Carol Ann Bassett

CAROL ANN BASSETT'S essay on Mount Mazama was published this summer in the anthology, The Mountain Reader: A Nature Conservancy Book (Lyons Press 2000). A similar version of the essay will appear in the anthology, American Nature Writing 2001 (OSU Press), due out in February.

MARK BLAINE is currently working on a book titled Whitewater!, to be published by Black Dog & Leventhal in summer 2001. The book is a basic technique guide for novices interested in whitewater rafting, kayaking and canoeing. It will also include profiles of 30 whitewater rivers worldwide.

BRETT CAMPBELL has begun writing Northwest arts features covering area events for The Wall Street Journal.

PAM CYTRYNBAUM conducted several workshops on race, gender and class in the media for more than 250 high school students in the Chicago metropolitan area.

CHARLIE FRAZER attended the International Advertising Association World Conference in London in June. The conference featured industry leaders and commentators from Martin Sorrell to M.T. Rainey, Nicholas Negroponte to Tim Berners-Lee, Francis Fukuyama to Germaine Greer. Frazer also presented a paper at the International Advertising Educators World Conference in Miami in October. The paper, coauthored with Prof. Kim Sheehan (SOJC) and Prof. Charles Patti, Queensland University of Technology, compared the integration of message elements in print advertising and Web sites between the U.S. and Australia.

JULIANNE NETWON'S book, The Burden of Visual Truth: The Role of Photojournalism in Mediating Reality, an analysis of the role of visual reportage in the evolution of our understanding of ourselves, others, and the world, was published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, as part of LEA's communication series. Newton also was one of a select group of reviewers from around the United States invited to initiate PhotoAmericas 2000, an international photography festival held in Portland in October. One of Newton’s photographs was selected for the cover of the inaugural issue of Feminist Media Studies, due out in March 2001. The new peer-reviewed journal will provide an international, transdisciplinary forum for leading feminist scholarship in media and communication. It is published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Ltd., United Kingdom.

SCOTT MAIER was elected vice chair and program head of the newspaper division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Debra Merskin

DEBRA MERSKIN, acting associate dean for fall and winter terms, attended the International Communications Association annual conference in June in Acapulco, Mexico and presented papers that included “Winnebagos, Cherokees, Apaches, and Dakotas: Persistence of Stereotyping of American Indians in Advertising Brands” and “The Construction of the Sexualityof Native American Women in Popular Culture.” Merskin presented a paper called “Trauma-Rama: Confession Columns in Teen Girl Magazines” on a panel at the National Communication Association annual conference in Seattle. She is currently working on a textbook tentatively titled “Mediated Communications in a Diverse Society” with Wadsworth Publishing.

DAN MILLER'S J421 and 521 students took a field trip to Oregon Historical Society and Oregon Public Broadcasting in October. At OPB they presented proposals to Tom Doggett, the vice-president of Programming at OPB, in a round-table session. After a tour of the facilities, there was a presentation and discussion exploring the educational Web site created for the upcoming 13-part PBS series on people of ethics and courage, entitled “Lives in Bold.” As part of the class, students are considering the issues of parallel production for television and the Web in the documentaries they are producing.

STEVE PONDER presented on a panel at the annual conference of the American Journalism Historians Association in Pittsburgh in October. His presentation focused on reform journalism in the Progressive Period prior to World War I on the panel, “The prehistory of public journalism,” which discussed the origins of contemporary debate. His book, Managing the Press: Origins of the Media Presidency, 1897-1933, was published by St. Martin’s Press in September.

JOHN RUSSIAL presented a paper, “Pagination and the Copyeditor: Have Things Changed?” at the AEJMC convention in Phoenix in August. He also was a panelist in a convention session titled “The Nonlinear Challenge: Teaching of Editing in a New Media World.” He organized and moderated “A Discussion About Pagination,” a session at the America Copy Editors Society annual meeting, Sept. 14-16 in Baltimore. His article, “How Digital Imaging Changes the Work of Photojournalists,” was published in the Summer 2000 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.

KIM SHEEHAN has completed several studies investigating the integration between print advertising and Web pages. One study, authored with Caitlin Doherty, was presented at an advertising conference earlier this year. A follow-up study, comparing U.S. and Australian Web pages, was authored with Charlie Frazer and Charles Patti from Queensland University of Technology in Australia. Sheehan is also writing a textbook on account planning research, which will be published by Sage next year.

Al Stavitsky

AL STAVITSKY served as consultant to Public Radio International last summer, critiquing PRI’s “The World” global news program, a co-production of PRTI, the BBC and WGBH, Boston. Stavitsky presented a paper on low-power FM radio at the annual meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association in Pittsburgh in October (co-authored with Robert Avery of the University of Utah and J-school doctoral student Helena Vanhala), and a paper on telecommunication policy at a conference on Public Broadcasting and the Public Interest at the University of Maine in June (co-authored by Robert Avery). His article, “By the Numbers: The Use of Ratings Data in Academic Research,” was published in the summer issue of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.

LESLIE STEEVES is awaiting the 2001 publication of her book chapter titled “Development Communication as Marketing, Collective Resistance and Spiritual Awakening: A Feminist Critique” in the 2nd edition of the Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication, edited by Bella Mody and William Gudykunst. Also forthcoming is a book chapter co-authored with doctoral student Kumi Silva titled “Communications for the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities,” appearing in the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, edited by Rashmi Luthra. Steeves is on the UO Graduate Council for this year and spent fall term on the Search Committee for Vice Provost for International Programs.

JANET WASKO'S op-ed piece “NBC, Warner Brothers Have ‘Friends’ in High Places” appeared in Newsday on June 28. She was plenary speaker for the “Power, Democracy and Communication” graduate conference sponsored by Simon Fraser University as well as for the “Rethinking Disney: Private Control, and Public Dimensions Conference” sponsored by Florida Atlantic University. Wasko presented a paper, “Studying Media Industries in an Age of Convergence,” as part of the In the Belly of the Beast panel for the International Association for Media and Communication Research conference in Singapore. Also in Singapore, Wasko delivered a lecture at Ngee Ann University “Dazzled by Disney: The Study of Disney Audiences.” Her chapter “Hooray for Hollywood: Moving into the Twenty-first Century,” is reprinted in The Film Studies Reader, edited by Hollows, Hutchings and Jancovich, Oxford University Press, 2000. Additionally, Wasko was interviewed for “Behind the Scenes: Hollywood Goes Hypercommercial,” a video produced by Media Education Foundation.

LAUREN KESSLER was a guest on “Late Night with David Letterman” on October 17. Letterman read her latest book, Los Angeles Times’ best-seller The Happy Bottom Riding Club, and, according to his producer, was “obsessed with it.” Kessler also delivered the fall lecture in Oregon State University’s Convocations and Lectures series, on the topic of women who take risks and the price they pay for living boldly. She was a featured presenter at Northwest Bookfest, Seattle’s book fair, and appeared at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers convention in Portland. This fall, Kessler talked about her book and writing to audiences at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, a local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, River Road Seniors and a third grade class. She is currently at work on a new book, Queen Spy, about a Vassar-educated woman who became the leader of the two biggest Soviet espionage rings in America.