Vol. 35, No. 2 -- Summer 2000
In this issue:
Phoenix Convention Preview
Other Division News
HOT TIME Planned in Phoenix
What could be better than London in springtime? How about Phoenix in August.... I'm in the middle of London in the 400-acre Regent's Park with my 21 students, exploring the world of European public relations. We've had visits from wonderful public relations practitioners from such places as Hilton International Hotels and the BBC. The only disappointment is that the Queen has not had time to talk with us. She doesn't know what she is missing. Of course, she's busy with her mum's 100th birthday celebration plans.Our division's "celebration" plans for Phoenix are also sizzlers. The wonderful slate of panels, papers and events (including the pre-conference seminar) are designed to ignite that teaching spirit we will all need when the conference is done and we return to our classrooms full of bright and shiny faces. In addition, hearing the research paper winners should inspire you to pursue that research agenda with a new passion during the next year.
In addition to all of the academic heat generated, getting to meet new colleagues and greeting old friends is always a pleasure. After all, we are all in this business together. And the first 80 of us to pre-register for the Edelman luncheon will get together on Friday during the convention.
This is also an opportunity for you to think about service to the division as an officer. Keeping up the excellent work of this division is no easy task, but it is a rewarding one. We need good people to volunteer for the myriad of duties ranging from research and teaching paper chairs (thanks, Ken Plowman and Shannon Bowen) to fundraising for the Roschwalb and Kaiser awards (thanks, Linda Aldoory and Katherine Kinnick). Think about it. There might be something just for you.
See you in Phoenix -- where the efforts of our division's program chair, Pam Bourland-Davis, and Vice Head-Elect William Thompson will certainly impress you.
Barbara DeSanto
Oklahoma State
Division Head
Research papers
Forty faculty and student research papers were submitted to the PR Division this year. With five sessions to fill, we accepted 21 papers or 53 percent of those submitted.
Kenneth Plowman, San Jose State University, chaired the review of research papers. The Arthur W. Page Society provides cash awards for faculty research, and PRSA sponsors awards for student research. These papers test, refine and critically review issues relevant to public relations theory and research, and they explore methods of effective public relations practice.
Shannon Bowen (who is on her way from the University of Maryland to Auburn with a new Ph.D.) chaired the review of public relations teaching papers, with cash prizes sponsored by IABC. Papers focus on values in curriculum choices, adapting the classroom instructor to changes in educational trends, faculty development, diversity issues, ideas for motivating students, creative approaches to teaching, assessing student outcomes, and preparing students for lifelong learning.
The AEJMC convention is the first forum for each of the selected papers.
Pamela Bourland-Davis
Georgia Southern University
4 Things to Remember
While you're packing for the conference, there's always something you forget. Here are four things to remember on the way to Phoenix.
1) A good seat cushion
You'll need one to last through the PR Division's programming marathon, which makes the AEJMC conference one of the most useful conventions for PR professors. Among the 10 panels will be ones providing a public relations take on cyber privacy, diffusion research, student assessment and school violence. That's in addition to four research sessions.
2) Your ideas for next year
Helping plan the conference has been one of the most fun experiences I've had. Imagine the power. You say to yourself: I'd like to hear the nation's top experts talk about "fill in the blank." You call them, they commit, and you get to sit back and listen and learn. If you'd like to feel the power, come to the conference with your ideas.
3) Your volunteer spirit
There are other ways that you can contribute to the PR Division, help meet a lot of great colleagues and contribute to your own career. Just check out the "leadership" page on the division's website for some of your choices.
4) A vision of your future
The conference also offers some of the best person-to-person contacts to build your career or to build your department. AEJMC's job placement service lets individuals review files on position openings, while schools may review vitas and schedule preliminary interviews at the conference with individuals seeking positions. The placement application deadline is June 30. You can review more details by visiting the PR Division's website and click through to the "PR Division Convention News."
William Thompson
University of Louisville
AEJMC Buddies
You've "encouraged" your graduate students to write papers, "encouraged" them to write their theses and dissertations, and "encouraged" them to spend days in the library. What's one more thing you can do to help their careers -- and one that they might actually enjoy?
I'd suggest encouraging them to enroll in the Buddy Program at the AEJMC National Conference. The program, which matches a graduate student with one or more faculty members from other universities, is a useful networking and informational opportunity for your students. It's a way for them to get wired into the convention. And, if last year's faculty buddies are any indication, they'll get personally acquainted with some of the names they would recognize from their textbooks: Broom, Kruckeberg, Newsom, VanSlyke Turk and Wilcox.
The reviews from 1999's student participants were enthusiastic. "From my experience, it was a complete success! [I] had great conversations with my two buddies, who also put me in touch with others I need to know for my research and the job search."
Another student echoed the sentiment. "[I] was introduced to other key people for both research and teaching employment opportunities. The networking opportunity is outstanding."
It's a fun and valuable opportunity for faculty members, too. According to the faculty evaluations of the Buddy Program, I wasn't the only professor who, in the midst of a very pleasant conversation with my student buddy, got a comprehensive literature review on research that was important to me.
Both you and your students can enroll in the Buddy Program, which is
administered by Linda Aldoory via the PRD website,
While many are employed by universities that pay huge salaries, some
less fortunate faculty may have made a wrong choice somewhere in life.
Now you may find yourself being punished for a childhood infraction
involving the family cat and your mother's carpet shampooer by being
employed by a university that is not so generous. To those faculty, I
dedicate this budget travelers guide to the AEJMC National Conference.
CONVENTION REGISTRATION: Registering for the convention prior to July 7
will save you $40. If you have colleagues who are considering coming to
the conference, advise them to become AEJMC members when they register.
Their memberships will cost $85, and they'll get an $85 discount on
their registration fees. So they'll get into the conference for the same
price, plus get the association's five publications and directory for a
whole year.
AIRLINE TRAVEL: The association's two convention airline partners,
Continental and Delta, will provide a 10-percent discount off their
lowest unrestricted coach fares. Buy your ticket 60 days prior to your
flight date (or about June 8), and you'll get an extra 5 percent off
your fare.
HOTEL ACCOMMODATION: While convention sessions will be held at both the
Hyatt Regency and the Crowne Plaza, you'll come out ahead staying at the
Crowne Plaza. The daily single room is $15 cheaper at the Crowne Plaza
than if you stay at the Hyatt, and it is $25 cheaper per day if you are
booking a double, triple or quad occupancy. Deadline is July 6.
FOOD: I've never gone through the entire conference without paying for
a meal. I'm not saying it can't be done. I just haven't done it. But
there's a lot of free food waiting for the convention-goer who has
decided to discard his or her dignity.
Breakfast? Every morning that the exhibitors are displaying, you'll
find pastry and coffee in the exhibit hall.
Lunch? It's a bigger challenge. The best bet: The PR Division's Friday
luncheon. If it is like past years,
you'll hear a nationally prominent speaker and enjoy an elegant sit-down
meal in one of the city's poshest settings. And it's free, courtesy of
Edelman.
Dinner? Plan now to meet the right people, specifically people who
graduated from the universities that sponsor receptions. If you've got
to know people anyway, isn't it best to know people from Michigan State
or Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois or Missouri? They generally seem
like nice people, and they've gone to universities that sponsor
receptions. Is there any better recommendation for a friend? And by
wearing loose-fitting, multi-pocketed clothes, it's usually possible to
take enough food to solve those troublesome lunch menus, too.
YOUR EARLY BUDGET STRATEGY? Visit the AEJMC web site
to get discount codes, telephone numbers and registration information.
Then I'l see you at the convention. Just don't stand between me and the
cheese plate.
William Thompson
Jim Grunig, University of Maryland, was the head researcher for the IABC Excellence study, has authored hundreds of articles, and wrote the popular textbook, Managing Public Relations, with Todd Hunt. In that text, Grunig and Hunt presented the four models of public relations, and Grunig began his landmark contribution of symmetrical theory. The Journal of Public Relations Research was also the brainchild of Jim Grunig, along with wife, Lauri Grunig, and the team co-edited the journal for a number of years.
The Deutschmann Award is not presented every year, but only as earned by the nominees of the most outstanding merit. John Pavlik, chair of the Standing Committee on Research, will present the award to Jim Grunig on Saturday, August 12. A distinguished panel of speakers will relate their thoughts. Speakers will include Judy VanSlyke Turk, Mel Sharpe, Dean Kruckeberg, Don Stacks, Kathleen Kelly, Glen Broom, and Grunig's nominator, Shannon Bowen.
Gruning was nominated by then Ph.D. candidate Bowen in 1999 because of what she saw as his "unparalled contribution to public relations theory."
Grunig is only the second public relations scholar, after his mentor, Scott Cutlip, to be selected for the Deutschmann Award. The division should be proud of this prestigious honor. Plan on attending the celebration!
Shannon Bowen
The Phoenix 2000 Public Relations Division line-up includes a variety of members -- long-standing and new, faculty and student, as well as practitioners. If you're relatively new to the division, here are the ways to be part of the Washington, D.C. convention in 2001.
First, propose a panel. Panel calls will be due to William Thompson, incoming vice chair, in October. Generally, 10 to 12 panels are suggested from our division. From these, PRD must find co-sponsors or we agree to co-sponsor a session program proposed by another division (e.g. the International Division proposed the Everett Rogers diffusion panel). Panels generally fill our Professional Freedom and Responsibility recommendations set by AEJMC, but they can also have a research or teaching focus. Members can also submit pre-convention workshop suggestions.
Once the panels have been determined at the mid-winter meeting in December, the vice chair contacts those who have proposed to organize panels. Panelists are selected and names submitted to national by mid-March. On occasion another name may be submitted if a panelist is unable to attend, but generally panels are completed by this time.
The next way to get on a panel is to submit research and/or teaching papers. If presenting a particular teaching approach, you will more likely receive favorable reviews if you can address theory and evaluation of the approach. Remember that all research papers are available through AEJMC. So, if you've never submitted before, you can order copies for a minimal charge as examples. The paper call is the first of April, and the results are due to national by mid-May.
The final way to be part of the D.C. convention is to get involved in the division. Let current officers know of your interest, attend the PRD business meeting, and consider showing up at the 7 a.m. Executive Board meeting on Friday, August 10.
The PR Division's website is a valuable online resource for educators ?
your gateway to PR education. Bookmark it today at
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~aejmcpr.
The site lists complete details on the Phoenix
convention, including links to local tourist information. Look for
last-minute announcements and program changes, too.
Other key resources include:
Kirk Hallahan
William Thompson
University of Louisville
The Budget Travelers Convention Guide
University of Louisville
James E. Grunig Honored With AEJMC's
Deutschmann Award at Convention
The AEJMC Standing Committeee on Research has selectd James E. Grunig to receive the Deutschmann Award, the association's highest honor.
Auburn University
2001 in D.C.
Pamela Bourland-Davis
Georgia Southern University
Take Advantage of the PRD Web Site
Colorado State University
Posted July 3, 2000. Maintained at Colorado State University by the AEJMC Public Relations Division. Web-ster: Kirk Hallahan.
All rights reserved.