Mass Communication Department News
UNC Asheville to Host High School Media Career Workshop
Future journalists from area high schools can hone their skills and meet media experts at UNC Asheville's Media Career Workshop on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Registration is now open for students and teachers from across Western North Carolina. The cost is $10 per person, which includes lunch. Check-in for the Media Career Workshop begins at 9 a.m. in UNC Asheville's Highsmith University Union, Alumni Hall. Workshops last from 10 a.m-2:30 p.m. and will take place in UNC Asheville's Highsmith University Union, Mountain Suites. Media professionals from the Asheville Citizen-Times, WLOS-TV and Mountain Xpress will discuss photography, broadcasting and online news reporting during the daylong event. The Media Career Workshop is organized annually by UNC Asheville's Mass Communication Department in cooperation with the N.C. Scholastic Media Association based at UNC Chapel Hill's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
For more information, call Michael Gouge, UNC Asheville Mass Communication lecturer at 828/232-2423.
West a finalist in international note-taking competition
Posted 8/26/09. Mark West was recently a finalist in a note-taking competition held by Moleskine of Asia. The competition sought note-taking methods which provided "new and exciting" methods of organization, creativity, or productivity. West's note-taking system, which was modeled after the methods described by John Locke and Jeremias Drexel in the 1600s, was entered in the 'organization' category. The information West used in devising his note-taking system came from John Locke, "Nouvelle Méthode pour dresser des recueils," Bibliothèque universelle et historique de l'année 1686, vol. 2 (Amsterdam, 1687), pp. 315-39, and Jeremias Drexel, Aurifodina artium et scientiarum omnium (Antwerp, 1638), pp. 68-69, and was influenced by the historical research of Ann Blair. Moleskine is the manufacturer of traditional European notebooks, of the sort used by artists and writers such as Picasso, Matisse and Hemingway, and is owned by the French banking and investment group Société Générale.
Mass Communciation Students celebrate upcoming graduation
Posted 5/1/09. Mass Communication students and faculty gathered in the Laurel Forum to honor graduating seniors Thursday, April 30. Departmental Distinctions were announced, portfolos and showreels were displayed, and pizza, cake and punch were consumed. Jennifer Saylor photographed the event. Her pictures are here.
Leonard Pitts, Pulitzer Prize Winning Columnist meets Mass Communciation Students
Posted 4/27/09. Pulitzer prize-winning columnist and author Leonard Pitts, Jr. offered candid opinions and thoughts on diversity and
the important role education plays in championing diversity as a strength of our workforce, our community and our country.
Presented Wednesday, April 22 at 7 pm by the Asheville Citizen-Times, Mission Hospital’s Diversity Committee and UNC-Asheville, Department of Mass Communication. Mr. Pitts also made met with about 20 Mass Communication students on Wednesday afternoon in the offices of The Banner for a question and answer session.
Pictures from the event are here
Posted 4/2/09
Two Mass Communication seniors have unearthed new details about the unsolved 1973 murder of Lawrence "Smiley" Logan, a 35-year-old black man, as part of a class project.
The students began writing a series of investigative journalism articles for Michael Gouge's Public Affairs Journalism class earlier this semester about the cold case. Since then, they have interviewed several material witnesses in the case, visited the actual crime scene, and received permission from the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office to view the case file and crime scene photos. Sheriff's Lt. Ross Dillingham opened his files to the students in January, and their work offers investigators some new leads to explore in the cold case.
The students continue to refine their articles and plan to publish the work at the conclusion of the semester.
MCOM 421 Public Affairs Journalism is a capstone course for mass communication majors in which students explore a social issue or problem by reporting on various non-profit or governmental agencies. Other student projects include articles on such topics as the environment, drug abuse, childhood obesity, sex crimes, police brutality, city government, K-12 education, economic development, and others. Many of the pieces appeared in recent issues of The Blue Banner, the university's student newspaper.
Posted 3/30/09
Anne Slatton is directing a play called Eve-olution, written by by Hilary Illick & Jennifer Krier, at 35 Below (under ACT). The play focuses on women's issues, but it's a play that has relevance for both men and women. Alison and Liza are navigating the channels of motherhood as they take a revealing and sometimes comedic look at the balancing act of promise and compromise. Both women test the vision of who they think they are, who they wish to be, and ultimately who they become as individuals, as mothers, as professionals and as members of their families. The play will run April 2 - 25, 2009, Thursday - Saturday nights at 8:00 pm.
Posted 3/30/09
Mark West has been asked to lead a course in computer content analysis at the 2009 annual meeting of the Southern Association of Putlic Opinion Research. The day-long course will cover topics such as the construction of reverse thesauri, the application of content analyses to survey data, and the use of data mining in textual data analysis.
Posted 3/30/09
Mark West is on leave for the Spring 2009 academic semester. He is working on a manuscript dealing with the theoretical aspects of communication and globalization, employing the theoretical insights of Antonio Gramsci and Max Weber. West has been resident in La Marsa, Tunisia and Paris during part of his sabbatical, where he has interviewed theoreticians such as Hele Beji, author of "Desenchantement national: Essai sur la decolonisation."
Posted 3/22/09
North Carolina filmmaker William Olsen will be presenting his feature film "Southern Belles" at 7:00 PM on Thursday, April 2, 2009 in 012 Karpen Hall on the UNCA campus. A conversation with Olsen will follow the screening. This event is free and open to the public. The movies of independent filmmaker William Olsen have been seen by audiences worldwide, distributed by CBS/FOX Video, Showtime, Troma Entertainment, The Movie Channel, USA Network, and VCI Entertainment. 50th Street Films, Inc. of New York distributes “Southern Belles." Olsen produced two DVDs for Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer. Olsen teaches screenwriting courses and workshops across the South, and critiques screenplays for the North Carolina Writers Network. This event is sponsored by the UNCA Cultural and Special Events Committee and the Department of Mass Communication
Posted 3/20/09
Don Diefenbach was interviewed recently for an Apple Learning Fellowship profiling Departments using HD video technology. The project, produced by John Woody of James Madison University, focusses on the integration of HD video into current Mass Communication curricula. Here's a link to the video.
Posted 3/12/09
Sonya Miller, currently completing her PhD at The Pennsylvania State University, will join UNCA this fall. Miller brings fifteen years experience in the public relations field and solid teaching experience to UNCA's Mass Communication Program. Sonya will teach Media, Ethics and Society, Public Relations, PR Workshop, and will develop a new Senior Seminar for the Mass Communication Department's Commercial Media concentration.
Posted 12/4/08
Paul Dezendorf was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for teaching and research during 2009-2010 at one of the top three public administration programs in Russia, the State University-Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He has been invited to present courses on local government, human resources, and public relations for local governments. His award came in part from his previous work in Russia helping schools develop public administration programs.
Posted 12/1/08
Applications are no longer being accepted for the position of assistant professor in the Mass Communication department. New positions will be announced here as they arise..
Posted 10/31/08
UNC Asheville's Mass Communication Department hosted an afternoon with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Frank Pierson at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, at UNC Asheville's Humanities Lecture Hall. The event was co-sponsored by the Asheville Film Festival, which honored Pierson's life work November 6-9. Pierson co-wrote Cool Hand Luke and Dog Day Afternoon, which were both nominated for Academy Awards, and was twice President of the Writers Guild of America (West).
Posted 10/31/08
Professor Mark West was a plenary speakers at the 2008 International Conference on the Book in Washington, DC. West's paper, co-authored with Catherine J. West of Converse College, dealt with the psychology of modes of reading and was entitled "The Book in the Internet Age: Toward a Medieval Model of Reading?" A second paper, co-authored by West, was presented at the conference and dealt with the autobiographical impulse in the works of Jacques Derrida and Helene Cixous.
Posted 10/10/08
Professor Anne Statton, along with her upper level field production students, has completed post-production on a 30 minute comedy short called Dances With Cats. The mockumentary film, written and produced by Slatton, explores the mysterious and strange world of cat dancing. A public screening for the completed project was held in the Highsmith Union in September. The film has been submitted to the Cleveland Film Festival, Houston World Fest and other comedy short festivals across the nation. Click here to view the trailer.
Posted 10/3/08
Assistant Professor Patricia Baldwin recently attended the national convention of the Association for Women in Communications in Washington, D.C. She has been a member of the national board of the organization since January 2008. Highlighting the convention was the presentation of the organization's International Matrix Award to Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN and a visit to the Newseum, a 250,000-square-foot museum of news located in downtown Washington, D.C.
Posted 9/5/08
Mark West, a professor in the Mass Communication department, is presenting a paper entitled "Modeling the 'Scary World' and its Outcomes" at the Southern Association of Public Opinion Research annual meeting in Raleigh, N.C. in October. West, as a graduate student, was present at the first meeting of SAPOR in the 1980s, and has served as program chair, discussant, and juror for the organization.
Posted 9/5/08
The Mass Communication Department has posted a job description for a faculty position. The person hired would begin teaching in the department in Fall of 2009. Potential applicants for this tenure-track position are invited to examine the job description here.
Posted 9/2/08
Mark West, a professor in the department, is publishing an article in the forthcoming annual "International Journal of Diversity in Communities, Organizations and Nations."
The article, entitled "Communicative Competence and Iterativity: Linkages between Diversity and Subjectivity," deals with theoretical approaches to diversity from a neo-Aristotelian communication theoretic perspective.
Posted 8/22/08
Patricia Baldwin won third place in a competition for Best Practices in the Teaching of Information Gathering sponsored by the Elected Standing Committee on Teaching of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
She presented her submission, entitled "A Case Study: Mysteries Versus Puzzles in Information Gathering," at a session Aug. 6, 2008, during AEJMC's national convention in Chicago.
Posted 7/11/08
Alan Hantz, chair of the mass communication department, recently exhibited his photographs in two one-man shows in regional exhibitions.
The show in Sylva was at the Spring Street Gallery, while the show in Asheville was in UNCA's Blowers Gallery in D. H. Ramsey Library.
Posted 3/19/08
Several mass communication students from University of North Carolina Asheville recently learned business skills at a workshop forum held in Charlotte.
"We got to talk to people who were professionals in the news broadcast industry," said Heather Thompson, a 22-year-old senior and crew member of Mountain Highlight at University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA). "They taught us that you have to have an internship if you want to get a job in mass communication."
The event, held on February 9 at WCNC studios in Charlotte, was organized by local chapters of the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA). It is a biannual event that gives students in the area a chance to experience hands-on techniques utilized in electronic journalism. RTNDA is the world's largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism, according to their website.
"Any chance you have to talk to professionals who have experience in the industry is helpful," said Elizabeth Pearson-McLaughlin, a 19-year-old mass communication student at UNCA.
Pearson-McLaughlin and other crew members from Mountain Highlights news program at UNCA took the opportunity to increase their knowledge of techniques within electronic journalism.
Students received information from various experienced businessmen in journalism. Many other schools attended the seminar. The workshops were completely free of charge and provided an opportunity for networking and to ask questions.
"I noticed a lot of kids staying afterwards and doing networking," said Serena Lee, 21, a senior mass communication student
According to their website, RTNDA was founded in 1946 and is "dedicated to setting standards for news gathering and reporting." First Amendment rights, Freedom of Information issues and ethics are some of their greatest concerns. They feel that their members help shape the profession.
"They had us fill out a survey at the end of it that asked if the seminar really worked for us," said Lee. "They told us that you have to get into the job, be an intern, and study the person you are working alongside. Ask questions and get involved."