Communication - October, 2007
from Jerry Baldasty, chair

[Download a Microsoft Word version of the October, 2007 "Communication"]

Save the Date

November 1. “On Being Interdisciplinary: Academic Approaches to Religion and Religious Sources,” Presented by Communicating the Sacred: Religion at the Academic Crossroads. What does it mean to be interdisciplinary in academics? How is studying religion an interdisciplinary endeavor? How is our own work interdisciplinary and what are the challenges of this work presents? These questions and more will be up for discussion on Thursday, November 1, at 5:30pm in Thompson 317.  

November 6. Hanson Hosein's film, "Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop," will be shown on the Sundance Channel on Tuesday, November 6, at 7pm. Husband and wife TV-news veterans Hanson Hosein and Heather   Hughes set out on an epic, 32-state cross-country road trip to see how independent businesses are faring. Their rules: avoid interstate highways and try to patronize only locally owned establishments. In the process they discover stories of ingenuity, self-reliance, community activism and a growing nationwide opposition to corporate uniformity.

November 7. Department Colloquium. “All the Frontiers of Science: The Rhetoric of Exploration and Exploitation in Contemporary Public Discourse about Science,” a lecture by Leah Cecarelli. This talk will be held Wednesday, November 7, from 3:30-5:00pm in CMU 126

Research (Publications and works in progress)

Kirsten Foot, Mike Xenos, Steve Schneider, Randy Kluver, & Nick Jankowski,“Electoral Web Production Practices in Cross-National Perspective: The Relative Influence of National Development, Political Culture, and Web Genre,” in the Handbook of Internet Politics, Andrew Chadwick & Phil Howard, Eds., Routledge (in press).

Kirsten Foot & Steve Schneider, (in press), “Web Campaigning,” in The Encyclopedia of Political Campaigning, Sage.

Steve Schneider & Kirsten Foot, (in press) “Archiving Web Content” in The International Encyclopedia of Communication, Wolfgang Donsbach, Ed., Blackwell.

Randal A. Beam (in press). "The Social Characteristics of Journalist and Their 'Best Work,'" Journalism Practice.

Hanson Hosein’s film “Independent America,” which aired on the Sundance Channel this summer in the USA, has been purchased for broadcast in Canada by SuperChannel and for worldwide launch by Beyond Distribution. The University Book Store will soon have it in stock and intends to host a screening in early 2008.

Patricia Moy, (in press) “Late-night comedy, talk shows, and politics: It’s not just all laughs,” in Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan Morris’ Eds,. Laughing Matters: Humor and American Politics in the Media Age, Routledge (forthcoming).

Patricia Moy, “Pluralistic ignorance and non-attitudes” in Wolfgang Donsgach and Michael Traugott Eds., Handbook of Public Opinion Research, December, 2007.

Patricia Moy and Michael Xenos, (in press), “Direct and differential effects of the Internet on political and civic engagement,” Journal of Communication.

Moreno, M.A., M.R. Parks, & Richardson, L.P. (in press). “What are adolescents showing the world about their health risk behaviors on MySpace?” Medscape General Medicine. [Will be available online]: http://www.medscape.com.

M.R. Parks, (in press) “Online relationships.” In W. Dornsbush (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Communication. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

M.R. Parks, (2007), Personal Relationships and Personal Networks. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Crispin Thurlow and Giorgia Aiello,(2007), “National pride, global capital: a social semiotic analysis of transnational visual branding in the airline industry,” Visual Communication.

Giorgia Aiello, (in press), “The appearance of diversity: visual design and the public communication of EU identity”, in Jessica Bain and Martin Holland Eds., European Union Identity, NESCA Vol. III, Baden Baden: Nomos.

Giorgia Aiello and Irina Gendelman, (in press), “ Seattle’s Pike Place Market (de)constructed: an analysis of tourist narratives about a public space,” Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change.

Tony Docan-Morgan and C.A. Docan, (2007), “Infidelity on the Internet: Double standards and the differing views of women and men.” Communication Quarterly.

Tony Docan-Morgan, (2007), “Writing and communicating instructional objectives,” in B. Hugenberg, L. Hugenberg, S. Morreale, D. Worley, & D.Worley Eds., Basic Communication Course Best Practices: A training Manual for Instructors, Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Tony Docan-Morgan & Sara Docan-Morgan, (2007), “A transparency is worth a thousand words: The picture speech assignment,” in B. Hugenberg & L. Hugenberg Eds., Teaching Ideas for the Basic Communication Course 11, Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Jamie Moshin andRonald L. Jackson II, (in press), "Scripting Jewishness within the Satire 'The Hebrew Hammer,'" will be published as a chapter in Communication Ethics: Between Cosmopolitanism and Provincialism, Kathleen Glenister Roberts and Ronald Arnette, Eds., Peter Lang Press.

Conference Presentations

Clifford Tatum & Kirsten Foot, “The Life Cycle of Hyperlinked Networks: From Ad-hoc to Infrastructure,” New Network Theory conference, Amsterdam, June, 2007.

Kirsten Foot, Steve Schneider, & Meghan Dougherty, “The Web Campaigning Digital Installation: An Experiment in Representing Web-Based Political Communication Scholarship Online,” (see http://mitpress.mit.edu/webcampaigning). American Political Science Association Pre-Conference: Machine Politics, Politics of the Machine, Chicago, September, 2007.

Kirsten Foot & Deen Freelon, “Technology Transfer Offices as Intersections in Knowledge Production,” Society for Social Studies of Science and Technology Conference, Montreal, October, 2007.

Steve Schneider & Kirsten Foot, “Scholarly Web Archiving as a Research Method and Tool for Internet Researchers,” Association of Internet Researchers Conference, Vancouver, October, 2007.

Kirsten Foot, Mike Xenos, Lance Bennett, & Lea Werbel, “Drawing Together, Spinning Off: US & UK Fair Trade Networks on the Web,” Association of Internet Researchers conference, Vancouver, October, 2007.

Randal A. Beam, "Content Differences Between Publicly Held and Privately Held Newspapers," Media Management & Division, Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication, 2007.

Mac Parks was a member of the conference planning committee for the inaugural CDC National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing & Media. Parks organized and chaired “Design and Evaluation of Field Studies: Challenges and Opportunities,” CDC National Conference on Health Communication sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, August, 2007.

Giorgia Aiello, “Designing Europe: the visual construction of European identity in the public communication materials of fifty cities participating in the European Capital of Culture scheme,” Visual Studies Division, International Communication Association., San Francisco, CA, May 2007.

Vanessa Au “Hate is on the air: The depoliticized, dehistoricized, and decontextualized discourse of shock jock radio’” Midwest Popular Culture Association Conference, October, 2007.

Manoucheka Celeste "Haitians in the Media: An Analysis of The New York Times,” Haitian Studies Association Annual Conference on October, 2007.

Rebecca Clark, “’Fergalicious Definition – Make Them Boys Go Loco’ White Female Hip-Hop Artists, Colorblind Postfeminism and the Racial Construction of Empowerment,” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, St. Charles, IL, 2007.

Sheryl Cunningham “Apologia and the Iraq War: Why doesn’t Hillary say “I’m sorry?,” Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Conference, Little Rock, AR, 2007.

Sheryl Cunningham “Re-imagination or reification: Female identity in Calling the Ghosts,” Graduate Conference for Interdisciplinary Studies: University of Washington, Seattle, 2007.

Sara Docan-Morgan, “Discussion of difference: Transracial adoptees’ reports of family communication about race,” First International Korean Adoption Studies Research Symposium, Seoul, South Korea, 2007.

Sara Docan-Morgan and Tony Docan-Morgan, “Liminality and loss: Portrayals of transnational adoption in Daughter from Danang and First Person Plural,” National Communication Association, Chicago, IL, November, 2007.

Kate Dunsmore, “State and press discourse in public diplomacy between friends: Discursive formation around asylum?” National Communication Association Critical/Cultural Studies Summer Conference, Orono, Maine, June, 2007.

Kate Dunsmore, “The less said the better: Framing through the absence of elite sources,” International Communication Association Conference, San Francisco, May, 2007.

Kate Dunsmore, “Connecting Canada and terrorism: The year after 9/11 in the New York Times,” Western Social Science Association Conference, Calgary, Alberta, April, 2007.

Tabitha Hart, “(Re)negotiating cultural identities in online VoIP ESL training,” 8th annual Association of Internet Research Conference, Vancouver, Canada, September, 2007.

Irina Gendelman, “ Pike Place: representing the market,” Western States Communication Association (WSCA) Conference.Seattle, WA,  2007.   Irina Gendelman and Crispin Thurlow “Elite imaginations: the visual-spatialization of luxury and privilege in mediatized tourism discourse,” Visual Studies Division at the International Communication Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, May, 2007.  

Kristin L. Gustafson and Gina Neff. “Getting Our Story Out: Narrative Identity and Perceptions of Message Effectiveness in Progressive Social Movements,” International Communication Association conference, San Francisco, CA, May, 2007.

Julie Homchick, “Rhetoric, Epistemology, and the Intelligent Design Controversy,” Society for the Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting – Ways of Knowing, Montreal, Quebec, October, 2007.

Leah Sprain “How do you cook a ROCKY(r) or a ROSIE(r) Chicken?: An Examination of the Branding of Sustainably Farmed,” Conference on Communication and the Environment, Chicago, IL, June, 2007.

Leah Sprain "Step It Up 2007: A National Research Project on Climate Change,” Conference on Communication and the Environment, Chicago, IL, June, 2007.

People:

Congratulations to Matt and Laura McGarrity on the birth of their son, Miles.

Congratulations to Hanson Hosein and Randy Beam; their $528,000 grant proposal on behalf of the department to the Knight News Foundation’s News Challenge has passed the first level of review. Their proposal focuses on teaching high school students how to use digital technologies for journalism. The grant proposal includes a variety of partners, including the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, the SeattleTimes, the Northwest Asian Weekly, Seattle Public Schools, Nokia, and PRR. David Domke also contributed to the proposal.

This year Kirsten Foot is serving on the Social Science Research Committee of the College of Arts & Sciences, and representing the social sciences on the UW Academic Technology Advisory Committee and its Researchware Task Force, and the Provost’s Task Force on Collaboration Tools. Foot is also launching a new research project studying organizational challenges within the transnational anti-trafficking movement, with the help of three outstanding undergraduate Communication majors, Amelia Gilbert, Nancy Pham, and Christine Pitawanich.

Christine Harold gave readings at Elliot Bay and Third Place Books in Ravenna this October. She was also interviewed in KEXP’s Mind Over Matters on October 6 th.

Mike Henderson met with the World Affairs Council journalism delegation from Croatia on September 28 to discuss matters pertaining to the free press in the United States.

Valerie Manusov is on sabbatical leave for Autumn and Winter quarters, working on projects revolving around the meanings that people give to nonverbal cures in the conceptualizations of communication that they reflect. One of these, with Tony Docan-Morgan and Jessica Harvey, is on nonverbal "turning points" that people report occurring in their close relationships. The other, also with Jessica Harvey and funded by our departmental internal funds, is looking at larger events revolving around a nonverbal event (e.g., a public kiss) on which the media have reported to look for the types of conceptualizations of nonverbal communication embedded within the media accounts.

Tony Chan is on leave this year, and working on several research projects.

Randy Beam is serving on the Social Science Research Committee of the College of Arts & Sciences, and on a UW Royalty Research Fund review committee.

Patricia Moy has just returned from leading an Exploration Seminar in Paris, “The Past, Present, and Future of Public Opinion.” She and program assistant Mark Hungerford took 16 UW students to study public opinion and communication and their various historical and contemporary manifestations in France. Students visited market research and public opinion research companies, the World Association of Newspapers, and UNESCO. In a module on national memory, the class ventured outside of Paris to visit the beaches of Normandy and see the imprint of World War II at the Caen Memorial and the American Cemetery. At the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and the Centre Pompidou, students learned about art as expressions of opinion. From the Château de Versailles to the Hôtel de Ville, they saw how those in power could interact with citizens. And in discussions related to different religions and cultures, students visited the grand mosque of Paris.

This academic year marks Patricia Moy’s last year as Head of ICA’s Political Communication Division and an At-Large Member of the Political Communication Section of the American Political Science Association. She continues her work as Associate Editor of Public Opinion Quarterly and as Professional Standards Chair of the World Association for Public Opinion Research.

Patricia Moy and Randal Beam are co-authoring a chapter “Reliability and validity issues involved in secondary analyses” in Erik Bucy and R. Lance Holbert’s Sourcebook of Political Communication Research: Methods, Measures, and Analytical Techniques.

Cindy Simmons and Karen Rathe held four journalism workshops for Washington Scholars this fall. Washington Scholars are high-achieving high school juniors who have indicated that they are considering attending UW.

Crispin Thurlow has accepted an invitation to give a keynote presentation at the June 2008 conference "Mediating Multilingualism: Meanings and Modalities" at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Other keynote speakers include Professor Jan Blommaert and Professor Ben Rampton, both internationally renowned scholars in the field of sociolinguistics.

For more information: http://www.jyu.fi/hum/laitokset/kielet/conference2008/en .

Vanessa Au has been selected to write 4 entries for The Encyclopedia of Asian American Popular Culture forthcoming from Greenwood Press in 2008.

In September, Giorgia Aiello and Irina Gendelman spoke in the Simpson Center Institute for the Public Humanities Roundtable Discussion, together with Juan Guerra (Associate Dean, GO-MAP, The Graduate School), Judy Howard (Divisional Dean of Social Sciences, Arts & Sciences), Katharyne Mitchell (Professor, Geography), and Michaelann Jundt (Director, Carlson Learning and Public Service Center). This event was sponsored by the University of Washington Graduate School and the College of Arts & Sciences. Aiello and Gendelman were also invited by Geography professor Katharyne Mitchell to participate as consultants in the project titled Mapping Youth Journeys: Cooperative Learning with Geovisualization Technologies, which is currently under consideration for a MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Innovation Award.

Congratulations to Sheryl Cunningham, who received the Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Conference Scholarship for Graduate Students(2007). Cunningham has also been elected to serve on the Executive Board of UAW 4121, the union that represents University of Washington Graduate Students.

Crispin Thurlow has also accepted an invitation to guest edited a special issue (2008/09) of the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication on the topic of "Young People, Mediated Discourse and Communication Technologies."

 Kristin Gustafson received a Huckabay Teaching Fellowship from the University of Washington Graduate School for the 2007-2008 academic year.

Congratulations to Jessica Harvey who received two Mortar Board Alumni/Tolo Foundation scholarships: The Carrie Cowgill-Thompson Scholarship and The Berthine Leiren Anderson Scholarship.

Julie Homchick received National Science Foundation travel grant for the History of Science Society Annual Meeting attendance. Homchick also attended the Ischia Summer School on the History of Life Sciences, Visualizing Nature in Ischia, Italy, July 2007, and the Rhetoric Society of America’s Summer Institute, entitled Rhetoric, Culture and Technology at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in June 2007.

Leah Sprain participated in the National Communication Association Doctoral Honors Seminar at the University of Colorado at Boulder, July 2007.

Communications faculty and graduate students led sessions at the Center for Instructional Development and Research in September. Those session leaders included Jerry Baldasty, Matt McGarrity, David Domke, Gerry Philipsen, Sue Lockett-John, Mary Lynn Veden, MadhaviMurty, Michele Poff, Peg Achterman, Kristin Gustafson, and Leah Sprain.

Jerry Baldasty is a member of the UW President’s Executive Marketing Advisory Board, and on the advisory committee for Columns, the UW alumni publication, and for Viewpoints, the UW alumni diversity publication. He is also a member of the UW Diversity Research Institute advisory committee, and the UW Leadership Community and Values Initiative (LCVI) steering committee.

Events

The Department of Communication sponsored ASIS&T’s InfoCamp Conference on October 13 th and 14 th at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle. The conference theme was “Cross-pollinating the Information Ecosystem,” and it sought to bring together students and professionals in the information community for discussion.

Technology Updates

Nika Pelc writes:

“The Department of Communication has purchased new sound editing software, an editing deck, portable drive, and digital recorders for the Journalism program. Communication 302 has been graded with mounted speakers, a new audio mixer and support for multimedia presentations. The Communication Advanced Lab is being expanded, and has recently a large plotter printer, adding to HD editing, transcription, color printing, multi-sheet scanning, webcasting and recording stations. How cool! The Department’s partnership with AIS has allowed an upgrade for the Apple Video Editing Lab, adding Avid Mojo’s, 2 Editing decks, LCD monitors, DVD recorders, new editing software, and new Intel Mac Stations. Donations from other college departments have allowed more grad students to have computers in their offices and the Grad Lab has been updated. Finally, the tech staff has added a software inventory page to the website which shows software, including different versions, and in which lab that software can be used.”

That webpage is: www.com.washington.edu/facilities/software/public/display.m.

Research Grants

Mac Parks is part of the research team with a Centers for Disease Control grant, “Center for Health Marketing and Communication.” ($3,583,187). The grant runs from October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2009.

Randy Beam has received research grants from Sigma Delta Chi Foundation (10,000), the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma ($7,000) and the Knight Foundation ($10,000/tentative) for an update of The American Journalist Survey.

Sara Docan-Morgan received a grant for Research Travel to Korea, 2007, from the Northeast Asia Council, Association for Asia Studies ($2,330)

Irina Gendelman received a Strong Neighborhoods Action Grant to organize community arts projects in the Central District as part of her dissertation research

Thanks to Fahed Al-Sumait, Rebecca Clark, Vanessa Au, and Monique Lacoste for their service as Com GSA Board Members this year.

M.C. Digital Media Program

Hanson Hosein writes,

“The Masters of Communication Digital Media (MCDM) Program is actively working to integrate more closely with the Communications Department, and to elevate its profile across the country. As part of this effort, MCDM has upgraded its website to include student projects, multimedia content, all geared toward Alumni and prospective student outreach. Additionally, MCDM is launching a new marketing program to promote the program as a distinctive program that that creates leaders in digital media. MCDM faculty have worked with the Journalism committee to gain funding to create a digital journalism program for young people in Seattle. The program has begun offering a new Special Topics class in user-generated content. This class has been groundbreaking in the discussion of the nature of social media. Speakers have included Cory Bergman (King5.com, Citizen Rain,), and Peter Wakim (Nokia). MCDM students are also encouraged to engage in independent study with other Communication faculty if their skills match some of the needs of those faculty members’ projects.”

Visitors

Kathleen Fearn Banks’ Public Relations and Society course offers undergraduate students a chance to hear guest lectures from a diverse array of public relations professionals. This year’s guest lectures have been given by Catherine Hinrichsen of the Puget Sound Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Puget Sound, Robert Frause, CEO and chairman of The Frause Group who developed the ethics code for PRSA, Bridget Baker from Starbucks, Lori Nixon from KIRO-TV News, and Detective Michael Chiu from Bellevue Police Department.

Visitors to Kathleen Fearn Banks’ Crisis Communications course have included Bill Marler, a nationally known lawyer who handles cases involving e-coli and other food-borne illnesses in children, spoke about his cases and how he and his Director of Communications, Suzanne Schreck (who was also there), use public relations to get their cases won by the court of public opinion. Katherine Boury of the Seattle branch of the American Red Cross has also spoken to the class this quarter.

Alumni Visitors

The Department of Communication welcomed back alumni Lisa Hughes and Jeff Pinneo this autumn for the Mentor Lunch series. Hughes, an Emmy award-winning journalist, is news anchor for Boston’s WBZ-TV News weekdays at 6pm and 11pm with co-anchor Jack Williams. Hughes also co-anchors the 5PM news with Jonathan Elias. Prior to joining WBZ-TV Hughes traveled the world for CBS Newspath, reporting stories for WBZ-TV including extensive coverage of Washington, DC, and Capitol Hill. Born in Moscow, Idaho, Hughes received her B.A. in Communication at UW. Her many honors include an Emmy Award nomination in 2000, and an Emmy Award for Hard News Story in 1996. Hughes was named Best Newcomer in TV News by Boston Magazine and Best News Anchor by the Improper Bostonian. Hughes was honored by the Idaho Press Club for Best Live Shot in 1994, and Best Live Shot and Best Series in 1993. The Idaho State Broadcasters Association also recognized Hughes for Best News Story in 1993-1994.

Jeff Pinneo (a 1981 grad), President and CEO of Horizon Air, has nearly 30 years of airline industry experience, more than 25 of those years with Horizon Air and Alaska Airlines (part of the same airline group). Beginning in 1990, he served as vice president of Customer Services at Horizon where he oversaw Horizon's largest division, which included station operations, inflight services, security, and food and beverage service. Prior to joining Horizon, Pinneo served in Alaska Airlines' marketing department as director of advertising. He was also responsible for the original implementation of Alaska's frequent flier program, then known as Gold Coast Travel and now called the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. Pinneo spoke with UW Communication students about his favorite courses when he was an undergraduate; he said that the hardest course he took was Don Pember's media law course, but that it taught him how to analyze facts and apply them to new situations -- a skill he has used often in the past 3 decades.

[Download a Microsoft Word version of the October, 2007 "Communication"]