Announcements

See the calendar on the right for the full schedule.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Landreville accepts University of Wyoming position


I am pleased to announce that PhD candidate and COPS member Kristen Landreville has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Wyoming. Kristen will continue with us at The Ohio State University as she finishes up her dissertation through the upcoming Winter and Spring quarters, but will then be heading out West to begin her career. Please join me in offering Kristen our best wishes. Congrats, Kristen!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Poli Comm @ AEJMC

AEJMC tweeted the following last night:

"AEJMC has also approved the creation of a Political Communication Interest Group to start in October 2010."

A sport communication interest group was also created.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

LaMarre and Landreville Manuscript Published in Mass Communication & Society

The Autumn 2009 issue of the journal Mass Communication & Society just crossed my desk. In it is an interesting paper by COPS alumnus and current University of Minnesota professor Heather LaMarre and COPS' own Kristen Landreville. Their paper, "When is Fiction as Good as Fact? Comparing the Influence of Documentary and Historical Reenactment Films on Engagement, Affect, Issue Interest, and Learning" is part of a special symposium in the issue on documentary films. Congratulations Heather and Kristen!

A Whirly MAPOR




COPS members returned from the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR) conference in Chicago this past weekend a little smarter -- and a little sore. In addition to the usual attendance at sessions and making paper presentations, some of us made a brief side trip Friday evening to play a game of "Whirlyball." I've appended a few photos below; in the photos are Kim Rios Morrison, Elizabeth Stoycheff, Whitney Walther, Katie Benski, and Ivan Dylko; other attendees were COPS members John Tchernev, Kyle Messer, and myself. Everyone had lots of fun playing Whirlyball -- despite issues of whiplash! Also, Ivan Dylko made an important impact with his presentation -- generating a posting on the Media Convergence blog acknowledging his contribution.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Hayes and Myers podcast from Boston University

COPS members Andrew Hayes and Teresa Myers were interviewed last week by Boston University's Jim Shanahan (Professor of Communication) about their two recent studies on war casualties and public opinion. The podcast can be listened to online or downloaded from iTunes. Click here.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Nov. 23: U.S. Census Bureau director to address Faculty Club gathering

Robert M. Groves, director, U.S. Census Bureau will deliver "An Overview of the 2010 Decennial Census" from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Monday (11/23) at the Faculty Club Grand Lounge. President Gee will introduce Groves, who will speak briefly about the upcoming census, then take questions from the audience. The reception is open to the community, and is presented by the Initiative in Population Research and the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. Light refreshments will be served. Read more: http://ipr.osu.edu/announcements/events/

Thursday, November 19, 2009

COPS Faculty panelists on "Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age"

Two COPS faculty, Dr. Michael McCluskey and Dr. Osei Appiah, are panelists for "Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age," a symposium being held at the OSU Moritz School of Law on Friday, November 20th. The symposium is sponsored by Literacy Studies at OSU and will discuss the Report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in Democracy (see www.knightcomm.org for more information). Dr. McCluskey will be on a panel discussing "Maximizing the Availability of Relevant and Credible Information" and Dr. Appiah will be on a panel focused on "Enhancing the Information Capacity of Individuals."

Monday, November 16, 2009


COPS members head northwest to Chicago this week to attend the Midwestern Association for Public Opinion Research meeting. Those who attend the conference will see us bring the same kind of enthusiasm and excitement to Chicago as we brought to Ohio Stadium this weekend. Pictured here are COPS members Tucker Gordner (O), Chip Eveland (H), Andrew Hayes (I), and John Tchernev (O) after OSU beats Iowa to secure an invitation to the 2010 Rose Bowl.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

OSU - Iowa Bet is On



COPS members, the stakes for the OSU - Iowa game this weekend just got bigger. Not only will this game determine whether OSU or Iowa will represent the Big 10 in the Rose Bowl, but there is also public humiliation (or at least embarrassment) on the line. Please see above the wager I've made with friend Julie Andsager, Professor at the University of Iowa. In short, the loser must wear some team apparel of the winning team during a MAPOR presentation, and photos will be taken and publicly displayed. Since I have absolutely no desire to wear Iowa gear next week, please devote all your cognitive engergy to support a Buckeye win on Satursday. GO BUCKS! P.S. Here's a link to Dhavan Shah of UW-Madison wearing an OSU cap to teach his class after losing a similar bet a few years ago.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Congratulations to COPS Alum Fei "Chris" Shen

After defending his dissertation proposal about this time last year, Chris Shen submitted a revised theory paper based upon it to Communication Theory. After some revisions, the manuscript was accepted and is now published. Congratulations, Chris! The manuscript is:

Shen, F. (2009). An economic theory of political communication effects: How the economy conditions political learning. Communication Theory, 19(4).

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Mershon Center grants

The Mershon Center for International Security Studies is currently accepting applications for grants for faculty and student research pertinent to international security. For details, see http://mershoncenter.osu.edu/grants/grants/grants.htm

Friday, October 16, 2009

COPS Scholars In the News: Andrew Hayes and Teresa Myers

COPS members Andrew Hayes and Teresa Myers have two forthcoming papers examining the "casualty hypothesis" and support for war in Iraq, one in Mass Communication and Society and the other in International Journal of Public Opinion Research. OSU has put out a press release/announcement (see below) about their interesting and timely research.

Deaths to local soldiers matter in shaping war opinion
Americans think locally when they consider whether the loss of U.S. troops overseas warrants troop withdrawals, suggests a new nationwide study, co-authored by Andrew Hayes, associate professor of communication and Teresa Myers, a graduate student in communication at Ohio State. Researchers found that people were more likely to support withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq if one or more soldiers from their home state were killed there within the past two to three weeks, regardless of how many soldiers from other parts of the country had been killed recently. Read more: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/casualties.htm. They were recently interviewed by WOSU about this research. You can listen to the WOSU news report and interview online.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Cameo on The Colbert Report for Heather LaMarre

The Colbert Report played a quick MSNBC clip of Heather LaMarre (recent OSU PhD grad and assistant professor at the University of Minnesota) describing a study about ambiguous message processing and satire.

Michael Beam and I co-authored the study with her, which earned Heather an interview with Keith Olbermann on May 1, 2009 (the interview that the Colbert Report is using in this clip).

The clip is comparing Glenn Beck to Stephen Colbert and their sincerity of opinion. Heather's cameo is about 3:30 minutes into the clip. Congrats to Heather for making the Colbert Report!

Link: http://tinyurl.com/ygkhfjo

NSF funding for Political Science

Sen. Coburn (R-OK) has proposed an amendment to eliminate NSF’s political science program. Although the American Political Science Association (APSA) has not issued a formal statement on the issue at this time, the organization has created a page were you can learn more about the proposal: http://www.apsanet.org/content_67297.cfm. For his part, Sen. Coburn has released several documents explaining his motivation for drafting the measure, one of which can be found here: http://bit.ly/2osqCR.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

COPS email list

If you'd like to receive COPS emails, including copies of blog posts, you can now subscribe to the COPS email list. To subscribe, send an email as follows:

To: listserver@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: [anything]
Message text: "subscribe osucops Firstname Lastname"

The quotes around the text aren't required, and the name that you type in the message text will be used to identify you to other list members.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Communication Idol


Apparently three COPS faculty are viewed by the graduate students in an odd, pop-culture manner. Hayes, Holbert and Eveland are seen as three American (or Communication) Idol judges when evaluating and commenting on student presentations in the meetings. Hayes is Simon, Holbert is Paula, and Eveland is Randy. Thanks to Greg Hoplamazian for his excellent Photoshop skills in constructing this group photo of us... :-)

Myiah Hively Takes Not One, but TWO Top Student Paper Awards at AEJMC

I'm thrilled to share with you that Myiah Hively has won not only the top student paper award in the Mass Communication & Society division for this year's AEJMC conference, but also the top student paper award (i.e., Chaffee-McLeod Award) in the Communication Theory & Methodology division. Terrific work Myiah!

This, combined with the Dylko et al. paper winning a top-3 paper award in the communication technology (CTEC) division and Nori Comello winning a top-3 paper in the CT&M division (giving us 2 of the 3 student paper awards in CT&M this year), means OSU is taking a large bulk of the student paper awards from the relevant divisions this year.

I should also note that this is the third year in a row that a COPS student has won the top paper award in the MC&S division; Chris Shen won the top student paper award in that division two years ago, then a top-3 paper award in the division last year. Heather LaMarre, Kristen Landreville, and Michael Beam won the top student paper in that division last year, so we had 2 out of the three winners in MC&S last year just as we have 2 of the top three papers in CT&M this year.

So, congratulations to Myiah and all the others who worked hard and produced some terrific papers! We are all very proud of you.

Oh, and by the way, Myiah, Ivan, and Nori will all be on the academic job market this year, so their paper awards are well timed!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Grad Students Earn AEJMC Top 3 Student Paper Award

Four COPS graduate students, Ivan Dylko, Kristen Landreville, Michael Beam, and Nick Geidner, were notified recently that they received a Top 3 Student Paper Award from the Communication Technology Division (CTEC) of the AEJMC. The award-winning paper is entitled, "Gatekeeping and YouTube: News Filters and the Intermedia Dynamic in the Age of User-Generated Content." This paper will be presented in August at the annual meeting of the AEJMC in Boston, MA. Congrats to these graduate students for their fine scholarship. Well done!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Colbert Study reported on by Huffington Post, Keith Olbermann

COPS members,

Check it out - the LaMarre, Landreville, and Beam IJPP study on The Colbert Report is being reported on by The Huffington Post (link offered below). In addition, Keith Olbermann referenced the article on his MSNBC program, Countdown (link offered below as well). Way to go Heather, Kristen, and Michael! Very exciting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/27/colbert-study-conservativ_n_191899.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbCvipi171s

Also see our own Heather LaMarre appearing on MSNBC for an interview with Keith Olbermann:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/30527340#30527340

Friday, March 27, 2009

COPS Students - IJPP Publication

OSU COPS graduate students (Heather LaMarre, Kristen Landreville, and Michael Beam) had their work, "The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report," published in the International Journal of Press/Politics. Congrats!

Reference:

LaMarre, H. L., Landreville, K. D., & Beam, M. A. (2009). The irony of satire: Political ideology and the motivation to see what you want to see in The Colbert Report. International Journal of Press/Politics, 14, 212-231.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Recent COPS Graduates Publish Lead Article in JOBEM

Recent OSU Ph.D. graduates and COPS members Lindsay Hoffman and Tiffany Thomson have the lead article in the current issue of Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Their article, based on data gathered as part of the Kids Voting Central Ohio research project, is titled "The Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents' Civic Participation: Political Efficacy as a Mediating Mechanism."

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Shen Gets Sole-Authored Comm Theory publication, job offer

Congratulations to Fei "Chris" Shen, who in the past week or so has received both an academic job offer and a sole-authored manuscript (based on the theory section of his dissertation) accepted for publication in Communication Theory ("An economic theory of political communication effects: How the economy conditions political learning"). Chris has accepted a job offer as assistant profesor at the City University of Hong Kong. Tell Chris "congrats" when you see him lurking the halls...

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

OSU COPS in Communication Research and Political Communication

The new issue of Communication Research is out, and in it 4 of the 6 articles are authored or co-authored by School of Communication faculty. Two of those four articles are particularly relevant to COPS and were written by COPS members. Lance, Heather, and Kristen co-authored the first, "Fanning the flames of a Partisan Divide: Debate Viewing, Vote Choice, and Perceptions of Vote Count Accuracy." The other is by Young Mie: "Issue Publics in the New Information Environment: Selectivity, Domain Specificity, and Extremity."

Meanwhile, over in the current issue of Political Communication -- a special issue on communication and political socialization -- we have two articles by COPS members. First, Myiah and I authored "Contextual Antecedents and Political Consequences of Adolescent Political Discussion, Discussion Elaboration, and Network Diversity." And, Carroll Glynn, Mike Huge, and Carole Lunney authored "The Influence of Perceived Social Norms on College Students' Intention to Vote."

Congrats to all the COPS members keeping our journals full of interesting and high quality research!

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

OSU School of Communication Ranks Highly in Current CIOS Study

I thought I'd share the current rankings through the quantitative CIOS study for areas relevant to the COPS group. We rank in the Top Five in the following research areas, based on this study using data on journal publications: Political Elections, News, Newspapers, Technology, Methodology, Theory, and Public Opinion. In fact, we're ranked #1 for Broadcasting & Media. Way to go COPS members for publishing your work and putting us up so high in the rankings! If you're interested in seeing the sorts of publications that led to this ranking, just view our list of COPS member publications.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Myers, Hayes, win separate ICA paper awards

COPS Ph.D. student Teresa Myers has again won a top student paper prize, this time in the Political Communication division of the International Communication Association 2009. Her paper is titled "Communication and Foreign Policy Opinions: Attention to News, Policy Framing, and Willingness to Engage." At about the same time, I learned that a paper I submitted to the Information Systems division of ICA 2009 with Joerg Matthes of the University of Zurich, "A Primer for Communication Researchers on Probing Interactions in Linear Models, with SPSS and SAS Implementations" placed in the top 4 of that division as well.