October 2015 College News

Faculty Accolades Dr. Tim England , coordinator of the Electronic Media sequence in the SJMC, was named the 2015 William H. Taft Advisor of the Year by Kappa Tau Alpha. KTA is an honorary society that recognizes and celebrates scholarship in journalism and mass communication. The award was presented in August at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in San Francisco. Assistant Professor Emily A. Ehmer will present research titled, “Learning to Stand on Their Own: Media Representations of Refugees from Burma”, on Oct. 25 at the Global Fusion Conference held at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Vanessa de M. Higgins Joyce will present her co- authored study “Netflix as a New Layer of Global Experience for Brazilian Youth,” at the Global Fusion Conference in College Station, TX. Kelly Kaufhold was asked to be one of the first scholars to submit a video brief of some of his research for SAGE Video. He wrote an encyclopedia entry for SAGE on age and social media and they asked him to submit the video, then accepted and published it. There’s more info, below, and here’s a link to the video: http://sk.sagepub.com/video/age- social-media-and-politics. Dr. Ray Niekamp took 13 students to the South Central Broadcasting conference in Dallas and Ft. Worth Oct. 2 & 3. While there, students toured television stations, production studios, and movie studios. In the conference’s student production competition, Texas State students won Grand Prize awards for Public Service Announcement and Radio News Report. In conjunction with the conference, Niekamp presented a paper to the District 5 Broadcast Education Association meeting in Ft. Worth on Oct. 3. “You Better Learn to Love It: Going Digital in Small Market Newsrooms” looked at the challenges small market TV news departments face when adapting to new digital platforms. JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION Dan Schumacher provided the voiceover for the video produced to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Higher Education Act by President Lyndon Johnson. The video will be shown as part of the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Signing of the Higher Education Act on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 on the Texas State University campus. Events Two faculty members and a student from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication presented at the Designs on eLearning Conference at the University of the Arts in London in September. SJMC Director Judy Oskam and Journalism Sequence Coordinator Kym Fox along with journalism senior Carly Porterfield presented “Global News Relay: Connecting Journalism Students Worldwide,” discussing the planning and resources involved in creating this international collaboration. The Designs on e-Learning Conference was co-chaired by Texas State Communication Design professor Claudia Roeschmann . The conference is sponsored by Texas State University, Penn State and the University of Arts London. Students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication heard from more than 50 industry leaders — many of whom are alumni — during Mass Comm Week ‘15 . Now in its 26th year, the annual event took place Oct. 19-23 at Old Main and seven other venues on the San Marcos and Round Rock campuses. Students mingled with professionals from across the U.S. and the District of Columbia at an array of sessions focusing on SJMC career tracks: advertising, electronic and digital media, journalism, and public relations. Rounding out Mass Comm Week, the SJMC Advisory Council met Thursday afternoon in the Regents Room of J.C. Kellam. Afterwards, they joined students, faculty and guest speakers for a reception in the Reed Brantley Parr Room. As a behind-the-scenes benefit, students gained practical experience by helping to promote, produce, livestream and cover the weeklong series of events. Student reporters and photographers covered sessions and posted their work to social media and the Mass Comm Week blog. http://www.txstatemcweek.com Dan Schumacher, General Manager and Faculty Advisor for KTSW FM 89.9 Paul Villagran teaching a class Jeff Davis, Kym Fox, Maia Wright, Carly Porterfield, Debbie Thorne, Judy Oskam, Angela Ausbrooks, Shelley Jackson, Claudia Roeschmann, and Grayson Lawrence at the Design on e-Learning Conference in London. Bobcat Promotions students Rey Palacios and Kristen Torrez unroll one of the Mass Comm Week prizes donated by National Geographic: a poster of its international editions featuring the cover story, “Weed: The New Science of Mari- juana.” Photo: Elizabeth Clark