2008 Communicator

2008 Vol.30 No.1

Back to school Alumni donate time and expertise to the College

Unique gift for

The first Lady four Media Pioneers Inducted into the

Hall of Fame

Communicator A publication of the College of Communication and Information Sciences Communicator Editorial Board Loy Singleton Dean Bonnie LaBresh Development Director Bruce Berger Chair, Advertising and Public Relations Beth Bennett Chair, Communication Studies Jennifer Greer Chair, Journalism Gary Copeland Chair, Telecommunication and Film Elizabeth Aversa Director, School of Library and Information Studies Elizabeth Brock Director, Center for Public Television and Radio Bill Evans Director, Institute for Communication and Information Research Pam Tran Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Student Services Caryl Cooper Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Studies

D e a n ’ s

M e ss a g e

Dr. Loy Singleton, Dean, College of Communication and Information Sciences

Pay It Forward — C&IS Style

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n the 2000 film “Pay It Forward,” a young boy creates change for good in his community by doing favors for people and urging them, rather than paying him back, to “pay it forward” by doing favors for others and, in turn, urging them to do the same. As more and more people begin to “pay it forward,” the amount of good done in the community grows exponentially.

Here in Phifer Hall, you can see a C&IS version Dr. Loy Singleton of that positive dynamic at work every day. Classes and workshops are taught by visiting alumni who once were taught by visiting alumni themselves. Students are supported by scholarships provided by alumni who themselves once had scholarships. Alums return and interview students for positions in their media businesses. When you talk with these alumni they take great pride and deep satisfaction in being able to return the generosity of those who went before them by helping those who follow them. As you read this issue of the Communicator, I know you’ll share my pride in the many ways our alumni are finding to “pay it forward.”

Jennings Bryant Associate Dean, Graduate Studies Megan Courington President, Student Executive Council Communicator Staff Publisher — Loy Singleton, Dean Editor — Deidre Stalnaker Designer — Doug Shinholster Proofreader — Cathy Butler The Communicator is published by the Capstone Communication Society and C&IS. Its purpose is to keep friends and alumni informed about the programs, services and activities of the College and abreast of developments in the field of communication.

Send mail for the Communicator to The University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences Box 870172 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0172 For address changes, alumni notes or story ideas, e-mail sammie@ua.edu.

On the Cover: Jan Crawford Greenburg

Advancing the Democratic Arts

Ed i t o r ’ s

M e ss a g e

Deidre Stalnaker, Editor, Communicator

Looking Forward The Communicator has always been a look back and a look forward, wrapping up the year and giving a taste of what’s to come. This issue, however, looks forward in an additional way: it’s part of a series of updates the College is making in communications with its current and future students, alumni and friends. We’re revising and modernizing almost everything produced by the College to more accurately reflect what’s happening here.

I’d appreciate your feedback, comments and ideas. Please call me at (205) 348-6416 or e-mail me at dstalnaker@ur.ua.edu.

Deidre Stalnaker

Contents 2008 Vol.30 No.1

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Back to school

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One of a kind

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A unique gift

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A new multimedia home

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C&IS alumni and friends head back to the classroom to donate time and expertise to inspire the future of the industry.

Alumna Betsy Plank donates a rare collection of photos and books inscribed by the legendary Helen Keller.

Book Arts professor and student design and create a book, family history tree and presentation box for First Lady Laura Bush.

The College looks to build a state-of-the-art multimedia learning center in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

In good company Four distinguished media pioneers were inducted into the College’s Hall of Fame, marking the 10th class of inductees.

16 Outstanding Alumni Awards 20 Division Notes 25 Alumni Notes

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Going Back to School Alumni donate time and expertise to the College to educate tomorrow’s practitioners.

Jan Crawford Greenburg, JN 1987, speaks to students in a media law class

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ndustry professionals, a good number of them C&IS alumni, head back to classrooms in Reese Phifer Hall and Gorgas Library – not to earn a degree, but to teach the next generation. Some teach semester after semester, others just visit for a day and speak to students.

Ranging from panel discussions to visiting lectures to full courses, students have the opportunity to learn from and study under award-winning writers, acclaimed directors and, to be frank, communication industry legends.

“Our students are typically excited about their respective Capstone courses,” Dean Loy Singleton says, “but visits of practicing industry professionals, many who are alums, truly inspire our students.”

In fall of 2006 Dr. Bruce Berger, chairman of the department of advertising and public relations, along with the rest of the APR team, had “PR Day” where a number of PR professionals held panel discussions and Q&A sessions throughout the day. The event was so well received that the department held “Ad Day” last fall. They plan to alternate PR and Ad Days each year.

Jan Crawford Greenburg, a 1987 graduate and an ABC News legal correspondent based in Washington, D.C. covering the Supreme Court and national legal issues, spoke as the William Randolph Hearst professional in residence to journalism and media law classes in March.

Greenburg provides legal analysis for all ABC News platforms. Her book on the Supreme Court, “Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court,” looks at the making of the current United States Supreme Court.

Robert Walp, a 2006 graduate of the MFA program in the book arts, taught a workshop on artistic plate making. His work can be found in many collections including The University of Vermont Bailey Library, Dartmouth College Rauner Library, Brown University Rockefeller Library in Providence, R.I., The Library of Congress, The New York Public Library and The Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vt.

In the spring semesters, Tom Cherones, a noted director, whose résumé includes “Seinfeld” and “Desperate Housewives”, teaches an advanced production course.

“Students get the opportunity to work sideby-side with a seasoned Hollywood director,” said Joey Goodsell, TCF instructor. “The course is designed to replicate what it is like

Noted filmmaker and producer shared film with students Distinguished filmmaker John Sayles and producer Maggie Renzi screened the West Alabama premier of their award-winning film “Honeydripper” at the Bama Theatre Feb. 4, sponsored in part by the University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences.

Before the film screening, Sayles and Renzi met with telecommunication and film students

to discuss the movie-making process.

“Honeydripper” received the 2007 Best Screenplay Award at the San Sebastián International

Film Festival. The film is set during the 1950s rural blues scene in the fictional town of Harmony, Ala. The story depicts a second chance for an aging bluesman, a kickoff to a young guitarist’s career and the rise of rock ‘n roll.

to shoot a 30-minute short such as a pilot episode for a TV series.”

“The Tom Cherones experience is the class that I’ll never be able to hype enough,” said Joe Borden, a 2003 TCF graduate and an associate producer on Talkshow with Spike Feresten, a late night program that airs on Fox. “It sort of brought together all the other classes I had taken and turned them into real world, hands-on learning.”

Of course not all guest speakers are alumni. The College collaborates with other universities to share expertise. Dr. T. Scott Plutchak, director of the Lister Hill Medical Library of the Health Sciences at UAB, is a frequent presenter in SLIS courses in medical informatics and health sciences librarianship.

Plutchak is a former editor of the Journal of the Medical Library Association, a high impact refereed journal in medical librarianship, and a popular blogger. His special interests include the issue of open access to information. u

Alumna Donates Rare Collection of Books Inscribed

by Helen Keller “These are so cool!” said Jessica LacherFeldman, W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library outreach services coordinator, while thumbing through a mound of books written and signed by legendary activist Helen Keller and donated by University of Alabama alumna Betsy Plank.

The compilation of books, which was on display in the Hoole Library, was donated by Plank, a 1944 graduate of UA who has attained national and international stature during a distinguished career in corporate and agency public relations.

“Helen Keller often gave copies of her books to her dear friend, Adelyn Hood, my aunt, a native of Tuscaloosa and alumna of the University,” Plank said. “They met and became fast friends when Miss Keller lived in Connecticut and my aunt lived in New York City. Adelyn was a frequent guest of Miss Keller, her teacher Annie Sullivan and companion Polly Thompson, often playing the piano while Miss Keller ‘listened’ with her fingers.”

The collection includes “Helen Keller’s Journal,” “Midstream: My Later Life,” “Anne Sullivan Macy: The Story Behind Helen Keller” and a framed photograph 6

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world, documents the unique cultural and historical experience of Alabama.

Keller, a Tuscumbia, Alabama native and member of the inaugural inductee class of the C&IS Communication Hall of Fame, became the first blind and deaf person to communicate effectively, largely through the efforts of her teacher Anne Sullivan, a partially blind orphan.

Known as public relations’ First Lady, Plank was the first woman elected president of the Public Relations Society of America, and the first person to receive PRSA’s two top professional honors: the Gold Anvil as the nation’s outstanding professional and the Lund Award for exemplary civic and community service.

Plank credits The University of Alabama for much of her success. She says the Capstone provided an outstanding foundation for her career. “The University gave me those rich disciplines which have served so faithfully throughout a professional lifetime,” she said. u

“Helen Keller often gave copies of her books to her dear friend, Adelyn Hood, my aunt, a native of Tuscaloosa and alumna of the University,” Plank said. of Keller, Sullivan and Polly Thompson, signed “To Sweet Adeline with happy memories, May 1928, Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy, Polly Thomson.” One of the books, “Helen Keller’s Journal” has an inscription to Plank’s mother: “To Bettye Hood Plank from her loving friend Helen Keller, March 1934.”

The Helen Keller materials are part of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library’s Alabama Collection. The Alabama Collection, long recognized as the premiere collection of Alabama materials in the

A Unique Gift For

The First Lady

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First Lady Laura Bush knows books. She was, after all, a librarian.

But at a Washington luncheon held in her honor she received one book she hasn’t read.

Linda Bachus, wife of Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus, was chair of the luncheon and therefore had the task of choosing a theme and finding a gift for the First Lady. “Finding a gift for Mrs. Bush is a challenge,” said Bachus. “It’s difficult to come up with something unique and meaningful.”

Deciding on Southern culture as the luncheon theme since she and Bush are both Southerners, with the hospitality, warmth and family often associated with the term, Bachus talked with friends and other Congressional spouses about fitting gift ideas. She discovered that a study of Bush’s maternal genealogical history had been done, but not one of her father’s side of the family.

She commissioned Elizabeth Wells, coordinator of the special collection department of the Samford University Library, with tracing the Welch family history.

Bachus then called on Steve Miller, associate professor and coordinator of the book arts graduate program, to design and build a book, family history tree and a presentation box.

Miller designed and Amy Pirkle, a graduate student in the program, built two books – one for the First Lady and one for her mother.

“It was perfectly in taste and very attractive,” Bachus said. “Steve was just fabulous, even within a limited time. Everyone thought it was great.

I received a note from Mrs. Bush that they (her family) were thrilled, thanks to Steve.” The clamshell design featured a mix of blues and greens, the First Lady’s favorite colors.

Students in the book arts graduate program build books the traditional way, creating one-of-a-kind pieces of art. The program has a book bindery, type shop, hand papermaking mill and a papermaking plant fiber research garden on campus where students and faculty can grow their own materials.

These resources help students develop truly unique books. u 2008

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A Multimedia Learning Center: A New Home in Bryant-Denny Stadium Components include: • WUOA/WVUA • Alabama Public Radio • Center for Public Television and Radio Production House • Telecommunication and Film Department

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n 2004, The University of Alabama received a multi-million dollar gift and became only the second university in the United States to hold the license of a full-power commercial television station. Assuming ownership of WUOA-TV significantly expanded the media portfolio of the University’s top-ranked College of Communication and Information Sciences, providing students a full spectrum of real life experience in television, radio, newspaper and online media.

In 2006, UA marked another major accomplishment with the completion of the north end zone expansion to Bryant-Denny Stadium and the new history-laden plaza.

Today the Capstone is poised to combine these two assets in the University of Alabama Radio and Television Production Center, a state-of-the-art media facility housed in the expanded Bryant-Denny Stadium. From this high-visibility location, the Production Center will capture athletic, cultural and entertainment content from the state’s flagship university and make it available to audiences throughout Alabama.

The Center will house a full range of media assets, providing unparalleled programming and educational opportunities. The 40,000 square foot facility will offer a high-end production, research and learning environment for students, faculty and staff, resulting in unique and valuable programming.

The Center will be an enormous asset for the people of Alabama and their flagship university. When WUOA’s full-power signal reaches throughout the Birmingham market and cash flow passes the $3.5 million mark, the value of the broadcast operation alone has been estimated to be in excess of $7 million.

The Production Center will be the catalyst for disseminating throughout the state a wide variety of cultural, informational, sports and entertainment programming. In the process, Alabama can point the way to a brighter future for one of the most omnipresent features of America’s human landscape, television.

For more information contact Bonnie LaBresh at (205) 348-5868 or blabresh@ua.edu u

CASON AWARD HONORS PULITZER-PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR HANK KLIBANOFF Hank Klibanoff, a managing editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and co-author of “The Race Beat,” received the 2008 Clarence Cason Award in Nonfiction Writing.

Klibanoff has had a long and distinguished career in journalism. The Florence native earned his bachelor’s degree at Washington University in St. Louis and his master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University. He has been a reporter

for the Florence Times-Daily, the Biloxi Sun-Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Boston Globe. He joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a managing editor in 2002.

“The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation,” which Klibanoff wrote with Gene Roberts, former editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer and former managing editor of The New York Times, looks at news coverage of the civil rights movement in the South – the black press, Northern press, Southern liberal and segregationist press,

television and photojournalism from the 1930s through the late 1960s.

The journalism department established the Cason Award in 1997 to honor exemplary nonfiction over a long career. All of the recipients have had strong connections to the state of Alabama. u

PLANK CENTER LAUNCHES STUDENT-CREATED ONLINE MAGAZINE PLATFORM The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations recently launched Platform, an online magazine designed and produced by UA public relations students for other public relations students, educators and professionals nationwide.

“In line with the ideas of Web 2.0, Platform was created by nine students in our program as an interactive forum in the field,” said Dr. Bruce Berger, professor and chair of the advertising and public relations department and founding director of The Plank Center. “Students designed and developed all the content for the site to encourage connections among students, teachers and professionals and create a community for sharing ideas and information.”

Content includes interviews with students, academics and practitioners about careers, ethics, leadership, diversity and technology. Visitors also can take a series of AP style quizzes, tune into a podcast, link to a variety of online resources in public relations, e-mail sources featured on the site and post notes on the site’s blog.

Students created Platform as a special project for a campaigns class. UA graduate and Birmingham Web designer Ryan Burnett of Burnett Communications developed the site’s infrastructure.

Students continue to work on it as part of an APR course.

The magazine placed first in two Public Relations Council of Alabama statewide Medallion Award categories – one for Web Design and one for Special PR Program – short term. u

Students went to the Public Relations Student Society of America convention in Philadelphia to display Platform.

Pictured are Erin Ireland, Betsy Plank and Christina Palma

Find it online at www.platformmagazine.com

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James D. Ramer, Founding Dean Of UA School Of Library And Information Studies, Dies Dr. James D. Ramer, founding dean of the School of Library and Information Studies, died Sept. 27, 2007 at the age of 80.

Ramer was named the first dean of UA’s library school, then known as the Graduate School of Library Service, in 1971, and served as dean and professor until his retirement in 1988. Ramer was responsible for developing UA’s Master of Library Service degree program as well as the Educational Specialist degree in librarianship and the Master of Fine Arts degree in the book arts. He also developed the

Ph.D. program in librarianship, which was implemented just after his retirement.

Ramer came to UA from Emory University where he was an associate professor in the division of librarianship.

The faculty of the School of Library Service, friends and associates established the James D. Ramer Endowed Library Service Fellowship Fund in his honor. The fund provides fellowships to deserving graduate students in the UA library studies program.

Ramer also established the James D. Ramer Endowed Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, to be awarded each year for the best dissertation written by a doctoral student in the UA School of Library and Information Studies. The award was also funded by a gift from EBSCO Industries.

Memorial gifts may be made to Hospice of West Alabama, The University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies’ scholarship program or the Tuscaloosa Public Library. u

Center for Public Television and Radio Produces Two Award-Winning Documentaries

UA Alumnus and TV Journalist Taylor Henry Wins DuPont Award, Broadcasting’s “Pulitzer Prize”

Two documentaries from the UA Center for Public Television and Radio were presented awards at the 10th annual George Lindsey UNA Film Festival.

Both documentaries highlighting music subjects were screened at Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals. The Center’s producer/ director Max Shores’ entry “Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour” received the Golden Lion Award for Best Professional Documentary and the Clyde ‘Sappo’ Black Sweet Home Alabama Award for Best Alabama Film. The documentary focuses on a unique musical subject, a one-man-band who became popular through his sidewalk performances on Beale Street in Memphis. The film has been shown previously at nine festivals.

Dwight Cammeron, programming director and coordinator for documentary studies, directed the film “Eric Essix: At Home,” a documentary that focuses on the life of Birmingham jazz guitarist Eric Essix, the youngest person to be inducted into Alabama’s Jazz Hall of Fame among jazz legends Nat King Cole and Sun Ra. The film received the Golden Lion Award for Best Faculty Film. The documentary recently was selected for screening at the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee in April.

Cammeron, Shores and Tony Holt attended the screenings to answer questions from the audience. Holt, a recent UA retiree, recorded and mixed the sound for both documentaries. u

A television series of investigative reports by University of Alabama alumnus and TV journalist Taylor Henry Sr. won the nationally prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award for excellence in broadcast journalism.

The series, called “Names, Ranks and Serial Plunder: the National Guard and Katrina,” exposed rogue members of the Louisiana National Guard who looted stores they were deployed to protect in the New Orleans area during Katrina. It aired August 28-31, 2006, one year to the week after the hurricane made landfall, on Monroe TV station KNOE (CBS), where Henry is news director.

The duPont Awards, which Columbia has administered since 1968, are considered the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes.

KNOE’s entry was among only 13 selected of 510 submitted by television and radio stations and networks nationwide to receive a 2008 duPont.

In its descriptions of the winning entries, Columbia describes “Names, Ranks & Serial Plunder” as a series of “powerful reports” built on “enterprising interviews.” Henry is credited as the producer, reporter and writer.

Henry earned a master’s degree in mass communication from the College of Communication and Information Sciences in 2000 after completing course work in the department of telecommunication and film. u

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Cartee Named Consultant to World Bank Dr. Karen Johnson Cartee, a professor of advertising and public relations, will be part of a nucleus of external consultants who will work for the development communication division of the World Bank and whose work will serve as the springboard for the upcoming Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP).

CommGAP will be a five-year, five million pounds sterling, multidonor trust fund, which seeks innovative communication approaches to support governance and accountability programs, not only within the World Bank funded-programs, but also within the governing cultures of targeted developing nations.

Cartee was one of only two female academicians invited to present her research at the “Conference for Governance Reform under Real World Conditions: A Dialogue on Communication Challenges” held in Washington, D.C., in May 2007. Twenty internationally renowned scholars, media figures, political consultants and technocrats from 11 countries attended the conference.

In all, 13 academicians, all from the United States, participated in the conference, representing a variety of public and private colleges and universities across the nation (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Temple, Georgetown University, Michigan State University, University of Kansas and UA).

Cartee’s conference comments, as well as her paper, “Global Transformational Framing of Public Information Campaigns: Overcoming Resistance and Apathy in Targeted Populations,” will appear as part of a major World Bank-sponsored research publication, tentatively titled, “Governance Reform under Real World Conditions: Persuasion, Coalitions, and Pro-Poor Change,” which will be edited and published by the Bank’s Communication for Governance and Accountability Program next year.

The World Bank will utilize the book in training reform agents for future projects. In addition, this core group of scholars and practitioners will continue to work with the World Bank in developing the upcoming Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP). u

Communication Studies Department Chair Recognized With UA Top Teaching Award The University of Alabama National Alumni Association named Dr. Beth S. Bennett as one of the four 2007 recipients of the University’s highest honor for excellence in teaching, the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Awards.

Established in 1976, OCTA recognizes dedication to the teaching profession and the positive impact outstanding teachers have on their students.

Bennett joined the UA faculty in 1981 as an assistant professor in the department of speech communication, now communication studies. As a faculty member she has taught more than 18 courses ranging from foundational undergraduate courses, such as rhetoric and society, to core courses in the department’s master’s program and in the C&IS doctoral program.

She has directed 12 master’s theses, two of which were recognized as the Outstanding Thesis from C&IS in 2004 and 2005. In 1998, she was appointed graduate program director and in 2005 she was named department chair.

Bennett has been a member of the Alabama Speech Discipline Committee for the General Studies and Articulation Committees since 1996 and has helped set the criteria for a general studies speech course elective in the humanities. She has been a member of the Honors College Council since it was created and regularly teaches an Honors Critical Decision Making course. She also assisted in the launching of the Moral Forum initiative in 2006, under the direction of Stephen Black, lecturing to and helping judge student participants.

Bennett has given more than 40 scholarly presentations and published more than 25 essays in journals and books. She studies the historical development of rhetorical theory and practice from the classical period to the present. u

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MediA Pioneers

Hall of Fame

Inducted into

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distinguished communication pioneers were inducted into the College’s Hall of Fame on Oct. 25, 2007.

This marked the tenth class of inductees into the Hall of Fame, which was established by the C&IS Board of Visitors in 1998 to honor, preserve and perpetuate the names and accomplishments of civic and communication personalities who have brought lasting fame to the state of Alabama.

The Communication Hall of Fame Gallery is located in the rotunda of Reese Phifer Hall on the UA campus. Permanent archives are maintained for the collection of memorabilia related to the lives and careers of those chosen for placement in the Hall of Fame.

James Barton

was devoted to helping reporters investigate and report their stories over a legal career spanning 55 years.

An editorial in The Birmingham News, which Barton had represented, at the time of Barton’s death stated that he helped that newspaper and others “vigorously report news by defending against libel or defamation suits that would sometimes spring from tough stories, and by pushing the paper’s legal right to public information from public agencies.” His law partner Gilbert E. Johnston Jr., calls Barton “the dean of the First Amendment bar in Alabama for many, many years.”

A graduate of The University of Alabama and the UA Law School, Barton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1944 and served as a fighter pilot. In Birmingham, he was an attorney with the Johnston, Barton, Proctor & Powell firm. The legal community recognized James Barton’s contributions in many ways; in 2002 he was chosen as the Outstanding Lawyer of the Year of the Birmingham Bar Association, was named in the “The Best Lawyers in America” in the First Amendment category, was appointed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to its Disciplinary Committee, and, based on his love of the outdoors, was appointed as a special Deputy Attorney General for the State of Alabama in the 1970s, to work in the area of environmental matters. u

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L to R: Jim Barton Jr., Dean Loy Singleton, Olivia Ferriter, Barbara Lanier and John Cochran.

William H. “Bill ” Melson

During the years Melson served as dean, 1976-1983, his professionalism, leadership and devotion to education laid the groundwork for the College as it is today.

Since its inception in 1973, the College has grown to be one of the top 10 largest programs in the country, with enrollment growing from 275 to more than 2,300 students, nationally and internationally recognized faculty, and facilities for teaching and research, for broadcast, graphics, print, communication performance and new technology education and training among the best in the nation. “Bill is the architect of the current College of Communication and Information Sciences, a national powerhouse in all aspects of academic and professional communication,” said Dr. Ed Mullins, retired journalism professor and former dean of the College. “Under him, C&IS became a first tier school and has remained so ever since.”

Dean Melson led the way for the program to regain ACEJMC accreditation. He oversaw the renovation of the main wing of what is now known as Reese Phifer Hall and wrote the final proposal to begin a Ph.D. program in mass communication.

In 1983 Melson stepped down as dean but continued to teach in the department of advertising and public relations until 1992. In the year he retired, he gave the commencement speech at the College of Communication’s graduation ceremony, telling the students that “You and I are together at important junctions in our lives.

But, whereas I’m ending a career, you are beginning yours.” After giving the graduates some practical advice about job-searching, he went on to say, “Education should have prepared you not just for your career and the sustenance of life, but for the improvement, enjoyment and celebration of life.” u

L to R: Dean Loy Singleton, John Cochran and Bill Melson.

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Mignon Comer Smith

Carrying on a family tradition that goes back more than a century, Smith has worked for the betterment of Alabama and Alabamians throughout her life, in journalism, politics and higher education.

Senator Richard Shelby says Smith is “pleasant, diligent, honest . . . she comes from a distinguished Alabama family. She’s had a lot and she’s given a lot.” He adds that she knows how to work hard but has “a great sense of humor.”

Smith has lived for many years in Washington, D.C., where she worked as Washington correspondent for the Alabama Radio Network for more than 30 years. A member of the Congressional Radio & TV Galleries, National Press Club, and a White House news correspondent, in February 2007 she was honored by the Alabama Broadcasters’ Association with the award of Lifetime Membership.

Smith recently established the J. Craig and Page T. Smith Scholarship Foundation, an endowment charged with choosing worthy high school graduates for full college scholarships.

Unlike most scholarships, these do not require straight A’s or top test scores but rather reward students who have worked hard for their family and community, perhaps while overcoming economic or familial hardships. Most scholarship recipients are the first in their families to attend college and would not otherwise have been able to seek higher education. u

L to R: John Cochran, Mignon Comer Smith and Dean Loy Singleton.

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Charles Moore

L to R: John Cochran, Charles Moore and Dean Loy Singleton.

developed an interest in art and in photography and became skilled enough, at age 17, to be admitted into the United States Marine Corps school for combat photography. Moore would, in the course of his career, see a lot of combat, most of it here in America, on the streets of Oxford, Miss., and Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma.

After the Marine Corps, Moore briefly trained to photograph fashion models, but this, fortunately for the civil rights movement, was not to be. In 1957 Moore returned to Alabama, to work at the Montgomery Advertiser.

Moore began what was to be the most important work of his career covering Dr. King and SCLC meetings, and arrests, in Montgomery. It was his photo that depicted Dr. King being booked at the Montgomery police station on Sept. 3, 1958. Leaving the paper to work as a southern photojournalist for the Black Star photo agency, later under contract to Life magazine, Moore would document and show to the world what was happening in the South, from Ole Miss to Selma and beyond.

At the Ole Miss riots, with only a limited supply of film, and shooting with a gas mask on, Moore took the photos that showed how violent the resistance to the civil rights movement was likely to become. Rep. John Lewis, himself a profile in courage, praises Moore’s “raw courage.” Lewis points out that “During those days, it was very dangerous to have a camera.”

Reporters as well as activists were targets.

The Marine-trained combat photographer gained worldwide acclaim with his photographs. The best are collected in “Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore.”

Moore, now residing in Florence, also covered conflicts in places such as the Dominican Republic and Vietnam. u

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Four University of Alabama alumni were presented Outstanding Alumni Awards from the College of Communication and Information Sciences during 2007 Honors Week activities.

Outstanding Alumni In Telecommunication and Film

In Advertising and Public Relations Norma Saliba Hanson is founder of Norma Hanson & Associates, a marketing and advertising agency in Dothan.

Upon receiving her B.A. in 1957, she began her career as a broadcast buyer at Tucker Wayne, now West Wayne in Atlanta, and later worked as a consultant for Design Associates. In 1980, she co-founded the preeminent advertising and design firm, Slaughter-Hanson, with offices in Dothan and Birmingham.

From 1993-2005 she worked as an independent consultant in marketing, advertising and business development.

Then in 2005, still full of energy and ideas, she founded her current agency.

She received the Advertising Pioneer Award from the Southeast Alabama Advertising Federation in 2004, was featured as one of the Women Who Mean Business by Business Alabama in 1991, and in 1988 was named one of the Six Southeast Women to Watch by ADWEEK magazine. In 2001, she was named a member of XXXI, a women’s leadership honorary at the University. u

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Matt Scalici is president of Front Row Media Systems, a company he founded with partner Gary O’Donovan that specializes in digital technology for the home.

After graduating from The University of Alabama with a bachelor’s degree, he accepted an invitation from family friend Mother Angelica of Our Lady of the Angels monastery in Birmingham to help start her new Catholic television channel EWTN. Scalici eventually became senior vice president of engineering and satellite.

In 1993, Scalici joined another upstart cable television network, The Golf Channel, founded by University of Alabama graduate Joseph Gibbs and renowned golfer Arnold Palmer. As vice president of network operations he designed and built the first all digital television broadcast center in the United States. Today, The Golf Channel is one of the most profitable networks in cable television. u

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In Journalism Bob Blalock is the editorial page editor at The Birmingham News.

He began his career at The Tuscaloosa News in 1980, and returned there in 1999 to be the newspaper’s editorial page editor.

In between, he worked 19 years at The Birmingham News as a copy editor, reporter and editorial writer. In 1990, Blalock became The Birmingham News’ first senior reporter. Blalock rejoined The Birmingham News as editorial page editor in 2000.

Blalock has won numerous state and national awards, and in 2006 was a finalist with The News’ editorial page staff for the Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing. He also is a member of the Alabama Center for Open Government executive committee, the Gateway Family and Child Services board, the University of Alabama at Birmingham English Advisory Committee and the Birmingham-Southern College President’s Advisory Council. He is a 2001 graduate of Leadership Birmingham and a 2003 graduate of Leadership Alabama. u

In Communication Studies Dr. Joe Gow is chancellor of the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.

He was previously interim president of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Neb., provost and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences there, as well as a professor of communications. He also has held positions at Winona State University in Winona, Minn., where he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and Alfred University in Alfred, N.Y., where he was associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and director of the Communication Studies Program.

Gow earned his doctorate in speech communication and his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Pennsylvania State University, and his master’s degree in speech communication from The University of Alabama. u

O’Connor presented Dean’s Medal for Illustrious Service Bill O’Connor may have more awards from the College than anyone else, and deservedly so. He has served The University of Alabama and this College well and with honor. He recently was awarded the Dean’s Medal, an award that is presented on rare occasions to individuals who have served the College with distinction.

The Dean’s Medal “is given for sustaining friendship, unsurpassed loyalty and commitment to the mission of the College of Communication and Information Sciences.”

O’Connor was voted outstanding journalism student in 1972 and outstanding graduate student in 1974. His awards from the University continued even after graduation. He was named the Outstanding Alumnus in Public Relations in 1982 and received the Bert Bank Distinguished Service Award in 2003.

From 1978 to 1982, he served as director of the Alabama Press Association and taught one class every semester. Later he became vice chancellor for public affairs for the UA system as well as an associate professor in public relations. He then became president of his own consulting business.

In 2002, O’Connor accepted the chairmanship of the College’s Capital Campaign “Our Students.

Our Future,” and is a member of the National Advisory Board for this campaign. u

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Outstanding Alumni

FIVE

University of Alabama alumni were presented Outstanding Alumni Awards from the College of Communication and Information Sciences during 2008 Honors Week activities.

In Advertising and Public Relations Gary Creek is assistant vice president for marketing and communications at The University of Alabama. For 22 years he was creative director and partner at TotalCom Marketing Communications. Together with his friend and business partner, Jimmy Warren, Creek helped establish TotalCom as one of Alabama’s leading advertising firms.

The One Show in New York, the American Marketing Association, the American Advertising Federation and the Public Relations Council of Alabama have recognized the work of his creative teams. He is also a Silver Medal recipient, which is the highest honor presented by The American Advertising Federation. Perhaps his proudest accomplishment, outside of his family, is his service to Hospice of West Alabama. During his second term as president of the board of directors, Creek was part of a team that planned, designed and raised $5 million to build one of the finest in-patient facilities in the South.

He received a master’s degree in advertising and public relations from The University of Alabama in 1997. u 18

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In Telecommunication and Film Greg Stroud is currently vice president of creative services at Fine Living Network, where his team plays a major role in branding, designing and promoting the Scrippsowned channel. Prior to Fine Living, Stroud was in a similar role at The Weather Channel.

Stroud and his teams have won numerous creative awards, including Promax/BDAs, Addys, Tellys and more. He has written for media publications and is a speaker at industry events. His other stints in the communications field included TV anchor, ad agency creative director and local on-air promotions director.

While at The University of Alabama, he chaired the Union Programs Film Division, served on the Student Government Association, and was a contributor to the Crimson White. He also hosted “Talk Plus,” and he hopes all tapes have been destroyed. u

In Journalism Christi Parsons is a 1989 magna cum laude graduate of The University of Alabama, where she was an editor at the Crimson White, a Boone scholar, a Mortar Board and Omicron Delta Kappa member and the Outstanding Graduate in Journalism.

While in college, she interned at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Birmingham News and the Tuscaloosa News. After an internship at the Chicago Tribune, she was hired to work on the city desk in 1989. She has since covered suburban, city and state politics for the newspaper, and now is a national writer based in the Tribune’s Washington D.C. bureau.

In 2001, she was a Knight fellow at Yale Law School, where she received a master’s degree in the studies of law. She has also won several journalism awards, including the Peter Lisagor Award.

She is currently assigned to covering the Democratic presidential campaign for the Tribune, for which she frequently travels with the campaign of Barack Obama. u

In Communication Studies Willie Mays Jones received her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a speech/English double minor in 1978. She received a master of arts in rhetoric and speech in 1980 while attending school with a graduate teaching assistantship. She continued teaching public speaking classes until enrolling in law school in 1984.

Upon graduation from the UA School of Law, in 1986, she joined Legal Services Corporation of Alabama, a statewide law firm with 10 regional offices. A managing attorney for the Tuscaloosa Regional Office, she is responsible for implementing and enforcing state and professional operating policies and procedures, supervising staff attorneys and support personnel, and directing community involvement and education.

She has devoted her career to helping the community, not only with legal expertise, but also as a volunteer adviser for such groups as Save the Youth, as a part-time speech teacher for Shelton State Community College, and as an active member of the College Hill Baptist Church. u

Betsy Plank Distinguished Achievement Stephen E. Bradley is president of Stephen Bradley & Associates LLC, the state’s only full service public affairs firm.

Bradley was a staff writer for the FlorenceTimes/Tri-Cities Daily and a U.S. Navy journalist serving in Vietnam. After completing graduate studies in public relations at The University of Alabama, he was an editor and public relations representative with Shell Oil Co./Shell Chemical Co. He has held executive positions at the Alabama Press Association, the Alabama Power Co. and Waste Management Inc. of Alabama. He also served as the first president of the Alabama Power Foundation Inc. Bradley served as a chairman for the Birmingham Metropolitan United Way, PGA Championships and USGA Amateur Championship and president of Birmingham’s All American Bowl and the Birmingham Festival of Arts. He served on the boards of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Discovery Place Children’s Museum, Family and Child Services and the Metropolitan Arts Council. Bradley is chairman of the board of advisors of the Alabama Productivity Center and served as the State Treasurer’s appointment to the board of the Alabama Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program. He is a graduate of both Leadership Birmingham and Leadership Alabama. u

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Division Notes

also was named director of The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations in the College, succeeding Dr. Bruce Berger.

Advertising and Public Relations Faculty Dr. Bruce Berger, public relations professor and department chair, co-authored an article regarding success factors in public relations in the International Journal of Strategic Communication.

He and doctoral student Juan Meng also co-authored an article published in China Research Index. Berger and doctoral student Elina Erzikova co-authored three refereed conference papers regarding perceptions of ethics by Russian and American PR students. One of the papers has been accepted for publication in the Russian Journal of Communication.

Dr. Yunjae Cheong, advertising assistant professor, was awarded $1,300 in Lewis Advertising Research Funds. She also co-authored a paper on advertising budget decisions, presented at AEJMC, and co-authored two papers on a media exposure model and on advertising claims in food advertising for the American Academy of Advertising conference. In addition, she worked as an editorial assistant of the Journal of Interactive Advertising in 2007, and she joined the International Advertising Education Committee of AAA. Dr. William Gonzenbach, public relations professor, and Dr. Jacquelyn S. Shaia, a recent graduate of the doctoral program, published a refereed article concerning crisis communication in the International Journal of Strategic Communication.

Dr. Karla Gower, public relations associate professor, published the book, “Public Relations and the Press: The Troubled Embrace.” A second edition of her book, “Legal and Ethical Considerations for Public Relations”, was published last summer. Gower 20

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Dr. Eyun-Jung Ki, public relations assistant professor, co-authored three refereed journal articles that were published during the year in Journal of PR Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and Corporate Communication: An International Journal.

She has two other articles in press. In addition, she co-authored four refereed papers and presented them at ICA and AEJMC association conferences. She also was named to the editorial board of the Open Communication Journal.

Dr. Meg Lamme, public relations assistant professor, received a $12,000 grant from the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations to build and promote a databasedriven index of manuscript collections of public relations leaders and organizations. She is being assisted by Jennifer Land, SLIS doctoral student, and IGIA, Inc. Lamme also published two refereed journal articles in American Journalism and Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, and she organized and participated in an AEJMC panel concerning the history of public relations ideas and action.

Dr. Yorgo Pasadeos, advertising professor, edited the book, “International Dimensions of Mass Media Research” (Athens, Greece: AITNER) and authored a chapter in the book. He also authored a book review and co-authored two journal articles that appeared in Cross-Cultural Buyer Behavior and Newspaper Research Journal.

Dr. Joseph Phelps, advertising professor, is serving as Vice Chair of the Educators’ Track of the Direct & Interactive Marketing Research Summit to be held in Las Vegas. Phelps was recently named to the editorial review board of the forthcoming International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications. He

now serves on the editorial review boards of seven journals. Phelps co-authored research examining organ donation issues which will be published in the American Journal of Transplantation as well as in Critical Care Medicine. He will also be presenting healthrelated research, co-authored with doctoral student, Lu Zheng, on over-the-counter drug advertising at the upcoming American Academy of Advertising Conference in San Mateo, California.

Phelps and his colleagues at the University Georgia and Southwestern Oklahoma State University recently had their article “Privacy Concerns and Consumer Willingness to Provide Personal Information” listed as the most cited among the top 10 most-cited articles 2000-2006 in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Volume 19, Issue 1, spring 2000. Rankings are compiled based on information from Google Scholar.

Tracy Sims, APR instructor, announced in January the publication of the second issue of Platform magazine (www.platformmagazine.com), an online forum for the exchange of ideas and information that encourages the ethical practice and enhancement of leadership in public relations. PR students in the fall 2007 APR 415 Online Magazine Writing and Editing class were responsible for writing and producing the second issue, which explores diverse public relationsrelated subjects ranging from PR applications of social media to time management of multiple accounts to targeting the growing Hispanic population in the United States.

Students Susy Daria, APR instructor, nominated student Maria Franco to the American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) “Most Promising Minority Student” award program. Franco was subsequently selected as one of 50 US students to win this award.

Daria and Franco attended the AAF MPMS

APR student one of seven University of Alabama students named to the 2008 USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.

Dana Lewis USA Today All-USA College Academic Team, Second Team Major: Public relations/political science, College of Communication and Information Sciences Career goal: Public health communications/public relations

When she was 14, Dana Lewis discovered she had diabetes. She’s been fighting the disease with passionate advocacy in the public realm ever since.

“Standing up, speaking out and making noise about diabetes is my most outstanding endeavor to date,” she wrote in her application to the USA Today College Academic Team.

Lewis served both as the oldest National Youth Advocate for the American Diabetes Association and as the youngest person on a national volunteer committee. As a youth advocate in 2005 and 2006, she lobbied Congress on issues involving diabetes and toured the country speaking to audiences ranging from two to 800. On the international front, Lewis also was appointed as a Youth Ambassador to the International Diabetes Federation’s meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, and helped to pass a United Nations resolution setting up a World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14 (http://www.worlddiabetesday.org).

On top of that, she founded and chairs Planet D!, a youth “brand” for the ADA that supports and advocates for children with diabetes.

At UA, she worked with Bama Dining to see that nutritional information was posted in campus dining facilities.

Conference in New York in February 2008.

Franco’s name was listed with other winners in USA Today and Ad Age. Communication Studies Faculty Dr. Jason Edward Black delivered a university colloquium and several graduate lectures at the University of Illinois involving the collegiate Native American mascot controversy and indigenous rhetoric in the 19th century. Black also delivered a public lecture at Boston College on representations and memories of Native identity at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend Military Park/Museum. Black’s chapter “Native Mascotting as a Neocolonial Discourse: Homologies of U.S. Colonial Ideologies and

“I have watched her over the past four years grow into a competent young adult with passion and skills to make a difference in our world for diabetes,” wrote Dr. Larry C. Deeb, past president of Medicine and Sciences of the ADA, in his recommendation for Lewis. “Such commitment is rare in a person her age.”

At UA, Lewis won the Most Outstanding Freshman and Most Outstanding Undergraduate awards, the Jimmy Nelson Leadership Scholarship and the Delchamps Community Scholar award for students studying advertising or public relations.

She is also a member of the University Honors Program, a fellow in UA’s Blackburn Institute and is participating in UA’s ComputerBased Honors Program, a nationally recognized undergraduate research program that pairs academically elite students with leading research professors and computing technology to complete scholarly research projects in their field of study.

Her project there involves developing a database with secure access for WellBama, which gathers employee health data to analyze health-care costs to the university. u

Pro-Mascot Rhetoric at the University of Illinois and Florida State University,” will appear in the forthcoming, “CHiEEEEF! Critical Indigenous Theory and the End of Dancing “Indians” in University Athletics.”

Black also was invited to join the editorial board of Southern Communication Journal and nominated for the National Society of Collegiate Scholars Inspire Integrity Awards and the Southern States Communication Association Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award.

Dr. Janis L. Edwards’ article “Visualizing the Face of Domestic Terrorism in Editorial Cartoons: Transforming a Stereotype” will appear in the International Journal of Comic Art. Edwards (and Laura Ware) received the top paper

award in mass communication at the annual convention of the Southern State Communication Association.

She delivered a paper on Japanese internment memorials at Lewis and Clark College and exhibited her creative work at the Biennial Red Clay Survey of Southeastern Art in Huntsville. Her chapter “Visual Dramatizing as Persuasion in the Feminist Art Movement” was published in “Visual Impact: The Power of Visual Persuasion” (Susan B. Barnes, editor; Hampton Press, 2007).

Edwards conducted a roundtable titled “Anticipating Madame President,” at the annual convention of the National Communication Association. Her article “Drawing Politics in Pink and Blue” appeared in PS Political Science and Politics, April 2007.

Dr. Tom Harris designed and presented five leadership workshops for the Alabama Black Cont. on page 22

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Belt Mayors Association.

The workshops were held in different locations in order to provide the training to as wide an audience as possible.

Harris facilitated the creation and enactment of the Alumni Association for the Executive Council of the Delta Regional Authority, which includes eight states. Part of his duties involved acting as process coordinator for various team projects which facilitated different stages of problem analysis and proposed solutions.

Carol Bishop Mills co-authored the article “Examining the Perceptions on Doctor-Patient Communication” in Human Communication 10.

Students The UA Speech Team won • the First Place School Sweepstakes and First Place Swing awards at the Tennessee State University Alumni Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., September 2007.

• the First Place School award at the Western Kentucky Tournament in Bowling Green, Ky., September 2007.

• the First Place Overall School award at the Miami-Ohio University Tournament in Miami, Ohio, September 2007.

• the First Place School award at the Berry College Tournament in Rome, Ga., October 2007.

• the First Place School award at the University of Louisiana-Monroe Tournament in Monroe, La., November 2007.

• the First Place School award at the Louisiana State University-Shreveport Tournament in Shreveport, La., November 2007.

The Speech Team hosted the Hall of Fame High School Tournament in January and the Crimson Classic Tournament in September 2007.

Students won the 2008 National School Award for the DSR-TKA National tournament held at the University of Florida, with the following individual national champions: 22

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• National Champion Communication Analysis - Perry Tyner • National Champion Dramatic Duo Interpretation - Austin McDonald/Blake Williams • National Champion After Dinner Speaking - Emily Hopper • National Champion Impromptu Speaking - David Kumbroch • National Champion Persuasive Speaking Leann Neal • National Champion Extemporaneous Speaking - David Kumbroch • National Champion Poetry Interpretation - Austin McDonald • Michelle Howard was selected as the National Student Speaker of the Year Cheryl Chambers, masters student, received a full-time instructor position in the department of communication at Mississippi State University. Chambers also presented the paper “‘Thank God I’m Gay’: Refining Black Identity and Homosexual Identity in the Documentary Gay Rights, Special Rights” in the GLBT Division at the annual convention of the National Communication Association.

Treva Elaine Dean, masters student, presented her paper, “Choctaw/Chickasaw Delegation Debates of 1811” at the Alabama Historical Association convention. Dean presented her project, “When the Dead Speak: An Analysis of Greenwood Cemetery” at the University of Alabama American Studies Symposium. She also presented her paper, “Not in My Backyard: A Dramatistic Perspective of Identity Constructions and Territory in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” at both the annual convention of the National Communication Association and at the University of Alabama Graduate Student Research Conference.

Lance Latham, masters student, Creshema Murray, doctoral student, and Carly Timmons-McKenzie, doctoral student, presented the paper “An Analysis of Politeness Theory: Instances in Political Debates” in the Political Communication Division at the annual convention of the Southern States Communication Association.

Creshema Murray, doctoral student, presented the paper “The Rhetoric of the Rookie Politician: A Case Study of Senator Barack Obama and His Appeal to Women and African American Constituents” in the Top Student Paper panel in Gender Studies at the annual convention of the Southern States Communication Association.

Journalism Faculty Dr. Matthew D. Bunker, Reese Phifer Professor of Journalism, published an article in the Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. Bunker also presented a paper on publicity law at the 2007 convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Dr. David Sloan, journalism professor, recently has had three books published. The Media in America: A History went into its seventh edition. Sloan serves as its editor and senior author. It is the most widely used textbook in the field of mass communication history. The Age of Mass Communication, for which he serves as editor and senior author, was published in its second edition. Another book, Media Bias: Finding It; Fixing It, for which Sloan served as senior editor, examines the variety of arguments about the existence and nature of bias. Journalism graduate students wrote most of the chapters. Jenn Burleson Mackay, a doctoral student, served as co-editor. The book originated in the journalism M.A. course JN562 Contemporary Media Issues taught by Sloan. Students worked on chapters over a three-year period and wrote 10 of the book’s 17 chapters.

The student authors and their chapters are the following: • Katie Porterfield, “Religion” • Steve Stewart, “Abortion” • Ginger Miller Loggins, “Gender” • Kay Best Murphy, “Crime Coverage”

• Kim Cross, “Environmental Coverage” • Christina Jesson, “Military Coverage” • Patrick Beeson, “Photojournalism” • Kathy Birchall, “Corporate Ownership” • Karen Watts Perkins, “Management and Labor” • Carmen Brown, “Health and Medicine” Students In March 2007, 17 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in an International Journalism class set off for Italy to report, write and photograph stories for the second issue of Alpine Living. The group spent two weeks in Torino, Florence, Rome, Pisa, Pompeii and various other regions in Italy writing and reporting stories on food, wine, festivals, fashion, the arts and transportation. This issue’s special focus was a one-year retrospective on the 2006 Winter Games held in Torino. As a course offered every other year, up-and-coming journalism students will travel to the French Alps for the third issue of Alpine Living in the spring of 2009.

Butler Cain, a 2007 graduate of the doctoral program, and Dianne Bragg, a student in the program, have chapters in the newest edition of The Media in America: A History.

The book is used at more schools, about 120, than all the other textbooks in the field combined. It was first published in 1989 and is in its seventh edition. Cain, news director of Alabama Public Radio, wrote the chapter on the history of freedom of the press. Bragg wrote the chapter on newspapers in the first half of the 20th century.

Journalism professor David Sloan is the book’s editor.

Cain’s dissertation, “Contempt by Publication in Nineteenth Century America,” received the American Journalism Historians Association’s award as one of the top four “Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations” in the nation for 2007. He received the award at the AJHA national convention in October in Richmond, Va., where he gave a presentation at the awards ceremony. Cain is the news director of Alabama Public Radio.

Graduate students presented five research papers on journalism history at recent conferences. The students and their papers were the following:

• Steve Stewart, M.A. journalism student: “‘Cooperate or Else’: President Herbert Hoover and the Press” at the National Convention of the American Journalism Historians Association • Dianne Bragg, doctoral student: “Waging War at Home: Coverage of Returning Black World War II Veterans,” AJHA Southeast Symposium • Katie Cole, M.A. journalism student: “Getting the News: Newspaper Reporting Methods, 1900-1940,” AJHA Southeast Symposium • Anna Gresham, M.A. journalism student: “Calvin Coolidge and the Press, 1923-1929: Political Genius or Just Lucky?” AJHA Southeast Symposium • Jennifer Mitchell, M.A. journalism student: “Women in Journalism, 1887-1897: Struggling or Successful?”

AJHA Southeast Symposium Library and Information Studies Faculty Dr. Danny Wallace, professor and former director of the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma, has accepted the position of Professor and EBSCO Chair. Wallace will begin his affiliation with SLIS in summer 2008. He has held faculty and leadership positions at Kent State University, Louisiana State University and the University of Illinois.

Dr. Jeff Weddle, several book arts students, and SLIS faculty members Steve Miller and Anna Embree appear in the film titled “The Outsiders of New Orleans: Loujon Press.”

The film is based on Weddle’s book Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and Loujon Press that won the Eudora Welty Prize.

Dr. Margaret Stieg Dalton will be the recipient of the Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award for 2008. Gale Cengage Learning (Publisher) sponsors the award that is given annually to “an individual who has made a distinguished contribution to reference librarianship.”

SLIS faculty have been speaking around the state and nation: Dr. Laurie Bonnici and

Professor Sybil Bullock gave presentations at the Alabama Special Libraries Association conference in Dothan. Dr. Elizabeth Aversa and Dr. Steven MacCall spoke to the Alabama Health Libraries Association conference in September in Tuscaloosa.

Dr. Margaret Dalton presented at the American Historical Association annual conference in Washington in January 2008.

Dr. Jeff Weddle spoke in Slidell, La., about his book and movie on the Loujon Press.

Dr. Tonyia Tidline presented at the 2008 conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) in Philadelphia.

Dr. Elizabeth Aversa and Dr. Stephen MacCall collaborated on a presentation that has been accepted for the annual distance learning conference, Wimba Connect. The presentation is titled “Innovating, Differentiating, and Assuring Cultural Compatibility: Lessons Learned in Faculty Transition and Student Retention.”

Professor Steve Miller completed a sabbatical in the fall. During the term, he visited Wells College, Wellesley and various sites in New York City where he recorded interviews for his extensive library of podcasts on the book arts. He also served as visiting artist at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina where he gave workshops in printing and engaged in making books.

Students SLIS students held internships in important libraries across the country in 2007.

Lee Boulie worked for the Ralph Bunche Library at the State Department in Washington D.C. Susan Nabb Mall served an internship at the Oregon Health Sciences Library at the University of Oregon in Portland. Jennifer Diamonti had an internship at the Capt. John Smith Library at Christopher Newport University in Cont. on page 24

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Newport News, Va. More than 30 students interned during the past academic year.

on the role of broadcasting in mass emergencies at the UA Transportation Center.

Book arts student Sarah Bryant took the 2008 spring semester off from her studies in order to teach book arts for the University of Georgia’s international program in Cortona, Italy.

Aaron Greer’s film “Getting’ Grown” was released on DVD by Warner Brothers Home Video in April. Greer completed a documentary, “A Night in the Theater,” which is being distributed by Insight Media, the largest distributor of educational videos in the United States. He produced three music videos for indie-rock artists The Royal Vagabonds, whose album will be released later this year.

Greer, an assistant professor, traveled to Cuba in December to begin work on the documentary “The Merchant of Havana,” about a theatrical production of “The Merchant of Venice” being staged in Cuba

by UA profesoor and director Seth Panitch.

Telecommunication And Film Faculty Dr. Jeremy Butler, professor, instituted and maintains Screenlex.org, an online pronunciation guide for film and TV students.

ScreenLex contains key phrases and people’s names from the disciplines of film studies and television studies.

Dwight Cammeron, CPT program director, produced 26 episodes of Martha’s Sewing Room, distributed nationally to PBS stations by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). Martha’s Sewing Room is shown on 76 percent of the PBS stations around the country.

Cammeron’s documentary “Dog Days” was a 2008 George Lindsey UNA Film Festival Selection and received a Gold Remi from 2008 Annual WorldFestHouston International Film Festival. “Dog Days” follows five Birmingham Steeldogs football players through the 2006 season as they struggle to keep their team and their dreams alive.

Dr. Bill Evans, director of the Institute for Communication and Information Research, began work as co-editor on the “Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication”, to be published by Sage Publications in 2009. He served as a member of the state of Alabama’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Advisory Group.

Evans was invited to present his research

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Joey Goodsell, instructor, recorded a live performance of the Deadstrings Brothers, a Detroit, Michigan-based Americana band, at the BAMA Theatre in Tuscaloosa.

The project is scheduled for retail DVD release in the fall. He also recorded a live concert performance of Michael Warren, a Birmingham-based independent artist, at Workplay in Birmingham. His recording “Tough It Out! Webb Wilder Live” aired on PBS affiliates across the country in 2007. “Tough It Out! Webb Wilder Live” was released on DVD in Europe in spring 2007.

Doohwang Lee, instructor, published the paper “A Socio-Cognitive Model of Video Game Usage” in the December 2007 edition of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. He also presented his paper titled “The Roles of Interactivity and Involvement in e-Health: A Test of Theory of Planned Behavior for Weight Management” to the Internet Research 8.0., in Vancouver, BC. Canada.

Dr. Johnny Sparks, assistant professor, helped rebuild the survey lab into a media lab.

Dr. Pam Tran recently won two national awards of Excellence from the Broadcast Education Association for her creative production work. The short-form award

was for entries from a science series called “Wow I Didn’t Now That” – Nano-Science, Bug’s Life, and Hair.

The PSA/Promo award was for her entry “You Made Me Love You,” a fund drive piece about public radio. At the National Broadcasting Society she took first place in documentary for “Blues Camp,” first place in Promo and Short form for the science series. The Science series was also included in Alabama Public Radio’s winning “Best Radio Service” team entry for the Associated Press Broadcast Competition.

Dr. Shuhua Zhou, assistant professor, was recognized in December 2007 as one the 100 Best TV hosts in Guangdong, China for his professional work between 19881993. Dr. Zhou also spent his sabbatical in Singapore in fall 2007. On top of research collaboration with colleagues at Nanyang Technological University, he also presented papers to two international conferences in Australia and China.

Students Three TCF students earned third place awards at Broadcast Education Association Student News Awards – Krista Littlefield for Spot News, Nick Adam for Sports Anchor and Nic Hoch for Play by Play.

Adam also received awards at the Society of Professional Journalist regional competitions: first place TV Sports Reporting; second place Sports Photography; and first place Sports Photography. In the same SPJ regionals, Littlefield received first place TV Breaking News, Danielle Blevins received first place Radio Sports Reporting, Danielle Fortner received third place TV Feature, Mary Scott Speigner received third place Radio News Reporting, and Adam Shivers received third place Feature.

Alumni Notes Advertising and Public Relations Renae Mitchell McKinney, 1986, was recently named the president of the Alabama Public Relations and Marketing Society. She is currently the Director of Community Relations for Walker Baptist Medical Center in Jasper, Ala. where she is responsible for all public relations, advertising and media relations activities.

Helen Todd, 1988, public relations manager at Southern Living, was named the 2007 Philip R. Forrest practitioner of the year by the Public Relations Council of Alabama.

Damon Stevenson, 1998, is director of public relations for the Veteran’s Hospital in Tuscaloosa.

Laura Anders Lee, 2001, recently joined the Pensacola Bay Area Convention and Visitors

Bureau as public relations and media manager. Lee will manage media relations efforts and work with publications to generate positive media coverage and attract visitors to the area.

Julie Beth Phillips, 2004, works in the eLabs Department at Universal Music Group, the largest record label. eLabs is responsible for handling the company’s electronic commerce initiatives, Internet exploitation and new technology business opportunities worldwide.

Journalism Ty Warren, a graduate from Enterprise who runs a consulting and training firm, has been named National Speaker of the Year by Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha National Forensics (debate) Honor Society, its highest award. Dr. Frank Thompson, UA’s director of forensics, presented the award to Warren at the DSR-TKA National Conference at the University of Mississippi, where Warren founded the school’s forensics program.

At UA, Warren majored in broadcast journalism and was a member of the UA Debate Team. He also worked as news director and sports director at WTBC/WUOA. Upon graduation, he became the public affairs producer for Alabama Public Television. Warren is the founder and president of Saviuum LLC, a comprehensive consulting and training firm with offices in Birmingham, Chicago, Eugene, Ore., and Jackson, Miss. He has worked as a speaker and consultant nationally and in seven countries.

Veteran journalist Bob Bryan, 1975, has been named Sunday enterprise/special projects editor at the (Pensacola) News Journal.

Kirk D. Frady, a 1984 advertising graduate, recently retired from the United States Army after serving for 21 years, the majority in public affairs, media relations, community relations and public information. His current employer, Bank of America Military Segment (where he serves as vice president), recently participated in the Marine Reserve Toys for Tots program.

Pictured at left, (L. to R.) Marine Gunnery Sgt. Stephen McClendon, retired Army Lt. Col Kirk Frady, Marine Staff Sgt. Henry Idar and Kerry Salkey, also of Bank of America Military Segment, hold a box of donated toys at the Marine Corps Reserve Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Paul Isom, BA 1986, MA 2004, received The Birmingham News’ Editor’s Award for excellence in headline writing, judged by editorial staff members of The Baltimore Sun. He received the award during the paper’s annual Big N banquet in January. He is a copy editor at The News.

Cindy F. Crawford, 1998, has been named managing editor of the Birmingham Business Journal. Crawford previously worked at the

Christi Parsons, 1989, covers the Democratic presidential campaign for the Chicago Tribune, for which she frequently travels with the campaign of Barack Obama.

Birmingham Post-Herald, the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American and the Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal. In 2007 Crawford received the first place Sunshine State award for medical/health care/science writing from the SPJ South Florida chapter and a second place award for health writing in the large newspaper category from the Florida Press Club. She received a first-place award with a team for deadline news for coverage of a fatal explosion at a city wastewater treatment plant from the SPJ South Florida chapter in 2006.

The Birmingham News honored Joseph Bryant, 2001, with its highest editorial award. The Big N Award was given to Bryant, who was chosen by fellow staff members for outstanding achievement during 2007. The award was presented by Tom Scarritt, editor of The News, during the annual Big N banquet in January. Scarritt praised Bryant’s breaking news and indepth coverage of Birmingham city government, saying “he has the tenacity of a great beat reporter.”

Megan Lavey, 2002, is the weekend business designer and weekly neighborhood tabs designer for the Arizona Daily Star.

Stacy Whitlow, 2003, recently married Jason Lindsey and teaches second grade at a small private school in Metarie, La., a suburb of New Orleans.

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Carla Jean Whitley, M.A. 2004, is associate editor at Birmingham magazine, where she writes about music and fashion, occasionally food and travel, compiles the events calendar and writes monthly feature stories.

Chris Sanders, 2004, passed the Alabama bar exam and is now a policy analyst for Alabama Arise Citizen’s Policy Project.

Lauren, 2005 and Drew Champlin, 2004, work for the Dothan Eagle. Lauren is a copy editor and page designer and Drew covers Troy University athletics.

Dennis Pillion is a sports producer at al.com, where he also writes the Tide Corner blog (blog.al.com/tidecorner) for the site.

Kristen Record, 2005, is Web content coordinator with Birmingham’s NBC 13, which is owned by Media General. Prior to that she was a copy/Web editor at LRP Publications in West Palm Beach, Fla. and an editorial producer for al.com in Birmingham.

Kathryn Tuggle, minor 2005, writes for foxbusiness.com Web site in New York and is a reporter for the new Fox Business Network, where she appears in video segments about lifestyle-related business stories.

Harrison Sheffield, M.A. 2006, works at Habitat for Humanity in Americus, Ga., as a partner service writer.

Sarah Kate Sullivan, 2007, works as a staff assistant in the Washington office of Rep. Artur Davis.

Library and Information Studies Donna Schremser, MLIS 1976, has moved from Huntsville where she headed the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library for 25 years to New Orleans where she has taken the directorship of the New Orleans Public Library. Schremser will be instrumental in building up the library post-Katrina and in serving the information needs of the “new” New Orleans.

Deborah Lilton, MLIS 2006, appeared on the cover of Library Journal in October 2007 and was interviewed for the article “What’s the MLIS worth?” that appeared in the issue. Lilton was an IMLS fellow at SLIS and is now serving as bibliographer for English, film studies, and theater at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Vicki Lovelady Gregory, MLIS 1974, received the LSIS Distinguished Alumni Award at Alumni Day in November 2007.

Gregory is professor and former CEO of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida.

The Library School Association held Summer Socials in Florence, Tuscaloosa and Gadsden in June and July 2007. LSA Board members, along with Manager of Student and Alumni Services Beth Riggs and faculty members, make three summer road trips each year to meet and greet alumni from around the state.

More than 35 SLIS alumni and friends attended the American Library Association joint library school reunion in Washington, D.C., in June 2007. Beth Riggs, Elizabeth Aversa, Joan Atkinson, Tonyia Tidline and library faculty members Barbara Dahlbach and Karen Croneis were among those at the event.

Telecommunication and Film Leslie Spalding, 1992, is the women’s golf coach, Montana State University. She is a former LPGA tour player.

Dr. J. Alison Bryant is senior research director of brand and consumer insights and digital analytics for the Nickelodeon/MTV Networks Kids & Family Group. She leads Nick’s efforts to understand the digital lives of kids and families, conducting research on a variety of digital platforms (online, console and handheld gaming, interactive television, mobile), and manages research for the magazine group.

Graham Flanagan, 2005, is an associate producer for CNN’s “American Morning” in New York.

Joan Garrett, BA 2006, M.A. 2007, writes for the Chattanooga Times Free Press as higher education beat reporter.

iTour.ua.edu

Matt Hawk, M.A. 2006, is a business reporter at The Tuscaloosa News.

Matt Scalici, 2006, is the Alabama football and basketball beat writer for Rivals.com.

Nick Beadle, 2007, writes for the Jackson (Tenn.) Sun as a politics and government reporter. He wrote a series of stories on Jackson’s high crime rate last fall.

Ben Dudley, 2007, recently began working as a designer at the Times Daily in Florence.

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Two UA students, developed iTour Bama, an innovative way to tour campus. Matt Williams, an advertising major, and Grant Premo, both student employees in University Relations, have produced iTour Bama, the nation’s first studentproduced virtual campus tour. They worked with Chandra Clark, assistant director of broadcast marketing and media at UA and C&IS doctoral student, and Mary Spiegel, executive director of undergraduate admissions.

Other universities offer iPod tours; however, Premo and Williams said theirs is unique because of the options. Coming to campus? Download the iTour Bama video podcast, upload it to your iPod. No iPod? The Office of Admissions now has 20 iPods on reserve for visitors to check out. Visitors can tour campus at their own pace rather than having to follow an official tour guide, and have the option of starting the tour anywhere on campus.

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