Archive

MM&C Program News Archive

     

2001-2002

 

Events and Announcements 2001-2002 Academic Year

SCAT Theory and Research Seminar Series (STARSS) Completes a Successful Year.

The SCAT Theory and Research Seminar Series (STARSS) features SCAT faculty, graduate students and invited scholars talking about their approaches to and experiences with research projects and current issues in communication in a relaxed atmosphere.

The Series launched in the fall 2001 semester with six bi-weekly informative and well-attended sessions:

  • Nancy Morris: "Research Questions, Research Decisions: The Path to Research Answers"
  • Fabienne Darling-Wolf, JPRA Department: "Why I Love Japanese Men: Redefining Gender Identity in Japan"
  • Carolyn Kitch: "Doing Interdisciplinary Research in Communications"
  • Priscilla Murphy: "Chaos and Complexity in Communication Research"
  • Maureen Taylor, Department of Communication, Rutgers University: "International Public Relations and Nation-Building"
  • Bernie Ankney, JPRA Department: "Cultural Catalysis Theory: A Communication Theory to Supplement Social Capital Theory"

The spring 2002 sessions were:

  • Ha Sung Hwang and Jae-Woong Kwon: "Visual Images of Terror: A Content Analysis of Photographs in American Daily Newspapers on September 12" (MM&C students Ha Sung and Jae presented this paper at a conference at the end of that week.)
  • Carl Botan, Department of Communication, Purdue University: "Electronic Surveillance in the Work Place: Emergent Issues and Social Impacts"
  • Ed Alwood, JPRA Department: "The Hunt for Red Writers: The Eastland Committee Hearings on Communists in the Press, 1955-56"
  • Kasey Walker, Visiting Assistant Professor, Tulane University: "Control the Words, Control the World: Semantic Power in a Collaborating Group"
  • Zizi Papacharissi, BTMM Department: "Real/Virtual Dichotomy: A Meta-analysis of Research on New Media Uses and Consequences"
  • Jan Fernback: "Using Community to Sell: The Commodification of Community in Retail Web Sites"
  • Paul Swann, Film & Media Arts Department: "Postindustriality and the Spectacular City"
  • Larry Gross, University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication: "From Criminal to Consumer in Fifty Years: Media Portrayals of Gays and Lesbians"

If you're interested in presenting or have an idea for a STARSS program, please contact Andy Mendelson.



Course in Grant Writing Offered Spring 2002

SCAT offered a course in writing proposals for external funding. MM&C and other graduate students took advantage of the opportunity. Click here for details.

 

Spring 2002 Semester Party Held April 19th

On Friday April 19th, members of the MM&C community gathered for our 21st semi-annual Semester Party. We caught up with old friends, met new ones, and enjoyed a delicious meal (everything was great, but Lydia's meat pie [or 'vertical pizza'], Olga's potato salad, Melissa S.'s eggplant dish, and Sondra's [sinful!] peanut butter pie were outstanding!). If you missed this semester's party, we hope to see you at the fall event.

 

4th Annual SCAT Graduate Student Research Forum Held Friday February 1, 2002

Students, faculty, alums, and friends of the MM&C Program attended the 4th Annual SCAT Graduate Student Research Forum on February 1, 2002. Thanks to everyone who made the event such a success, and congratulations to the top paper award winners:

First Place Papers (tie; $100 award each):

  • "Virtual Learning: In Search of a Psychological Model" by Melissa Selverian
  • "Making Sense of South Park and American Humor - A Case Study of Star TV's Innovative Adjustment to Local Tastes in Taiwan" by Hong Chi Shiau

Second Place Papers (tie; $50 award each):

  • "Geopolitical References, Regional Issues, and National Identities in Cyberspace: A Study of Crossposted Messages in Usenet "soc.culture" Newsgroups" by Gisela Gil-Egui
  • "Framing the Millennium" by Olga Vilceanu

To learn more about the event, please see the following:
(Links will open in new windows)

 Photos from the event

Fall 2001 MM&C Poster Session Held December 10, 2001

SCAT graduate students, faculty, and friends attended the first MM&C/BTMM/JPRA Poster Session on Monday, December 10, 2001.

Poster Sessions, or more formally, Interactive Display Sessions, are a common format for sharing communication research at professional conferences; in an informal gathering scholars set up visual 'posters' that provide a brief and compelling introduction to the important elements of their projects, and visitors then walk around the room reading the different posters and speaking with the authors to find out more about the projects that interest them.

Students in several courses, including Communication Research Methods (BTMM 411/MMC 500), Theories Of Visual Communication (JPRA 814/BTMM 688/MMC 680), Public Information Campaigns (BTMM 744/MMC 744), and Ph.D. Colloquium (BTMM 945/MMC 945), joined together to share their work from the fall semester at this event, which was held in Annenberg Hall 302. The turnout was great and responses were very positive; a similar event is planned for the fall semester.

  Photos from the event

 

New MM&C Policies and Practices for Student Input

The MM&C faculty recently established a series of new policies to help obtain and respond to the perspectives and insights of students.

First, the MM&C Program Director will now hold regular meetings with students who are interested in discussing any and all issues related to the doctoral program and ways to improve it. The first 'Meet with the Director' meeting was on November 6, 2001; dates/times for future meetings will be announced on the MMC listserv.

Any MM&C student may also request that an issue or concern be placed on the agenda of an upcoming MM&C faculty meeting and, with the permission of the Director, present and discuss the issue or concern at the meeting.

The MM&C faculty have created a set of committees to plan and manage several different aspects of the doctoral program, and the following policy regarding student input to these committees was approved: "Based on faculty suggestions and consensus, the MM&C Director will invite individual MM&C students, who must be and remain in good standing, to participate in the work of the faculty committees."

Following this policy, the faculty invited Anna Zaks, Gisela Gil-Egui (Research Forum Committee), Banu Akdenizli (Recruiting), David Marshall (Admissions), Margaret Rakus, and Melissa Selverian (Curriculum) to serve on the faculty committees for 2001-2002, and all of them graciously accepted. Students who have comments, suggestions, questions, etc. regarding these aspects of MM&C, should contact any members, including the student members, of these committees.

3rd Annual SCAT Graduate Student Research Forum Held Friday February 23, 2001

  Photos from the event

Current MM&C Program News is available here.