Business Minutes & Annual Reports
member survey | ANNUAL MEETING MINUTES | ANNUAL REPORTS
RESULTS OF THE 2008 MEMBER SURVEY
The results of the 2008 member survey can be downloaded by clicking here. Please note that results of several survey questions regarding the future of our profession and of the academy are not shown because they were open-ended. Please refer to the upcoming Head Note column in the spring/summer 2008 newsletter and to the report to AEJMC President Charles Self (to be posted in June 2008) for a summary of these results.
Minutes of Business Meeting
Mass Communication & Society Division, AEJMC
August 8, 2008
Chicago, IL
Division Head Diana Knott Martinelli called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. She thanked the current officers who served under her, as well as the previous officers with whom she served throughout her six or seven years as an officer with the division. She said it was an honor working with such talented and dedicated professionals.
Award Presentations
Martinelli presented the Trayes Award, our highest honor for service to the division, to Roy Moore, University of Kentucky. He was head of the division during 1984 and 1985 when this award was established. Moore thanked those who nominated him, particularly Mike Murray of the University of Missouri, St. Louis, who spearheaded the nomination. He also thanked Ginger Carter Miller and Liz Hansen. He said it was an honor to follow in the footsteps of two former Trayes Award winners in attendance—Don Shaw and David Weaver.
Janet Bridges, research co-chair, announced the winners of the division research paper awards.
Open Competition
1st place: Emily Vraga, D. Jasun Carr, Jeffrey Nytes, Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Is It Frames or Facts? Teasting Internally vs. Ecologically Valid Frames on Risk Perception”
2nd place: Yu Tan and David Weaver, Indiana, “Local Media, Public Opinion, and State Legislative Policies: Agenda Setting at the State Level”
3rd place: Raluca Cozma and Monica Postelnicu, Louisiana State, “Campaigning on Social Networks: The Effects of Visiting MySpace Profiles of Political Candidates”
Student Competition
1st place: Heather LaMarre, Michael Beam, Kristen Dandreville, Ohio State, “The Irony of Satire: People See What They Want to See in The Colbert Report”
2nd place: Fei Shen, Ohio State, “Staying Alive: The Impact of Media Coverage on Candidacy Attrition in the 1980-2004 Primaries”
3rd place: Kyle Heim, “Blogs and the Iraq War: A Time-Series Analysis of Intermedia Agenda Setting and Agenda Building”
Moeller Competition
Pamela Brubaker, Michael Horning, and Christopher Toula, Penn State, “You and the Tube: Perceptions of Non-traditional Debate Credibility Among New Voters”
Special Call, “New Media & Politics”
1st place: Raluca Cozma and Monica Postelnicu, Louisiana State, “Campaigning on Social Networks: The Effects of Visiting MySpace Profiles of Political Candidates”
2nd place: Philip Johnson and Jennifer Liebman, Syracuse, “Blogs and Intermedia Agenda-Setting: A Sgudy of Campaign and Political Blogs in the 2006 Pennsylvania Senate Race”
3rd place: Pamela Brubaker, Michael Horning, and Christopher Toula, Penn State, “You and the Tube: Perceptions of Non-traditional Debate Credibility Among New Voters”
Jennifer Greer announced the winner of this year’s $5,000 research grant. She received 21 submissions. After a two-tier review process, it was awarded to Elizabeth Skewes of the University of Colorado. Skewes said she will use the award, along with a $5,000 match from the University of Colorado, to travel with the 2008 presidential candidates. Her research will focus on how gender affects coverage, specifically in terms of female press corps members and campaign staffers.
Frank Dardis, teaching co-chair, announced the winners of the Promising Professors competition and the Distinguished Educator Award. He noted that there were no graduate students entrants in this year’s Promising Professors competition.
1st place: Renee Martin-Kratzer, Florida
2nd place: Cindy Royal, Texas State, San Marcos
3rd place: Dominique Brossard, Wisconsin-Madison
The Distinguished Educator was awarded to Pat Curtin of Oregon, who was named a Promising Professor by the division 10 years ago.
Journal Report
Martinelli gave the Mass Communication & Society publishers report on behalf of Concetta Seminara of Taylor & Francis. As of July 31, the journal has $133,000 in reserves.
Subscriptions are down slightly (20 institutional and 15 individual), which is not unusual when a journal changes publishers. Subscriptions are up in Europe now that a euro price has been established.
Last year, 2,300 full-text journal articles were retrieved from Informaworld.
Martinelli asked for volunteers to serve on a short-term subcommittee to assist with journal marketing. As mass communication scholars, we have a better idea of what venues our colleagues frequent and where the journal should be represented.
Stephen Perry, journal editor, gave the editors report.
The editorial board has increased from 36 to 45 members.
Lance Holbert, book review editor, is stepping down. Stephen asked for nominations or self-nominations.
From July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008, he received 134 manuscript submissions, 185 if resubmits are included. In the calendar year so far, he has received 90 manuscripts so far.
The acceptance rate for the year ending June 30 was 17.6%.
The review process takes an average of 86 days.
149 people reviewed manuscripts.
The editorial board approved ethics guidelines, which are available on the journal’s website.
Volume 11, Number 4 includes a special issue, “Third-Person Effects in the 21st Century.” He received eight submissions and four will run in the issue along with five regular articles.
He opened the floor to questions about the journal and received none.
AEJMC Updates
Long-time division member Kathy McKee, editor of JMCQ Monographs, spoke about the journal’s new mission and submission process. She referred members to the journal’s website for details.
Martinelli announced that AEJMC’s new strategic plan passed.
Committee Reports
Francesca Carpentier, PF&R co-chair, reported that four PF&R co-sessions with other interest groups or divisions had been suggested for the convention and two were accepted. MC&S also co-sponsored four additional PF&R programs for a total of six. Attendance was pretty good, with 23 to 25 attendees on average per session. She also noted the panelists were an interesting mix of professionals and academicians. She asked for suggestions of PF&R activities for next year’s convention in Boston.
Frank Dardis, Teaching co-chair, reported that he would like to further promote the Promising Professors and Distringuished Educator competitions. He said no graduate students entered the former this year. He met with Graduate Education Interest Group head, Jessalyn Strauss, to brainstorm ways to publicize this opportunity.
Janet Bridges, Research co-chair, report that for the third year in a row MC&S had the highest number of research paper submissions. We received 150, of which seven were omitted because they either had identifying information for the authors or did not have any relevance to the division. Of the remainder, 74 papers were accepted and 69 rejected. A total of 88 people judged for the division this year. MC&S sponsored eight research sessions, including one poster and one scholar-to-scholar.
Donnalyn Pompper, Midwinter Research chair, said the conference was held Feb. 29 to March 1 at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. She praised Anthony Moretti’s efforts as organizer. Six MC&S sessions were held, with an average of 10 attendees per session. A total of 30 abstracts were submitted, and 20 were accepted. One was withdrawn because a graduate student was unable to secure funding to attend the conference. MC&S sponsored four paper sessions and two panels.
Updates and New Business
Martinelli discussed AEJMC President Charles Self’s charge for each division to develop a state of the discipline report. To meet this charge, she convened a panel of high-level professionals and noted academics at the Midwinter Conference. She also conducted an online member survey and discussed a few notable results. (A report on the results can be accessed from the division’s website.)
She also reported on the division’s financial health. The reserves totaled $13,500—the highest of any division or interest group.
Martinelli updated members on the previous year’s discussion about George Gladney’s Mass Communication & Society and Mass Comm Review archives. Concetta Seminara at Taylor & Francis is developing a digital archive of the journals. She believes the publisher has a complete archive. If not, the division will work to compile a complete set.
New business included two motions related to the journal. Both motions carried unapposed.
Motion One: Whereas the journal is one of the highest values for division members and elevating the journal’s stature is accomplished through publishing landmark research, therefore, at the editor’s discretion up to 100 pages may be added to the journal’s allotted size each year to provide space for a forum on a special topic determined by the editor with input from the editorial board. The additional pages will be paid for from journal funds. They special topic “symposium” will occur within the standard number of issues of the annual journal provided by the publisher. The editor may select a guest editor with expertise in the chosen topic. The guest editor must be a member of the Mass Communication and Society Division. The guest editor, in conjunction with the journal editor, will be responsible for issuing a special call for papers on the topic.
Motion Two: If a guest editor is chosen to edit a special topic symposium in any given year, $1,000 will be provided to the guest editor from journal funds upon submission of final symposium proofs to the publisher for printing.
Perry also mentioned the development of ethical guidelines for the journal. Members may view the proposed guidelines on the division’s website. Suggestions may be sent to sdperry@ilstu.edu.
Martinelli reported on efforts to brand the division more effectively, including the development of a standard letterhead for division-related correspondence.
Dan Haygood, Teaching co-chair, discussed efforts to promote the Promising Professors competition more robustly by developing its brand architecture. He said those efforts would be shared with the membership next year.
Donnalynn Pompper, Midwinter Research chair, noted that next year’s conference would be held at the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord School.
Martinelli proposed a motion increasing the monetary awards for the research paper competitions to match those of the Promising Professor competition. Members decided to try it for a year and evaluate the increases. The totals would be $250 for first place, $150 for second, and $75 for third. The motion passed unopposed.
Election of New Officers
Jennifer Greer introduced the slate of proposed new officers and opened the floor for nominations. Cory Armstrong nominated Michael McCluskey as Research co-chair. Lisa Paulin offered to serve as PF&R co-chair. Janet Bridges nominated Lauren Reichart to serve as Graduate co-liason. The following officers were elected unanimously.
Head: Jennifer Henderson, Trinity
Vice Head: Donnalynn Pompper, Temple
Teaching Co-chairs: Frank Dardis, Penn State, and Andrea Duke, Trinity
Research Co-chairs: Cory Armstrong, Florida, and Michael McClusky, Ohio State
PF&R Co-chairs: Francesca Dillman Carpentier, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Lisa Paulin, North Carolina Central
Secretary/Newsletter Editor: Cary Roberts Frith, Ohio
Webmaster: Kevin Williams, Mississippi State
Midwinter Chair: Janet Bridges
Graduate Student Co-liasons: Daren Brabham, Utah, and Lauren Reichert, UNLV
Martinelli called the meeting to a close at 8:45.
Respectfully submitted,
Cary Roberts Frith
Division Secretary
Division Head Marie Hardin convened meeting at 8:30 p.m.
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