UNC at AEJMC 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Ten faculty members and emeriti, 20 graduate students, two staff members and more than 40 alumni will represent the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) national convention in Washington, D.C., Aug 8-11.

The Carolina contingent will present authored or co-authored papers or research posters, receive honors, and serve as moderators, discussants and panelists.

Among Carolina’s activities at AEJMC 2013 are:

• Brendan Watson, a 2012 doctoral graduate and an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, will receive the Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award for the best dissertation in the field of mass communication research for his dissertation “Is Twitter a Counter Public? Comparing Individual and Community Forces that Shaped Local Twitter and Newspaper Coverage of the BP Oil Spill.”
• Monica Hill, director of the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association, will be recognized as the 2013 David Adams Journalism Educator of the Year by the Scholastic Journalism Division.
• Professor emeritus Jane Brown will receive the 2013 Distinguished Educator Award from the Mass Communication and Society Division.
• Doctoral student David Bockino won the MacDougall Student Paper Competition for his paper “Three Days a Week: Has a New Production Cycle Altered the Times Picayune's News Coverage?.” The award is given for the top student paper in the Newspaper and Online Division.
• Doctoral student Meredith Clark’s paper “Student News 2.0: An Ethnographic Examination” won top student paper from the Scholastic Journalism Division.
• Doctoral student Sada Reed earned top student paper honors from the Sports Communication Interest Group for her paper “What Sports Journalism Scholars Need to Know: Four Areas of Student-Athlete Privacy Invasion.”
• Robert McKeever, a 2012 doctoral graduate and an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, won first place in the open competition of the the Mass Communication and Society Division for his paper "Vicarious Experience: Experimentally Testing The Effects of Empathy For Media Characters With Severe Depression And The Intervening Role of Perceived Similarity."
• Lynette Holman, a 2010 doctoral graduate and assistant professor at Appalachian State University; Sherine El-Toukhy, a 2012 doctoral graduate and postdoctoral research associate at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health; and Associate professor Rhonda Gibson won first place faculty paper in the Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk Division for the paper “Exemplifying Risk: Contrast Versus Assimilation Effects in Risk Perception and Vaccination Intentions.”
• Edward Alwood, a 2000 doctoral graduate and a professor at Quinnipiac University, won top faculty paper from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Interest Group for his paper “Sin and Spin: The importance of Public Relations in the Early Gay Rights Movement, 1950-1974.”
• Doctoral student Lisa Barnard won second place student paper in the Mass Communication and Society Division for her paper “The Creepiness Factor: Explaining Conflicting Audience Attitudes Toward Tailored Media Content.”
• UNC had more authored papers in the Law and Policy Division than any other school. Doctoral student Elizabeth Woolery had two papers accepted by the division.
• Associate professor Andy Bechtel will lead the annual Breakfast of Editing Champions.