 3 graduate students and 9 faculty across ranks and UW campuses for a yearlong residency. The group, comprised of scholars from History, English, Anthropology, French & Italian Studies, and Communication, will meet biweekly to present and discuss research. Congratulations to Dr. Nishime!

Posted: February 16, 2012

The next big thing in reality TV

Matt Chan

Lights, camera, action! Well, almost. This quarter, the Department of Communication is offering a course on reality TV under COM 495: Special Topics. Part-time lecturer Florangela Davila and Matt Chan, president and general manager of Seattle-based Screaming Flea Productions, both teach the class of 26 students. Chan and Davila’s goal is simple: to teach their students how to successfully write and pitch an idea for a reality TV show.

Posted: February 14, 2012

Knobloch testifies on Oregon CIR

Katherine Knobloch Last week, the Oregon House Rules Committee called upon Communication PhD candidate Katie Knobloch to testify on her evaluation of the Citizen Initiative Review report. This was the fourth time the CIR research team has testified on their evaluation. Mark Henkels, a professor from Western Oregon University, assisted with additional testimony.

Knobloch said, “We’re basically there to provide information about the CIR. First, for a bill to permanently implement the process, which was recently signed into law, and this time to provide information before they begin to appoint a commission that will take over responsibility for producing the citizen initiative review panels.”

The Oregon Citizen Initiative Review is conducted to educate voters on ballot measures by giving them unbiased implications. Knobloch said that this process has shown to be extremely helpful for Oregon voters, as the State Voters’ Pamphlet, produced as a result of the CIR, clarifies ballot measures and their implications.

“We found the Citizens Initiative Review to be highly deliberative and that a significant number of those who read the Citizens’ Statement in the State Voters’ Pamphlet learned new information or arguments about the initiative,” said Knobloch.

Based on the success of Oregon’s CIR, other states, as well as the European Union, have shown interest in implementing their own versions of the CIR, but there hasn’t been any recent movement on those plans. In the meantime, the CIR research team consisting of Knobloch, John Gastil and others, plan on evaluating and studying the 2012 CIR.

Comedy writer Jerry Collins to speak on How to Seriously Kick A$$ In Hollywood

The Department of Communication is proud to welcome showbiz phony Jerry Collins (BA 1988 English) back to campus for an alumni mentor presentation on February 16 at from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. in CMU 126. (Space is limited, so reserve your spot early by RSVP’ing to vsprang@uw.edu by 5pm on February 15.)

Currently, Collins runs Jason Bateman and Will Arnett’s digital content company, DumbDumb, which received the Forbes 2011 “Best Startup of the Year” award, and more recently was voted #3 in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2012 Digital Power 50. Jerry started out as an unemployed improvisor at the Groundlings theater in Los Angeles before beginning his TV writing career in kids’ animation.

From there, he moved into sketch comedy where he received Emmy nominations for his work on HBO’s Mr. Show with Bob & David and NBC’s Saturday Night Live. He later segued into sitcom television where he has written for several shows including The Bernie Mac Show, King Of The Hill, and Modern Family. In addition to his work at DumbDumb, Jerry continues to develop TV and feature projects. And occasionally he gets to act, like in Will Ferrell’s upcoming Spanish-language comedy, Casa Di Mi Padre, due in nine theaters March 16th.

Students from any major are invited to come hear Jerry go on and on about himself and his career. Feel free to ask him questions about breaking into the entertainment industry, but don’t expect him to tell you the truth.

Posted: February 13, 2012

Joseph receives grant to co-edit WIRED volume

Congratulations are in order for assistant professor Ralina Joseph who, in collaboration with Janine Jones (School of Education) and Alexes Harris (Sociology), has received a Simpson Center Collaboration Studio grant. Joseph and colleagues are co-editing WIRED: Critically Resisting, Reshaping and Engaging An Institution of Higher Education, an edited volume comprised of theoretically rich and critically engaged chapters that outlines, describes and critiques the experiences and ideas of women of color on tenure-track here at the University of Washington.

“We are using the UW as a case study to interrogate how women of color faculty on the tenure track ‘re-package’ or ‘re-frame’ our approaches to teaching, research, and professionalization, and as a result, challenge traditional notions of research, teaching, service, mentoring, and collegiality,” Joseph said. “Our book addresses the academic context of the research intensive university, the specific challenges for women of color, and the solutions from a multidisciplinary perspective.”

Joseph’s team has commissioned 19 WIRED members to contribute to the book. Along with the three co-editors, 22 WIRED members will be official contributors to the book. The Collaboration Studio grant will allow them to complete the full manuscript, and turn it into a unified book.

Posted: February 9, 2012

Silberner to report on cancer in developing world

When Artist in Residence Joanne Silberner attended a meeting on cancer in developing countries last fall, she didn’t anticipate that it would ignite her journalistic interests. After learning more about the problem and current treatments taking place around the world, she applied and was awarded by the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting a $12,000 grant to report on how the disease is affecting people in Uganda, India and Haiti.

Posted: February 9, 2012

Passion and relationships are key to success, say “Journalism in 2012″ panelists

journalism2012 panel The Department’s Professional Development Month concluded with six expert Seattle journalists and editors last week who talked about how the field of journalism will continue to change over the coming year. Journalism is “a lifestyle mroe than a job,” Boardman said, while Mark Briggs from KING5.com advised, “If you’re counting the hours, you’re in the wrong job.” Curiousity, and the will to act on it, are also must-have qualities for reporters.

The UW News Lab’s Krista Staudinger has the full story, with more insights and tips from industry veterans.

Posted: February 6, 2012

KUOW interviews Underwood on trauma and journalism

Does reporting harden reporters?How does it affect their stories? In an interview on KUOW, Professor Doug Underwood talks about trauma and journalism, addressing these questions. His new book, Chronicling Trauma: Journalists And Writers On Violence And Loss, highlights the experiences of famous writers whose work reflects their exposure to trauma.

In old movies, reporters often had “a nose for news and a taste for booze.” Underwood says that could be more than stereotype. He says many journalists use their work “as a ballast against their own inner turmoil,” things like substance abuse, violence and mental illness.

On how his journalism students should handle reporting on traumatic events, Underwood says, “Empathy. Sympathy. If you can tell your story into an environment of people who care, who understand, who are willing to open themselves up to some pain in order to share yours…that’s typically the way that’s most positive.”

Listen to Underwood’s interview here >>

Posted: February 3, 2012

Author Douglas to speak on new form of sexism

Be sure to catch the chance to meet author and University of Michigan professor, Susan Douglas. Douglas will be discussing her latest book, Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism’s Work Is Done, on Tuesday, February 14, beginning at 3:30 p.m., in Kane 210. The event is free and open to the public.

In her most recent publication, Douglas chronicles the rise of Enlightened Sexism, a new, subtle, sneaky form of sexism that seems to accept—even celebrate—female achievements on the surface, but is really about repudiating feminism and keeping women, especially young women, in their place. Enlightened Sexism examines the widening gap between the images of women in the media and the everyday lives of girls and women in the United States. NPR called Enlightened Sexism “brilliant, insightful and funny” and Publisher’s Weekly described it as “a sharp-witted polemic against the media’s stereotyping of females and feminism.”

Susan Douglas is the Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor of Communication Studies at The University of Michigan and Chair of the Department.

Posted: February 2, 2012

Getting to know Felicia Ishino-Amen, our newest undergraduate advisor

Ishino Amen Felicia Ishino-Amen did not think she would be going back to school so soon. Her traveling background and promising work experience suggested that she might never set foot on the University of Washington campus again. And yet, here she is with us, Communication’s newest undergraduate advisor. Less than a month in, she is eager to begin assisting university students. Read more >>

Posted: January 30, 2012

Professional Development Month kicks off

Students chat with an alumna. What was previously only one week in January can now claim bragging rights over the entire month. January 2012 is Professional Development Month, which is unique to the UW’s Department of Communication.

Edgar Gonzalez, the president of the Department of Communication Alumni Board, welcomed students, alumni, and local professionals to the kickoff event in the Communications Building on Jan. 9. This was one of 37 events during January, all free of charge to students and alumni. Events include an internship fair, mentor lunches, career panels and a speed-networking night. Read more >>

Posted: January 13, 2012

Students, faculty traveling to cover election for Seattle Times blog

The Department of Communication and the Seattle Times are partnering to create “UW Election Eye 2012” — an on-the-ground blog about the 2012 election season, as seen through the eyes of Communication students and faculty. In 2008, Professor David Domke and 16 undergraduates traveled to cover caucuses in Idaho, Washington and Texas, and covered primaries in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Domke reflected on this experience in a piece for Crosscut.

The 2012 election season has arrived, and a new crew of UW Communication Department bloggers is here. The first stop for UW Election Eye 2012 is South Carolina. Alumnus David Horsey, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist who recently left the Seattle P-I to take a position with latimes.com will accompany the group to South Carolina. Read more about the blog >>

Posted: January 13, 2012

Neff: ‘Silicon Valley East’ not a given in NYC

In Sciencemag.org, Assistant Professor Gina Neff weighs in on the chances of Cornell’s newly won real estate on New York City’s Roosevelt Island becoming the next Silicon Valley. In a competition among some of the world’s top universities, Cornell won the land and $100 million in incentives to build a graduate applied science and engineering school.

But Neff says it will take more than just a campus to produce “Silicon Valley East.” “It takes so many factors to get to an innovative region,” she is quoted as saying. “If building a campus alone were the key, many cities would have already gotten there.” Neff also notes that Cornell’s agenda may not be completely centered on creating the next “amazing engineering center,” but more so on advancing the university itself.

Posted: January 6, 2012

New Media Series: NPR contributor Joanne Silberner on Interviewing and Storytelling

Joanne Silberner will talk about her radio experiences (good and bad), and the future of public radio in a series of Saturday-morning workshops on Jan. 14 and Jan. 21. The workshops include instruction and hands-on experience on effective interviewing and storytelling.

Silberner brings her experience with NPR to such topics as, “How to get around the media-trained person.” And, “Best practices for use of sound in your multimedia piece.”

She will talk about how to get people to talk normally. How to get them to say interesting things. How to control the interview without letting your interviewee know you’re controlling it. Questions you should (almost) always ask. We’ll do before-and-after interviews so you can see what you’ve learned. And she will throw in details of a few real-life gaffes of her own.

There are 1,001 ways to tell any story. Joanne teaches you a couple that always work — having a default structure in your toolbox means you’ll never have writer’s block again. We’ll also talk about innovative structures, and consider print and radio examples of well-told stories. Cost is $35 per workshop.

Posted: January 4, 2012

Lecture series: Domke on presidential election

Beginning Wednesday, Jan. 11, Communication Department Professor and Chair David Domke, a well-known authority in political leadership, news coverage and social change, will weigh in on the 2012 presidential election in his five-part lecture series, “Visions of America: Barack Obama, the Tea Party, and the 2012 Presidential Election,” presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures and the UW Alumni Association.

In preparation for the series, SAL solicited questions from patrons, and Domke chose some of his favorites to answer. Listen to the podcasts >>

Posted: January 4, 2012

Moy selected co-editor of Public Opinion Quarterly

Professor Patricia Moy has been selected as co-editor of Public Opinion Quarterly, a prestigious theoretical and methodological journal at the intersection of several disciplines. Moy’s term begins Jan. 1, 2013. The other co-editor is Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey.

Public Opinion Quarterly is a top-ranked journal that publishes key theoretical contributions to opinion and communication research, analyses of current public opinion, and investigations of methodological issues involved in survey research.

Scott Keeter, president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, noted, “POQ has established itself as a premier social science journal, occupying a unique niche in the world of scholarly publishing.” As AAPOR’s flagship journal, POQ enjoys a very high impact factor that places it 4/67 in Communication, 7/139 in Political Science, and 7/83 in the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. Read more >>

Posted: December 30, 2011

MCDM faculty contribute to Arcade Magazine

Arcade Magazine launched its redesigned format and its 30th anniversary issue by asking UW Master of Communication in Digital Media Director Hanson Hosein to feature edit a section. Hosein focused on communication and community as it relates to design and architecture. It includes contributions from MCDM associate directors Scott Macklin and Anita Verna Crofts, as well as others associated with the MCDM program. Read the issue >>

Posted: December 30, 2011

MCDM Director’s career tips for 2012 in Mashable

Hanson Hosein, Director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media program, has written a handy tipsheet for digital media professionals for the tech news site Mashable.com, with “five key predictions for how you should focus your career strategy in 2012.”

Four Peaks TV: Innovative ideas for the future

Innovation, entrepreneurship, community, and entertainment. These are the “four peaks” that embody the mission of the Four Peaks organization and UWTV show of colliding different idea generators, from social activists to business entrepreneurs to local artists within the Pacific Northwest. Four Peaks has rapidly developed into a new way for innovators to connect with one another and with the community.

The most recent show, episode 3, featured Tom Mara, Executive Director of KEXP, and Shauna Causey, Vice President of Social Media Club and social media strategist for Nordstrom. They discussed the importance of loyalty for a brand and how to ignite it.

Lecture series: Domke on presidential election

The 2012 presidential election is coming up fast, and heated debate over the federal debt and the rise of the Tea Party will play huge roles in the election’s outcome. This winter, Communication Department Professor and Chair David Domke, a well-known authority in political leadership, news coverage and social change, will weigh in when he lectures on “Visions of America: Barack Obama, the Tea Party, and the 2012 Presidential Election,” presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures and the UW Alumni Association. UWAA members receive a discount. Read more >>

Posted: December 12, 2011

Colloquium: Rinke on Election Coverage

The news coverage of election campaigns is one of the most studied areas of political communication and has very much become a fixture of the field. Not surprisingly, certain recurring features of such coverage have been taken for granted and assigned rather undisputed democratic values.

On Nov. 29, Eike Rinke will present a study that re-assesses two staples of election news coverage: the familiar horse-race frame and the less-often investigated contestation frame.

In this study, an analysis of television news coverage of the German 2009 federal election campaign was used to determine the deliberative value of these two journalistic devices for presenting elections to viewers.

The colloquium begins at 3:30 p.m. in CMU 126.

Rinke begins by introducing normative assessment as a recently developed, distinct research procedure (Althaus, forthcoming) before presenting its application to horse-race and contestation coverage. Assessment results show consistently that mediated democratic deliberation suffers from horse-race framing while contestation frames make ambivalent contributions. Rinke concludes by discussing more generally how communication researchers can benefit from engaging systematically in normative assessments.

Eike Mark Rinke is a doctoral candidate and research associate in the Department of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Mannheim, Germany. His research interests center on the normative and empirical aspects of mediated communication in democratic life, particularly as they relate to issues of deliberation. His dissertation project, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), involves a comparison of television news’ contributions to mediated deliberation in the U.S. and Germany and the individual-level effects of this content. With a Fulbright-funded M.A. from George Washington University, he currently is spending the second of two quarters as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Communication.

Posted: November 29, 2011

Mobilize.org CEO Maya Enista Smith visits UW

Maya Enista Smith’s future was cemented in civic engagement on her first day as an undergraduate at Rutgers University a decade ago.

“My first day of college was September 11, 2001, and I said ‘OK, universe, you’re trying to tell me something’,” Smith said. “I realized that my job was to build communities, cross boundaries and to really empower this generation to understand the full potential that we have.”

Smith is now the CEO of Mobilize.org, a site that works to give young people a platform to organize, lead and solve their community issues. She was the featured guest for the final discussion of CityClub’s Community Matters campaign, which met Nov. 21 in Kane Hall. The UW Department of Communication co-presented the event. Read more >>

Posted: November 21, 2011

Terry Tazioli (BA, 1970): Journalist, leader

Terry Tazioli (BA, 1970) has learned many lessons throughout life, but one that he’s held to through everything he does is, “Don’t sweat the small stuff,” or more frankly, “Screw everybody else, do what you believe in and just go!”

This piece of advice came from his late sister, Kai Leamer, and it has given him the strength to do all that he has in his life. For 14 years, he was editor of “Scene,” The Seattle Times’ nationally recognized lifestyle section. Now retired from the Times, he is a principal in Little Man Productions and is the host of Author’s Hour on TVW. Tazioli is one of the newest inductees into the Department of Communication Alumni Hall of Fame.

Horsey credits UW for broad educational perspective

David Horsey (BA, 1976) says that his liberal arts education has given him the ability to do what he does in an entertaining, yet intelligent fashion. Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist Horsey is known for his keen perspective on politics and current events. “My real talent is in reducing complex issues to their essence and then creating visual metaphors that explain that essence to an audience,” Horsey said.

As an undergraduate at the University of Washington, Horsey spent much of his time at The Daily, where he wrote, cartooned and edited. Though he started as a graphic design major, working at the paper convinced him to switch to journalism. He says that having been immersed in liberal arts has had much impact on his career, and life in general. “What I know is this: my life feels rich and, without my unending education in the liberal arts, it would be far poorer.”

Howard an observer at Tunisian elections

Phil Howard in Tunisia Associate Professor Phil Howard got a unique look at the election process in Tunisia recently. As an election observer with the official mission of the National Democratic Institute, he witnessed not only an important day in history for the people of Tunisia, but also the reach and impact that social media has surrounding events like this.

“One of the consistent themes across countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and, to some degree, even Syria is that there is a young, tech savvy, activist community that uses media in ways that let them outmaneuver their dictators,” Howard said.

In Tunisia’s first post-revolution election, the stations Howard observed had 95 percent voluntary turnout. “That’s amazing,” Howard said. “In the last U.S. presidential election, the turnout was 63 percent, which was unusually high for the U.S.” Howard’s book, The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, explains this power of information technologies in political transformation.

Parks receives second Woolbert Research Award

Professor Malcolm (Mac) Parks shares the Charles H. Woolbert Research Award given by the National Communication Association with UW alum Kory Floyd. The award is given annually by the National Communication Association to an article published more than 10 years ago and that has had significant impact on the study of human communication. Parks’ and Floyd’s article, “Making Friends in Cyberspace” was published in 1996 and is widely considered to be the first systematic study of the development of social relationships in an online setting. It has been cited more than 1,000 times to date. This is the second Woolbert award for Parks; he is only the second person to have won the award twice in its 31-year history.

Posted: November 16, 2011

Bennett authors top-cited article

Lance Bennett, professor of political science and communication, recently had his article ranked among the Journal of Communication’s top-cited articles of 2010. Bennett’s article, “A New Era of Minimal Effects? The Changing Foundations of Political Communication,” was published in the Journal of Communication in 2008. It was cited five times in 2010 and has been cited eight times to date. Bennett coauthored the article with Shanto Iyengar of Stanford University.

Posted: November 16, 2011

Fulbright scholar focuses on Dart teachings

Julia Hsu is in Seattle on a mission. She is a Fulbright Senior Scholar award recipient, which has allowed her to come to the U.S. for one year to further her research on trauma in journalism. Hsu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radio and TV at National Cheng Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan. This year, she is based in the UW Department of Communication, researching at The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, and compiling information on the topic for a book she’s writing. She hopes to learn how to better prepare journalists in covering traumatic events. Read more >>

Posted: November 15, 2011

Bennett to give UW Faculty Lecture Nov. 30

Professor of Communication and Political Science Lance Bennett will give the 36th Annual Faculty Lecture, titled, “The Democratization of Truth: Communication and the Crisis of Contemporary Politics,” on Wednesday, Nov. 30 in Kane Hall 130 at 7 p.m. Professor Bennett joins a distinguished roster of Nobel laureates, historians, artists, scientists and authors who have participated in this series. The University Faculty Lecture Award is the highest honor the University of Washington faculty can bestow on one of their own. Read more >>

Posted: November 10, 2011

NYT editor talks about being foreign correspondent

What does it take to be a foreign correspondent these days? Joseph Kahn, deputy foreign editor of the New York Times, said the majority of his reporters are highly seasoned; in addition, they are skilled at reporting on serious, dangerous and risky topics as well as being efficient and punctual.

Kahn spoke on Wednesday, Oct. 12 in Thomson Hall to a room of about 15 students. His visit was sponsored by the Department of Communication.

One student asked him, “Is journalism dying?” Kahn was quick to say that “while the media is undergoing a financial recession,” the international element of journalism is growing, not shrinking. Read more >>

Posted: November 10, 2011

Authors speak on economy, sustainability

Authors Paul Gilding and John de Graaf warn that our current economic policies threaten both social and environmental collapse, but that we still have time to turn things around if we act now. They think it’s time to stop chasing economic growth as our highest goal, and focus instead on quality of life, justice and sustainability.

Join Gilding and de Graaf on Saturday, Nov. 12 in Kane Hall, room 210, at 7 p.m. (UW Seattle Campus) where they will discuss their latest Paul Gilding books, The Great Disruption, by Gilding, and What’s the Economy for, Anyway?, by de Graaf. Also, hear about The Happiness Initiative, a new national project based in Seattle.

This is a free and public event sponsored by the Department of Communication, Sustainable Seattle, and the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement.

View the event poster >>

Posted: November 8, 2011