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Monica Harrington featured on Media Space
Monica Harrington, former chief marketing officer for two hugely successful Seattle-area startups, visited with Master of Communication in Digital Media Director Hanson Hosein during an episode of UWTV's Media Space, which aired Dec. 29. In this episode, Harrington gives her opinion on what drives a startup's success, why they are important for communities and what kind of spirit that fosters in tech-savvy Seattle.
Posted: December 30, 2010
Alumni, public invited to series on new media
A few years ago, Fitz Cahall (BA, 2002), founder of “The Dirtbag Diaries” podcast, and Duct Tape Then Beer, a new-media company, was reluctant to adopt the social media that so many people were raving about. “I kind of didn’t want to join the Facebook revolution three years ago, and I didn’t want to join the Twitter revolution two years ago,” he said during a department event in 2010. After much peer pressure, Cahall reluctantly gave it a go and found that, “It works!”
To help alumni and our community adapt to evolving technology, the Department of Communication is collaborating with the Common Language Project, a new-media nonprofit, to host the New Media in Communication Series, a series of interactive workshops. Read more >>
Register online for the New Media in Communication Series >>
Posted: December 22, 2010
Staff in the Spotlight: Winnie Cao
Winnie Cao, the Department’s fiscal specialist, is probably one of the most popular staff members in the administrative office. She juggles tasks from payroll to expense reimbursements, to the purchase of office supplies.
But what do we really know about Cao? We know that we probably wouldn’t be able to survive without her! David Domke, Chair of the Department of Communication, said, “We had to make some staff cutbacks a year and a half ago and Winnie has taken on much more responsibility since then. Winnie is just incredible.” Read more >>
Posted: December 22, 2010
Colloquium analyzes newspaper photos after 9/11
Dr. Shahira Fahmy, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona School of Journalism, uncovers the subjectivity of news photography in this extensive frame analysis of war and terrorism images in two newspapers. This colloquium is co-sponsored by Dart West, the academic-programs arm of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.
"Contrasting Visual Frames Of Our Times: A framing-analysis of English-and Arabic-language Press Coverage of War & Terrorism"
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
4-5:30 p.m.
Communications 120
By operationalizing visual frames in terms of the human-interest versus technical frame and the anti-war versus the pro-war frame, and exploring the use of two sets of framing devices: graphic portrayal and emphasis, this study of 1,387 photographs examined contrasting visual narratives employed by English-and Arabic-language transnational press in covering the 9/11 attack and the Afghan War. For the English-language newspaper, the International Herald Tribune, the frames emphasized the human suffering of 9/11 and de-emphasized the civilian casualties and moral guilt of implementing military force in Afghanistan by focusing more on a pro-war frame that showed the complex military high technology operations and patriotic pictures. For the Arabic-language newspaper, Al-Hayat, the frames emphasized less on the victims and more on the material destruction of 9/11 and humanized the victims of the Afghan War. Further, it focused on an anti-war frame by running visuals of anti-war protests and emphasizing graphic visuals portraying the humanitarian crisis in the Muslim country of Afghanistan.
Biography: Shahira Fahmy joined the University of Arizona in August 2008 as a tenured associate professor in the School of Journalism. She has a joint courtesy appointment in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and works closely with the Center of Middle Easter Studies (CMES). Fahmy spent five years working in the news and broadcast industries in Egypt and Italy and one year photographing a tribe in the Sinai desert before pursuing her doctoral studies at Missouri School of Journalism in fall 2000. She has traveled to almost 30 countries and is fluent in four languages, skills that enabled Fahmy to conduct surveys with embedded reporters worldwide and to conduct surveys of audiences of Al-Jazeera in 67 countries. Her work focuses primarily on visual communication with an international perspective, as well as political communication and media performance during wartime. She has more than 100 refereed publications and invited and refereed convention papers, symposia and panel presentations on the national and international level. Her work has appeared in journals such as Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Mass Communication & Society, International Communication Gazette, Visual Communication Quarterly and Newspaper Research Journal. Fahmy was the guest editor for “Images of Conflict” special issue of Media, War & Conflict Sage journal, that appeared in April 2010. Her paper co-authored with an MA student at the University of Arizona "Analyzing the Spell of War: A War/Peace Framing Analysis of the 2009 Visual Coverage of the Sri Lankan Civil War in Newswires" has recently won a top paper award in the Bob Stevenson Paper Competition of the International Communication Division of AEJMC 2010.
Posted: December 14, 2010
MCDM hosts panel on Wikileaks
The UW’s Master of Communication in Digital Media program, in collaboration with the Seattle Public Library and City Club, presented "Open Secrets: An Open Conversation about Wikileaks and Information Transparency in America" on Dec. 10 at the Seattle Public Library.
Posted: December 13, 2010
Department hosts high school debaters
Engaging youth to foster a vibrant learning environment has been a long-standing focus of the Department of Communication. Last week the Department collaborated with the Washington Debate Coalition (WDC) to co-sponsor and host the Becky Galentine Memorial Tournament. Nearly 200 high school students from 23 area schools filled the halls of the Communication Department to join in on what turned out to be “a stunning success,” said Anjali Vats, Founder and President of the WDC, and a PhD student. Read more >>
Posted: December 13, 2010
Foot studies anti-human-trafficking groups
Associate Professor Kirsten Foot hopes her latest research will help prevent and abolish human trafficking through a two-pronged study: by mapping the anti-trafficking activities of hundreds of organizations representing multiple sectors, and by analyzing multi-sector collaboration. Foot, Associate Professor in Communication and Adjunct Faculty in the Information School, has studied online organizing and networks for 15 years. As co-director of the WebArchivist.org research group, she develops methods and tools for studying social and political action on the Web over time.
Human trafficking is a global issue, with 29.2 million slaves working today, according to seattleagainstslavery.org. In 2003, Washington was the first state to pass a bill making human trafficking a crime at the state level. Read more >>
Posted: December 3, 2010
Media Space with historian Margaret O'Mara
U.S. historian Margaret O'Mara visited with Master of Communication in Digital Media Director Hanson Hosein during an episode of UWTV's Media Space on Nov. 24. This episode looks at the growth of the knowledge economy and the reasons creativity and innovation thrive in particular places.
Posted: December 3, 2010
These electronic gifts hot for the holidays
What digital gadgets top the list this holiday season? MCDM Director Hanson Hosein shows some top picks on KING-5's Nov. 30 segment of New Day Northwest with Margaret Larson.
Posted: December 3, 2010
CLP journalists explore Middle East
The train from Istanbul to Eastern Turkey was filled with Iranians eager to talk politics. Photo by Alex StonehillThe office of the Common Language Project has been quieter than usual, as journalists and UW lecturers Sarah Stuteville and Alex Stonehill continue their six-week journey through the Middle East. This trip is taking them to northern Iraq, Syria and Jordan. It serves as the annual CLP overseas project, a reporting series entitled, The Road to Damascus.
On their journey, the CLP journalists are “looking for answers and exploring the human impact of our generation’s war through experimental, transparent storytelling,” wrote Stuteville. Joining them are their friends Daniel O'Brien, a Seattle native and former Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, and Sarah Glidden, a cartoonist who specializes in non-fiction and political comics.
The team is updating blogs and Twitter feeds as often as they can find Internet access. So far they have visited Iraq’s amusement park, interviewed squatters at Saddam's old prisons and army barracks, and rode to Erbil with the former water minister to check out the outskirts of Kirkuk. They are documenting their experiences with photography and video as they travel, posted alongside their blog entries.
Posted: November 30, 2010
State debaters will fill department halls
The Washington Debate Coalition (WDC) will host the first annual Becky Galentine Memorial Tournament at the Department of Communication this week. The WDC is an educational development organization that strives to expand opportunities for students to engage in policy debate in Washington.
With more than 50 volunteers, 17 schools and more than 200 participants registered for the tournament, this year’s event will more than fulfill the dreams of Becky Galentine and the goals for the WDC.
Galentine was an ardent supporter of Washington debate, coach at Whitman College, and founder of the Seattle Debate Foundation. The tournament is intended to support Becky's dream of creating opportunities for high school and college students to participate in debate and involve the University of Washington in such efforts.
The public is welcome to watch the debates, which will take place in CMU 126 on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 3-4. The debate schedule can be found on the WDC website.
People 21 and over can attend the after-party Saturday night at 9 p.m. at Big Time Brewery, 4133 University Way N.E.
Posted: November 30, 2010
UWAA presidents confront budget cuts
Budget concerns have been part of the economic landscape for the University of Washington for awhile now so it is critical that those who lead determine the best ways to work around these deficiencies without cutting into the mission of the University, which is “the preservation, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge."
UW Alumni Association immediate Past President Eddie Pasatiempo (BA, 1977) set a course for tackling these issues, and current 
President Colleen Fukui-Sketchley (BA, 1994) continues that path in evaluating the effectiveness, viability, and relevance of the UWAA.
This was the first time in the history of the association that two consecutive presidents are alumni of the Department of Communication. UWAA board members are elected volunteers. Read more >>
Posted: November 22, 2010
Gary Odegard ('72): From adman to investigator
If there was a theme for Gary Odegard’s (BA, 1972) career it would be “making a difference in the most different way.” Wanting to be an adman since he was a freshman in the Department of Communication, Odegard became a public relations professional and found solutions to communications challenges despite the hurdles in his way. Marketing a Colorado ski resort when it didn’t snow, and creating a rock 'n' roll music hall of fame for the grand opening of The Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard are just a couple of Odegard’s triumphs in the marketing communications business.
He’s now the owner of Coast Private Investigations, and finds that running a PI firm is exactly like running a PR firm. “You’ve got to be creative, got to have a strategy and an end-game goal,” said Odegard. Read more >>
Posted: November 18, 2010
Professor examines race in Battlestar Galactica
LeiLani Nishime, Assistant Professor of Communication, is a self-proclaimed science fiction fan, so it seemed natural to her to set her research sights on the TV series Battlestar Galactica. Although science fiction is generally a genre about the future, it often reflects current social issues. Nishime is a scholar on multiracial and interracial studies, Asian American media representations, and Asian American subcultural production. In her study, “Aliens: Narrating U.S. Global Identity Through Transnational Adoption and Interracial Marriage in Battlestar Galactica,” she identifies visual and narrative representations of multiracial people.
Posted: November 15, 2010
Alum talks with News Lab students about PR role
Ryan Priest ('09), a communication specialist for Sigma Chi Fraternity’s national headquarters in the Chicago area, visited Karen Rathe's Community News Lab class on Oct. 12 to discuss his career path and how his current job differs from traditional journalism.
He said he uses the skills he learned in News Lab and other journalism courses every time he interviews or sits down to write a story. Read more >>
Posted: November 10, 2010
Keeping student reporters safe near Mexico border
Journalism educators from 10 universities and five states assembled on Oct. 1 at the University of Arizona in Tucson to discuss the issues and challenges involved with teaching border reporting along the U.S.-Mexico border. The weekend workshop was organized by Dart Center West at the University of Washington. Read more >>
Posted: November 9, 2010
MCDM director recognized as 'most influential'
The November 2010 issue of Seattle Magazine includes MCDM Director Hanson Hosein in its list of The Most Influential of 2010. Seattle Magazine's Karen Johnson writes that Hosein "brought his world of new media to the masses by organizing Seattle’s first TEDx conference, a hyperlocal version of the national TED (for technology, entertainment, design) movement. 'It was a home run….I could feel we’d created a new community,' says Hosein of the sold-out event."
Posted: November 4, 2010
Gastil assesses Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review
On Wednesday, Nov. 10, Dr. John Gastil, a professor in the UW Department of Communication, will give a colloquium on "Connecting small group deliberation with electoral politics: An assessment of the 2010 Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review." The colloquium is 3:30-5 p.m. in CMU 120.
This presentation will examine the theory and practice of linking intensive, structured random-sample deliberation processes with macro political processes, particularly large-scale elections. This approach has a few prior precedents, such as the British Columbia and Ontario Citizens’ Assemblies, but the 2010 Oregon election provides the newest case — the Citizens’ Initiative Review process.
Two sets of 24 Oregonians analyzed two different statewide ballot measures for a week, then presented their findings to the electorate via the official Voters’ Pamphlet. This talk will both examine the deliberative quality of those Review sessions and look at the Review’s impact on the larger electorate through both panel and rolling-cross sectional survey data collected from thousands of Oregon voters.
Gastil is an international expert in deliberative democracy. His recent publications include The Jury and Democracy: How Jury Deliberation Promotes Civic Engagement and Political Participation (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010) and The Group In Society (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press, 2010).
Posted: November 2, 2010
Colloquium explores how data mining shapes us
On Wednesday, Nov. 3, Dr. Peter Chow-White will give a colloquium on "Data Mined: How Information and Code are Shaping Us in Genome Science." Chow-White is an Assistant Professor at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. The colloquium is from 3:30-5 p.m. in CMU 120.
In IBM’s recent “Let’s build a smarter planet” ad campaign, a collection of company technologists explains why database and data mining technologies matter. According to one of the IBM fellows, “Every day we are creating 15 petabytes of new data. That’s eight times as much data as there is in all of the libraries in the United States combined.” As one of the speakers in the IBM commercial explains, “If we can analyze and mine this data, then we can understand it. And if we can understand it, then we can understand trends about it. The more data you have, the clearer you see.”
This example of technology boosterism fails to comment on how data-mining technologies may be also digitally sorting us out in old and new ways. What is the nature of these trends and data-driven ways of seeing? And how will the social shaping of data mining technologies in the coming decade shape us as individuals and groups and, in turn, our life chances?
Chow-White has published on race, gender, technology, and genomics in Science, Technology & Human Values; Media, Culture & Society; the International Journal of Communication; and Communication Theory. His edited book with Lisa Nakamura, Race After the Internet, will be published by Routledge Press in December.
Posted: November 1, 2010
Department inducts six alumni into Hall of Fame
The weather was unpredictable, with the wind picking up off the lake, and dark clouds hovering above. But inside the UW Club the atmosphere was warm and inviting.
The Department of Communication honored six new inductees of the Alumni Hall of Fame on October 21. The 2010 inductees include Joseph Slate (BA, 1951), Herbert Robinson (BA, 1949), Betsy Bach (PhD, 1985), Eddie Pasatiempo (BA 1977), Robert McChesney (MA 1986, PhD 1989), and Margaret Fimia (BA 1989, MA 1992).
Framing the purpose of the ceremony, Department Chair David Domke said, “Excellence, community, and citizenship: These are the values we celebrate here tonight as we honor all of our Hall of Fame members.”
Read more and watch a photo slideshow of the event >>
Posted: October 26, 2010
Citizen Initiative Review aims to clarify measures
Since July, Professor John Gastil has been knee deep in the study of deliberative democracy, working on the Citizen Initiative Review for the state of Oregon.
Working with a team of researchers, including Kathy Cramer Walsh, professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and UW doctoral students Katherine Knobloch and Justin Reedy, Gastil is collaborating with Healthy Democracy Oregon to evaluate panelists’ opinions on the review.
In a Citizen Initiative Review, a cross-section of voters are randomly selected and formed into a panel. The voters hear testimony on the ballot measure, deliberate, and then decide their stance. The results of the CIR are published in the voters pamphlet as a “Citizens’ Statement” which goes alongside the text of the initiative and statements for and against the initiative. Gastil and his team must determine whether the CIR is worth implementing on a permanent basis. To achieve this, “We observed the panels and created daily and weekly evaluations for the panelists and advocates to fill out,” Knobloch said.
Read more about the Citizen Initiative Review >>
Posted: October 11, 2010
CityClub Community Matters Campaign events
The Seattle CityClub 2010 Community Matters Campaign continues this year with:
- Education Series: Repaving Pathways to Higher Education; Tuesday, October 12
- Environment & Sustainability Series: Energy We Can Trust?; Monday, October 18
- Health Care Series: Do You Know Where Your DNA is?; Monday, October 25
- A Conversation with our New Seattle Police Chief; Thursday, October 28
Learn more and register at CityClub >>
Posted: October 8, 2010
UW Communication scores high in NRC rankings
In an assessment of U.S. research-doctorate programs from the National Research Council, the University of Washington Communication program ranked well among a pool of 83 communication programs across the country.
Data for the assessment came from the 2005-2006 academic year and concerns information about faculty, students, and features within academic units.
First, the UW Department of Communication rates approximately the same as other renowned institutions’ communication programs. Also, UW Communication ranks second on fully-integrated communication programs.
Finally, the UW Department of Communication has a high “impact score,” ranking 5 out of the 10 institutions with the most publications in the NRC database.
We are proud to tout these marks of excellence. Read more about the NRC rankings >>
Posted: October 5, 2010
Guide seeks to boost voter engagement
Come November, Washington state voters are going to make some important decisions regarding complex ballot measures. Deciding whether to support or oppose a ballot measure is not an easy task.
Fortunately, a system for simplifying election discourse and increasing understanding of issues has been launched. Since being awarded an NSF grant for research on designing and testing new software systems to better support civic engagement and participation, Lance Bennett, Professor of Communication and Political Science, and founder and director of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, and Alan Borning of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering have been working on the Living Voters Guide.
Read more about the Living Voters Guide >>
Posted: October 4, 2010
SPJ hosts Continuing Ed series
On Monday, Oct. 11, the Western Washington Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will launch its fifth annual Fall Continuing Ed series. Become a smarter journalist and get the skills that will have an immediate impact on your work.
The five-part series, which takes place from 7-9 p.m. each Monday at the Seattle Times auditorium, is FREE to members while nonmembers will pay $10 per session or $40 for the entire series. Free pizza included at each session!
The series kicks off Oct. 11 with The Portable Journalist: Using smart phones for reporting. Hear from Tiffany Campbell of the Seattle Times on how to make the best use of your most important reporting tool — your iPhone or other smartphone.
The rest of the Continuing Ed series includes:
- Oct. 18 Branding yourself: Tips on how to stand out in today’s changing media landscape
- Oct. 25 Improve your photography
- Nov. 1 Entrepreneurial journalism: The nuts-and-bolts of starting your own web venture
- Nov. 8 Build your own website
No pre-registration is required. Just show up and be ready to learn.
For more information on the Continuing Ed series and to see a roster of presenters, go to www.spjwash.org.
Posted: October 4, 2010
Bennett leaves for sabbatical as Olof Palme Chair
On Oct. 1 Lance Bennett, Professor of Communication and Political Science, flew to Sweden to take his place as Olof Palme Chair for Stockholm University. Bennett is also the Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement.
The Olof Palme Chair was created by the Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen) in 1987. Its purpose is to enable the Swedish Research Council to issue an annual invitation to an outstanding scholar from abroad to take up a visiting professorship at a Swedish university. Bennett said that being chosen for the experience of Olof Palme Chair “was a bit like winning the academic lottery. I am honored and thrilled.”
Read more about Lance Bennett's sabbatical >>
Posted: October 1, 2010
Department welcomes new staff, faculty in 2010
- Jessica Herzog, Student Assistant
- Beth Koemans, Program Manager and Community Architect
- Usha Lee McFarling, Artist in Residence
- Jessica Partnow, Lecturer
- Joanne Silberner, Artist in Residence
- Alex Stonehill, Lecturer
- Sarah Stuteville, Lecturer
- Amanda Weber, Public Information Assistant
- Heather Werckle, MCDM Executive Advisor
- Tim Whitman, Computer Support Analyst
Learn some fun facts about our new faculty and staff >>
Posted: September 29, 2010
Media Space premieres Sept. 29 on UWTV
The UWTV premiere of Media Space will air at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 29.
Media Space, hosted by Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication and Digital Media program and an award-winning TV correspondent, engages thought leaders on the hottest issues of the digital media age — technology, entrepreneurship, community and entertainment. Scheduled to appear during the series are industry trend-setters like Ben Huh of the Cheezburger Network, Elan Lee of Fourth Wall Studios, Kate James of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and web entrepreneur Monica Harrington.
In the premiere episode of Media Space, Hosein sits down with Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh to examine the value of user-generated Internet content. As creator of popular blogs like I Can Has Cheezburger and FAIL blog, Huh tries to make the Internet laugh for five minutes a day. Ben is also a true business model innovator for websites of user-generated content.
Posted: September 27, 2010
Pulitzer winner, NPR reporter join faculty
The Department of Communication is pleased to announce the addition of two faculty members, Usha Lee McFarling and Joanne Silberner.
Usha Lee McFarling is an Artist in Residence who will begin teaching undergraduate and graduate students in winter quarter. Along with her teaching role she will concentrate on her narrative and literary science writing. From 1992 to 1993 McFarling was a Knight Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 2007 while working for the Los Angeles Times she, along with her fellow journalists, won the Pulitzer Prize for their “richly portrayed reports on the world's distressed oceans, telling the story in print and online, and stirring reaction among readers and officials."
Joanne Silberner will teach two courses this year and organize a lecture series or debate while she contributes to various radio programs. In 1992, she started with National Public Radio as health policy correspondent where she covered medicine, health reform, and changes in the health care marketplace. Silberner has won awards for her work from the Society of Professional Journalists, the New York State Mental Health Association, the March of Dimes, Easter Seals, the American Heart Association, and others. Her work has also earned her a Unity Award and a Clarion Award.
Read more about our new faculty >>
Posted: September 27, 2010
Seattleites flock to UW to hear TEDxChange
The sun was only beginning to make its appearance for the day as, one by one, people from around the Seattle metropolitan area began filing into Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus on Sept. 20 to hear remarks from Melinda Gates and other TEDxChange speakers on "The Future We Make."
At 7:30 a.m., Master of Communication in Digital Media Director Hanson Hosein introduced the event, which qualified as the largest TEDx community event on the planet, out of 82 events in 40 countries. Nearly 670 people registered for the Seattle event.
MCDM Associate Director Anita Verna Crofts presented “Transforming the Transaction: Food for Thought on Community Partnerships that Change the World” before Bill Gates Sr. introduced Melinda Gates, who was in New York, and the webcast.
Posted: September 23, 2010
Autumn 2010 e-newsletter
The Autumn 2010 Department of Communication e-newsletter features:
- An introduction to the Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative and our newest center, the Center for Local Strategies Research.
- Our plans to create a framework for student professional development.
- The recent Media Briefing on Public Mental Health held in conjunction with the Washington State Coalition for Mental Health Reporting.
- Alumna Leah Erickson ('70) reflects on the Internet's impact on interpersonal communication.
Posted: September 22, 2010
Gastil and Simmons to release Jury and Democracy
Faculty members John Gastil and Cindy Simmons have a book coming out in October. The Jury and Democracy: How Deliberation Promotes Civic Engagement and Political Participation provides research that supports the idea that jury service influences the way people view themselves, their peers, and their government. The Oxford University Press describes the book as the first to present strong empirical evidence linking jury service and increased civic participation. The project website has data and background information about their work. The book is available for preorder from Oxford University Press.
Posted: September 22, 2010
Center for Local Strategies Research unveiled
The Department of Communication has launched the Center for Local Strategies Research at the University of Washington. Professor Gerry Philipsen and Dr. Lisa Coutu, faculty members in the Department, serve as, respectively, Director and Associate Director of the Center.
Philipsen and Coutu are working with scholars who are conducting ethnographical research to develop ways for improving lives in communities, at home and abroad. Some current projects of the Center’s Associate Scholars include security in post-conflict regions, efforts to reduce school dropout rates in economically distressed districts, and participation by citizens in the design and implementation of local services and community-improvement programs. Read more >>
Posted: September 15, 2010
Book explores how technology advances democracy
In his book "The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy," Dr. Phil Howard and his team, the Project on Information Technology and Political Islam, analyzed ways new information technologies contribute to democratic entrenchment or transition in countries with large Muslim populations.
Globally, one in 10 Internet users is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community. Often young and digitally savvy, these users spread information independently of governments and beyond manipulation by cultural and religious elites. Day-to-day civic discourse, not cyberterrorism, is the most important political aspect of the Internet in Muslim countries, the researchers found. They also found that the Internet is helping societies get better at running elections, providing civic services and exposing corruption.
"Countries with high rates of technology diffusion are most likely to develop strong democratic institutions," Howard explained. "The recipe for democratization 50 years ago had other ingredients such as radio, television and newspapers. Today, the recipe must include the Internet."
Posted: August 27, 2010
MCDM to co-host stream of TEDxChange Sept. 20
On Sept. 20, the Master of Communication in Digital Media will collaborate with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to co-host the live feed from TEDxChange (featuring Melinda Gates and TED founder Chris Anderson speaking in New York City). The event goes from 7 to 10 a.m. in UW's Kane Hall.
TEDxChange marks the anniversary of the Millennium Development goals: Ten years in, where does the global community stand in the work to save and improve lives around the world? And what does the future hold?
Come early for a free networking coffee and pastry breakfast. MCDM Director Hanson Hosein will welcome participants, followed by his colleague, Anita Verna Crofts who will give a short talk entitled, “Transforming the Transaction: Food for Thought on Community Partnerships that Change the World.” Special guest Bill Gates Sr. will then provide introductory remarks for TEDxChange, to what promises to be an inspiring 90 minutes of ideas about The Future We Make.
Posted: Aug. 26, 2010
Conversation with David Gregory of 'Meet the Press'
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Moderated by Jean Enersen, Anchor, KING5 TV
Town Hall (upstairs) | 1119 8th Avenue, Seattle
Registration: 7 p.m. | Program: 7:30 - 9 p.m.
$8 CityClub members / $10 General public
Visit www.SeattleCityClub.org to register or call (206) 682-7395!
The UW Department of Communication is pleased to be a co-presenter of Seattle CityClub's "Conversation with David Gregory." Gregory is a moderator on NBC's "Meet the Press." Jean Enersen, KING5 TV news anchor, will moderate the event.
Gregory was known as the "firebrand in the front row" when he served as NBC White House press correspondent during the George W. Bush administration and was named one of Washington's 50 best and most influential journalists by Washingtonian magazine. He has covered the Obama administration from all angles, reporting extensively on the economy, health care reform and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gregory is also a regular network analyst and serves as a substitute anchor for "Today" and "Nightly News with Brian Williams."
Join us for a fascinating discussion of forces, trends and issues at the heart of the national political scene as CityClub launches its third annual Community Matters Campaign focused on public trust.
Posted: Aug. 20, 2010
Faculty lead the way in public scholarship
Communication faculty Ralina Joseph and Crispin Thurlow are among a handful of UW faculty selected to mentor the first cohort of graduate students undertaking a newly launched Certificate in Public Scholarship.
Under the direction of the university’s Simpson Center for the Humanities, this project and portfolio-based certificate is designed to bring together cross-disciplinary groups of graduate students and faculty interested in: culture as a form of public practice; campus-community partnerships; non-traditional forms of scholarly dissemination; and emerging methods of community-engaged research, teaching, and service.
Posted: July 8, 2010
Poynter article features journalism partnerships
The Poynter Institute featured the Department of Communication's partnership with Next Door Media and UW’s student newspaper The Daily in a column on "5 Strategies for Successful News Organization-University Partnerships."
NDM has received national attention and, recently, a national award for its coverage of last year’s Greenwood fires. Students in the Entrepreneurial Journalism class produce projects each quarter for NDM blogs, and in return editors spend time sharing their journalism and business expertise.
Posted: June 25, 2010
Revenue Models in the Changing Media Landscape
Just over a year ago, Seattle's long history as a two-paper town ended when the Seattle P-I became an online-only publication.
The traditional media revenue model of selling advertising has produced a diminishing return and can no longer support most outlets. How is the marketplace shifting and what seems to be working the best?
Some have opted to be online only, more global, hyperlocal or topic specific in focus. Some are for profit with micro pricing, while others are nonprofit with listener, reader and grant support. What impact will paid news content have on readership and an informed citizenry? Is there one new model that all will eventually adopt, or does the future of media look more diffused and diverse than in times past?
Join us for happy-hour appetizers and drinks, and bring your own opinions and questions!
Rapid Response: Revenue Models in the Changing Media Landscape
When: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Where: Rainier Square - Third Floor Atrium | 1333 Fifth Avenue, Seattle
Registration and happy hour: 5:30 p.m | Program: 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $18/CityClub members, guests and co-presenters | $20/general public
Register online: http://www.seattlecityclub.org/20100630 or call (206) 682-7395.
Featuring:
- Pat Balles, Seattle P-I
- Cory Bergman, Next Door Media
- David Boardman, Seattle Times
- David Brewster, Crosscut
- Josh Feit, Publicola
- Rita Hibbard, Investigate West
- Greg Huang, Xconomy
- Moderator: Hanson Hosein, Director, UW Digital Media
Posted: June 21, 2010
Course lets students try reporting as entrepreneurs
As part of the Department of Communication's Journalism 2025 mindset, we introduced a course this year called Entrepreneurial Journalism. The class partners with Next Door Media, an online news network of Seattle neighborhood blogs.
Viewpoints Magazine features Ralina Joseph
Assistant Professor Ralina Joseph is featured in Viewpoints Magazine's spring 2010 issue, "Young Faculty of Color." When Joseph joined the Department of Communication in 2005, she was developing courses that included topics of diversity, teaching all of the communications classes about race, gender and sexuality, and acting as the main resource for the department’s students
of color.
“It was quite a challenge because I was the first faculty member of color to teach issues of difference,” she recalls. “I didn’t realize how much mentoring I would be responsible for.”
Posted: June 18, 2010
MCDM director published in Nieman Reports
"Storytelling in the Digital Age" by MCDM Director Hanson Hosein was published in Harvard's Nieman Reports' special issue, "What's Next for News."
Hosein makes the case that, "Old metrics for credibility and trust no longer guide us, nor does trust emanate exclusively from the power of a brand name or from the overpowering resources of a recognized institution."
Hosein elaborates on these themes in the slideshow, “The Storyteller Uprising.”
Posted: June 16, 2010
Wallie Funk (’48) finally gets graduation tassel
As the last of the baccalaureates crossed the stage, Wallie Funk approached the lectern with a grin and held his graduation cap high in response to warm applause from the class of 2010 and their families, including his sons Mark and Carl Funk. After 62 years, Funk finally heard his name called during the June 10 Communication Graduation Celebration.
Funk, a longtime newspaper publisher in Anacortes and on Whidbey Island, walked in Thursday’s event to celebrate the correction of a clerical error that caused him to believe he was 15 credits short of graduating in 1948.
Read more and watch a slideshow from the event >>
Posted: June 10, 2010
Wallie Funk, class of '48, will walk at graduation
Wallie Funk, a longtime newspaper publisher in Anacortes and on Whidbey Island, will walk at the UW Department of Communication Graduation Celebration Thursday, 62 years after earning a degree he never knew he had. Read more in The Seattle Times >>
Past articles:
Posted: June 9, 2010
PBS correspondent on 'Global Health Bug' June 21
Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour, will give a talk on "How I caught the Global Health Bug," Monday, June 21 at 7 p.m. in Kane Hall 130. The cost is $10 for students and World Affairs Council members; $15 for non-members. Lecture registration begins at 6:30.
A networking reception before the event at 6 p.m. costs $25 members/students; $35 non-members and will take place in Kane Hall Walker Ames 225.
Suarez will examine questions such as:
- What are the most pressing and underreported global health issues of our time?
- What global health successes are transforming the way people live today?
- As we look forward, what are the emerging global health threats?
- What are the prospects for vaccines for today's most deadly diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis?
- Why does global health matter as it relates to global development, security, economic growth, and the environment?
Co-Presenters of this event are: CARE, Centro Cultural Hispano Americano, UW Department of Communication, PATH, and Washington Global Health Alliance
Call (206) 441-5910 or visit www.world-affairs.org to register.
Posted: June 8, 2010
Hosein talks about 5 years of YouTube on KING5
Hanson Hosein, a documentary film producer and director of the MCDM program, spoke on KING5's New Day Northwest about struggling five years ago to compress and distribute his documentary "Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop." Today, YouTube has made it easier than ever for professionals and amateurs alike to distribute video content. Read more on Hanson's blog >>
Posted: May 18, 2010
Crisis Communications class looks at vulnerability
Patricia Hooper, who recently earned her Doctorate in Communications at the University of Washington, spoke to students in Prof. Kathleen Fearn-Banks’ COM 451 Crisis Communications class in May. Having worked for 13 years with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Hooper has found that vulnerable populations in the wake of disaster must be defined by their individual circumstances. Areas lacking access to essential needs or communication means are often a top priority.
Posted: 5-11-10
Dialoguing Difference: Technologies of Visibility
The UW Women of Color Collective presents "Dialoguing Difference 2nd Annual Conference: Technologies of Visibility" at the Ethnic Cultural Center on Friday, May 14. Check-in begins at 8:30 a.m. The event is sponsored by the UW Diversity Research Institute and the Department of Communication. Learn more and register for the conference >>
Posted: 5-11-10
Watch live webcast of 'Media & Peacebuilding'
The Project on Information Technology & Political Islam at the Department of Communication is partnering with the US Institute of Peace's Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict, and Peacebuilding in hosting the third event on “Media as Global Diplomat” on May 12, 2010.
This year’s event, “Seizing the Moment: Media & Peacebuilding” will be webcast live from the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and will feature expert panelists, including Jared Cohen, Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff; Riz Khan, senior anchor at Al Jazeera English; and Rebecca MacKinnon, founder of Global Voices.
Posted: 5-10-10
Bennett wins grant to improve online comments
Ever read the comments in an online forum or newspaper? Or replies to blog posts?
Bennett, a UW professor of Political Science and Communication, recently won a $730,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to research methods to improve online communication forums. He says the current system of displaying comments as written and in chronological order is ineffective and leads to repetition at best, flaming at worst.
Posted: 5-4-10
Thank You!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our April 15 fundraising event, "Transforming Communities: One Communication Student at a Time." With your generosity, we raised more than $45,000. These funds will go directly toward supporting transformational learning opportunities for our students, such as Jasmine Zhao and Chantal Anderson.
See pictures from the event and watch a video about how your donations help students >>
Domke to interview author on book about Obama
Professor David Domke will interview Pulitzer-winning author David Remnick about his latest book, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, on Monday, April 19 at Town Hall Seattle at 7:30 p.m. The book charts the president's evolution from a confused young man to an icon of hope.
Remnick is editor in chief of The New Yorker. The Seattle Times published a Q-and-A with him on April 18.
Tickets are $15 general/$30 patron, at www.brownpapertickets.com, (800) 838-3006, or at the door.
Remnick is the author of Lenin’s Tomb (1994), about the collapse of the Soviet Union, which won the Pulitzer Prize; and King of the World, the story of Muhammad Ali during the civil-rights movement.
Posted: 4-19-10
Scheidel Lecture explores Orientalism
Dr. Chandra Mukerji from the Department of Communication, UCSD, spoke April 14 during the 2009-2010 Thomas M. Scheidel Lecture. Her topic was "Orientalism and Visual Communication: Early Scientific Imagery of the Ottoman Empire."
Posted: 4-16-10
MCDM director talks about iPad on King 5 show
Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media, was a guest on King-5's "New Day NW" show on April 6 to talk about the iPad and his likes and gripes with the new device from Apple.
Posted: 4-7-2010
Thurlow's book Tourism Discourse set for release
Associate Professor Crispin Thurlow's book, Tourism Discourse: Language and Global Mobility, co-authored with Adam Jaworski, will be released on March 30 by publisher Palgrave Macmillan. Tourism Discourse offers new insights into the role of spoken, written and visual discourse in representating and producing tourism as a global cultural industry. With a view to the interplay between the symbolic and economic orders of global mobility, the book is grounded in empirically-based studies of key tourism genres.
Thurlow's other books include Talking Adolescence: Perspectives on Communication in the Teenage Years (2005) and, with Jaworski, Semiotic Landscapes: Language, Image, Space (2009) and Language Tourism, Globalization: The Sociolinguistics of Fleeting Relationships (2010). He is Associate Editor for the National Communication Association's Journal of International and Intercultural Communication.
Posted: 3-26-10
Kathy Gill facilitates discussion on digital literacy
Senior Lecturer Kathy Gill demonstrated puzzles, handouts and other resources that can help children learn to think critically about information they find online. The workshop for educators and librarians was part of the Northwest Council for Computer Education's March conference. NCCE is a nonprofit that brings technology resources and career development opportunities to teachers and other educators.
Gill stepped in for Howard Rheingold, who could not attend in person because of a recent chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Rheingold is the author of "Crap Detection 101."
During the morning lecture, Rheingold Skyped into the lecture hall, played some short videos to get people's brains going, and fielded questions from the 100+ person audience. Gill was Rheingold's liaison during the lecture, ran the pre-recorded video and managed his Skype presence while encouraging the audience to ask questions.
A summary of the event by Microsoft's Betsy Aoki is posted at The Huffington Post.
Posted: 3-16-10
CEO Kurt Carlson ('85) offers insights to students
Kurt Carlson ('85), president and CEO of Propel Insurance, sat down with a group of Communication students and faculty March 2, 2010.
He talked about meeting Jerry Seinfeld and the first time he saw Seinfeld’s comedy act. “His act is 75 percent the same act it was 10 years ago,” said Carlson. He said this is important because people do not change drastically and it is important to understand your strong suits and use what you have to your advantage.
Speaking candidly of his time at UW, Carlson said, “The experience will follow you forever.” He advised the students to “bet on themselves” in the future.
Posted: 3-16-10
Seattle Times' Bhatt reports to make a difference
“I had this awakening; I was pre-med, trying to study for a biology final. I was memorizing the names of bacteria … and I got so sick of it, of memorizing, I closed the book,” said Sanjay Bhatt.
A journalist for The Seattle Times, Bhatt met with a group of UW Communication students and future journalists Feb. 18, 2010, to tell his story and give advice.
Bhatt continued, “There was all this energy in the air that year; the Internet was just starting to take off, and e-mail was still a novelty. The thought dawned on me — I had broken this story on campus about a major scandal involving high-ranking student government officials. I helped make a difference, got students’ money back. It’s weird, being 20 years old and making a difference.”
Posted: 3-16-10
Register to attend Walker Ames Lecture April 8
Walker Ames Lecture
"Communication, Power, and Counter-Power in the Network Society"
Manuel Castells, Communications, USC
Thursday, April 8
Kane Hall 120
6:30-8 p.m.
The rise of digital networks has changed the way we communicate. At the same time, the spread of horizontal communication networks has opened up new avenues of intervention in the public communication sphere for civil society and for individual citizens. Castells, a communications professor at USC, will use research material and case studies presented in his book, Communication Power.
Cost: Free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Advance registration is recommended. Registration has ended.
About Manuel Castells
Manuel Castells is University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair of Communication Technology and Society, at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He was Professor of Sociology and Professor of Planning at the University of California, Berkeley between 1979 and 2003. He has published 23 books including the trilogy "The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture," published in 1996-2000 and translated into 22 languages. He has received 16 honorary doctorates and numerous academic distinctions, including the Ithiel de Sola Pool Award from the American Political Science Association.
Sponsoring Departments:
The Graduate School
Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities
UW Bothell
Department of Communication
Information School
Co-Sponsors:
UW Alumni Association
Posted: 3-15-10
Hall of Fame alums visit Wing Luke Asian Museum
The Northwest Asian Weekly covered a gathering of UW Communication alumni who visited the Wing Luke Asian Museum this month.
A speech on the future of communication was delivered by Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media. Hall-of-famers Rita Brogan, owner and CEO of PRR, Inc., and Ron Chew, principal of Chew Communications, were the hosts.
Posted: 3-15-10
Scheidel Lecture: Mukerji explores Orientalism
2009-2010 Thomas M. Scheidel Lecture
"Orientalism and Visual Communication: Early Scientific Imagery of the Ottoman Empire"
Dr. Chandra Mukerji, Department of Communication, UCSD
Wednesday, April 14
3:30-5 p.m.
CMU 126
Orientalism in the 19th century was premised on a configuration of power in which Europeans saw themselves as naturally superior to people in the East. Secure in the system of colonial rule, people of the West saw the East as a land of exoticism, sexuality, and moral danger that they could choose to approach and characterize with either desire or disgust.
But there was earlier writing on the East by European geographers that informed Orientalist discourse in the 19th century that was written when the East was more powerful than the West. In the Renaissance, the Ottoman Empire was expanding into Europe, its armies apparently impossible to stop.
A French geographer, Nicolas de Nicolay, visited the empire in this period, and wrote on his experiences, using terms that seem to the modern eye Orientalist but were based on fear of the “other” rather than contempt. Dr. Mukerji examines how this early context of power informed Nicolay’s view of Ottoman culture, focusing on his illustrations of Ottoman social types and his writings on geography, moral character and social identity.
Posted: 3-15-10
Summit looks at health, media interactions
The fourth annual Summit on Health Inequality presents, "Get the Scoop: Media and Health."
When: Saturday, April 10, 2010
Time: 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: UW Foege Building (15th and Pacific)
Cost: Free! Includes breakfast and lunch
Registration: www.uwseh.org
How is modern media influencing our health? Are the images used to communicate health ethically portraying the communities they feature? What determines whether a health issue will be featured in the news? How can new media tools be used to raise awareness about social issues? What are some examples of effective public health campaigns? How is the interface between media and health affecting us?
We invite you to "get the scoop" about interactions between media and health this spring at the University of Washington Students for Equal Health 4th Annual Summit on Health Inequality. The 2010 conference theme uses media as a fresh, exciting perspective to inspire innovative conversations about health in our modern world. We are examining the influence of social media, broadcasting, photography, journalism, television, documentaries, and other new media tools on the portrayal and perception of health today. Come and join the conversation!
The current list of speakers includes keynote Nancy Lee and: Mary Mapes, Lisa Cohen, Daniel Hart, Kathy Gill, Anita Crofts, Tom Paulson, and Ansel Herz.
Our speakers have worked or are currently working with: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, CBS News, Washington Global Health Alliance, Social Marketing Services, Inc., UW Department of Global Health, Health Alliance International, PATH, UW Native Voices, UW Masters of Communication in Digital Media.
This event is co-sponsored by: UW Department of Global Health, UW Department of Communication, and ASUW.
Posted: 3-15-10
Bennett speaks at Town Hall series March 9
The third installment of the Town Hall/Communication Department series, The Revolution is Here: How Digital Media and Awakened Citizens Are Changing the World, featured W. Lance Bennett, professor and director of the UW’s Center for Communication and Civic Engagement on March 9.
In his presentation, "Manufacturing Climate Controversy: Why the News Doesn't Work for Many Citizens in the Digital Age," Bennett looks at climate change and how the media have fanned doubts and controversies while evidence of deteriorating global conditions continues to mount. He addresses problems with the news that relate to these patterns, and illustrates how information and citizen engagement on issues such as the environment are beginning to change online.
Updated: 3-10-10
Alumna Heather Brooke returns to the UW
Communication alumna Heather Brooke's records requests started a chain of events that led to the shakeup of British Parliament. During a recent trip to Seattle, Brooke made a stop at the Communication Department and the office of The Daily, and talked about her roots as a journalist.
Neff shares insights on labor economy on KUOW
Dr. Gina Neff, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, was a guest on KUOW’s Feb. 24 edition of KUOW's "Weekday." During the segment, "The Discouraged Worker," Neff discussed the rising number of people who have abandoned the job hunt altogether after fruitless searching. In January, their ranks topped 1 million for the first time.
Neff is coeditor of Surviving the New Economy. She has researched the use of social media in the job hunt. Her forthcoming book, Venture Labor, traces the change in U.S. employment structures through the experience of the early pioneers of the commercial Internet.
Other guests on the show were Dave Wallace, acting chief economist for the Employment Security Department of Washington State and Tom Washington, owner of Career Management Resources, an independent career counseling and job management service.
Posted: 2-25-10
Parks named Journal of Communication editor
UW Department of Communication Prof. Malcolm Parks is joining the leadership of one of the world's top communication journals.
Starting later this year, Parks will take over as editor in chief of the Journal of Communication. This publication is the flagship research journal of the International Communication Association, one of the largest and most prestigious professional associations of scholars interested in communication, and is one of the most respected and frequently cited research journals in the discipline.
Under the leadership of Parks, the journal will expand from four to six issues per year. The expansion is being undertaken in response to the high number of research papers submitted to the journal, which is known for accepting only the highest-quality scholarship.
Parks said that his other goals for the journal include an increase in international representation among the authors, to work with the publisher to increase electronic access to articles, and to explore ways of making the journal's content more accessible to non-specialists.
"No other communication journal speaks across the discipline and to the public the way JOC does, so we've got great stories to tell," Parks said. He added, "Over the years the journal has published groundbreaking research on the effects of television, the social uses of the Internet, the framing of political discourse, and so much more — research that has helped shape both public opinion and public policy."
Parks joined the university after earning a Ph.D. in 1976 from Michigan State University. His research focuses on interpersonal communication, health communication, and social networks in face-to-face, online, and organizational settings. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the Army Research Organization, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Prevention and Health Services Assessment. Parks' 2007 book Personal Relationships and Personal Networks received the Gerald R. Miller Book Award from the National Communication Association. He was also the recipient of the 1996 Charles H. Woolbert Award for disciplinary impact from the National Communication Association as well as the Hammer Award for organizational innovation from the Office of the Vice President of the United States.
Posted: 2-24-10
Co-founder of Tableau Software is Emerging guest
MCDM Emerging Series
Christian Chabot, Tableau Software
Friday, Feb. 19, 2010
Noon (Pacific)
http://www.livestream.com/mcdm
The UW Master of Communication in Digital Media's Emerging Series continues with an interview with Christian Chabot on Seattle-based Tableau Software's new consumer application for making data social.
“I make the bold claim that this will be of interest to anyone who posts content online,” says Christian Chabot.
Chabot was featured in an article on Xconomy.com >>
Updated: 2-19-10
UW Club film fest features 'Rising From Ruins'
Screening of "Rising from Ruins"
Hanson Hosein, filmmaker and MCDM director
Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010
1:30 p.m.
UW Club
$25 plus tax per person
Reservations required: (206) 543-0437
Set in the spring of 2008, "Rising From Ruins" recounts the emotional experiences of the men and women who returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Filmmaker and MCDM Director Hanson Hosein illustrates the frustration and difficulties these individuals face in their impassioned struggle to rebuild their communities in an enduring and sustainable way.
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Hanson Hosein is well versed in the art of storytelling. Hanson is the director of the University of Washington Master of Communication in Digital Media program, specializing in storytelling, social media strategies, and business models in communication. "Rising from Ruins" is his second film — the first is "Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom and Pop."
Join us for this thoughtful and compelling film, complimented by delicious New Orleans-themed appetizers, followed by a lively conversation with Hanson.
The UW Club conference room will be transformed into a theater, filled with couches, comfortable chairs, and cocktail tables. Ticket prices include appetizers and refreshments, and the lounge will be open for anyone who would like to purchase an alcoholic beverage or espresso.
The menu includes:
- Jalapeno and Sharp Cheddar Cornbread
- Seafood Jambalaya with Catfish, Prawns, and Oysters
- Seasonal Greens with Artichoke Hearts, Green Beans, Peas, and Potatoes in Garlic Anchovy Dressing
- Pecan Pralines
Posted: 2-17-10
Lecture on 'Future of Public Opinion Research'
"Scholars, Capitalists, and the Wild West of New Media: The Future of Public Opinion Research"
Dr. Philip Garland, Vice President of Methodology at SurveyMonkey
Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010
3:30 p.m.
CMU 126
Public opinion research is facing serious, fundamental challenges. The tenants of such research are what they’ve always been: probability of selection, non-response, and measurement. But the environment in which we carry out public opinion research has evolved in ways that put pressure on each of these components, and most notably survey research now competes with countless other feedback sources — from blogs to Twitter to mobile devices. At the same time, these media afford new opportunities (and challenges) in sampling and measurement design. And on top of everything, these changes are occurring during terrible economic times with organizations of all types concerned about costs. This talk will bring together academic and commercial thinking to envision pathways forward for public opinion research.
Dr. Garland oversees quality and new directions for SurveyMonkey. Previously, Garland was director of Global Knowledge/Chief Methodologist at Survey Sampling International. He has published papers in academic journals and book chapters in the areas of public opinion, internet marketing, media coverage of political affairs, and intergroup relations. Garland holds a Ph.D. in Communication and an M.A. in Political Science from Stanford University, as well as an M.A. in Communication and a B.A. in Political Science/Communication from the University of Washington.
Posted: 2-5-10
Breaking new ground in global communication
Workshops will harness diversity as creative catalyst
Next year, the Department of Communication will launch a workshop series for undergraduate students, titled “Creativity through Communication,” to develop student skills in creative problem solving, creative thinking, and creative expression in a global context.
The workshop series is being developed by Professor Rivenburgh and is supported by the College of Arts and Sciences’ Transition Initiative. The funds supporting this course were competitively awarded. Department Chair David Domke said, "In the twenty-first century, innovation and creativity are not merely good skills. Today, they are essential skills."
Posted: 2-5-10
Video: Entrepreneurialism panel discussion
UW Department of Communication alumni and friends participated in a panel discussion on Jan. 27, sharing their experiences as entrepreneurs.
Panelists talked about the passions that led them to start their businesses, how they financed their ventures, the benefits of a business plan, trends in social media, and some common legal hang-ups.
Posted: 2-5-10
Kathy Gill talks about Blippy.com for KING 5 story
Senior Lecturer Kathy Gill was featured Feb. 3 in a KING 5 segment about the social media service Blippy.com, which broadcasts what you bought, where you bought it and how much you paid.
Posted: 2-3-10
Natalie Debray explains Quebec-France relations
Lecturer Natalie Debray spoke with Caroline Planque for an interview that was published in a special edition of L'Echo, the newsletter of Alliance Francaise in Seattle.
During the interview, Debray explains the complex relationship between France and Quebec.
Debray earned her PhD from the University of Washington in 2007 and her dissertation examined how Quebec media portray France and its cultural legacy in Quebec and how this is used for nation-building.
In addition to teaching in the Communication Department, Debray is an affiliate faculty with the Jackson School (Canadian Studies). She has incorporated her research on Canada in Quebec into her courses and has presented her research at conferences.
Posted: 2-2-10
Heather Brooke ('92) chats with Terry Tazioli ('70)
on her exposure of Parliament's misuse of funds
Communication alumna Heather Brooke ('92) spoke with Terry Tazioli ('70) on TVW's "Author's Hour" Jan. 15 about how she helped set the stage for the resignation of England's speaker of the House of Commons in May 2009.
Terry Tazioli, host of "Author's Hour," is a 1970 graduate of the Department and the president of the Communication Alumni Board.
Brooke, a freelance journalist and an advocate for open public records in London, requested expense-account information from members of Parliament five years prior. 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.
Updated: 2-1-10
Video: McChesney, Nichols discuss latest book, 'Death and Life of American Journalism'
Robert McChesney ('86, '89) and John Nichols, co-founders of Free Press, discuss their latest book, "The Death and Life of American Journalism: The MediaRevolution that Will Begin the World Again" on the campus of the University of Washington on Jan. 18. The Department of Communication sponsored the event produced by TVW's "Author's Hour."
McChesney and Nichols believe the federal government should intervene to save newspapers, and journalism — and they have history on their side: The founders who wrote a free-press protection into the First Amendment provided subsidies to the burgeoning print press of our young nation.
Terry Tazioli, host of "Author's Hour," is a 1970 graduate of the Department and the president of the Communication Alumni Board.
Updated: 2-1-10
Neff to explore 'Media Labor in the Age of YouTube'
Gina Neff, Department of Communication
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010
3:30 to 5 p.m.
CMU 120
Media and entertainment industries are undergoing significant restructuring. “Old” media are struggling to adapt in “new” media environments with increased competition for audiences, plummeting advertising revenue, and uncertain business models for content.
In this talk, Assistant Professor of Communication Gina Neff will provide a framework for thinking through the valorization of media content in these emerging market conditions, with a particular focus on the work involved in making media products and the people who do this communication work. She will do this by comparing three aspects of change in the way today’s media institutions manage labor: 1) the response of organized media and entertainment labor unions to digital distribution of products; 2) the proliferation of “reality” narratives in media content; and 3) the growing distribution of user-generated content, exemplified by YouTube. Only through specific study of the organization of communication workers and the evolving character of media products can we fully understand the changing political economy of cultural industries — and the implications for contemporary labor in general.
Neff is co-editor of Surviving the New Economy (Paradigm 2007), which examines work in both new and old media after the dot-com crash, and is author of a manuscript, Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industries.
This event is sponsored by the Department of Communication, Department of Sociology, and the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies. To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at least ten days in advance at: (206) 543-6450/ V, (206) 543-6452/TTY, (206) 685-7264 (FAX), or dso@u.washington.edu.
Posted: 1-29-10
Class incorporates NBC's The Office into curriculum
Communication alumna Joanne Harrell ('76) was on bed rest with a knee injury, and watching a lot of television, when she came up with an idea to fill a gap she noticed in programming.
She spoke with the University of Washington Daily about what she wanted to accomplish in an article published Jan. 28. She wondered, “How can we help people be more successful in the work environment? There wasn’t anything targeting that specifically, so I reached out to the school of communications.”
Harrell is a member of the UW Board of Regents. She and Florangela Davila are teaching COM 495: Office: 2.0 — talks about life lessons and themes from hit television shows.
The final project of the class will be to develop and market a unique show based on accessible, real-life situations. Themes from The Office and other work-setting television programs will be used as inspiration for the creation of the new show.
Davila said, “The notions of work, especially with unemployment being so high, the recession, economic issues, job issues are things that are at the forefront of people's minds.”
Read the full Daily article >>
Posted: 1-29-10
TedX coming to Seattle via MCDM April 16
The Master of Communication in Digital Media is hosting TEDx Seattle on April 16, 2010, at the Pacific Science Center.
"Digital Dividends: From Puget Sound to Cape Town" brings together great minds in creativity, scholarship, and entrepreneurship to discuss the possibilities and prospects of social development enhanced through information technologies.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Greg Bear – Hugo and Nebula award winning author
- Sapna Cheryan - Assistant Professor of Psychology - University of Washington
- Eugene Cho - Founder - www.onedayswages.org
- Martha Gonzalez – Fandango Without Borders
- Ben Huh – icanhascheezburger.com
- Chris Jordan – Photographer
- Ron Kabrill - Associate Professor in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences - University of Washington
- Amanda Koster – Salaam Garage
- Elan Lee – Founder/Chief Designer - Fourth Wall Studios
- Fiona Lee – Google Africa
- Scott Macklin – Bridging Community and Education (South Africa and Seattle)
- Hanson Hosein, Director of MCDM, will be the onstage host for TEDx Seattle
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.
More information will be available soon. Stay tuned!
Posted: 1-22-10
Colloquium revisits 'archaeology' of whiteness
"Re/visiting whiteness in the 'post-racial' era"
Dr. Thomas Nakayama
Northeastern University
Wednesday, Jan. 27
3:30 to 5 p.m.
Communications 120
Although explorations into whiteness and its place in the critical race approaches to communication have flourished since the turn of the last century, interrogations of whiteness are neither new nor have they disappeared in the post-racial era. Since the election of President Barack Obama, discussions about whiteness need revisiting, as public performances of whiteness and its discourses call for more attention. In his presentation, Nakayama will explore the “archaeology” of whiteness in communication studies and its current configuration in this so-called “post-racial era.” Implications for the study of communication are discussed.
Tom Nakayama is professor and chair of communication studies at Northeastern University in Boston. He was formerly professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication and founding director of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Intercultural Research, a former Fulbrighter at the Université de Mons-Hainaut in Belgium, and served on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Humanities Council. He is currently finishing up his editorship of the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication.
Posted: 1-13-2010
Series explores social media and public speaking
Kathy Gill and Scott Berkun
Friday, Jan. 15
Noon
http://www.livestream.com/mcdm
In the third installment of the MCDM's Emerging series, MCDM's Kathy Gill will talk with Scott Berkun about technology and public speaking, the challenges of Twitter for speakers, and how clear thinking and communication is at the heart of today's economy.
Scott Berkun is the best-selling author of The Myths of Innovation and Making Things Happen. He worked at Microsoft from 1994 to 2003 in the early days of the web; his work as a full-time writer and speaker have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Wired Magazine, Fast Company, Forbes Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and other media. He taught a course in creative thinking for the MCDM and has been a regular commentator on CNBC, MSNBC and National Public Radio.
Scott's popular essays and entertaining lectures can be found for free on his blog at http://scottberkun.com.
Watch the discussion at http://www.livestream.com/mcdm.
Town Hall series: Digital media empowering citizens
"The Revolution is Here: How Digital Media and Awakened Citizens Are Changing the World"
Hanson Hosein
Wednesday, Jan. 13
7:30 p.m.
Town Hall Seattle
Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street
The Department of Communication and Town Hall Center for Civic Life present the second installment of the series, "The Revolution is Here: How Digital Media and Awakened Citizens Are Changing the World," on Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
This installment will feature Hanson Hosein, director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media. Formerly a foreign correspondent for NBC News, Hosein will discuss how people under authoritarian regimes, such as Iran, are using new technologies to communicate, and seizing back some of the concentrated power formerly exerted through a tightly controlled state media.
Prof. Lance Bennett will respond and moderate audience discussion.
Advance tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com or (800) 838-3006, or at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. Town Hall members receive priority seating.
Watch the event live at http://www.livestream.com/mcdm.
Authors discuss book on saving journalism
"The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again"
Robert McChesney and John Nichols
Monday, Jan. 18, 2010
UW Kane Hall 210
6 p.m.
We’ve lost the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; daily newspapers are closing; even the venerable Boston Globe is at risk. “Surviving” newspapers are shedding reporters, shuttering bureaus, and ignoring entire areas of coverage. Journalism, the counterbalance to corporate and political power, and the lifeblood of an informed citizenry, is not just threatened — it is in meltdown.
Robert McChesney ('86, '89) and John Nichols believe the federal government
should intervene to save newspapers, and journalism — and they have history on their side: The founders who wrote a free-press protection into the First Amendment provided subsidies to the burgeoning print press of our young nation. McChesney and Nichols are co-founders of Free Press, a national media reform organization.
Colloquium explores problems in journalism research
"Communication Research, the Crisis in Journalism, and our Critical Juncture"
Dr. Robert McChesney, University of Illinois
Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010
3:30 to 5 p.m.
CMU 120
In the United States, journalism as we know it is in precipitous decline, and the entire communication system is in the midst of a stunning transformation. Regrettably, too much of the research produced in the field of communication is mired in the past and/or increasingly irrelevant to the immense social problems before us.
During the Jan. 19 colloquium, Dr. Robert McChesney ('86, '89) will outline the problem and suggest a few tentative steps forward. The talk begins at 3:30 p.m. in Communications 120.
Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2008 the Utne Reader listed McChesney among its "50 visionaries who are changing the world." In 2002 he was the co-founder of Free Press, a national media reform organization and hosts the "Media Matters" weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on NPR-affiliate WILL-AM radio. McChesney has written or edited seventeen books. McChesney’s most recent book, written with John Nichols, is The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again (Nation Books, 2010).
Kathy Gill on Huffington Post's Seattle Twitter list
Twitter's new list features have become a popular way for followers to categorize information. One way to get a pulse on real-time Seattle activity is by visiting The Huffington Post's Seattle LIVE Guide, which follows Seattle news, sports, and people through Twitter.
Congratulations to Department of Communication Senior Lecturer Kathy Gill, who was included in the "Seattle People" list. You can read more of Gill's Tweets by following her Twitter handle @kegill.
Dissertation receives Canadian Studies award
Kate Dunsmore's('08) dissertation "Mediating alliance: The role of the press in sustaining reciprocity in the US-Canada relationship" was awarded the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) Distinguished Dissertation Award for 2009. Kate is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University In New Jersey. Her advisor was Prof. Nancy Rivenburgh.
Posted: 12.21.09
Tema Milstein's dissertation wins NCA award
Tema Milstein (’07) received the National Communication Association’s (NCA) Christine Oravec Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Environmental Communication for an article based on her UW dissertation: “Communication as environmental resource: an ethnographic exploration of endangered whale watching and human-nature relations.” Milstein received her award at the NCA annual convention held November in Chicago.
Posted: 12.21.09
Faculty lead discussion on Obama's book
Each year, First Year Programs chooses a book as a means to bind the incoming freshman class together. This year’s book was Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father.”
Three members of the UW faculty, including Department of Communication Assistant Professor Ralina Joseph, discussed Obama’s candor and his struggles with multiraciality in his autobiography with hundreds of UW freshmen who had read the book.
The book demands introspection from its readers and frames the “freshman experience” in a whole new way, said Joseph on Dec. 1.
Also on the panel were Drs. Luis Fraga and Christopher Parker, from the Political Science Department.
The professors spoke candidly about their own experiences with multiculturalism and minority identification. Read more >>
Emerging series features Heidi Sinclair Dec. 11
On Friday, Dec. 11 at noon, the Master of Communication in Digital Media program will video stream its second Emerging series discussion on cutting edge trends in digital media communications. This live event will feature Heidi Sinclair, a Huffington Post blogger, communication and brand strategist, and former chief communication officer with the Gates Foundation.
Join us live at http://www.livestream.com/mcdm. Log in to be part of the discussion!
Conversation explores questions in Obama's book
Tuesday, Dec. 1
7 p.m.
Kane Hall 130
In Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Barack Obama traces his narrative, his process of self-discovery and through it raises questions about identity, race, family, and ambition that are directly relevant to each of us and particularly relevant to first-year students. Explore these questions with renowned University of Washington faculty in a conversation around defining issues of our time.
With Dreams from My Father as a trigger, Professors Luis Fraga, Ralina Joseph, and Christopher Parker step away from the lectern and talk frankly and openly about race, identity, democracy, the media, America and more. As scholars of these topics, they each arrived at their intellectual end-points via routes that brought them through popular culture, the military, Jim Crow South, segregated cities and schools, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Where will they go from there?
Click here for more information and to register >>
Luis Fraga is associate vice provost for faculty advancement, director of the Diversity Research Institute, Russell F. Stark University Professor, and professor of political science who studies urban politics, education politics, voting rights policy, and the politics of race and ethnicity. His most recent book is the coauthored Latino Lives in America: Making It Home, due out in January 2010.
Ralina Joseph is an assistant professor of communication interested in contemporary representations of race, gender, and sexuality in the United States. Her book manuscript, Transcending Blackness: Reading Mixed-Race African American Representations in the New Millennium, investigates 1998-2008 era pop culture representations of multiracial African Americans in television, film, the internet, a novel, and a memoir.
Christopher Parker is an assistant professor in political science. His first book, Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South, takes a fresh approach to the civil rights movement by gauging the extent to which black veterans contributed to social change.
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.
Wednesday University
What: "Mixed Race in the United States"
Who: Ralina L. Joseph (Communication)
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kane 220, UW Seattle Campus
Dates: Wednesdays, January 6 & 20; February 3 & 17; March 3, 2010
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 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.
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
Students and alumni chat during the Communication Networking event on Jan. 29. Jenni Hogan ('02) said, "I thought it went great. I was really impressed with the students and really thought they got warmed up. By the third person they had it down. Then when we opened it up, they were really great at approaching, not staying too long with one person and just being really impressive."
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
Linda Farmer ('90) speaks with a UW student during a Career Discover Week networking event. "Thanks for including me! I had a lot of fun. My co-workers were intrigued when I told them about it the next day. That's definitely a cool way to do networking. I've already had some follow up e-mails — good initiative on the students' part.
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.
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: 1.15.09
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. 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: 1.6.09
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. Registration has ended.
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.
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."
Posted: 4.07.08
Prof John Gastil was quoted in Newsweek's March 12, 2008 edition on page 2 of: "His Cheating Brain: Why do powerful men risk everything for sex?"
Posted 3.27.08
Wounded Messengers: How Trauma Affects Journalists
Journalism often exposes the brutal realities of life. One needs only to watch the evening news to see how tragedy seizes headlines like no other. While we often consider the effect on the victims, we rarely consider how exposure to trauma can affect journalists, and in turn, their work. If we ourselves are affected by trauma, why should we expect journalists not to be? (Read More)
Posted: 2.04.08
NPR's national show, Weekend America, did a long segment, Caroling the Eagles, on an unusual bit of civic engagement Communication lecturer Cindy Simmons has been doing these past few years: listen to the show | read the transcript.
Posted: 12.31.07
Communication and International Relations
Communication and International Relations
Now in its third edition, Communication and International Relations is an online news magazine written by students in COM321/POLS330.
Edition One | Edition Two | Edition Three
Updated: 12.13.07
Devon Mills is a Communication student in COM 361. She wrote a story about a classroom visit by Olga Kravtsova, the Russian Fulbright scholar who is studying journalism and trauma with the Dart Center.
Posted: 12.10.07
Professor Nancy Rivenburgh's evening degree students produced a web magazine for their fall quarter class. Check out the portal link, for Issues I, II and III (Issue III will be available the week of December 17, 2007).
Posted: 12.10.07
The Department of Communication is featured in the autumn, 2007 edition of the A&S Newsletter:
Professor David Domke quoted at CNNPolitics.com
Posted: 12.04.07
The Journalism Foreign Intrigue Scholarship: Journalism Goes Global
Drake Witham, '96: Finding the Funny
Professor David Domke: the Escalating Role of Religion in Politics
Posted: 11.13.07
Dr. Crispin Thurlow , Dr. Donald H. Wulff and Dr. G. Kent Nelson are three of the recipients of the University's 2007 awards for distinguished members of the University community. The award recipients are chosen through a nomination process overseen by selection committees made up of their peers.
Professor Lance Bennett will receive the National Communication Association's highest award at the 2007 NCA convention, the Distinguished Scholars Award.
Posted: 11.05.07
Images of 9/11 deepen the focus of the experience
By CHRIS HEIDE
UW News Lab
Posted: 11.05.07
Seattle-based Dutch journalist shares freelancing tips with News Lab
By SAMANTHA PAK
UW News Lab
Posted: 10.24.07
At the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Alice Marwick (she earned her MA from the UW Department of Communication and is now a PhC at NYU) won the best student paper award.
Posted: 10.24.07
UW Communication professor Kirsten Foot was asked to give the keynote lecture at a conference on web histories to be held in conjunction with AOIR 2008 in Denmark.
Posted: 10.24.07
Government by the People, Professor John Gastil's October 22 piece in the Seattle Times
Posted: 10.24.07
Professor John Gastil and pal Toby help raise money for student scholarships
Posted: 10.15.07
On May 7, 2007, Professor Phil Howard helped bring Globe & Mail Foreign Correspondent Stephanie Nolen to the UW to talk about her book 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa. Students from Professor Roger Simpson's Spring course attended the talk.
Posted: 06.26.07
Congratulations to Richard Kielbowicz, who has won the 23rd annual Covert Award in Mass Communication History from the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The Covert Award goes to the best mass communication history or article published the previous year. Richard won the award for "The Law and Mob Law in Attacks on Antislavery Newspapers, 1833-1860," published in Law and History Review in Fall 2006. The award was endowed by the late Catherine L. Covert, who was a professor of public communications at Syracuse University and head of the AEJMC History Division.
Posted: 06.26.07
The 2007 Time Capsule Celebration
Posted: 06.13.07
Three from Communication Community Earn UW Awards
Dr. Crispin Thurlow , Dr. Donald H. Wulff and Dr. G. Kent Nelson are three of the recipients of the University's 2007 awards for distinguished members of the University community. The award recipients are chosen through a nomination process overseen by selection committees made up of their peers.
Posted: 04.06.07
Faculty Participate in Politics and Culture Lecture Series - Sponsored by the Stimson Foundation
Posted: 03.02.07
Featuring UW Communication professors David Domke, Ralina Joseph and John Gastil, and Communication graduate student Chris Wells.
Our Public Speaking Program Director, Professor Matt McGarrity, has won the Robert Henry Outstanding Professor Award! Read about it at the National Speakers Association Web site.
Ralina Joseph was a guest on Weekday on KUOW on Tuesday, February 6.
Posted 02.21.06
Local copy of the award announcement...
Updated 01.05.07
The cover story of the December 2006 issue of Columns features "100 Top Books by 100 UW Authors" and we are proud to announce that 11 of those authors can be claimed by the Department of Communication!
Check out the authors from Communication...
Posted: 01.05.07
The Department of Communication WA Weekend Celebration 2006
Posted: 05.18.06
David Domke Wins Krieghbaum Award
Posted: 05.09.06
Teaching cultural codes: Communication, culture, and pedagogy
Posted: 04.24.06
2006 Department of Communication Scholarship Awards
Posted: 04.24.06
The Daily wins award...
Posted: 04.20.06
Kathy Gill
Posted: 03.31.06
Professor Phil Howard featured in last week's Seattle Times...
Posted: 03.29.06
American Press and Politics: The Metamorphosis Conference
Posted: 03.17.06
Photos from the 2005 NCA Conference
Posted: 02.25.06
Visitors to COM 343: Effects of Mass Communication
Posted: 02.13.06
Mikel Ayestaran Visits News Lab
Posted: 12.08.05
An op-ed by faculty member David Silver featured in the December 7, 2005 edition of The Daily...
Posted: 12.08.05
The New Yorker College Tour 2005 comes to the Department of Communication
Posted: 11.27.05
Dialogue on the impact of communication & information technology in global contexts (featuring Professor Phil Howard).
Posted: 11.10.05
Link opens in new window.
Dr. Patricia Moy is the Inaugural Recipient of the Christy Cressey Professorship in Communication
Posted: 10.28.05
Reading by Professor Phil Howard
Posted: 10.17.05
Lecture by Professor David Domke, Wednesday, October 5
The Echoing Press, Morality, and Nation: Why the Republican Party Dominates American Politics Today
Posted: 09.30.05
Roger Simpson and the Dart Center quoted in the Seattle Times after Katrina (link leads to Seattle Times Web site)
Posted: 09.30.05
Professor Leah Ceccarelli cited in in professor Celeste Condit's 2004 Carroll C. Arnold Distinguished Lecture
Posted: 09.23.05
Department Nominees for the Distinguished Teaching Award
Posted: 09.07.05
Professor Crispin Thurlow in the Times
Posted: 09.06.05
"The Deliberative Democracy Handbook" by Professor John Gastil
Posted: 08.31.05
Emeritus Professor Haig Bosmajian
Posted: 08.31.05
May 2005 "Communication" from Jerry Baldasty
Posted: 05.23.05
The 2005 Laura Crowell Fund Run
Posted: 05.18.05
Back to the Future: Department Open House and Daily Reunion
Posted: 05.11.05
Journalists and Scientists meet to discuss the South Asia tsunami on Friday, April 15
Posted: 03.30.05
Dr. Tony Chan and Digital Journalism
Posted:03.09.05
Letter from the Chair: March 2005
Posted: 03.02.05
Letter from the Chair: February 2005
Posted: 02.15.05
Alumni Lunches
Posted 12.20.04
The UW Swim Team: Documentary Collaboration
Posted: 12.10.04
Photos from earlier in the year: September 16, Journalism Day
Posted 11.22.04
2004 Open House and Alumni Hall of Fame
Posted 10.28.04
2004 Undergraduate Scholarship Awards
Posted 05.26.04
Alumni Outreach
Posted : 02.12.04
Communication Students in Rome: A letter from Dr. C. Anthony Giffard
Posted: 01.30.04
January 2004 Letter from the Chair
Posted: 01.14.04
December 2003 Letter from the Chair
Posted: 12.08.03
Faculty News
Updated: 11.21.03
Autumn Quarter Alumni Visits
Updated: 11.04.03
Economic Terror, Deep Democracy: Naomi Klein to Speak at UW
Posted: 10.06.03
Norm Rice Addresses Communication Graduates
Posted: 06.16.03
By Billy Etter, Dept. of Communication
Scholarship ceremony celebrates, showcases department diversity
Posted: 05.30.03
By Travis Hay, Dept. of Communication
Dept. of Communication Construction
Posted: 05.30.03
By Melissa Parker, Dept. of Communication
Journalism program unanimously re-accredited
Posted: 05.30.03
By Travis Hay, Dept. of Communication
Distinguished Teaching: A Discussion With Lisa Coutu
Posted: 05.13.03
By Melissa Parker, Dept. of Communication
The Laura Crowell Fund Run
Posted: 05.13.03
By Billy Etter, Dept. of Communication
Dr. Lisa Coutu Wins the Distinguished Teaching Award
Posted: 03.14.03
