Communicator, Spring 2014

INSIDE: Award honors diversity efforts ... Students prepare for trip to Cuba ... Lima named Alumni Fellow

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CONTENTS 4

CARNEGIE NEWS

16

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

28

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

37

STUDENT NEWS

46

ALUMNI NEWS

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Closeup: Students get hands-on experience Conference visitor offers optimism about journalism Page Center grants support ethics-related research

Closeup: Affleck adapts to role as Knight Chair Researchers busy at AEJMC, NCA, ICA conferences Faculty member offers all-time movie list

Recent gifts enhance Trustee Scholarship program

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Closeup: Students ready for international challenge Group conducts social media boot camp Two students serve as marshals

Closeup: Devoted Penn Stater Larry Foster dies Five earn awards from Alumni Society Board Weakland honored at Austin Film Festival

DEPARTMENTS

From the Dean, 3 / Alumni Notes, 57 College Calendar, 59 / Contact the College, 59

ON THE COVER

Seniors Bernard Bennett-Green, Willie Jungels and Jessica Paholsky are among many who have tapped the possibilities of multimedia storytelling.

Story, pages 4-5. (Photo by Will Yurman)

THE COMMUNICATOR The Communicator is published twice a year by the College of Communications at Penn State.

Dean: Douglas Anderson Editor: Steve Sampsell Publication Policies: All items relating to the College and its faculty, staff, students and alumni will be considered for publication.

Correspondence: The Communicator Penn State College of Communications 302 James Building University Park, PA 16802 Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce. U.Ed. COM 14-50

FROM THE DEAN The godfather of the modern-day College of Communications has died.

I will be forever grateful to Larry Foster for his friendship and for his integral role in making the College what it is today. (See story on pages 46-49.)

I will always remember him for his wit, his support, his generosity, his loyalty, his straightforward style, his modesty, his poise, his bearing, his humility, his integrity, his personal and professional values, his unselfish care for others, and his love for Ellen, his wife of 64 years.

Larry and Ellen’s oldest son, Lawrence G. Foster III, said of his father during a tribute at the Oct. 21 funeral Mass in Westfield, N.J.: “By all measures, Dad was a great man. However, what makes Dad’s life so meaningful was not so much that he was a great man, but that he was a good man.”

Larry Foster was indeed a good man who did extraordinary things for people and institutions.

Larry was the human bridge that linked much of the College’s past with its present and its future.

He first walked the hallways of Carnegie Building as a student in 1946. He started giving his time, talent and treasure back to Penn State shortly after he earned his journalism degree in 1948. And he continued to give unselfishly of all three until his death.

I remember vividly the first time I ever met Larry.

It was at a dinner at the Tavern in downtown State College, in December 1998. I was on campus to interview for the deanship in the College. About a dozen alumni and professional constituents were seated around the table. Larry was directly across from me.

At one point, he looked me in the eye and said: “We’d like you to come to Penn State — if you intend to stay — but if you merely want to use it as a stepping stone to go somewhere else, there would be no point in you coming here.”

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It was then I first came to know — and admire — Larry’s straightforward style.

Another remembrance comes quickly to mind.

In 2001, Larry, Ellen and I discussed the possibility of renovating the Carnegie lobby and other areas of the historic building. Ellen mentioned that when she and Larry were “courting” during their Penn State days, she often made her way to the building, then home of The Daily Collegian, which Larry served as a managing editor. I quickly said something like “we’d love to restore Carnegie to the grandeur it must have possessed when you were students here.” To which Ellen responded, with a smile and twinkle in her eye: “It was pretty much a dump back then, too.”

Well, thanks to the Fosters, it is no longer a dump. Quite the contrary.

Larry told me during our initial conversation that he and Ellen possibly would be interested in helping offset some of the renovation costs.

Then he called me a week later to tell me that they simply would fund the entire project. Case closed. And that was classic Larry Foster.

Larry was the consummate planner, strategist and motivator. He always had visionary ideas. He also possessed an unmatched ability to turn those ideas into reality, whether through his direct involvement, his solicitation of help from others, his personal financial support — or, in many instances, all three.

I will treasure the memories of Larry Foster, the journalist, the wordsmith, the author and the public relations practitioner without peer.

But most of all, I will miss Larry Foster — the good man ... and good friend.

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CARNEGIE CLOSEUP Kelly Tunney, at work here during the 2013 Keystone Multimedia Conference in Gettysburg, Pa., chose communications as his major and found multimedia storytelling approaches as a way to make an impact. (Photo by Will Yurman)

Strong Storytelling Students make most of multimedia options, opportunities

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t’s a nice bit of irony that Kelly Tunney arrived at Penn State as a freshman undecided between a science-based major like architectural engineering and something he considered less concrete: photojournalism.

He wanted to select a major that would allow him to make a difference. His head suggested building things, or studying an emerging science like nanotechnology.

His heart pulled him toward photojournalism, and — armed with multimedia storytelling experience and skills he honed inside the classroom and out in the College of Communications — he’s quite comfortable with his choice.

Now, as a senior, with commencement just three months away, he could not be happier.

“It was a good decision,” Tunney said. “Photojournalism will allow me to make a concrete contribution to society.

What I’ve learned from my classes and faculty members in the College of Communications, and from my experiences at The Daily Collegian and other campus opportunities, have prepared me well for my career.”

Many students in the College share Tunney’s appreciation and drive — and those harnessing multimedia storytelling approaches and utilizing state-of-the-art tools

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available to them believe they’ve been positioned well for ongoing success in their chosen profession.

Senior Jessica Paholsky, initially a fine arts photography major, broadened the scope of her studies after being exposed to multimedia opportunities in photojournalism classes. As she nears commencement, she’s a double major in both disciplines — with her career plans leaning heavily toward journalism. If she does not accept an entry-level job with a news organization, it would only be because she decided to complete a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship instead.

“It was just a ripple effect once I started doing multimedia work,” she said. “Each of the photojournalism classes had a component to it, and that built to the multimedia class.

Plus, the other thing that makes the approach work for students is the faculty. They know what they’re doing and they relate what they know well.”

With multimedia approaches, students are challenged to think a bit differently — to think about how pictures and sound can make a story more compelling, to think about the right mix and potential power of print and video, to think about possessing an array of skills that would enable 4

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CARNEGIE CLOSEUP them to succeed in broadcast, print, online or multimedia plays a big part in multimedia success for students. Few operations. communications students arrive on campus aware of every For old-school journalists, it’s a matter packaging a couple possible way to get involved or improve their skills. Most approaches to the same story and being versatile. But, while have an initial plan, and they get better, and more engaged, the usability of some multimedia tools has gotten easier, with support from faculty and staff. doing the job well is not as easy as simply aiming a camera, “Coming in I expected to do a lot with sports microphone or smartphone in the right direction. broadcasting because we had done a lot of those things Students who tell the best stories with multimedia tools at my high school,” said senior Bernard Bennett-Green, get a grounding in the basics and put a lot of thought into a journalism major and member of the varsity track team their work. who is in one of Yurman’s class sections this spring. “On “At the beginning I was definitely intimidated and my campus visit we learned about ComRadio, the Big Ten uncertain about my own style and work flow,” Paholsky said. Student Network and so much more we could do.

“Now, after a lot of practice, I have a system. It’s really kind “In my case, balancing a sport and work has prevented of a repetitive learning process. some things, but not much.

Once you’re comfortable with We have so many opportunities “I look at how to tell stories differwhere you’re at, you can take it and every day is a learning ently now. It’s less of a consumption experience. Plus, all that variety a little farther each time. You try different angles or examine viewpoint and more a production seems to overlap, and it comes different parts of a story.” viewpoint, figuring out how to draw back to telling a good story.”

Along with her work in Fellow senior Willie Jungels people into a story .” class, Paholsky completed got involved with co-curricular — Kelly Tunney media activities as a freshman. an internship at WPSU Public Radio. For her senior Like his peers, he’s now just thesis as a Schreyer Honors Scholar, she’s working with a few months from commencement and his assertiveness Curt Chandler, a senior lecturer in the Department and talent have helped him build a resume that includes of Journalism, on a multimedia piece about olive oil experiences with “Centre County Report,” ComRadio, the — specifically one small company in Italy that imports international reporting class that travels to Cuba this spring its product to the United States, with that variety of oil and much more. available in just one U.S. location.

He’s produced online stories and videos, scored Along with Chandler’s segments about multimedia interviews with timely news makers and tried just about approaches as part of other classes, he leads an introductory anything possible — all while using multimedia approaches multimedia class. Fellow Department of Journalism senior when logical. lecturer Will Yurman typically teaches one section of “My college choice came down to Syracuse and Penn multimedia storytelling each semester. This spring, because State,” he said. “They told us that freshmen could get of student interest, he has two. involved right away at Penn State, and that was the case Chandler and Yurman came to the University from news for me. It was intimidating and scary at times, but it was organizations in Pittsburgh and Rochester, N.Y., respectively, a chance to get hands-on experience. Since then, I’ve with extensive professional experience and expertise. They gotten more comfortable and grown — and that’s thanks in work hard to remain connected with best practices in the large part to the faculty, and the attitude of people in the industry. They also appreciate the students’ talent.

College.”

“Our best students have really strong journalistic skills.

Jungels said support for students has been essential in They’re talented, and they’re always learning,” Yurman his success. While he appreciates that students must take said. “You would think, with all the technology they have ownership of their on-campus experience and value their access to even before they arrive on campus, that a lot of the education, he said students who display drive and maturity multimedia techniques might be almost intuitive to them. get abundant support from faculty members.

That’s not exactly the case, but they pick things up quickly — “Whenever I’ve approached a faculty member with an and apply them appropriately.” idea, the almost unanimous response has been positive,” For Tunney, it’s been almost a scientific approach to Jungels said. “Instead of deliberating if it was possible, we improvement and success. always talked about how we could make it possible or how “I look at how to tell stories differently now. I break them we could make it the best-possible piece. down into how can I make them the best possible pieces,” “There’s no doubt anyone can succeed at Penn State Tunney said. “It’s less of a consumption viewpoint and more because faculty members want to develop relationships a production viewpoint, figuring out how to draw people with students. They want to share their expertise and help into a story.” us get better. My confidence has grown because I’ve been Getting the opportunities to share interesting stories able to have some great experiences, and because there was and participate in class and co-curricular activities also wholehearted support for those efforts.” l

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CARNEGIE CLOSEUP

National award honors College’s diversity efforts The College of Communications was selected as the 2013 recipient of the AEJMC Equity and Diversity Award, which is presented annually by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The award recognizes journalism and mass communication academic units that have OluwaTosin Adegbola, from Morgan State University (left), poses for a picture with Diversity Scholars and Assistant Dean Joseph Selden (right). Her visit was sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs. attained mea- (Photo by Kelly Tunney) surable success program that encourages equity and tation of a multicultural society in with approaches to increasing racial, diversity. They included: the classroom and curriculum, and to gender and ethnic equity and diverl curriculum and coursework that defend and maintain freedom of comsity. The award was presented during includes more than 80 diversity-fomunication in an effort to achieve the keynote session of the annual cused learning modules; better professional practice and a AEJMC conference in Washington, l programs and community better informed public.

D.C. outreach designed with a priority on AEJMC has 3,700 members from Members of the selection commitmulticulturalism; 50 countries that affiliate among 18 tee for the award commended the l a dedicated office of Multicultur- divisions, 10 interest groups and two College of Communications for its al Affairs; and commissions. approach and programs. l a sizable scholarship program for “We’re grateful for the recognition “This year we received several students of color. that’s been given to the College for excellent award nominations that rep“An internationally recognized our commitment to diversity and eqresent the repertoire of innovations research institution, Penn State has uity in our student body, our faculty, in enhancing educational equity and distinguished itself with equity and our curriculum, our programming, diversity in our field. We commend diversity,” Aikat said. “The Penn our various external boards and our Penn State’s College of CommunicaState College of Communications research,” said Dean Doug Anderson. tions for achieving the gold standard has fostered an inclusive curriculum, Previous winners of the Equity and in building a truly diverse, inclusive a diverse academic community and a Diversity Award were communication and equitable learning environment,” supportive climate for research, teachprograms at universities located in said Deb Aikat, chair of the AEJMC ing and public service.” states that are statistically much more Equity and Diversity Award advisory The AEJMC is a nonprofit organidiverse than Pennsylvania. committee and University of North zation whose mission is to promote Previous award winners were: the Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty the highest possible standards for University of Southern California, member. journalism and mass communication 2012; Texas State University, 2011; The nomination packet for the education, to cultivate the widest Elon University in North Carolina, College of Communications outpossible range of communication 2010; and Louisiana State University, lined several key areas in building a research, to encourage the implemen2009. l

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CARNEGIE NEWS

Entrepreneurship minor provides opportunity for undergraduates For undergraduate students interested in coming up with the next great idea or becoming their own boss, a new Penn State minor could help them achieve their dreams.

Approved by the University's Board of Trustees and implemented in the Fall 2013 semester, the Intercollege Minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ENTI) offers students the opportunity to explore their entrepreneurial side, regardless of their academic major.

“It’s for any student who is interested in entrepreneurship and wants to learn more,” said Liz Kisenwether, the minor's director and an assistant professor in the School of Engineering Design, Technology and Professional Programs.

Robert Pangborn, vice president and dean for undergraduate education at Penn State and professor of engineering mechanics, said, “This is truly a unique model for entrepreneurship education. As an intercollege program, the ENTI minor was built from the ground up through interdisciplinary collaboration to emphasize broader participation of Penn State students in the exciting domains of innovation and creative ventures.”

“The new intercollege minor has a set of core courses that all students in the minor take, then clusters of courses to distinguish the aspect of entrepreneurship they wish to pursue,” said Renata Engel, associate dean of academic programs in the College of Engineering.

Kisenwether said every student in the minor will take three core courses totaling nine credits: Entrepreneurial Mindset, Entrepreneurial Leadership and New Venture Creation. After that, students can pursue one of five areas of emphasis — or clusters — to complete the program.

“The minor is open in such a way to let a student follow passions that aren't in their major,” she said.

Each cluster is led by an academic college or program, but students may pursue whichever one interests them the most.

Engel said, “We know that innovation and entrepreneurship do not reside with a particular field and we can help students develop knowledge and skills to pursue entrepreneurial approaches regardless of discipline.”

The clusters and their academic colleges are Food and Bio-Innovation (agricultural sciences), New Ventures (business), New Media (communications), Social Entrepreneurship (engineering) and Technology-Based Entrepreneurship (engineering).

Students in the Food and Bio-Innovation cluster will learn to address opportunities and challenges in the agriculture and life sciences field.

The New Ventures cluster will help students develop the skills and ways of thinking required to create, develop, innovate and manage entrepreneurial companies.

The New Media cluster will allow students to specialize in the creation and distribution of news, entertainment and information.

Students in the Social Entrepreneurship cluster will focus on creating sustainable social impact with marginalized communities.

The Technology-Based Entrepreneurship cluster will help students develop the skills and knowledge through a practical entrepreneurial experience in a technology-based environment.

Each cluster requires a minimum of nine credits of coursework.

Kisenwether said additional clusters are being planned.

Although the ENTI minor is new to Penn State, the University has taught a number of entrepreneurship courses over the years, including the Engineering Entrepreneurship minor that was established in 2002. l

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SPRING 2014

Curley Center hosts session with IRE pro The John Curley Center for Sports Journalism hosted a two-day workshop aimed at helping student journalists learn some of the techniques that allow investigative reporters to break the biggest stories.

The training director from Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Megan Luther, visited campus to lead the sessions in late January.

“As our students make their way into the professional world, they need to be able to make the most of public records to be effective reporters. We want to help them with that,” said John Affleck, director of the Curley Center and the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society. “Especially at a time when resources for training are relatively scant in the professional media, as are resources for investigative reporting, we want to give Penn State students a leg up so they can step into their working lives and have an immediate impact with the skills they already have.”

The workshop, which drew nearly two dozen student journalists to Carnegie Building, was designed to give participants the tools they need to dig deeper, with an emphasis on sports and related issues. Workshop segments focused on ideas for investigating everything from the business offices that exert a great deal of influence over sports to issues on the playing field.

The workshop was not lmited to aspiring sports journalists, though.

Techniques and tools addressed could help improve any reporter’s work.

Those topics included: crafting a data and document mindset; enhancing an understanding of open record laws; finding reliable information on online quickly; and using spreadsheets to uncover stories and help drive investiagations. l

CARNEGIE NEWS Foster-Foreman Conference visitor Dean Baquet (right) responds to a question as Associate Dean Marie Hardin listens.

Baquet, managing editor of The New York Times, and Beth Macy of the Roanoke (Va.) Times were the featured guests for the conference that has been bringing top-notch visitors to campus since 1999. (Photo by Kelly Tunney)

Visitors offer abundant optimism for journalism

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news organizations (“some good, some not so good”), stressing that he liked that the “price of admission” for journalism has gone down because of the emergence of bloggers and online media. At the same time, he knows some will survive and some will not. And he made a case for the biggest news organizations at the top of the industry.

“The only news organizations today that can do sustained investigative journalism are the big ones,” he said. “The biggest argument to fight for the big organizations to survive is investigative journalism.”

Still, two main themes emerged from Baquet’s presentation -- the importance of ethics and the abundance of opportunities for young journalists.

“I think your ethics are your ethics and they don’t change,” Baquet said. “If you change your ethics every day, at some point people won’t recognize you.”

He was most positive about job prospects for young journalists who harness multimedia tools that he believes will reshape the industry. He said the Times has added 50 jobs for “producers” in recent years, noting that those people with varied skill sets for multimedia and web work can make an immediate impact with a news organization, even one as large at The New York Times.

“There’s a whole new world of jobs in journalism,” he

he managing editor of The New York Times told an audience of 500 people, most of them College of Communications students, that he’s jealous of the opportunities they’ll have during their careers and the fact that they’re coming of age during a wonderful time for journalism.

Dean Baquet delivered an upbeat message about journalism during the first session of the Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers in October.

“The best journalism is being produced right now,” said Baquet, who has served as managing editor of The Times since September 2011. Before that, he was the paper’s Washington bureau chief for four years. “The business model is in trouble, not the craft.”

Baquet addressed a variety of topics during his nearly hour-long session in Heritage Hall of the HUB-Robeson Center. From his early days as a police and fire reporter — beats he said provided a daily thrill that remain a source of pride and memories 40 years later — ­ to his role as a leader of one of the nation’s most respected news organizations, Baquet said change and uncertainty have always been a part of journalism.

“The turmoil has been there forever, and it’s going to continue to be there,” he said. In the existing economic climate, Baquet said he appreciated the emergence of more

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CARNEGIE NEWS SERIES SPEAKERS

Beth Macy talks to junior Ebony Turner. (Photo by Kelly Tunney)

said. “There’s a lot of stuff.”

Along with Baquet, the fall conference featured Beth Macy. Her session concluded the two-day event, and her message included many of the same upbeat themes about journalism.

Macy has been a reporter for more than 20 years at The Roanoke Times in Virginia.

Since 1989, she has received national awards for her reporting on such subjects as immigration, elderly care giving and cholera in Haiti.

One of her prize-winning projects for The Times has led to a book, “Factory Man,” to be published in June 2014.

It is a nonfiction narrative about the globalization of the American furniture industry, told through a thirdgeneration factory owner’s battle to keep his factory going in tiny Galax, Va. The manuscript won the J. Anthony Lukas Workin-Progress Award in 2013, and the story behind the book allowed Macy to share her insights about good journalism. Especially good reporting.

“News reporters tend to

Spring session features alumnus The upcoming FosterForeman Conference of Distinguished Writers, Samanth Subramanian scheduled April 1-2 at University Park, will feature Penn State alumnus Samanth Subramanian (’01 Journ), the India correspondent for The National.

report on the big picture, but they often leave out the minor details, like the lives of those affected from such events,” Macy said.

Her work has been featured in the “Best Newspaper Writing” series, including an essay that outlines her approach to reporting on outsiders and underdogs: Report from the ground up, establish trust, be patient, find stories that tap into universal truths. l

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Fall 1999 James McBride *Michael Vitez #Alecia Swasy Spring 2000 *Ron Suskind *Madeleine Blais #Paul Hendrickson Fall 2000 *Anna Quindlen Mark Bowden #Jerry Schwartz Spring 2001 *Michael Gartner Wil Haygood #Ann Gerhart Fall 2001 *Richard Ben Cramer *David Maraniss Spring 2002 *Leonard Pitts Jr. Claire Smith #Lori Shontz Fall 2002 *David Halberstam *Paul Greenberg Spring 2003 *Steve Twomey Alicia Shepard Fall 2003 #Rod Nordland Bill Lyon Spring 2004 *David Shribman Ken Fuson Fall 2004 *Walter Mears *Cynthia Tucker Spring 2005 *David Zucchino *Bill Marimow Fall 2005 *Anne Hull *Buzz Bissinger Spring 2006 #Tom Verducci Steve Lopez

Fall 2006 Juan Williams Jennifer Hunter Spring 2007 *Sydney Schanberg *Karen DeYoung Fall 2007 *Jerry Kammer Diana Henriques Spring 2008 *Dana Priest Jim Wooten Fall 2008 *Amy Goldstein *Bill Raspberry Spring 2009 *Connie Schultz Michael Bamberger Fall 2009 *Sonia Nazario *Mark Feeney Spring 2010 John Grogan Jayson Stark Fall 2010 *Ken Armstrong *Diana K. Sugg Spring 2011 #Ben Feller *Barbara Laker *Wendy Ruderman Fall 2011 *Isabel Wilkerson *Paige St. John Spring 2012 *George Dohrmann *Joby Warrick Fall 2012 #*Sara Ganim David Greene Spring 2013 *David Finkel Inga Saffron Fall 2013 *Dean Baquet Beth Macy * Winners of the Pulitzer Prize # Penn State graduates

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CARNEGIE NEWS

Page Center grants focus on ethics, stakeholders The Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication at Penn State has awarded 13 grants and named 24 communication researchers from the United States and abroad as recipients for 201314. The awards total approximately $47,000.

“Ethical stakeholder engagement is the focus of our grants this year,” said Marie Hardin, a professor in the College of Commications who serves as director of the Page Center, a research unit housed in the College. “We anticipate that the findings of these projects will advance knowledge useful to communication researchers, public relations and marketing practitioners and leaders of corporations and non-profits, among others.”

The manuscripts received will be considered for two special calls for papers in professional journals and other possible outreach opportunities. This year’s grant awards are being coordinated by Marcia W. DiStaso, an assistant professor in the Department of Advertising/ Public Relations and a Page Center senior research fellow.

Award recipients are termed Page and Johnson Legacy Scholars in honor of public relations pioneer Arthur W. Page and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which endowed the Page Center’s research and education program in ethical leadership with a major gift. The Page and Johnson Legacy Scholars for 2013-14 and their funded projects are: z Lucinda L. Austin (Elon University) and Yan Jin (Virginia Commonwealth University), “Crisis Information Generation and Spread: Examining the Influence of Traditional and Social Media in Ethical and Effective Crisis Response and Recovery”; z Shannon A. Bowen (University of South Carolina), “Exploring the Role of the Dominant Coalition

in Creating an Ethical Culture for Internal Stakeholders”; z John Brummette and Lynn M. Zoch (Radford University), “Identifying the Roles that Values Serve in Guiding Stakeholder Expectations of Organizations”;

MORE ONLINE http://thepagecenter.comm.psu.edu z Serena Carpenter (Michigan State University), “Professional Social Media Communicator Roles: An Examination of Perceptions, Conflict and Identity.”; z Marcia W. DiStaso (Penn State), Tina McCorkindale (Appalachian State University) and Hilary Fussell Sisco (Quinnipiac University), “Ethically Measuring Social Media Engagement”; z Heidi Hatfield Edwards (Florida Institute of Technology), “Corporations, Causes, and Consequences: How Companies View their Relationships with the Causes they Support”; z Cheryl Ann Lambert (Boston University), “Fostering Ethical Engagement with Employee Affinity Groups”; z Linjuan Rita Men (Southern Methodist University), “Engaging Employees: The Effects of Ethical Leadership and Symmetrical Internal Communication”; z Marcus Messner (Virginia Commonwealth University), “Considering Ethics in Visual Storytelling: A Study of Nonprofits on Instagram”; z Dean Mundy (Appalachian State University), “From Principle to Policy to Practice? Evaluating Diversity as a Driver of Ethical Internal and External Stakeholder Engagement”; z Lan Ni (University of Houston), Qi Wang and Maria De la Flor (Villanova University), and Renato Peñaflor (Communica PR Consulting), “Ethical Community Stake-

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holder Engagement in the Global Environment: Impact on Relationship Management and Conflict Resolution”; z Dustin W. Supa (Boston University) and Melissa D. Dodd (University of Central Florida), “Examining the Impact of Advertising vs. Public Relations in Consumer Engagement”; z Jennifer Vardeman-Winter (University of Houston), “Ethics and Health Public Relations”; and z Tom Watson, Georgiana Grigore and Anastasios Theofilou (Bournemouth University), “Ethical Stakeholder Engagement: Exploring the Relationship Between Corporations and NGOs.” This marks the 10th year of grants awarded by the Page Center.

Since its founding, the Center has bestowed more than $500,000 in grants.

The Page Center was created in 2004 through a leadership gift by the late Lawrence G. Foster, a distinguished Penn State alumnus and corporate vice president for public relations at Johnson and Johnson.

The Center is named for Arthur W. Page, longtime vice president for public relations at AT&T. Page is often regarded as the founder of the modern practice of corporate public relations. He was the first person in a public relations position to serve as an officer and director of a major corporation. He also was a noted educator, publisher and adviser to U.S. presidents. He was widely known for management according to the “Page Principles,” his guidelines for ethical and effective communication with key publics and for responsible corporate behavior.

The Page Center seeks to foster a modern understanding and application of the Page Principles.

It supports innovative research, and educational or public service projects in a variety of academic disciplines and professional fields.l

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CARNEGIE NEWS

Heritage Month visitor encourages students to strive Hernan Guaracao, the founder of Philadelphia’s “Al Dia,” knows about chasing a dream. And about persistence.

Armed with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bogata, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa and a passion for his craft, Guaracao created an eight-page newsletter 20 years ago to serve the growing Hispanic community in and around Philadelphia.

Hernan Guaracao addresses students during his public session (top) In the past two decades that publication, and talks about internship opportunities at Al Dia with Assistant Dean “Al Dia,” has grown. Significantly.

Joseph Selden and students (above). (Photos by Kelly Tunney) Today, the print product is the PhiladelGuaracao told communications students about internphia region’s leading bilingual newspaper, ships with his company, and about the opportunity to circulating some 50,000 copies each week to readers in pursue their own dreams and passions during a session Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware — a titled “The Present and Future of the Hispanic Press.” region that is home to more than half a million Latinos.

His free public lecture was part of Heritage Month celeIn addition, the “Al Dia” brand has expanded to an online brations in the College of Communications. The visit and news site, aldianews.com, and numerous social media outthe lecture were sponsored by the Office of Multicultural lets. No other Hispanic media organization serves as many customers in the region.

Affairs. l

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CARNEGIE NEWS

Alumnus addresses media coverage of Obamacare A Penn State alumnus who specializes in the field of health care journalism told an audience of community members and students that following the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare,” through the media has not been easy for a variety of reasons.

Phil Galewitz of Kaiser Health News told a crowd of several hundred at the State Theatre in downtown State College that the detailed law, politics and some media bias all play a part in the problem.

“People don’t know who to believe out there. People don’t know really where to go for the Phil Galewitz talks about media coverage of facts,” he said. “The first word Obamacare during the Bronstein Lecture. for me is confusion.

(Photo by Kelly Tunney) “People hear this, people will impact the lives of consumers, hear that and they don’t know or how much it will cost them. what to do. I think the media do Still, he encouraged people to have blame in the problem. It’s not seek information from a variety of complete blame, but it’s certainly sources, and to be as informed as part of it.” possible. He said it was important to Galewitz said finding accurate, avoid politics and myths. unbiased information about the law “There is a lot of good work out can be difficult. there.

There are outlets holding govHe cited several examples of the ernment accountable and working same event or information leadfrom a truly consumer perspective.” ing to distinctly different stories, Some important parts of depending on the news organization Obamacare went into effect in Octhat produced the stories. tober, and coincided with Galewitz’s “As the media we’re writing that first page of history, things as they visit for the Ben Bronstein Lecture happen, so there’s room for things in Ethics and Public Relations. to change,” he said. “But it’s clear In the weeks and months that why there are reasons for confusion. followed, all the factors that “We’re all confused because what Galewitz addressed played a part you believe depends on what you in the overall story — from technoread. We can write a lot and no logical troubles with the rollout of matter what we write sometimes it’s the website healthcare.gov to how not getting through.” people reacted to the policy and the Galewitz said an ongoing problem procedures behind it. with coverage of Obamacare and any Galewitz, who covers Medicare, government-related policy or project Medicaid and long-term health care is politics. He said many media for Kaiser Health News, has focused outlets frame stories around politics, on health care journalism for more how an approach will impact the than two decades and serves as a next election or a political party in board member of the Association of general, rather than how that policy Health Care Journalists.

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“There is a lot of good work out there. There are outlets holding government accountable and working from a truly consumer perspective.”

— Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

A former reporter for the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post and the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Galewitz has earned two Penn State degrees: a bachelor’s in health planning and administration in 1987 and a master’s in public administration and health policy in 1994. He also worked for The Daily Collegian as an undergraduate at Penn State.

The Bronstein Lecture was created

by Bronstein, who earned his degree in journalism in 1961 and has been a longtime supporter of the University. He endowed the lecture in order to support ethics-related events as part of the core mission of the College of Communications.

Bronstein was the founding director of public relations at the Penn State College of Medicine and Hershey Medical Center and held director positions in public relations at two statewide health care associations.

The mission of the Don Davis Program in Ethical Leadership is to promote professional, academic and personal integrity within the community of the College of Communications. The program has a special focus on the development of responsibility and integrity among undergraduates in the College as part of their preparation to be the principled leaders of tomorrow’s media institutions. l

SPRING 2014

CARNEGIE NEWS

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE

OluwaTosin Adegbola, a department chair at Morgan State University, stressed the importance of education and real-life experience during an on-campus session sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Along with her free public lecture, she also met with students in a small group setting. She is an author who focuses her philanthropic efforts on women, children and the environment.

(Photo by Kelly Tunney)

Expert: Emotion trumps facts with ‘green’ efforts A research director for a marketing and communications agency that focuses almost exclusively on “green” efforts told a Penn State audience that emotion and image are often more effective than facts and figures when working to convince consumers to change their habits.

Lee Ann Head of the Shelton Group focused on “Leveraging Research Insights to Create Effective Sustainability Campaigns” during a free public lecture that highlighted her visit to campus for the inaugural Arthur W. Page Center Professional in Residence and Lecture Series.

Throughout the lecture, Head focused on insights gathered through her experience with energy-efficient and sustainable products. She said people’s actions often do not match up with their priority values when it comes to energy, food waste and water.

“What we get a lot is social desirability bias in this field of study because people say what they think they ought,” said Head. “They say the responsible answer because they want to seem like good people.”

Head also talked about lack of a follow through when it comes to change. She said people see the locus of control as external, rather than internal, meaning that they do not think they can impact change.

“There is a barrier of apathy and you’ve got this barrier of anger and disempowerment,” said Head.

The goal of marketing communications with a focus in efficiency and sustainability is to make people realize that it is within their control to make change happen, she said.

“You’ve got to wake them up.

You’ve got to wake them up that there is a problem. You don’t do this by finger pointing because that’s coun-

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terproductive. You don’t do this by shouting the sky is falling and all the polar bears are dying. That’s counterproductive,” said Head.

Head discussed different advertising techniques used to combat the misuse of resources. Many of the issues stem from people being set in their habits, she said.

“To create behavior change you have to wake people up to their automatic habits in a light-hearted way, make them aware of their issues and shift it to more conscious decisions instead of bad-habit decisions,” said Head. “You need to shift their perceived locus of control and make them understand that they can do something. They need to do something. They are empowered to do something.”

— Mary Elder

SPRING 2014

CARNEGIE NEWS

Bacon shares insights during class, lecture Author John Bacon, whose recently published “Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football” focuses on the 2012 season while leaning on behind-the-scenes work covering Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Northwestern, said he was surprised by how the book developed in regard to Penn State.

His well-attended free public session in September was part of the Conversation Series presented by the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism.

Bacon discussed the reporting of the book, stories that were part of the book and how his Author John Bacon responds to a student question after his visit to COMM 170 Introduction to the Sports Industry. own perceptions changed during the reporting process during the hour-long session in journalists to Carnegie Cinema. his thoughts MORE ONLINE Through several different examples, the told the about the audience that student-athletes represent the best about Video: ustream.tv/channel/curleycenter 2013 Penn intercollegiate athletics.

State football Moderator John Affleck, the Knight Chair in Sports team.

Journalism and Society and director of the Curley Center, In addition to the free public session, Bacon was the moderated the session — mixing his own questions with featured guest during COMM 170 Introduction to the those from the audience.

Sports Industry during his three-day campus visit. While Bacon’s book, which spent several weeks on The New in class he again focused on additional aspects of his York Times bestseller list, also provided lessons about book project — taking student questions as submitted reporting that were discussed during the session. And,

by Twitter and also asked in person. He also talked along with questions about the book in general, Bacon with numerous students individually at the end of cla discussed a mix of topics, ranging from advice for aspiring ss. l

Pockrass Lecture focuses on narrative reality In a world full of reality TV and crime dramas with storylines supposedly drawn from news headlines, Rick Busselle, a visiting associate professor at Bowling Green State University, presented the annual Robert M. Pockrass Memorial Lecture — which focused on what’s real and not, and why it matters — ­­ during a visit to Penn State in the fall.

With “That’s Pretty Realistic ... If You Think About It: Media Effects and Audience Perceptions of (Un)Realism,” Rick Busselle Busselle outlined his findings from research that investigates the relations between narrative experiences and perceptions of people and problems in the actual world.

Specifically, he focused on the notion of realism, the extent to which media consumers perceive fictional people and events differently from their real-world counterparts and the role perceived realism plays in drawing audiences into or driving them out of

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narrative experiences.

“I think that stories that are not realistic are the way we understand our lives,” he said. “In fact, real life isn’t like the stories we tell each other or remember ourselves.”

Busselle’s research has been published in Communication Theory, Communication Research, Media Psychology and The Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. He is currently a co-editor of the journal Media Psychology. He has produced television news, worked in motorsports as freelance videographer, produced corporate promotional videos, and spent 15 years at Washington State University.

The Pockrass Lecture was named after the late Professor Robert M. Pockrass, a member of Penn State’s journalism faculty from 1948 to 1977. Pockrass, who specialized in public opinion and popular culture, served as the graduate officer and taught radio news writing.

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CARNEGIE NEWS

Discussion with AP’s national writer for race focuses on change, constants Jesse Washington, national writer cent did not. Washtington said those for race and ethnicity for The Associ- results were why the Woods story was ated Press, told students in the John so widely covered.

Curley Center for Sports Journalism “Sports in America are putting that race and sports have a history — forth topics that are worth some and a future. consideration,” said Washington.

A more recent topic of consider“Race and sports, for the foreseeation relating to racial issues able future, will always be within American sports intertwined,” said Washingconcerns the Washington ton.

Redskins. The debate on During a free public whether the team should lecture before a standchange its name has been ing-room-only audience ongoing, but has recently in Foster Auditorium at drawn more interest.

Paterno Library, Wash“The Redskins thing ington talked about three Jesse really speaks to what kind of examples of racism seen in country we want to have,” said American sports throughout Washington history, all of which continue to have Washington. “Do we want to have a country where we consider what a lasting affect. people who are not in the numerical He began with Jack Johnson, majority feel? Do we want to make the first black heavyweight boxing them feel welcome and included?” world champion, who was found in Washington said sports sheds violation of the Mann Act in 1912 for transporting a white woman (who light on these questions, and, in order to attempt to answer them, we would eventually be his wife) across must work to get past our own biases. state lines for “immoral reasons.”

He emphasized the importance of enToday, more than 100 years later, gaging in conversations with people U.S. Sen. John McCain and other who hold different opinions. prominent political members have He said journalists should strive to asked President Obama to pardon Johnson, and Obama says he cannot. conduct conversations with people who hold different opinions — if “This alone shows how relevant this stuff still is. We’re not really past only as a matter of further informing themselves. it and still can’t put it to rest,” said “Don’t go in trying to prove a Washington. point. Go in trying to think or feel Tiger Woods’ extramarital affairs like they do and you will come out were the second topic brought to the with more knowledge and a valuable floor.

Washington said all of Woods’ doz- perspective,” said Washington. He said such an approach can help make en girlfriends were white, and that journalists better at their jobs. bothered some black people. In light Moderator John Affleck, the of the situation, many discussions Knight Chair in Sports Journalism took place in America on the topic and Society, was pleased with the of interracial marriage, and Washsession. “These are the kinds of ington said the story drew different reactions from audiences of different perspectives and discussions we want from of the Curley Center,” he said. races.

Additionally, he cited a poll about “Thoughtful events on timely topics will help our students be even better American attitudes on interracial prepared.” marriage that found 87 percent of — Danielle Sampsell respondents supported it but 13 per

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NEWS, NOTES l A first-ever undergraduate open house was conducted by the College of Communications on the University Park campus in the fall, and the event drew a strong response.

Prospective students from across Pennsylvania, and from neighboring states, made the day trip to campus to meet faculty, staff and students.

Breakout sessions for the day focused on educational options in the four communications departments, co-curricular activities and the importance of internships. In addition, families and prospective students were able to tour campus, including College of Communications facilities in Carnegie Building and at Innovation Park, which serves as home for the state-of-the-art TV studios used by communications students. l A contingent of students from Shanghai International Studies University in China visited the College of Communications during the fall semester. The visit, which has become part of a regular exchange between Penn State and SISU, enabled visiting students to learn more about the United States media and political systems. Visiting students participated in special seminars with communications faculty members and sat in on lectures and special events that took place during their visit. As part of their trip to the United States, the group from SISU also visited Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. l Alumna Brooke Erin Duffy (’02 Adv/PR), an assistant professor in the School of Media and Communication at Temple University, presented the fall Social Thought Program Lecture in Communication, titled “The Romance of Work: Gender and Aspirational Labor in Contemporary Culture Industries.” Her talk — which drew upon Duffy’s recent research on the women’s magazine, advertising and fashion blogging industries — was co-sponsored by the Social Thought Program, the College of Communications and University Libraries. She examined how creative autonomy, commercialism and community are talked about in those industries in ways that simultaneously challenge and reaffirm social hierarchies of gender and class. Duffy, the author of one book and co-editor of another, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

SPRING 2014

FACULTY/STAFF CLOSEUP

Affleck enjoys appointment, appreciates students

O

n his first day in front of two separate sports writing classes to start the spring semester, John Affleck gave each group an assignment: 1986 or 1992.

After an initial fall semester as a guest lecturer in classes and leading a handful of independent study efforts, Affleck, the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, planned to throw the 400-level sports writing students into action immediately on his first day teaching his own classes.

After helping students with independent study projects and serving as a guest lecturOne group wound up with er in classes during the fall semester, John Affleck started teaching his two sections of sports writing during the spring semester. (Photo by Hannah Biondi) 1986, and Affleck, a Notre Dame alumnus, put them result mattered, the “The best part of the job has been to work. They watched the closing context and meaning the students. They’re eager, and it’s minutes of Penn State’s 1986 victory of the game mattered over the Fighting Irish in South invigorating to see their passion. even more.

Bend, Ind., and had to write the “It was interesting And, because they are Penn Staters first part of a game story from that to have each class pick they want to be good and they want assignment. a different game,” In his other section of COMM to do good. From the outside that Affleck said. “Either 476 Sports Writing, the group got game allowed me to sounds like a cliché, but you see it 1992. They watched Notre Dame’s get a sense of their every day and it’s really affirming.” victory against Penn State from that skills, but there was year and also had to write a game — John Affleck, a degree of difficulty story.

Knight Chair in Sports Journalism with 1986. An expeAffleck’s approach worked on rienced sports writer and Society several levels — giving the students would handle it with an assignment with no preparation, relative ease because and Editors — making connections integrating technology and putting they’ve probably had experience with across campus and meeting students. them under deadline pressure on the providing that kind of context. For “The best part of the job has been first day of class. students, it was a learning experithe students. They’re eager, and it’s In addition, Affleck learned as ence.” invigorating to see their passion,” well — because the two games, while Affleck was named the Knight Affleck said. “And, because they are close with Penn State winning, Chair on Aug. 6, 2013, and he Penn Staters they want to be good 24-19, in 1986 and Notre Dame arrived on campus just as classes for and they want to do good. From the winning, 17-15, in 1992, provided the fall semester began. outside that sounds like a cliché, distinct challenges.

He spent the fall spearheading but you see it every day and it’s The more recent of the two games programming efforts — which includ- really affirming.” was a straightforward assignment. ed a campus visit from best-selling Before arriving at Penn State after Both teams were decent, not great, author John Bacon (page 14), discus- the College conducted a national and the outcome was the story. sion about race and sports with Jesse search for the Knight Chair, Affleck The 1986 game, though, was Washington of The Associated Press spent 22 years at The Associated another big step on Penn State’s (page 15) and a comprehensive twoPress. He served as a reporter, editor route toward playing for the national day session for student journalists and national manager at the AP, championship. So while the game conducted by Investigative Reporters working regularly with all of the

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SPRING 2014

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

CONTROL ROOM CONVERSATION

Steve Kraycik, director of student television and online operations, listens as a student explains production options during an episode of “Centre County Report.” The weekly student-produced news program that airs in 29 counties in Pennsylvania and southern New York has been honored as being among the best in the nation. (Photo by Kelly Tunney)

organization’s major editorial departments.

In his most recent role, he helped manage day-to-day operations for the roughly 70-member domestic sports team.

He directed coverage of the Lance Armstrong saga, coordinated efforts with the news department as the Jerry Sandusky case unfolded and guided the U.S. sports report last summer when the AP’s sports team was split between Olympic and non-Olympic coverage.

As director of the Curley Center, Affleck will: teach several courses, including sports writing; serve as a voice about sports journalism issues and trends; and coordinate the Cen

ter’s programming, which includes a variety of partnerships at Penn State and off campus for guest lectures and special events.

Affleck, who consistently seeks ways to craft partnerships and improve all aspects of the Curley Center, also has plans for special student opportunities — including an international reporting experience for more than a half dozen students later this summer.

“There’s a real team atmosphere in the College of Communications,” Affleck said. “The students bring energy and enthusiasm, and we have the resources and support to make this a special place for them. Everyone here is committed to that.” l

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Affleck throws out the first pitch at a State College Spikes baseball game.

(Photo by Steve Manuel)

SPRING 2014

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

Boosting self-expression online may limit impulsive purchases

By Matthew Swayne Long online transactions can take a toll on a person’s self-control, but adding more self-expression and personal identity to those processes can help restore control, according to Penn State researchers.

“Making a lot of choices leads to what researchers call ego-depletion and that can affect self-control,” said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory. “When a person makes a lot of choices, the ability to exert self-control begins to diminish with every choice.”

Participants in an online study showed more self-control after they tailored a personal website that represented their own values and personality than a group that customized a site for other people, said Sundar.

Creating the website required several decisions on what features to add and where to place the new features.

After people make too many choices, they tend to make more impulsive decisions, according to the researchers, who report their findings in the current issue of Computers in Human Behavior. For example, while making online purchases, customers may be more prone to buy upgraded, but unneeded features, toward the end of the sale.

Sundar, who worked with Hyunjin Kang, a doctoral student in mass communications, said that the study may help remind web users that they should exercise caution when making a lot of decisions during ecommerce sessions, surveys and other online transactions.

“People should become aware that if they are making a lot of choices —- for example, during hotel or travel purchases — the activity can deplete their ability to control their actions,” said Sundar. “They may want to

take a break and step away from the computer for a while to recharge that self-control.”

While some businesses may want users to be more impulsive during online purchases, Sundar said companies that want their customers to make reasoned decisions should incorporate self-affirming activities into the process.

“For instance, customers who are environmentally conscious may be interested in personalizing their stay at a hotel with options that can help the environment and affirm their green identity,” Sundar said.

The researchers asked 54 university students to either tailor or browse a customizable website.

One group was asked to customize a site to best reflect their personality and values. Researchers asked another group to create a site that represented someone of a different gender. The control group did not create a site, but browsed a similar, but generic website.

Participants who tailored their own site worked significantly longer on a puzzle than those who customized the website for others.

The puzzle, which is an unsolvable anagram task, is a standard way to measure ego-depletion and decision fatigue, according to the researchers.

The length of time that subjects try to solve the problem indicates the level of self-control remaining after the assigned activity.

“This shows that choosing behaviors in the customization process can make you feel depleted and you’ll persist less in an unsolvable task,” said Kang. “The cure, then, seems to be tasks that improve self-expression and help protect one’s identity.” l

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SPRING 2014

Jayakar named IIP co-director An accomplished and respected faculty member has been named as a co-director of the Institute for Information Policy (IIP), a research center supported by the College of Communications, and the College of Information Sciences and Technology.

Krishna Jayakar, an associate professor in the Department of Telecommunications, has published extensively on broadband adoption and universal access for disadvantaged communities such as minorities and Krishna the poor, most Jayakar recently focusing on broadband access for persons with disabilities.

An award-winning researcher, Jayakar earned the Deans’ Excellence Award for Integrated Scholarship in 2013 and 2004. In 2002, he earned the Deans’ Excellence Award for Teaching.

He teaches telecommunications management and media economics.

The IIP conducts sponsored research and self-funded programs on the social implications of information technology, with an emphasis on the potential of information technologies for improving democratic discourse, social responsibility and quality of life.

The institute undertakes both research and programmatic activities aimed at making a direct contribution to society and to advancing the understanding of information technology processes and outcomes. The institute also publishes the Journal of Information Policy, a peer-reviewed professional journal dedicated to timely policy research that addresses contemporary challenges and connects researchers to policy makers. l

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

Hoag leads strong Entrepreneurship Week contingent A talented mix of College of Communications alumni, faculty and students played an important role during the fifth-annual Global Entrepreneurship Week at Penn State.

The week of activities, conducted in late November on the University Park campus, included a series of more than 30 panels and presentations that are part of the global event designed to foster an international interest in entrepreneurship.

Millions of attendees in 120 countries participated in Global Entrepreneurship Week in 2012 and Penn State — with 20 events and 500 students attending — ranked fourth in the nation among all listed partners. In 2013, Penn State organizers pushed the University to second on the list.

“Our efforts placed us squarely in the national spotlight,” said Linda Feltman, a senior business consultant for the Penn State Small Business Development Center, who worked closely with the communications contingent, and everyone associated with the entrepreneurship effort. That collaboration produced lectures, panel discussions, presentations by successful entrepreneurs and other special events.

“We conducted numerous events and the cooperation

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across campus and between town and gown was rewarding to watch unfold. It was a great week.”

Anne Hoag, an associate professor in the Department of Telecommunications, has been a strong proponent of entrepreneurship efforts on campus.

She served on one panel and attended several sessions.

In addition, alumnus Jason Brewer, who founded Brolik Productions Inc. in 2004 and earned his film-video degree in 2006, participated in two separate events and visited classes.

Several students also played an important role. Advertising/public relations student Mac Frederick, who graduated in December, coordinated one event through Nittany Entrepreneurs, and participated on two separate panels.

A five-member team of communications students helped coordinate publicity for the events. In addition to the College of Communications, six Penn State colleges have helped make the week of activities on campus a reality. They are: the College of Agricultural Sciences, the College of Arts and Architecture, the College of Engineering, the College of Health and Human Development, the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and the Smeal College of Business. l

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FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

Esteem impacts how people put best Facebook forward

By Matthew Swayne How social media users create and monitor their online personas may hint at their feelings of self-esteem and self-determination, according to an international team of researchers.

“The types of actions users take and the kinds of information they are adding to their Facebook walls and profiles are a reflection of their identities,” said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory. “You are your Facebook, basically, and despite all its socialness, Facebook is a deeply personal medium.”

People with lower self-esteem tend to be much more concerned with what others post about them on Facebook, while users with higher self-esteem spend more effort on adding information to their personal profiles on the social network, said Sundar.

The researchers, who reported their findings at INTERACT 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa, said that people with both high and low self-esteem spend time crafting their online personas on Facebook, but choose different paths in that construction. Individuals with higher self-esteem have a greater sense of agency and spend more time adding information about their family, education and work experience to their profiles, according to the researchers.

Users who have lower self-esteem continuously monitor their wall and delete unwanted posts from other users, according to the researchers.

The findings may also lead to alternative ways to make money for online social networks, said Sundar, who

worked with Jiaqi Nie, a graduate student in interaction science, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea.

“The more you get connected to Facebook, the stronger you feel that the items you post — the pictures, for example — are part of your identity and the more likely you are going to view these as your virtual possessions,” said Sundar.

Because both groups of high self-esteem and low self-esteem Facebook users see the social network as an extension of their self-identity, they may be willing to pay for features on social networks, said Sundar. For example, social media and social media app developers may be able to attract paying customers with more customizable walls and profile pages.

The researchers studied how 225 students from a South Korean university filled in their Facebook profiles and how the students edited material that friends linked to or posted on their walls.

Participants answered a series of questions about whether they added information to 33 categories of personal data, including details about their family, work and relationships. The participants also reported on how frequently they updated and changed information on their walls To measure self-esteem and self-monitoring, the researchers asked the participants to answer questions, including ones on self-worth and how they choose to present themselves in public.

The researchers suggest that future studies may investigate how users of different psychological backgrounds take part in other social networking behaviors, such as how often they update photos and how they set privacy settings.l

Penn State Communications Camps July 6-10, 2014 Multimedia Journalism Camp / Film Camp

Hands-on sessions for high school students taught by College of Communications faculty members.

comm.psu.edu/camps

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FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

PICTURE IN PICTURE

That’s Will Yurman, a senior lecturer in the Department of Journalism, as part of a selfie with Kainaz Amaria, a multimedia producer for NPR. They served as co-coaches during the National Press Photographers Association’s Multimedia Immersion workshop in Syracuse, N.Y. The hands-on, week-long workshop is designed to teach visual journalists multimedia storytelling skills.

Collaboration leads to international conference presence

A recent Penn State graduate presented research regarding environmental communications alongside a College of Communications faculty member at an international public relations conference in October.

Brenna Thorpe, who graduated with a degree in advertising/public relations in 2012 and works as a strategic comBrenna munications consultant at Booz Allen Thorpe Hamilton, presented a paper titled “Spinning the Green Web: How Fortune 300 Companies Communicate Their Sustainability Efforts Through Websites and Social Media” that she co-authored with Denise Bortree, an associate professor in the Department of Advertising/Public Relations. Their work was shared at the Public Relations Society of America International Conference in Philadelphia.

The key findings for the research conducted by Thorpe and Bortree were that social media is used to share sustainability stories and is currently leading traditional media in the sustainability space.

Thorpe, a member of the Schreyer Honors College as a student at Penn State, wrote her honors thesis about environmental sustainability on corporate websites. Bortree conducted additional interviews about the topic, and she and Thorpe combined their findings into the paper.

“When she asked if we could combine papers, I was really excited and I’m proud of the work we both did,” Thorpe said. “She was the supervisor of my thesis, so she was

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familiar with the methods and material I used, and was easily the best person to expand upon my work.”

Bortree also serves as a senior research fellow for the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication, housed in the College of Communications. In 2012, she co-edited a book titled “Talking Green: Exploring Denise Botrtee Contemporary Issues in Environmental Communications,” and she has published more than 25 journal articles about environmental communication and other topics.

“Spinning the Green Web” focuses on the correlation between companies promoting their environmental efforts and their reputation. Research was conducted by interviewing 14 corporate sustainability communicators for Fortune 300 companies. Another method involved a content analysis of 50 websites of Fortune 200 companies.

Bortree and Thorpe made several discoveries with their work. First, a company’s location on the Fortune 500 list had no correlation with a company’s online sustainability information. Research also found a positive correlation between reputation and the amount of information provided online regarding environmental initiatives, present and future.

Based on their findings, Bortree and Thorpe concluded that social media is a useful tool to create interest and thought leadership in sustainability. l

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FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

Faculty moderator John Dillon (above, left) listens as Sandra Clark of The Philadelphia Inquirer makes a point. Other panelists included alumnus Dan Victor (above, right) of The New York Times, Cate Barron (below) of the Patriot-News in Harrisburg and Mark Rochester of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (Photos by Kelly Tunney)

Editors address future of news A quartet of editors told an audience of mostly College of Communications students that journalism is not dying. It’s evolving.

“The appetite for news has never been greater,” said Mark Rochester, deputy managing editor of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette. The event was organized by the Department of Journalism under the auspices of the Norman Eberly Professorship.

Along with Rochester, the panel included: Cate Barron, editor of the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.; Sandra Clark, deputy managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer; and Dan Victor, the social media editor of The New York Times who earned his journalism degree at Penn State in 2006.

Victor said reporters and editors across the country are working to tap technologies to tell stories in ways that will connect with consumers. He shared examples of how storytelling in the The Times, especially online, has changed with a focus on connecting and

engaging readers. That means encouraging a community to develop around stories and sharing stories in a different manner.

Adaptation has been different for each of the outlets represented on the panel.

For example, the Patriot-News prints a newspaper only three days a week. It always has a presence at pennlive.com online, though. Barron said it was a radical move that has come with benefits beyond money savings. With a greater presence online and the use of social media, the news has become more of a conversation between the readers and reporters, she said.

Rochester said the way news is shared has been tailored more toward readers and that traditional journalistic approaches and ethics matter and remain.

“I don’t think news gathering will fundamentally change that much, we just have different tools to go out into the field,” Rochester said. l

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Presidential Award honors Anderson’s contributions Dean Doug Anderson of the College of CommunicaRichard Cole, a former AEJMC president and former tions was recognized for “outstanding service to jourdean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communinalism and mass communication education” during the cation at the University of North Carolina for 26 years, annual AEJMC Conference in Washington, D.C., with said Anderson “has spread his ideas and dedication to the AEJMC Presidential Award. excellence in journalism-mass communication education Anderson has led the communications through his work in accreditation. For decades, program at Penn State since 1999. Under his he has been one of the leaders in standing up for guidance, the College of Communications, the the best education possible for students across largest accredited mass communications program this country and beyond.” in the nation, has become one of the country’s Before coming to Penn State, Anderson was best. With back-to-back national championships director of the Cronkite School of Journalism in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s and Mass Communication at Arizona State.

Journalism Awards Program, consistently strong In 1996, The Freedom Forum named Anperformances in competitions sponsored by the derson Journalism Administrator of the Year, American Advertising Federation, regular praise Doug making him the youngest person ever to receive for work produced by students and faculty in the Anderson the award. In 1997, he served as the inaugural film-video program and numerous accolades across all fellow at the Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center in San four departments, the College has built its reputation on Francisco, where he conducted a study on the state of measurable success. journalism-mass communication education.

For Anderson, an emphasis on undergraduate eduHe is the author or co-author of six books, two of cation remains at the core of his approach. He takes which have gone into subsequent editions: “Contempoabundant pride in the graduation rate in the College (80 rary Sports Reporting” and “News Writing and Reportpercent for four years, 88 percent for five years), which ing for Today’s Media.” He also has written more than 75 ranks as the highest of any academic unit at Penn State. academic articles, papers, book chapters and workbooks.

In addition, his collaborative manner and unselfishness A former daily newspaper reporter, sports editor and have made Penn State a popular place for faculty, staff managing editor, Anderson is a past president of the and students. The collegiality of the program has played Nebraska Associated Press Managing Editors Association. an important part in the growth and success of the He also is a past president of the Association of Schools College. of Journalism and Mass Communication and the SouthInstances when Anderson draws attention to himself west Education Council on Education in Journalism and are rare. Still, many at the University and across the high- Mass Communication. He is the former three-term chair er education community have noticed the wide-ranging of the national Accrediting Committee of the Accrediting impact of his career.

Council on Education in Journalism and Mass CommuACEJMC President Peter Bhatia, who has worked with nications. He currently serves as vice president of the Anderson during their careers, described Anderson as “a Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and rare leader” who “practices excellence in all he does.”

Mass Communications. l

Haverbeck, sports communications pioneer, dies at 74 Mary Jo Haverbeck, who worked for Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics, was the first woman named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame and taught in the College of Communications, died Jan. 6.

She was 74.

Haverbeck earned her master’s degree in journalism from Penn State in 1975, and her bachelor’s degree in education

from the University of Delaware.

She began her career as an elementary school teacher in Delaware and came to Penn State in 1974. For the next 10 years, she was the University’s assistant sports information director. From 1984 until her retirment in 1999, Haverbeck served as associate sports information director.

Along with her duties in Athletics, she was an instructor for news writing and reporting classes and created a sports information class at the University.

In 1999, Haverbeck became the sports information profession’s first woman recognized for 25 years of service. In

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2000, she was the first woman to win the College Sports Information Director’s Arch Ward Award. She won CoSIDA’s first Trailblazer Award in 2001.

She also was involved with various NCAA communications committees, was the press operations manager for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in 1996, served as press officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1983 in Caracas, Venezuela, and was a press officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1981 in Syracuse, N.Y. Her work took her around the world, and she continued writing until her death. l

SPRING 2014

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

Faculty member compiles list of movies that made an impact As award season winds down for the motion picture industry, Kevin Hagopian, a senior lecturer in the Department of Film-Video and Media studies, has compiled a list of 20 groundbreaking movies of all time.

Hagopian has been teaching at Penn State for a decade and a half.

Before joining the faculty, he served as a senior analyst for Kenny and Associates Inc., a national corporate communications consulting firm, and editor of the “Film Literature Index” for the State University of New York Research Foundation.

His writing on film has appeared in academic journals and daily newspapers, and online. He also teaches film history and theory, and has been quoted as an expert on the movie industry for outlets such as the Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Christian Science Monitor, CNBC, The Washington Post and by the French television network Canal Plus.

TOP 20 GROUNDBREAKING MOVIES OF ALL TIME The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gilo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria) The great masterpiece of the political cinema, this mixture of documentary and fiction portrayed the Algerian independence movement against colonial France. Not only a thrilling narrative, but a compelling picture of the world in the wake of big-nation colonialism. The film shows graphically that one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist.

Leaders of every independence movement since have watched this film as a primer. And U.S. policymakers were said to have watched the film before the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan to learn its lessons.

The Battleship Potemkin (1925, Sergei Eisenstein, USSR) Eisenstein’s revolutionary editing technique collided images in a torrent of conflict. For Eisenstein, notable as a theorist of the cinema as well as a director, movies occur in the

spectator’s mind, not on the screen.

Eisenstein’s films of social tumult perfectly expressed the spirit of the new Soviet Union, but filmmakers Kevin all over the world Hagopian have used his techniques to bring dynamism to their work and thrills to their audiences.

Ironically, Walt Disney, a political conservative, was an early admirer of Eisenstein’s technique. Every montage sequence, as well as every political film made since, owes this master of the political cinema a great debt.

The Birth of a Nation (1915, D.W. Griffith, United States) The single most influential film of all time, The Birth of a Nation transformed the American film business into a modern commercial media industry. The film was as socially influential as it was economically successful — an essential and horrific document in the history of American racism.

Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard, France) This provocative, self-mocking, and stylish film helped to establish the French New Wave of the 1960s, and inspired a generation of young American filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola. Whatever postmodernism is, Breathless qualifies.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919, Robert Wiene, Germany) This strange and strange-looking tale of a madman who controls a sleepwalking murderer looked like a fevered dream on screen. Its shadows and angles mocked the cinema’s privileged “realism.” When the film was screened in the United States, its small but influential audiences saw that film design could be expressive of character’s inner states of being and knowing. The result was immediate: the American cinema developed a new creativity in art direction. Just ask

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20

GROUNDBREAKING MOVIES OF ALL TIME modern surrealist filmmakers like Tim Burton and David Lynch about this film, and watch them nod and smile.

Deep Throat (1972, Gerard Damiano, United States) This hugely successful film ignited the modern porn industry. Along with two other films of the era — “Night of the Living Dead” and the pioneering Blaxploitation film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” — Deep Throat showed that Hollywood had totally failed to understand the idea of niche audiences, as well as their changing social attitudes and ways of moviegoing.

Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder, United States) A brilliant and cynical film that initiated the film noir movement in the United States, and eventually around the world. As the Coen brothers and Quentin Tarantino would tell you, film noir, now called neo-noir, is alive and well as a way of portraying the sleazy, the greedy, and the crazy — and doing it in a visually striking way.

Easy Rider (1969, Dennis Hopper/ Peter Fonda, United States) This improvisational road movie was a self-styled countercultural essay — but perversely, it helped to turn the youth audience into a youth market whose influence continues to determine the way money and resources are allocated in the American film industry today.

The Godfather I & II (1972, 1974, Francis Coppola, United States) Coppola’s saga remains a primary experience for every film student, and

SPRING 2014

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS by consensus one of the most acute and critical portraits of the American story of immigration, crime, and economic success in any medium.

The Great Train Robbery (1903, Edwin S. Porter, United States) This short (11 minutes) narrative film, one of the earliest Westerns, hastened the shift away from film as a brilliant novelty to a commodity, as film storytelling now took on a systematic aspect, a contract shared between filmmaker and viewer that’s still in force today.

Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg, United States) The first of the modern blockbusters, Jaws together with “Star Wars” brought to an end the American Film Renaissance of 1968-1975, the most creative period in post-World War II American cinema. It’s a well-crafted film, but its success has drastically limited the intellectual diversity of the mainstream cinema.

Nanook of the North (1922, Robert Flaherty, United States) From the first, the film had been used to document life but Flaherty’s picturesque account of the life of the “primitive” Inuit hunter Nanook and his family showed that the documentary could also be a sentimental document as well — turning Nanook into a compelling character even as it reduced the complexity of his culture and social existence. Walt Disney’s “The Living Desert,” the recent “March of the Penguins,” and a thousand other romantic documentaries have taken their lead from “Nanook of the North.”

Night of the Living Dead (1958, George Romero, United States) Pennsylvania’s contribution to this list started as a no-budget, underground horror film — whose popularity, in spite of its gore and the fact that it hardly ever played “real” movie houses at normal times, inspired the entire modern American independent film movement.

Primary (1960, Robert Drew, United States) A media-savvy presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy, allowed a

young documentarian, Robert Drew, unprecedented access to his campaign. Drew used new, lightweight cameras and sound equipment developed for television news. The campaign itself (the 1960 Democratic primary in Wisconsin) was forgettable, but the intimacy and “off-camera” feel of celebrities letting down their guard has proved to be indelible.

Rome: Open City (1945, Roberto Rossellini, Italy) Filmed in the streets of Rome while Germans still occupied part of Italy, this deeply emotional tale of politics and betrayal immediately transformed world cinema. Rome: Open City added the term “neorealism” to the lexicon of directors seeking to go beyond the charm of studio-bound cinema to tell moral and ethical tales. In the era of total war and potential nuclear obliteration the world needed all the moral and ethical help it could get, and the great postwar art cinema of directors like Satjayit Ray (India), Akira Kurosawa (Japan), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden) and Rossellini’s Italian countrymen Luchino Visconti, Vittorio DeSica, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Federico Fellini would provide it.

Scorpio Rising (1964, Kenneth Anger, United States) You’ve probably never seen it: the experimental film without which MTV style would never have been. The film features collage-style editing of images that often seem random, but by backing them with popular music, Anger gets the audience to do the conceptual work. Still disturbing and taboo-breaking after all these years.

Star Wars (1977, George Lucas, United States) Star Wars stitched together ideas taken from the films its director watched in USC film school to create a likeable and kinetic sci-fi/action film with an easily accessible and appealing philosophy, “May the Force Be With You,” whatever that means. Star Wars established a cornerstone of the blockbuster concept — “the franchise film,” in which individual films, such as in the Die Hard, Iron Man and Harry Potter franchises repeat the same

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ideas, less important as individual narratives than as the pretext for a vast commercial enterprise across many media platforms.

A Trip to the Moon (1902, George Melies, France) George Melies’ epic fantasies first used the magical properties of cinema itself, such as stop action photography, to spin a new kind of magic that no other artistic medium could achieve. As Martin Scorsese’s hero-worshiping film Hugo shows, Melies is truly the patron saint of modern special effects cinema.

Every herd of jogging dinosaurs and exploding asteroids in the contemporary summer blockbuster is a wink at George Melies.

Within Our Gates (1919, Oscar Micheaux, United States) An enormously influential film that relatively few people have ever seen, Within Our Gates established the African American cinema, in a film designed as a riposte to The Birth of a Nation. Throughout the Jim Crow era, and for long after, African American filmmakers faced a hostile mainstream industry; against this wall of disinterest, Micheaux went on to make over 40 films before 1948, virtually all of them self-distributed.

The Zapruder Film (1963, Abraham Zapruder, United States) Abraham Zapruder, a Dallas tailor, took his Model 414 PD Bell and Howell Zoomatic Director Series Camera 8mm camera to Dealey Plaza to film the Presidential motorcade on November 22, 1963. His film not only captured history, it generated history — it is the most heavily-analyzed 26.6 seconds of film in history, creating supercharged debates about what, exactly, was shown in the film, and whether it may have been faked. The Zapruder film photographed the death of a president, but it also presaged the end of a naïve belief in film’s status as unmediated reality. Our Photoshopped skepticism in the unquestioned truth of the photographed image began with the Zapruder film.

SPRING 2014

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

Excellence Awards recognize staff contributors Three staff members from the College of Communications earned annual Deans’ Excellence Awards as recognition for their work.

Dean Doug Anderson presented the awards that were determined after he and Associate Dean Marie Hardin reviewed recommendations from supervisors within the College.

Anderson said staff members are vital to the mission of the College.

“I think we have cemented ourselves as the best-balanced, most comprehensive, student-centered nationally accredited program in America because of our people: faculty and staff,” Anderson said.“Our staff is second to none. This staff is what makes the College special.

“Staff members often set the tone for what prospective students or visitors think of the College. Our staff members work 12 months a year and pour their energy and personality into the College every day. From office to office, we have people who care about our students and do their jobs exceptionally well. They bring expertise and reliability to what they do. Every day.”

The three honorees were selected from dozens of worthy recipients.

Annette Jones, assistant to the financial officer, was recognized as a master of her job and splendid team player. As a financal assistant, she works daily in a vareity of roles with a spectrum of clients: vendors, faculty members, fellow staff members and students.

In an area when even the smallest error can be disastrous, she brings a detail-oriented mindset to her work. In addition, she does important work with an upbeat attitude.

“She always has a Annette Jones smile on her face, even when she’s tracking down someone who manages to never, ever have the appropriate receipts or documentation when they first complete a form,” Anderson said. “She can be relentless and tenacious but always civil and polite. That’s a terrific combination.”

Systems administrator Chris Mauer was honored as well. Maurer possesses a necessary IT background and skill set. He also brings an expected problem-solving approach to his role.

Still, he enhances those with a lowkey, thoughtful personality that drives College technological improvements.

He helps others either understand the tehnologies from which they benefit on a daily basis, or simply get an explaination and improve at their jobs as the result of his work.

In addition, Mauer is independent and driven, while also working as a standout member of a team — contributing, listening, solving and supporting at the appropriate time.

“When the computer system at Innovation Park crashed a few months ago, he was on top if it — at night,

Chris Maurer

in the early morning — to make sure we didn’t lose any data or student projects,” said Steve Kraycik, director of student television and online operations who joined the College after a quarter century working in TV newsrooms. “He is one of the best all-around IT professionals I’ve ever worked with, and he’s a pleasure to work with.”

Kathy Mulberger, assistant to the dean, was honored as the third Deans’ Excellence Award recipient.

With 25 years at Penn State and 10 in the College, she brings necessary experience to her postion. Her connections across campus enhance a mix of professionalism and personality that Anderson especially values.

“She interacts daily with a broad section of the College’s faculty, students and professional constituents, and she does so with a deft touch, good humor and efficiency,” Anderson said. “She has been blessed with a work ethic and personality that enables her to be efficient and friendly. And that is a big plus for our office.” l

News, events and more online. http://comm.psu.edu

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Kathy Mulberger

SPRING 2014

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

Hagopian serves as co-editor of book about teaching methods for millennials A College of Communications faculty “The answer is not member has co-edited a book about how college to demand atteneducators can best reach tion. Nobody wins millennials, a group through regulatory considered tough to behavior.” engage by some higher education professionals. — Kevin Hagopian, Senior Lecturer Kevin Hagopian, a senior lecturer in the fingertips — in the form of laptops, Department of Film-Video and smartphones and more — than ever Media Studies, co-edited “Entitlebefore. As a result, expressions of ment to Engagement: Affirming boredom, usually through Internet Millennial Students’ Egos in the browsing or texting, are more blaHigher Education Classroom” tant than ever, Hagopian said. with Dave Knowlton of Southern Still, those actions are merely a Illinois University. Hagopian said new variation to an old attitude. the book grew out of conversations Hagopian believes any appropriate with Knowlton, and the duo then response must utilize an updated recruited contributing authors who approach. offered specialized knowledge on He believes instructors have the topics such as educational psycholopower to make their classes orgy and pedagogy. ganically meaningful to students, The 112-page book is the 135th and the book offers strategies on volume of this Jossey-Bass higher how to transform a classroom into education series, “New Directions a “site for ego-involved learning, for Teaching and Learning,” which the personal ownership of a field, offers a comprehensive range of and its concerns for the individual ideas and techniques for improving student,” Hagopian said. college teaching based on the expeHe said faculty members should rience of seasoned instructors and challenge, engage and empower the latest findings of educational students to spur the growth of and psychological researchers. their sense of self. “The answer is Millennials are generally defined not to demand attention,” he said. as people younger than 30, all of “Nobody wins through regulatowhom are coming of age in a richer ry behavior of students’ entitled technological environment than attitudes.” those of previous generations.

At the same time, Hagopian Through more than two decades encourages students to let their subof teaching an array of subjects, ject of study become who they are.

Hagopian believes those students At Penn State, Hagopian said stuoften disconnect their lives from dents find identity in clubs and ortheir learning. “They are quick to ganizations, the Penn State Dance take ownership of their grades but Marathon and intercollegiate not of the actual course content athletics. Authors of the book seek and ideas,” he said. to identify how this same emotional While disengagement during connection can be achieved in reclasses has always existed, millennials have more potential distractions gard to students’ classroom experiences. l and technology available at their

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NEWS, NOTES l Four faculty members from the College of Communications conducted sessions at the 2013 Pennsylvania School Press Association (PSPA) Convention in Harrisburg last fall. Penn State instructors are an integral part of the convention, which enables high school students to learn from media experts. John Beale, Curt Chandler and Chris Ritchie, all of whom are senior lecturers in the Department of Journalism, led sessions on photography, multimedia and news writing, respectively.

Heather Hottle, who works for Penn State Public Information, teaches in the College of Communications and coordinates the summer multimedia journalism camp at Penn State, focused on page design. Founded in 1926, the PSPA is the country’s oldest scholastic press association. Although unaffiliated with a university or college, it is geared toward students, offering annual publication critiques, individual entry critiques, available seats on the PSPA board and workshops. l College of Communications faculty and researchers ranked among paper and presentation leaders at several national and international conferences during the summer and fall. Highlights included: 45 different authors presenting work at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference; faculty members or graduate students presenting nearly two dozen papers and leading or participating in five separate sessions during the annual conference of the International Communications Association; and 15 different presenters at the National Communications Association conference. l John A. (Jack) Koten, one of three co-founders of the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication, died Jan. 3. The Page Center, housed in the College of Communications, was created in 2004 and has grown into the world’s single best repository of scholarship on the topic of integrity in communication. Koten was a founding director and first president of the Arthur W. Page Society. During his career he worked in a variety of operating, financial and corporate communications departments for Illinois Bell, AT&T, New Jersey Bell and Ameritech Corp.

SPRING 2014

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

During the annual Donor and Scholarship Recognition Dinner, the many meetings of alumni, donors, faculty, staff and students included: Kodumudi Balaji and his son, alumnus Murali Balaji, talking with Joseph Selden, assistant dean for multicultural affairs (left photo); and donor Philip Currie talking with a pair of scholarship recipients.

Support helps students, puts goal within reach

O

ne hundred seven more College of Communications students earned scholarships during the 201213 academic year than received similar support in 2011-12.

Since the launch of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students in 2007, total scholarship dollars awarded to communications students by the College have increased from $433,000 to $710,000 annually.

And, in just the past few months, a half dozen more endowments have been created through the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program, which provides an accessible way for alumni and friends who want to make a difference for generations to come.

The recently created endowments include: l the Brownstein Family Trustee Scholarship in Memory of Beverly B. Brownstein; l the Philip and Joan Currie Trustee Scholarship in Honor of Douglas Anderson and John Curley; l the Joseph M. Marchand Memorial Trustee Scholarship; and l the Barash Family Trustee Scholarship.

As the $2 billion For the Future campaign enters its final phase (the official end date is June 30, 2014), the College

has raised $14.3 million toward its $15 million goal — with much of that support for scholarships.

The University annually provides, through a generous match, 10 percent of the total pledge or gift at the time a Trustee Scholarship is created, making the matching funds available for student awards as soon as possible — even before a donor’s pledge is fulfilled.

Recipients of the scholarships boast an average grade-point average of 3.39 and more than half are in the first generation of their family to attend college.

The matching funds continue every year thereafter, along with a percentage of the endowment’s market value. Therefore, when the endowment becomes fully funded, a Trustee Scholarship will provide approximately 15 percent of the endowment’s market value each year. To qualify for the University match, Trustee Scholarships must be endowed at a minimum level of $50,000.

Along with that popular option, donors at all levels have helped move the College toward its goal.

Other recent scholarships and support includes the Michael L. Greenwald Scholarship and the Gregory W. Guise and Deborah J. Guise Award.

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Additionally, the Pat Boland Memorial Internship Award also surpassed its endowment value in the past year, reflecting the passion of alumni and friends who knew Boland (’91 Brcab), a longtime radio newsman in State College, and supporting students as a result. A miniature golf tournament and ever-growing Santa Crawl helped push the endowment to $27,498.

Thanks to the passionate and strategic support of alumni and friends, the College’s overall permanent endowment value, counting University matches, has surpassed $32 million, with more than $4.5 million from Trustee Scholarships.

Fifteen years ago, the entire College endowment was $8.9 million.

“We appreciate the helpful and necessary response of our donors at all levels — those who can endow a Trustee Scholarship or those who make an annual gift,” said Kevin Musick, the College’s director of development.

“That support makes a tangible difference in the lives of our students.

We have more we can do — in terms of scholarships for student excellence, for example — and with the continued support of our alumni and friends we hope to do that.” l

SPRING 2014

40 Trustee Scholarships funded in the College since the program’s inception in 2002.

(List at right does not include scholarships from donors who have requested anonymity.)

DEVELOPMENT NEWS TRUSTEE SCHOLARSHIPS IN COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATIONS l AT&T Trustee Scholarship l Douglas and Claudia Anderson Trustee Scholarship l Douglas and Claudia Anderson Trustee Scholarship in Journalism l Laura and Mary Anderson Trustee Scholarship l Marty and John Aronoff Trustee Scholarship l Barash Family Trustee Scholarship l Donald P. Bellisario Trustee Scholarship l Marc A. Brownstein Trustee Scholarship l Brownstein Family Trustee Scholarship in Memory of Beverly B. Brownstein l Nile D. Coon Trustee Scholarship l John and Ann Curley Trustee Scholarship l John and Ann Curley Trustee Scholarship in Honor of Douglas Anderson l Philip and Joan Currie Trustee Scholarship in Honor of Douglas Anderson and John Curley l Fetter Family Trustee Scholarship l Gene Foreman Trustee Scholarship l Lawrence G. and Ellen M. Foster Trustee Scholarship l Marjorie Mousely French Class of ‘48 Trustee Scholarship l Friend of the College of Communications Trustee Scholarship l Joseph M. Marchand Memorial Trustee Scholarship l Tom Gibb Memorial Trustee Scholarship

l Hayden Family Trustee Scholarship l Freda Azen Jaffe Memorial Trustee Scholarship l Kasselman Kohn Family Trustee Scholarship l Wendy Lichtenstein Trustee Scholarship l Warren L. and Carole L. Maurer Trustee Scholarship l Christopher J. and Patricia S. Martin Trustee Scholarship l Maralyn Davis Mazza Trustee Scholarship l John S. Nichols Trustee Scholarship l Robert J. O’Leary Trustee Scholarship l Penn State Alumni Association Trustee Scholarship l Eric W. Rabe Trustee Scholarship l William Y.E. and Ethel Rambo Trustee Scholarship l Robert L. and Mary Lee Schneider Trustee Scholarship l Andrew and Beatrice Schultz Trustee Scholarship l Steinman Foundations Trustee Scholarship l Trustee Scholarship Fund in the College of Communications l Yaccarino-Madrazo Family Trustee Scholarship l Christopher C. Wheeler Trustee Scholarship

Make the connection.

Make a difference.

Learn more: Future.psu.edu/WeatherBalloons

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SPRING 2014

Drive-In Det

Photo by Kelsie Netzer

Photo by M. Bordick

The Moonlite Drive-In in Brookville, Pa., represents a slice of Americana and a labor of love for owner Jim Lipuma. With motion picture studios phasing out 35 mm film in favor of digital prints, though, the future of drive-in theaters — 357 exist across the United States with 30 in Pennsylvania (more than any other state) — is not bright. Some owners estimate a conversion from film to digital at $85,000, more than they can afford. Five College of Communications students visited the Moonlite Drive-In for a multimedia project. Some photos from their report are on these pages, and the complete report, with more photos, video and a story can be found online.

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SPRING 2014

Photo by Abigail Johnson

Photo by Abigail Johnson

Photo by Arielle Brown

termination

The 35 mm projector at the Moonlite Drive-In (top left) requires film to be loaded by owner Jim Lipuma, and that film might not exist much longer, which threatens the business. Still, many customers enjoy or prefer the drive-in experience, and employee Donetta Aiello commutes more than 100 miles to work at the Moonlite Drive-In each week.

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SPRING 2014

HONOR ROLL

The College of Communications received 1,516 gifts (not counting pledges and bequests) during the period between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013. Of those, 1,448 were from individuals; 24 were from corporations; 32 were from foundations; and 12 were from organizations. The contributions totaled $1,471,270. The Honor Roll recognizes alumni and friends who made gifts of $100 or more to the College during the fiscal year. The information has been provided by the Office of University Development.

DEAN’S CIRCLE (Greater than $2,500)

DEAN’S ASSOCIATES ($1,000 to $2,499)

Gerald Abrams LaVonne Althouse Douglas and Claudia Anderson Martin J. Aronoff Kodumudi, Murali, Arvind and Lakshmi Balaji Robert Barbarowicz Anthony Barbieri Benjamin Bronstein Marc and Amy Brownstein Warren Carmichael Junghwa Choi Collegian Alumni Interest Group Kathleen and John Collins Mimi Barash Coppersmith John and Ann Curley Joseph and Shirley Eberly Helene Eckstein Lawrence and Ellen Foster Friends of Patrick S. Boland Clark and Joyce Hall Marie Hardin Daniel Hartman Brian and Dale Healy Wayne Hilinski Bridget Hughes Jay Jackson Bill and Honey Jaffe James Jimirro David and Mary Lee Jones Stevens and Diane Kasselman Wendy Lichtenstein Frederick and Ann Martelli Mary and Joseph Meder Eric and Luisa Rabe Robert Richards Alisia Salters Andrew and Beatrice Schultz Randall and Karen Sones Thomas and Kirsten Verducci Christopher Wheeler James Wiggins and Christine Fleming

THE COMMUNICATOR

Richard and Antoinette Bange R. Thomas and Paulette Berner Richard and Mary Ann Boland T. Robert Boulware Martin and Maxine Brian and Murray Overhill Pharmacy, Inc. Joanne Calabria Jeanne and Kevin Chapkovich Anne and Kenneth Chubb Charles Curley Philip and Joan Currie Stanley and Ann Degler Judith Friedman Friends of Jake Corman Jay Grossman and Dorothy Daub-Grossman Jeffrey and Nancy Hunt Gilbert and Patricia Kindelan and Garner Anderson, LLC Janice and Steven Livingston Ann Major and Erwin Atwood Robert and Marylou Martin Richard and Rayna Ravitz George and Ann Richards Rochelle Michaels Roth Robin and Michael Savage Benjamin and Marcia Thompson Randolph and Maria Yanoshak Scott and Glenda Yocum

COMMUNICATIONS PARTNERS ($500 to $999)

Eloise Aurand John Beauge John and Veda Kay Black Jane and Jay Braus and Braus Family Foundation Suzanne Butcher Jeffery Byers Walter Cherepinsky and Walter Football, Inc. Lois and William Clark Robert and Teresa Villa Cook Donna Davis and Davis-Tailer Foundation Robin Deacle Amy Federman 32

SPRING 2014

HONOR ROLL

Students in COMM 269 Photojournalism look up at examples during a mid-term review session. (Photo by Will Yurman)

Carole Feldman Katherine Fox William Hackett Anne Hoag Dexter Hutchins Mary Kearney Jeffery Deborah Schwint Johnston Kristin Kliefoth Alexandra Hughes Maloney David and Jodie Morris Sanford Padwe Louis and Ellen Pagano Molly Rodriguez Paula Ruth & Company Public Relations Lorraine Ryan C. Stewart and Ann Snoddy Santo Sorce Stewart and Karen Stabley Cynthia Viadella Jeffrey and Shelley Wygant A. Philip and Mary Ann Zimmer Jane Zimmerman

Michael Bello Dianne Burpee Maureen and John Collins Jane and David Conley Richard and Lyn Culver Mark Cutkosky and Pamela Reasner Harold and Patricia Downey Gene and JoAnn Foreman Herman and Judith Gibb Paula and John Gochnour Jennifer Gottlieb Stephen Heiser Matthew Herb and Lori Shontz John Herrington Pamela and Todd Hervey David Huehnergarth and Dana Reganata Rebecca Jones Richard and Ann Jones Robert Junas Ann and Joseph Kasenchak Thomas and Mary Jane Kistler Jeffrey and Maryann Klick Denise and Kenneth Kunhardt Paul Levine Cheryl Dunlap Levkoff Amy Takehara Lilly Ann and Scott Martin Abby Mayer

CARNEGIE CLUB ($250 to $499)

Mark Ashenfelter Katherine and Christ Balouris

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SPRING 2014

HONOR ROLL Deborah Meder and Larry Gohn Lillian and Joseph Mittleman Linda Murphy Stephanie Podey Michael Poorman J. Ford and Mary Risley Jarred Romesburg and Romesburg Media Group LLC Judith Russell-Kugler and Michael Boveri Richard and Mary Sabel Beverly Schwartz and Ron Goodman Fuyuan and Robyn Shen Gary Sinderson Kathleen and Ralph Smith Loretta Stempinski Michael and Donita Todd Richard and Esther Van O’Linda Brandon Wenerd Mona and William Wunderlich Patrice and S. Charles Zdeb Bu Zhong

Lynn and Mark DeFabio Judith and Jonathan Detwiler Sandra and William Dillon Daniel and Sandra Donovan Colleen Duerr Terrence Duffy Lindsey Eckstein James and Lee Emmerling Lori and Ronald Falcone Francis and Mary Fanucci Clare and William Fennell Joseph and Margaret Ference Susan Ferko Anne and Richard Ferrera Rana Fine and James Mattson Eliza Newell Flanagan Mary Anne Beezer Fleming Heidi Hamilton Florczak Elizabeth Fox Friends of Scott Conklin Thomas and Ellen Gailey Raymond and Shirley Galant Sara Ganim Joyce Gannon Robert Gavazzi and Kathleen McKinney-Gavazzi Robert and Jane Gentzel Barbara Faris Gershman J. Reed and Eileen Gidez Ronald Gilligan Steven and Jill Graham Bridget Gray Julie Greenfield Jessica Greenhouse Catherine and Paul Greenland Mark and Beverly Greenwald Stephen Gyursco Traci Levy Hammond Michael Hanusin Jessica and Dennis Harbin Inez and Curtis Hare Thomas and Joy Harvey Meaghan Haugh Sally Heffentreyer Heather Heigele Phyllis and Carl Heller Tarynn Herlocher Chad Hershberger and Sarah Voorhees Jeffrey and Elizabeth Hershey Bradley Hershon Leonard Frederick Herzog Carolyn and Burton Hoffman Edwin Hoffman Richard and Dorothea Hyk Anderson Isaacs Mary Iversen Matt Jackson

CENTURY CLUB ($100 to $249)

Jane Agnelly Michael and Johanna Altland Mark and Bernedette Andersen Amy Andryszak Christine and Henry Baer John Beale Pierre and Mary Bellicini Kristyn and Russell Berger Karen Bernardo Julie and Brian Bialkowski Charles Bierbauer and Susanne Schafer Robert and Abbreill Blair Donald and Lois Boller Walter and Betty Broscious Anne and John Burns Conrad and Candice Busch Michael and Joyce Bussler Robert Capo Elizabeth and Joseph Carroll Justin Catanoso and Laurelyn Dossett Alexandra Cavaliere Stuart Chamberlain Clifton Colmon Pamela Cook David and Amanda Coppola Carlton Corson John and Vicki Cousley Adele Yablon Crane Christopher Crider Carlyn Sipes Crout Victor and Toni Danilov Kelly Davis Elizabeth Dean and Henry Shelley

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SPRING 2014

HONOR ROLL George and Cynthia Pavlik George and Sara Peck David and Elizabeth Pellnitz Matthew Pencek Brenda Penderville Sarah Peters Jean and Robert Petersen Kimberly Peterson Renee Petrina Isaiah Poole James and Miriam Powell MicheleProcino-Wells Patrick Raring Elizabeth and Guy Razzi Maria Recupero Julie Rhen Thomas Ricciardi Andrew Richards Herman and Jane Richey Angelo Roman Donna and Peter Rovito Neil Rudel Paul and Deborah Rudoy Benjamin Rupp Maureen and Joseph Salamon Donald Sarvey Jonathan Schaeffer Robert and Barbara Schiff Heidi and William Schumacher Ralph and Nancy Schumack Andrew and Shellie Senzer Joanne and Robert Shafer J. Michael and Victoria Shanahan Imix Shish and Farrah Short Donald Simmons Heather Smartt Jeffrey and Laura Smith Tara and Daniel Smith Stephen Solomon Richard and Helane Staller Kelly Stazi Edwin Steel Bradley Stoner Casey Strakes Barbara and John Sturgeon Stacy Styles Daniel Sullivan Matthew Sullivan Penny Suwak Kristen and Michael Thayer Linda Thomas Lewis and Ann Thompson Jonathan and Debra Thurley Michael and Linda Trobich Susan and David Troller Gerald and Kelly Valeri

Tyler Jackson Dana Jallad Marilyn and Frederick Jennerjohn Kimberly Jones Robert and Mary Joyce Beth Richards Kalenak Glenn Kaup Roy and Michele Kegerize Brenda Kelly E. Sanford and Marsha King Margaret Good Kippax Nicole Kirkwood Joseph and Karen Klein Holly and Christin Knecht Peter Kowalski and Sandra Miller Roger and Debra Kuhlman Carl and Lisa Lahr Steven and Doreen Lampert Richard Lechthaler and R.C. Lechthaler & Associates John Leonard and Barbara Andrews Robert and Brenda LeVine Susan and Barry Lewen George and Nancy Lewis Ronald Lichtinger Sabrina and Christopher Liller Virginia Croft Lopez Vincent and Heather Loss Cari and Jon Lynch Wendy Lynch Jo-Anne and Michael Maenner Wayne and Bonita Malovitz Robert and Neely Manoff Andrew Markowski Paul and Marisa Markowski Matthew McAllister Ann and David McCarty Matthew McDonald Kyra Goidich McGrath Katlyn McGraw and Mark Bohenick Terence McGrory Joyce McKeever Kimberly Mehle Fredrick Metzger Arthur and Marjorie Miller Ira and Sharon Miller Richard and Nancy Miller Stephen and Enid Milner Joseph Moore Bruce and Beth Morris Srinivas Murti Kevin and Leeshaun Musick Terry Nau Jon and Gwen Nese My Linh Nguyen Michael and Monica O’Sullivan Susanna Jech Paul

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HONOR ROLL

Students in a section of COMM 269 Photojournalism complete an early semester assignment designed to help them get familiar with their camera in downtown State College. (Photo by John Beale)

Michael Valoris Katie Vandermause James and Nancy Vincler Anne Vognetz and F. Scott Fein Anne Waas Andrew Kevin Walker Maren Walseth Alexander and Nancy Ward Megan Duffy Ward Robert Wechsler Terrence Wilcox Ralph and Lou Ann Zeigler

Happy Valley Mini Golf Harmelin Media Interstate Advertising Mgrs. Assoc.

Jabco-Maggi Motors, Inc. Jim Murray Memorial Foundation Johnson & Johnson Contribution Foundation Media Democracy Fund National Press Photographers Assoc. Inc. Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Pacific Telecommunications Council Robert W. Johnson 1962 Charitable Trust Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Rotelli State College Restaurant, LLC William Randolph Hearst Foundation

CORPORATE, FOUNDATION GIFTS

AT&T Company AT&T Mobility Brick Rheumatology LLC Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority Law Office of Stephanie Cooper Esq. Dow Chemical Company Ford Foundation Google

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STUDENT NEWS GRADUATE STUDENTS: INCOMING CLASS 2013-14

Jose Aviles

Erica Bailey

Stephanie Berberick

Cate Buckley

Master’s, College of Charleston ...

Two years as research assistant at Yale University ... Bachelor’s, Bard College ... One of seven recipients nationally of LAGRANT Foundation scholarship in 2012 ... Research interests are in media effects, group processes and stereotypes/ prejudice.

Master’s, Virginia Tech ...

Bachelor’s, Otterbein University ... Research interests include media psychology, media effects and journalism ethics ... Wants to explore the psychological and environmental factors that contribute to the selection and enjoyment of entertainment media.

Master’s, University of Buffalo ...

Bachelor’s, Buffalo State College ... Plans to engage in media analyses and effects, especially those pertaining to gender, stigma, identity formation and locations of misrepresentation.

Master’s, Penn State ... Bachelor’s, Curry College ... After master’s thesis on midnight movies in the digital blockbuster era, she plans to continue research in areas related to the movie industry but explore new topics and ways to approach those studies.

Ph.D. Student

Ph.D. Student

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Ph.D. Student

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Ph.D. Student

STUDENT NEWS GRADUATE STUDENTS: INCOMING CLASS 2013-14

Enica Castaneda

Yan Huang

Sushma Kumble

Ruobing Li

Master’s, University of Oxford ...

Bachelor’s, UCLA ... Through a keen understanding of media effects and strategic communications, she plans to develop and disseminate efficacious interventions aimed at combating racial intolerance using media as the vehicle of delivery.

Bachelor’s, Peking University ... Previous work focused on interaction between cultural texts and real life, and exploring its meaning in the large map of social transformation and history ... Previously studied online gaming ... Interests include the Internet and new media.

Master’s, Chatham University ...

Master’s and bachelor’s, Bangalore University ... Previously worked for Weber Shandwick in Dubai and was a research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University ... Interested in psychological effects of technology based communication.

Master’s, Penn State ... Research interests lie in psychological aspects of media message and media technology ... Has completed studies focusing on the effects of narratives and new media technologies, such as augmented reality ... Hopes to combine media message and technology together in research.

Holly Kalbach Ott

Michael Vafeiadis

Ruoxu Wang

Chun Yang

Master’s and bachelor’s, Shippensburg University ... Has conducted research on the framing of mediated messages and on public relations pedagogy ... Research interest strategic communication, specifically examining the ethical implications of persuasive messages and content in public relations.

Master’s, Emerson College ...

Master’s and bachelor’s Suffolk University ... Worked at Navarino Network, a think tank in Greece, Tufts University and Emerson ...

Plans to study new approaches to improving online communication and marketing based on Internet activity and customization.

Master’s and bachelor’s North Dakota State University ... Previously worked as web developer and graphic designer at NDSU ...

Teaching assisant for advertising strategy and health communication classes ... Plans to study media effects to explore the impact of new technology on communication.

Earned master’s and bachelor’s in China ... Worked as a television journalist ... Interested in cognitive and emotional effects of media, entertainment media’s impact on attitudes and behaviors, message framing and social influence of sports communication.

Ph.D. Student

Ph.D. Student

Ph.D. Student

Ph.D. Student

Ph.D. Student

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Ph.D. Student

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Ph.D. Student

Ph.D. Student

STUDENT NEWS GRADUATE STUDENTS: INCOMING CLASS 2013-14

Fan Yang

Elizabeth Brennan

Tsai-Wei Chen

Master’s, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences ... Bachelor’s, Sichuan International Studies University ...

Research centers on new media at the individual and societal level, specificially how the interplay of users and new technologies affect psychological well being, as well as social media in our society.

Bachelor’s, Elizabethtown College ... Conducted research analyzing how the 14th Dalai Lama used social media to preserve and promote Tibetan culture ... Particularly interested in feminist studies, cross-cultural and intercultural communication, critical theory and social media.

Bachelor’s, National Taiwan Normal University ... Worked as a research and translation intern during 2012 Taiwan presidential election ... Certified English teacher ... Interested in topics related to strategic communications as well as media effects.

Ph.D. Student

Arienne Ferchaud Master’s Student

Master’s Student

Master’s Student

Donghee Lee

Master’s Student

Bachelors, Louisana State University ... Held an undergraduate assistantship for seven semesters at LSU ... Member of the LSU Golden Band from Tigerland ... Plans to study media effects, specifically video game narratives and identification, presence, enjoyment and parasocial relationships.

Completing bachelor’s and master’s at Penn State ... One of the first undergraduates to present research on media framing at the AEJMC conference ... Held an undergraduate assistantship for which she coded data from inoculation study booklets ... Former Daily Collegian staff member.

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SPRING 2014

Stef Davis

Master’s Student

Bachelor’s, Penn State ... Has worked as a TV news reporter at several stations throughout Pennsylvania ... Plans to research and explore the topic of news media credibility, specifically how it differs among demographics.

STUDENT CLOSEUP Members of the international reporting class will spend the first part of the semester preparing for their trip and then spend a week in Cuba over spring break, producing online multimedia content while there and a special edition newspaper and stories that will be widely distributed upon their return. (Photo by Hannah Biondi)

International reporting class focuses on Cuba

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t the mention of its name, Cuba evokes plenty of opinions and even some stigmas. For many, what comprises the country’s profile is revolt, anti-imperialism and restrictive human rights.

For 17 members of COMM 402 International Reporting, the spring semester will be spent studying the country and spending spring break in Havana.

Professor Anthony Barbieri created the international reporting class to present a global perspective of journalism to students, and to immerse them in it. “Students should know that it doesn’t matter where they end up working; they are still going to have to look for stories beyond what they can see,” he said.

Included in Barbieri’s criteria for choosing a destination is a country’s political and economic significance in relation to the United States. In the past five years the class has visited: Mexico City (2009), Shanghai (2010 and 2013), Cape Town (2011) and Rio de Janeiro (2012).

Enrollment for the class is limited, and the application process begins in early September with an initial recruitment meeting. Selection is determined by the student’s resume, writing samples, faculty recommendations and an interview.

The program is growing in popularity. Seventy students

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attended the recruitment session this past September, compated to 25 who attended the program’s debut meeting in 2008.

This year’s class of 17 students is one of the largest in the history of the program. “Every year I say no more than 12 but I can’t ever narrow it down,” Barbieri said.

Willie Jungels and Jon Blauvelt, senior broadcast journalism students, said the composition of the class (the group includes students who focus on print, broadcast and multimedia journalism) provides an additional challenge.

“It is a good makeup, which makes me want to do better. That will enhance the experience and hold me to a higher standard,” Jungels said.

A third student, Vicky Cazanas, also a senior broadcast journalism major, was humbled by her acceptance into the class. “I couldn’t believe I got it. I was so happy that I started crying,” she said. “It means the world to me that I’m able to go.”

During classroom sessions preceding the tip to Cuba, students learn about Cuban culture, history and news.

They have access to an array of resources, including the insight of Penn State faculty members who will be accompanying them on the trip.

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STUDENT NEWS John Nichols, professor emeritus, has conducted 30 years of research focused on communications in Cuba. Senior lecturer Maria Cabrera-Baukus offers videography and technical insights, as well as a fluency in Spanish. In addition to Barbieri, Nichols and Cabrera-Baukus, faculty members making the trip include Will Yurman, senior lecturer with extensive multimedia and photojournalism experience, and Steve Kraycik, the director of student television and online operations.

Before departing, students will also develop the foundations of a story they plan to pursue once in Cuba.

“It’s a great opportunity for the students,” said Cabrera-Baukus, “because not only do they get to go to a country that is almost entirely off limits, but they get to report from it and about it.”

“We will be the eyes and ears of people who don’t have access to Cuba,” Jungels said.

Jungels is contemplating a story about Cuban baseball. Cuba is rich with athletic talent, although few outside the island nation see that talent.

Blauvelt might also compose a story about heavy regulation. He would like to examine the impact of a Communist regime on families.

Cazanas, who is of Cuban descent, is interested in giving the people of Cuba a voice. She is considering the plausibility of retracing her family roots.

“We don’t go anyplace where we can’t find great stories,” said Barbieri, “and Cuba has lots of great stories.”

Throughout their week in Cuba, students and faculty know they will face barriers to their reporting. They expect many new experiences as well, and most see that as an opportunity to mature — professionally and personally.

“I know that every step I take down there is going to be life changing,” Cazanas said. “For every student journalist going there this spring, this will change their perspective.”

— Caitlin Irion

Two serve as student marshals A film-video major who earned dean’s list status every semester at Penn State served as student marshal for the College of Communications during commenceOrnik (left) and Colon-Quintana ment exercises represent the College and the program in December at the Bryce Jordan because she projects all the best attriCenter.

In addition, a psychology and journal- butes of our mission,” Bingaman said. ism major served as the student marshal “She understands the social aspects of the profession and fulfills them with for the College of the Liberal Arts dignity and geniality. You simply don’t commencement ceremony. get a student like her very often.”

Allison Ornik, from Villanova, Pa., Ornik is the daughter of Penn State paired her bachelor’s degree with a alumni Adrian and Beverly Ornik. business minor.

Nicole A. Colón-Quintana repreAlong with her outstanding work sented the College of the Liberal Arts. in the classroom, Ornik served as a A resident of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, Homecoming production captain for Colón-Quintana is the daughter of two years and worked as an editing laboratory assistant in the College of Hector Colon and Marta Quintana.

Communications. She also completed The faculty marshal who accompanied numerous internships and gained her was Paola Giuli Dussias, professor hands-on experience working on two of Spanish, linguistics and psychology. independent feature-length films.

Colón-Quintana plans to attend Ornik’s internships this past summer graduate school and earn a doctorate were at Steve Carell’s Carousel Proin clinical psychology. She hopes that ductions and at the reality television her research can advance mental health company Bunim/Murray Productions. services for the Latino population.

After spending a summer working in During her time at Penn State, Hollywood, her interests lean toward Colón-Quintana was a member of the working in scripted television, with an Presidential Leadership Academy, an interest in the young teen demographic. executive committee member for the She plans to move to Los Angeles in Asian/Hispanic/African/Native Amerpursuit of her career aspirations. ican (AHANA) student organization, a “Children are impacted by media of resident assistant and a volunteer with all types, particularly television,” Ornik Global Medical Brigades. She founded said, “and I hope to be involved in programming and production that both the Oye! bilingual newsletter in 2010 and served as its editor-in-chief through entertains and influences them in a 2012. positive way. ” Her numerous honors include The Ornik’s faculty escort, Rod BinEvan Pugh Scholar Award, The Presigaman, a senior lecturer in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies, dent Sparks Award and the President’s said she certainly made an impact at the Freshman Award, all of which recognize the undergraduates with the highest University. academic achievements. l “She’s the kind of student you like to

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STUDENT NEWS

Internship endowment provides key support Neal J. Friedman Fund offers financial help for students to pursue their career dreams Erica Kasan had a plan. She just needed to find a place to execute it.

As a high school senior living in the Long Island town of Melville, Kasan had a good idea of what she saw for herself in the future: a life in New York City and a career with a major magazine. But finding a college to get her there was proving to be more difficult.

“I was very lost as to which school I wanted to attend,” said Kasan. “I applied to all of the schools that had the best communications programs in the country, including Penn State.”

Three years later, Kasan is getting a taste of the life she saw for herself at a younger age.

She got a chance to work in New York City this past summer as a fashion editor for Hearst Magazine’s Marie Claire, thanks largely to her hard work at Penn State and an assist from the Neal J. Friedman Internship Fund.

Erica Kasan worked at Marie Claire last summer and followed that with an Created by the Penn State College of Communications Alumni Society Board, internship at O, The Oprah Magazine.

“I was the Friedman Fund helps to fill the finanresponsible “... my education at Penn cial gaps many students face in participating in for-credit for checkinternships. In Kasan’s case, it eased a potentially huge State and my internship exin and burden in working at Marie Claire. periences have prepared me returning “I commuted to New York from my home in Long samples and for full-time employment at a Island every day, and monthly train passes are expensive,” looks for said Kasan. “I also had to pay for school credit to be eligicorporation like Hearst.” fashion PR ble for the internship, and credits are more expensive for — Erica Kasan firms and out-of-state students than Pennsylvania residents.” in-house Kasan’s path to Marie Claire may have started as early designer departments,” said Kasan. “I had to go on runs as age 6, when she and her mother Donna would walk all over New York and Brooklyn for the editors. And I even through the city and enjoy the sensory overload (“the had the opportunity to attend New York Fashion Week billboards and newsstands really inspired me, along with with Marie Claire.” the fashion,” she said). In high school, she was motivated And while living and working in New York City is not by her student newspaper’s adviser. And at Penn State, cheap, especially for a rising senior in college, Kasan could Kasan joined Valley Magazine, a student-produced life and at least count on some much-needed help from the Friedstyle magazine. man Fund in easing the day-to-day financial stress.

Boosted by a resume that many people older than her “If I could tell anyone considering donating to the could only dream of, it was time for Kasan to apply for an Friedman Fund one thing, it would be that the money will internship at Marie Claire.

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STUDENT NEWS

Daily Collegian captures second Pacemaker Award

be used wisely,” said Kasan.

“Communications internships are generally unpaid and for credit, so any money rewarded to students would be very much appreciated.”

Giving to the Friedman Fund has never been easier thanks to the giveto.psu. edu website.

Once there, donors can select the “Neal J. Friedman Fund” in the drop down menu.

Now, Kasan is working toward her degree from Penn State, with her career goals in clear focus thanks in large part to her summer internship.

In fact, she returned to Hearst Magazines this winter for another internship, this time for O, The Oprah Magazine.

“I would love to work for Hearst Magazines,” said Kasan. “This is the ideal company that I would love to work for after graduation, and my education at Penn State and my internship experiences have prepared me for full-time employment at a corporation like Hearst.”l

The Daily Collegian earned a Newspaper Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press for the second consecutive year in 2013. It was the only paper to repeat in the competition.

The Pacemaker awards are the highest honor in the collegiate press.

“College news organizations and students that win Pacemaker awards set the tempo for quality scholastic journalism and media nationwide,” said Diana Mitsu Klos, executive director of Associated Collegiate Press and its affiliated group, the National Scholastic Press Association.

The Pacemaker, which ACP launched in 1927, is judged and awarded based on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, art and graphics.

The Collegian was honored in the Four-Year Daily Newspaper Category along with papers from Indiana, Iowa, Harvard and North Carolina. The award was presented at the organization’s national convention in New Orleans. l

PRSSA PANEL

The “Young Professional’s Guide to Success,” a panel discussion sponsored by the Public Relations Student Society of America, featured (left to right): P.J. Mullen (‘07 Telecom), Jay Paterno (‘91 Lib) and Audrey Snyder (’12 Journ).

(Photo by Michael Bordick)

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STUDENT NEWS

COLORFUL CONTINGENT

More than 10,000 participants converged on the University Park campus for the inaugural Color Run at Penn State, billed as the “Happiest 5K on the Planet.” As part of the run, participants were doused with colored corn starch — decorating participants in different hues of blue, orange, pink and yellow. The unusual event prompted an unusual look by a photojournalism student. (Photo by Nick Veres)

Public relations major makes most of experience in Italy For one junior public relations major, the fall semester was spent working with a family-run business in Italy.

Nicole Salerno’s study-abroad program at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy, offered an international marketing course that included both classroom learning and outside application opportunities.

The institute partners with Pashmere, a cashmere clothing company that hopes to expand its business globally. The partnership allows students to not only see the inner workings of an Italian company, but to participate in its marketing process.

Salerno’s team, a division within the class, was tasked with developing a marketing plan for Pashmere’s abroad ventures. Their plan, along

Nicole Salerno

with its preliminary market analysis and research, were presented to Pashmere’s owners, who are third-generation brothers.

Their research determined that

the company could sustain sales in Shanghai and Hong Kong. To go about the expansion, Salerno and her team identified methods, which include the use of distributors, promotional events and partnerships with fashion magazines and blogs.

When it came time to present their work to the brothers, Salerno said she “was nervous that they would criticize our work or say that they didn’t like our ideas. Instead, they appreciated what we had to say.

They actually agreed with us on a lot of our suggestions.”

Through her experience, Salerno said she has gleaned lessons related to the communications field as well as invaluable life skills. She now hopes to incorporate international business into her future.

— Caitlin Irion

Get the latest College of Communications news

comm.psu.edu

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STUDENT NEWS NEWS, NOTES l For the 10th consecutive year, students from the College of Communications will produce the live webcast of the Penn State Dance Marathon (THON). Coverage begins Friday, Feb. 21, and continues through Sunday, Feb. 23. Links to the webcast may be found at thon.org online.

DEJA DELIGHTS

Senior outside hitter Deja McClendon celebrates the Penn State women’s volleyball team’s national championship by clipping a piece of the net from the Final Four in Seattle. McClendon was one of six College of Communications majors on the team. (Photo by Mark Selders)

l Three College of Communications students were named as recipients of the 2013 Scott Weiss Scholarship, an annual merit-based award granted to eligible alumni of the T. Howard Foundation’s Internship Program.

The purpose of the Scott Weiss Scholarship, now in its 15th year, is to provide T. Howard alumni with financial assistance for their academic and career pursuits, including college tuition, textbooks and/or expenses related to professional development, such as professional conferences and workshops that help prepare recipients for a career in the multimedia industry. Individual scholarship awards vary, but can range up to $2,750. This year, the foundation awarded $15,000 in scholarships. Penn State recipients, with their host company, were: Christina Recino (’14 Journ), Viacom; Tamara Hall (’14 Journ), Comcast Corp.; and Kristen Smith (’ 14 PR) AMC Networks and Turner Network Sales.

Homecoming selection a proud moment for pair of students Two College of Communications students were selected as members of the Homecoming court at Penn State last fall.

Senior Quamayne “Rocky” Collins, a public relations major from Deptford, N.J., was surprised his friends nominated him, and his reaction intensified when he was selected as a member of the student court.

“There are nearly 40,000 undergraduates on this campus, and they selected me,” Collins said. “This is definitely in my top five Penn State moments.”

For freshman Terrin Hartman, a broadcast journalism major from San Diego, claiming a spot on first-year court was part of his Penn State plan even before he stepped on campus.

He started thinking about it as a high

school senior. “I thought it would be a great way to get involved and learn more about Penn State,” Hartman said.

Between the end of the spring semester and the beginning of the fall semester, Penn State students had the opportunity to nominate their peers for the student court. Nominations for the first-year court were submitted during the first week of September.

After a committee evaluated the student and first-year court nominations, the selected nominees were then offered an interview before a panel of deans from various colleges.

Based on an appraisal of four categories — service, leadership, academics and involvement — 10 students were selected for student court and eight for the first year court.

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Hartman and Collins have each staked involvement in several organizations across campus. As a staff member of PSNTV, CommRadio and the Lion FM, Hartman values the range of opportunities that the University provides.

Collins, who holds leadership positions both in his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, and as a student representative on the Smeal Alumni Society Board, said the Homecoming experience has helped him rediscover the palpable pride and support that make Penn State unique.

Although there was a differentiation between the two courts, both groups of students were present together at Homecoming events, including the carnival, concert, talent show and parade. l

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ALUMNI CLOSEUP Larry Foster with wife Ellen at the dedication of Carnegie Building renovations in May 2002. (Photo by Steve Manuel)

PR legend, dedicated alum Larry Foster dies

L

arry Foster, the Penn State alumnus who was named one of the top public relations professionals of the 20th century and who helped change the University’s approach to philanthropy, died Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013. He was 88.

Foster earned his journalism degree at Penn State in 1948 and started his career as a newspaper reporter, becoming a bureau chief and editor at the Bergen (N.J.) Record and The Newark (N.J.) News.

His journalism background served him well at Johnson & Johnson, which he joined in 1957 to form the company’s first public relations department. Foster worked for the company for 33 years, rising to corporate vice president of public relations.

In 1982, following the death of seven people in Chicago after they ingested Tylenol laced with cyanide,

Foster led Johnson & Johnson’s highly acclaimed response to the crime, which remains unsolved.

The response included an immediate recall of the product, bringing back 32 million packages of Tylenol at a total cost of $125 million, and the eventual re-introduction of pain-relief medication to the marketplace.

His always calm, ever-honest style — which he said was shaped by an ethical approach and the journalism basics of fairness and objectivity that were honed during his years at Penn State — enabled Johnson & Johnson to endure the potentially catastrophic situation and emerge even stronger. He provided the same leadership with a similar incident in 1986.

When Foster joined Johnson & Johnson in 1957, the company was worth $300 million. By the time he

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retired in 1990, it was worth $10 billion.

“It wasn’t an easy decision, but there was no discussion about the cost,” Foster told Penn State students when discussing the 1982 Tylenol case in 2006. In addition, the always humble and understated Foster focused on more than just that incident when discussing his career.

“While Tylenol stands in a class by itself as being one of the bestknown crises in American business, in the growth of the company there are a lot of other things where you have an opportunity to contribute.

Yes, it was a huge event, but in my eyes being able to head public relations when a company grows 40 times larger, to me that’s much more important than being head of public relations during Tylenol.”

PRWeek magazine named Foster

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ALUMNI CLOSEUP one of the 10 most influential public relations professionals of the 20th century.

Similar to his career at Johnson & Johnson, a long-term view helps inform Foster’s legacy at Penn State.

Foster was born and raised in New Jersey. Shortly after entering high school, he decided to become a journalist and began writing for area newspapers. After graduation in 1943, he entered New York University and then transferred to Penn State, where he eventually served as managing editor of The Daily Collegian.

It was also at Penn State that Foster met his wife, Ellen (’49), and his loyalty to both her and the University never waned during more than six decades.

Foster became president of the Penn State Club of Northern New Jersey in the 1960s and was elected president of the Penn State Alumni Association in 1972. During his term with the Alumni Association, he helped create the Alumni Fellows Program. From 1980 to 1989, he was elected by Penn State alumni to three terms as a member of the Board of Trustees. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 1979 and received the 1999 Lion’s Paw Award for service to the University.

Beyond awards and service, Foster was a man of ideas and passion. He enjoyed making connections among people — and especially with connections that served to benefit Penn State students or the University as a whole.

“Larry Foster is known to many of our key volunteers and donors as the ‘Father of Philanthropy’ at Penn State,” said Rod Kirsch, senior vice president for development and alumni relations at Penn State. “It was Larry, and a handful of others, who strongly advocated that the University more actively and strategically engage our alumni family in fundraising. He was passionate, visionary and generous, serving Penn State tirelessly over many decades. Much of Penn State’s success

Larry Foster (right) with Gene Foreman, who served as the inaugural Larry and Ellen Foster Professor of Writing and Editing. (Photo by John Beale)

in alumni support can be traced to Larry’s early encouragement and involvement. We have lost a great Penn Stater.”

Through the years, the Fosters supported a number of Penn State programs, including Intercollegiate Athletics and University Libraries, where, among other things, they endowed the Foster Librarian in Communications and enabled the creation of Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library.

Still, the majority of their support was directed toward the College of Communications.

“Any words to try to summarize the Fosters’ impact would be an understatement,” said Dean Doug Anderson. “Larry and Ellen have, through their personal generosity, supported students, faculty, programs and facilities. The spectrum of their impact is incredible.”

The Fosters provided funds to endow the Larry and Ellen Foster Professorship in Writing and Editing and to support the twice-a-year

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Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers; they contributed generously to enhance Carnegie Building’s lobby, main conference room and student services area; they created the Lawrence G. and Ellen M. Foster Scholarship endowment; they endowed two Trustee Scholarships; and they provided a lead gift to establish the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication, which is housed in the College of Communications.

In addition to the Fosters’ personal gifts to the College of Communications, which total more than $2 million, Larry was instrumental in securing contributions from individuals, foundations and trusts for the Page Center, totaling more than $4 million.

“The impact that the Fosters’ generosity has had on the College is unparalleled and strategically invested,” Anderson said. “To say that Larry Foster is the godfather of the modern-day College of Communications would be right on.”

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ALUMNI CLOSEUP

Ellen and Larry Foster (front row, left) with students and Tony Barbieri (right), the Foster Professor of Writing and Editing, during a College of Communications Donor and Scholarship Recognition Dinner. (Photo by Mark Selders)

Foster did more than direct money to the College, though. The annual Donor and Scholarship Recognition Dinner in the College of Communications was a fixture on the calendar for Larry and Ellen.

They especially enjoyed meeting students supported by their scholarship funds.

They also regularly attended the Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers, which has brought 39 Pulitzer Prize winners to campus to present free public lectures for students since its inception in 1999. In 2012, because of the growth of the program under Gene Foreman, the inaugural Foster Professor, the ever-humble Foster insisted that the conference be renamed to reflect Foreman’s contributions as well.

“My association with Larry Foster was a highlight of my immensely satisfying second career as a professor at Penn State,” Foreman said.

“It was a privilege, of course, to teach in the name of this renowned professional who had accomplished so much in his own career. In addition, I was deeply impressed with Larry’s love for Penn State and his generosity in supporting Penn State students. A shining example of that

love and generosity was his enthusiastic support for the conference of distinguished writers that we started with part of the endowment for the Foster Professorship.

“We had envisioned bringing top journalists to Penn State once a year to share their wisdom with our students. After the first event in 1999, Larry insisted that this was an initiative that needed to be repeated every semester, and he dug into his pocket for the extra money to make it happen. As Larry often reminded me, we would have succeeded if our speakers could inspire just one student at each conference. The evidence is abundantly clear that this goal has been far surpassed, and the journalistic success of countless Penn State graduates is a lasting tribute to Larry Foster.“ Students appreciated their interactions with Foster, too. They consistently asked him questions about his career and about current issues in public relations. Students in public relations named the on-campus chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America the Lawrence G. Foster Chapter.

And Foster sponsored a national excellence award for students through the overarching Public Relations

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Society of America.

Foster brought his passion and vision to all aspects of the College, including the Page Center, which was created in 2004 thanks to a lead gift from the Fosters. Along with that, Foster encouraged other individuals, companies, foundations and trusts to support the center named for Arthur W. Page, the first public relations professional to serve as an officer and director of a major public corporation. At AT&T from 1927 to 1947, Page crafted guidelines for ethical and effective communication with the public and for responsible corporate behavior.

They became known as the “Page Principles.”

“I have never known anyone more loyal to Penn State and more dedicated to advancing integrity in the public sphere than Larry,” said John S. Nichols, founding director of the Page Center and professor emeritus. “His passion later in life was to merge the two, and the Page Center was the means of doing that. Thanks to his leadership and generosity, Larry’s passion lives on through the work of the center.”

Marie Hardin, associate dean for undergraduate and graduate education and the current director of the

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“Larry Foster is the reason the Page Center exists and the reason it has thrived,” she said. “The center was his idea. He saw the need for an enterprise that would focus on ethics in public communication and would become an agenda-setter on a national level. The center has been fueled by his vision and sustained by his tireless fundraising efforts.”

Foster envisioned the marriage of the nation’s largest accredited communications program and legacy of a public relations giant whose reputation was based on ethical behavior as something that could benefit professionals, researchers and students.

Anderson said he was “immediately intrigued” when Foster first suggested the idea to establish an academic center that would emphasize the importance of integrity in public communication. “But, in my wildest imagination, I never thought, at least then, that what would become the Page Center would evolve into what it is today.

It all came together because Larry had a well-thought-out plan. I’ve never known anyone as visionary and simultaneously as pragmatic.”

Professionally, the accolade from PRWeek was just part of Foster’s long list of accomplishments. He was the recipient of four of the highest awards in public relations: the 1989 Gold Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America, for contributions to the profession; the 1998 Atlas Award from PRSA, for lifetime achievement in international public relations; the Hall of Fame Award from the Arthur W. Page Society in 1994; and the Institute for Public Relations’ Alexander Hamilton Medal for lifetime achievement in 2007.

“When you ask about the giants of corporate communications, Larry Foster is usually one of the first persons named,” said Penn State President Rodney Erickson.

“There are many textbook cases built on Larry’s long and successful

career based on his commitment to honesty and integrity. Larry also gave back to Penn State with his time, talents and treasure. Always willing to share his knowledge with students and faculty alike, Larry understood the importance of fundamental principles that guide communications strategies. Larry and Ellen also appreciated the importance of scholarships to attract outstanding students, the need for education in new media and the key role that faculty support in the form of professorships plays in building a world-class faculty.”

Following his retirement from Johnson & Johnson in 1990, Foster wrote the biography of Robert Wood Johnson, the man who built Johnson & Johnson from a family business into a global enterprise.

They had worked together for nine years, and Foster was intrigued by Johnson’s business philosophy and the company’s Credo that placed the interests of the customer first.

The widely acclaimed book, “Robert Wood Johnson: The Gentleman Rebel,” was distributed to every public and college library in the nation, 14,000 in all, by the New Jersey Historical Society and the Robert Wood Johnson 1962 Charitable Trust. Foster also wrote “Robert Wood Johnson and His Credo, A Living Legacy” (2008), a condensation of the earlier work, and “A Company That Cares” (1986), the 100-year history of Johnson & Johnson.

Foster was predeceased by a brother, Donald Foster. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Ellen; brother Kenneth Foster; daughter Cynthia Falck and husband Brian; son David Foster and wife Lucy; daughter Nanci Carlson and husband Carl; son Gregg Foster and wife Sandra; son Dr. Lawrence G. Foster III and wife Patricia; 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. l

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Longtime board member, dedicated mentor O’Leary dies Robert John (“Bob”) O’Leary, a Penn State Alumni Fellow, longtime member of the the College of Communications Alumni Society Board, and strong supporter of people and programs at Penn State, died Dec. 4, 2013, after a short illness.

O’Leary (’71 Adv), from Bellefonte, Pa., was a Delta Chi fraternity member.

During his career he worked in communications and public relations Bob for IBM, Unisys, O’Leary Mobil, Bacardi, Goodyear and Sears.

He also made regular trips home, to visit family in Bellefonte, to attend Penn State football games (he held season tickets for 32 years) and to help students. He consistently volunteered to condut mock interviews with students as part of their career-preparation efforts. O’Leary also funded a Trustee Scholarship for communications students that bears his name, and he earned the Alumni Achievement Award in 2006.

“What Bob relished most, I think, was working with the College’s students,” said Dean Doug Anderson.

“He mentored dozens, knew them all by name and offered his expertise to hundreds of others through resume, networking and mentoring workshops. It wasn’t rare to bump into Bob in the halls of Carnegie Building in the middle of the semester, as he took a quick break from a session with a small group of students. Bob was often a bit breathless in these instances, rushing before the next group or person arrived but also in his enthusiasm in making a difference in someone’s life. He certainly did, in so many ways — a wonderful legacy and testament to an accomplished man.” l

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Achieving, impactful alumni earn annual awards Five people — three alumni, a faculty member and a respected former faculty member — were selected for annual awards in recognition of their achievements and contributions to the College of Communications, the University and their professional fields.

The College of Communications Alumni Society Board selected the individuals who were recognized at the largest awards dinner in the program’s history. It was held Nov. 3 on campus.

Those honored were: the late Michael Chobot, a freelance sound editor and mixer; Gene Foreman, who serves as a visiting professor of journalism; Steve Kraycik, director of student television and online operations; Kathleen Pavelko, president and CEO of WITF Public Media; and Chris Wheeler, the longest tenured member of the Philadelphia Phillies’ broadcast team.

Chobot, who earned his bachelor’s degree in film-video in 2009, was honored posthumously with the Emerging Professional Award. He died Aug. 6, 2013, after a 22-month battle with leukemia.

Chobot, 26, made a lasting impact during his brief career and life, though.

“He was one of the most generous and good-hearted students that I’ve known, and he was a pleasure to have in the classroom and on the set,” said Richie Sherman, an associate professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies.

Chobot, a sound engineer and mixer for DuArt Film in New York City, was nominated for a national Emmy Award for his work on “An Original DUCKumentary” in the category of Outstanding Music and Sound.

As a student, Chobot worked in the College of Communications equipment room and also served as a counselor at the high school film camp conducted each summer on the University Park campus.

The Emerging Professional Award is presented annually to an alumnus

Michael Chobot’s sister, Sarah (’07 Sci), and brother, Joe, accept the Alumni Achievement Award that was presented to him posthumously.

(Photo by Michael Bordick)

who has graduated in the past 10 years and recognizes professional achievement and/or distinguished community service.

Pavelko earned a bachelor’s degree in history (1975) and a master’s degree in journalism (1979) from Penn State. She was selected as the recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award, which is presented to a graduate of the College who has demonstrated excellence in the field of communications, contributed significantly to their profession and gained an exemplary reputation among colleagues and students within his or her community.

Since 1999, Pavelko has served as president/CEO of WITF Public Media in Harrisburg. Under her leadership, WITF’s total assets have quintupled and it has earned many journalism honors, including the DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton, which

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honors excellence in broadcast and digital news. Before joining WITF, she served in production and management at Penn State Public Broadcasting, was executive producer for West Virginia Public Broadcasting and was president of Prairie Public Broadcasting, based in Fargo, N.D., where she created North Dakota Public Radio — the state’s first statewide public radio network.

Pavelko has extensive experience in non-profit management and governance and has served on two statewide commissions, as well as several boards. She presently serves on boards for the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Salvation Army.

Wheeler earned his bachelor’s degree in broadcasting in 1967 and worked for radio stations in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia — where he was a news writer and reporter and

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Award winners (left to right): Gene Foreman, Steve Kraycik, Kathleen Pavelko and Chris Wheeler.

also provided traffic reports from an airplane — before joining his hometown Philadelphia Phillies as assistant director of publicity and public relations in 1971.

He was added to the broadcast team in 1977 and was named director of the team’s community relations department in 1982.

In 1991, he also became director of the team’s speakers bureau, a position he held until 1997. Additionally, Wheeler was camp coordinator for “Phillies Dream Week” from 1983 to 1999.

In the past 37 years, Wheeler has worked games on radio and TV, doing both play-by-play and color commentary. Having just completed his 37th season, he’s the longest-tenured member of the Phillies’ broadcast team.

He was selected for the Alumni Achievement Award, which is presented to a College of Communications graduate or friend of the College whose significant contributions to the College and/or university, in terms of time and talent, have brought distinction to themselves, the College and the university.

Kraycik, who joined the College of Communications in 2012, bringing with him 27 years of TV news experience, was selected for the Excellence in Teaching Award.

It is presented to a member of the faculty who has demonstrated excellence in teaching, contributed significantly to the growth of students’ learning and gained an exemplary reputation among colleagues, students and alumni.

With his extensive background in news management and production, Kraycik teaches television news and serves as the supervisor of “Centre County Report,” the student-produced newscast that airs in 29 Pennsylvania counties.

Before joining the faculty, Kraycik spent a decade as a top-20 market news director at stations in Sacramento and Seattle. Among Kraycik’s memorable experiences in TV news are field producing coverage of two Super Bowls and a presidential inauguration, and producing a governor’s debate moderated by NBC’s Tim Russert.

Foreman was selected as recipient of the Douglas A. Anderson Communications Contributor Award.

The award, in just its second year, was created to honor people for their achievements in the field as they apply to the College of Communications, the University and/or Commonwealth. Those considered for this award need not be Penn State alumni.

Foreman joined the Penn State faculty in 1998 after retiring from The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he managed newsroom operations for more than 25 years.

During his tenure, The Inquirer won 18 Pulitzer Prizes. At Penn State, he was the Larry and Ellen Foster Professor from 1999 until his retirement from full-time teaching in December 2006. He taught courses in news editing, news media ethics and newspaper management.

As a visiting professor, Foreman continues to direct a conference of

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distinguished writers. The conference was originally the Foster Conference of Distinguished Writers but was renamed the Foster-Foreman Conference in 2011.

Foreman spent 41 years in newspaper journalism and was the managing editor of three different newspapers: the Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial, the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock, and The Inquirer. He also worked as a reporter and assigning editor at the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock, as a copy editor at The New York Times and as the senior editor in charge of news and copy desks at Newsday on Long Island.

He was president of the Associated Press Managing Editors in 1990 and in 1998 he received a career achievement award from the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Foreman is a journalism graduate of Arkansas State University at Jonesboro.

While at Arkansas State, he earned an Army Reserve commission through ROTC, and after active duty in the field artillery he spent 11 years in the Reserve, ending his military service as a major.

The Douglas A. Anderson Communications Contributor Award is named for the dean of the College of Communications. Anderson arrived at Penn State in 1999 and under his leadership the College has enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth and success, becoming the country’s largest nationally accredited mass communications program. l

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Mark Lima (second from left) accepts his award with Dean Doug Anderson, Alumni Association President Kay Frantz Salvino and Penn State President Rodney Erickson. Lima became the 47th communications alumnus to earn the award.

Television executive Lima honored as Alumni Fellow A veteran broadcast journalist and member of the College of Communications Alumni Society Board was honored for exceptional professional accomplishments and awarded the highest accolade by the Penn State Alumni Association.

Mark X. Lima (’87 Telecom) was named a Penn State Alumni Fellow in October. The honor from the Alumni Association has been bestowed on slightly more than 700 University alumni since it was established in 1973.

Only 47 graduates of the College of Communications have been named as an Alumni Fellow.

“I am proud to be a graduate of Penn State’s College of Communications,” Lima said. “I am prouder still

to be associated with those who call themselves the same.”

Lima is the vice president of news at Fusion, a 24-hour news channel launched nationally this past fall. Fusion primarily serves an audience of English-speaking Hispanic and Latino Americans.

Lima was a senior producer for ABC News, guiding the network’s iconic “Nightline,” before joining Fusion. While at “Nightline,” he developed stories and led digital and social media integration efforts. He was an integral part in the program’s success as the No. 1-rated late-night program from 2009 to 2013. The show also received the Peabody Award for coverage of “Superstorm Sandy” under Lima’s guidance.

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Before that, Lima spent four years as deputy bureau chief for ABC News in Los Angeles. He managed daily coverage for the ABC bureaus in the western United States. His coverage of the 2008 Malibu, Calif., fires garnered two Emmy Awards.

Lima was also director of sports and special projects for NewsOne, an ABC affiliate news service. He has produced live operations for events such as the Olympics, Super Bowls, Final Fours and the Pope’s 25th anniversary.

In his role on the College’s Alumni Society Board, Lima chairs the video committee. The committee has produced several fundraising videos. In addition, Lima has served as a guest lecturer and mentor for communica-

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ALUMNI NEWS “I am proud to be a graduate of Penn State’s College of Communications. I’m prouder still to be associated with those who call themselves the same.”

— Mark Lima, vice president of news, Fusion

tions students on a regular basis.

Lima, a State College native, lives in Miami with his wife, Stacey, and daughter, Madelyn.

The title of Alumni Fellow has been designed as a permanent and lifelong title by the Penn State Board of Trustees. In addition, the just over 700 recipients of the award since its inception 41 years ago represent one-eighth of 1 percent of all 616,000 living Penn State alumni.

“The Alumni Fellow program showcases the significant contributions Penn Staters make to our nation and the world every day,” said Roger Williams, executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association. “It provides our fellows the opportunity to share their experience and wisdom with students, faculty and staff, thus adding an extra dimension to Penn State’s academic programs.”

The Alumni Fellow program is administered by the Alumni Association (the largest dues-paying group of its kind in the nation) in cooperation with the University’s academic colleges, campuses and the Office of the President. Alumni are nominated by a college or campus as leaders in their professional fields and accept an invitation from the President of the University to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty and administrators.

Each Alumni Fellow receives a commemorative award designed and hand cast by Jeanne Stevens-Sollman (’72), an acclaimed sculptor and medalist, and an Alumni Fellow. l

Interaction options, participation grow on every social media outlet for College It’s 11,831 and counting.

CONNECTIONS That’s the number of members and followers of LINKEDIN the College’s social media Penn State College of Communications Alumni outlet groups on LinkedIn, Penn State College of Communications Ad/PR Network Facebook and Twitter.

“With a total universe of FACEBOOK FAN PAGES about 27,000 living alumni Penn State College of Communications and students at University Penn State College of Communications Ad/PR Network Park,” said Dean Doug Penn State Film Students & Alumni Anderson, “that’s more than four out of every 10 The John Curley Center for Sports Journalism members of that group who connect with the ColFACEBOOK GROUPS lege via social media.”

Penn State College of Communications Of course, some alumni Penn State Ad/PR Alumni Network and students are members of more than one group.

TWITTER But, overall, the College’s @PSUCollegeofCom external relations staff @PSUCommAd/PR estimates that there are about 8,000 unique users who connect to Penn State film-video industry. Overall, nearly through its social media platforms.

4,000 alumni and students from the The College, through the help of College are “on” Facebook via these student interns, strives to post a daily groups. mix of Penn State updates, College The number of people who follow news and notes, job leads, photos and the College on Twitter is nearing videos, and event announcements on 2,500, with an overall feed for the a daily basis.

College and one that focuses on LinkedIn, the networking site, is by advertising and public relations. far the largest vehicle through which Groups like the Alumni Society alumni and students keep in touch, Board and the Ad/PR Alumni Netsearch for jobs and get their news work have played a key role in estabfrom the College. The primary Linkelishing the 10 groups and outlets and dIn group — Penn State College of Communications Alumni — has more regularly provide tips and direction for than 4,500 unique users. And a niche growing the group and better utilizing the burgeoning technology. Instagram group, which focuses on the fields and other social media platforms are of advertising, public relations and coming in the near future. marketing, has about 1,400 members.

“Our alumni continue to be a wonTogether, they provide thousands of derful resource as we strive to reach connections for job-seekers and Penn everyone who has a personal stake in State networking. Both LinkedIn the College,” said Anderson. “For our groups are overseen by an administrastudents and alumni, the College’s tor to ensure membership is limited social media efforts not only provide to Penn Staters. a way to connect with fellow Penn On Facebook, the College manages Staters, but — especially with LinkedIn six fan pages and groups, ranging — to turn that networking opportunity from the overall College to specialty into a sound strategy to find jobs and groups for Ad/PR, the John Curley internships.” l Center for Sports Journalism and the

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Nearly 40 College of Communications alumni and supporters gathered at SideBar in New York City for a “PSnbcUniversal” happy hour and pep rally late last summer. The spirited and well-attended event was hosted by Penn State alumnus Linda Yaccarino-Madrazo (‘85 Telecom), who was named an Alumni Fellow in 2011 and serves as president of advertising for NBCUniversal. The event featured a visit from the Nittany Lion mascot, Berkey Creamery ice cream and stickies from Ye Olde College Diner.

First pitch to children’s magazine leads to first publication Children’s author Jennifer Lynn Melnick got a strong start to her career, with her story, “Amelia Pepperpot Can’t Ah-Choo” appearing in the December 2013 issue of Highlights magazine.

That’s not bad for her first story ever submitted to the renowned children’s magazine.

Melnick, who earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2004 and her master’s in telecommunications studies in 2006, has worked as an editor, journalist, technical writer, corporate communications specialist and graphic designer. The Hazleton, Pa., native currently works as a freelance writer and illustrator, while running her own doll business, in which she creates art dolls from various fabrics and clay, as well as reproduction 18th century Queen Anne dolls.

Still, writing has always been her passion. She has been writing stories since first grade and finally decided to pursue her childhood dream of becoming a children’s author.

“I’ve always known what I wanted to do, and I finally reached a point where I thought, ‘Why keep talking about

wanting to write for children? I should just do it,’” said Melnick. “The worst that could have happened was that my story wouldn’t have been accepted. And Jennifer being that it had yet to be published, Lynn Melnick I had nothing to lose.”

Melnick’s story is about a young girl named Amelia Pepperpot, who has an odd infirmity — she can’t sneeze. No matter what her parents and siblings do to try to coax a sneeze from Amelia, nothing works.

“Amelia felt a bit out of place, so I took her inability to sneeze and turned it into something quite useful,” said Melnick, who is also a self-taught illustrator. “I enjoy doing both because I can have my characters look exactly as I envision them. My mother is a talented artist and has a degree in commercial art, so it seems I’ve inherited her creativity.”

Melnick credits her parents, Peter and

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Irene Melnick, for encouraging her to pursue her interests.

“I couldn’t ask for better parents,” said Melnick. “They’ve always provided my brother, Michael, and me with plenty of art supplies and encouraged us to create. They were tolerant of our little messes and they always proudly displayed our creations.”

Melnick isn’t new to the children’s book market or writing. For her master’s thesis, she extensively studied the history of children’s books, as well as the children’s book and e-book markets.

Additionally, Melnick has amassed an impressive collection of antique children’s books.

She knows writing for children is not easy, though.

“People may think you can scribble a few words down and children will love it, but it’s more complicated,” said Melnick. “Children have limited attention spans and if your story or illustrations don’t hold their interest, children will let you know. They have large imaginations and so story ideas are limitless, but children can be the toughest critics.” l

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At Fox Sports 1, alumna helps fill round-the-clock appetite for sports on TV An all-sports TV network that presents shows 24 hours a day seven days a week needs “content” — programming to fill all those on-air hours — and since Fox Sports 1 made its debut on Aug. 17, 2013, its programming days have been shaped in part by a Penn Stater.

Erin McMullen, who earned Penn State degrees in telecommunications and geography in 2007, is the senior manager of programming and has been an important behind-the-scenes team member for the network.

McMullen previously worked for FUEL TV in programming. A lifelong Pennsylvania resident, she jump-started her career with a cross-country trip to California not long after graduation.

“I came to California to plan snowboard events,” said McMullen, who worked at Tussey Mountain Ski Area near the University Park campus as a Penn State student. “The organizers told me I could have a paid job instead of an unpaid job if I got there by Friday. So, I gave my parents about three days notice and got in my car.”

That’s just one example of the personal drive that has helped McMullen in her career. Along with planning snowboard events, she endured losing another job and then secured a spot with Fox Sports.

Her determination and inquisitive nature helped open the door to her spot at Fox Sports 1.

“There were rumors about a launch of the all-sports network and some changes. Everyone was excited or worried and I just approached my boss and told him I was pretty sure he couldn’t tell us what was going on but at the same time I told him I was interested in helping with whatever was going to happen when it did,” McMullen said. “A few weeks later, he pulled me in and it’s been pretty hectic ever since.”

She has learned a lot during her brief career.

“When I was growing up in Lewistown, Pa., I always wanted to get into advertising, but my experience with it was limited. I thought the Pizza Hut billboard along Route 322 between home and State College was the height of advertising,” she said. “That was really the extent of my experience before coming to Penn State.”

Her academic career and a couple of related internships prepared McMullen to succeed — and she has crafted an impressive early career path as a result.

In her current position with Fox Sports 1, McMullen works to confirms the availability of programs. Once availability for a program has been confirmed, the team works with several different in-house audiences so everyone knows the status of the show and it eventually ends up on the broadcast schedule.

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While many critics and viewers focus on high-profile live sporting events that air on Fox Sports 1 (things such as college football and basketball, NASCAR and UFC), the programming and acquisitions team ensures that FS1 becomes more than just big events. McMullen has worked Erin McMullen to add a mix of best-of, countdown, highlight and preview shows that round out the network’s broadcast day.

After securing the shows, scheduling follows. McMullen and her team are working months in advance to set specific days and dates for all kinds of shows.

“We work in databases,” she said. “We used to have a big white board with layers upon layers of information.

Now it’s mostly spreadsheets. Excel is our friend.”

Her own schedule has been pretty much 24/7 in recent weeks. And she did not need the lure of a network launch to fuel her personal and professional fire.

“I give 110 percent of my energy every single day, and that’s the way it’s been since I’ve been working,” she said.

“Attention to detail and quality drive me. That’s who I am and what I’ve been doing since I got my first job.”

Despite an often hectic work schedule, she tries to maintain a routine.

She rises early at her apartment in Redondo Beach, Calif., and gets to work at the “Fox Lot” in Hollywood in time for breakfast. She’s at her desk by 9 a.m., after a morning workout. (Before the FS1 launch in August, she was training for her first half marathon. She completed that event in October in San Francisco as part of a group of Fox Sports employees who were supporting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.)

A series of conference calls and meetings follows, and McMullen remains in constant contact by email and phone with distributors, producers and other members of her team. Still, there’s always the lure of more — and she likes that challenge.

“Being busy is great, and it’s an exciting position,” she said. “So if something else comes up on a given day, that’s a good thing.” l

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Weakland claims Best Drama Award No matter the discipline, Brian Weakland has proven himself as an award winner.

Journalist, novelist or screenwriter — he has it all covered.

His most recent accolade came with the Best Drama Award, presented by the Writers Guild of America (East) at the Austin Film Festival.

His prize winning work, Brian Weakland (left) with fellow award titled “Last Waltz of Vienna,” winner Vince Gilligan, who was honored for is based around the events of his work on “Breaking Bad.” State, this achievement would not a true story. In Weakland’s have been possible,” said Weakland, adaptation, which takes place in who earned his bachelor’s degree a Hitler-run Austria, he tells of a in journalism in 1975. “My college young chemist who is appointed by Nazis as a trustee to Sigmund Freud, experience set the foundation that enabled all my success.” a known Jew. After disobeying his Weakland, an Altoona, Pa., native, assignment, he helps Freud escape has been honored by The Associated to France.

Press as a reporter, and with a Key“Last Waltz in Vienna” received stone Press Award. In addition, his 13 other acknowledgments, includdebut novel, “Tonight on the Rivers ing the Virginia Film Office Screenof Pittsburgh,” won the Kinzua play Award, the New York ScreenFoundation Award of Merit. play Grand Prize and the Winter With the festival recognition, Film Festival NYC Best Screenplay Weakland signed with a Hollywood Award. managment company. He is in the The Austin Film Festival received more than 8,600 entries in 27 cateprocess of writing a drama about a gories. terrorist operation in Washington, “Without my experience at Penn D.C. l

Flintosh, Mairs elected to Alumni Board Two alumni were elected to the College of Communications Alumni Society Board last fall.

Kevin Flintosh (’06 Journ) and Patrick Mairs (’01 Kevin Journ) were chosen Flintosh to serve on the Alumni Board through 2016.

Flintosh is a manager at Accenture in New Jersey. During his time at Penn State, Flintosh was involved with the Alumni Association as a student. He was the director of communications for the Blue & White Society, a Lion

Ambassador, and an intern for the College of Communications.

Mairs is currently an editor/producer for The Associated Press. At Penn State, he was involved in Patrick Mairs the news department at Penn State student radio and held internships with CBS News, MTV Networks and Philadelphia’s Y-100 radio. He also worked for Penn State Sports Marketing, was involved in the Penn State Dance Marathon and was a member of the Blue Band. l

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NEWS, NOTES l Three graduates from the doctoral program in the College of Communications each wrote a chapter in “Thinking Dead: What the Zombie Apocalypse Means,” a 239-page anthology that was edited by a another popular culture researcher who also earned his doctorate at Penn State. The book seeks to explain the sweeping fascination with zombies. Ryan Lizardi, an assistant professor at the SUNY Institute of Technology who earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees at Penn State, used his chapter to explore the progression of the zombie motif from its Caribbean voodoo origins to its current Hollywood form. Cate Buckley, who earned her doctorate in 2013, wrote her chapter about the prevalence of plotlines centered on supernatural romance theme. Jennifer Proffitt, an associate professor at Florida State who earned her doctorate from Penn State in 2005, combined two of her interests -- zombies and politics -- for her chapter, producing a commentary about a zombie world that lacks a formal governing body. Book editor Murali Balaji earned his doctoral degree from Penn State in 2009. He holds a position as an assistant professor at Temple University. l “Following Fish: Travels Around the Indian Coast,” written by Samanth Subramanian (’01 Journ), won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize. Subramanian has written for The New York Times, the New Yorker and the Wall Street Journal. Through nine different essays, “Following Fish” examines the importance of fish in India — on matters as obvious as commerce and culture, and as diverse as history and sport. l Former Penn State women’s basketball player Alex Bentley (’13 Journ), who enjoyed a solid rookie season and reached the WNBA championship series with the Atlanta Dream in 2013, joined defending league champion Sport Recife in the Brazilian league for her off-season. That league runs from November through March. Bentley plans to return to Atlanta and the WNBA this summer.

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ALUMNI NOTES 1940s Anita (Isecovitz) Singer (’46 Journ) recently lost her daughter, Myra Singer-Soden, age 59, a student at Penn State in the 1970s. She died Nov. 24, 2013, at UVA Hospital in Charlottesville, Va.

1950s Lou Prato (’59 Journ) has authored two books -- “We Are Penn State: The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions,” a diary approach to telling the story of the 2012 Penn State football team, and “Bad Rad, Football Nomad,” which focuses on former Penn State and colorful longtime pro and college football coach Dan Radakovich.

1960s Rev. Raymond Hunter (’68 Journ), an advisory board member at Penn State Brandywine and an ordained Christian minister, became a nationally certified clinical hypnotherapist in private practice.

1970s Cable Neuhaus (’71 Journ) has signed on as a contributing editor for The Saturday Evening Post, sometimes called America’s oldest magazine. In addition to his column there, which will be titled “American Pop,” he will also be producing major features.

Karen Carnabucci (’73 Journ) is co-author of “Healing Eating Disorders with Psychodrama and Other Action Methods: Beyond the Silence and the Fury.” She is a psychotherapist and trainer based in Racine, Wis.

1980s Elizabeth Fetter (’80 Mass Comm) has been named chief executive officer at Symmetricom Inc., a worldwide leader in precision time and frequency technologies.

Susan Carlin (’81 Journ) was promoted to vice president of administrative and audio/visual services for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. She lives in

VCU selects Cheng as director of communications program Hong Cheng, who earned his Ph.D. in mass communications from Penn State in 1995, has been named director of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Mass Communications in the College of Humanities and Sciences.

Cheng previously worked at Ohio University, where he was a tenured professor in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism, housed in the Scripps College of Communication. Along with his doctoral degree from Penn State, he holds a master’s degree in international journalism from Shanghai International Studies University (1989).

“I am excited by Dr. Cheng’s vision of a school of mass communications that centers on evolving the professions of journalism, advertising and public relations as they adapt to our increasingly digital and globally connected world,” said James Coleman, dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences.

“Dr. Cheng is a widely respected scholar, and his extensive international experience will be a tremendous asset as he works to build a larger global reach for the school.”

Cheng’s research interests center on international communication, cross-cultural advertising and social marketing. His works have been presented at national and international conferences since the early 1990s and

Association, representing 13 states.

Alexandria, Va. Mary Lee Schneider (’84 Journ) was named president and CEO of Follett Corp. She lives in Chicago.

Linda Yaccarino (’85 Telecom), president of advertising sales for NBCUniversal, will serve as commencement speaker for the College of Communications in May. Marty Joe Irvin-Stellabotte (’88 Journ) serves as director of mission advancement for Allegheny Lutheran Social Ministries. She, husband Tim, and daughter Morgan, 6, live in Altoona, Pa. John Shaffer (’88 Film-Video) was elected 2013-14 president of the Associated Press Television and Radio

THE COMMUNICATOR

have appeared in journals such as Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Communication and the Journal of Advertising Research.

He co-authored “Becoming a Media Savvy Student” (2004), and co-edited “Advertising and Chinese Society: Issues and Impacts” (2009) and “Social Marketing for Public Health: Global Trends and Success Stories” (2011). His newly edited “Handbook of International Advertising Research” is in press now.

Cheng also is a current associate editor of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and a former editor of the Asian Journal of Communication, and he serves on the editorial boards of multiple journals.

“I’m so thrilled and honored by this appointment,” said Cheng. “I look forward to working with everyone to embrace the great opportunities for this remarkable school and to build upon its excellence. I envision a school that will become increasingly community valued, nationally reputable and internationally recognized.”

He has previously served as head of the Advertising Division and the International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). l

57

1990s Dom Diefenbach (’90 Film-Video) was appointed chair of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Kenneth Fair (’90 Brcab), an attorney and partner at Naulty, Scaricmazz & McDevitt, was named vice chair and secretary of the Simon’s Fund. He lives in Lafayette Hill, Pa. Kevin Riefenstahl (’90 Brcab) works as an attorney at Burns White LLC. He lives in Mullica Hill, N.J. Andrea Phillips Peters (’93 Adv/PR) and husband Tim welcomed daugh-

SPRING 2014

ALUMNI NOTES ter Leah Brady, born Nov. 19, 2012.

They live in Smyrna, Ga. Bob Evans (’94 Film-Video) is the jib operator for “Meet the Press” with David Gregory. He has been a crew member on the show since January 2010.

Chad Hershberger (’94 Journ) and his wife, Sarah, welcomed son Aaron on March 10, 2013. He joins big sister Claire at their home in Millmont, Pa. James Reeser (’96 Journ) married Stacy Bosher on Nov. 17, 2012. He’s an assistant sports editor at The Citizens Voice. They live in Wyoming, Pa. Brad Young (’96 Journ) is chief marketing officer for Time Inc. News & Business titles. In that role he oversees ad sales for Time, Fortune and Money, as well as CNNMoney.com.

Steve O’Connell (’97 Media) is a partner at Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners, which recently expanded to Venice, Calif.

Cindy delRosario-Tapan (’99 Journ) and her husband Ed Tapan (’98 Telecom) welcomed daughter Tala Caroline on March 26, 2013.

News to share?

Engaged? Married?

Honored? Promoted?

Proud Parents?

Kristen (Huth) Rowe (’09 Journ) married Greg Popenhusen-Rowe (’09 English) on June 29, 2013. Kristen is the librarian at Hopewell High School in Aliquippa, Pa.

Submit Alumni Notes online http://comm.psu.edu/alumni

Jake Kaplan (’12 Journ) is a sports writer at the Orange County Register.

They live in Exton, Pa. Michael Martin (’03 Telecom) and wife Malissa Mastrine (’04 Sci) have daughter Katrina Diana, born June 15, 2013. They live in State College.

Adam Lardieri (’04 Adv-PR) and wife Elizabeth have daughters Ava, 2, and Cecelia, born June 7, 2013. They live in Altoona, Pa.

Heather Stein Oppenheim (’01 Adv/PR) and husband Jeremy have son Jonah Simon, born July 2012.

They live in Reston, Va.

Jenny Bertolette (’07 Adv/PR) was named communications director for the Meals On Wheels Association of America, located in Alexandria, Va.

Joe Machi (’02 Media Studies) won the NY Comedy Festival’s NY’s Funniest Comic Competition on Nov. 9. Machi is featured as the “frightened correspondent” on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld on Fox News and appeared on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” in May 2012.

Laura Fistner (’07 Adv/PR) was promoted to senior media strategist at Harmelin Media.

Rebecca (Werner) Shallow (’02 Adv/PR) and Daniel Shallow (’00 Agr) have children William Daniel, 5, and Caroline Joyy, born Sept. 24, 2013.

Christopher Kerney (’08 Media Studies) wrote an article about expectations of a brand’s social media

Lisa (Griffin) Stormont (’07 Adv/ PR) joined MayoSeitz media as a senior communications planner. She previously worked at Tierney.

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58

2010s

Lynn Ondrusek (’12 Journ) is working at the Easton (Pa.) Express-Times as the Slate Belt reporter.

Katie O’Toole Clark (’01 Journ) and husband Bryan welcomed son Cylas John Clark on July 16, 2013. Katie is currently associate director of publications and senior editor at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Corey McLaughlin (’08 Journ) is assistant editor of Lacrosse Magazine, the flagship publication of US Lacrosse. He lives in Baltimore and can be contacted at cmclaughlin@ uslacrosse.org.

Whatever the news, just let us know and we’ll spread the word with other College of Communications alumni.

Justin Schorah (’05 Adv/PR) published his debut novel, Stage, in January 2014. The story follows four friends on a hellish journey to landing a record deal. If you’re in the mood for music and mayhem, this book is for you. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or justinschorah.com online.

2000s

manager that appeared on PRDaily.

Dan Yesenosky (’12 Journ) won the 2013 North Carolina AP Rookie of the Year award for being the best first-year TV reporter in the state.

He also took first place in the Hard News Feature category of the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas.

Kathy Andrusisin (’13 Journ) is a communications assistant for alumni relations and development in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State.

Adrienne DiPiaza (’13 Journ) is a reporter at WABI-TV in Bangor, Me. Jeremy Kahn (’13 Journ) is a reporter at WETM-TV in Elmira, N.Y. Ashley Liotus (’13 Journ) is a producer at WJCL-TV in Savannah, Ga. Ashlee McGeehan (’13 Journ) is a reporter at WJET-TV in Erie.

Ryan Mellon (’13 Journ) is a reporter at the Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal.

Jennifer Studer (’13 Journ) recently accepted a position with the NFL Network in Los Angeles, where she assists the lead feature producers.

Megan Rogers (’13 Journ) has accepted a reporting position with Inside Higher Ed.

SPRING 2014

COLLEGE CALENDAR FEB Penn State Dance Marathon 21-23 MAR 9-15

Spring Break

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