a department of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota,
for alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of the School.
- Upcoming Events & Important Dates
- News for Alumni
- SJMC Media Hits
- Awards and Kudos
- Publications and Research
- Murphy Hall Happenings
The SJMC Alumni Board will host a Trivia Bowl on Tuesday, January 31, at 6:30 p.m. in the Johnson Great Room in the McNamara Alumni Center. All SJMC alumni and students are invited to attend; the suggested donation of $10 will go towards an alumni scholarship fund. For more information, email aberger@umn.edu.
On Friday, February 3, the SJMC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) will sponsor “The Source Course,” a workshop for students on how young journalists can develop and maintain ethical relationships with their sources. Funding for the conference came from a “ethics” grant competition created by SJMC director Albert Tims, who challenged the School’s student organizations to submit proposals for student-created ethics programming. SPJ was the winner of this year’s $1300 grant. For more information, visit http://www.tc.umn.edu/~spj/ or email umn.spj@gmail.com.
The next Emerging Digerati event, sponsored by the Institute for New Media Studies, will take place on Monday, February 6 in the Weisman Art Museum auditorium at 6:00 p.m. Emerging Digerati events showcase new media work at the University and provide a forum for members of the new media community to network and discuss issues in the field. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, visit http://www.inms.umn.edu/digerati/index.html.
On February 16-17, the Minnesota Journalism Center will sponsor “The Pop Music Critic as Cultural Critic,” a workshop for music journalists and arts critics. Participants will explore the cultural contexts in which they work and will learn helpful models for their writing. To register, visit http://www.mjc.umn.edu/popmusic/index.htm or contact mnjrnctr@umn.edu.
The 29th Annual Frank Premack Memorial Lecture will be held on Monday, April 17, 7:30 p.m., in the Coffman Memorial Union Theater. The featured speaker this year is National Public Radio’s Michele Norris, an award-winning journalist and the nationally renowned host of All Things Considered, public radio’s longest-running national program. Norris’s lecture is free and open to the public. Visit www.mjc.umn.edu for more information or call 612-626-1723.
Travel To Nashville with the Gophers: The Gophers are going to the Music City Bowl and the University of Minnesota Alumni Association is sponsoring the official tour. This is the last year that Nashville will host, so if you’ve been meaning to get there, don’t miss this chance! Visit http://www.alumni.umn.edu/bowl for all the details, then be there as Minnesota goes for its fourth consecutive bowl win! Go Gophers!
2006 Legislative Briefing and Reception: Join us for an insider’s preview of the University of Minnesota’s 2006 legislative request on January 25, 2006, 5:30 – 8 p.m at the McNamara Alumni Center. Hear President Bruininks, along with students and faculty, tell their stories about how the projects in this year’s request will benefit the University and the entire state. Learn how to be an effective advocate for the University at the Capitol and in your own community. Meet and network with others who care about the future of the U. A light dinner will be served. Read more about the Legislative Briefing at http://www.supporttheu.umn.edu/. To register for the event, call 612-625-9174.
Silha Professor Jane Kirtley was quoted in a number of news outlets regarding the Valerie Plame case and indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, including The New York Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Columbia Journalism Review, Editor & Publisher, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The New York Sun, Reuters, and The Globe & Mail. Kirtley also commented on the refusal of the Bush administration to release results of a satisfaction survey of hurricane victims in the News-Press and on WKYC TV, and weighed in on Spokane mayor Jim West’s intent to sue the The Spokemans-Review newspaper for invasion of privacy in an AP story and a number of other news outlets.
Professor Ron Faber’s research on compulsive buying a featured segment on the “U of M Moment” radio broadcast, which is heard on radio stations throughout Minnesota. The piece was also featured on the U of M and College of Liberal Arts websites. To hear the piece, visit http://blog.lib.umn.edu/archives/urelate/radio/Compulsive_Shopping.mp3.
Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer was quoted in a story entitled, “Sound Science or Hype? Strategies For Critically Evaluating Medical News and Scientific Research,” in the October/November 2005 issue of the American Council on Exercise Certified News newsletter.
Cowles Media Fellow Sherrie Mazingo was quoted in the November 1 Miami Herald in a story on the news coverage of Hurricane Wilma compared with coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Mazingo was also quoted in several pieces related to the death of Rosa Parks, including interviews on KARE-11 TV and KMOJ radio. Mazingo also spoke on KMOJ radio’s “Breakfast Jam” morning program on Election Day about the importance of voting and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Professor Dan Sullivan was quoted in an article in the Charlotte Observer on December 8 reagarding the financial situation and possible sale of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain. Sullivan was also quoted in the Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram about the Knight Ridder situation.
Professor Dona Schwartz’s photographic series “In the Kitchen” continues to earn awards and accolades. A selection of photos from the series was recently chosen for exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and at the 7th Internationale Fototage in Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, Germany. Photographs from the series have also been included in several competitively juried exhibitions across the U.S., among them the Minnesota Center for Photography, the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA, and the Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle. The project has appeared in print internationally, in the Frankfurter Rundschau Magazin, and in Hotshoe magazine, published in the UK. Schwartz herself was selected as one of ten finalists for the prestigious Santa Fe Prize for Photography for the project.
Assistant professor Jisu Huh has been awarded a Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship from the University of Minnesota’s Graduate School, effective January 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007. Huh’s grant award, totalling $25,000, will support her research project, “Website Credibility and Its Influence on Consumers’ Responses to Information on the Website.” The project will examine the credibility features available on individual websites, whether and to what extent consumers use those features to assess information credibility, and how feature-based and perceived credibility predict consumer responses.
The SJMC’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter was selected to host a PRSSA regional activity for 2006. PRSSA’s proposed event, entitled “Let Us Entertain U,” focuses on entertainment public relations and will feature guest experts speaking on festival, convention, sporting event, wedding, and fashion show coordination. “Let Us Entertain U” will be held in the Murphy Hall conference center March 31-April 1, 2006, and PRSSA chapters from a number of Midwestern universities will be invited to attend.
Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer presented research on commercialism in health and medical journalism in a talk entitled, “Disentangling health news,” at the Society of Professional Journalists national convention in Las Vegas on October 17. On Novembr 5, Schwitzer’s article, “Revealed: the stories that broadcasters did not want to cover,” was published in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal). The article summarized his 2004 election-year-long analysis of health policy news coverage on three award-winning TV stations across the U.S. Schwitzer participated in a health policy roundtable discussion in San Francisco on November 10, organized by the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy. The roundtable explored how public understanding of and attitudes toward medical technology affect efforts to put the U.S. health care system on an evidence-based footing and what might be done to improve the prospects of those efforts.
Two of assistant professor Jisu Huh’s research papers were published in November. The two papers are "Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising: Understanding Its Consequences," authored with Lee B. Becker and appearing in the International Journal of Advertising, and “Factors Affecting Trust in Online Prescription Drug Information and Impact of Trust on Behavior Following Exposure to DTC Advertising,” authored with Denise DeLorme and Leonard N. Reid and appearing in the Journal of Health Communication.
The front page of the November 13 Star Tribune featured an article by Leyla Kokman, lecturer and program coordinator for the Health Journalism M.A. Kokman’s article was on the controversy about using bioidentical hormones to treat menopause symptoms. Kokman is a frequent contributor to mainstream magazines and newspapers on a variety of health topics.
Visiting professor Thom Swiss gave a keynote lecture entitled “The Book vs. the X-Box: Is Literature Dying?” at a U of M symposium sponosored by the Social Philosophy and Policy Center, the Department of German, Russian and East Asian Languages, and the Department of Romance Languages. Swiss also gave a talk on New Media and language in Chicago on November 12 at the the annual conference of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts.
Professor Jane Kirtley appeared on a panel, “Newsgathering, Right of Privacy, and Related Torts” at the Practising [sic] Law Institute's Communication Law 2005 conference in New York on November 10. Kirtley delivered a lecture, “Reporters Privilege Redux: A Reflection on Reporter's Privilege in the United States, 1995-2005” at the Ad IDEM/Canadian National Media Lawyer's Association Annual Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia on November 12. Kirtley delivered a lecture, “Shooting the Messenger, or Shooting Ourselves in the Foot? Challenges to a Free and Independent Press,” at Gustavus Adolphus College on November 17. Kirtley was the moderator for a Town Hall Talk: How Do We Restore Our Own Credibllity? at the Southern Newspaper Publishers Foundation's conference, Ethics: New Threats; New Frontiers in Oklahoma City on December 2. Kirtley delivered the final lecture in the series, “A Question of Ethics,” sponsored by the St. Croix Valley Chapter of the U of M Alumni Association, on November 1. Her lecture was titled "The Right to be Wrong: Current Issues in Media Ethics and Law."
On December 9, twenty-five members of the SJMC’s AdClub were “interns for a day” at the Risdall advertising agency, at the invitation of agency chairman and CEO John Risdall. Students spent the day shadowing agency staff, learning about the day-to-day operations of the business, and brainstorming ideas for clients. Carolyn Ahlstrom, the vice-president of AdClub, developed the partnership with Risdall and planned the “intern for a day” program. “Risdall has phenomenal staff,” she says, “and it was a great learning experience for everyone involved.”
Visiting speakers to visiting associate professor Chris Ison’s Public Affairs Reporting class in October included Kay Steiger, Editor of The Wake, and James Walsh, education reporter at the Star Tribune. Visitors to Ison’s Media Ethics class included Star Tribune Reader’s Representative Kate Parry and ethics columnist and public journalism expert Jeremy Iggers.
Adjunct instructor Gary Hornseth welcomed five veteran Twin Cities communications pros to his Cases in Strategic Communications Planning and Thinking class during fall term. Investor relations consultant Tony Carideo, president of the Carideo Group, spoke on financial communications strategies. Sue Sorensen Lee, principal of Lee Communications, presented retail PR cases. Mark Jenson, VP at Kerker and longtime SJMC adjunct, presented Kerker's award-winning ad work for Taco John's. Amy Weiss, communications director for the Minnesota AIDS Project, discussed strategic communications and goverment affairs. And crisis communications consultant Jon Austin, VP at Fleishman-Hillard PR, spoke on crisis planning and management.
SJMC instructor and graduate student Neal Karlen discussed his book Shanda: The Making and Breaking of a Self-Loathing Jew at Magers and Quinn on December 5. Karlen and David Unowsky, events coordinator at Magers and Quinn, had a dialogue about the book and their shared experiences.
Brendan O'Hallarn of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation crossed the border to speak with assistant professor Brian Southwell’s Introduction to Mass Communication class about his work at CBC-Radio and his prior experience as a Canadian print journalist.
Visitors to Professor Jane Kirtley’s JOUR 5777 (Contemporary Problems of Freedom of Speech and Press) class included Professor Heidi Kitrosser, visiting associate professor of law at the U of M Law School. She discussed executive privilege and Cheney v. U.S. District Court, the case involving public access to Vice President Cheney's energy task force. Another guest was Stephen Cribari, adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, spoke about 4th Amendment privacy issues arising from government surveillance. In Kirtley’s JOUR 3776 (Mass Communication Law), visitors included Minneapolis attorney Stephen R. Bergerson of the law firm of Fredrikson & Byron speaking about advertising regulation, and Terrance W. Moore, counsel to the Minnesota Broadcasters Association and a shareholder in the Edina law firm Steingart, McGrath & Moore, speaking about broadcast regulation.
Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer is a member of a new university-wide interdisciplinary faculty work group studying the topic of patient satisfaction in health and long-term care. This group will discuss the link between patient satisfaction and quality and outcomes of care; assess how satisfaction information is used by consumers, providers, and payers; and explore the technical issues involved in measuring satisfaction. The effort is coordinated by the U of M’s Center on Aging and its director, Robert Kane, MD.
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November/December 2005