Richard M. Fairbanks Chair of Communication

At our College of Communication meeting last week, Dean Jay Howard announced that he named me the Richard M. Fairbanks Chair of Communication. This is a great honor and I am so thankful!

Department of Entertainment Media and Journalism Retreat

My department had a retreat today to prepare for the coming academic year. Here we all are!

Fellow for AEJMC's Institute for Diverse Leadership

I am  happy to announce that I was selected to be a fellow for the AEJMC's Institute for Diverse Leadership for 2018-2019. Fellows will meet several times over the next year and will also be assigned a mentor. Very exciting!

Creating Meaningful Writing Assignments

I came across this article, Will They Remember Writing It?, in The Chronicle of Higher Education recently. It really made me think about what kinds of writing assignments my students complete. For writing assignments to be meaningful, the author cites research from the book "The Meaningful Writing Project." He lists three factors: 1. Give students a say 2. Engage them actively, not passively 3. Make sure it transfers. After discussing this with my students, they agreed that they will not remember papers that only test "content." I am going to make some changes to my final writing assignments this year.

Most downloaded articles in CCom during 2016/2017

I received an award yesterday for the faculty member in the College of Communication with the most downloaded articles on Butler University's Digital Commons website during the last academic year. In total, my work has been downloaded 5,702 times, and during the last year I had 1,136 downloads. The article that has most downloads over time (1,718) is "Women and News: Making Connections between the Global and the Local," which was published in Feminist Media Studies in 2009, followed by "Women Making News: Gender and Media in South Africa," published as an invited article in Global Media Journal in 2008 (1,151). Most of the downloads came from the United States (1,072), followed by the United Kingdom (272), South Africa (246), China (163) and India (124). Altogether, my work has been downloaded in 111 countries. Glad to see people are looking at my research!

With Provost Kate Morris (left) and my colleague Allison Harthcock, who had the single article with most downloads over the last year.

Write every day?

Like many of my colleagues, I often think about the best ways to be productive in research and writing. A few years ago, I read Robert Boice's book, "Advice for New Faculty Members," and it made a big impact on me. Boice believes you should write every day to be productive. Yet, this seems impossible during busy times of the semester. Today I read an article by Helen Sword, titled "'Write every day!': a mantra dismantled."

From the article:

"Instead of lecturing academics on the 'right way to write,' I offer them a menu of choices, a smorgasbord of possibilities: feasts rather than binges, nourishing diets rather than punishing purges. ... I suggest strategies for explicitly linking productivity with craftsmanship, people, and pleasure: for example, by reading books and attending workshops or courses that will make them feel more confident in their writing style; by forming collaborative relationships premised on emotional support rather than on disciplinary sanctions; and by seeking out writing venues filled with light and air" (Sword, 2016, p. 320-321).

I am putting Sword's book, "Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write" on my reading list!

References:
Boice, R. (2000). Advice for New Faculty Members. Pearson.
Sword, H. (2016). "Write every day!": a mantra dismantled. International Journal for Academic Development, pp. 312-322.
Sword, H. (2017). Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write. Harvard University Press.

Butler Homecoming

Our spot

This past weekend was Homecoming Weekend at Butler, and the College of Communication was well represented. Thanks to Scott Bridge and Armando Pellerano for organizing the tailgate party! It is always good to see our alums back at Butler.

SPJ/Google News Lab training

Mike Reilley

Tonight, I am attending an SPJ/Google News Lab training by Mike Reilley at Butler. So far, he has covered a variety of interesting things, including Google Lens, Google Scholar, and Google Trends.