News from the Communication Research Center at Boston University

 
 

TOP NEWS


May, 2012 – Mina Tsay is presenting the following papers at the 62nd annual conference of the International Communication Association, Phoenix, AZ:


Tsay, M., Krakowiak, K. M., Oliver, M. (2012, May). Responses to meaningful films: Exploring the impact of cognitively challenging content on mortality salience.


Oliver, M. B., Tsay, M., & Krakowiak, K. M. (2012, May). Elevating entertainment and the “kind-world” syndrome.


Chung, D. S., Tsay, M., & Kim, Y. S. (2012, May). Examining coverage of the microblogging phenomenon by mainstream news media from 2007-2010.


Sanders, M., Tsay, M., & Marks, K. (2012, May). The end of the Harry Potter saga: Exploring the relationship between entertainment motives and parasocial breakups.


NEWS



April 5, 2012 – The Dr. Melvin L. DeFleur

Distinguished Lecture Series presents a talk by Dr. Maxwell McCombs: Do the Media Tell Us What to Think About?

The Psychology of Agenda Setting


Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm


Colloquium Room

Photonics Building

Reception follows



April, 2012 – Clila Magen will be presenting two papers:

 

“Media Strategies of Intelligence Services: The case of Israel”. Paper to be presented at the International Studies Association (ISA) conference, San Diego, April 2012.


“Intelligence Services Face the Information Age”. Paper to be presented at the International Communication Association (ICA)  Annual Conference - Communication and Community, Phoenix, Arizona , May 2012 (with Eytan Gilboa).



March 8, 2012 – T. Barton Carter, Professor, Communication, Boston University

Time: 330 PM


Who is Safe in This Harbor? Rethinking Section 230 of the

Communications Decency Act


Location: COM 317


When someone posts material on a web site that defames you or invades your privacy what recourse do you have? Due to a safe-harbor law passed by Congress, you can only sue the poster, not the site operator. This often leads to a situation where you can identify the one you can’t sue (the site operator) and sue the one you can’t identify (the poster). Why did Congress do this? Is a change needed and, if so, what kind of change?


BU Communicator covered this lecture


May, 2012 – Professor Michael G. Elasmar will be presenting a paper titled “If You Ask Me I Won’t Tell You, but I’ll Tell the World When I Feel Like Doing So! The Frequency of Answering a Survey About a Specific Topic Versus Posting Comments About this Same Topic on Social Media Sites " during the conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), to be held in Orlando, FL, May 17-20, 2012.




February 21, 2012 – Dr. James Katz (Professor II, Department of Communication, Rutgers University)


Public participation in national policy via social media: Hot Hope or Hip Hype?


Time: 230-330, COM 106, 640 Commonwealth Ave.


Dramatic advances in social media seem to be offering citizens unprecedented opportunities to influence national policy. The prospect of widespread public involvement in policy has stimulated much excitement among activists. Leaders in the United States and many other countries have advanced some well-publicized initiatives to engage the public in decision-making through online forums. Yet despite a great deal of fanfare and media interest in these initiatives, much of the early hope for citizen empowerment via social media has not materialized. The opportunities for publics to meaningfully engage their leaders via social media remain minimal at best.  In fact, in some cases the disappointment of activists over the failure of these initiatives has led to sharp criticism of political leaders, asserting that they only amounted to hype. Yet a programmatic failure in this area is not necessarily unfortunate given the importance of expertise and, even more so, the nature of representative government. It turns out that the problem of citizen engagement is far more complex and intractable than it would first appear, and that the solutions are by no means a matter of technological fixes. The talk concludes with an assessment of future prospects for citizen engagement with policymaking via social media.


February 14, 2012 – Dr. Denis Wu (Associate Professor of Communication, Boston University)


Journalism + Public Relations ≈ News Media of Taiwan: Investigating the convergent practice and its impact and implication



Time: 3:30-4:30, COM 317, 640 Commonwealth Ave.



January, 2012 – Dr. Deborah Jaramillo appeared in an episode of Chronicle on WCVB on January 16, 2012.  The episode, titled "What are you?", explores the intricacies of biracial identities.








December, 2011 – A story on Mina Tsay has appeared in Research.









December 6, 2011 – Dr. Deborah L. Jaramillo, Assistant Professor of Film & Television, presented a lecture, "Black Stories/White Series: Finding the African-American Narrative in Mad Men," as part of the Boston University African American Studies Program Fall Lecture Series.


Also, Dr. Jaramillo attended the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Faculty Seminar in Los Angeles, November 8-12.  She was one of twenty Film & Television professors from around the country selected to attend.



Dec. 6, 2011 – Dr. Don Wright (Professor of Public Relations, College of Communication, Boston University)


A longitudinal analysis of the increased use of social and emerging media in public relations practice


Date: Tuesday, Dec. 6, 330-430 PM


Location: COM 317, 640 Commonwealth Ave.




November, 2011 – The following papers were presented by CRC Researchers at the National Communication Association convention (New Orleans, LA):


From Lumpy Rutherford to Nelson Muntz: A Content Analysis of Bullying in Sitcoms

Patrice Oppliger

Alexandra Sear


The Violence Profile: Cable Programs

James Shanahan

David Blumberg

Allyson Galle
Joe Hamel
Olivia Neir


The Violence Profile: Alienation, Gloom and the Mean World

Mina Tsay

James Shanahan


Time and Space Compression in Fox’s 24: Affordance of Narrative in Revealing a Masculinist Discourse

Mina Tsay


Will You Be My Friend? Does Social Media Make You Social or Anti-Social? (panel chaired by Tammy Vigil):


An Eye for an Ear and Time vs. Space: Analyzing Social Media from the Technological Determinism Perspective

Tobe Berkovitz


Are Social Media Perceived to Have a Greater Impact on Others than the Self? Exploring Third-person Effects in the Context of New Media

Mina Tsay


Cultivation in the 'New' New Media Environment: Observations on the Evolution of Theory and Technology

James Shanahan


Parasocial Relationships in 140 Characters or Less

Patrice Oppliger


November 2011 – The new edition of Carter, Franklin, Sanders and Wright, The First Amendment and the Fourth Estate, will be published on 11/11.








Dr. Bill McKeen (Professor of Journalism, College of Communication, Boston University)


Serendipity: Finding what you didn’t know you were looking for


Date: Thursday, Nov. 10, 4-5 PM


Location: Student Lounge, COM, 640 Commonwealth Ave.





11/1/11 – Steve Lacy’s inaugural DeFleur Lecture is available on video.








October, 2011 - Ed Downes presented the keynote address at the conference on "Empowering Women Through Higher Education." His talk was titled, "Empowering Women--Throughout the Global Village--Through Higher Education.  Approximately 900 people heard the address.


The conference was sponsored by Kanya Maha Vidyalaya Women's College.  This college is located in Jalandhar (Punjab) India.


September, 2011 – Ed Downes presented two papers:


Downes,  E.J. (2012).  “A Framework for Understanding the Congressional Press Secretary’s Motivations, Practices and Influences.” Paper to be presented at the May 2012 International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design, Istanbul Turkey.


Downes,  E.J. (2012).  “Power, New Media and Today’s Corporate Public Relations Professionals.”  Paper to be presented at the May 2012 International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design, Istanbul Turkey.


September, 2011 – Professor Michael Elasmar presented a paper titled: “Beyond Measuring Public Opinion Trends: Visualizing the Cognitive Structure Associated with Specific Topics” during the conference of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  During the WAPOR conference, Professor Elasmar also chaired a panel that focused on web survey methodology and attended the annual editorial board meeting of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research (IJPOR), for which he serves as editor.


September 23, 2011 – Roy Grundmann presented the first CRC colloquium of the year: Gender & Marketing in the Classical Hollywood Era, Wed., Sept. 21, 3:30-4:30 pm. com 317.







May, 2011 – The following papers were presented by CRC Researchers at the International Communication Association meeting (Boston):


Feminization of the Film? Occupational Roles of Public Relations Characters in Movies

 

     Cheryl Ann Lambert, Boston U, USA

     Candace L. White, U of Tennessee, USA

 

What Portrayals of News Alleviate Prevailing Perceived Threat From the Current Financial Crisis? Exploring Distinct Effects of Victim, Survivor, and Outperformer News Stories TOP FACULTY PAPER

 

     Jinhee Kim, Cleveland State U, USA

     Mina Tsay, Boston U, USA

 

Sarah is Magic: Postgendered Comedy of Sarah Silverman

 

     Patrice A. Oppliger, Boston U, USA

     Eric Shouse, East Carolina U, USA

 

A Longitudinal Analysis Examination of the Actual Use of Social Media in Public Relations Practice

 

     Donald K. Wright, Boston U

 

Rescuing Television From the 'Cinematic': Why We Need to Take Television Form Seriously

 

     Deborah Jaramillo, Boston U, USA

 

Empowering and Enabling People: Contributions by Jennings Bryant (II)

 

     Patrice A. Oppliger, Boston U, USA


May, 2011 - Professor Michael Elasmar presented a paper titled: “Testing a Model of Public Support for Healthcare as a Government Priority” during the conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, in Phoenix, Arizona.







April 28, 2011 – Marco Gui presented a CRC colloquium entitled “Attracted but unsatisfied: An experimental analysis of choice inconsistencies in television consumption.”









April 2011 – Mina Tsay presented the following papers at the Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas, NV.


Tsay, M., & Krakowiak, K. M. Exploring the impact of audience motivations for entertainment consumption and nature of media content on moral disengagement.


Krakowiak, K. M., & Tsay, M. What makes characters’ bad behaviors acceptable? The effects of character motivation and outcome on perceptions, character liking, and moral disengagement.


April 2011 – Ed Downes received a grant from the Dirksen Congressional Center to study Congressional press secretaries. He will combine this with a grant received from COM’s Otto Lerbinger Research Fund. Professor Downes will be on sabbatical for the Fall 2011 semester working on a book tentatively titled “Press Secretary: The Story of Capitol Hill’s Image Makers.”


Also, he is presenting a paper (“Lincoln, the Old Oligarch...and the Congressional Press Secretary”) at the April 2011 Association for Core Texts and Courses Conference in New Haven, CT


March 2011 – From the BUCommunicator: “Boston University’s Dr. Mina Tsay won the 2011 Top Faculty Paper Award in the Mass Communication Division of the International Communication Association Conference. She co-wrote a paper with Jinhee Kim, her graduate school cohort, entitled: ‘What Portrayals of News Alleviate Prevailing Perceived Threat From the Current Financial Crisis? Exploring Distinct Effects of Victim, Survivor and Outperformer News Stories.’


Dr. Tsay, a visiting assistant professor at Boston University, and Dr. Jinhee Kim, an assistant professor at Cleveland State University, conducted their study last year. The study showed how perceived threat from the current economic crisis influences people’s choice of news stories that showcase victims, survivors, and outperformers.”


March 31, 2011 – Tammy Vigil and James Shanahan presented a paper titled “A Tale of Two Campaigns: Framing and Agenda Setting in the 2010 Massachusetts Special Election for Senate”

at the Midwest Political Science Association, in Chicago IL.







March 28, 2011 – Nancy Signorielli presented a CRC Colloquium titled “50 Years Women on Television.” Signorielli is a Professor of Communication at the University of Delaware, and a long-time researcher into messages, images and impacts of television.








March 10, 2011 – Deborah Jaramillo presented a paper titled “Suburban Narcos: Border Violence, Cable TV, and the New Vision of the Mexican Drug Dealer” at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference in New Orleans, LA on March 10. 







March 10, 2011 – Roy Grundmann presented a paper titled “Hollywood History and Genre Cinema: How Crime Drama Referenced the Labor Struggle” at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference in New Orleans, LA on March 10. 







March 2, 2011 – Elasmar is named an editor of IJPOR


Professor Michael G. Elasmar has been chosen by the Executive Council of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR) as a new Editor of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research (IJPOR). The decision to select Dr. Elasmar was reached following a worldwide search conducted by the WAPOR Executive Council. IJPOR is published by Oxford University Press.

Visit the IJPOR website for more information


March, 2011 – Clila Magen presented a paper (with Eytan Gilboa) titled "Intelligence Services and the Media: A Framework for Analysis" during the 2011 conference of the International Studies Association to be held in Montreal Canada.







March 17, 2011 - Professor Michael Elasmar presented a paper titled “The Psychology of Public Diplomacy” during the 2011 conference of the International Studies Association to be held in Montreal Canada. http://www.isanet.org/montreal2011/








 

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Website updated: 5/24/12