Alyssa Morey Picks OSU

Alyssa Morey, a University of Wisconsin undergraduate, is the latest in the long line of students from around the country to commit to OSU and to become part of the COPS group. Alyssa has interests in media perceptions (especially the hostile media phenomenon), new technology, and political participation, among other topics. Please welcome her to our group! For now she can be reached at acmorey@wisc.edu

Teresa Myers Commits for PhD

Keeping the momentum going, I learned today that Teresa Myers, who completed her MA here in Winter quarter (Andrew Hayes adviser, Carroll Glynn committee member), will be staying on with us here at OSU/COPS for her PhD. Teresa, who was given early admission to the PhD after her first year in the MA program, has had a number of successes in research already, including a Top Three student paper at MAPOR this past fall and a forthcoming publication in Public Opinion Quarterly. Following in the footsteps of other MA students who have chosen to stay at OSU rather than leave for other programs -- including Lindsay Hoffman, Tiffany Thomson, and Jason Reineke -- it further demonstrates that the supportive yet challenging environment we offer produces both satisfaction and success. Glad to have you staying with us Teresa!

...and one more

I am happy to report that Jay Hmielowski will be joining us in the Fall of 2007 to begin his Ph.D. If you are keeping track, you will know that so far, not a single potential COPS student who visited us at the end of March has decided to go elsewhere. We credit that to not only the resources OSU and the School provide to graduate students, but also to the friendly, collaborative environment that COPS provides to all of its members and that is so apparent to all who pay us a visit. Jay comes to us from Washington State University, where he is completing his Master's degree. Please welcome Jay with a comment, or directly by email to jhmielowski@wsu.edu

COPS grows with the addition of Caryn Ragin

Please join me in welcoming Caryn Ragin, who will be joining OSU and COPS as an M.A. student beginning this Fall. Most COPS members would have met Caryn at our recent visitation day. She comes to us from Washington State University, where she did her undergraduate degree. She can be contacted at cragin_wsu@yahoo.com.

Nick Geidner commits to OSU

I am happy to report that Nick Geidner, after visiting us during our recent graduate student recruitment day, has decided to commit to OSU to pursue his Ph.D. Nick joins Laurel Gleason in the list of new COPS students who have chosen OSU, and we expect that list to grow over the next several days as more and more students realize that other institutions simply cannot match the resources and work environment OSU offers. We look forward to seeing Nick at our weekly COPS meetings and around the halls of Derby. Until he arrives at OSU, he can be contacted at ngeidner@gmail.com

What are you submitting to AEJMC?

I thought it would be interesting and useful if people responded in the comments section about what they're doing for AEJMC's deadline of April 1st. I'll start by posting in the comments first -- please join in.

AU 07 class

Welcome to the new class of graduate students. We love it here and we hope you will too. I think you will find what we already know ......you have selected the best education possible and the greatest grad students to work with :)

COPS student publishes in Public Opinion Quarterly

Congratulations to Teresa Myers for "Twenty years of public opinion about global warming" just accepted for publication in Public Opinion Quarterly. This paper was a collaborative effort between Teresa and American University professor Matthew Nisbet. Pieces such as this that track public opinion over decades tend to be well received and highly cited. This paper illustrates what our students are capable of right out of the starting gate (Teresa was a first year M.A. student when this paper was first drafted) and what can be accomplished when you immerse yourself in the kind of research culture that is OSU and COPS.

Welcoming the First New Student for AU '07 to COPS

She has already joined the COPS blog, but I wanted to give a formal welcome to Laurel Gleason as a new PhD student in the School of Communication starting in Autumn 2007. Laurel is the first of what I expect to be several students who choose OSU for graduate study. Laurel's interests lie in how individuals construct political meaning out of the information and cues the media disseminates, and how such constructed meaning relates to political engagment. Please welcome Laurel, and look here for future announcements as we receive commitments from students who will be joining us next year.

Another COPS Award Winner at ICA

In addition to the paper by Lindsay Hoffman and Tiffany Thomson on the top student paper session in the Mass Communication division at the ICA conference in San Francisco in May, I have just learned that Myiah Hively will be presenting a co-authored paper in the top faculty paper session in the Mass Communication division. Having COPS students involved in both the top student and top faculty paper sessions in Mass Communication should be no surprise, given that School of Communication at OSU has recently been ranked in the top three programs in the country in Mass Communication. Congratulations Myiah!

The COPS family grows with the addition of Dr. Kelly Garrett

COPS has grown in size again. In addition to Lance Holbert, who is joining the faculty and COPS as an Associate Professor in the Fall (see an earlier posting on this blog), the School of Communication has recently hired Kelly Garrett as an Assistant Professor. Kelly is a 2005 graduate of the University of Michigan's School of Information and 2006 winner of NCA's prestigious G. R. Miller Outstanding Dissertation award. Kelly studies political polarization, contentious politics, and the use of information technology in the political process. He is a welcome addition to the faculty and the group, and we know he'll quickly feel at home here. Until he arrives at OSU, he can be contacted at garrettk@exchange.uci.edu. For more information, visit his web page here.

COPS Members Take Home Another Paper Award

This May COPS members Lindsay Hoffman and Tiffany Thomson will be presenting a paper in the Top Student Paper session of the Mass Communication division at the 2007 International Communication Association conference in San Francisco. Their paper was based on Wave I of the political socialization study discussed in the Dec. 29, 2006 post to this blog. Tiffany is also using other aspects of these data as part of her dissertation this year, so stay tuned for more good news to come.

Recent OSU Grad's Forthcoming Book

Some of you may be interested in this forthcoming book (should be out in February) by Juliann Cortese, a Ph.D. advisee of mine from a few years ago who is now an assistant professor at Florida State. The book is based on her dissertation, and includes some interesting extensions of our work on the implications of Web site design on learning of factual information and knowledge structure density. The content area Juliann writes about in the book is not politics, but the underlying ideas are clearly relevant to the sorts of work done by folks in COPS. It also goes to show you what may come of hard work toward a solid dissertation. You can order the book on Amazon.com here.

COPS Students to Begin National Online Data Collection

Thanks to the generosity of two COPS faculty members, Andrew Hayes and Chip Eveland, four COPS students will soon be gathering data from a national sample. Teresa Myers, Kristen Landreville, Chris Shen and Myiah Hively are using a survey software provider, Qualtrics, to collect data simultaneously on four different surveys. Teresa is gathering data examining an extension of the Extended Parallel Process Model as it relates to global warming; Kristen is examining how emotional responses to advertisements are linked to media use, issue attention, and issue knowledge; and Chris and Myiah are collaborating with Chip on two surveys that look at how to best measure media use and media's relationship to several political attitudes, knowledge and engagement. Stay tuned for the interesting findings sure to follow.

Founding COPS Member Accepts Job at SUNY-Albany

Mihye Seo, a founding student member of the COPS group and recent OSU graduate, has accepted a tenure-track job offer in the Department of Communication at the State University of New York - Albany campus. Mihye defended her dissertation on knowledge-based approaches to media priming in December 2006 with COPS faculty Eveland (adviser), Hayes and Kosicki, as well as political science professor Tom Nelson, as committee members. She has been working as a visiting assistant professor at SUNY since September 2006 and will begin as a tenure-track assistant professor in Fall 2007. Congratulations, Mihye!