Andrew Phelps, Director of the AU Game Center, participated in the development of a Proposal for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programs in Interactive Digital Narrative as part of European Union INDCOR COST Action CA18239 “Interactive Narrative Designs for Complexity Representations”. This work was additionally funded by the Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA) where Phelps serves as president, and took place in Malta.
Steven Dashiell, Au Game Center post-doc, along with Phelps, published a journal article on gender and gamer capital relative to online discourses on Grand Theft Auto:
Dashiell, S., & Phelps, A. (2023). Analyzing gender capital in Grand Theft Auto social media conversations. Media, Culture & Society, 0(0).
Phelps also delivered a talk at the annual Games 4 Change Festival in NYC, held at Times Square, entitled “A Celebration of Teaching, Researching, and Loving Games” as part of his work with HEVGA, representing over 550 colleges and universities with games curricula and research world-wide.
Joe Campbell's commentary recalling the disclosure 50 years ago of Richard Nixon's White House taping system was posted July 14 at the Messenger online news and opinion site. Joe wrote in the commentary: "The conventional storyline of the Watergate scandal is that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, through their dogged reporting for the Washington Post, uncovered evidence that forced Richard Nixon to resign the presidency in 1974. A more accurate, less mythical interpretation is that the president’s fall was triggered not by newspaper reporters but by a mostly anonymous former White House aide who, 50 years ago, reluctantly told investigators that Nixon had secretly recorded most of his conversations at the White House. The disclosure by Alexander Butterfield in mid-July 1973 altered the complexion and dynamics of Watergate, shifting the scandal to a monthslong drama to pry the tapes from Nixon’s possession."
John C. Watson made a presentation at the One-Day Law School for Journalists program. He provided insights with retired U.S. Circuit Judge Tim Lewis and Yale Law School Professor and former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse. Their presentations focused on the current loss of public esteem for the courts and the news media. The intensive program was sponsored by Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, which is based in Philadelphia and designed “to support journalists who face the challenge of covering the courts without a law degree.”
Pallavi Kumar will be a featured speaker at Allison + Partners upcoming webinar, “If Culture Had a Crystal Ball - The Science to Measuring Cultural Relevance” on Tuesday, August 8th from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Feel free to register at this link: https://www.linkedin.com/events/ifculturehadacrystalball-thesci7087172303263830017/
IRW Executive Editor Wesley Lowery was interviewed on Philadelphia’s public radio WHYY Studio 2 about his book, American Whitelash.
Wes also spoke with journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak at an in-person book event at the Free Library of Philadelphia – here is a recording.
Wes spoke on “Make Me Smart” with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal and Kimberly Adams about American Whitelash and economic fear.
Finally, Wes was interviewed by Dean Jelani Cobb of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism which was aired on C-SPAN’s “After Words” Book TV.
Angel Number Nine closes on July 30th, last weekend to catch this immersive theatre experience. Professor Kylos Brannon did all the video work involved in this production, and rather than repeat what's already been sent out - here are some additional media links since last time! The show has been very well received and the entire run has nearly sold out. WAMU, DCist, CityPaper, Washington Blade. For tickets go to rorschatheatre.com
Kylos has also been accepted to attend Barrelhouse Magazine's Writers' Camp. From August 2-6 he'll participate in the program, receiving feedback on two film scripts and revising drafts.
Gemma Puglisi was on a panel earlier this summer for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services. "The Art and Science of Communications Conference" was held at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Gemma is also proud to announce that the AU's PRSSA Chapter won the Star Chapter Award again this year. This honor has been given to the Chapter the last five years. It recognizes chapters who "remain in good standing" and "provide programming and relationship building opportunities for students."
AU's PRSSA Chapter also won Third Place for the Pacesetter Award, which recognizes a Chapter's success in the areas of membership, national participation and/or Chapter Development.
Finally, three SOC students, a record for us, received the highest award from the organization for their leadership in PRSSA: The Gold Key Award. The winners were Sophie Myers, Caroline Cascio, and Emma McDowall.
Kurt Braddock recently received his official certification in Data Science from Cornell University. To earn this certification, between April and July, Kurt has been taking online classes in logistic regression analysis, discriminant analysis, neural networks, machine learning, and many other advanced analysis techniques. He plans to incorporate these methods into his research on violent radicalization and begin teaching these methods in his classes for graduate and undergraduate students. Kurt will seek to continue his learning about advanced methods with certification in artificial intelligence and deep machine learning from MIT or Cornell in the Fall.
Several SOC Faculty and Staff were named as “career champions” by our students. This is an accolade that the AU Career Center awards to faculty who are identified by students as having had a positive influence on their professional and/or career development. Those named included: Aarushi Sahejpal, Adele Schmidt, Alexandra Silverthorne, Amy Clark, Amy Eisman, Andrew Tran, Andy Phelps, Anthony LaFauce, Astrid Riecken, Barry Worthington, Ben Stokes, Bill Gentile, Brenda Foster, Brigid Maher, Bryan Litt, Chan Chao, Chris Halsne, Christie Parell, Christopher Adams, Christopher Prosser, Chung-Wei Huang, Claudia Myers, Dara Padwo-Audick, Dario Bernardini, Dina Inverso, Elliot Wagner, Erin Eaton, Franklin Fish, Gary Griffin, Gemma Puglisi, Jane Hall, Jason Mollica, Jennifer LaFleur, Jill Olmsted. Joe Walsh, John Sullivan, John Weiskopf, Joe Graf, Julio Reyes, Krzysztof Pietroszek, Kurt Braddock, Kyle Brannon, Kylie Stigler, Larry Engel, Lenny Steinhorn, Lexie Janney, Lynne Perri, Maggie Burnette Stogner, Margot Susca, Mary Ann Akers, Matt Glassman, Maya Livio, Molly O'Rourke, Natalie Hopkinson, Olivia Foster, Pallavi Kumar, Patricia Aufderheide, Paul Albergo, Priya Doshi, Rajul Bhaskar, Randall Blair, Rosalind Donald, Sarah Menke-Fish, Scott Talan, Shaun Schroth, Sherri Williams, Tara Flakker, Terry Bryant, and Wendy Melillo.
Special feature: SOC at the 2023 AEJMC Conference
SOC will be well represented at the upcoming annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), which will take place in Washington, D.C. between August 7-10. SOC contributions this year include:
John C. Watson will be on two panels, including:
Stare Decisis and Free Speech: The Decline of Stare Decisis and Media Law Pedagogy: Addressing the U.S. Supreme Court’s tendency to set aside long-standing precedents and what that means when teaching media law to aspiring journalists and graduate media scholars. (Sunday, August 6, 1:00pm)
Beyond the Basics: Teaching Soft Skills to Train Strong Journalists: Focusing on essential but intangible skills such as empathy, self-care and recognizing implicit biases. (Monday, August 7, 8:30am)
In addition, John C. Watson and John Sullivan will also be on another panel moderated by Joe Campbell and titled Covering Gun Violence Ethically, Legally and Professionally: Adjusting news coverage of gun violence in the United States to frame it as a public health epidemic with causes, treatments and perhaps cures. (Wednesday, August 9, 8:30am)
Sherri Williams will present “Leveraging Students' Lived Experience as Journalism Expertise" on the panel Teaching Journalism Students to Tell Stories From Their Own Communities. Former SOC professor Angie Chuang is also presenting on the same panel. (Tuesday, August 8, 8:30am)
Aarushi Sahejpal will present on the panel "Best Practices for Teaching Emerging Media," which brings together educators and journalists engaging in multimedia journalism and using emerging technologies to tell stories, including 360 video, AR, and VR; the panel will offer practical stories from the field and practical approaches to helping students develop the skills and instincts to effectively utilize emerging media tools in their storytelling. (Tuesday, August 8, 4:30pm)
Jane Hall will be a speaker at a preconference workshop on “Re-Imagining Journalism Education.” (Sunday, August 6)
Gemma Puglisi will be on a panel sponsored by the Commission on PR Education, as a pre-conference event and titled The Post Pandemic Educator: Realities, Issues & Pathways Forward. (Monday, July 31, 1:00pm - this is a free panel and you can register here).
Reception invitation!
Jill Olmsted has been working on an AEJMC awards event and reception in the McKinley Building, honoring the winners of the Edward L. Bliss and Larry Burkum Awards given by the Broadcast and Mobile Journalism Division. Jill has worked closely with SOC Event Planning Manager Kati Vera in logistics planning and for food and drink. She also coordinated with Victoria Black, SOC Interim Chief Advancement Officer, to have SOC alum and former CBS News head Susan Zirinsky do a short video about Ed Bliss, her teacher & mentor, founder of the broadcast program, and the journalist for whom the Bliss Award is named. The awards plaque is located in the hallway outside the newsroom. You are warmly invited to attend the event on Tuesday, August 8 at 7:00pm in the SOC Media Innovation Lab.
