A Successful AEJMC

I wanted to express my pride in our COPS graduate students who attended AEJMC this year. In addition to the #1 student paper by Heather LaMarre, Kristen Landreville and Michael Beam and the #2 student paper by Fei "Chris" Shen (both in the Mass Communication & Society division), a number of excellent papers were presented by our students. Moreover, I know that our COPS PhD students who are on the job market this year -- Heather, Chris, and S. J. Min -- all made favorable impressions with faculty at the various schools that were recruiting at AEJMC. So, congratulations to all of you who were there and presenting -- and let's keep the momentum going!

Oh, and a shout out to Osei Appiah, who not only presented a Top Three paper in the Communication Theory & Methodology division (with Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick), but also pledged his allegiance to the COPS group during the presentation. Go Osei!

Reineke completes Ph.D.

Jason Reineke succussfully defended his dissertation this week, ending his 5 year stretch in our graduate program (2 as an M.A. student, and 3 as a Ph.D. student). With the choice between faculty positions in Washington DC and Murfreesboro TN made earlier this year, Jason now heads south to Middle Tennessee State University as a faculty member in the School of Journalism and Associate Director of the MTSU Poll run out of the College of Mass Communication. The next COPS members to hit the job market (this Fall) are Fei "Chris" Shen, Seong Jae "SJ" Min, and Heather LaMarre.

COPS students dominate MCS division of AEJMC 2008

I just received word that four COPS students have won paper prizes in the Mass Communication and Society division of AEJMC at this year's conference in Chicago. First, COPS Ph.D. student collaborators Heather LaMarre, Michael Beam, and Kristen Landreville are taking the top student paper prize with their submission "The Irony of Satire: People See What They Want to See in The Colbert Report." As if this weren't enough good news, Ph.D. student Fei "Chris" Shen will be receiving the second place prize with his submission "Staying Alive: The Impact of Media Momentum on Candidacy Attrition in the 1980-2004 Primaries." I'm sure you remember that Chris won top student paper prize last year in the same division. With their work, COPS members can claim six consecutive years of top paper prizes at AEJMC. This kind of reminds me of MAPOR 2005, when two COPS students took the top 2 slots in the MAPOR Fellows student paper competition. (Incidently, two OSU faculty members, Osei Appiah and Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, are receiving a top 3 paper prize in the Communication Theory and Methodology division this year as well).

Hively wins Emery award

Congratulations to Myiah Hively for winning the School of Communication's Walter B. Emery Memorial Scholarship this year. This award goes to an early-career graduate student in the program with an outstanding record of research accomplishment.

Fall 2008 Grad Course Offerings

We have three graduate courses offered in the Fall 2008 quarter that are likely to be of tremendous interest to COPS members: Statistical Moderation and Mediation Analysis (COMM 801, Hayes), Interpersonal Discussion and Politics (COMM 930, Eveland), and Mass Communication, Affect, and Emotion (COMM 940, Knobloch-Westerwick). Check out the course descriptions via the School's homepage. Enroll today!

COPS to Welcome Professor George Marcus of Williams College for Research Talk

Professor George Marcus (Ph.D., Northwestern University), Department of Political Science at Williams College, will be visiting the OSU campus to give a research presentation entitled, “From Neuroscience to Politics: Discovering a Hidden Geography and the Way We Navigate.” The talk will take place on May 2, 2008 at 11:00 AM in Room 360 of the Journalism Building on The Ohio State University campus.

Professor Marcus is an expert on the study of affect and politics. Some of his recent books on the subject include the following:

Neuman, W. R., Marcus, G. E., Crigler, A., & MacKuen, M. (2007). The affect effect: Dynamics of emotion in political thinking and behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Marcus, G. E. (2002). The sentimental citizen: Emotion and democratic politics. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.

Marcus, G. E., Neuman, W. R., & MacKuen, M. (2000). Affective intelligence and political judgment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

If you would like more information on this event, please feel free to contact Professor Lance Holbert, Department of Communication at The Ohio State University, at holbert.27@osu.edu or at 614-247-7644.

COPS student publishes in IJP/P

Congratulations to Fei "Chris" Shen, who recently had a paper accepted for publication in a late 2008 issue of the International Journal of Press/Politics (formerly the "Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics"). This study examines media contributions to the attrition of political candidates during Presidential primaries.

Shen, F. (in press). “Staying alive”: The impact of media momentum on candidacy attrition in the 1980-2004 primaries. The International Journal of Press/Politics.

European visitor to OSU and COPS this summer

I just received word from Jorg Matthes, currently at the University of Zurich, that he received funding from the Swiss NSF to come to OSU for a two month visit in July and August. When here, he plans on initiating various collaborations involving COPS faculty and students while taking in the Columbus scene. Feel free to get in touch with Jorg at j.matthes@ipmz.uzh.ch. Here is a link to his web page, where you can find a list of his recent publications in such places as Communication Research, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Communication Methods and Measures, and the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, among others.

Madyson Burgess Joins OSU

I'm happy to report that yesterday I received word that Madyson Burgess, an honors undergraduate here at OSU, has accepted our admission offer and will be staying here for our MA program come the fall. Madyson has interests in survey research methods, political communication, and communication technologies. Welcome Madyson!

Welcoming Megan Hill to COPS

I spoke with Megan Hill Saturday morning and I'm very happy to let everyone know that she has told me she'll be joining us in the Ph.D. prorgram at OSU (and in COPS) in the fall. Please welcome her -- she can be reached at meghill2@gmail.com

Tchernev chooses OSU

I am happy to be able to report the addition of another future COPS member. After receiving several graduate school admissions offers, John Tchernev has chosen OSU for his Ph.D. study. John comes to us from Northwestern University, where he completed his B.A. A few years out of college, John returns to academics after spending time in LA as a freelance writer. Please join me in welcoming John.

New Course from Law School

Normally, students in the Graduate School are unable to take courses offered by the Law School. However, a special arrangement has been made so that grad students can take a course being offered by law professor and prominent e-Democracy scholar Peter Shane next winter (2009) quarter. The course will emphasize the role of the Internet in democracy. You can learn more about Peter Shane here, and do get in touch with him if you think you'll want to take his course. Keep this in mind if you have an interest in this topic...

Political Theory Talk

The Political Theory Workshop is pleased to announce a talk by Simone Chambers of the University of Toronto who will be speaking on:

"Rhetoric and the Public Sphere: Has Deliberative Democracy Abandoned Mass Democracy?"

Professor Chambers is a distinguished scholar of political theory and
public law. She has held various positions at Harvard, Colorado,
Princeton, and the University of Munich. She has made foundational
contributions to the study of deliberative democratic theory, democracy
and the media, and theories of civil society. More recently, Prof.
Chambers has been interested in the role of religion in public
discourse, as well as practical tensions arising within deliberative
democracy's institutional manifestations.

Please join us on Friday, April 11 at 3:30pm in Derby 2130 for what promises to be a very interesting talk, with a reception to follow.

New COPS Members

I'm happy to announce the first wave of new COPS members for next year. We have learned that Ja-Yeon ("Janey") Lee (lee.jayeon@gmail.com), who is currently completing her MA degree at the University of Texas-Austin, will be joining our PhD program in the fall. She is interested in political communication and new technologies. Jim Collier (wrcpem@columbus.rr.com), currently earning his BA here at OSU, will be joining the MA program, with interests in political communication. I know of several more students who we will be hearing from in just a matter of days, and I'll post more as a learn more. Meanwhile, please join me in welcoming Ja-Yeon and Jim to OSU and COPS!

Interesting Link for Blog Research

Our members interested in the use of online technologies to learn about and discuss politics might be interested in this research by Microsoft (gasp!) tracking news links on blogs and the nature of the discussion of these news links by blog ideological focus. Follow the link to learn about it...

http://research.microsoft.com/projects/blews/blews.aspx