Erik Nisbet to join OSU Fall 2008

I am thrilled to be able to report that Erik Nisbet will be joining the OSU School of Communication as an assistant professor starting in the Fall of 2008. Erik is completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University and conducts research in the intersection of politics, public opinion, public policy, and international media. Erik had multiple offers from good institutions, and his decision to come to OSU reflects the many positives we offer, not the least of which is COPS. So join me in welcoming Erik!

Another MAPOR Winner This Year

Congratulations to Myiah Hively for her placement in the top two of the MAPOR Fellows Student paper competition this year. I thought this would be a good time to remind everyone that OSU has had at least one student -- but often two -- win a paper award at MAPOR conference for the past five consecutive years. To refresh your memory, here they are:

2007

Hively, M. H. (2007, November). Testing the Gamson hypothesis: The interaction between efficacy and cynicism in predicting participation and protest. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association for Public Opinion Research, Chicago, IL.

2006

Myers, T., & Goodall, C. (2006, November). Fear appeals in political communication: An examination of public opinion about social security and global warming. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association for Public Opinion Research, Chicago, IL.

2005

Hoffman, L. H. & Reineke, J. B. (2005, November). Coorientation in a public opinion context: Predicting accurate perceptions of community opinion. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association for Public Opinion Research, Chicago, IL.

Reineke, J. B. (2005, November). Doing unto others as one does unto one's self: Exploring the association between support for public censorship and self-censorship.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association for Public Opinion Research, Chicago, IL.

2004

Hoffman, L. H. (2004, November). Mobilizing information as a link to political participation: A content analysis of online and print newspapers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association for Public Opinion Research, Chicago, IL.

Huge, M. (2004, November). Measurable hesitation as a precursor to self-censorship: Replication and extension of the minority slowness effect. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association for Public Opinion Research, Chicago, IL.

2003

Hoffman, L. H. & Huge, M. E. (2003, November). Media frames of protest groups: The effects of exposure on perceived legitimacy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association for Public Opinion Research, Chicago, IL.

Fun with rivalries

There are many rivalries between universities, some based on sports, some on academics, and then some a little of both. The COPS group was pleased to be able to host a number of faculty and grad students from the University of Wisconsin last weekend. Everyone was treated to fun on High Street before and after the OSU-UW football game, and we particularly enjoyed OSU asserting its dominance on the field. As you can see in the photograph, Dhavan Shah of Wisconsin went away convinced that OSU is where it is all happening! In fact, he taught his class this week wearing this hat. More photos to come.

Stats / Methods for WI 2008 and Beyond

As you all know, among communication programs we have one of the strongest internal methods/stats training programs available in the country. First year students will be enrolling in Andrew Hayes' second level required statistics course in the Winter. And, as enrollment time comes, I wanted to remind senior students about Lance Holbert teaching the COMM 801 Structural Equation Modeling course this Winter as well. Those of you who took COMM 801 last year (with Andrew Hayes as "Advanced Linear Models") are permitted to take this course again since the topic shifts regularly.

Also, you might know that both Andrew and Lance have forthcoming books on advanced stats / methods. Andrew, in addition to his book Statistical Methods for Communication Science, and being an Associate Editor for the journal Communication Methods and Measures, has another book (co-authored with our own Mike Slater) coming out this fall called The Sage Sourcebook of Advanced Data Analysis Methods for Communication Research. Lance's book, which is in progress, is entitled Sourcebook for Political Communication Research: Methods, Measures and Analytical Techniques.

So, take advantage of the resources here (as well as in OSU's Quantitative Psychology program, our Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Survey Research headed by COPS' own Jerry Kosicki, and advanced courses in Political Science and Education as well) and become a methods and stats expert today!

COPS Alumnus on Local TV News

Recent OSU graduate and COPS alumnus Lindsay Hoffman, now an Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware, was recently interviewed by a local news station for a story on the use of YouTube by political candidates in local elections.

LaMarre Wins Criminal Justice Research Center Grant

Congratulations to Heather LaMarre! She was recently awarded a Graduate Student Research Grant in the amount of $1000 from OSU's Criminal Justice Research Center. The goal of her project "is to deepen our understanding of how adolescents learn from rap/hip hop music, as well as how the messages delivered through the music and by the artists influence adolescent opinions regarding social and political issues and at-risk behaviors (e.g., crime)."

Hoffman and Thomson Successfully Defend Their Dissertations

On consecutive days this week Lindsay Hoffman and Tiffany Thomson succussfully defended their dissertations. Both students began the program as MA students in 2002, the first year of the new graduate curriculum. This makes three COPS members who successfully defended dissertations this year (plus two MA students who successfully defended theses). Lindsay will start as an assistant professor at the University of Delaware in August.

Congrats to Andrew and Teresa

Congrats to Andrew Hayes and Teresa Myers for receiving a $2000 research grant in the open competition recently held by the Mass Communication & Society division of AEJMC. Their project will examine the interaction between state-level variation in media reports of deaths in Iraq and news attention as predictors of variations in public opinion toward the war.

Fei "Chris" Shen wins MC&S Top Student Paper Award!

I learned today that Chris Shen has won the Mass Communication & Society division of AEJMC's Top Student Paper Award. His paper, which discusses what he calls "intra-media interactions," will be presented at AEJMC in August. Congratulations Chris for helping keep our COPS streak of award-winning AEJMC papers alive for four (or is it five, Andrew) straight years!!!

Paper for my COPS presentation

Here is my paper from the recent Midwest Political Science Association meeting. I'll be discussing this during the June 1st episode of COPS. I'd be glad to receive comments.

Eveland Given 2007 Krieghbaum Under-40 Award

In the field of communication, there are a couple of awards that are given to scholars who represent the essence and spirit of scholarship and service to the field. One of those awards is the Krieghbaum Under 40 Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. I am pleased and excited to report that this year, Chip Eveland is being honored with this award at the 2007 conference in DC. This award "honors AEJMC members under 40 years of age who have shown outstanding achievement and effort in all three AEJMC areas: teaching, research and public service" (AEJMC call for nominees). Congratulations to Chip! Chip is the second COPS member to receive this award (Carroll Glynn was given this award in 1992).

Reineke Wins Comm Day Research Award

Congratulations to COPS member Jason Reineke for winning the School of Communication's Morgan Award last week during our Comm Day festivities! This award was given to Jason for his excellence in research during his time here at OSU, which includes multiple papers currently in press, three different top student paper awards, and a dozen conference papers in his four years (two M.A., two Ph.D.) with us so far. Keep up the great work Jason!

Best Published Paper in Political Communication 2006

COPS has another winner. I've just learned that the Political Communication divisions of ICA and APSA have named Young Mie Kim's recent Journal of Politics paper the 2006 top paper in political communication. This is of all papers published in the area of political communication during 2006, not just all papers submitted to these two association conferences. This is a very prestigous award. Congratulations Young Mie! You might recall that a paper co-authored by Chip Eveland won this award last year.

Here is the full reference:

Althaus, S. L., & Kim, Y. M (2006). Priming effects in complex information environments: Reassessing the impact of news discourse on presidential approval. Journal of Politics, 68, 960-976.

Grant Competition

From an email I recieved today from Diana Mutz:

SPECIAL CALL DEADLINE: July 1st, 2007

ATTENTION ALL SOCIAL SCIENTISTS AND PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCHERS:
NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR ORIGINAL DATA COLLECTION VIA TESS!

The National Science Foundation, in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, is funding opportunities for original data collection for research that has potential relevance to the concerns of DHS. Three broad substantive areas have been identified as relevant and likely avenues for research:

1. Risk communication and its effects on disaster preparedness
2. Government and individual attributions of responsibility and perceived responsiveness; and
3. Inter-group threat and cooperation

Other areas of research with relevance to terrorism, disaster preparedness, or related public health and medical issues will also be considered.

Data collection for these projects will be paid for and conducted with the assistance of Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS). As with other TESS applications, only a short, 5 page proposal is required.

TESS offers researchers opportunities to test their experimental ideas on large, diverse, randomly selected subject populations, or on specific subsamples of the population (based on geographic location, demographics, or other criteria). For more information on this special call or on TESS opportunities more generally, and for examples of TESS studies completed in the past, please visit our home page at www.ExperimentCentral.org.

PLEASE NOTE: For those with other areas of interest, TESS continues to fund data collection for survey-experimental work in all areas of the social sciences, and for graduate student and faculty investigators in all disciplines. These proposals are accepted on a rolling basis, and we will continue accepting new proposals as our funding allows.

Forum on Media and Participation

It is with some hesitancy that I post this link to a forum in Political Communication Reports (the newsletter of the ICA Political Communication division) about the link between media and participation. The hesitancy is because of self-interest, as I was a participant in the roundtable, discussing some of the research I've done with COPS members. Nonetheless, you may be interested in reading about it, so I post it here for you:

http://www.unr.edu/organizations/pcr/1702_2007_spring/roundtable.html