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David Domke and Mark Smith to speak at Provost Lecture after election
Just nine days after the election, UW professors David Domke and Mark Smith will lead a lively discussion about how 2008 paralleled other elections in the influence of voters' party affiliations, religious preferences and economic circumstances. They'll also examine factors such as race, gender and the complex political climate that made this election truly unique.

When: Thursday, Nov. 13, 7 to 9 p.m.
Where: Kane Hall 130
Cost: Free, but advanced registration is requested. Register online or call the UW Alumni Association at (206) 543-0540 or 1-800-AUW-ALUM.

Introduced in 2006, the Provost Distinguished Lecture program highlights a topic of great importance to our society. Twice a year, Provost Phyllis M. Wise, as chief academic officer of the University of Washington, selects internationally recognized UW faculty scholars to bring relevant knowledge to the attention of the greater community. Our goal is to share the expertise of our faculty with the citizens of our state and to engage with them in a dialogue about topics that will affect their lives.

About the Speakers:

David Domke is a former journalist and author of the recently published book, The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America. He is a professor and acting chair in the UW's Department of Communication and was chosen by the graduating class of 2008 as its favorite UW professor.

Mark A. Smith is the author of The Right Talk: How Conservatives Transformed the Great Society into the Economic Society. He is an associate professor of political science and an adjunct professor of communication at the UW, and regularly teaches courses on public opinion and American political culture.

Posted 10.10.08

Communication events scheduled
A number of lectures and colloquia by Communication Department faculty and guests are scheduled:

Walker-Ames Lecture
Penelope Eckert, Stanford University
“Why do adolescents talk the way they do?”
Oct. 14, 2008
Kane Hall 120
6:30 p.m.

Public Lecture “Coming to Terms with Cultures”
Gerry Philipsen, Professor of Communication
Oct. 29, 2008
3:30 to 5 p.m.
Mary Gates Hall 241
Reception to follow

2008 Election Seminar Series
Come and talk about the election! The Center for Communication and Civic Engagement and the Center for American Politics and Public Policy are co-sponsoring a brown bag series on the 2008 elections:

Thursday, Oct. 16 in Gowen 1A from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 28 in Gowen 1A from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 5 in CMU 126 from noon to 1:30 p.m.

We aim to keep the formal presentations short to allow plenty of time for discussion, and we are ordering box lunches that will be free to the first 15 attendees. Come join us so that we can put our collective minds together to make sense of the twists and turns of the 2008 elections.

Keep up with the latest events by visiting the department calendar.

Posted: 10.9.08

Ph.D. grad Giorgia Aiello receives Outstanding Dissertation Award
Recent doctoral graduate Giorgia Aiello has received the NCA Critical and Cultural Studies Division's Outstanding Dissertation Award. In his announcement to Dr. Aiello, division chair Craig Robertson (Northeastern University) had this to say:

"With a record number of submissions this year, the Awards Committee was very impressed with the theoretical sophistication of your dissertation. As one reviewer put it, 'It brilliantly combines cultural studies, semiotics, political economy and international relations theory in its approach to visual communication.' In the words of another reviewer, 'Rigorous and engaging to the point where you wonder how she could have accomplished this, but she did.'"

Dr. Aiello is now an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. She will receive the award at the CCS Division's annual business meeting in November during the annual NCA convention in San Diego. The meeting is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 23 from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. in room Elizabeth C at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, although the venue for the meeting will likely change as the CCS Division is honoring the boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

Posted 10.9.08

Colloquium explores gender in the Clinton and Palin campaigns
This election season has offered voters the chance to see two different campaign strategies from Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. Regina Lawrence and Melody Rose presented "Playing the Gender Card? Media, Strategy, and Hillary Clinton’s Campaign for the Presidency," during the Oct. 6 colloquium. Listen to the colloquium.

Posted 10.8.08

UW Department of Communication welcomes new faces
Students will see some new faculty and staff in the department this year: LeiLani Nishime joins the faculty from Sonoma State University; journalist Florangela Davila will be teaching several journalism courses this year; and Katy DeRosier is working with graduate students as the Graduate Program Assistant. Ph.D. student Julie Homchick is the lead TA for the 2008-09 year. Visiting scholars this year include Andrejs Berdnikovs from Latvia and Geoff Craig who lives in New Zealand. Learn more about these newcomers.

Posted: 9.23.08

Seminar explores ways newspapers can thrive in digital revolution
The Department of Communication and Suburban Newspapers of America are co-sponsoring a workshop presented by the American Press Institute, "Newspaper Next 2.0: Making the Leap Beyond 'Newspaper Companies.'" The Oct. 24 day-long workshop will look at opportunities for newspapers in a digital age and what they can become in the next five years. It will also look at tools and processes to get there. The deadline for registration is Oct. 17. More information is available online.

Posted: 9.9.08

Premiere of Katrina documentary cancelled because of Hurricane Gustav
Hurricane Gustav forced Hanson Hosein to cancel a planned New Orleans premiere of the documentary "Independent America: Rising From Ruins," but he still hosted two impromptu showings before the city began to evacuate. Hosein is director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media program. Hosein wrote about his Gustav experience in the MCDM blog.

University Week featured Hosein and the documentary in its Aug. 21 issue.

The film documents the risks small-business owners took in resurrecting their Katrina-ravaged neighborhoods and was the subject of a Business Week article on July 8. It is a sequel to the film "Independent America," which Hosein filmed with his wife, Heather Hughes, in 2005. His latest film was scheduled to premiere Aug. 30 in New Orleans in time for the third anniversary of Katrina. Hosein plans to return to New Orleans to follow up on the the people in his film. Watch a trailer at Independent America: Rising from Ruins.

Updated: 9.3.08

Read updated Emergency Evacuation and Operations Plan online
The Department of Communication Emergency Evacuation and Operations Plan is available with the rest of its policies and forms online. Also available are updated emergency contacts and Environmental Health and Safety information.

Posted: 8.25.08

Gill talks about campaign finance on KING 5
Senior Lecturer Kathy Gill appeared in a KING 5 Up Front report Aug. 9 that looked at how political campaigns are financed. Gill spoke about the how candidates use Political Action Committees in their campaigns. (Gill's segment starts at 6:30 on the time indicator.)

Posted: 8.12.08

Students study global communication in Switzerland
Crispin Thurlow and graduate student Kris Mroczek traveled to Switzerland with 16 undergraduate students for the exploration seminar, "Making Place: Tourism, Culture and Global Communication." The seminar was designed to help students understand some of the human consequences of globalization by focusing on the role communication plays in a global cultural industry like tourism. Students spent four weeks living in Swiss homestays in and around Interlaken. Read more and see photos here.

Posted: 8.4.08

Communication letter from the chair posted
Catch up on all the latest department news by reading the latest letter from Chair Gerald Baldasty. Find the July letter here.

Posted 7.9.08

100 notable alumni list includes 12 from Communication
In celebration of its 100th anniversary, the UW alumni publication Columns Magazine recognized 100 notable alums, including several communication graduates. The selection committee chose famous, fascinating or influential living graduates. The Seattle P-I School Zone blog includes a post about the list. Communication graduates included:

Laura Chang (excerpted the Unabomber manifesto for the New York Times in 1995 and is now the paper’s science editor)
Timothy Egan (winner of National Book Award in nonfiction for Dust-Bowl chronicle "The Worst Hard Time")
Lou Gellerman (Part of the 1958 Husky men’s crew team that won the first American sporting victory in the USSR)
Christine Gregoire (first woman to be elected attorney general in Washington and second woman to be elected Washington governor)
Ed Guthman (received Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for a series of articles for the Seattle Times that cleared UW Professor Melvin Rader of spending a summer at a communist training school)
David Horsey (two-time Pulitzer-Prize-winning editorial cartoonist whose work appears in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and 450 other newspapers)
Bryan Monroe (received a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for his team’s Hurricane Katrina coverage in The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss.; vice president and editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines)
Eric Nalder (investigative reporter for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and winner of two Pulitzers)
Assunta Ng (founder of The Seattle Chinese Post and Northwest Asian Weekly newspapers)
Norm Rice (Seattle’s first and only African American mayor)
Dolores Sibonga (the first Filipina American woman admitted to the Washington state bar and the first Filipina American to sit on the Seattle City Council)
Robb Weller (host of A&E’s Top 10, and formerly co-anchor of Entertainment Tonight; executive producer of Weller/Grossman Productions

Updated 7.1.08

Moy receives AEJMC Krieghbaum Under-40 Award
Associate Professor Patricia Moy received the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s 2008 Krieghbaum Under-40 Award. The award honors AEJMC members under 40 years of age who have shown outstanding achievement and effort in all three AEJMC areas: teaching, research and public service. Members are nominated for the award.

Posted 6.27.08

Coutu receives teaching excellence award
Senior Lecturer Lisa Coutu was one of six UW instructors to receive a 2008 Teaching Excellence Award from UW Educational Outreach. Coutu, who was recognized for her work in distance learning, was honored at the UW Extension Certificate Awards Ceremony held on June 18. The awards are based on stellar evaluations by students on course evaluations and program exit surveys. Coutu regularly receives outstanding feedback from students about her teaching expertise, the interactive nature of her online courses, and her responsiveness to her students.

Posted 6.25.08

Ceccarelli writes guest column for Seattle Times
Associate Professor Leah Ceccarelli wrote a guest opinion column that appeared in The Seattle Times on June 17. The column argues for the importance of rhetoric in dispelling manufactured controversies that result from lack of communication between the scientific community and non-experts. She points to global warming and evolutionary biology as examples of "manufactroversy," in which political activists invent a scientific disagreement that isn't real.

Posted 6.20.08

Professor Domke named acting chair
Professor David Domke will serve as acting chair of the Department of Communication beginning Aug. 1. Domke will fill in for Gerald Baldasty, who will serve as interim vice provost and dean of The Graduate School.

Posted 6.10.08

Communication chair named interim vice provost, graduate dean
Gerald Baldasty, chair and professor of communication, has been named interim vice provost and dean of The Graduate School effective Aug. 1, Provost Phyllis Wise has announced. Baldasty, who is also an adjunct professor in Women Studies and American Ethnic Studies, joined the UW faculty in 1978. His work has focused on media in the context of politics, business, gender and race/ethnicity. He received the UW Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000, has been director of the UW Teaching Academy since 2005, and is a member of the UW Teaching and Learning Consortium. He has been chair of the Department of Communication since 2002. Read more in this week's University Week.

Posted 6.5.08

Communication professor, television producer are UW's "Best & Brightest" in 2008
Lance Bennett, a professor in the Department of Communication, and Robb Weller, a 1972 communication alumnus and television producer, are among those the University of Washington will recognize as its "Best & Brightest" on June 12. A reception will follow the 3:30 p.m. ceremony in Meany Hall. The event is open to the public.

Bennett will receive the James D. Clowes Award for the Advancement of Learning Communities. Bennett founded the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement in 2000 to bring together civic-minded people both inside and outside the UW. The center has organized research projects such as What's the Economy For, Anyway? and the program Becoming Citizens, which helps high school students define civic issues they care about and act on those issues. Bennett has taught at the UW since 1982.

Weller is receiving the Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award for his readiness to help the university. He serves as the emcee for Dawg Days in the Desert in Palm Desert, Calif., and provided the voiceovers for the initial phase of advertisements for Campaign UW: Creating Futures, the UW's $2.5 billion fundraising campaign. Weller has been an executive producer and partner at Weller/Grossman Productions, which has produced more than 3,500 TV programs for 18 different cable networks, for 17 years. He hosts the weekly series, A&E's Top 10 as well as two of ABC-TV's popular shows, The Home Show and Win, Lose or Draw.

Posted 6.9.08

Media analysis published in Seattle P-I
John Gastil and Whitney Anspach wrote a guest editorial that appeared June 4 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The editorial analyzes the distribution of favorable and critical news coverage by The Seattle Times and Seattle P-I of gubernatorial candidates Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi during the 2004 election. Gastil was spoke on the topic during KUOW's The Conversation on June 4.

Posted 6.4.08

Professor visits UW to give talk on how people interact using convergent media
Professor Susan Herring of Indiana University will present a comparative overview of convergent media computer-mediated communication (CMCMC) types on May 28 in Communication 120 from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

These include textual interaction enabled as a secondary function of convergent media such as YouTube, Flickr, social-networking sites, multiparticipant online games, interactive news sites and interactive television. Herring will focus on interactional coherence — how people are using these media to converse more or less coherently with one another, despite the technological obstacles and social norms that must be overcome in order to do so.

Given the ready availability of easier-to-use forms of interpersonal textual CMC such as e-mail, instant messaging, and text messaging on mobile phones, CMCMC conversations seem perverse. She will draw on theory from communication and sociology, as well as findings from multitasking and technology usability research, to propose explanations for this phenomenon.

Posted: 5.19.08

Laura Crowell Fund Run sets $10,000 goal
The Laura Crowell Fund Run on May 17 at Greenlake Park will raise money for research and travel for graduate students in the Department of Communication. The goal of the run this year is to raise $10,000 through registrations, sponsorships and prizes. The event brings together students, faculty, staff, alumni and local businesses to promote community and meet new friends.

Posted: 5.7.08

Department hosts Global Health conference
The Department of Communication was the lead sponsor for the Covering Global Health: A Primer for Journalists conference May 2-3 at the UW. The conference focused on helping journalists navigate the complex scientific, medical, political and professional issues involved with global health. Representatives of some of the world's top global health organizations, along with prize-winning journalists, explored what's happening in global health and why it matters here at home.

Students in Professor Roger Simpson's Medical and Health Reporting class were at the conference and have posted stories on the event.

Read more and see photos from the conference on the conference Web site.

Posted: 5.7.08

David Domke named favorite professor
University of Washington graduating seniors selected communication professor David Domke as their favorite professor in an annual poll. Students can write in the names of anyone, rather than voting from a list of candidates.

In following with tradition, Domke gave a speech during Washington Weekend in which he spoke about the privileges of being a professor and student at the University of Washington, and how we all got here because someone -- and often, many someones -- injected hope into our lives. They told us we could succeed, could change the world, could make a difference. With this in mind, Domke is creating The Hope Covenant, by which students will receive academic credit for using their communication talents and ideas for social good. He will offer this in his undergraduate classes beginning in autumn 2008, with credit to the graduating class of 2008. He asked those graduating students to join him by contributing their creative and positive ideas and skills on a daily basis.

Read the story that ran in The Daily here.

Posted: 5.7.08

Teaching and Learning Symposium includes Communication instructors
Peg Achterman has a poster on "Digital Recording - Interviews and Oral Histories as an Assignment" at the University of Washington 2008 Teaching and Learning Symposium.

Hanson Hosein, with Gregory Koester and David Cox, has a poster on "Leveraging UW Campus-Wide Resources to Enhance Student Engagement."

The symposium is May 6 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the HUB Ballroom and features poster sessions demonstrating the work of 90 faculty, staff and TAs, representing nearly 50 different departments and programs on all three UW campuses.

Posted: 4.29.08

Professor gives his take on presidential politics
In his weekly feature, copy editor Ron Davis poses five questions to John Gastil, a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington and the author of the new book, "Political Communication and Deliberation."

Posted: 4.16.08

Professor, students travel to New Orleans to film recovery progress
Independent film director and Emmy Award-winning journalist Hanson Hosein (director of the department's Master of Communication in Digital Media) took to the road again with MCDM students Kirk Mastin and John Liston in search of the story behind the recovery of New Orleans in "Independent America: Rising From Ruins."

As in his first film, "Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop" Hosein will rely exclusively on Mom & Pop to supply and accommodate the group during the expedition, driving only secondary roads, avoiding the corporate chains that line the interstate. Another student, Adriana Gil Miner, orchestrated the production from the Pacific Northwest as assistant producer.

Press coverage for this project includes a mention by David Pogue of the New York Times, in the context of using the Flip camera. The blog entry links to Kirk Mastin’s blog.

The Daily also featured the project.

UW TV will broadcast the films on the MCDM Multimedia Storytelling class site, www.flipthemedia.com, including updates on "Independent America: Rising From Ruins."

Learn more about the project at www.independentamericafilm.com.

Posted: 4.07.08

Prof John Gastil was quoted in Newsweek's March 12, 2008 edition on page 2 of: "His Cheating Brain: Why do powerful men risk everything for sex?"

Posted 3.27.08

Wounded Messengers: How Trauma Affects Journalists
Journalism often exposes the brutal realities of life. One needs only to watch the evening news to see how tragedy seizes headlines like no other. While we often consider the effect on the victims, we rarely consider how exposure to trauma can affect journalists, and in turn, their work. If we ourselves are affected by trauma, why should we expect journalists not to be? (Read More)

Posted: 2.04.08

NPR's national show, Weekend America, did a long segment, Caroling the Eagles, on an unusual bit of civic engagement Communication lecturer Cindy Simmons has been doing these past few years: listen to the show | read the transcript.

Posted: 12.31.07

Communication and International Relations

Now in its third edition, Communication and International Relations is an online news magazine written by students in COM321/POLS330.

Edition One | Edition Two | Edition Three

Updated: 12.13.07

Devon Mills is a Communication student in COM 361. She wrote a story about a classroom visit by Olga Kravtsova, the Russian Fulbright scholar who is studying journalism and trauma with the Dart Center.

Posted: 12.10.07

Professor Nancy Rivenburgh's evening degree students produced a web magazine for their fall quarter class. Check out the portal link, for Issues I, II and III (Issue III will be available the week of December 17, 2007).

Posted: 12.10.07

The Department of Communication is featured in the autumn, 2007 edition of the A&S Newsletter:

Professor David Domke quoted at CNNPolitics.com
Posted: 12.04.07

The Journalism Foreign Intrigue Scholarship: Journalism Goes Global

Drake Witham, '96: Finding the Funny

Professor David Domke: the Escalating Role of Religion in Politics

Posted: 11.13.07

Dr. Crispin Thurlow , Dr. Donald H. Wulff and Dr. G. Kent Nelson are three of the recipients of the University's 2007 awards for distinguished members of the University community. The award recipients are chosen through a nomination process overseen by selection committees made up of their peers.

Posted: 11.05.07

Images of 9/11 deepen the focus of the experience
By CHRIS HEIDE
UW News Lab

Posted: 11.05.07

Seattle-based Dutch journalist shares freelancing tips with News Lab
By SAMANTHA PAK
UW News Lab
Posted: 10.24.07

At the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Alice Marwick (she earned her MA from the UW Department of Communication and is now a PhC at NYU) won the best student paper award.

Posted: 10.24.07

UW Communication professor Kirsten Foot was asked to give the keynote lecture at a conference on web histories to be held in conjunction with AOIR 2008 in Denmark.

Posted: 10.24.07

Government by the People, Professor John Gastil's October 22 piece in the Seattle Times
Posted: 10.24.07

Professor John Gastil and pal Toby help raise money for student scholarships
Posted: 10.15.07

On May 7, 2007, Professor Phil Howard helped bring Globe & Mail Foreign Correspondent Stephanie Nolen to the UW to talk about her book 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa. Students from Professor Roger Simpson's Spring course attended the talk.

Posted: 06.26.07

Congratulations to Richard Kielbowicz, who has won the 23rd annual Covert Award in Mass Communication History from the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The Covert Award goes to the best mass communication history or article published the previous year. Richard won the award for "The Law and Mob Law in Attacks on Antislavery Newspapers, 1833-1860," published in Law and History Review in Fall 2006. The award was endowed by the late Catherine L. Covert, who was a professor of public communications at Syracuse University and head of the AEJMC History Division.

Posted: 06.26.07

The 2007 Time Capsule Celebration
Posted: 06.13.07

Three from Communication Community Earn UW Awards

Posted: 04.06.07

Faculty Participate in Politics and Culture Lecture Series - Sponsored by the Stimson Foundation

Posted: 03.02.07

Featuring UW Communication professors David Domke, Ralina Joseph and John Gastil, and Communication graduate student Chris Wells.

Our Public Speaking Program Director, Professor Matt McGarrity, has won the Robert Henry Outstanding Professor Award! Read about it at the National Speakers Association Web site.

Ralina Joseph was a guest on Weekday on KUOW on Tuesday, February 6.

Click here for audio from her appearance...

Posted 02.21.06

Local copy of the award announcement...
Updated 01.05.07

The cover story of the December 2006 issue of Columns features "100 Top Books by 100 UW Authors" and we are proud to announce that 11 of those authors can be claimed by the Department of Communication!

Check out the authors from Communication...
Posted: 01.05.07

Letter from the Chair: October 2006
Posted: 10.03.06

Letter from the Chair: June 2006
Posted: 06.08.06

The Department of Communication WA Weekend Celebration 2006
Posted: 05.18.06

Letter from the Chair: May 2006
Posted: 05.17.06

David Domke Wins Krieghbaum Award
Posted: 05.09.06

Teaching cultural codes: Communication, culture, and pedagogy
Posted: 04.24.06

2006 Department of Communication Scholarship Awards
Posted: 04.24.06

The Daily wins award...
Posted: 04.20.06

Kathy Gill
Posted: 03.31.06

Professor Phil Howard featured in last week's Seattle Times...
Posted: 03.29.06

American Press and Politics: The Metamorphosis Conference
Posted: 03.17.06