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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Public Relations Students Travel To PRSA Event

Nine Public Relations majors from the Department of Communication Studies traveled to a mini-conference to speak with public relations industry leaders to learn about the profession and create valuable networks.  This 1/2 day seminar was full of panels and breakout sessions that included how to land a quality internship, the day in the life of a successful PR professional, resume review, developing and maintaining an effective online persona, and a myriad of other things pertinent to the profession and practice of PR.

As one of our majors put it all too well: "Attending the PRSA event was extremely beneficial since it allowed students to grasp public relations concepts from outside of the classroom and learn how these PR skills are used in the industry. Also, the event helped students develop their networking skills whether it was talking with PR professionals or reviewing our resumes with PR or communication specialists."
                                                                             Sarah Hutson and Angelique Cunningham talk shop
                                                                              Cody White discusses issues with a panelist
                                                                                Angelique Cunningham engages one of the presenters
                                                                             The gang of nine. A good and productive time was had by all!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

MEGAN WISE APPOINTED TO COMMUNICATION RESEARCH REPORTS

Congratulations to Megan Wise for being appointed as the next Editorial Assistant for Communication Research Reports (CRR).  This position is one that is generally reserved for graduate students or professors just starting their careers.  CRR is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Eastern Communication Association with readership throughout the United States and several countries throughout the world.  Professor Ted Avtgis, Editor-in-Chief of CRR said "Megan was a logical choice for this position as she has a commitment to excellence, maturity beyond her years, and a passion for learning.  I believe this to be a great thing not only for Megan, but also for the Department of Communication Studies.  We are proud of her!" 

Wise, a junior Speech Communication Major said "It is a wonderful honor and privilege to be chosen as the Editorial Assistant for this esteemed communication journal. This is an incredible opportunity and I am looking forward to being a part of this professional publication.  Being a member of this prestigious team will provide me with an invaluable amount of experience that will be extremely beneficial as I continue my undergraduate studies and look toward a future career."

Megan will be charged with processing all incoming manuscripts through the peer review process, interacting with submitting authors and editorial board members as well as compiling compliance reports for the journal.  She will spend the next several months learning protocol and the automated manuscript system (ScholarOne), taking over full Editorial Assistant control by May of 2012.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Lambda Pi Eta Arrives at Ashland and its Name is Alpha Alpha Rho!!!

The Department of Communication Studies is proud to announce that it has been awarded a chapter of the honor society Lambda Pi Eta.  This organization was started in 1985 to recognize outstanding academic achievement in the field of Communication Studies.  Lambda Pi Eta represents the first letters of what Aristotle described in The Rhetoric as the three modes of persuasion -- Logos, Pathos, and Ethos.
The Ashland University chapter, hereby known as Alpha Alpha Rho will begin to invite our majors to apply based on academic performance.  We will be posting more information regarding eligibility soon.  Thanks to the Alpha Alpha Rho's first President Mr. Cody White for taking the lead on creating our chapter.  This is truly a wonderful thing for our students.  Our faculty is very proud to be associated with an association that will honor excellent achievement by our Communication Studies majors.   

Faculty Research Updates

The faculty of the Department of Communication Studies have been busy traveling around presenting research, being elected to leadership positions, publishing, and acquiring needed materials for upcoming research studies.  Here are some highlights from October, 2011. 


Dr. Deleasa Randall-Griffiths has been busy listening to and telling stories this October.  The first weekend of the month she attended the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN where she enjoyed listening to some of the top-rated storytellers from around the world.  This year marked the 20th anniversary of her first attendance in Jonesborough.  Later in the month she attended a workshop at Akron City Hospital presented by The Palette of Faith and the Summit 2010 Quality of Life Project  titled “Honoring the Stories: Enriching Meaning at the End of Life.”  The workshop focused on finding meaning in the end of life journey by harnessing the power of storytelling and listening as tools for grief and healing.  Dr. Randall-Griffiths also spent her fall break telling folktales to over 80 fourth-graders at Hillsdale Elementary School.  And, for the third year in a row she was the featured storyteller telling ghost stories for Ashland’s downtown Costume Capers event.   While she loves October and all the storytelling events it brings, Deleasa wants to remind everyone that “Any day is a good day to tell a story!”



Dr. Theodore A. Avtgis has been doing a bit of traveling. He presented a paper titled "Assessing the Effects of Affirming Communication Education on Surgical Residents"at the joint conference of the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare and the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare held in Chicago, Ill. The paper traces an ongoing longitudinal effort targeted at assessing surgical resident communication competency with both patients and members of the surgical team. The results of this study aretargeted at documenting compliance for ACGME core communication competencies required of all medical residents in the United States. The abstract for this paper was published in the journal Medical Encounter.  Avtgis believes that the contribution that communication scholars have a lot to offer the medical community and believes that "the possibilities for communication in the everyday practice of medicine are limitless should we choose to realize them."  He also traveled to the University of Findlay to the Ohio Communication Association annual meeting where he participated in a panel of journal editors on how to get published in communication peer-reviewed journals.  This panel was targeted at giving younger scholars advice on how to navigate the world of academic publishing.  He is the Editor-in Chief of the journal Communication Research Reports.  Avtgis was also elected to serve on the Executive Council of the Ohio Communication Association.




Dr. Ric Jensen wrote several articles related to sports media that recently appeared in The Encyclopedia of Sports Management and Marketing, which was published in September 2011 by Sage Press.
The articles Jensen wrote describe such issues as the ways in which national and sport-specific sports festivals are promoted and marketed; the need for sports organizations to market their teams to specific segments of fans; the growing strategic role of websites and new media by sports organizations; and the diverse ways that sports-related organizations market themselves to other businesses and trade associations.
The Encyclopedia was edited by Linda Swayne of and Mark Dodds of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Mark Dodds of the State University of New York at Cortland. The web address for the encyclopedia is http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book230738?siteId=sage-us&prodTypes=any&q=encyclopedia+of+sports+management+and+marketing&fs=1