Departmental News
Bowen Receives "Top 3" Paper Award; Maryland@IPRRC
Assistant professor Shannon A. Bowen has received a prestigious "Top 3" paper award designation at the Institute for Public Relations Research Conference, held in Miami, Florida, March 6-9, 2008.
Bowen's essay is entitled "What public relations practitioners tell us regarding dominant coalition access and gaining
membership." By combining 32 interviews with public relations
executives, four focus groups, and open ended responses from a larger survey of communicators,
Bowen's study determined the main routes to the dominant coalition, in the order of apparent
effectiveness found in these data: organizational crisis, ethical dilemma, credibility gained over
time, issue high on the media agenda, and leadership. She received $1000 at the IPRRC Awards & Recognition Luncheon at the Conference.
Also presenting research at the IPRRC are Associate Professor Linda Aldoory and Professor & Chair Elizabeth Toth. Their research, co-authored with colleagues from the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama, is entitled "Provocations in public relations: A study of gendered ideologies of power-influence in practice." This research project draws from three extensive data sets to explore how female and male
public relations practitioners define, perceive and enact power-influence. Findings suggest that
perceptions of power are articulated as gendered identities, which constrain practitioners’
perceptions about doing the right things that the practice is called to produce.
Among the UM alumni presenting at the IPRRC are Lan Ni, Bey-Ling Sha, Leah Simone Tuite, and Mark Van Dyke.
