Juanita Anderson has been named to the 2020 American Documentary (POV television series) editorial committee and has been appointed Resident Artist in Media Arts for The Carr Center in Detroit. Congratulations Juanita!

Dr. Stine Eckert and the WSU GEARS team recently received an NSF ADVANCE grant for their project ADVANCE Adaptation: Gender equity advances retention in STEM. Best wishes to Stine and the team on this important project! Read more about the WSU GEARS project and the NSF grant's contribution. 

Perry Farrell

Perry Farrell, our wonderful Internship Coordinator, has taken over as the faculty advisor for the Wayne State SPJ Student Chapter (Society of Professional Journalists). Despite last Spring’s shutdown of chapter activities due to COVID-19, Perry has been able to recruit students virtually and elected a new slate of officers. For students interested in joining SPJ, contact Perry Farrell or Elizabeth Washington. Thank you, Perry, for taking on this important role!

Dr. Jane Fitzgibbon was recently elected to the Policy Committee of the Academic Senate. She will serve in this important role through September 2021. Thank you for your service!

Dr. Michael Fuhlhage received the National Award for Excellence in Teaching from the American Journalism Historians Association. He is grateful for the way this place and all the people here have enabled his growth. Congratulations Michael! Read more about his teaching award.

Dr. Anita Mixon has earned a Top Paper Award for her paper, "Irene McCoy Gaines as Ruth Hannah McCormick's Rhetorical Black 'Voice,'" from the Public Address division of the National Communication Association. Congratulations Anita! 

Dr. Shelly Najor has received funding from the Ford Community Corp program (FCC) for the fourth consecutive year. Students in her 2021 Public Relations winter capstone course will work with the Penrickton Center for Blind Children to increase their visibility in the community, raise funds, and build community partnerships. In addition, Shelly's PR Learning Community was funded for the 10th consecutive year. Thank you Shelly, for your dedication to the PR program!

Dr. Hayg Oshagan was quoted in a Detroit News article about a “Detroiters’ Bill of Rights”. Read the article here. 

Dr. Donyale Padgett’s multicultural community engagement project with Gift of Life Michigan just won an industry award from their national organization, Donate Life American. They received the Pinnacle Award in the media category for their design of key messages and promotional efforts of the Let's Talk Campaign that they designed in 2019 to increase awareness of organ and tissue donation among multicultural communities. The ceremony is virtual and scheduled for October. Congratulations Donyale!

Dr. Colleen Ezzeddine and Dr. Donyale Padgett

This summer Dr. Donyale Padgett and Dr. Colleen Ezzeddine (adjunct faculty, COM 1010; PhD, 2006) designed and delivered online content for the Fulbright Gateway Virtual Orientation program on behalf of Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State. Offered through the WSU Office of International Programs, the orientation program was the largest single virtual program in WSU’s history and provided both synchronous and asynchronous content across multiple time zones to 915 Fulbright grantees from around the world. The goal of the orientation was to help the grantees understand requirements of their academic program, the importance of networking and provide a cultural introduction to the U.S. More than 40 volunteer WSU faculty and staff, including CFPCA advisor Maya Calloway Richardson, served as facilitators for the three-week program and moderated small group discussions. Donyale taught three components of the program: Cross Cultural Understanding, Navigating Interpersonal Relationships, and Conversation on Race. Colleen taught Networking Skills and wove networking throughout the entire program. Feedback received from grantees and sponsor both provided exemplary ratings for Colleen and Donyale. The program will run again in December for another 500 grantees.

Tonya Thomas (adjunct faculty for COM 2310) successfully served as project manager to assist in production and publication of the WSU Facilities Planning & Management COVID-19 Playbook & FAQ. In addition to her full-time appointment in FBO and dual teaching assignments, also spent time volunteering this summer as content SME and faculty mentor, assisting OTL with their Design Sprints. Among her contributions are a few “how to” videos, listed below:                           A Tour of Microsoft Teams Canvas Together (7:53 min) Whiteboarding with iOS screen recorder (4:05 min) Using Canvas Native Video/Audio Recording in Pages and Comments (6:58 min)                                                 Using Zoom to Create Video AND Audio-Only recordings (3:31 min)

Susan Palazzolo and Courtney Spivak

Susan Palazzolo (MA, 2006) and Courtney Spivak (MA, 2008) spent the month of July teaching weekly virtual summer camps for mostly 7-9-year-old children (Minecraft, Lego Movie Making, coding and game design with ClickTeam), and a week of 10-12-year-old campers for web design and photography. By the end of the month, they had become masters of communicating ideas virtually through different forms of media, live virtual demonstrations through second cameras, videos, and the ability to share screens back and forth with the children. It also prepared them for troubleshooting issues with internet connection, technology, virtual desktops and being able to explain how to make things work for a mixed audience (children, parents, grandparents). Palazzolo and Spivak now have a well-developed sense of humor and have learned to conduct virtual sessions, while being distracted by toys taking over student screens as well as giant eyeballs (and a nose) in the webcam to gain their attention.

Dr. Matt Seeger Ph.D. was interviewed for an NPR story that aired on 9/14 about President Trump downplaying the risks of the coronavirus. Listen to the NPR interview.

Scott Burgess gives insight into his experience teaching abroad; Amna Hussain talks about connecting with students remotely; Chris Gilbert walks through using Splashtop to provide students remote access to class; the Business School gives friendly advice.

The Film, Media Studies, and TV Production students have been busy staying safe and learning the art of production. Thank you to all MAER staff for supporting students and faculty alike!   

Congratulations Jessica Taylor and Quintin Banks! Read about these student journalists at the NABJ-NAHJ Convention.

Senior JIM members Omar Abdel-Baqui and Slone Terranella are both reporting for the Detroit Free Press.

This fall, senior members Omar Abdel-Baqui and Slone Terranella are both reporting for the Detroit Free Press. Abdel-Baqui returned for his fourth year at the Freep after completing his second summer interning for the NBC News Investigation Unit, remotely. Terranella scored a big back-to-school story about strikes at U-M during her first month on the job. Sophomore Jenna Prestininzi is the managing editor at The South End.

This year’s Society of Professional Journalist's (SPJ) President is Elizabeth Washington, Vice President is Crystal Jeffrey, Secretary is Cayla Orns, and Treasurer is Erin Griffin.

The group has been busy this month with Elizabeth Washington participating in the national SPJ virtual conference. The group also had a Zoom Q & A with Ken Kal, the voice of the Red Wings. They have professional journalists scheduled to speak on September 25th and 28th.

Dr. Kim Piper-Aiken is pleased to report that MetroArts Detroit has started production on Season 10. As one of the small amount of face-to-face classes on campus this semester, the COM 5610 Advanced TV Production students are following a COVID-19 Safety Protocol in the studio, which consists of social distancing, wearing masks, and sanitizing measures. Here on campus, all faculty, staff, and students complete a daily health screening questionnaire to ensure additional safety. Their first task was to hold host auditions, which are normally held in April. This year, Miranda Bryant will be the Season 10 host. She is a Media Arts and Studies MA student. She says she is completely obsessed with media from television and film, to interactive media. She says she loves that the media industry is shaped by the sheer diversity and quality of people and ultimately creates a motivating and fun culture. Miranda says her ultimate goal is to become a TV host or producer for a major network after graduating.

During the summer, Clara also worked with the Department of Family Medicine from Henry Ford Health System (through WSU Humanities Clinic Internship - other students in our department also participated in this program).

Erin Perry, a third-year doctoral student in the department, presented a group paper titled “Ventriloquism as a Communicative Strategy of Journalists on Twitter” at the first virtual national conference for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in August. The paper’s co-authors are Ashley Teffer, Crystal Coleman and Subhashini Padney, all of whom recently graduated from Wayne State University with master’s degrees. In addition, President M. Roy Wilson has invited Erin to serve on the Social Justice Action Committee as a member of the Student Access and Success Working Group. The committee will drive culture change and foster a climate of inclusion and equity throughout the university. If you have ideas about how to improve student access and success at all levels of study, email Erin at erinperry@wayne.edu, and she will present your feedback to the committee. 

Scott Burgess is now a full-time faculty member at Canadian University Dubai.

Congratulations Scott! 

Seven Public Relations students will participate in virtual PRSSA International Conference ICON 2020: Navigating a World Disrupted on Oct 26 - 29.

Learn about this PRSSA virtual conference. 

Congratulations Stanislav Kozadayev, who successfully defended his dissertation.

The project titled "Sophists, Systems, and Skills: New Directions for Style Theory" was directed by Patricia McCormick and Mary Garrett (committee of Karen McDevitt, Kelly Young, and Steve Shapiro (English)) and defended on August 31.

• Eckert, S., & Riftkin-Metzger, J. (2020). Doxxing, privacy and gendered harassment. The shock and normalization of veillance cultures. M&K Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft, 68(3), 273-287. https://doi.org/10.5771/1615-634X-2020-3-273

• Ketchum, C., LaFave, D., Yeats, C., Phompheng, E., & Hardy, J. H. (2020). Video-based Feedback on Student Work: An Investigation into the Instructor Experience, Workload, and Student Evaluations. Online learning: The official journal of OLC, 24(3). https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/index

• Metzger-Riftkin, J., Albrehi, F., Akhther, N., Harb, F., Steiner, L., & Eckert, S. (2020). Academic sexual misconduct on U.S. campuses – Arising questions and concerns about the Practice of mandatory reporting. Media Report to Women, 48(3).

• Sweet-Cushman, J., Herring, M., Vultee, F., & Prough, E. (2020). Who Dominates the Conversation? The Effect of Gender, Discussion Format, and Controversy on Political Discussion. Feminist Media Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1808036

• Vera-Burgos, C., & Padgett, D. R. (2020). Using Twitter for crisis communciations in a natural disaster: Hurricane Harvey. Heliyon, 6(9), e04804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04804

• Vultee, F. (2020). Potato chips, botulism and carbon monoxide: The lying-bullshitting distinction in "fake news." In Fake News! Misinformation in the media, LSU Press. (Ed: Josh Grimm.)

• Vultee, F., Burgess, G.S., Frazier, D., & Mesmer, K. (2020). Here’s what to know about clickbait: Effects of image, headline and processing choices on audience attitudes. Journalism Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1793379

Justice Leaders Collaborative (JLC)—a new organization that emerged from Allies for Change—has been given responsibility for coordinating future Doing Our Own Work (DOOW) workshops at Wayne State, and while in-person DOOW is not being offered for the foreseeable future, they have created an intensive virtual experience: “White People Working for Racial Justice”. This is a four-week (four hours per session) program beginning September 26 and continuing for four weeks through October 17, and meets from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. with breaks for lunch. It will be co-facilitated by two veteran DOOW facilitators, Lois McCullen Parr and Autumn Butler. Cost: $395. To register or to learn more, visit: https://www.justiceleaderscollaborative.com/upcoming-events/white-people-working-for-racial-justice

The Forensic Union, Department, and University are working together to host a virtual DebateWatch event on Thursday, October 15th at 8:30 p.m. for this year’s presidential election.

The Journalism program is preparing for a virtual Internship Fair for students from across the Department of Communication. This year's Internship Fair will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, Oct. 21 from 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. The first hour is a session with all recruiters, designed to expose the maximum number of students to general information about various media outlets and departments. Each recruiter will then host an individual zoom room, providing students with direct contact to recruiters. Students who RSVP with Internship Coordinator Perry Farrell at gl2760@wayne.edu will receive the link to join the event. Professional attire, resumes and work samples are all requested. Alicia Nails worked to create a flyer, please share widely with your students.

Ofield Dukes Diversity Summit

The annual Ofield Dukes Diversity Summit will be held virtually on Tuesday evening Nov. 10 from 6:00p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Shelly Najor and Alicia Nails will provide more details as the event takes shape. 

Details for each month's discussion can be found on the Institute for Public Relations website!