AEJMC interest groups are approved by the AEJMC Board of Directors for one-year, two-year or three-year terms. These terms are renewable by the Board of Directors Petitions for renewal must be filed in a timely manner.

Interest groups are allowed programming rights during the AEJMC Conference but the number of “chips” allowed is smaller than for a division. Normally interest groups have half as many “chips” as a division. The number allowed is set by the Council of Divisions’ chair. The number for 2015-16 is 3 chips. A chip roughly equates to one conference time slot. However, co-sponsored sessions count only a half chip to each sponsoring group.

All interest group programming is done through the annual Council of Divisions Conference Planning Process. Interest groups may sponsor their own sessions and co-sponsor sessions with other interest groups or divisions. The interest groups follow the Council of Divisions Policies and Procedures, and the Policies for Reimbursement.

Interest groups must be represented at the two Council of Divisions meetings during the annual conference. Interest groups are also required to file an annual report each year and will go through the five-year assessment process. The format for the report will be provided by the AEJMC Central Office.

Current Interest Groups, 2017-2018

Participatory Journalism (2020) — established in 1994
Community Journalism (2019) — established in 2004
Entertainment Studies (2019) — established in 2000
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (2019) — established in 2003
Graduate Education (2019) — established in 1993
Internships and Careers (2019) — established in 1994
Political Communication (2019)  — established in 2010
Religion and Media (2020) — established in 1996
Small Programs (2020) — established in 1994
Sports Communication (2019)  — established in 2010

UPDATE: 6/18

1. Each interest group must plan its conference sessions using the Council of Divisions Conference Programming Process. All convention programming is done through this process. Your group must be represented at both of the Council of Divisions’ meetings at the convention.

2. Meet all deadlines for filing information for conference programming, sessions and workshops.

3. Meet all deadlines for filing official interest group reports with the AEJMC Central Office. Formats for these reports will be mailed to you by the Central Office.

4. Mail some type of newsletter to your members at least twice each year.

5. Interest groups are granted AEJMC status for a finite period of time, from one to three years. Groups seeking a renewal of interest group status must formally petition the AEJMC Board of Directors for renewal. These renewals must include the following:
• A formal statement of the mission and goals of the group;
• A list of current and incoming officers;
• What this group has accomplished thus far (include specifics);
• Why this group fills a unique niche within AEJMC; and
• Copies of the annual reports for the past two years.

6. Interest group renewal petitions will be considered at the first or second AEJMC Board of Directors meeting during the conference, depending on when the petition is filed. Ideally, the petition is filed with the Executive Director before the conference via email in early July. If not filed by early July, then one set of all the paperwork for the renewal must be filed with the Executive Director (or left at the AEJMC registration desk) by the end of the AEJMC plenary session, which occurs on the second morning of the AEJMC Conference.

If a renewal petition is filed late, it will not be considered by the Board of Directors at its second meeting, and might result in a loss of interest group status. Failure to file a renewal petition at all will result in loss of interest group status.

Current Interest Groups, 2017-2018

Participatory Journalism (2020) — established in 1994
Community Journalism (2019) — established in 2004
Entertainment Studies (2019) — established in 2000
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (2019) — established in 2003
Graduate Education (2019) — established in 1993
Internships and Careers (2019) — established in 1994
Political Communication (2019)  — established in 2010
Religion and Media (2020) — established in 1996
Small Programs (2020) — established in 1994
Sports Communication (2019)  — established in 2010

Creation of New Interest Groups

All requests for new interest groups must petition with a formal statement of the mission and goals of the group as it fits within AEJMC’s three core areas: teaching, research and public service. You also need to explain how this group would fill a unique niche within AEJMC. New interest group requests may be filed with the Executive Director as in number 6 above or by November 1 each year. Petitioners must also submit signatures (email signatures will be accepted) from at least 100 voting AEJMC members who support creation of the new group.  Since AEJMC graduate students are not voting members, their signatures do not count toward the 100 needed signatures.

New petitions will only be voted on during the Board of Directors’ Winter meeting. If approval is granted at the Winter Meeting, the organizers must get at least 75 voting AEJMC members to pay dues to the new group by the end of the next conference, in order for it to be formally created on the following October 1st. At the conference after approval the new group will be allowed to conduct a business meeting in order to establish itself and elect officers.  If there are timeslots remaining after all other groups have programmed, then the Council of Divisions’ chair may grant the incoming interest group an available timeslot for a program.

For example, if a new group petitions for interest group status by November 1, 2016, then the Board of Directors will consider the petition at its 2016 Winter meeting. If approved, the new group will have a business meeting at the August 2017 Convention, after which they must have gathered at least 75 dues-paying voting AEJMC members to join the group in order to formally become an interest group on October 1, 2017. The group would have full interest group programming rights for the 2018 Conference. Since graduate students are not voting members, their dues do not count toward the 75 dues-paying members.

UPDATE: 8/16

August 2008 to August 2013

The AEJMC membership approved the association’s first strategic plan in August 2008. During the next four years a Strategic Plan Implementation Committee, in conjunction with the AEJMC president and Board of Directors, have developed new processes and programs based on our 5 strategic directions.

The following actions and programs have resulted: [strategic direction of activity in brackets]

1. AEJMC Presidential statements — a new process empowers the president to comment on relevant public/industry issues on behalf of the association. Began in October 2009. [2,3]
2. AEJMC Emerging Scholars Program — offered competitively selected grants to junior faculty for research and teaching projects; first research grants awarded in January 2010. [1, 2, 5]
3. Membership survey on Name Change — membership overwhelmingly wanted to retain the current name, saying it still reflects who we are and what we do. [2, 5]
4. New AEJMC logo created — after an open competition for a logo failed to result in a suitable logo, AEJMC commissioned a designer to create a new logo. The new logo was approved in spring 2011, and put into use in October 2011. [2]
5. Created the AEJMC Equity & Diversity Award to recognize schools that are doing outstanding work in building diversity within their units in a variety of ways. First award presented in August 2009. [1, 2, 3, 5]
6. Re-design of AEJMC website — in 2010. [2, 5]
7. Re-design of website allowed for new tools in the AEJMC Online Ads section, resulting in more user-friendly searches. The end result has been more traffic and additional revenue. It is now the #1 entry point into the main AEJMC site, and resulted in $60,000 in revenue in FY 2010-11. [2, 3, 4, 5]
8. Development of new social media tools, including a Twitter feed (in Winter 2010) and conference mobile app (in July 2011). In 2013 Twitter feed goes to 5,700 followers. [2, 3, 5]
9. Creation of new websites — first conference micro-site for the Denver conference (in January 2010), conference site for each year since, and a separate centennial celebration website (opened in March 2012). [2, 5]
10. Created a new program for faculty to see industry changes first-hand. These summer “externships” fund a 2-week visit with various media outlets; in partnership with the Scripps Howard Foundation. Began in 2011. [1, 2, 5]
11. Created conference travel grants for graduate students. Began in 2011. [1, 2, 5]
12. Developed a new program that provides funds for faculty to develop new social media platforms and software for classroom use. These Bridge Grants provide up to $8,000 for faculty to adapt open source applications from the Knight News Challenge; program in partnership with the Knight Foundation. Grants issued in Fall 2011 and Fall 2012. [1, 2, 5]
13. Completed a Centennial Fundraising Campaign to raise money for new initiatives and current endowed accounts. Raised $301,407 by July 30, 2013 (which exceeded the goal of $300,000) — began in August 2011 to run through August 2013. About 2/3rds of the funds were targeted contributions. [4]
14. Encouraged our international outreach by continuing to support the World Journalism Education Congress initiative by hosting a planning meeting at 2012 conference for the 2013 congress. [2, 3, 5]
15. Developed a Task Force on Latino and Latin America to expand our presence and services to Latin America — began in August 2011. [2, 3, 5]
16. Developed a Task Force on Recruiting for Academic Diversity to encourage professionals of color to consider teaching — began in August 2011. The group’s first training workshop will take place in August 2012. {2,3]
17. AEJMC Online Display Ads — first display ad posted May 2012, two more ads planned for summer 2012. [4]
18. Encouraged our international outreach by supporting the International Congress on Studies of Journalism in Chile in June 2012. We also sent a delegate and membership materials to the meeting to make connections with Latin American scholars/teachers. [2, 3, 5]
19. Encouraged our international outreach by inviting (and providing comp registration) to a delegation of Brazilian communication scholars to attend the Chicago Conference. Seven scholars attended. [2, 3, 5]
20. AEJMC Senior Scholars Program — offers competitively selected grants to senior faculty for research projects; 15 senior scholars applied in fall 2012 and two grants were awarded in January 2013. [1, 2, 5]
21. AEJMC Graduate Student Information Expo — pilot program during 2013 DC conference. Provides place where potential grad students can talk with schools that offer master’s and doctorates. 22 schools will be present for the session. [2, 5]
22. AEJMC WJEC3 presence — AEJMC sent the top 3 officers and one journal editor to the Belgium meeting, & provided prize money to the top 3 research papers. [1, 2, 3]
23. AEJMC 2015 International Regional Meeting — an international regional meeting was approved in June 2013 by the AEJMC Board to take place in October 2015 in Chile. [1, 2, 3]
24. Journal abstracts in Spanish on AEJMC website — The article abstracts from the 2013 issues of J&MC Quarterly, J&C Monographs and J&MC Educator have been translated into Spanish and are posted on the website. Future issues will also be added to the site. [1, 2, 3]

<<Strategic Plan

 

 

Many thanks to Susan Keith, who not only ran the TNT21 (Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century) competition but put the award-winning entries together in a booklet (link is below the post as I don’t think it will work in this cut-and-paste from http://aejmc.us/news/). Last night, she wrote this:

Starting to think about your courses for next term? You can find inspiration in TNT21 2013: Top Submissions to Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century, a PDF booklet of the submissions  honored in the division’s teaching ideas competition. The booklet contains the three ideas that won $100 first prizes:

• Short and Tweet by Sue Burzynski Bullard, University
  of Nebraska-Lincoln, winner in the full-time faculty division
• Today’s Journalist Challenge: Write Better, Adapt Faster, Promote Smarter by Ioana Coman, University of Tennessee, winner in the graduate-student division
• Impact Journalism: Learning from Real-World Public Service Reporting Cases by Roy Harris, who has taught at Emerson College, winner in the adjunct division

The book also includes seven teaching ideas from entrants who received second- and third-place honors and honorable mentions:

• ProWatch: Critically Thinking about Reporters’ Work by Carla J. Kimbrough, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Many Eyewitnesses … but Did They See the Same Thing? by Robin Blom, who submitted the idea as a Ph.D. student at Michigan State but took a faculty position in fall 2013 at Ball State University
• The Red Line Project: Teaching in the 21st Century by Mike Reilley, DePaul University
• The Amazing Twitter List Race by Michelle Carr Hassler,
  University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Storify and Twitter for Reporting and Curating a Meeting Story by Michael Fuhlhage, Auburn University
• Editors as Curators: Using New Tools to Deliver News by Sue Burzynski Bullard, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Talking all at Once: Managing Simultaneous Face-to-Face and Online Discussions by Jennifer Brannock Cox, Salisbury University

Here’s the direct link to the booklet:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3465807/TNT21.2013.booklet.pdf

So, okay, everyone. Use these and start thinking up entries for 2014!

<<Teaching Resources

Transformation Involves Collaboration

By Charles Davis
Standing Committee on Teaching
Dean, Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Georgia
cndavis@uga.edu

 

(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, September 2013 issue)

As a newly minted dean, I’ve been on a steep learning curve, one that has me energized and excited as never before. I’m spending a ton of time listening to faculty, students, staff and alums of the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia – and the process serves to remind me anew of how critical the teaching mission of our program remains and of the challenges and opportunities of journalism education in the digital era.

The transformation of our disciplines, fueled by the difficult economic environment and the changes roiling the industries we partner with, offer tremendous opportunities for positive change, but only if we all remain open to experimentation, collaboration and yes, the occasional spectacular failure. It’s awfully hard to embrace risk-taking in today’s mass media environment, but that’s what we must do to remain relevant and take a more central role in the reshaping of our disciplines.

For the past three years, I worked half time for the Provost of the University of Missouri in a unique interdisciplinary program, Mizzou Advantage. My job title was simple yet evocative: Facilitator. My charge was to explore opportunities to cross disciplines and find external partners for the university to work with. The job was enormously rewarding, and served to provide me with an eye-opening realization. The way forward for journalism education, at least in part, must involve interdisciplinary and external collaboration like never before.

The steps we took towards building an interdisciplinary culture started simply enough. We convened forums for anyone interested in digital media, mass communication, from technologists to empiricists. The turnout was heartening, the conversations stimulating, and from those early efforts, a call for interdisciplinary research proposals generated a number of multidisciplinary teams working on all sorts of fascinating topics, from digital archives to opportunistic discovery of information and communicating science.

Meanwhile, I fanned out across the state, the region and the nation, touring corporate headquarters and labs, attending workshops and seminars and spreading the word that Mizzou sought partnerships and collaborative projects. Bring us your research questions, I said, asking corporate and government leaders to think of things that keep them up at night.

We began seeing new teams of researchers emerge from such disparate disciplines as engineering, law, art, English, Life Sciences and many, many more. Once the culture began to   grow, it seemed like everyone had a research question to explore!

Interdisciplinary collaboration begins beyond the classroom,     but quickly begins to influence pedagogy in new and exciting ways. At one of our social gatherings to encourage interdisciplinary networking, a young orthopedic surgeon approached me with an idea to head off ACL injuries in young girls. His grasp of the literature was encyclopedic, and he knew what he wanted to do, but he needed the help of an engineer and some digital journalists to explore it further. I pulled together a team, and now a class is working on designing an interactive video game platform to retrain female athletes in proper jumping kinesiology. This is interdisciplinary research and teaching at its best, presenting students with real-world problems in need of solutions.

It’s happening at Grady College as well. Just last week I sat at Turner Entertainment Networks, watching some amazing student presentations from our Advertising and Public Relations students who had been tasked with creating a promotional campaign for a new TBS show set to launch in the fall. I watched, delighted, as Turner execs took furious notes as the students outlined their innovative social media campaign ideas.

For the last two weeks, Grady health and medical journalism   students have been featured in the Athens Banner-Herald. A team of journalists went to Reno, Nevada, to report on a unique health insurance cooperative being replicated in Athens. The coverage, nuanced and rich with personal detail, brought the subject to life.

Students presented with professional opportunities like these are changed forever. They excel, and by doing so, they work collaboratively with professionals. I’m confident that we’ll seek even deeper and more profound collaborations, inside and outside of our walls, because the energy of these projects is contagious.

Take the first steps towards becoming an interdisciplinary teacher. They can be small steps, but each is important and each leads to another. Perhaps you start by seeking a collaborative project with another department on campus. Or it could be something as small as lining up guest speakers from other parts of campus who can lend a fresh perspective. Warning: once you start, it will be hard to stop!

<<Teaching Corner