Communication Theory and Methodology Division
The CT&M Division accepts original research papers that advance the literature in mass communication theory, research methods, or both. CT&M welcomes both conceptual and data-based papers and is open to all methodological approaches. Please refer to the Summer 2012 CTM Concepts Division newsletter for a complete list of topics and papers presented last year to get a better idea of the potential “fit” of your paper (http://aejmc.net/ctm/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/CTMConcepts_summer2012.pdf). Recent CT&M papers include research in political communication, health communication, environmental communication, computer-mediated communication, international communication, and broader media effects.
Papers submitted to CT&M can be submitted to the open-call competition or the student paper competition. Winners of all awards will be recognized in the convention program and/or at the CT&M members’ meeting in Chicago.
In addition to the open-call and student competitions, CT&M recognizes the top theoretical submission to the division each year. A theory paper may extend what is known about the current workings of a theory by including a data analysis section, or strictly extend the current theory literature without including data. The abstract of the award-winning piece by our inaugural winner, Nori Comello, can be viewed at http://aejmc.net/ctm/awards/top-theory-paper/. To be considered for the top theory paper, you must type “Theory Paper Competition” in the upper right-hand corner of first page of text. Papers submitted in the top theory paper competition will also be considered for awards in the open-call and student competitions, as applicable .
We strongly encourage submissions by students. Winners of the Chaffee-McLeod Award for Top Student Paper will be awarded $250; two additional top student papers will also receive cash prizes. To be considered for the student paper competition, all authors must be students, and the author(s) must type “Student Paper Competition” in the upper right-hand corner of first page of text.
Please limit papers to no more than 25-pages (double-spaced) in length, excluding tables and references. Papers should follow APA style, have 1-inch margins, and use 12 point Times New Roman font. Please limit papers to a total of 35 pages total (including text, tables, and references). Please refer to the AEJMC general paper call for this year’s online submission guidelines. Please make sure there is no identifying information in the body of the paper or in the document properties. Co-authors cannot be added after a paper has been reviewed. At least one author of an accepted faculty paper must attend the conference to present the paper. If student authors cannot be present, they must make arrangements for the paper to be presented by someone else. Failure to be present or provide a presenter for any paper will result in a one-year ban on the review of papers for all of the authors involved. Authors of accepted papers are required to forward papers to discussants and moderators prior to the conference.
If you have any questions, you can direct them to the research co-chairs Mike Schmierbach () and Myiah Hutchens (myiahhutchens@ email.arizona.edu).
Communication Technology Division
The Communication Technology Division encourages research submissions where the central focus is technology and changes in the communication process resulting from technology. The division welcomes theoretical and conceptual papers and a diversity of methodological approaches.
Student Papers: Papers solely authored by students are especially encouraged and are eligible to be entered for the Jung-Sook Lee Student Paper competition. The Jung-Sook Lee Award recognizes the best student paper, which makes “a substantial contribution to the substance or method on a topic related to communication technology and policy.” The award honors the division’s 1997-1998 research chair, Jung-Sook Lee of the University of Southwestern Louisiana, who died soon after the Baltimore conference in 1998. Authors of the top three student papers will receive a cash award. In addition, the author of the best student paper will have his or her conference registration fee paid by the division. For a paper to be considered for this award, all of the authors must be undergraduate or graduate students enrolled during the 2012-2013 academic year. Authors must type “Jung-Sook Lee Competition” in the upper-right corner of the first page of text to be considered for the award.
Faculty Papers: The division is happy to present the second annual Gene Burd Top Faculty Research Paper Award, made possible by the generosity of Prof. Burd from the University of Texas – Austin. The $1,000 award recognizes the best faculty paper submitted to the division. For a paper to be considered for this award, at least one of the authors must be faculty. Authors must type “Gene Burd Competition” in the upper-right corner of the first page of text to be considered for the award.
Winners of both awards will receive their prize and be recognized at the Washington, D.C., conference. Submissions that do not win recognition in the Jung-Sook Lee Award or the Gene Burd Award are still considered for acceptance along with open competition submissions.
Open Competition: All other papers submitted to the division will be reviewed in an open competition. Please limit papers to no more than 25 pages (double-spaced) in length, excluding tables and references. If you have any questions or require more information about the submission process, please contact Amanda Sturgill, CTEC research chair at
Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk Division
The Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk Division invites paper submissions that represent original research related to science, health, environment, risk, technology, and other topics relevant to the communication of scientific information to the general public or specific populations.
ComSHER welcomes papers that follow any disciplinary approaches and all methodological orientations, both quantitative and qualitative.
To acknowledge research excellence, ComSHER offers the $1,000 Eason Prize for the top student paper, which is the largest paper award given to graduate students at AEJMC. Students competing for top student paper and the accompanying $1,000 Eason Prize will be judged together with other ComSHER faculty submissions. The Eason Prize is awarded in memory of former University of Texas doctoral candidate Lori Eason (1957-2002). Papers competing for the Eason Prize cannot be co-authored with faculty, and authors must identify their submission as an Eason Prize entry on the cover page.
In any one year, an individual can appear as author or co-author on a maximum of two (2) submitted research papers. If one individual appears as author or co-author on more than two (2) submitted research papers, the ComSHER Executive Committee will have the right to disqualify some or all of the papers in question from the research competition.
All accepted papers must be presented by a listed author, unless approved in advance by the Executive Committee. Failure to appear to present can result in author(s) losing eligibility to submit to the Division for one year.
Paper submissions should follow the AEJMC Uniform Paper Call Guidelines (no more than 25 pages of double-spaced text, plus references, tables, figures, and appendices). Before uploading your paper, remove all author identification from the document, including any file properties. Direct questions to Research Chair Liz Gardner at or 806-834-0928.
Advertising Division
The AEJMC Advertising Division invites submissions of original papers that clearly focus on some aspect of advertising or advertising education. Various theoretical orientations and methodological approaches are welcome. Individual paper submissions should not exceed 30 pages (including all notes, references, tables, and figures) and should be submitted to only one competitive paper category in the Advertising Division: 1) Advertising Research, 2) Advertising Teaching, 3) Professional Freedom & Responsibility, 4) Special Topics, or 5) Student Papers. Papers exceeding 30 pages, or papers submitted to more than one paper competition within the division, will not be reviewed for consideration. In 2013, the Advertising Division would like to encourage submissions to the PF&R competition of papers dealing with all aspects of professional competencies and development within the advertising industry.
Research Papers: Submissions should be consistent with the style and format of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly or the Journal of Advertising. For questions, please contact Karen Mallia, Research Paper Chair, University of South Carolina. E-mail: . Tel: (803) 777-1154.
Teaching Papers: Teaching papers are invited on any research that addresses teaching: innovations, effective approaches, pedagogy, survey of the field, adoption of new technologies in the classroom, etc. However, keep in mind this competition is for research papers on teaching, rather than teaching tips or personal reflections. The style and format of the paper should conform to those in the Journal of Advertising Education or Journalism & Mass Communication Educator. Papers submitted to the teaching competition will be considered for review by the Journal of Advertising Education. For questions, please contact Troy Elias, Teaching Paper Chair, University of Florida. E-mail: . Tel: (352) 392-5059.
Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R) Papers: Often referred to as the conscience of AEJMC, the goal of PF&R papers is to extend knowledge about and understanding of gender, race, ethics, social, and cultural influences; values; and free expression. Submissions may take the form of traditional research papers, but essays or critical analyses are also welcome. Historical as well as contemporary topics are appropriate. Often papers submitted to the research and teaching competitions would nicely fit into the PF&R category as well. This year the Ad Division had just one paper submission in the PF&R category. We’d like to see more! Examples of advertising topics related to the PF&R mission could include papers about food and tobacco advertising which address ethical issues; and minority representations in advertising content as well as participation in the advertising business, which ties into the racial, gender, and cultural inclusiveness mission of PF&R. For questions, please contact Heidi Hennink-Kaminski, PF&R Paper Chair, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. E-mail: . Tel: (919 962.2555).
Special Topics Papers: The special topics paper competition is a place for pioneering subjects, methods, and presentations. New approaches, innovation, and creativity are encouraged. A variety of advertising and advertising education topics are welcome. For example, we live in times of unprecedented technological innovation. This technological revolution has created new platforms for the communication of brand messages; it has accelerated the globalization of brands and audience segments; it has changed the way people consume media and the way consumers interact with one another; and it has changed the way we teach and do research in advertising. Papers which focus on the challenges posed by these recent transformations to the practice of advertising are especially welcome. We also welcome exploratory and qualitative approaches, such as case histories, ethnographies, critical studies, visual essays, and methodologically innovative research on more traditional topics. Empirical research, critical reviews and conceptual pieces can be submitted. Submissions must be full papers (no abstracts or extended abstracts). To be considered, the papers should be maximum 30 pages in length (double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman or equivalent font, including tables and references) and should conform to the Chicago or APA style. If you have any questions regarding the fit of your paper with this competition, or any other inquiries, please contact George Anghelcev, Special Topics Paper Chair, Penn State University. E-mail: . Tel: (814) 865-4354.
Student Papers: Graduate and undergraduate students are invited to submit original research dealing with any advertising-related topic. All sole- or co-authors of these papers must be students; papers co-authored by students and faculty should be submitted to the Research Paper competition. The style and format of the paper should conform to those in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly or the Journal of Advertising. A cash award from the division and an additional award ($200) sponsored by the International Journal of Advertising will be given during the Washington conference to the top student paper. For questions, please contact Sela Sar, Student Paper Chair, Iowa State University. E-mail: . Tel: (515) 294-0503.
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Incorporating Websites and Blogs into Your Curriculum
By Chris Roush
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, January 2013 issue)
If you enjoy teaching—and I have to believe that many of you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be in this racket—then you’re constantly tinkering with what you do every semester.
For me, it started with changing assignments and exams every semester. But with the rapidly changing world of journalism and mass communication, I soon realized that wasn’t enough.
So, in 2005, I began experimenting with using blogs and websites in my teaching strategies. In the past seven years, I have found that they can be effective ways to disseminate information to my students. And I’ve also found that students enjoy reading them and learning from them.
This is not teaching online. And this is not teaching students how to blog or build their own websites. This is using online technology to further the learning experience that you’re trying to achieve in the classroom.
Here are three examples of how I’m using blogging and websites to communicate information to my students:
(1) In the fall of 2005, I started a blog called Talking Biz News. Originally, it was for members of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. I began posting news and other information about business journalism that I thought would be interesting to business journalists.
But the blog soon morphed into something else when I began requiring my Business Reporting students to read Talking Biz News on a regular basis. The postings became topics of discussion for class, as well as a way for students to keep up-to-date on what was going on in this special area of journalism that they were studying.
I used an old-school teaching method—pop quizzes on blog material—to ensure that students were actually reading. The Talking Biz News experience convinced me that I was on to something.
(2) So the next year, I took material from a book I was writing and hired an undergraduate student to help build a website on the history of business journalism. That website, bizjournalismhistory.org, is now a critical part of how I teach another class, called Business and the Media.
On this website, I’ve posted interviews I’ve conducted with famous business journalists of the past 50 years. Before a class lecture, I’ll ask my students to read these interviews and be prepared to discuss how the journalists answered specific questions or handled specific topics. It leads to a broader understanding of the concepts that we’re discussing in class.
Sure, I could also use Skype to bring these people into the classroom for an interactive discussion, but with the interview online, it eliminates the hassle of lining up a convenient time to do the call. And the information is always available for students to go back and review when exam time comes around.
(3) I’m now tinkering with a third website, www.collegebizjournalism.org, that I’m using to help my business journalism students—as well as others on other campuses—find internships and jobs. I’ve yet to figure out how to connect it to a class, but I send out announcements of new items on that site to my students so that they know to go there for information on internships. That way, they’re all not bombarding me with how and where to apply.
I’m sure these are not the only ways to use the Internet to expand the classroom learning experience. If you’ve got others that you’ve tried and want to share, send me an email at ; I’ll write about them in a future column.
Contributing to AEJMC
Support the Future of Journalism and Mass Communication
We appreciate our active AEJMC members. Your involvement in the association, and your support of our programs and projects are very important to the growth of AEJMC.
As you consider giving opportunities, I hope you will consider a donation to AEJMC. Any level of contribution is appreciated.
Member donations have been critical to the development of some of our most recent programs including:
- The Institute for Diverse Leadership in Journalism and Mass Communication, which encourages people of color and women to consider administration
- Senior Scholar Research Grants, which pays scholars to support research projects
- Scholarsourcing, which helps AEJMC members interested in writing a book connect to a book publisher
- News Engagement Day, which takes place each October and encourages people to engage with news in any medium
You may donate online or mail your check to AEJMC, 234 Outlet Pointe Blvd, Suite A, Columbia, SC 29210-5667.
AEJMC is a 501(c) (3) association and donations are tax deductible up to the level allowed by the IRS. You will receive a written acknowledgement of all donations.
Thank you for choosing to support your organization. AEJMC has so many wonderful programs and opportunities for its members. You may submit donations to AEJMC awards and special projects using our online secure form. Accepted credit cards are DISCOVER®, MASTERCARD®, VISA®, and AMERICAN EXPRESS®.
Contact AEJMC if you have inquiries concerning your gift.
AEJMC Publications Committee
Duties and Responsibilities of Publications Committee Members:
- The Publications Committee is responsible for the oversight of the three association-wide journals: Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator and Journalism and Communication Monographs.
- Members participate in two face-to-face meetings each year. One during the annual conference and the other at the AEJMC December meeting.
- The committee’s responsibilities include working with current editors during their terms to ensure the highest possible standards for the journals as well as developing plans to encourage quality submissions.
- When editor terms are up, the committee is responsible for issuing a call for applicants and then evaluating applications. The process normally involves interviews with promising candidates.
- The committee will monitor, along with the AEJMC Board, the new publishing process with Sage Publications.
- The committee also explores, and recommends, new publication needs for the association.
- Committee terms are for three years.
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Social Media Tips: Tweet up with your colleagues
By Amy Falkner
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
Twitter: amyfalkner
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, November 2012 issue)
A recent article in Fortune lamented that universities are failing miserably at equipping students with the social media skills demanded by today’s jobs. Are we?
I don’t believe we are a total #fail. But there is definitely room for improvement. And if you don’t know what that symbol means before the word fail, you should keep reading. If you know it’s called a hashtag, then please help your colleagues understand why it’s important to be active on social media and use it in your classroom.
Here are some tidbits from that article, which trended No. 1 on CNN.com after its release in late September:
• Job postings requiring social media skills rose 87% from 2011 to 2012, topping 13,000 in one month alone earlier this year.
• Among Fortune 500 companies, 73% now have Twitter accounts and 66% have Facebook pages.
• Among 2,100 companies surveyed by the Harvard Business Review, only 12% of those using social media feel they use it effectively.
Hello students. Meet opportunity.
This means we have to prepare our students differently for a constantly changing media landscape. At the AEJMC conference the past two years, I taught sessions on using Twitter effectively in the classroom during the “Doctors Are In” sessions, sponsored by the Teaching Committee. I was overrun with interested faculty members. Some were just starting out; others came to offer their own helpful hints. It was very energizing.
I didn’t understand the attraction of Twitter myself a few years ago. When I was laid up from a surgery, I said ‘I am going to learn how to do this damn thing.’ And I did. It took a few days and that was it. If you are new to Twitter, this is a great place to start: www.mashable.com/guidebook/twitter. Today, I don’t spend ions of time to collect thousands of followers, but I do find it incredibly useful in getting news fast, staying on top of my industry, and seeing collectively what the nation is talking about.
I will focus on Twitter here because this is where I see the growth and it’s actually easy to incorporate into your class. Facebook is the behemoth of social media sites with 864 million users worldwide, but your students know it well and are actually moving onto other things. I teach advertising, so it is important that my students understand how brands use Facebook (universally, not well). But that’s an easy lesson. It’s actually the first assignment in my advertising media class.
Twitter is where there is a bigger knowledge gap — both for students and faculty. The older you are, the more likely you are to be on Facebook. The average age of a Facebook user is 40.5, according to June 2012 data from DoubleClick Ad Planner, now part of Google.
Twitter is a different story and there is a disconnect in our age group (“our” meaning typical faculty). According to the Pew Research Center, Twitter has 176 million users worldwide; 40 million in the U.S. That’s 15% of Internet users and its user base is getting younger. This is where your students are getting their news. The percent of users within each age group starts with a high of 26% for 18-29 and decreases as age increases, to 4% participation among those 65+.
I encourage you to buck the trend. I will tell you that as the associate dean of academic affairs, I regularly track what percentage of my faculty is on Twitter, and what percentage are active within the last 30 days. I check their Klout scores (Klout is a measure of social media influence). If I am trying to deliver a curriculum that infuses digital and social media skills usage across disciplines then I need faculty who walk the walk.
And, I am happy to report, I do. In fact, so much that I learn from them constantly. Your best resource to learn new things is your colleagues. Newhouse recently hired a professor specifically to teach courses on social media, Dr. William Ward. This isn’t really a shameless plug (well, sort of) but he has a great website that can help you get started and get lots of material for your class at www.dr4ward.com. Multiple faculty members have taken a workshop with him; we train ourselves all the time. Our students take a class called “Social Media U Need 2 Know” from him and it is always at its cap. And they are getting jobs based on what they are learning.
This is happening across our curriculum. Our goal, as it likely is for your school, is to insure our students are job ready. Some sample Twitter assignments across disciplines are part of the “Doctors Are In” pdf on the AEJMC web site under the Teaching Resources link, as well as award-winning examples in the “Best Practices in Teaching Writing Across Media” booklet from this year’s conference. (Shameless plug for the Teaching Committee). Seriously, there is great stuff there. Check it out.
I have found the easiest way to get students to see the ease, fun and potential benefits of Twitter is to require them to tweet during a live event that attracts millions of people, something that is bound to be a national water cooler conversation. We just did this for the Emmys. Fortunately for us, Audi was the promoted tweet for both #Emmy and #Emmys, which means it ran at the top of the search results for those two hashtags the entire show. And when the kid from Modern Family was driven to the Emmys with his mom in an Audi, my lesson on social TV was complete. And really, everyone can find something clever to say about Sophia Vergara in 140 characters or less. See…you just thought of it. It’s that easy.
Holmes, Ryan. (Sept. 26, 2012). Universities are failing at teaching social media. In Fortune Tech. Retrieved Sept. 30, 2012, from http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/26/universities-are-failing-at-teaching-social-media/?iid=SF_F_River.
