Departmental News
Maryland@AEJMC, 2008
UM Department of Communication faculty and graduate students will present research and participate in meetings at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication, to be held in Chicago, August 6-9, 2008.
Graduate students are presenting numerous papers at AEJMC. In the Public Relations Division panel entitled "Expanding our Horizons: Examining Concepts and Theory for Effective Public Relations," Ph.D. student Brian Smith is presenting the paper "A Need for Translation? Conceptualizing Public Relations in Spain." Another panel on International Public Relations features Ph.D. student Hongmei Shen and her paper on "Corporate Responsibility in China: The Role of Public Relations."
Smith is also presenting a research paper entitled "Becoming 'Quirky': Towards an Understanding of Practitioner and Blogger Relations in Public Relations" at a panel spotlighting graduate student PR research. And graduate student Mara Hobler is moderating/presiding over the panel entitled The State of Graduate Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
In a panel on Female Identities, Online & Offline, Ph.D. student Jennifer Vardeman, along with UM alum Natalie Tindall, is presenting a paper entitled "'If It's a Woman's Issue, I Pay Attention to It': Identity in the Heart Truth Campaign." This work has also received the Top Faculty Paper Award from the Commission on the Status of Women. The respondent for this panel is UM faculty member Linda Aldoory.
Several graduate students are also presenting research in poster sessions at AEJMC. Heather Epkins's is presenting research concerning "How National Security Reporters Make Meaning of Terrorism Information Disseminated by the U.S. Government." Ph.D. student Ai Zhang is offering her poster on "Public Relations Education in the United States: An International/Chinese Perspective," and Hongmei Shen's poster session is entitled "Corporate Social Responsibility in China: Perspectives from a Developing Country."
