Hi, below is a short conference report regarding the AEJ conference in San Francisco that I attended.  Tony feel free to use for the newsletter if it’s of any help.  Just delete if you are not interested.  AEJMAC members remember to send Paul Niwa your suggestions for the new MAC website (It would be nice if we had a short bio and photo of officers first and eventually all division members).  Will someone who understands the AEJ email listserv capabilities advise the rest of us on the feasibility of our moving to that system or if it is better for the division to stay on the OU listserv Meta has created?  Thanks.  Report below.

 

E-K. Daufin, Ph.D./DPOET, President

Daufin & Associates

334.224.8052

Feel Great, Get More Energy!  Balance Your Brain with the Mars/Venus Wellness Solution.  Find Out How @

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http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin

 

 

Prof. E-K. Daufin, Ph.D.

Department of Communications

ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY

Travel Report for: The Annual Convention of

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

San Francisco, CA, August 2-5, 2006

1. Research Discussant for Refereed Research Paper Session: Tale of Three Cities: Coverage of Minorities’ Stories. All three research projects had strong merit in their exploring of important issues regarding the media coverage of pivotal social events affecting African Americans.

 “Others’ Disaster: How American Newspapers Covered Hurricane Katrina,” by Chul-joo Lee and Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., found that African Americans were consistently shown as passive and White Americans shown as active and rescuers.  The research design was excellent and researchers agreed to strengthen the social reality data to which they compared the data, as well as to explore a Western bias in the study that did not take the effect of extraordinary trauma into account.

“Black Representation During Washington’s Drug Scare of 1986: A
Case Study in Contemporary Trends in Ethnic and General Circulation Newspaper Coverage,” by Natalie Hopkinson, found that government-sponsored social scientists and law enforcement constructed the crisis in a way that racialized the problem and the press unquestioningly reflected that bias.  I suggested Hopkinson clarify her methodology and focus on each of the cases in a separate study.

“Objectivity and The Journalist’s Creed: Local Coverage of Lucille Bluford’s Fight to Enter the Missouri School of Journalism,” by Earnest Perry and Aimee Edmondson, makes a powerful historical contribution to the study of the civil rights struggle for equal opportunity in higher education, as well as tests a journalism school’s historical ability to practice what it “preaches/teaches.”  I suggested the researchers clarify their research questions, methodology and the MSJ’s role. 

2. Officer Presentation for 37th Annual Minorities and Communication Division Meeting.  I solicited 200 people to attend the meeting and almost 25% came, a phenomenal turnout.  Our membership work this year has been extraordinary also.  I conducted strategic nominations for members who wanted to run for AEJ national leadership roles.  Many from this effort won nomination and subsequently, national office.  I sought out our Gulf Coast members affected by Hurricane Katrina.  Former Xavier University student Rayna Andrews luckily had a non-university email address so I was able to contact her.  I purposely posted our initial message volley to the whole listserv so that the membership would know her needs quickly.  Novelist and Prof. Trevy McDonald came to the rescue, negotiating special enrollment, room, board and books for Rayna at Trevy’s own alma mater.  A testament to that assistance and Andrew’s resilience, Rayna graduated on time this spring with McDonald in attendance! Joy Mayape located 2 MAC officer evacuees.

3.  At the general meeting I spoke for a resolution to end unethical and illegal media use by the Bush Administration.  I spoke against a diversity resolution in protest of language that excludes women of color.  AEJ president and past president said they could not change this language so many women of color find offensive because it was part of a very old resolution.  What if media professionals said they had to keep using “the N-word” because they always had?  Other important sessions I will discuss upon request.