Department news

Alum Robert Merry presents book Nov. 23

Communication alumnus Robert Merry will read from his new book, A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent (SIMON & SCHUSTER), on Monday, Nov. 23 at 7 p.m. at the U District University Bookstore. He will also autograph copies of his book.

The book explores how President James Polk acquired so much land (including what would later be Washington state) for the United States.

When James Polk was elected president, we were in a diplomatic struggle with Britain over the Oregon Territory (Washington, Oregon, Idaho), Texas was threatened by Mexico, and the territories west of Texas (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado) belonged to Mexico outright. When, four years later, Polk relinquished his office, all of that land was a part of the United States of America. How did Polk acquire it all? Find out in Robert Merry's new book A Country of Vast Designs.

Joseph will teach evening class on mixed race

Communication Assistant Professor Ralina Joseph will teach a Wednesday University class titled "Mixed Race in the United States," beginning in January. The class will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Kane 220.

Course description: Is it a coincidence that the first nonwhite U.S. president comes from a multiracial background? In the 21st-century United States, mixed-race people, from the chief executive to the family next door, seem to be everywhere. Multiracial births have increased a dramatic 260 percent since the decriminalization of interracial marriage. But has racialized inequality changed with the surging numbers of multiracial Americans? This course will interrogate what it means to understand mixed-race identity in America and what representations and histories of U.S. multiracialism can illustrate about changing notions of race, power, and privilege in the United States.

Ralina L. Joseph is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and an adjunct assistant professor in the departments of American Ethnic Studies and Women Studies at the University of Washington. Course Fee: $80. For more information or to register, please visit www.lectures.org/wed.html or call (206) 621-2230 ext. 10.

Pulitzer winner Hedrick Smith speaks at UW

Journalism is about continuous learning and constant curiosity, and it is both difficult and hugely exciting, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Hedrick Smith told communication students in a recent visit to their class on Nov. 3.

Smith, a former foreign correspondent and editor for the New York Times and author of several books, currently makes documentaries for PBS. He began working for the New York Times in 1962, and since has reported on the civil rights movement, the Pentagon Papers, and Moscow during the Cold War. Read more and watch a video clip from the visit >>

Emerging series explores digital media innovation

The first in a series of Emerging Conversations sponsored by the Master of Communication in Digital Media will feature Jeremy Irish from Groundspeak. Seating is full, but the conversation will stream live at noon on Friday, Nov. 13 at www.livestream.com/mcdm. A chat room is available for audience participation.

Hosting the conversation on cutting edge trends in digital media will be Scott Macklin, associate director of MCDM. Watch the archived video >>

Scott Macklin is the Associate Director of MCDM and serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the College of Education at the University of Washington. He seeks to create a rich infrastructure that supports innovation and collaboration through the exploration, development, assessment, and dissemination of next-generation technologies and strategies. In 2000, his co-authored article, The Catalyst Project: Supporting Faculty Uses of the Web...with the Web, won the EDUCAUSE contribution of the year award. Scott serves on the advisory board of the Head Start Center for Inclusion and on the board of the South African NGO Saving our Schools and Community (SOSAC). He uses social media as a powerful tool for learning and building meaningful relationships that create opportunities to engage in acts of social justice. You can view some of his work at: www.vimeo.com/openhandreel/videos.

Groundspeak is an exciting innovator in locational technology applications.  What follows is a brief description of some of their projects:

• Groundspeak's slogan is "The Language of Location." Their goal is to give people the tools to help others share and discover unique and interesting locations on the planet.
• http://www.geocaching.com/
  Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices.  Currently there are 928,943 active geocaches around the world.
• http://www.waymarking.com/
  Waymarking is a way to mark unique locations on the planet and give them a voice. While GPS technology allows us to pinpoint any location on the planet, mark the location, and share it with others, Waymarking is the toolset for categorizing and adding unique information for that location.
• http://www.wherigo.com/
  Wherigo is a platform that allows you to build location based GPS experiences on your computer and play them in the real world. Imagine playing Zork, Secret of Monkey Island or Myst, but in the park around the corner, or on the beach during your family vacation.
• http://www.geocaching.com/cito/
  Cache In Trash Out is an ongoing environmental initiative supported by the worldwide geocaching community. Since 2002, geocachers have been dedicated to cleaning up parks and other cache-friendly places around the world. Through these volunteer efforts, we help preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources!

Journalism workshop: 21st-century freelancing

Independent reporting is increasingly relevant — and risky. Join international freelancers and editors Friday, Nov. 6, in CMU 104 from 1 to 5 p.m. to talk about everything from pitching your stories while on the road to staying safe in a conflict zone. Free pizza will be served at 1.

The workshop will be led by Common Language Project journalists Sarah Stuteville, Alex Stonehill, and Jessica Partnow, in addition to Seattle Times Assistant Managing Editor Jim Simon, MCDM Director Hanson Hosein, and Seattle-based international radio freelancer Jake Warga, who is preparing for an embed tour of Iraq.

This half-day workshop will focus on the opportunities opening up to freelancers (with a focus on international freelancing), the specific dangers and risks that unaffiliated reporters endure in this new climate of international reporting and the unique ethical complications and challenges of international reporting (especially when on your own).

This free event is co-sponsored by the Master of Communication in Digital Media. Read more and RSVP >>

Posted: 11.4.09

Six alumni inducted into 2009 Hall of Fame

The Department of Communication at the University of Washington inducted six new members into its Alumni Hall of Fame on Oct. 29, at the University of Washington Club. Watch a slideshow of the event >>

Posted: 11.3.09

Kathy Gill named 'Geek of the Week' by P-I blog

The Seattle P-I's "Big Blog" named Senior Lecturer Kathy Gill "Geek of the Week" on Oct. 27. About the future of technology, Gill says, "Mobile will continue to be disruptive to current business models as we consume more and more news and entertainment on our handheld devices."

Gill was named one of the Top 100 Women in Seattle Tech by TechFlash in May. A dinner to honor the women was held Oct. 28 at the W Hotel in Seattle.

Department honors Alumni Hall of Fame inductees

The Department of Communication at the University of Washington will induct six new members into its Alumni Hall of Fame on Oct. 29 at 5 p.m. at the University of Washington Club. Learn more about the recipients >>

Reception: 5 to 5:40 p.m.
Ceremony: 5:40 to 7 p.m.
University of Washington Club

RSVPs are now closed. There will be a limited number of unreserved seating available.

We do no provide parking. You must stop at a gatehouse and buy a parking permit, including disability parking.

The University of Washington Club directions and parking information can be
found at: http://depts.washington.edu/uwclub/directions.htm.

Pulitzer-winning reporter Hedrick Smith at UW

Pulitzer winner Hedrick Smith will be speaking in the Department of Communication on Monday, Nov. 2 and Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Smith reported for the New York Times. His first Pulitzer was for stories on the Pentagon Papers, the leaked documents that showed the real reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Smith also won a Pulitzer for a book on the former Soviet Union. As a reporter for the New York Times, he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Now Smith makes documentaries for Frontline, one of which won an Emmy. On Tuesday, Nov. 3, Smith will talk about the subject of one of his documentaries, water pollution, in the Danz Lecture at 6:30 p.m. in Kane Hall.

On Monday, Nov. 2, Smith will talk about investigative journalism at a 12:30 lunch in the Department of Communication. On Tuesday, Nov. 3, he will talk about international communication in Department of Communication lunch at 1:30. Seating is limited for both Department of Communication events. To register, follow the link at http://sites.google.com/site/hedricksmithatuw/home.

Schedule of events:

Monday, Nov. 2

• 12:30 p.m. Department of Communication lunch (investigative journalism), CMU 126 (RSVP required)

Tuesday, Nov. 3

• 1:30 p.m. Department of Communication lunch (international communication), CMU 126 (RSVP required)
• 6:30 p.m. Danz Lecture on water pollution documentary, Kane Hall

Posted: Oct. 28, 2009

Department welcomes new staff

The new school year brings with it some new faces to the Communication Department:

• Michael Almaraz
• Summer Dela Cruz
• Mary McGhee
• Andrew Shinn

Learn more about these new staff members >>

The deparment is also pleased to welcome incoming graduate students: Sheetal Agarwal, Michael Barthel, Elizabeth Bieri, Frida Buhre, Meara Hall, Ariel Hasell, Nathan Johnson, Pia Silverlieb, Anjali Vats. Learn more about these students >>

Watch lecture 'Health Care in the Media Revolution'

Prof. David Domke delivered the first in a series of Town Hall lectures on Oct. 13. In his presentation, "Health Care in the Media Revolution," he discussed the ways news coverage of the health care debate affects public understanding.

For more information about Town Hall and the lecture series, visit www.townhallseattle.org. The next lecture will be Jan. 7 with Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media.

Watch the video >>

MCDM co-sponsors film about Burmese journalism

The Master of Communication in Digital Media and the newly formed Seattle Justice Film Festival (SJFF) are co-sponsoring a screening of "Burma VJ" Friday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. in CMU 104. The free film event explores the dangers of doing video journalism in Burma (a closed country). The film is a Co-operative Film directed by Anders Ostergaard.

Town Hall series features Communication faculty

The Department of Communication is partnering with Town Hall Seattle to present a four-part lecture series on journalism, digital media and civic engagement. Speakers will be professors David Domke, Hanson Hosein, Lance Bennett and Ralina Joseph.

Dates for the talks are Oct. 13, Jan. 7, March 4 and May 6. Advance tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com or by calling (800) 838-3006. Tickets will also be available at the door the evening of each lecture beginning at 6:30 p.m. downstairs at Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave. (enter on Seneca Street). Town Hall members will receive priority seating.

Domke will deliver the initial lecture, "Healthcare in the Media Revolution," beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13. He will discuss the ways news coverage of the health care debate affects public understanding.

For more information about Town Hall and the lecture series, visit online at www.townhallseattle.org.

Posted: 10.9.09

Gregoire appoints Harrell to UW Board of Regents

Gov. Chris Gregoire announced on Oct. 8 the appointment of Joanne Harrell to the University of Washington Board of Regents. Harrell is the chief of staff for the Original Equipment Manufacturing division at Microsoft, where she has worked for the past eight years.

Harrell will be inducted into the UW Department of Communication Hall of Fame on Oct. 29.

“Joanne brings an extensive history of service to this position,” Gregoire said. “Not only is her career experience impressive, her willingness to give back to her community is admirable. I know Joanne will add additional leadership to the board of regents, and will serve her alma mater well.”

Harrell graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications. She later earned a Master of Business Administration in marketing at the Foster School of Business before being appointed trustee at UW’s Evans School of Public Affairs.

“I am deeply honored and humbled by this opportunity to serve the University of Washington, as well as all Washington state citizens,” Harrell said. “This is a rare opportunity to give back to my alma mater — which gave me so much, and work with an impressive team to further improve our state’s higher education system.”

Harrell has extensive experience in both the high-tech and nonprofit sectors. Before joining Microsoft, she was senior vice president at InfoSpace in Bellevue, and vice president and chief executive officer at US West Communications. Harrell is also a past president and chief executive officer at United Way of King County.

Harrell has received top recognition for her career and philanthropic accomplishments. She’s been recognized by both Telephony Magazine and Ebony Magazine for her business achievements. In 2007, she received Seattle’s “Women of Achievement Award.”

Harrell’s appointment is effective Oct. 16.

Posted: 10.9.09

Hanson Hosein featured in Columns Magazine

Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media, was featured in a Columns Magazine article about using technology in the classroom. Hosein uses Twitter to encourage discussion in his classes. Students tweet responses to his ideas or those of others, and they are searchable using a hashtag such as #mcdm581. Hosein and his students can check responses in real-time or later on.

Fall e-newsletter introduces 2009 Hall of Fame

The September 2009 Department of Communication alumni e-newsletter features alumni and students who have used their UW educations at home and abroad. You can subscribe to the e-newsletter >>

This issue features:

• An introduction to the 2009 Alumni Hall of Fame inductees by Chair David Domke
• Reflections from life in Cambodia by Foreign Intrigue Reporting Scholarship recipient Kristin Okinaka
• Alumnus John Hutcheson talks about how his master's degree in Communication prepared him for his position as U.S. Joint Special Operations Task Force Public Affairs Officer
• Department seeks sponsors for Olympia Legislative Reporting Internship

Novelist joins Prof. Underwood at bookstore Oct. 7

UW Communication Prof. Doug Underwood will talk at the University Bookstore on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. about his new book, Journalism and the Novel: Truth and Fiction, 1700-2000, which examines the journalists who have gone on to become famous novelists.

He will be joined by alumna Sibella Giorello, who is the first of his students to try to put what he has studied into practice. She has recently published two mystery novels, The Rivers Run Dry and The Stones Cry Out, after graduating as a journalism student from the UW in 1989 and completing a career as a reporter for the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch.

Filled with examples of writers who have made the transition from non-fiction to fiction, Underwood's book covers three-hundred-plus years of great writing, including the works of Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Richard Wright, Truman Capote, and Joan Didion.

He will be discussing the traditions that connect journalistic to novel writing, and why it is that so many journalists have aspired to fiction writing careers. Sibella will discuss what it has been like to go from being a student journalist to a reporter covering police and FBI matters to a novelist who has used her journalism background and knowledge of criminal forensics to fashion her detective novels. Her second novel, The Rivers Run Dry, is set in the Seattle area and features her FBI agent-protagonist, Raleigh Harmon, who debuted in her first novel and has just been transferred from Richmond (the scene of The Stones Cry Out). Sibella will tell about how her training in journalism — including in Doug's legislative reporting class — has influenced her fiction writing, while Doug will offer insights into how the influence of the great journalist-literary figures of the past can be seen among fiction and non-fiction writers of today. It promises to be a lively talk about great writing in two of its strongest forms, journalism and novels.

Dr. Ralina Joseph talks about TV diversity on KUOW

Assistant Professor Ralina Joseph was featured on the Aug. 14 edition of KUOW Presents with KUOW's Jamala Henderson. She spoke about three shows with diverse casts that she enjoys watching. The three shows Joseph critiqued were Grey's Anatomy, House Hunters and Scrubs.

Joseph said she has trouble finding smart, non–stereotypical representations of diversity on television. NAACP studies have shown that the TV industry has made some strides in the area of diversity, but there is still more to be done.

Joseph is working on her second book project, Speaking Back: How Black Women Resist Post-Identity Culture, an examination of African American women’s resistance to “post-identity,” the ostensibly “after” moment of race and gender.

Posted: 8.26.09

Fireside chat with MCDM director and KUOW host

Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media, will be the first guest on KUOW's Fireside Chat series, which begins Aug. 17 at 6 p.m., in the Sorrento Hotel Fireside Room. Hosein will discuss the rapidly changing environment for business and media because of changes brought on by digital media and will consider questions such as, "Will Twitter abide? What’s the future of social networking? What’s the future of news?"

As part of ongoing programming to celebrate its centennial, the Sorrento, Seattle’s oldest boutique hotel, is collaborating with Ross Reynolds to hold the series of monthly chats. Reynolds is the host of KUOW’s “The Conversation,” and is a UW MCDM student.

In its heyday, the Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel served as a civic hub, where thought leaders convened to exchange ideas about the arts, culture and politics, and the community gathered for music performances and poetry readings.

The public is welcome to attend the free chats, which will be taped and then excerpted for broadcast on KUOW the next day. Reserve tickets by sending an e-mail to fireside@hotelsorrento.com.

Conference will focus on language in new media

Delegates from around the world will gather in the UW Communications Building Sept. 3-6 to listen to speakers such as Theo van Leeuwen, one of the world's leading scholars of visual communication.

The conference, Language in (New) Media: Technologies and Ideologies, is the third in a series organized around the role of the media in relation to the representation, construction and/or production of language.

Other keynote speakers include:

• Naomi Baron, American University, USA
• Jannis Androutsopoulos, Kings College London, England
• Rodney Jones, City University of Hong Kong

The conference is being hosted by the University of Washington’s Department of Communication with support also coming from the Department of Linguistics, the Language & Rhetoric Program in the Department of English, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (UW Bothell), and the Simpson Center for the Humanities. 

The conference organizers are Crispin Thurlow, Kristine Mroczek and Jamie Moshin, Department of Communication, University of Washington, Box 353740, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Please direct any queries to the organizers at lim2009@uw.edu.

Learn more about the conference at http://www.com.washington.edu/lim/.

If you would like to follow the conference via Twitter search for the hashtag #lim09.

Prof. Simpson explains media response to H1N1 flu

The UW Insight series on the H1N1 virus (previously known as swine flu) included a panel discussion with medical professionals and interviews with UW experts. Professor Roger Simpson spoke in one of these interviews about how the media have covered the outbreak of the virus.

June e-newsletter released

The June 2009 Department of Communication alumni newsletter will get you up to speed with what has been happening in the department. This issue features:

• a note from David Domke, who has accepted a five-year appointment as chair
• alumnus Joseph Slate, award-winning children's book author
• innovative instructors who are using Twitter in the classroom
• the latest inductees to the Communication Alumni Hall of Fame
• notable achievements of students, faculty and alumni

Spring roundup: Faculty awards and achievements

Kathy Gill

Lecturer Kathy Gill was named one of the Top 100 women in Seattle technology by TechFlash, an online resource for Pacific Northwest technology news. Gill was also featured in freelance journalist Linda Thomas' inaugural post in her new P-I reader blog, The News Chick.

 

 

Hanson Hosein

MCDM Director Hanson Hosein’s documentary Independent America: Rising from Ruins received the Patois Award for Best Feature at the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. The film takes a hard yet hopeful look at the risks and rewards faced by entrepreneurs leading the recovery in post-Katrina New Orleans. The film was also shown at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Dr. Ralina Joseph

Dr. Ralina Joseph received a prestigious Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Award. This is her second major national award this year, following a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship from Princeton University. The fellowships will provide support for the development of a second book project, Speaking Back: How Black Women Resist Post-Identity Culture.

Ford awards 20 postdoctoral fellowships, which provide one year of support for individuals engaged in postdoctoral study after the attainment of the Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree between 2001 and 2008. Postdoctoral fellowships are awarded in a national competition administered by the National Research Council (NRC) on behalf of the Ford Foundation. The awards are made to individuals who, in the judgment of the review panels, have demonstrated superior academic achievement, are committed to a career in teaching and research at the college or university level, show promise of future achievement as scholars and teachers, and are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

Dr. Malcolm Parks

On April 29, Dr. Malcolm Parks delivered the Thomas M. Scheidel Annual Faculty Lecture on “Deeply Connected: The Science of Personal Relationships and Networks.”

 

Dr. Crispin Thurlow

Dr. Crispin Thurlow spoke by invitation at the Third International Roundtable on Discourse Analysis. The Department of English of City University of Hong Kong invited a small number of top scholars in the field of discourse studies and related disciplines to participate. The roundtable offered scholars from a wide range of disciplines an opportunity to engage in intensive discussions around a topic of common interest. This year's topic was "Discourse and Creativity." Thurlow presented a paper, The Price of Play: Creative License and New Media Discourse, which ties in with his July 2009 special issue of the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication on the theme of young people and communication technologies.

Department part of 'Dialoguing Difference' event

Congratulations to Manoucheka Celeste and to everyone else who participated in the first annual "Dialoguing Difference" conference, put on by the UW Women of Color Collective on June 5. A number of professors and researchers from across the U.S. presented. In addition to coming up with the idea for the conference, Celeste was part of a panel, with Communication professor Leilani Nishime, on negotiating one's way through higher education as a career. Communication professor Ralina Joseph gave a provocative keynote address titled, "The Race Card." Other department presenters were graduate students Rebecca Clark, Kristine Mroczek and Vanessa Au. Undergraduate Camille Elmore served on the conference committee.

Posted: 6.17.09

Alum named top innovator in business publishing

Communication alumnus Robert W. Merry (1968) has been named one of the Top Innovators in Business Publishing by BtoB Media Business. Merry is president and editor-in-chief of Congressional Quarterly Inc., a provider of news, analysis and information on Congress, politics and public policy.

This is Media Business’ sixth year of honoring business-to-business media executives who, in a rapidly changing environment, are constantly creating new products and services to build their audiences and generate revenue. BtoB Media Business is the leading magazine for business publishing executives.

Merry was recognized as a Top Innovator in the publishing executive category, small trade division. A decade after joining Congressional Quarterly as managing editor, Merry was named CEO in 1997. "I immediately sought to create an online product," he said. He found himself in a race against the industry leader to convert an outdated dial-up information service to the Web. CQ got to market first and eventually acquired its formal rival.

Posted: 6.3.09

Alumna's records request shakes up Parliament

Communication alumna Heather Brooke helped set the stage for the resignation of England's speaker of the House of Commons in May. The Seattle P-I spoke with Brooke about her beginnings as a journalist. Brooke credits her investigative journalism techniques to her time as a student and young journalist in Washington.

Brooke, a freelance journalist and an advocate for open public records in London, requested expense-account information from members of Parliament five years ago. British parliamentarians, who abused expense accounts to garner massive profits on homes, among other things, could now face criminal prosecution.

While attending the UW, Brooke worked at The Daily and was an Olympia Legislative Reporting Intern. Professor Doug Underwood accompanied the interns to Olympia and helped Brooke learn the ropes. While in Olympia, she wrote for The Spokesman-Review. Brooke later worked for a year in Spokane for The Spokesman-Review.

Coverage of Heather Brooke:

• "Former UW student shakes up British government" — Seattle Post-Intelligencer
• "The woman behind UK expenses scandal" — PRI's The World
• "Freedom of information campaigner" — BBC
• "Unsung hero" — Guardian

Posted: 6.2.09

Women of Color present Dialoguing Difference

The UW Women of Color Collective will present the Dialoguing Difference Conference June 5 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Communication graduate student Manoucheka Celeste organized the event. Keynote speakers are Drs. Ralina Joseph of the Department of Communication, Chela Sandoval, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano. Register and see a schedule of events at http://students.washington.edu/wocc/.

Posted: 6.1.09

Thurlow to speak at international roundtable

Professor Crispin Thurlow will speak by invitation at the Third International Roundtable on Discourse Analysis, which takes place May 7-9.

The Department of English of City University of Hong Kong invited a small number of top scholars in the field of discourse studies and related disciplines to participate. The roundtable offers scholars from a wide range of disciplines an opportunity to engage in intensive discussions around a topic of common interest. This year's topic is "Discourse and Creativity."

Thurlow will present a paper titled, "The Price of Play: Creative Licence and New Media Discourse," which ties in with his July 2009 special issue of the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication on the theme of young people and communication technologies.

Communicating the Environment conference May 8

Communicating the Environment: An Interdisciplinary Student Conference, will feature roundtables, panels and presentations on Friday, May 8 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Usha Lee McFarling will give the keynote speech at 11 a.m. in CMU 104.

Panels:

• The Environment as a Social Construction
• Who Speaks for Nature?: Political Culture, Economics, and the State in the History of American
• Environmental Public Outreach
• Confronting the Moral and Ideological Dimensions of Environmental Issues

Roundtable Discussions:

• The Value of Multi-Directional Communication Strategies
• Reporting the Environment
• One Poster/Multi-Media Session
  
  Sponsored by:
• Department of Communication
• College of the Environment
• School of Marine Affairs
• College of Arts and Sciences
• The Graduate School Fund for Excellence and Innovation of The Graduate School

Keynote Address by Usha Lee McFarling
Watch the video >>
Communications Building Room 104 (map)
11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“A Cold Climate: The Challenges of Communicating Science & Environmental News in A Declining Media Environment”

The mainstream media are in the midst of a rapidly accelerating decline, witnessed by widespread cutbacks and closures at a variety of once robust news outlets. In this talk, Ms. McFarling will outline why this media atrophy is especially devastating to the coverage of science and environmental topics. She will use examples from reportage on climate change to illustrate how vested interests from both the right and left side of the political spectrum attempt to hijack the narrative of the evolving climate science story to better fit their agendas. She will argue that the shift from old media to new media techniques is leading to a loss of civic discourse as sources such as general interest newspapers and evening news broadcasts, which serve a wide political spectrum, are overwhelmed by new sources such as blogs, tweets and social networks, which are much more specifically targeted. She will conclude by looking at several ways the rapidly shifting media landscape may evolve in the near future and discuss opportunities now arising in new media that offer the potential to improve the way science and environmental news is presented to and consumed by the public.

Usha Lee McFarling, a science journalist for nearly two decades, has worked at the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and Knight Ridder Washington Bureau. She has specialized in the coverage of climate change and in 2007 won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Writing for co-writing a multi-media series in the Los Angeles Times titled “Altered Oceans.” She earned an M.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in the field of animal behavior and earned a B.A. degree in biology from Brown University.

Video: Parks delivers Scheidel Faculty Lecture

On April 29, Dr. Malcolm Parks delivered the Thomas M. Scheidel Annual Faculty Lecture on “Deeply Connected: The Science of Personal Relationships and Networks.” Parks is a professor in the UW Department of Communication.

The quality of our personal relationships profoundly influences our satisfaction, our health, and our ability to accomplish life goals. In this talk, Professor Parks advances a social contextual theory for understanding how personal relationships are initiated and develop within social networks. Research in this perspective illuminates several basic questions about human relationships including: Why do we meet the people we do? Why do some meetings initiate relationships, while others do not? How is the development and stability of relationships linked to the larger networks people inhabit?

In exploring these topics Professor Parks draws on the results of a long-term research program summarized in his book, Personal Relationships and Personal Networks. He also presents preliminary findings from a current project examining how much people really know about their friends’ social networks, a factor that may have implications for topics as diverse as social support and intergroup relations.

Posted: 5.1.09

SPJ hosts Ethics Week discussion at UW

When is “news” ready to be distributed to the public online? What happens when a news outlet or a reporter has a conflict of interest? To celebrate Ethics Week, April 26 - May 2, 2009, the Society of Professional Journalists is hosting 12 town hall-style events around the country. The Western Washington Pro Chapter will host an event focused on Journalism Ethics in a New Media Age on Wednesday at 7 p.m at the University of Washington.

Attendance is free, and the discussion is open to the public.

Journalism Ethics in a New Media Age
Wed., April 29, 2009
7 to 8:30 p.m.
University of Washington
Communications Building, Room CMU 120
4109 Stevens Way, Seattle

Following an introduction by SPJ president Dana Neuts, David Boardman, executive editor for The Seattle Times, will provide an overview of journalism ethics issues that have arisen out of new media. Boardman will then moderate a panel discussion between members of the audience and the following panelists:

• Professor Hanson Hosein, Director of Master of Communication in Digital Media, University of Washington
• Dale Steinke, KING5 TV, Interactive News and Operations Manager
• Tracy Record, West Seattle Blog, Co-Publisher/Editor
• Sandeep Kaushik, Co-founder of Publicola political blog, political consultant and former writer for The Stranger
• Chris Grygiel, SeattlePI.com, news leader and political reporter
  

Questions? Contact Dana Neuts at 360-920-1737 or via e-mail at president@spjwash.org.

Posted: 4.28.09

Pocketmedia Film Festival open to UW community

Are you out to change the world, go hang gliding, study ducks, fight for social justice, or just hang out? Can you tell the story in 90 seconds?

Shoot your engaging, exciting story in a video using a camera that fits in your pocket. Upload it to Zooppa, vote and comment on other videos, and compete for wonderful prizes. The videos will be judged by the quality and the originality of the content. There will be prizes for winners of the community voting as well as prizes assigned by a select jury

The UW Pocketmedia Film Festival is free and open to all UW faculty, staff, students and alumni. Submit your film between April 17 and May 13. Winners will be screened at the MCDM-sponsored final celebration the evening of May 28, HUB 106B.

Posted: 4.15.09

Hosein film wins best feature at New Orleans festival

A documentary by Hanson Hosein, director of the UW MCDM program, won the Patois Award for Best Feature at the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival in April. The film, "Independent America: Rising from Ruins," takes a hard yet hopeful look at the risks and rewards faced by entrepreneurs leading the recovery in post-Katrina New Orleans.

The film has also been chosen as an official selection of the Seattle International Film Festival and will be screened May 25 and May 27. It is a co-production of Open Door Co. and HRH Media.

Hosein said, "It's daunting to make a film about such a storied city as New Orleans. So this award tells me that we got it right. It's exactly the momentum we need as we take 'Rising from Ruins' national. Post-Katrina New Orleans offers many lessons for a country in crisis, especially how fiercely independent local businesses can help resuscitate an economy."

Emily Ratner, festival co-director, said, "This award is one of the highest honors that our festival bestows and is given to the film that most exemplifies our mission: Using the media of film to generate and promote community dialogue about important social justice issues."

Posted: 4.15.09

Leveraging technology to become a green scholar

Details:
Tuesday, April 14 from noon-1 p.m.
Wednesday, April 15 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.
CMU 302
Designed for graduate students and faculty

Available technologies make it convenient for students and faculty to lessen their impact on the environment and also enhance learning. For example, a web site can reduce the need for paper and printing through distribution of a syllabus online and distributing and collecting assignments online. As part of the department's efforts to creatively leverage technology in order to cut costs, Kristina Courtnage Bowman from the Department of Communication Instructional Resources Center will cover:

• how to set up a workspace on the web using Catalyst Common View for a group project or course web site
• how to use Adobe Acrobat Pro's reviewing and commenting features to take notes and "write" in the margins of journal articles
• use Google Docs and wikis to collaborate on group projects and presentations
• use Microsoft Word to make corrections or comment on someone else's document
• use the scanner and screenshots to create PDFs
• find images and media for educational use
• set up library e-reserves
• Use optical character recognition software to digitize printed text into an editable document 

No registration is necessary, but if you would like to attend, please complete this brief survey: https://catalysttools.washington.edu/webq/survey/kriscb/73449.

This will be a time to share your own tips and tricks as well so please bring them along. 

Posted: 4.9.09

April 15 colloquium looks at "Cultural Industries and the Business of Music"

On Wednesday, April 15, David Hesmondhalgh will present a colloquium on "Cultural Industries and the Business of Music" at 3:30 p.m. in CMU 126. Hesmondhalgh is from the Institute of Communication Studies at the University of Leeds.

Posted: 4.9.09

David Domke named department chair

David Domke, professor and acting chair for 2008-09, will continue as chair for the Department of Communication. He will serve a five-year term in this position, through June 30, 2014. Domke began serving as acting chair on Aug. 1, 2008, when Chair Gerald Baldasty began a term as interim vice provost and dean of The Graduate School. Baldasty has since accepted the position of dean of The Graduate School.

Domke was chosen as chair after a committee of faculty from other UW departments met with Communication faculty, staff, and students to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the Department. This committee made a recommendation to the Deans of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Deans asked Domke to serve as chair. "I'm honored to be asked, and it's a privilege to be given a chance to lead, particularly in these very difficult economic times," Domke said.

Posted: 4.7.09

"There is No Secret Sauce" social web lecture

Social Media Strategist Adam Metz will give a guest lecture Thursday, April 16, at 6 p.m. in CMU 302 as part of MCDM Director Hanson Hosein's COM 581 class, "Social Production." Metz is is the author of "There is No Secret Sauce: A strategic guide to the social web."

Posted: 3.27.09

Learn and share at Presentation Camp Seattle

PresentationCamp Seattle, Saturday, April 4 at 8:30 a.m., is an ad-hoc gathering of passionate folks who want to share, interact and spread the love around the topic of presentation design and delivery. It's for anyone interested in public speaking, pitching and presenting. Come to learn, come to share: everyone walks away knowing a little bit more.

Details:
Saturday, April 4, 2009
University of Washington, Seattle
Communication Building
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Cost: $10 before April 1
Twitter hashtags: #pcampsea

Posted: 3.27.09

Recent faculty awards and achievements

W. Lance Bennett had a MacArthur Foundation grant renewed to Aug 2009. The "Civic Learning Online Project" studies the kinds of civic skills young citizens may acquire from online engagement sites such as RockThe Vote and MyBarackObama. The qualities of online learning opportunities are compared with more formal civic education offered in schools. This project has employed five Communication research assistants, along with a number of undergraduates. It links to a parallel project funded by Surdna running through June 2009. The Surdna grant is for developing digital media civic skills training online, and supports the Becoming Citizens undergraduate internship program run by the Center for Communication & Civic Engagement.

David Domke and former B.A. and M.A. student Kevin Coe received the Top Article of the Year Award from the Political Communication Division at the NCA conference. The award is for their article in Journal of Communication, "Petitioners or Prophets? Presidential Discourse, God, and the Ascendancy of Religious Conservatives," which formed a foundation for their 2008 book, The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America (Oxford University Press). Coe is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona.

Kirsten Foot’s book Web Campaigning (with Steve Schneider) (MIT Press, 2006) was awarded the 2008 Doris Graber Outstanding Book Award by the Political Communication Section of the American Political Science Association. The 2008 Doris Graber Outstanding Book Award honors the best book published on political communication in the last 10 years.

John Gastil received an NSF grant to study an ongoing Citizens Parliament deliberative process in Australia. The study will provide short-term educational benefits to the post-graduate, graduate, and undergraduate students involved in this research project. The study’s greatest social impact, however, is the insight it will lend to those hoping to design deliberative and effective hybrid decision-making processes for large scale organizations and political units. Whether the results of this research validate or call into question the particular design developed in Australia, its findings will aid the development of face-to-face and online technology that yields collective choices in ways that simultaneously maintain process integrity and generate decision legitimacy.

Christine Harold received a Royalty Research Fund award in 2008.  The award will support research on the remaining case studies of Christine's second book, De/signing Rhetoric: Mass Consumption and Environmental Sustainability in the '"Age of Aesthetics."  The book looks at the relationship between industrial design, mass consumption, and environmental sustainability through a series of case studies about different ways people consume material goods.  The first, a study of Target and IKEA's claims to "democratize design" is in a recent edition of the journal Public Culture.  The remaining cases will look at the recycled culture and eco-design movements and their historical antecedents.

Ralina Joseph received a 2009 Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty. The fellowship is operated by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation at Princeton University. Joseph is one of 20 scholars chosen nationally this year. The award carries funding support for research, brings recipients to campus for a retreat, and includes substantial mentoring by senior scholars.

Mac Parks was named the 2008 winner of the distinguished Miller Book Award for the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association for his 2007 book, Personal Relationships and Personal Networks.  The Miller Award honors the best book written in interpersonal communication within a five-year period.

Roger Simpson received the 2008 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Frank Ochberg Award for Media and Trauma Study. This award was established in 2003 to recognize significant contributions by clinicians and researchers on the relationship of media and trauma. Simpson is the sixth recipient of this highly prestigious award.

Doug Underwood's new book, Journalism and the Novel: Truth and Fiction, 1700-2000 was recently released by Cambridge University Press.

Posted: 3.24.09

Seattle P-I publishes election analysis by Communication instructors

Department of Communication Professor John Gastil and graduate student Leah Sprain wrote a guest column that appeared March 9 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The column was a follow-up to a study of the 2004 election that found coverage of gubernatorial candidates Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi was fair and balanced. The study of the 2008 election came to a similar conclusion, but found some disturbing media trends as well.

Posted: 3.12.09

Colloquium explores inventing through free play

Christine Harold presented a colloquium on "Motherhood is the Necessity of Invention: Rhetoric, Politics, and Play" on Wednesday, April 8. Harold is an assistant professor in the UW Department of Communication.

Inspired by her recent studies on the consumer culture of associating objects with market brands and her own experience as a mother of three children, Harold advocates using the “play” model in the fields of parenting, academics, and politics.

The model of free play encourages parents to allow their children to stretch their imaginations with open-ended, rather than instruction-based, toys and activities. As a mother herself, Harold became mindful of the types of play objects parents would buy for their children. While popular video games require following rules and instructions, open-ended play objects such as toy blocks are simple and flexible in use, which encourages children to think of creative ways to use them. “Children should be the agent of invention and parents should be the facilitator,” Harold says. “Play should be 10 percent toy, 90 percent child.”

Similarly, Harold says, the free play model can apply to the academic and political world. “There’s the current notion that it is the job of the parent to shape his or her child. The job of the state is to shape its citizens,” Harold points out. She says allowing students and citizens to enter those worlds with the opposite notion of free play can develop and shape their role and support independent critical thinking.

Harold says, “The metaphors or assumptions in politics or communication are of our own making and could be otherwise. We don’t have to think of everything in binary relationships."

- By Christina Nghiem

Watch the video and the powerpoint >>

Updated: 4.9.09

Women share views about communication careers and gender

Posted: 2.20.09

Groundswell author speaking on strategies for social technologies

Join us Thursday, Feb. 26 as Josh Bernoff discusses the role of social technologies in today’s world. He is co-author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, a comprehensive analysis of corporate strategy for dealing with social technologies like blogs, social networks, and wikis. Bernoff is a vice president and senior analyst at Forrester Research and is one of America’s most frequently quoted research analysts. His research, analysis and opinion appear frequently in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and on national television news programs. The Department of Communication is a co-sponsor of the event.

"Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies"
Thursday, February 26, 2009
6 to 7:30 p.m.
The Forum, 3rd Floor, Parrington Hall
University of Washington – Seattle Campus

Posted: 2.17.09

Ralina Joseph awarded Woodrow Wilson fellowship

Assistant Professor Ralina Joseph received a 2009 Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty. The fellowship is operated by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation at Princeton University. Joseph is one of 20 scholars chosen nationally this year. The award carries funding support for research, brings recipients to campus for a retreat, and includes substantial mentoring by senior scholars.

Posted: 2.17.09

Students, alumni enthusiastic about Career Week events

During UW’s Career Discovery Week, Jan. 26-30, the Department of Communication had some important visitors come to campus to talk to students. A candid discussion on jobs in journalism was followed by a group of PR specialists giving invaluable career tips to students. The last event of the week was a lively networking event hosted by Jenni Hogan of KIRO TV. Hogan gave the students tips on networking, shared her top tips on networking, including “get out there but be real” and “get over being polite.”

Students and alumni at all three events were enthusiastic in their praise. Communication senior Jeni Ayers says “The communication department put on the best Career Discovery Week events!” (Ayers may even get an internship as a direct result of attending CDW.)

Jobs in Journalism panelists:

• Terry Tazioli ('70), recently retired travel editor for The Seattle Times
• Dan Lamont ('81, '04), photojournalist
• Robert Hernandez, director of development for seattletimes.com
• Tom Tangney, managing editor and film critic at KIRO NewsTalk 710 AM/97.3 FM

Jobs in Communication panelists:

• Andy Wappler ('86), senior PR manager, Puget Sound Energy; former meteorologist, KIRO
• Kathleen Miller ('87), freelance writer and owner of Blue Emu Communications
• Mathew Bernardy ('08), consultant, Microsoft Imagine Cup marketing campaign
• Jacque Coe, communications director, Washington Lottery

Networking event alumni:

• Pat Foote ('71), recently retired managing editor for The Seattle Times
• Edgar Gonzalez ('04), associate director of Development for the Sciences, UW College of Arts & Sciences
• Linda Farmer ('90), communications and government affairs manager, City of Federal Way
• Jeanine Lupton ('77), assistant regional director for public affairs, Department of Labor
• Derek Belt ('04), communications & media relations specialist, UWAA
• Peg Achterman ('82), photojournalist, graduate student
• Janet Luhrs ('76), writer: simpleliving.com
• David Blandford ('87), director of communication, Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Megan Coppersmith ('04), communication specialist, King County Elections
• Jenni Hogan ('02), KIRO morning traffic anchor
• Terry Tazioli ('70), Communication Alumni Board president, recently retired travel editor for The Seattle Times

Journalism groups present 'Journalism on the Brink: Can Digital Save It?'

The University of Washington's Journalism program, in collaboration with the Online News Association, will present a free, public event on Wednesday, Feb. 25, "Journalism on the Brink: Can Digital Save It?" from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Kane Hall 220.

The conversation will be moderated by Hanson Hosein, a former Emmy Award-winning NBC journalist and now director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington.

David Domke, UW Journalism chair and Department of Communication Acting Chair will host.

Hosein and Domke will be joined by:

• Cory Bergman, MSNBC, expert on the future of local media through LostRemote.com, MyBallard.com;
• Ross Reynolds, host of KUOW's "The Conversation" and a researcher on public radio as a viable business model;
• Monica Guzman, online reporter at Seattle P-I who has pioneered the effective use of social media tools to share her work; and
• John Cook, ex-P-I reporter who has created TechFlash, the go-to source for the Puget Sound tech community.

Watch the video here >>

Posted: 2.6.09

Doug Underwood's book 'Journalism and the Novel' released

Professor Doug Underwood's new book, "Journalism and the Novel: Truth and Fiction, 1700-2000" was recently released by Cambridge University Press.

Posted: 2.5.09

 

 

Colloquium on 'Law and Equity' on Feb. 4

James Jasinski will give a colloquium Wednesday, Feb. 4 called "'In Law and Equity': Unpacking the Constitutional Roots of American Race Relations Arguments." The event takes place from 3:40 to 5 p.m. in CMU 126. It will explore prudential argument in Supreme Court decisions on race and education.

Posted: 2.2.09

Freelance writers can get tips for business success at SPJ event

It's a tough media market out there. Freelancers who want to compete in these changing times are invited to hear tips from experts on the craft, business and technology of writing at "All-Access Pass," from 1 to 6 p.m. Friday, March 6, at the REI flagship store, 222 Yale Ave. N. in Seattle.

The event is sponsored by the Western Washington Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. It will open in REI's upstairs meeting room with a panel discussion, followed by a selection of concurrent sessions so participants can tailor a program to their interests. Seating is limited for this third annual workshop. Registration deadline is March 2.

Michelle Goodman, author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and blogger on successful freelancing, will lead a panel on "Running with White Elephants: How freelancers can survive and thrive in today's changing economy.”

Among other speakers are Michael Bradbury, CEO of REALscience online media company; Jane Hodges, writer whose expertise includes real estate coverage; Alex Johnson, MSNBC.com senior writer/producer; Genevieve Alvarez, producer and trainer at seattletimes.com; Diane Mapes, widely published journalist whose topics include pop culture and dating; Mark Briggs, author of “Journalism 2.0”; Dr. Michael McCarthy, founder and editor of LocalHealthGuide/Seattle; Tracy Record, co-publisher and editor of westseattleblog.com; Nicole Kidder, managing editor of ColorsNW; and David Volk, humorist and freelance writer on food, travel and other subjects.

Topics include how to be a “Webpreneur,” the basics of running a business, diversifying income sources, research tips, contracts for freelancers, breaking into new markets and useful technology for journalists. A social hour with local writers and editors will conclude the program.

Cost is $35; SPJ members receive a $10 discount. To register, contact Patricia Foote at patricia.foote@gmail.com or call (206) 940-1574. Details are at www.spjwash.org.

Posted: 1.21.09

Private screening of "Rising from Ruins" documentary on Feb. 5

Members of the UW community are invited to attend a free private screening of Hanson Hosein's latest documentary film, "Independent America: Rising from Ruins" on Thursday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. in CMU 120. Hosein is the director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media program and is showing the film as part of his "Storytelling and Multimedia" class. The documentary looks at New Orleans' efforts to rebuild following devastating Hurricane Katrina. Following is a description of the film:

Three years after Hurricane Katrina’s onslaught, New Orleans is at a tipping point. Parts of the city still look like a war zone, the recovery further slowed by a bad economy and high energy prices.

Some neighborhoods remain half-populated, former residents scared away by a lack of essential services – particularly retail. As “The Shock Doctrine” author Naomi Klein told us, “New Orleans is still being destroyed.”

However, even as chain retailers are reluctant to return to the city in the aftermath of the storm, independent Mom & Pop stores immediately stepped into breach. “Independent America: Rising from Ruins” is the inspirational story of the small businesses that have risked everything to resurrect their neighborhoods.

From the city’s top chef (and former marine) who manned a soup kitchen, to the hardware store owner who kept looters at bay to provide vital supplies, this documentary shows how neighborhood Mom & Pops are crucial to community vitality – especially during times of disaster.

Posted: 1.20.09

CDC researcher will discuss 'Communicating about Science to the Public'

The UW Epidemiology Department will host Katherine Flegal, PhD, Senior Research Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for two special events in February open to the entire UW community and the public. A poster of the event is available >>

Panel Discussion: "Courting Controversy: Perspectives on Communicating about Science to the Public."
Monday, Feb. 2, 2009
3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Health Sciences A-420 (Hogness Auditorium)

Join Dr. Flegal and panelists including Bruce Psaty (UW Medicine and Epidemiology), Jeff Duchin (Public Health - Seattle & King County), and Tom Paulson (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) for a discussion moderated by Laura Koutsky (UW Epidemiology) about the pitfalls and opportunities of communicating results from scientific studies to the public.

With introductory comments by UW Epidemiology Professor Noel Weiss: "What can epidemiologists do to minimize misinterpretation and overinterpretation of the results of our studies?"

Lecture: "Weight and mortality: Issues of Interpretation"
Tuesday, Feb. 3
3:30 to 5 p.m.
Health Sciences T-747

Dr. Flegal will discuss her research on obesity-associated mortality but will focus on the use of scientific evidence in the construction and maintenance of epidemiologic narratives.

For questions, please contact Courtney Marshall, (206) 543-1065, epiadmin@uw.edu

Posted: 1.15.08

Colloquium explores 'Democratic Leadership and the Duality of Character' on Feb. 17

Michael Kochin, a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Tel Aviv University, will speak on "The Superhero Next Door: Democratic Leadership and the Duality of Character" on Feb. 17, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in CMU 126.

Democratic leaders stand out, and yet they must persuade an audience that they are one of the crowd. Kochin will untangle this apparent paradox by clarifying the duality of ethos, of a trustworthy and persuasive character. Kochin says: "As a speaker in a democracy you must show that you are 'one of the boys.' You may not be like them in education, speaking style, or economic circumstances; you must not be like them in that you have special knowledge relevant to the matter at hand; but you must be like them in that  you share their moral values and political interests. I then give two further applications of the duality of ethos: I use it to explore how the speaker claims our attention in the first place, and to explain the role of principled arguments and the role of factual assertions in political speech."

Posted: 1.12.09

Valuable career advice available during Career Discovery Week

The University of Washington's 10th annual Career Discovery Week will take place Jan. 26-30, 2009. It offers students and alumni more than 150 free sessions on all three UW campuses. Hundreds of alumni and friends will be on hand to share their career experiences and tips on every career field imaginable. Panel presentations, career fairs and conferences, networking events, skill-building seminars, and more — whatever your interests, there's something for everybody at this year's Career Discovery Week. Visit careerweek.washington.edu for a detailed event guide, and be sure and use the MyCDW feature to help set your schedule. We'll see you there!

Communication events:

Jobs in Journalism
When: Tuesday, Jan. 27, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Communications Building 126
Journalism professionals discuss careers in their field in the Northwest — what students can expect; how to prepare for a job; mentoring; internships; networking; important skills to develop.

Jobs in Communication
When: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Communications Building 126
Communication professionals discuss careers in their field in the Northwest — what students can do now to prepare for a job; mentoring; internships; networking; important skills to develop.

Communication/Journalism Student and Alumni Networking
When: Thursday, Jan. 29, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Communications Building 126

Students and alumni meet in an informal setting, giving students a chance to talk to Communication professionals one-on-one. Each student-alumni conversation will last no more than 3 minutes, so students are encouraged to prepare an "elevator speech" for the event.

We will have an expert networker on hand to give you tips and feedback. Join us for a fun and informative evening where you can practice networking in a safe environment and get prepared for that great connection that will land you the job of your dreams!

Posted: 1.12.09

MCDM event: Learn from The Digital President on Jan. 15 before his inauguration

Facebook. Twitter. Mybarackobama.com. Text messaging. The president-elect used all of these digital tools to devastating effect in the 2008 election. How did he do it? What strategic lessons can we learn from Barack Obama’s high-tech campaign? How might he deploy this online army of millions to govern? And does President Obama’s historic rise to the White House also propel social networking into the mainstream?

The answers to these important questions have a profound impact on the very near future of our democracy, as well as how we organize, communicate, and even do business in the digital age.  Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, describes it as a convergence between movement politics and business strategy.  On the eve of the inauguration, join us for "UW Insight: The Digital President," for a dynamic, engaging conversation that seeks to put this digital revolution in perspective.

The Event:
"UW Insight: The Digital President"
Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009
Johnson 102, UW Seattle
6:30 p.m. reception (refreshments served)
7 p.m. program, with Q&A throughout.
Watch the video >>

Open to the public, free admission.

Presenters:
Prof. Lance Bennett, Political Science and Communication, on the digital tools.
Kathy Gill, Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication, on social media strategies.
Brett Horvath, Social Media Strategist; Pickens Plan, YourRevolution.org, on youth voter registration and the future.
Moderated by Hanson Hosein, Director, Master of Communication in Digital Media.

RSVP: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1477748/?ps=8

Posted: 1.6.08

Domke breaks down election results for Columns Magazine
Columns Magazine interviewed Communication Acting Chair David Domke about the presidential election results for its December edition. Domke's most recent book is The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America.

Posted: 12.30.08

NCA reception draws prospective students, alums and colleagues

On Nov. 21, Communication faculty, staff and alumni came together at the National Communication Association (NCA) conference in San Diego for food and fun. The Department of Communication holds a reception annually at the NCA conference to bring together current and former colleagues, alumni, faculty and prospective students.

Katy DeRosier, Graduate Program Advisor for the Department of Communication, hosted the event. She writes:

"The reception was a success. I received feedback from faculty and grad students that it was the best ever. Buster's [Beach House] was a great location, and the food was a total hit. Lots of people remarked that they were happy we fed them a substantial meal, and the quality of the food was excellent. As you know, it was scheduled to end at 8:45 but there were plenty of grads, faculty and guests still hanging out at 9:00 (sign of a good party!). We got many prospective students to attend and it was a great environment for them to meet and talk to graduate students and faculty, and get a feel for the department."

We are very proud that this year, one of own gave the prestigious Carroll C. Arnold Distinguished Lecture. Professor Gerry Philipsen held that honor in San Diego. Philipsen spoke to the UW community on "Coming to Terms with Cultures" on Oct. 29. Watch the video.

Thank you to all the people who attended our reception and to those who signed our guest book:

Giorgia Aiello
Deborah Bassett
Isabelle Bauman
Carrillo Rowe
Rebecca Clark
Lisa Coutu
Tony Docan
Sara Docan-Morgan
Danielle Endres
John Gastil
Irina Gendelman
Marita Gronnvoll
Jessica Harvey
Katherine Grace Hendrix
Julie Homchick
Brian Hough
Cheryl Jorgensen-Earp
Ralina Joseph
Jeffrey Kerssen-Griep
Jay Leighter
Sean Luechtefeld
Madhavi Murty
Gerry And Marie Philipsen
Jenny Rosenberg
Gary Ruud
Elizabeth Scherman
David Travers Scott
Debra-Lynn Sequeira
Cindy Simmons
Carolyn Strohkirch
Crispin Thurlow
April Trees
Michaela Winchatz
Melissa Meade

Posted 12.5.08

Paper by Deborah Kaplan published on the anniversary of her death

A research paper written by Professor Deborah Kaplan has just been published posthumously. Deb Kaplan died unexpectedly in November 2006 after joining the department in September 2003.

Thanks to the efforts of faculty member Crispin Thurlow and doctoral researcher Amoshaun Toft, Deb's paper "Dispatches from the Street" was submitted for peer review and eventually accepted for publication in the current issue of the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, one of the National Communication Association's top journals. In her paper, Deb reports her extraordinary discourse ethnography of homeless people living in Tucson, Arizona.

In their short introduction to Deb's paper, Crispin and Amoshaun have this to say:

For most of her short time at the University of Washington, Deb consistently doubted her worthiness as an academic — in spite of constant feedback to the contrary from her colleagues and students. It’s for this reason especially that we wanted to submit "Dispatches from the Street" for publication; we simply wanted to prove the point to her once and for all. In truth, however, we really wanted this paper to be read by others because it’s a good paper on an important topic and we were afraid that it would simply be lost."

Draft (i.e. pre-publication) copies of Crispin and Amoshaun's introduction "Others' Voices: Why Dispatches from the Street?" and Deb Kaplan's paper "Dispatches from the Street" are both available via Professor Thurlow's web site (click on title links). The finished, published versions of both are held by the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication.

Posted: 11.17.08

Philipsen speaks on 'Coming to Terms with Cultures'

Professor Gerry Philipsen will give the National Communication Association’s prestigious Carroll C. Arnold Distinguished Lecture at the NCA convention on Nov. 21 in San Diego, Calif. Philipsen spoke to the UW community on "Coming to Terms with Cultures" on Oct. 29. Watch the video.

Posted: 11.7.08

Hammerback explores persuasive powers of César Chávez

The fact that César Chávez relied heavily on his incessant rhetorical campaign throughout his career and had extraordinarily powerful effects on audiences has often been overlooked; even less understood is how Chávez achieved those effects. Yet Chávez was a savvy rhetor who placed his discourse at the very center of his fabled career. Based on his work in such books as The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez and The Words of César Chávez, UW Affiliate Professor of Communication John Hammerback will discuss Chávez's startling transformation of some audiences and persuasion of others and will probe the communication dynamics that induced many to support his demanding agenda for union activism.

Sponsored by the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies. For more information, call (206) 543-7946, or e-mail pcls@uw.edu. Click here for a map.

To enable common people to do uncommon things
John Hammerback, "The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez"
When: Thursday, Oct. 30
Location: Gowen Hall 1A, UW Seattle campus
Time: 12:30 - 1:30 p.m.

Posted: 10.24.08

Colloquium explores power of media to set political agenda

The Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, The Center for American Politics and Public Policy, and the Communication Department Colloquium Series sponsored a talk by Stefaan Walgrave, a professor at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His talk, "The political agenda-setting power of the media," was Nov. 3. Listen to his talk on the CCCE site.

Updated: 11.6.08

Alumni newsletter online

Check out the fall 2008 Department of Communication alumni newsletter. This issue features information on the 2007 department review, the stories of students who covered the presidential campaigns, a look at the documentary by MCDM director Hanson Hosein and student, faculty and alumni news updates.

Posted: 10.21.08

MCDM hosts "Media in Crisis: The Journalist as Entrepreneur"

The Common Language Project will be the focus of a free workshop, "Media in Crisis: The Journalist as Entrepreneur" Friday, Nov. 14 at 4:30 p.m. in Communications 120. The event, sponsored by the Master of Communication in Digital Media program, is open to all students, faculty and the general public. Assignment editors from local media will participate as well (KUOW, Seattle Times) to discuss realistic freelance expectations and the latest opportunities.

Three 20-something Seattle-ites have decided to skip the coffee-fetching internship positions and go straight into the journalism profession: by raising funds to report on under-covered stories around the world. They present an exciting new business model to future journalists and storytellers. How do they get paid? What are the copyright issues? How do they persuade established news organizations to acquire their content? How do they manage logistics on the ground in far-flung places? What are the best tools for this kind of work? How do you report for print, radio, and online all at the same time?

The CLP will also be available to attend at least two journalism classes the following week in order to interact directly with students who may want to follow up on this new approach to journalism.

Here are links to the latest work from the Common Language Project:

• http://clpmag.org/content/contentpages/2008/eastafrica.php 
  (general multimedia portal to all of their recent East Africa reporting)
• http://clpmag.org/content/contentpages/2008/video/Stoneville_TroubledWaters.php(multimedia story about the shrinking of Lake Victoria--note audio beneath video window)
• http://clpmag.org/content/contentpages/2008/articles/Stuteville_Kibera.php
  (multimedia story about water issues in Nairobi slum--audio beneath video window)
• http://www.clpmag.org/content/contentpages/2007/audio/Partnow_Duwamish.php(recent award winning local radio series on The Duwamish)

Posted: 10.17.08

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.

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

Getting to know the interim chair

Professor David Domke began serving as acting chair of the Department of Communication on Aug. 1. Domke is filling in for Gerald Baldasty, who is serving as interim vice provost and dean of The Graduate School. The department put together this short video so you can get to know him a little better.

Posted: 10.5.08

Ph.D. grad returns to department

Sue Lockett John is working part-time as the journalism program coordinator in the Department of Communication where she is responsible for strategic planning and research. This year’s journalism accreditation is at the top of her list. Learn more about Sue in this staff profile.

Posted: 10.5.08

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

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Check out the September 2009 Department of Communication newsletter. This issue features an introduction to the 2009 Alumni Hall of Fame inductees by Chair David Domke, reflections from life in Cambodia by a Foreign Intrigue Reporting Scholarship recipient, and alumnus John Hutcheson, U.S. Joint Special Operations Task Force Public Affairs Officer. Subscribe here >>

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