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Valenti School weekly update 11.25.14

ARTHUR SANTANA’s research about anonymous, online comments was featured in a Washington Post blog:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/11/21/the-case-against-comments/

SUZANNE BUCK participated in a KUHF-FM Houston Matters' radio segment on November 21 about how to improve communication between generations.
http://www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-b/2014/11/21/how-to-improve-communication-between-generations

Valenti School intern Cassidy Sun Estrada went undercover for an investigative story about entry-level wages. Amy Davis (B.A. Broadcast Journalism) reported the story for KPRC-TV Channel 2.
http://www.click2houston.com/…/what-are-houston-em…/29850828

Valenti School weekly update 11.19.14

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER, LAN NI and lecturer KRISTEN BOUCHER (M.A. 2012) are in their second semester of guiding Valenti students in providing public relations research and outreach counsel to student-run teams within Bauer's Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship. Initially funded by the Office of Technology Transfer in the Division of Research, the purpose of the collaboration is to launch businesses to commercialize university intellectual property. See the Inside Bauer Magazine for a story about the collaboration on pp. 43-45 at http://www.bauer.uh.edu. (currently the first story accessible in the rotating box)

ERICA CISZEK represented the Valenti School last week on a panel at San Jacinto College on incorporating social media in the classroom. Ciszek shared her experiences and best practices teaching the new course she developed, COMM4397: Strategic Social Media.

TEMPLE NORTHUP'S research about the effects of food labeling was featured in the North Texas News: http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_90115.shtml

TEMPLE NORTHUP was a guest on Houston Matters Nov. 13 to discuss the Gulf Coast Food Project: http://www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-d/2014/11/13/gulf-coast-food-project

ARTHUR D. SANTANA participated in a KUHF 88.7 FM Houston Matters' radio segment on Nov. 17, talking about texting while driving and our dependence on mobile technology. http://www.houstonmatters.org/show/2014/11/17/texting-while-driving-pet-care-and-sports-monday-houston-matters-for-monday-november-17-2014

The Valenti School and the Center for Student Media attempted to set a world record for the number of people wearing red sunglasses. The unofficial count is 280 people (photo attached). LARRY KELLEY's Local Ad Campaigns class created the campaign.

Shannon Baty (broadcast journalism major) is featured in the Daily Cougar. She is a Houston Texans' cheerleader and Valenti School scholarship recipient: http://thedailycougar.com/2014/11/16/working-way-uh-student-becomes-texans-cheerleader/

Valenti School weekly update 11.13.14

BOB HEATH has become a member of the editorial board for Communication & Society.

MIKE EMERY wrote a profile of KEITH HOUK for the Houston Chronicle blog “Creative Pride:”
http://blog.chron.com/creativepride/2014/11/uhs-keith-houk-directing-future-filmmakers-video-pros/

SUZANNE BUCK guest lectured in two classes for Dr. Omprakash Gnawali’s COCS 6397 class. Lectures included presentation skills and offered critiques on student presentations.

KEITH HOUK’s student project for the Houston Grand Opera was featured in the CLASS Update:
http://www.uh.edu/class/news/archive/2014/november/grand-opera/

Kieu Tram (B.A. student), the news anchor for the "Evening NEWS" and the "NEWS @ Nite" programs on VIETV, was featured in a Houston Chronicle style profile written by Joy Sewing (B.A. journalism ). This article was also featured in the CLASS update:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/article/Style-profile-KIEU-TRAM-aims-for-a-modern-take-5764569.php

Valenti School weekly update 11.7.14

ARTHUR D. SANTANA. "Controlling the Conversation: The Availability Of Commenting Forums In Online Newspapers,” Journalism Studies, Oct. 31, 2014. The study, conducted with the assistance of Tricia Onufer (M.A.), Sarah Simon (M.A.) and Alec Tefertiller (M.A.), examined the extent to which some news topics are more likely than others to appear with a commenting forum.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2014.972076#.VFlAzYevLHM

LARRY KELLEY guest lectured in ARTHUR SANTANA's Social Media Impact and Implications graduate class, discussing advertising and marketing implications of social media, including the Paid, Owned, Earned media framework and how disruptive social media has been to the advertising industry.

Justin Concepcion (B.A. Public Relations) was part of ABC 13’s online election coverage election day. He works in the office of Harris County Tax-Assessor Collector Mike Sullivan.

Frank Espinoza (B.A. Broadcast Journalism) received a 2014 Lone Star Emmy as the morning news producer at KPRC-TV, Channel 2.

Valenti School weekly update 10.31.14

BOB HEATH shared his ideas on the rhetorical discourse approach to public relations with Hongmei Shen’s graduate Public Relations Theory class (San Diego State University) via Skype on October 27, 2014.

BOB HEATH has been invited to serve as a consultant to Sage Publications Editorial staff to assist other authors who are considering doing second editions of topic encyclopedias. This invitation was based on the publication of the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Public Relations, Sage.

BOB HEATH, Tim Coombs, Lee Edwards, David McKie, and Michael Palenchar.(M.A.) (in press). Shaping the field: Bob Heath and the two volumes of the Encyclopedia of Public Relations. Public Relations Review.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811113002026

TEMPLE NORTHUP was a guest on Houston Public Media’s Houston Matters. Dr. Northup was part of a panel discussing the impact of technology on our lives. You can listen to the segment here:
http://www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-a/2014/10/31/how-to-keep-technology-from-taking-over-your-life

Darius Clark Monroe (B.A.) used a Kickstarter campaign to finance a wider release of his film “Evolution of a Criminal” to theaters, schools, and prisons. As director, he will receive Ithe International Documentary Association’s Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award, which recognizes the achievements of a filmmaker who has made a significant impact at the beginning of his or her career in documentary film. The winner of the Emerging Documentary Award receives $5,000 in cash and a donation of post-production services valued at $50,000, made possible by sponsors Red Fire Films and Modern VideoFilm. EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL, Monroe’s feature film debut, premiered at SXSW 2014. It won the Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award and The Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and was selected for a Spike Lee Production Fellowship and a Warner Bros. Film Award. The film has received a grant from Cinereach and other significant support. Monroe is a MFA Graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has won screenplay awards including one from the National Board of Review, and has been selected to participate in the Screenwriters Colony and as a fellow at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/international-documentary-association-nominations-impact-the-oscar-shortlist-20141029

Valenti School weekly update 10.23.14

Zeng, L., Agwaziam, N. & XIAO, Z. (2014). Framing the Jos Crisis in Nigeria: A Comparative Analysis of the Punch, the Guardian and Thisday. International Communication Research Journal, 49(1-2), 2-21.

Zeng, L., XIAO, Z., & Tahat, Khalaf (2014). “Identity of terrorism in the Middle East: An examination of two leading news websites.” In M. Kopytowska & Y. Kalyango (eds.), Why Discourse Matters: Rethinking Identity in New Media Environment. Peter Lang Publishing.

TEMPLE NORTHUP was an in-studio guest on Fox 26's morning show Tuesday. Dr. Northup discussed how the coverage of Ebola by the media can influence people to overestimate their personal risk of infection. http://www.myfoxhouston.com/clip/10748370/expert-analyzes-media-effect-on-public-perceptions-of-ebola-virus-scare

TEMPLE NORTHUP was quoted in last Sunday’s Houston Chronicle article about Ebola anxiety: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/health/article/Emotions-trump-reality-as-Ebola-anxiety-spreads-5832385.php

TEMPLE NORTHUP was recognized as one of the "Outstanding Faculty" of CLASS at a luncheon Wednesday. The award was given by the Provost, who had requested Dean Roberts nominate faculty from within CLASS who are making exceptional contributions to the College and the University of Houston.

ERICA CISZEK volunteered at the 7th annual Interactive Strategies conference (October 17), presented by the Houston Interactive Marketing Association. The conference explores current trends and best practices in digital media, featuring talks from leaders in the digital communication fields.

SUZANNE BUCK, TEMPLE NORTHUP, WARD BOOTH, JOSE VAZQUEZ, MICHAEL PHAN and MARY GALVAN welcomed approximately 18 people for the UH Family Weekend, providing tours of the media production studio and the Jack Valenti photo gallery for students’ families. Alumni Ania Czarnecka and Justin Concepcion spoke to the families about their UH experiences and how they are now using their communication degrees.

Valenti School weekly update 10.15.14

MARTHA WOMACK HAUN represented the University of Houston at the recent annual convention of the Texas Speech Communication Association in Lubbock. She served as state parliamentarian and was honored by TSCA with Emeritus status.

KEITH HOUK's Digital Cinematography class created this promo for the Houston Grand Opera’s upcoming performance of Otello.
Victoria Hernandez edited the video.
The crew on the day of the shoots:
Audio: Michael Pyndus and Victoria Hernandez
Camera 1: Joey Lamb
Camera 2: Yosely Ruiz
Lighting: Relisa Franklin, Caroline Cao, Tina Le and Christian Merenu
Stills: Relisa Franklin, Caroline Cao, and Christian Merenu
Michael Pyndus, Tina Le and Christian Merenu are also media production work study students.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByU9_cHC81llWDRkbncyRFZRN0U/view?usp=sharing

JULIE B. FIX, APR, Fellow PRSA (BA '72) was one of six delegates from the Public Relations Society of America Houston Chapter attending the society's 2014 Leadership Assembly in Washington, D.C.. She also attended the PRSA College of Fellows Annual Meeting and the Fellows' Induction Dinner, which she co-chaired. Julie is currently secretary/treasurer of the College and will serve as vice chair in 2015. Also serving in the PRSA Houston delegation were Jack J. Valenti School graduate student Isidro Reyna, APR, and 2014 MA graduate Karen Naumann, APR.

JOE LEYDON introduced the Oct. 11 screening of "Life Itself" -- the critically acclaimed documentary about his friend and colleague Roger Ebert -- at 14 Pews.

JOE LEYDON has been invited to introduce the 25th anniversary screening of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" next month at the Denver Film Festival. Prior to the screening, the festival will screen footage of LEYDON asking a question at the press conference that followed the world premiere of "Do the Right Thing" at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

WARD BOOTH, BRANDY LERMAN and ORLANDO ZAMORA met with 50 media production and journalism high school seniors from Clear Spring High School Oct. 15. The group visited the studio and control room.

Valenti School weekly update 10.2.14

Jemimah Noonoo, a former Jack J. Valenti School of Communication journalism lecturer, died Sept. 14. Noonoo taught Writing for Print and Digital Media for more than four years and often spoke of the joy she received from her students’ success. She held a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she was also a Thurgood Marshall Fellow, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Illinois-Chicago, where she was a commencement speaker in 2004. She was also a Hearst Fellow from 2007 to 2009 and worked briefly for The Houston Chronicle.

Cougar Editor-in-Chief Cara Smith’s memoriam column for Prof. Noonoo: http://thedailycougar.com/2014/09/20/memoriam-teacher-inspiration-jemimah-noonoo/

ARTHUR SANTANA’s UH Moment link about his print vs. online research: http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/uh-moment-print-v-online/

BOB HEATH presented “Astroturfing: Grass with No Roots, Case Studies of Undermined OPR and CSR,” at the European Public Relations Educators Association Conference, Brussels, September 2014, with Irina Locke and Peter Seele of the University of Lugano.

BOB HEATH presented a featured plenary session paper entitled “Leading through Communication: Leadership with Conscience,” Plenary Keynote, 8th World Public Relations Forum, Madrid. September 2014. He also presented a paper in a featured panel session on Leadership as Conscience: “Leading through Communication: Case Studies of Best Practices.”

WILLIAM HAWES, BETH OLSON and Kim Howard attended the 16th Annual Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival Sept. 20 at the NASA Hilton. Hal Wixon (B.A.) organizes the event.

SUZANNE BUCK participated in a three-day communication training drill for the oil and gas industry and government officials. This training drill was designed to determine the effectiveness of the communication among oil and gas companies, first responders, communities, stakeholders, and various government officials in the event of an incident.

JULIE FIX was the Sept. 23 facilitator for the fall online study program for people interested in becoming accredited in public relations. The session focused on communication theories.

Joel Wilkins (B.A.) is now the Sr. Communications Coordinator for the Harris County District Clerk's office.

Valenti School weekly update 9.17.14

GARTH JOWETT. (2014). Propaganda and Persuasion (6th ed.). Sage Publications.

GARTH JOWETT is an advisory and participatory member of the Smithsonian Museum Sound Archives Committee.

ARTHUR SANTANA’s recent publication "Print Readers Recall More Than Do Online Readers" in the Newspaper Research Journal was featured in a UH news release and picked up by various news outlets.
http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2014/September/091514printvsonline

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/UH-study-Print-readers-recall-more-than-online-5761567.php
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/readers-remember-more-newspapers-online-study-n203816
http://news92fm.com/477484/study-newspaper-readers-recall-more-than-online-readers/
http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/9/15/6153257/you-wont-remember-this-post
http://jimromenesko.com/2014/09/15/study-print-readers-recall-more-news-than-online-readers/
http://researchreports.einnews.com/article__detail/224026721?lcode=H3shcmn6gOyDO5Vr5VuY7g%3D%3D
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/pasadena/living/uh-study-finds-print-readers-recall-more-than-online-readers/article_30ac1afb-1b5e-5f38-a0b3-d28bc1204443.html

Anushree Gogate (MA candidate, PR) participated in the Super Senior Welcome Networking Reception hosted by University Career Services and UH Corporate Foundations and Relations teams. The event offered a networking opportunity to interact with Cougar Corporate Partners and other students.

Roy Shvartzapel (B.A.)’s Common Bond Café Bakery receives four-star review in the Houston Chronicle:
http://www.chron.com/entertainment/alison-cook/gallery/Common-Bond-Cafe-Bakery-fills-a-niche-for-93823.php

Valenti School weekly update 9.12.14

ABC-News Journalist Byron Pitts guest lecture to communication students 10:00 a.m. in the University Center Theatre, room 103.

KELLEY, LARRY D. and Jugenheimer, D. W. (2014). Advertising Account Planning: Planning and Managing an IMC Campaign. (3rd ed.) M.E. Sharpe.

Sheletta Smith Brundidge (B.A.) spoke to a group of Valenti School interns about how to maximize their experience. She is an assignments editor at KTRK-TV Channel 13.

Valenti School weekly update 9.6.14

YAMASAKI, J. (2014). Age accomplished, performed, and failed: Liz Young as old on The Biggest Loser. Text and Performance Quarterly, 34, 354-371.

YAMASAKI, J., Sharf, B. F., & Harter, L. M. (2014). Narrative inquiry: Attitude, acts, artifacts, and analysis. In B. B. Whaley (Ed.), Research methods in health communication: Principles and application (pp. 99-118). New York: Routledge.

LAN NI received the 2013 Top Downloaded Article Award from Journal of Public Relations Research. The article’s title is “Two Types of Public Relations Problems and Integrating Formative Evaluative Research: A Review of Research Programs within the Behavioral, Strategic Management Paradigm,” co-authored with Jeong-Nam Kim. The award was presented at the AEJMC conference in Montreal and included a $250 award.

LAN NI (Principal Investigator) and ZHIWEN XIAO (Co-PI) received the 2014 Urban Communication Foundation White Paper Grant ($10,000) and were named Urban Communication Foundation Fellows. The grant will be used on a research project that will result in a white paper to be published by the Urban Communication Foundation. The project explores a model of communication effectiveness for community engagement and how that affects the health of Asian American urban residents. They are collaborating with a faculty member in health psychology and a consultant that works for the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services.
CAMAJ, L. (2014). Need for orientation, selective exposure, and attribute agenda-setting effects. Mass Communication and Society, 17(5), 689-712. DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2013.835424

GARTH JOWETT was a guest on KUHF’s Houston Matters, discussing the role of college newspapers in an online world:

http://www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-e/2014/08/29/whats-the-role-of-college-newspapers-in-an-online-world

Judge STEVEN KIRKLAND won the Democratic primary for 113th Civil Judicial District Court seat, advancing to the November 4 general election.

Alumnus Jeff Balke reminisces about working at the Daily Cougar in a Houston Press blog post:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/news/2014/08/a_fond_look_back_as_the_uh_daily_cougar_goes_weekly_and_digital.php

Valenti School weekly update 8.27.14

CHOI, HOJOON & Leonard N. Reid (2014). Students as subjects in food advertising studies. An appraisal of appropriateness. Appetite, 81(1), 218-224.

CHOI, HOJOON & Jeffrey K. Springston (2014). How to Use Health and Nutrition-Related (HNR) Claims Effectively on Food Advertising: Comparison of Benefit-seeking, Risk-avoidance, and Taste Appeals on Different Food Categories. Journal of Health Communication (ahead-of-print), 1-17.

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER was a fellow in the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication, School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Florida International University and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Commission on the Status of Women. Montreal, Canada.

In June, JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER was accepted to the Class of 2014 for the 7th annual Scripps Howard Academic Leadership Academy, held at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication in Baton Rouge, LA.

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER won a Top Faculty Paper award from the Commission on the Status of Women at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for her paper titled, “Empowerment messages with women from underserved communities: Expanding a theory of women’s communication about health.” The paper was presented in August in Montreal.

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER, ROBYN LYN (M.A. candidate), and RAKHEE SHARMA (M.A. candidate) presented their paper, "Survivor-to-survivor communication model: How organizations can use post-disaster interviewing to facilitate grassroots crisis communication,” to the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Montreal in August.

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER was elected as the incoming research chair for the Commission on the Status of Women of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for the 2014-2015 year.

TEMPLE NORTHUP, SUZANNE BUCK and JULIE FIX participated in several student and parent orientation sessions and lunches over the summer months. UH faculty members were invited to assist with transfer and new student and parent orientations to share what faculty expect from students and to offer tips about how to succeed at UH.

BOB HEATH & Damion Waymer. (2014). John Brown, public relations, terrorism, and social capital: ‘His Truth Goes Marching On.’ Public Relations Inquiry, 3, 209-226.

BOB HEATH & Damion Waymer. (2014). Terrorism: Social capital, social construction, and constructive society? Public Relations Inquiry, 3, 227-244.

BOB HEATH, JAE LEE, & Michael Palenchar (M.A.), presented “Risk Communication and Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs): Longitudinal Analysis of Emergency Response Awareness and Practices” at the International Public Relations Research Conference, Miami, Florida, March 13, 2014.

BOB HEATH presented “Public Relations’ Role in Engagement: Functions, Voices, and Narratives,” the lead presentation at the pre-conference on Engagement as Theory, Strategy, and Practice: Communication, Interaction, and Corporate Social Responsibility at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Seattle, Washington, May 23, 2014.

BOB HEATH participated in the annual planning session for the International Encyclopedia of Communication, an ICA project, May 25, 2014. He also participated in the editorial board meeting for Management Communication Quarterly.

BOB HEATH presented “Legitimating Intelligence: Design, Public Engagement, and the Right to Operate and Reward,” at the Barcelona Public Relations Conference #4, Barcelona, Spain, June 25, 2014. This paper was presented in a Plenary Session sharing that title which HEATH organized, and it included Michael Palenchar (M.A.) who spoke on critical theory approaches to the legitimacy of risk communication.

BOB HEATH, Irina Locke and Peter Seele. presented “Grass with No Roots: How Astroturf Lobbying Undermines OPR’s Intention to Promote Good in Society,” at the Barcelona Public Relations Conference #4, Barcelona, Spain, June 25, 2014.

BOB HEATH presented the conference summary in the closing plenary session, at the Barcelona Public Relations Conference #4, Barcelona, Spain, June 26, 2014.

BOB HEATH & Damion Waymer, “John Brown, Public Relations, Terrorism, and Social Capital: ‘His Truth Goes Marching On,’” Paper presented at the International History of Public Relations Conference in Bournemouth, England, July 2, 2014.

BOB HEATH was a participant in a plenary session on editing and publishing at the International History of Public Relations Conference in Bournemouth, England, July 3, 2014.

BOB HEATH & Katherine McComas. Interest, Interest Whose Interest Is at Risk? Risk Governance, Issues Management, and the Fully Functioning Society, in Risk Governance: The Articulation of Hazard, Politics, and Ecology. (Urbano Fra Paleo, ed.). Springer Press.

Over the summer BOB HEATH was invited to serve on the editorial boards of Communication & Society and Marketing Intelligence and Planning. During this period he reviewed two book proposals and eleven journal submissions.

Valenti School Summer Update 2014

ERICA CISZEK defended her dissertation entitled “Identity, Culture, and Articulation: A Critical-Cultural Analysis of Strategic LGBT Advocacy Outreach” at the University of Oregon May 29.

TEMPLE NORTHUP’s research examining food labeling has received widespread attention in the news media, having now been picked up by more than 200 news outlets. This includes local, national, and international news outlets and an in-studio appearance on the nationally televised Fox & Friends television show. A few select links have been included below:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/3727496993001/study-consumers-go-for-healthy-buzzwords/#sp=show-clips
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/health-buzzwords/story?id=24179196
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-research-food-companies-misleading-consumers-with-health-halo-buzzwords-20140617-story.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/healthy-buzzwords-gluten-free-trick-consumers-study-article-1.1832539
http://www.examiner.com/article/how-food-marketing-creates-a-false-sense-of-health-for-parents-and-children
Featured in CLASS notes for June:
http://www.uh.edu/class/news/newsletters/news-update/2014/june/1406-newsletter.html
UH news release:
http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2014/June/061314foodmarketingstudy

JENNIFER VARDEMAN WINTER and LARRY KELLEY completed the Texas Department of Health and Community Affairs grant July 17, delivering research and recommendations which will be used in educational materials about affordable housing.

NORTHUP, T. (2014). Understanding the relationship between television use and unhealthy eating: The mediating role of fatalistic views of eating well and nutritional knowledge. International Journal of Communication & Health, 3, 10-15.

LINDITA CAMAJ (2014). "Freedom of Information Laws and the Promise of ‘the Good Life’” paper presented in a research session sponsored by the Law Division of the International Communication Association. ICA annual conference, Seattle, WA, May 21-26.

LINDITA CAMAJ also chaired a Law Division panel titled “Praising Free Speech Around Press, Politics, and the State.” ICA annual conference, Seattle, WA, May 21-16.

LINDITA CAMAJ (2014) “Media and Politics beyond post-communism: The impact of structural conditions on journalist-politician relationships in the Western Balkans” paper presented in a research session sponsored by the International Communication division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, annual convention, Montreal, Canada, August 5-9.

LINDITA CAMAJ (2014) also served as discussant for the Political Communication Interest Group panel titled “Visual Communication.”

LINDITA CAMAJ was elected Professional Freedoms and Responsibilities chair for the 2014-2015 for the International Communication division of AEJMC. LINDITA CAMAJ represented the Valenti School July 14 as part of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM) Learning Outcomes Project for 2014 as a journalism education expert. This taskforce revised course descriptions and developed student learning outcomes for pre-approved lower division academic courses offered by public, community and technical colleges in Texas. This project aims to better prepare students to transition to four-year university institutions and facilitate the transfer of course work to Texas public universities.

BETH OLSON and Kim Howard attended the Houston Chronicle’s “meet the editor” event May 21 with a presentation from Editor/Vice President of News Nancy Barnes.

LAN NI has been appointed to the UH Committee for Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS) committee.

ARTHUR SANTANA and BETH OLSON attended the News Literacy Project meeting at the Houston Chronicle June 18.

KEITH HOUK, MICHAEL PHAN, JOSE VAZQUEZ and SHAWN McCOMBS provided a tour of the communication building’s facilities to an English class from Beechnut Academy May 19.

ARTHUR SANTANA is quoted in an opinion piece in the Indian Republic about internet anonymity: http://www.theindianrepublic.com/tbp/internet-balance-anonymity-accountability-100039092.html

MARTHA J. HAUN has been named to the editorial board of Contemporary Case Studies in Health Communication/Kendall Hunt (2nd ed).

MARTHA J. HAUN has been selected as the 2014 parliamentarian of the Texas Speech Communication Association.

MARTHA J. HAUN was named to the 2014-2015 Youth Committee of the American Institute of Parliamentarians.

MARTHA WOMACK HAUN was elected II Vice President of the Texas State Association of Parliamentarians at the 2014 annual convention in Huntsville, Texas. She will chair the parliamentary education committee and serve as a member of the Scholastic Committee. HAUN, a member of the Professionally Registered Parliamentarians, was honored with a certificate of appreciation and donation to the Endowment Fund for her convention workshop on “Unscrambling Motions.” The workshop supported the convention theme of “Vital Skills for Community Leaders.”

MARTHA HAUN also served as convention parliamentarian for the May 2014 convention of the National Association of Railroad Business Women held in Houston.

MARTHA HAUN served as convention parliamentarian for the annual convention in Dallas of the Academic Language Therapists Association and the ALLIANCE. Both groups are dyslexia-related training organizations.

MARTHA J. HAUN, past national president (1991-92) of the Professional Fraternity Association which represents more than one million Greeks in professional fraternities in the U.S. is serving on the 2014 Awards Selection Committee. This committee selects the recipients of the Outstanding Career Achievement Award, the Outstanding Volunteer Award, the Outstanding Professional Program Award and the Outstanding Community Service Award.

MARTHA J. HAUN is the director of special services and national parliamentarian for Phi Beta National Professional Fraternity. HAUN is a past national president.

MARTHA WOMACK HAUN And Robin Nicklin Williamson (2014). “Impression Management and the Presiding Officer.” Parliamentary Journal, 40(3) (lead article).

JULIE FIX has been elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Public Relations Society of America College of Fellows in 2015. She currently serves the College as Secretary-Treasurer and as a member of the Induction Dinner Committee for the 2014 event honoring the new class of Fellows that will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building Pavilion Oct. 11 in Washington, D.C.

JULIE FIX is also a candidate for a fourth term as Leadership Assembly Delegate for the PRSA Houston Chapter. She will represent the chapter at the 2014 assembly Oct. 11 in Washington, D.C. and, if elected to another term, continue in that representation at the 2015-2017 assemblies.

KEITH HOUK’s Wonderworks Summer Program Moving Pictures had a record enrollment of 33 students. Most of the students were from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. PAUL SCHNEIDER and several current and former media production students also assisted during the five-week program. JOE LEYDON was one of the guest presenters. The group of students produced more than four hours of original films. Summer High School Film workshop Moving Pictures has wrapped for the summer.

SHAWN McCOMBS, DUNG HYUGH, and ANTONIO FARIAS administered 23 Final Cut Pro certification exams and two Motion certification exams May 24th to students from Katy Independent School District. These certification exams were delivered as part of the Valenti School’s Apple Authorized Training Center (AATC).

MIKE EMERY was named Public Relations Communicator of the Year in this year’s Houston Press Club Lone Star Awards competition, and Lisa Merkl (M.A.) received third place in the category. Both are with the UH Division of Marketing, Communication and Media Relations and both have recently won other awards, including one from IABC: (to be followed by the individual awards) Lisa is a former lecturer for the Valenti School; Mike is also faculty advisor for the Student IABC chapter and American Women in Communication.
Division of Marketing, Communication and Media Relations wins awards: http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2014/August/0808DivAwards.php

2014 Awards – MIKE EMERY

  • Houston Press Club Lone Star Awards 
    • First Place Lone Star Award
      • Public Relations Communicator of the Year
      • News Release
      • "UH Students Designing Customized Electric Guitars for Rock, Jazz, Blues Artists"

http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2013/november/1118Guitar.php

      • "Alum's Gift Keeps Patsy Swayze's Passion for Dancing Alive at UH"

http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2013/october/1021SwayzeEndowment.php

2014 Awards – Lisa Merkl

Abby Koenig (M.A.) will be entering the doctoral program in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University in the fall.

Robyn Lyn (M.A. candidate SPCM /Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies certification), past collegiate president of Alpha Epsilon chapter of Phi Beta National Professional Fraternity for the Creative and performing Arts, has been elected National Editor of the Fraternity. She will serve a two-year term.

Current advertising majors Rubi Soto, Corey Doiron and alumnus Fahima Al-Uqdah (B.A. advertising) were among the ten students who were awarded Media Alliance of Houston scholarships.

Ed Davis (B.A)’s company Fifth Ring was named Large PR Agency of the Year by PRSA Houston. Davis is the GM of Fifth Ring’s Houston location and is also a member of the Valenti Community Advisory Council.

Valenti School Weekly Update 5.02.14

TEMPLE NORTHUP, as part of the Gulf Coast Food Project, has collaborated with 14 Pews theater in the Heights to put on an inaugural food film festival. The Bayou City Food & Film Festival, which is open to the public, is happening this weekend, May 2-4. Of particular interest, Saturday at 2 PM a series of short documentary films produced by undergraduate Valenti School majors will be screened. For more information, please follow this link: http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2014/April/42514bcfff

Here's a media release regarding the film festival:
http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2014/April/42514bcfff
CLASS Weekend Postcard:
http://www.class.uh.edu/email/epostcard/index.html
Entertainment item on Houston Chronicle website
http://www.chron.com/entertainment/movies/article/University-of-Houston-14-Pews-launch-food-film-5441849.php
Hear TEMPLE NORTHUP’s interview on KUHF Houston Matters (at approximately 44:30 – 48:40) from Friday, May 2:
http://www.houstonmatters.org/

TEMPLE NORTHUP received a CLASS Outreach Grant to continue working on a documentary film focusing on a group of individuals trying to combat the obesity problem within Houston. The grant will enable Dr. Northup to employ a student assistant during the fall semester to help film and then edit the project.

TEMPLE NORTHUP was accepted into the 2014 Dow Jones Multimedia Training Academy held at the University of Texas, El Paso. During this week-long intensive boot camp, Dr. Northup will be trained by top multimedia professionals in the latest in digital storytelling techniques.

ARTHUR D. SANTANA was awarded at $3,000 CLASS Research Outreach Grant for his continuing research on user-generated content (UGC). The summer research project will look at the differences in how people respond to anonymous vs. non-anonymous comments (including the extent to which either impacts credibility) in commenting forums of online newspapers.

Drs. TEMPLE NORTHUP, ARTHUR SANTANA and JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER were awarded a $38,000 Teaching Innovation grant from the University to develop a series of courses in support of their proposal: “iPad Curriculum: Equipping Students for Success in the New Media Environment.” The grant will enable the purchase of iPads for student use that will be integrated into new journalism, media production, and public relations courses. The first class, iPad Journalism, is scheduled to be offered in the spring of 2015, pending committee/faculty approval.

DARRYL EWING’s PR Campaigns and Organizational Communication classes presented their PR Campaigns for Shape Up Houston (SUH).

DAVID McHAM is quoted in the Houston Chronicle obituary article for Ken Bunting: http://www.chron.com/default/article/Holcomb-Trailblazing-journalist-always-could-5432153.php RANDY POLK was host and moderator for an “Introduction to Media Production Professional Organizations” for the Valenti School of Communication. A panel of representatives from local and national organizations met with Valenti students as well as students from the School of Theatre and Dance and the English Department’s Creative Writing Program. The panel was comprised of Murray Campbell - International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Mary Lampe - SouthWest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP), Rick W. Ferguson - Houston Film Commission, Michelle Robinson - Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), and Lorís Simón Salum, Anita Long, Marilyn Swick - Women in Film and Television (WIFT).

Bana Berhane (B.A.) has been accepted into the MBA program at Texas Women’s University.

Staff members of The Daily Cougar are looking forward to summer opportunities:
Natalie Harms will be attending the publishing program at New York University.
Channler Hill has been chosen as one of 20 Chips Quinn Scholars, a Gannett newspaper program. She will spend a week in training in Nashville then will spend the summer at the St. Cloud Times in St. Cloud, Minn.
Nora Olabi will be interning at the Houston Business Journal.
Paulina Rojas will be at the Las Vegas Review-Journal and its Spanish language sister paper El Tiempo. The internship is sponsored by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Nevada.
Chris Shelton will be interning at the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale under the sponsorship of the Sports Journalism Institute. The institute helps minorities and women find newspaper internships.
Cara Smith will spend the summer as a digital news producer at KHOU-TV.
Andrew Valderas will intern at the San Antonio Express-News.
Hill is the outgoing editor of The Daily Cougar and Smith will be the editor during the 2014-2015 school year.

Valenti School students who were interns at the Houston Chronicle ended the spring semester hearing Lise Olsen tell about her experiences as an investigative reporter April 24.
The spring interns were David Bryant, Rebecca Heliot, Katherine Morris, Paulina Rojas and Andrew Valderas. Morris and Rojas were continuing their internships from the fall. The six interns chosen by CHARLIE CRIXELL and DAVID McHAM for the fall internship also attended. They are: Laura Gillespie, Amber Hewitt, Michelle Iracheta, Nora Olabi, Ashleigh Painter and Maritza Rodriguez. They will be joined in the fall by Luiza Braga and Rebecca Hennes.

Dan Cunningham supervises the program for the Chronicle. He is a member of the Valenti Community Advisory Council, and he is scheduled to teach a sports writing course in the fall.

Valenti School Weekly Update 4.23.14

JULIE FIX taught a six-hour Accreditation in Public Relations workshop session for the Public Relations Society of America Houston Chapter at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication Saturday, April 12. And, she was the guest speaker for the April 17 Public Relations Student Society of America UH Chapter meeting. She covered resumes and portfolios.

JULIE FIX judged two categories for the Harris County Medical Association and Houston Academy of Medicine’s 2014 Francis C. Moore, M.D. Medical Journalism Awards.

JOE LEYDON was invited to host post-screening Q&A sessions for four films at the Nashville Film Festival, including James Keach's "Glen Campbell... I'll Be Me," a documentary about the country music star's ongoing battle with Alzheimer's disease; Beth Harrington's "The Winding Stream," a celebration of the Carter and Cash musical dynasty; Leah Meyerhoff's "I Believe in Unicorns," an acclaimed coming-of-age drama; and "Béla Fleck: How to Write a Banjo Concerto."

Jacob Zalewski (B.A. 2008, Media Production) has created a scholarship in his name for a student registered with the Center for Students with DisABILITIES in part because of the scholarship support he received. He raises funds for the scholarships through his non-profit organization, the One Step Closer Foundation. See link for application: http://www.uh.edu/csd/news/2013/jacob_zalewski_scholarship.html

Alec Tefertiller (M.A. candidate) will be attending the doctoral program in Media Studies at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.

Valenti School Weekly Update 4.17.14

GARTH JOWETT is quoted in a KTRH story about strategies television networks use to gain viewers: http://www.ktrh.com/articles/houston-news-121300/nbc-comedy-playground-could-be-looking-12239082/

LARRY KELLEY presented Big Ideas and Audience Segmentation for developing campaigns on Mar. 21 for ZHIWEN XIAO’s COMM 3340 Health Campaigns Principles course.

Master’s candidates Paige Bukowski, Anthony Calderon, Carmen Galvan, Jana Spitzley, and Nina Spitzley were inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Graduate students must rank in the upper 10 percent of their class to be accepted. Phi Kappa Phi's mission is "to recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others."

Valenti School Weekly Update 4.9.14

TEMPLE NORTHUP has received a grant from Humanities Texas to put on a series of programs entitled "Food Matters." Highlights of the events include a screening of the documentary film Sweet Dreams with a Q&A with the film's director, a screening of some of the short films produced from Dr. Northup's courses, as well as a panel discussion with professionals and academics about the importance of studying food.

Wang, Q., LAN NI (corresponding author) & De la Flor, M. (2014). An intercultural competence model of strategic public relations management in the Peru mining industry context. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26, 1-22. (Lead article). DOI: 10.1080/1062726X.2013.795864

LAN NI has been granted a Faculty Development Leave for spring 2015. She will be under contract with Routledge to write a book about intercultural public relations.

NORTHUP, TEMPLE (2014). Truth, Lies, and Packaging: How Food Marketing Creates a False Sense of Health. Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 3, 9-18.

DAVE FEHLING (Houston Public Media) received a first place award for his investigative report, “An Unusual Search Warrant and What it Says About How Texas Regulates Drilling” from the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters. He also received an honorable mention for his report “Keeping Oil Wells from Leaking” for use of actuality production.

Brandon McDowell (B.A., PR, 2013) will be studying Sports Management in Xavier University’s graduate program in the fall.

Several of the Houston Chronicle interns contributed to the recent Houston Gives special section (March 30) with editing by David Bryant:
http://www.chron.com/about/houston-gives/
Paulina Rojas
http://www.chron.com/about/houston-gives/article/Pitching-in-for-the-community-5338789.php
http://www.chron.com/about/houston-gives/article/Honoring-vets-mentoring-women-5338792.php
Kate Morris
http://www.chron.com/about/houston-gives/article/Stuffing-stockings-for-children-5338788.php
http://www.chron.com/about/houston-gives/article/Self-described-ballet-junkie-works-behind-the-5338790.php
Rebecca Heliot
http://www.chron.com/default/article/Lending-a-hand-to-those-in-need-5338784.php
Andrew Valderas
http://www.chron.com/about/houston-gives/article/A-really-Clutch-commitment-5338787.php
Hendrick Rosemond (photos)
http://www.chron.com/default/photo/Andy-Stewart-s-Finish-Line-Sports-store-in-Sugar-6047271.php

Valenti School Weekly Update 3.27.14

JILL YAMASAKI’s Comm 6336 Provider-Patient Interaction class submitted photos for the Living Photography for Health Contest sponsored by the Harris County Hospital District Foundation, and their photos were chosen for permanent display in Ben Taub and LBJ Hospitals. The class project is featured in the Daily Cougar: http://thedailycougar.com/2014/03/27/communications-class-featured-houston-hospitals/

GARTH JOWETT participated in Houston Matters on KUHF March 25. Topic: How Does News Coverage Affect Our Perception of Crime in Houston? http://www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-c/2014/03/25/how-does-news-coverage-affect-our-perception-of-crime-in-houston

TEMPLE NORTHUP was invited to be a “conversationalist” at the Honor’s College annual “Great Conversation” party held at the Houston Country Club Wednesday evening. Dr. Northup hosted a dinner table focused on the topic of “We Eat What We Are,” with table guests talking about food and how our food choices reflect our personal identity.

DEBORAH BRIDGES presented “Perceptual observation: Nonverbal communication in portraiture” at Rienzi-Museum of Fine Arts Houston on March 3, 2014. The morning and afternoon presentations made to 50 docents were part of Rienzi's ongoing continuing education programming.

DEBORAH BRIDGES presented “The challenge of communication in Pharmacy careers” at UH College of Pharmacy on February 13, 2013. The presentation was made to 100 UH Pharmacy students at the college's semi-annual convocation.

KEITH HOUK judged the Bake-off, the Rib Cook-off, and the Brisket Cook-off at Frontier Fiesta. He sampled 19 cakes and ten each of the ribs and brisket entries.

Houston Chronicle intern Kate Morris has a front-page article in Monday’s edition: http://www.chron.com/default/article/At-rodeo-s-last-day-a-fan-shows-the-ropes-to-5343044.php

Six advertising and integrated communication students will be inducted into the AAF Alpha Delta Sigma Honor Society. The six students are: Victoria Cooke, Taylor Janney, Sam Watson, Robert Wilson, Nick Chan and Julio Flores. To receive this honor, students must have a 3.3 or higher GPA, be an active member of the American Advertising Foundation (AAF) and a member of the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) team.

Valenti School Weekly Update 3.20.14

Four Valenti School undergraduate students and two recent graduates have received Houston Advertising Education Foundation scholarships, giving the Valenti School the most recipients among other programs in Texas. The undergraduate students are Karla Figueroa, Julio Flores, Cory Dorion and Garrett Ruffner. Fahima al-Uqhah and Candace Queen are now in the UT graduate advertising program. Both were part of the 2013 NSAC team and Fahima was named the Most Promising Minority Student by AAF (national chapter) last year.

MIKE EMERY and students Janeka Porter (far left) and Melissa Bias (far right) are featured in photo (attached) with Houston Mayor Annise Parker. They attended the February International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) luncheon "Communicating in a Diverse Environment." MIKE is the faculty advisor for the student chapter.

Valenti School Weekly Update 3.06.14

XIAO, Z.W., Noar, S., & Zeng, L. (2014). Systematic review of HIV prevention interventions in China: A health communication perspective. International Journal of Public Health, 59(1), 123-142.

JILL YAMASAKI & Hovick, S. R. (2014). "That was grown folks' business": Narrative reflection and response in older adults' family health history communication. Health Communication. DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2013.837569

Valenti School Weekly Update 2.26.14

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER served as a panelist on the Public Relations Society of America’s Educators Academy webinar on February 21, 2014, on “How Public Relations Practitioners can find a Work-Life Fit: Best Practices for the 24/7 PR Industry."

TEMPLE NORTHUP was awarded a $1,500 grant from Humanities Texas. This funding will be used to help support the Gulf Coast Food Project as it co-sponsors a “Food Matters” Film Festival later this spring. This will include bringing in director Rob Fruchtman from New York City to speak, whose film Sweet Dreams will be screened during the festival.

TEMPLE NORTHUP was quoted in an article in The Daily Cougar this week that discussed the Gulf Coast Food Project, which Dr. Northup co-directs, and the recent NEH grant it received: http://thedailycougar.com/2014/02/26/grant-fuels-food-studies/

JULIE FIX was a co-presenter for the Public Relations Society of America Houston Chapter's New Professionals' workshop, "Write the Right Way," Feb. 18 at the Holocaust Museum.

Jugenheimer, D. W.; KELLEY, L.; Hudson, J.; & Bradley, S.D. (2014). Advertising and Public Relations Research (2nd ed.). M. E. Sharpe.

ROSARIO LAUDICINA discussed “Branding: It's Never Too Early” as a panelist at the Texas Life Science Forum held at Rice University for early biotechnology startups. The forum was sponsored by Rice Alliance, BioHouston and Texas Healthcare & Bioscience Institute.

Kelley Murfin (B.A. 2013) has been accepted to the Master of Science in Public Health program at Johns Hopkins in Health Education & Health Communication.

Valenti School Weekly Update 2.20.14

TEMPLE NORTHUP had a research article, “Revisiting Media Priming Effects of Sexual Depictions: Replication, Extension, and Consideration of Sexual Depiction Strength” published in Media Psychology. This research examined how sexual media primes were able to influence perceptions of an unknown target's sexual characteristics and ultimate ratings of the target's appeal. Find a full copy of the article here: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/azRMRwK3rKM5PYPWw3CT/full.

TEMPLE NORTHUP presented his research, “It’s not if you see it, it’s how you process it: Conceptual and perceptual fluency effects for advertised brands” at the annual conference of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) in Austin. SPSP is the largest conference and organization for those who perform research in the field of social psychology.

BETH OLSON and RANDY POLK are quoted in the Daily Cougar article featuring the media production facilities, “Studio space breeds video creativity.”
http://thedailycougar.com/2014/02/19/studio-space-breeds-video-creativity/

Students from the Valenti School won two group and two individual ADDY awards at the 52nd Houston Annual American Advertising Awards last week.

    1. Gold: Valenti Group for the Glidden print campaign from the 2013 National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) team.
    2. Silver: Valenti Group for the Glidden plans book from the 2013 NSAC team.
    3. Certificate of Merit: Amanda Nguyen for the Valenti Group logo.
    4. Certificate of Merit: Tiffany Brown for a student print campaign.

The Gold and Silver winners will go to the District 10 competition held April 16 in Austin.

Valenti School Weekly Update 2.6.14

LAN NI and JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER are supervising a practicum in which our public relations and integrated communication students are working with the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship students from the C. T. Bauer College of Business. This class is an experiment in interdisciplinarity, technology transfer, and socially-mediated communication, and it brings practical experience to our students while exposing them to the importance of having public relations involved at the start of business development. This class contributes to the University's efforts to commercialize technological innovations created by University research faculty.

The media production concentration is featured in a UH MOMENT produced by MIKE EMERY. RANDY POLK provides sound bites.
http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2014/February/02042014UHMValentiSoC.php

WARD BOOTH, MICHAEL PHAN, SHAWN McCOMBS, ANTONIO FARIAS, and ORLANDO ZAMORA conducted a tour for 35 Media Tech students from Carl Wunsche Career Academy Friday, Jan. 31.

Darius Clark Monroe (B.A. media production, 2004) will premiere his film Evolution Of A Criminal at the 2014 SXSW:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/darius-clark-monroes-evolution-of-a-criminal-will-world-premiere-at-sxsw-2014-full-lineup
His bio:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2346569/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Valenti School Weekly Update 1.23.14

ARTHUR SANTANA’s research on anonymity and civility in online comments is featured on New Jersey.com, Houston’s FOX 26, and at the top of the news queue today on the UH home page:

http://www.nj.com/education/2014/01/anonymous_commenters_lead_to_more_uncivil_comments_on_newspaper_sites_study_finds.html
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/24513541/2014/01/21/anonymity-and-web-behavior
http://www.uh.edu/
http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2014/January/12114Santana

Kelly (Papinchak) George (B.A. 2002) is the new president of the Houston Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. She is manager of internal communications at Halliburton.

Valenti School Weekly Update 1.17.14

HOJOON CHOI received the UH New Faculty Research Grant of $6,000 for his project “The influence of individual differences and Health Nutrition Research (HNR) claims on consumer information processing of nutrition fact label.”

XIAO, Z.W., Li, X., Lin, D., Jiang, S., Liu, Y., & Li, S. (2013). Sexual Communication, Safer Sex Self-Efficacy and Condom Use among Young Chinese Migrants in Beijing, China. AIDS Education & Prevention, 25(6), 480-494.

STEVEN KIRKLAND is featured in a Daily Cougar profile: http://thedailycougar.com/2014/01/14/uh-alumnus-and-lecturer-challenges-judgeship-opponents-with-candidacy/

This year, the Advertising Education Foundation of Houston (AEFH) will be awarding 21 Scholarships worth $2,000 each to outstanding students in the AAF-Houston 10th District. And it’s not just for advertising students - PR, Corporate Communication and Media Production students are considered, too.
Students may apply online on our website at www.houstonadscholarships.com.
The closing date for receiving completed application is February 15.

Valenti School Weekly Update 1.07.14

HOJOON CHOI & Reid, L.N., How People Above and Below the Poverty Line Evaluate HNR Claims in Food Advertisements. Accepted for presentation at the 2014 American Academy of Advertising Conference, Atlanta, GA, March 27 - 30.

HOJOON CHOI, Yoo, K., Baek, T. H., Reid, L.N. & Macias, W (2013). Presence and effects of health and nutrition-related (HNR) claims with benefit-seeking and risk-avoidance appeals in female-orientated magazine food advertisements. International Journal of Advertising, 32(4), 587-616.

ARTHUR D. SANTANA’s research on anonymity and civility in online readers' comments gets a mention in an article, "Bye bye, bile? Websites try to nix nasty comments," by the Associated Press (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bye-bye-bile-websites-try-nix-nasty-comments). Several news outlets subsequently picked up the story. He was also interviewed by CBS News Radio for the same research.

JILL YAMASAKI has been named to the editorial board of Journal of Applied Communication Research.

Jee Young Chung (MA UH), JAESUB LEE & BOB HEATH, Public Relations Aspects of Brand Attitudes and Consumer Activity. Public Relations Review, 39, 432-439.

BOB HEATH, Commentary: The Journey to Understand and Champion OPR Takes Many Roads, Some Not Yet Well Travelled, Public Relations Review, 39, 426-431.

LINDITA CAMAJ.Media Use and Political Trust in an Emerging Democracy: Setting the Institutional Trust Agenda in Kosovo. International Journal of Communication, 8. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/2107

Carman Galvan (Health Communication MA candidate and teaching assistant) has been named MD Anderson's Outstanding Predoctoral Trainee in Cancer Prevention for 2013.

Valenti School Weekly Update 12.17.13

GARTH JOWETT spoke of the challenges faced by local newspapers in a recent KUHF broadcast of Houston Matters.
State of Community Newspapers in Houston.

JILL YAMASAKI has been named a finalist for the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award. She was nominated by JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER.

JULIE FIX attended the launch party for Kenneth Fomunung's (BA PR/ADV, 2010) book, The Glass, a collection of poetry, essays and stories he's written. Fix joined Dr. Elwyn Lee and SGA president Cedric Bandoh in making brief remarks. Fomunung was SGA president before he graduated. He is currently pursuing a career as a motivational speaker, creative writer and poet. Another Jack J. Valenti School graduate, Angelica Espaillat, helped plan and coordinate the event, which was held in the UH Athletics & Alumni Center.

Valenti School Weekly Update 12.12.13

One of JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER’s students –Kait Dineen - is featured in the December CLASS newsletter. She will be receiving her degree in public relations Dec. 20. http://www.uh.edu/class/news/archive/2013/december/spotlight-dineen/

TEMPLE NORTHUP is quoted in the Tobii news release about the Tobii Cloud beta test (eye-tracking software for research) (copy and paste link into a browser to view):
http://www.tobii.com/en/about/news-and-events/press-room/#/pressreleases/tobii-analysis-division-opens-beta-program-for-tobii-track-new-cloud-based-research-solution-that-takes-eye-tracking-studies-global-939267

LARRY KELLEY’s Advertising Campaigns class presented their work on a Metro advertising campaign to Metro’s senior leadership team, including the CEO and COO and all dept. heads last week.

CATHERINE BURCH GRAHAM and SUZANNE BUCK conducted two hours of communication training for 25 Delegates from Sinopec (listed 5th in the Fortune 500 global list), from Chaoyang District Beijing , People’s Republic of China. Topics included Brand Building, Image Promotion, and Media and Crisis Communication.

CATHERINE BURCH GRAHAM and SUZANNE BUCK attended the Houston Communication Association/Valenti Alumni Association holiday mixer Dec. 6.

Valenti School Weekly Update 12.5.13

The Gulf Coast Food Project, co-directed by TEMPLE NORTHUP, was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The grant will help Dr. Northup and associated faculty to further develop curriculum that will eventually lead to an interdisciplinary minor in Food Studies, bring in outside speakers and experts to help spark dialogue about food, and host a food studies conference that culminates in an edited book volume, among other things.

Under the supervision of TEMPLE NORTHUP, the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication has been selected by Tobii, a worldwide leader in eye-tracking technology, to beta test their new Tobii Track eye-tracking software. This new cloud-based software will greatly expand remote research possibilities and enhance collaboration among classes and departments.

Brianna Leigh Morrison (B.A., 2013) has been accepted to the Cannes Creative Minds Program for Filmmaking. http://www.thecreativemindgroup.com/the-filmmaker-institute/
(From the website: The Creative Minds Filmmaker Institute is designed to provide Short Filmmakers a platform to showcase their product while also educating them on how to capitalize on an international marketplace where films are bought, sold, distributed and financed. Each participant will be put into a diverse group of filmmakers and given a camera, a laptop (with editing software) a microphone and 7 days to complete a 5-minute short film as a part of a Short Film Competition. A panel of industry professionals judge the short films and the top 3 teams are awarded prizes and trophies. Filmmaker Institute participants will also be able to attend daily networking happy hours, filmmaker workshops and Cinema Master Classes (Hosted by Industry Icons like Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese & Sydney Pollack). All of which is geared towards aiding participants in expanding their knowledge of the film business, while also affording them the opportunity to make key contacts that will help them establish a career in the film industry).

Valenti School Weekly Update 11.26.13

JILL YAMASAKI was awarded NCA's Communication and Aging Division Top Paper Award for "That Was Grown Folks' Business": Narrative Reflection and Response in Older Adults' Family Health History Communication.

JILL YAMASAKI was elected Vice Chair Elect for NCA's Communication and Aging Division.

JILL YAMASAKI was appointed Chair of NCA's Communication and Aging Division 2014 Thesis Award Committee.

DAVID McHAM’s Baylor students recall their coverage of the Kennedy assassination for the student newspaper. McHam was the faculty advisor. http://baylorlariat.com/2013/11/22/63-lariat-staff-looks-back-on-assassination-of-john-fitzgerald-kennedy/

Valenti School Weekly Update 11.21.13

MARTHA J. HAUN served as parliamentarian for the annual meetings of the Academic Language Therapists Association (ALTA) and the International Multi-Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC) at their annual meetings at the 2013 International Dyslexia Association convention recently held in New Orleans.

ORLANDO ZAMORA is quoted in the Daily Cougar article about one-credit fitness classes:
http://thedailycougar.com/2013/11/02/health-411-workout-credit/

Broadcast Journalism student Brisheyda Martinez is quoted in the Daily Cougar article about the Center for Mexican American Studies’ banquet:
http://thedailycougar.com/2013/11/18/red-carpet-star-comes-campus-cause/

Valenti School Weekly Update 11.14.13

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER was named a Page Legacy Scholar of 2013-2014. She is the principle investigator of a project funded by the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication ($3,000). The project title is: Ethics and Health Public Relations. She will conduct interviews with public health/health care public relations practitioners and analyze content on social media regarding how decisions are made around health care campaigns like the Affordable Care Act.

NORTHUP, TEMPLE & Mulligan, N. (2013). Online advertisements and conceptual implicit memory: Advances in theory and methodology. Applied Cognitive Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/acp.2958.

SUZANNE BUCK served as guest lecturer (November 12, 2013) for doctoral students enrolled in Dr. Omprakash Gnawali’s Computer Science course 6397. She discussed effective communication skills for technical presentations.

Valenti School Weekly Update 11.08.13

TEMPLE NORTHUP is quoted in the UH Magazine article: Professors Making Themselves Home on Campus: (p. 18)
www.uh.edu/magazine

ARTHUR D. SANTANA's research on anonymity and civility in online readers' comments gets a mention in an article, "The Psychology of Online Comments," in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/10/the-psychology-of-online-comments.html

BOB HEATH published “Is the Universe of Democracy, Rhetoric, and Public Relations Whole Cloth or Three Separate Galaxies?” Public Relations Review, 39, 271-279, with Damion Waymer and Michael Palenchar (M.A.).

LAN NI is named the Page Legacy Scholar of 2013-2014. She is the principal investigator of a project funded by the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication ($3,000). The project title is: Ethical Community Stakeholder Engagement in the Global Environment: Impact on Relationship Management and Conflict Resolution. She will use part of the grant money to support one graduate research assistant.

GARTH JOWETT and JOE LEYDON participated in a segment on horror films for the Debra Duncan Show Oct. 31:
Video Link: http://www.khou.com/great-day/videos/gdh_10-31-13_seg1-230062101.html

SUZANNE BUCK served as faculty lecturer to 17 delegates from Shandong Province, the People’s Republic of China, on November 6, 2013. The lecture to the government administrators included media relations, crisis communication, and effective communication skills.

LARRY KELLEY is interviewed for a KUHF story on holiday marketing: http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1383588429-Christmas-Is-Coming-Earlier-But-Americans-Dont-Like-It.html

LARRY KELLEY presented “How to Survive and Thrive at NSAC” at the AAF-Houston Student Conference held Nov. 1-2. The conference included 200 students and 20 faculty members representing 16 colleges and universities from the four-state area.

Nicole Casarez (M.A.) was surprised to learn that a man she and her students at St. Thomas helped free from death row had created a scholarship in her name at the University of Texas College of Law where she earned her J.D. See more at http://now.msn.com/anthony-graves-former-texas-death-row-inmate-creates-scholarship-for-lawyer-nicole-casarez. and
http://www.chron.com/default/article/Endowment-honors-attorney-who-helped-free-4923684.php

Five PRSSA UH Chapter members attended the National PRSSA Conference in Philadelphia Oct. 25-28. Jeanette Rivera, Joud Ahmad, Gemrick Curtom, Melissa Bias and Tory Lieberman also joined their faculty advisor, JULIE FIX, for Sunday lunch. Fix was in Philly as a Houston delegate to the Public Relations Society of America’s Annual Leadership Assembly. She also attended PRSA's College of Fellows Annual Meeting and Induction Dinner.

About 70 UH students visited the C-SPAN bus on Oct. 31 to take advantage of the on-board multimedia learning center. The bus travels from Washington, D.C. to communities nationwide showcasing C-SPAN's coverage of public affairs. The Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, with the help of ARTHUR D. SANTANA hosted the UH campus visit. Most of the students came from SUZANNE BUCK's classes. http://thedailycougar.com/2013/11/04/bus-brings-congress-campus/

Three UH advertising students were members of the award winning teams at the AAF-Houston Student Conference. Linda Ho was on the team that took the Bronze Medal. Sam Watson was a member of the team that took the Silver Medal and Garrett Ruffaner was a member of the team that took the Gold Medal. The students had 12 hours to develop and present an integrated marketing communication campaign for MJWJ Talk Radio, the first live global talk radio station streamed online. Twenty UH students participated in the event.

Valenti School Weekly Update 10.25.13

MARTHA J. HAUN & Robin N. Williamson. (October, 2013). Rational Authority and the Parliamentarian, Parliamentary Journal, published by the American Institute of Parliamentarians, the only such international publication.

MARTHA J. HAUN recently served as convention parliamentarian for the annual convention of the Texas Speech Communication Association meeting in Corpus Christi.

HAUN was also recently engaged to provide effective meeting training for the Houston Volunteer Firefighters Association leadership.

LARRY KELLEY guest lectured in ARTHUR SANTANA's Communication Technology & Society (Social Media Effects) class, discussing advertising and marketing implications of social media, including how disruptive social media has been to the advertising industry and how a new generation of advertisers are capitalizing on social media to control their own message.

Valenti School Weekly Update 10.17.13

BOB HEATH recently published the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Public Relations which includes 150 reprints, 190 revisions and adds 160 new entries. Rebecca Aguilar's (MA UH) entry on financial communication was reprinted, as were entries by Emilee Fontenot (UH MA). Nicole Casarez (UH MA) added an entry on Citizens United to her revised entries that feature her legal expertise. Kelly M. (Papinchek) George (BA UH) revised several of her entries on historical topics and best practices. Tatjana Hocke (MA UH) contributed new entries on risk communication. GARTH JOWETT's entry on propaganda was republished. JAE LEE revised his previous entries and added one on the practice of public relations in Korea. DAVE McKINNEY revised and assumed the lead authorship on entries regarding corporate reporting and managing corporate departments. Lisa Merkl (BA; MA UH) revised her several entries specific to public relations tools and tactics. Mike Nagy (UH MA) revised several entries on public relations theories, communication technologies and media processes. LAN NI added a new entry on globalization and public relations. Michael Palenchar (MA UH) revised entries, added entries on risk communication, and served as a member of the advisory board. Entries by MIKE RYAN were reprinted from the first edition. Brian Smith wrote entries on integrated marketing while a faculty member at UH. JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER contributed entries on critical race theory, feminization theory, whiteness and public relations, and assisted with the editing of the appendix on women pioneers in public relations. Entries were also either revised or newly authored by former faculty members Shannon Bowen (also on the advisory board) and Damion Waymer. The new entries expanded the discussion of risk communication, crisis communication, public relations by region and nation, critical theory, and new communication technologies.

LAN NI was commented on intercultural public relations implications in “NASA's Chinese boffin ban sparks boycott” which aired on CCTV America (an international news station located in Washington DC with an audience of more than 100 million in 100 countries) and later on CCTV (China Central Television with an audience of about one billion), Oct 11, 2013.
http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20131011/103914.shtml

JULIE FIX attended the UH Panhellenic Council’s Scholarship Dinner on Sept. 30. Faculty and staff were invited to lead table discussions during the dinner.

JULIE FIX has been elected secretary/treasurer of the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows for 2014. She is also serving on the 2013 Induction Dinner committee for the College’s new members. Fix was selected for membership in the College in 2010.

Valenti School Weekly Update 10.10.13

BOB HEATH delivered the keynote address to the 2013 EUPRERA (European Public Relations and Research Association) Conference in Barcelona, Spain on October 3, 2013. His address was titled "Public Relations' Role in Organizational Alignment: Functions, Voices, and Narratives" for the conference theme: Strategic Public Relations, Public Values, and Cultural Identity.

BOB HEATH lectured to two undergraduate classes studying the principles of public relations at the Universat Ramon Llull in Barcelona on October 1 and 2, 2013. These were students of Professor Enric Ordeix who organized the EUPRERA Conference.

BOB HEATH and Michael Palenchar (UH MA) presented a paper on October 5, 2013 titled "Paradigms of Risk and Crisis Communication in the 21st Century" at the 3rd International Conference on Crisis Communication in the 21st Century. This conference was sponsored by the International Research Group on Crisis Communication and addressed the theme of Crossing Boundaries in Crisis Communication. The conference convened in Erfurt, Germany October 2-5, 3013. Heath also chaired the conference session that addressed Building Crisis Communication Theory.

ARTHUR D. SANTANA was part of a three-member panel on KUHF 88.7 FM Houston Matters' radio segment on Sept. 30, talking about mobile technology and our cell phone culture – how our lives in Houston are different today than they were just a few short years ago because we're so committed to smart phone technology, apps, texting, and other forms of constant digital contact.
http://www.houstonmatters.org/show/2013/09/30/houston-matters-for-monday-september-30-2013.

MARTHA J. HAUN served recently as parliamentarian for the annual state convention of the Texas Medical Auditors Association.

JULIE FIX taught a review session Oct. 9 on communication theories for Houston PRSA members working on their Accreditation credential. In July, she presented an all-day Accreditation Jumpstart Workshop for the Public Relations Association of Mississippi at Mississippi State University. While there, she attended the Southern Public Relation Foundation’s Hall of Fame Induction Luncheon. Earlier in the summer, she served as a judge for the Harris County Medical Society and Houston Academy of Medicine’s 2013 Francis C. Moore, M.D. Medical Journalism Awards, and attended the awards luncheon. Several Jack J. Valenti School graduates were there, either as winners or as HCMS staff.

LARRY KELLEY brought five AAF-UH students, Julio Flores, Judy Riojas, Rubi Soto, Marilyn Parrilla and Andrea Gutierrez, to advise the Houston Advertising Education Foundation on their scholarship process at their meeting Oct. 2.

Valenti School Weekly Update 10.03.13

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER and LARRY KELLEY have been awarded a $115,000 grant from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs to develop a primer about new fair housing resolutions. The project includes conducting formative research with local and state officials to inform the content of the primer. Undergraduate students will aid in the development, pilot testing, and dissemination of the primer.

UH alumnus and current candidate for an M.F.A. in cinematography from UCLA Ragland Williamson visited KEITH HOUK’s Digital Cinematography class to share his insights on lighting, camera angles and more. He was in TVII and Digital Cinematography several years ago and used his work from those classes to put together a demo reel for his UCLA application. He was one of only three students accepted to their program the year he was admitted. He gave a demonstration to the class in Studio A.

UH Police Chief Ceaser Moore was a guest speaker in DAVID McHAM’s reporting class Wednesday. Chief Moore spoke about the results of the Clery Report – the Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics - which was released Oct. 1.

Alumnus Jake Hamilton of Fox 26 Jake's Takes movie reviews spoke to KEITH HOUK’s Media and Society class yesterday with a Q&A on how he was simultaneously a UH student and professional film critic. He talked about the industry from a reporter's side and answered career questions and told some interviewing stories. Jake is a 2010 Valenti School graduate.

Valenti School Weekly Update 9.25.13

BOB HEATH and Damion Waymer presented a paper, "Corporate Social Responsibility, Strategic Issues Management, and Relationship Management," at the CSR Communication Conference 2013 in Aarhus, Denmark on September 19, 2013. This 2nd annual conference on this topic was organized by Aarhus University, University of Amsterdam, and University of Ljubljana.

BOB HEATH presented a lecture, "Encyclopedia as Pathway, Encyclopedia of Public Relations (2005-2013)," to masters and senior honors students in Business and Corporate Communication in the College of Business at Aarhus University on September 20. The lecture was attended by 120 students and faculty of the School of Corporate Communication as part of their visiting professor lecture series.

Katie R. Place and JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER. (2013). Hegemonic discourse and self-discipline: Exploring Foucault’s concept of bio-power among public relations professionals. Public Relations Inquiry, 2: 305-325, doi:10.1177/2046147X13494965

One of the projects from TEMPLE NORTHUP’s documentary class was featured on Houston’s culturemap:
http://houston.culturemap.com/news/food/09-23-13-how-a-charity-bar-revitalized-downtown-houston-the-inside-story/?utm_source=sf_facebook

Valenti School Weekly Update 9.19.13

BETH OLSON, JULIE FIX, LARRY KELLEY, and LAURA ASHLEY attended the American Advertising Federation’s Trailblazer annual award dinner Sept. 12 as guests of the Wilson family. Welcome Wilson, Sr. was the honoree. Kim Howard and alumnae Natalie Camarata and Samantha Johnson, president of the Valenti Alumni Association, also attended.

VARDEMAN-WINTER, J., & Place, K. (2013, May). The Realities of Public Relations: Applying the Circuit of Culture to the Knowledge of Practitioners. Paper presented to the Public Relations Division of the International Communication Association, London.

GARTH JOWETT spoke about popular art in the article: Heady art in plain sight: American Statesmanship Park in the Houston Chronicle Sept. 6:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Heady-art-in-plain-sight-American-Statesmanship-4791003.php

RANDY POLK will serve a second year as the Valenti School of Communication ex-officio representative to the Student Media Advisory Committee. SMAC is charged with monitoring and advising the Center for Student Media and the media organizations under it, including The Daily Cougar, Student Video Network (SVN) and Coog Radio.

RANDY POLK attended the Southwest Media Project (SWAMP)’s 10th Annual Business of Film Conference at the Rice Media Center
September 7th. The conference, sponsored by SWAMP and Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts (TALA), featured speakers that included national filmmakers, producers, union representatives, insurance providers, screenwriters, and entertainment lawyers who emphasized Texas media production.

Valenti School Weekly Update 9.05.13

VARDEMAN-WINTER, J. (2013, August). Issues of representation, reflexivity, and research-participant relationships: Doing feminist cultural studies to improve health campaigns. Paper presented to the Commission on the Status of Women of the Association for Education in Mass Communication and Journalism, Washington, D.C.

VARDEMAN-WINTER, J. (2013, August). Gender Discrimination: What’s the Cost? So What? Participated on a joint panel discussion for the Public Relations Division and the Commission on the Status of Women, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, D.C.

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER organized and led a group of 65 Public Relations Division members from the Association of Education in Mass Communication and Journalism's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in August to a tour at the Pentagon and private talk with Rear Admiral John Kirby, U.S' Navy's Chief of Information (top executive for public affairs). It was very cool!

SUZANNE BUCK, JULIE B. FIX and BETH OLSON met with the Valenti School Alumni Board members August 29 to discuss collaboration for the academic year’s events.

WILLIAM HAWES attended the UH 1927 Society luncheon Sept. 4 with BETH OLSON as guest http://www.gftpln.org/Article.do?orgId=5455&articleId=22093

JULIE B. FIX is again serving as chair of the CLASS Undergraduate Studies Committee for the academic year.

Valenti School Weekly Update 8.29.13

VARDEMAN-WINTER, J., Jiang, H., & Tindall, N. T. J. (2013). Information-seeking outcomes of representational, structural, and political intersectionality among health media consumers. Journal of Applied Communication Research. DOI: 10.1080/00909882.2013.828360

VARDEMAN-WINTER, J., Jiang, H., & Tindall, N. T. J. (2013). “Mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them”: Gendered political intersections in communicating breast cancer screening policy to publics. In C. Daymon & K. Demetrious (Eds.), Gender and public relations: Critical perspectives on voice, image and identity (pp. 221-246). Routledge New Directions in Public Relations and Communication Research series.

ARTHUR D. SANTANA presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Aug. 8-11, in Washington, DC. The paper, "Scanning and Sharing But Little Engagement: Newspaper Reporters’ Use Of Social Media," looks at how newspaper reporters are using social media as part of their reporting practices.

LINDITA CAMAJ and ARTHUR D. SANTANA presented two papers at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Aug. 8-11, in Washington, DC. The papers were: "Facebook as a Campaign Tool During the 2012 Elections: A New Dimension to Agenda Setting Discourse" and "Political Discourse on Facebook During Presidential Elections: The Role of Moderator and Political Ideology for Online Deliberation."

ARTHUR D. SANTANA just completed a two-week fellowship, Aug. 12-23, studying social media at C-SPAN in Washington, DC. The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) selected Santana as one of six recipients of the 2013-14 Scripps Howard Foundation/AEJMC Social Media Externship Grant. He will share what he learned with his classes on journalism and social media. As part of the program, C-SPAN's Director of Communications Howard Mortman plans to come to the Jack J. Valenti School to talk with students about real-world journalistic social media engagement.

ARTHUR D. SANTANA was quoted in an article in Poynter about his research on anonymity and civility. The research, part of his dissertation, looks at how anonymous online commenters are more apt to be uncivil than non-anonymous commenters. The research also looks at how a growing number of online newspapers, like other journalism organizations, are disallowing anonymity in their online commenting forums. http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/222059/huffington-post-deletes-75-percent-of-incoming-comments/

TEMPLE NORTHUP, JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER, ZHIWEN XIAO and WARD BOOTH finalized a $34,000 two-year contract with the Baylor College of Medicine’s teen health clinic to conduct research and generate video content for HIV prevention video productions (webisodes), including summative research for the health awareness campaign.

Valenti School Summer Update 2013

XIAO, Z. & Li, X. (2013). Mass Media and HIV/AIDS Prevention among Female Sex Workers in Beijing, China. Presented at the 63rd Annual Convention of International Communication Association in London, 17-22 June 2013.

ZHIWEN XIAO and co-authors N. Agwaziam, and L. Zeng presented Framing the Jos Crisis in Nigeria: A comparative analysis of the Punch, the Guardian, and Thisday at the 63rd Annual Convention of International Communication Association in London, 17-22 June 2013.

BOB HEATH reviewed a Sea Grant proposal to plan for and communicate with special populations, such as the elderly, prior to and during a tsunami. Sea Grant is a national, federal program; this grant was submitted through the program at Oregon State University.

TEMPLE NORTHUP will be participating in the faculty-in-residence program at UH. He and the program were featured in a UH News item:
http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2013/july/7%202%20FacultyInResidence.php

BOB HEATH’s chapter, “Who’s in charge and what’s the solution? Reputation as a matter of issue debate and risk management,” was published in Craig E. Carroll (Ed.), Handbook of Communication and Corporate Reputation, (2013; pp. 388-403). Boston: John Wiley & Sons.

BOB HEATH organized and participated in Plenary Session 1, “The Journey to Understand and Champion OPR Takes Many Roads, Some not yet Well Traveled,” and presented “OPR: A Road to Success or a Cul-de-sac.” And he organized and participated in Plenary Session 2, featuring the pending publication of the Encyclopedia of Public Relations (2nd. Ed). Sage Publications. This occurred at Barcelona PR Meeting #3, Barcelona, Spain, July 3-4, 2013.

BOB HEATH participated in the editorial board meetings of Management Communication Quarterly and the International Encyclopedia of Communication which included a discussion of the design of an ancillary encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication, from Wiley-Blackwell at the International Communication Association conference, London, England, June 18-21, 2013.

ARTHUR D. SANTANA, Randall M. Livingstone, and Yoon Y. Cho (2013). "Print Readers Recall More Than Do Online Readers," Newspaper Research Journal (34, no. 2: 78-92). The study looks at how readers process information in print versus online format.

TEMPLE NORTHUP presented three papers at the annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in London. The papers were: "Choose your own exemplar: Exemplification and risk in interactive online news," "The influence of virtual perspective taking on attitudes toward Mexican immigrants in the United States," and "A cross-cultural test of the implicit cultivation process."

TEMPLE NORTHUP presented two papers at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in Washington, DC. The papers were: "Online advertisements and conceptual implicit memory: Advances in theory and methodology" and "Here comes the bride: A content analysis examining representations of women in Brides magazine advertisements." The latter paper was co-authored by MA graduate Bene Petty Eaton and was based on her thesis.

TEMPLE NORTHUP, SUZANNE BUCK and JULIE FIX participated in orientation sessions for parents of incoming first year and transfer students. The purpose of these sessions is to let parents know what faculty expectation are of students at a Tier One University as well as to give general advice about how to succeed in college.

TEMPLE NORTHUP is the faculty representative on the University's Weeks of Welcome (WOW) committee. The WOW committee is made up of individuals from every student services group on campus and plans the events that occur during the first two weeks of the fall semester to help acclimate and welcome new and returning students.

GARTH JOWETT was quoted in a KTRH-Radio story on movie attendance: http://www.ktrh.com/articles/houston-news-121300/crowds-are-down-but-movie-money-11546494/

BETH OLSON attended the KUHF reunion Saturday, May 18 to honor long-time radio instructor Arvil Cochran. Alumnni Dave Barrett, CBS Radio, attended and Jim Nantz phoned-in to share good wishes as Mr. Cockran left Houston to retire in Salt Lake City.

ARTHUR D. SANTANA, “Virtuous Or Vitriolic: The Effect Of Anonymity On Civility In Online Newspaper Reader Comment Boards,” Journalism Practice, Published online, July 18, 2013. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ENYYvfaJI63xrwMuFBzW/full Journal forthcoming, 8(4) (Aug. 2014). This study examined the effect anonymity had on civility in online reader comments boards of U.S. newspapers.

MARTHA HAUN has been awarded an FDIP for 2013-2014 for $33,500 for course redesign of COMM 1302 Communication Theory to change the course from the traditional lecture/test format to a highly interactive learning approach that replaces the current videotapes of large class lectures (approximately 40 hours) and increases student study time outside of class, increases interactive online activities, and increases small-group experiential learning exercises through on-line discussion groups and team activities. “Lectures” will be shorter and tied to individual assignments, team activities and on-line discussions. Virtual tutors, increased number and variety in shorter, experiential, learning activities, and more immediate feedback are also part of the new plan.

MARTHA HAUN coached Health Occupations Student Association (HOSA) parliamentary debate teams for the Houston DeBakey High School for Health Professions that won first place in recent state competition and represented the state at national competition in June in Nashville, TN.

MARTHA HAUN recently attended the Dallas convention of the Texas State Association of Parliamentarians where she presented a convention workshop of “Handling Ranking Motion.”

MARTHA HAUN was honored this spring by the University of Houston for 43 years of teaching.

BOB HEATH recently published Public Relations, which is part of Routledge's (Taylor and Francis Group) series called Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. This is a four-volume work, 1888 pages, of previously published material on public relations (88 chapters). In addition to these chapters, it includes a master introduction to the project and introductions to each of the volumes. It includes work by BOB HEATH and UH faculty and alumni: WILLIAM DOUGLAS, JAE LEE, LAN NI, Shu-Huei Liao (UH alumna) and Michael Palenchar (UH alumnus).

LINDITA CAMAJ’s book chapter titled "Setting the Political Culture Agenda: The impact of Media Use on Political Trust and Participation in Kosovo," in Agenda Setting in a 2.0 World: A tribute to Maxwell McCombs, ed. Thomas Johnson (2013)(New York: Routledge): 82-111.

LINDITA CAMAJI & Weaver, D.H. (2013). Need for Orientation and Attribute Agenda-setting during a U.S. Election Campaign, International Journal of Communication, Vol 7. It can be accessed online at: http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1921

LINDITA CAMAJ presented a paper entitled "Uses and Misuses of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Legislation in Transitional Societies" at the annual convention of International Communication Association (ICA) in London, June 17-21.

SUZANNE BUCK and Ginger Yocum (BA, ’98) attended Ready-Set Commence for the 2013 graduating students of CLASS. The event assists graduating students with information needed for commencement.

SUZANNE BUCK served on the Business Communications Forum sponsored by Pearson Education in Las Vegas April 26-28th. The forum included faculty members from Business and Communication departments around the U.S.

SUZANNE BUCK, in association with WPNT & Associates (www.wpntcommunications.com) served as observer for four of their Executive Presentations training seminars held in Houston, Texas.

DAVID MCHAM judged the annual writing contest of the Pro Football Writers Association (the writers who cover NFL teams) for the 13th year. “It’s been a wonderful experience,” he said. “It helps me keep up with trends in writing. This level of writing is the best in the nation. I’m privileged to have been involved for this long.” After the judging, McHam shares the entries with student journalists.

DAVE FEHLING, KUHF, was named Radio Journalist of the Year at the recent Lone Star Awards. He won second place in the radio use of sound and third place in the radio hard news feature categories. MIKE EMERY won first place in the PR soft news release category and second place for PR Communicator of the Year. LISA MERKL won third place in the PR soft news release category and the PR news release category. Laurie Johnson, KUHF (B.A.), was third for Radio Journalist of the Year. Mary Brolley, UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, (M.A.), won second place in two categories - PR newsletter and PR magazine article. Robert Arnold, KPRC-TV (B.A.), won first place in TV politics/government and TV spot news, third place in TV Journalist of the Year and third place in the TV investigative/series category. The Daily Cougar won second place as the best student newspaper. DAVID McHAM is a member of the Lone Star Awards committee. The awards are given annually to recognize outstanding achievements in journalism and mass communication in the state of Texas. http://houstonpressclubonline.org/linked/awards_program_2013.pdf

KEITH HOUK completed the eighth year of Wonderworks, the summer film workshop for HISD students. PAUL SCHNEIDER, MICHAEL PHAN and students Mike Haimato, Brianna Leigh Morrison, Sophia Pereira, and Vinson Valdez assisted, as well as WARD BOOTH, JOSE VAZQUEZ, SHAWN MCCOMBS, DUNG HUYNH, ANTONIO FARIAS and work study students. The 25 high school students produced more than two hours of original shorts and participated in film screenings and discussion with JOE LEYDON, Ragland Williamson (B.A., UCLA Masters Candidate in Cinematography), Mike Hamaito (UH) and Jake Hailton from FOX 26 News.

DAVID McHAM and CHARLIE CRIXELL assisted in sending students to the Houston Chronicle for paid internships supervised by Dan Cunningham, deputy managing editor. This is the fourth year for the program. Seven of their eight interns for fall are from the University of Houston. They are Mary Dahdouh, Daniela Di Napoli, Manuella Moreira, Katherine Morris, Paulina Rojas, Mackey Torres and Samantha Wong.

MICHAEL STRICKLAND’s Principles of Advertising class and Copywriting class contributed to the City of Houston’s successful presentation to the National Football League to bring the 2017 Super Bowl LI (51) to Houston. The 90+ students assisted in generating words that contained the two letters (L, I) together to include in various aspects of the multimedia presentation to the NFL. One of the 32 NFL team owners who make the decision said in a national interview that it was the best presentation he had seen in his many decades of team ownership. A student also suggested the ultimate “LI” word – Lombardi, whose name is on the Super Bowl trophy (even though the letters are not together in the word).

Carmen Galvan (M.A. candidate in health communication) is a paid, summer Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Behavioral Science at MD Anderson Cancer Center, under the supervision of Susan K. Peterson, PhD, MPH. She will be assisting with qualitative data analysis for two grant-funded projects: “A Social Network Approach to Improve Genetic Risk Communication” (funded by the Duncan Family Institute Seed Funding Program, MD Anderson); and “Integrating Technology and Navigation to Improve Survivorship Care in Underserved Populations” (funded by the Cancer Survivorship Seed Funding Program, MD Anderson).

Fall 2013 Scholarship Selection Criteria

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Scholarship

The scholarship is a one-time award of $1,000, and will be awarded in its entirety in the fall 2013 semester to assist with tuition payment. The fund is used to provide competitive scholarship waiver, allowing an out-of-state student to pay in-state tuition.

Eligibility Requirements
    • Scholarship recipient must be unconditionally admitted to the graduate program in the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication for fall 2013.
    • Scholarship recipient must not have been funded otherwise.
Selection Criteria

The scholarship selection committee shall consider the key components in application packet including undergraduate GPA, GRE scores, personal statement, and letters of recommendation in making its selection. There are no restrictions to applicants based on gender, race, nationality, physical disability or sexual orientation.

Valenti School Weekly Update 05.08.13

MARTHA HAUN served as parliamentarian for recent board meetings and a convention in Dallas for the Academic Language Therapists Assn. and the spring board meeting of the International Multi-structured Language Education Council. Both organizations provide certification and training for teachers of children with dyslexia.

DEBORAH BRIDGES, together with Valenti School master's candidates Carmen Galvan and Alec Tefertiller, participated as community and alumna judges in the National Christian Forensics and Communication Organization's Houston Regional Invitational speech competition finals held May 3. Carmen is a former competitor and placed fifth in persuasive speaking at the regional tournament, qualifying her to compete at the national level during her term.

Former and current Valenti School of Communication students lead by Director Mary Arévalo won a Gold Remi (second place) in the film shorts division at the WorldFest Film Festival. Nine Lam, Karen Martinez, Angie Brown, Alex Olivares, Nael Diab and Arévalo created the short film Tiempo Suelto (Loose Time), a Spanish-language short about living in the loose time between a medical test and receiving the results.

Monette Chilson (M.A.) is publishing her book, Sophia Rising: Awakening Your Sacred Wisdom Through Yoga, by Bright Sky Press on June 1, 2013. See attachments.

Valenti School Weekly Update 05.03.13

Welcome Wilson, Sr. (B.A.) will receive an honorary doctorate degree during UH’s commencement weekend. He was instrumental in the naming of the Valenti School and the capital campaign for the building project. See some of his selected accomplishments here: http://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2013/may/05012013CommencementHonors.php

TEMPLE NORTHUP’s student documentaries are featured in Memorial News, highlighting the screening at 14 Pews. The project is part of the CLASS Gulf Coast Food Project, an interdisciplinary effort with the Dept. of History. The event was also noted in UH News Digest April 29. http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/memorial/living/uh-students-chronicle-what-houston-eats-for-gulf-coast-food/article_856a9d5d-db06-59dc-8db0-f976f92ca28e.html

LAN NI and BETH OLSON attended the OpEd Project workshop Friday sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. The OpEd Project’s mission is to increase female representation in media commentary. www.theopedproject.org

RANDY POLK worked with the Texas Motion Picture Alliance to sponsor an on-campus event April 25 where representatives from local and state professional film organizations met with approximately 60 Valenti School students. The following organizations were represented: Southwest Alternative Media Project, TXMPA, Houston Film Commission, Houston Writers’ Guild, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Women in Film & Television. Students from the Creative Writing Program and the School of Theatre and Dance also attended.

Valenti School Weekly Update 04.25.13

BOB HEATH provided a summary of the research findings he and JAE LEE produced to the Deer Park Citizens Advisory Council. The research report, produced for the Deer Park Local Emergency Planning Committee is entitled “Longitudinal Analysis of Emergency Response Awareness and Practices in Deer Park, Texas" (1995, 1998, 2002) which was updated in 2012.

BOB HEATH and STEPHANIE PROUTHEAU (M.A.UH) have had their paper "Narrative of certitude for uncertainty normalisation regarding biotechnology in international organisations" published in the proceedings of the conference, Communiquer dans un Monde de Normes: L'information et the communication dan the enjeux contemporains de la "mondialisation," March 8-9, 2012, held in Roubaix, France. The conference was jointly sponsored by the International Communication Association, le Groupement d'Etudes et de Recheres en Information et Communication (Geriico) and la Societe Francaise des Sciences de L'information and de la Communication (SFSIC).

MARTHA HAUN hosted 20 faculty and students for the Phi Beta spring initiation April 29. Phi Beta is a national professional fraternal organization dedicated to the creative and performing arts.

JOE LEYDON is moderated two panels at the Nashville Film Festival:
http://www.movingpictureblog.com/2013/04/hanging-with-motion-piture-academy.html

Five Valenti School students received a $3,500 scholarship and iPad Mini from the Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals. HAHMP awards 10 scholarships per year. Four of the five are members are from the El Gato Media Network.
Rebeca Trejo- Broadcast Journalism
Edith Manzanares- Broadcast Journalism
Priscilla Riojas- Broadcast Journalism (Valenti alumna headed to Columbia Graduate School of Journalism)
Jessica Riojas- Media Production
Angelica Rodriguez- Broadcast Journalism (transferring to Valenti in the Fall)

UH PRSSA students Alexis Culver, Alice Doskosil, Ryan Perry, Lauren Rosenbaum and Candace Sanders won the Case Study Competition at the Loyola University Regional PRSSA Conference in New Orleans April 19-20. The case involved a situation involving e-coli contamination at a two-day crawfish festival, that was discovered after the first day’s events ended and before the second day’s events began.

DAVID McHAM’s student Minh Dam conducted an interview with President Khator for the Daily Cougar:
http://thedailycougar.com/2013/04/25/renu-khator-stays-humble/?utm_source=042513&utm_campaign=Email+Edition&utm_medium=email

Valenti School Weekly Update 04.18.13

ARTHUR D. SANTANA has published a book chapter entitled, “The New Role of Bilingual Newspapers in Establishing and Maintaining Social Group Identities among Latinos,” in Identity and Communication: New Agendas in Communication, eds. Dominic Lasorsa and America Rodriguez (New York: Routledge, 2013): 62-81.

MARTHA WOMACK HAUN and Robin Nicklin Williamson have an article entitled, “Listening Skills for the Parliamentarian,” published in the April 2013 Parliamentary Journal, LIV (2),pp. 60-66.

More information from the project KEITH HOUK and RANDY POLK’s students created with Diverse Works (Liz Magic Laser “Tell Me What You Want to Hear”) from Diverse Works website and the CLASS newsletter:
Here is a link to the project on Diverse Works website:
http://diverseworks.org/2013/liz-magic-laser-tell-me-what-you-want-to-hear/
http://www.uh.edu/class/news/archive/2013/april/art-exhibit/

Ali Younes (B.A. senior)’s Achieving The Greatest (ATG) Foundation created to prepare high school students for college is featured in the Houston Press. So far, his organization has assisted 300 high school students.
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/04/atg_foundations_colleges.php

Abigail Hagan will be an intern for Entertainment Tonight Canada and will be working at the Cannes Film Festival in May. She is the first recipient of the William Hawes Family Scholarship.

The Daily Cougar is listed as one of 100 exemplary college newspapers (see #66):
http://journalismdegree.org/exemplary-college-newspapers/

Valenti School Weekly Update 04.11.13

TEMPLE NORTHUP has been invited to join the University of Houston's Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects. The committee is responsible for the approval of all Human Subject (IRB) protocols for the university. Dr. Northup was invited to join the committee to add expertise to their committee in reviewing applications related to the communication discipline.

JULIE FIX, WARD BOOTH, and SHAWN McCOMBS provided a tour for 40 students from B.F. Terry High School in the Lamar Consolidated School District.

JOE LEYDON was interviewed on KHOU-TV and News 92 FM, and wrote a remembrance for CultureMap.com, following the death of his friend and colleague Roger Ebert.
http://houston.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/04-04-13-dammit-roger-ebert-did-you-have-to-cut-back-on-reviewing-this-much-1/

JOE LEYDON’s 1982 interview with documentary filmmaker Les Blank was reprinted on Indiewire.com after Blank’s April 7 death.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/les-blank-interview-from-1982-on-documentary-burden-of-dreams-chronicling-herzogs-chaotic-fitzcarraldo

JOE LEYDON paid tribute to the late Anne Funicello in an April 8 essay for CNN.com.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/08/opinion/leydon-annette-funicello/?hpt=us_c2

CHARLIE THORP’s Local Advertising Campaigns class project was again featured – this time in Ad Tech Digital Digest with other universities:
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/14360119-marketing-101-college-students-aim-to-drive-up-interest-in-honda-civic

MICHELLE REXROAT (B.A.) assisted in shooting stills for the production of a Levi’s commercial featuring Russell Westbrook and Walt "Clyde" Frazier.

Valenti School Weekly Update 04.04.13

KEITH HOUK and RANDY POLK’s students participated with Diverse Works Art Space to provide video production support for a project entitled "Tell Me What You Want To Hear." The opening reception is Friday, April 5 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Details at:
http://diverseworks.org/2013/liz-magic-laser-tell-me-what-you-want-to-hear/

The Trustees of the Houston Assembly of Delphian Chapters Scholarship Foundation Fund are awarding a $500 grant to media production toward the purchase of a camera tripod and head system. Media Production and Journalism students will use the equipment to produce video and still images.

The Daily Cougar won 16 honors from the prestigious Columbia Scholastic Press Association's 2012-13 Gold Circle Awards. Winning entries written by Valenti School students are below (copy and paste into browser):

David Hayden (B.A., December 2012)
First place; Entertainment reviews for digital media, Graduate expands restaurant
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/08/28/uh-graduate-expands-restaurant-business-3/
Joshua Mann (editor)
Second place; Breaking news for digital media, Police arrest two in robbery
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/09/28/police-arrest-two-in-connection-with-second-robbery/

Brianna Leigh Morrison (B.A.)
Third place; single sports photograph for digital media, Sweet send-off for seniors
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/02/27/sweet-send-off-for-seniors/

Christopher Shelton (sports editor), Certificate of Merit for four entries below:
News feature for digital media, Human trafficking,
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/09/11/task-force-focused-on-human-trafficking/
Sports news for digital media, UH retains Bayou Bucket,
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/09/29/uh-defeats-rice-retains-bayou-bucket/
Sports features for digital media, Stewart makes impact as freshman,
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/09/21/stewart-makes-impact-on-the-defense-as-a-true-freshman/
Sports features for digital media, Levine's changes spark team,
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/10/08/levines-mentality-spreads-to-team/

Valenti School Weekly Update 03.28.13

NORTHUP, T. (2013). “Examining the Relationship Between Media Use and Aggression, Sexuality, and Body Image.” Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 4, Article 3. A summary and full article can be found online at: http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk/vol4/iss1/3/

LINDITA CAMAJ is quoted in the story “Blogging Away” in the Daily Cougar: http://thedailycougar.com/2013/03/26/blogging-away/

LARRY KELLEY and ROSARIO LAUDICINA’s National Advertising Campaigns class will have their National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) dress rehearsal Monday, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. in COMM 150. Please join them if you are able to do so.

Three advertising majors will receive Houston Advertising Education Foundation scholarships. They are: Courtney Coleman, Fahima Al-Uqhah and Julio Flores. Julio will receive an internship plus the scholarship from López Negrete Communications.

Valenti School Weekly Update 03.21.13

ARTHUR D. SANTANA & John Russial (2013). “Photojournalists’ Role Expands At Most Daily U.S. Newspapers,” Newspaper Research Journal (34, no. 1: 74-88). The paper examined the changes of the work of newspaper photojournalists, who are taking on the bulk of video work in conjunction with the growing emphasis on the online product.

Kim, J-N., & LAN NI (2013). Two types of public relations problems and integrating formative and evaluative research: A review of research programs within the behavioral, strategic management paradigm. Journal of Public Relations Research, 25, 1-29. DOI: 10.1080/1062726X.2012.723276

DAVE FEHLING received three Texas Associated Press Broadcasters (TAPB) Awards for his energy and environment specialty or beat reporting (1st place), reporting (2nd place) and for his feature story “Will Texas Taxes Pay for Damaged Counties in Eagle Ford?” Laurie Johnson (B.A.) received a 2nd place award for her general assignment story “More UH Students Choose Dorm Living.” They both work at KUHF News 88.7 FM, a division of Houston Public Media.

BRYAN BUTLER is leaving the copy desk at the Houston Chronicle to be an editor in the petrochemicals group at Platts. He also is the lead author for the chapter “Turning the Page with Newspapers: Influence of the Internet on Sports Coverage” in Routledge’s Handbook of Sport Communication, (Paul M. Pedersen, Ed.). Matthew H. Zimmerman and Sharon Hutton are the co-authors. (http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415518192/).

The photo of former CNN reporter Alphonso Van Marsh speaking to CAROLYN CANVILLE’s class was the featured photo in the UH News Digest March 14.

Valenti School Weekly Update 03.08.13

GARTH JOWETT and LINDITA CAMAJ are quoted in the Houston Press' article on Josh Trevino: A Chat with the Prominent Texas Conservative Voice Outed as Malaysian Agent (copy and paste link into browser): http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/03/josh_trevino_malaysia_payment.php?page=2

CHARLIE THORP’s Local Advertising Campaigns class is participating in the national Honda Civic Marketing Challenge. The class formed an ad agency called the Valenti Group to create an integrated communication campaign. The project was featured in the Daily Cougar: http://thedailycougar.com/2013/03/07/marketing-students-contend-in-competition/

Valenti School Weekly Update 03.01.13

ZHIWEN XIAO was invited to join the editorial board for the Journal of Therapy and Management in HIV Infection.

Alphonso Van Marsh shared his broadcast journalism experience with Valenti School of Communication students as the CNN reporter who broke the news of Saddam Hussein’s capture in Iraq. He’s also been a “one man band” freelance reporter in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. He spoke with CAROLYN CANVILLE’s Advanced Electronic News class Thursday night.

Advertising students Amanda Nguyen and Judy Rojas have won the American Advertising Federation (AAF)’s Vance and Betty Stickell internship award. Each of the 125 AAF college chapters nominates two students for this award which includes a paid summer internship in a national advertising agency. Only 10% of the applicants are chosen. This is the first time Valenti students have received this honor.

Valenti School Weekly Update 02.22.13

ARTHUR SANTANA is featured in a Feb. 11 Daily Cougar article about his grant-funded research on social media: http://thedailycougar.com/2013/02/11/grant-propels-journalism-research/

MARTHA HAUN is the senior alumni advisor for the Alpha Epsilon collegiate chapter of Phi Beta National Professional Fraternity for the Creative and Performing Arts. SUZANNE BUCK is the junior alumni advisor. Robyn Lyn (speech comm) is the student leader. Membership is open to all students with a minimum B- average in communication, drama, dance, art and music (major or minor). An alumni chapter Pi Alpha Tau is active for qualified faculty.

Valenti School Weekly Update 02.14.13

KEITH HOUK’s Media Production I class completed three days of shooting for a collaborative project with Diverseworks and the New York-based artist Liz Magic Lazer. The project involved taping individuals in a workshop environment discussing the interview process. Participants included Linda Lorelle and Shannon Buggs. The footage will be used to create a trailer and it will be incorporated into an installation at Diverseworks in April.

The Media Production I class is also partnering with Mark Medoff's screenwriting class and the acting for camera class in the School of Theater and Dance to produce short films this semester. The students in Media Production I are producers for the projects as well as department heads on production days. KEITH HOUK’s Single Camera Film Style class will be the crew for the shoots. The first production will be taped Saturday on campus.
Sharron Reynolds-Enriquez, a Los Angeles-based script supervisor, spoke to RANDY POLK’s Preproduction Management and KEITH HOUK’s Single Camera classes last week. Reynolds-Enriquez has been a script supervisor for more than 30 years. She has worked on Pirates of the Caribbean, the Social Network, Benjamin Button, L.A. Confidential, and many other films. She was interviewed for the Daily Cougar (pdf link).

Valenti School Weekly Update 02.07.13

LARRY KELLEY and ROSARIO LAUDICINA’s 2012 National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) team won a silver Addy award in the category of best use of non-traditional media at the Houston Advertising Federation’s banquet.

KEITH HOUK’s Digital Cinematography class won a gold Addy award in the student category for Elements of Advertising, Visual, Cinematography with a 30-second spec ad. The entry automatically advances to the regional competition April 10 in Tulsa.

The Board of Regents approved the new concentration in Integrated Communication last week. We now wait for Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approval. The concentration was featured in a Daily Cougar article Tuesday, Feb. 5:
http://thedailycougar.com/2013/02/04/new-degrees-expand-uh/?utm_source=020413&utm_campaign=Email+Edition&utm_medium=email

Valenti School Weekly Update 02.01.13

TEMPLE NORTHUP and LINDITA CAMAJ are featured in a Daily Cougar article January 29 about grant-funded research: http://thedailycougar.com/2013/01/29/valenti-professors-granted-research-opportunities/?utm_source=012913&utm_campaign=Email+Edition&utm_medium=email

Students from JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER’s Issues Management class, and ROSARIO LAUDICINA’s and MICHAEL STRICKLAND’S Principles of PR classes worked with Houston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) fall semester to assist with campaign and research projects. METRO sought student help in order to “…strengthen the relationship between METRO and the university, increase public awareness of light-rail, and encourage student/faculty support for more than 500 businesses located along the North, East End and Southeast lines.” See news release attached.

BETH OLSON, ORLANDO ZAMORA, WARD BOOTH, SHAWN McCOMBS and JOSE VAZQUEZ conducted a tour of the building for about 20 students from Sharpstown High School Friday, Jan. 25.

CRAIG CROWE’S students - Katie Brown, Nine Nguyen, and Mary Arevalo - created two PSAs which will air on KPRC-TV for Black History Month (February). Brittaney Willmore completed the voice over for the two projects. One of the 20-second videos is about Lynn Eusan, student activist and the first UH African-American Homecoming Queen, and the other features UH quarterback Andre Ware, who was the first African-American quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy.

RANDY POLK has arranged for Sharron Reynolds-Enriquez, a Los Angeles-based script supervisor, to visit classes Thursday, Feb. 7. There will be seats available in Keith Houk’s Single Camera class at 4:00 in COMM 144 if you or your students might be interested. Ms. Reynolds-Enriquez has more than 30 years of experience working as a script supervisor; she has worked on The Lone Ranger, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Social Network, Benjamin Button, Panic Room and many other films. She is also presenting a professional workshop for the Houston chapter of Women and Film, TV Saturday, Feb. 3, coordinated by Valenti alumnus Michelle Mower. Workshop information: http://www.wift-houston.org/CalenderEditEvent.aspx?eventID=78&Type=0 and http://www.facebook.com/events/197886887017031/permalink/198542623618124/

Valenti School Weekly Update 01.24.13

JAE LEE and BOB HEATH presented their recent research project January 22 for the Local Emergency Planning Committee of Deer Park, Texas. This study entitled "Longitudinal Analysis of Emergency Response Awareness and Practices in Deer Park, Texas” assesses the community perception of the emergency planning and responsiveness of industry, government, and the public schools in one of the largest concentrations of chemical manufacturing in the U.S.

TEMPLE NORTHUP is quoted in a pair of stories in the Victoria Advocate about the local radio station's decision to remove a Ke$ha song from the airwaves:
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2013/jan/20/jrp_censor_pro_012113_199565/
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2013/jan/20/jrp_censor_con_012113_199566/

Degrees Employers Hate and Love (communication is 2nd-most-loved degree):
http://education.yahoo.net/articles/loved_and_hated_degrees.htm?kid=1MN32

Valenti School Weekly Update 01.17.13

XIAO, ZHIWEN W. (2012). Psychosocial correlates of premarital sex among Chinese college students. International Journal of Sexual Health, 24(4), 318-328. The paper was published in December 2012.

ZHIWEN XIAO has been awarded $3,000 through the University's Small Grants Program (2012-2013). The funds will be used to hire research assistants to survey ecological risk factors of HIV infection among African American women.

Amanda Nguyen and Fahima Al-Ugdah have been named national semi-finalists for the American Advertising Agency Association (4A's) Multicultural Advertising Internship Program. MAIP provides students with a paid summer internship plus living expenses.

Valenti School Weekly Update 01.11.13

ARTHUR SANTANA has received a $6,000 New Faculty Research grant. The project, entitled "Engaging a New Channel of Information: Reporters' Use of Social Media," will explore how newspaper journalists are using social media as part of their reporting practices, including sharing the news, searching for sources and citing user-generated content in their news stories. The research will coincide with a course, COMM 4397 News & Social Media, he will teach in the spring.

TEMPLE NORTHUP has been awarded $3,000 through the University's Small Grants Program. The funds will be used to bring eye-tracking equipment to the school for the spring semester, which will be used for both research and teaching purposes.

LINDITA CAMAJ received a $6,000 New Faculty Research Grant which will be used to analyze the implementation of Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation in Montenegro exploring factors that facilitate and/or hinder journalists’ (proxy to citizens) ability to acquire public records and ways to improve their access to governmental information.

LARRY KELLEY’s Local Advertising Campaigns class placed third out of 20 teams in the Edventure Partners Chevrolet Campus Promotional Program. The team placed higher than teams from Texas A&M’s graduate business school and the University of Arizona.

Houston Advertising Federation Scholarship Application found at: http://www.houstonadscholarships.com/

Valenti School Weekly Update 12.13.12

GARTH JOWETT is quoted in USA Today about the power of the media spotlight: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/08/tragedies-power-of-media/1754939/

LARRY KELLEY comments on KHUF about the new rule beginning today that requires TV commercials to reduce audio levels (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (or CALM) Act): http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1355400552-Todays-The-Day-Television-Commercials-Must-Officially-CALM-Down.html

CATHERINE BURCH GRAHAM spoke to News 92 FM’s Bonnie Petrie Friday during its afternoon drive time about her father’s experience at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Valenti School Weekly Update 12.06.12

SUZANNE BUCK completed nine hours of communication training for Intellectual Property Delegates from Hangzhou and Zhejiang Providences of China. Training included social and business etiquette, along with public speaking and Presentation skills.

BETH OLSON and SUZANNE BUCK attended the Valenti Alumni Association’s Holiday Mixer Wednesday, Dec. 5.

JOE LEYDON will appear at Fantastic Fest:
http://www.movingpictureblog.com/2012/11/fantastic-fest-it-is-celebration-of.html
Produced for public television station KLRU of Austin, All My Friends Are Vampires is a way-cool overview of the phantasmagorical frenzy that is Fantastic Fest, the world's wildest genre-movie exposition. I'm on screen to offer pithy commentary at the 11:30 and 15:00 marks (and off-screen, but still heard, at around 24:10). But, hey, you owe it to yourself -- and to director Mario Troncoso -- to savor the whole dang thing.
Posted By Joe Leydon to MovingPictureBlog at 11/30/2012 10:38:00

Advertising major Fahima Al-Uqhah is one of 40 finalists for the American Advertising Federation (AAF) Most Promising Minority Student award. She will attend the February banquet for the nominees in New York City.

Valenti alumnae Michelle Eulene is featured as one of the Red Heroes in the UH Keep Houston Red Campaign:

Keep Houston Red - Red Heroes

Red Heroes like Brenda Melgar and Michelle Eulene are dedicated to shaping a better future, one life at a time. Melgar, who will graduate this year with a degree in Entrepreneurship, volunteers as an art teacher in League City. “It’s really neat to encourage kids who are gifted or simply excited to paint,” she says. Eulene, who earned her Communications degree in 2006, plans to offer free photography sessions to needy individuals and families. “They could use a session to boost their self-confidence,” she says. Watch the videos below to learn more about how Brenda and Michelle Keep Houston Red.

Brenda Melgar Michelle Eulene

Valenti School Weekly Update 11.29.12

CAMAJ, LINDITA. (2012). The Media’s Role in Fighting Corruption: Media Effects on Governmental Accountability. The International Journal of Press/Politics, doi: 10.1177/1940161212462741.

ARTHUR SANTANA is featured in the fall, 2012 UH Magazine in the “New Faculty Focus” section, p. 33.www.uh.edu/magazine

Valenti School Weekly Update 11.20.12

GARTH JOWETT is quoted in the KTRK-TV 13 story about the radio show Amos & Andy on the air in Houston: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8883178

XIAO, ZHIWEN.W., Li, X. & Mehrotra, P (2012). HIV/Sexual Risk Reduction Interventions in China: A Meta-Analysis. Presented at the 98th Annual Convention of National Communication Association in Florida on Nov. 18, 2012.

NORTHUP, TEMPLE & Mulligan, N. (2012). Conceptual Implicit Memory in Advertising Research. Applied Cognitive Psychology, doi: 10.1002/acp.2892.

LARRY KELLEY was a guest speaker in ZHIWEN XIAO’s Health Campaigns course (COMM6345) on Nov. 14, 2012. He spoke about how to develop an effective health campaign from the institutional perspective.

SHAWN McCOMBS, DUNG HUYNH, ANTONIO FARIS, ORLANDO ZAMORA, JOSE VAZQUEZ, MICHAEL PHAN, and WARD BOOTH hosted a group of students from John H. Reagen High School (HISD’s magnet school for computer technology) who toured the building and campus Friday, Nov. 16.

Valenti School Weekly Update 11.07.12

MARTHA J. HAUN served as parliamentarian for the Delegate Assembly of the International Dyslexia Society (IDA) in Baltimore, MD on Oct. 25, 2012. She also served as parliamentarian for the annual Board meetings of the International Multi-Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC), the Academic Language Therapists Association (ALTA) and the ALLIANCE (reps from IDA, IMLEC and ALTA) all of whom met at the same conference.

JULIE FIX conducted a full day workshop for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Houston Chapter on the Accredited in Public Relations credentialing process on Saturday, Oct. 27 at the Valenti School. Fix, who is Accredited and a member of the PRSA College of Fellows, also provided an overview of the 60+ knowledge, skill and abilities areas tested in the APR process, including communication theory and strategic planning.

LARRY KELLEY presented “How to Survive at NSAC” at the Houston Student Advertising Conference. More than 200 students from 20 universities attended the event; 20 students from the AAF-UH chapter participated. Student agency teams had eight hours to create an advertising campaign for Academy team sports. Valenti School students were on each of the top three teams: Dwayne O'Brien was on the third place team; Ebony Smith was on the 2nd place team and Amanda Nguyen was on the 1st place team.

JOE LEYDON will conduct the on-stage Q&A with veteran actor Ed Lauter after the Denver Film Festival screening of Ed Burns' "The Fitzgerald Family Christmas.”

JOE LEYDON will conduct the on-stage Q&A with director Jorge Hinojosa after the Houston Cinema Arts Festival screening of Hinojosa's "Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp.”

Baldemar Rodriguez, a Valenti School alumnus whose film has been featured on our home page, was included in the Houston Press’ 100 Creatives list:
100 Creatives: Baldemar Rodriguez, Film Director/Producer and Actor
Filmmaker Baldemar Rodriguez was studying acting at the University of Houston's School of Theater, when he encountered the age-old problem of finding interesting and relevant roles. "I thought, 'Instead of complaining, I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to get a different degree - I'll learn how to write, direct and produce.' It took me two extra years to get my degree, but now, 15 years later, I've written, directed and produced a film that's going to be distributed nationally."

For the full interview:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2012/11/100_creatives_baldemar_rodrigu.php

Valenti School Weekly Update 11.01.12

XIAO, ZHIWEN, X. & Mehrotra, P. (2012). HIV/Sexual Risk Reduction Interventions in China: A Meta-Analysis. AIDS Patient Care and STDS, 26(10), 597-613. doi: 10.1089/apc.2012.0151. AIDS Patient Care and STDS is a blind and peer-reviewed journal with an impact factor of 2.411.

ARTHUR SANTANA has been asked to serve on the editorial board of Digital Journalism, an international, peer reviewed journal published by Routledge, Taylor and Francis

JULIE FIX represented the Public Relations Society of America Houston Chapter at the society’s annual Leadership Assembly in San Francisco Oct. 13. She also attended the PRSA College of Fellows Induction Banquet that evening and the College’s annual meeting the following day.

JULIE FIX presented a “Lunch and Learn” program on Improving Communication Skills for employees of the British Consulate-General Oct. 17.

JOE LEYDON wrote the cover-story profile of Richard Gere for the 100th issue of Moviemaker Magazine.

JOE LEYDON appeared on "Great Day Houston" to discuss horror movies for a Halloween-themed segment with host Deborah Duncan.

Student Ethan LeCuyer wrote the profile on Adrees Latif’s classroom visits for CLASS News: http://www.uh.edu/class/news/archive/2012/november/pulitzer-prize/

Logo Design Contest

Call for Entries

The Asian American Studies Center (AASC) at UH is launching a competition for the design of its logo. The AASC is an interdisciplinary academic center dedicated to the study of Asians/Asian Americans in the United States and abroad. Its mission is to generate knowledge in, increase awareness of, and foster rich opportunities for learning about the Asian/Asian American experiences. For more information about the center, please check: http://www.uh.edu/aasc/

Requirements

The logo should 1) symbolize and represent the mission of AASC; 2) be easily recognizable and memorable for audiences both inside UH and outside.

Prizes

    • $1000 for first place winner
    • $500 for second place winner
    • $300 for third place winner

Procedure and Rules

The logo competition is open to all students at UH and the deadline for submission of entries is 5 p.m. on Nov. 18, 2012. Entries should be sent to aasclogo@central.uh.edu as high quality .jpg files.

The winning entries will be chosen by a panel of judges that currently includes Yali Zou, Lois Zomora, Gorge Gamble, Thomas DeGregory, Lan Ni, Ling Zhu, Louis Leung, and Elizabeth Gonzales. The winners will be announced by Nov. 30, 2012. The winners will have their designs on all AASC promotional materials in all kinds of media (digital and print). AASC will use the winners’ names in future publicity materials.

For more information, contact Dr. Lan Ni at lni@uh.edu

Valenti School Weekly Update 10.26.12

JILL YAMASAKI is the new Valenti School Faculty Senate representative. She has been elected to serve through Dec. 31, 2015.

JULIE FIX facilitated two sessions –one on research and one on strategic planning – for the fall cohort of the Universal Accreditation Board’s Accredited in Public Relations online study program. The hour-long sessions, conducted as a webinar, were on Sept. 25 and Oct. 16.

LARRY KELLEY has again facilitated our access to Media Audit – the media audience measurement software. Some of the updates this year: inclusion of social media, online media, a trending feature, and the ability to access from anywhere (not just the comm lab). If you’re interested, see Larry for a username and password for access.

The UH Public Relations Student Society of America Chapter (PRSSA) kicked off the new academic year with a panel of recent UH grads who talked about how they got their jobs after graduation. Panelists were Nici Wright, a May 2012 graduate who is working as an intern to prepare for entering the job market, Justin Concepcion, who works as Mayor Annise Parker’s director of social media, Ariana Montelongo de Valdivia, who now works for Houston Media Services TV after previous stints with an agency and nonprofit organizations, Shelly White Millwee, who is director of communications for the Houston Metro Division, American Heart Association, and Ed Davis of Fifth Ring, who is PRSA Houston Chapter president. Wright, de Valdivia and Concepcion are all Valenti School PR majors and Davis was a PR minor.

Valenti School Weekly Update 10.18.12

GARTH JOWETT is quoted in a KPRC-TV story Oct. 12 about body language during the vice presidential debate:
http://www.click2houston.com/news/Body-language-during-VP-debate-decoded/-/1735978/16971488/-/sgrl3nz/-/index.html

MARTHA J. HAUN attended the Texas Speech Communication Association 2012 convention in San Antonio, TX Oct. 11-14 where she participated on a panel on “Reverse Mentoring.” Her presentation was on “The Importance of Sharing Narratives.”
She chaired a panel for the Interpersonal/Organizational Interest group on “Challenges and Choices Young Adults Face.”

DAVE McKINNEY wrote “Life lessons: How an on-campus demonstration inspired a PR class discussion” in a recent issue of PR Tactics. (see attachment for full article).
http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/9948/1055/Life_lessons_How_an_on_campus_demonstration_inspir#.UH2QZNT2MMM.gmail

Valenti School Weekly Update 10.11.12

BOB HEATH published "Was Black Rhetoric Ever Anything but Race in Public Relations? The Challenges of the Rhetoric of Identity" (Chapter 14, pp. 225-244) in Culture, Social Class, and Race in Public Relations, edited by Damion Waymer (Lexington Books, 2012). This is an updated publication based on Bob’s work on Black Rhetoric in the early 1970s.

JOSE VAZQUEZ and MICHAEL PHAN performed an upgrade in August so that the Valenti School's multi-camera studio is now producing content in High Definition (HD). The system utilizes existing studio cameras up-converted to HD along with a new HD switcher, router and signal processing equipment. The upgrade provides Media Production and Journalism students with access to HD equipment similar to what they might find in broadcast facilities after graduation.

The Valenti School's Lance T. Funston Communication Center has won the Texas Building Branch "Outstanding Construction Award" for its category. The award was presented to Bartlett-Cocke, the construction company, at the Texas Building Branch convention. Texas Building Branch is part of a national trade organization for general contracting companies.

Valenti School Weekly Update 10.04.12

JAE LEE (Principle PI) and Shin Jae-Hwa (University of Southern Mississippi) are completing a grant entitled “Cross-Cultural Study of Leadership in Public Relations and Communication Management in Korea.” This $1,800 grant was sponsored by the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations at University of Alabama and includes surveys and interviews of Korean PR professionals. Specific research agendas included: Current Leadership Issues, Abilities, Action Strategies, Leadership Perceptions, and Developing Future Leaders.

TEMPLE NORTHUP received an $8,000 grant for “Houston Eats: An Online Platform Mapping the Rich Culture and History of Food in the Nation’s Most Diverse City” from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)’s “Building a Bridge Between the Knight News Challenge and JMC Programs” initiative. The project will include the establishment of a website using DocumentCloud dedicated to showcasing student work related to food and food production.

XIAO, ZHIWEN. (2012). Correlates of Condom Use Among Chinese College Students in Hunan Province. AIDS Education & Prevention, 24(5), 469-482.  AIDS Education & Prevention is a blind peer-reviewed journal with an impact factor of 1.59.

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER, ARTHUR SANTANA, and BETH OLSON attended the Cougar Ally Training sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center Sept. 28. They will be publically identified as a Cougar Ally via a posted placard.

SUZANNE BUCK gave a presentation Sept. 30 on Sell Your Community: Mastering Presentation Skills to members of the International Economic Development Conference in Houston.

LARRY KELLEY has been named to the editorial review board for the Journal of Advertising.

JOSE VAZQUEZ assisted a group of media production and drama students from Yates High School who used the Valenti School’s studio to shoot a breast cancer awareness PSA.  Yates is HISD’s magnet program for communication (broadcast TV, radio, print and photography).

Crawford Jones (B.A., anticipated Dec. 2012) won the Houston Astros’ “You Make the Call” radio apprenticeship for next season. “To come this far and end up winning it, I’m blessed,” said Crawford, who is the backup quarterback on the UH football team. “I’m completely blessed to be here.” Houston Chronicle columnist Ken Hoffman and former Astros pitcher and manager Larry Dierker were among the members of the contest’s selection panel.

Valenti School Weekly Update 9.27.12

BOB HEATH has been reappointed to the Editorial Board of Management Communication Quarterly, one of the discipline's strongest journals in terms of citations.

MARTHA J. HAUN represented Phi Beta National Professional Fraternity for the Creative and Performing Arts at the 2012 meeting of the Professional Fraternity Association convention in Rochester, NY, Sept. 7-9. HAUN is a past national president of both Phi Beta and PFA which represents some two million Greek professionals nationwide. She and other members of Pi Alpha Tau, Houston alumni chapter, are overseeing the reactivation of the Alpha Epsilon chapter which is now recognized by UH as a campus organization. Robyn Lynn, communication major, is president.

Valenti School Weekly Update 9.19.12

ARTHUR SANTANA is quoted in the Daily Cougar story “Faculty attract to diversity opportunity:”
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/09/13/faculty-attract-to-diversity-opportunity/
 
SUZANNE BUCK completed nine hours of communication training for Public Administration Delegates from the Hainan Province of China. Training included: Public Speaking Skills, Business and Social Etiquette, and Intercultural Communication.
 
DAVID MCKINNEY contributed a piece about communicating organizational change (attached) in Cutlip and Center's Effective Public Relations (11th Edition)(2012).

Valenti School Weekly Update 9.6.12

BOB HEATH published a chapter titled “Risk Management and Communication: Pressures and Conflicts of a Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility” in A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: Pressures, Conflicts, Reconciliation, edited by A.Lindgreen, P. Kotler, F. Maon, and J. Vanhamme (with Michael J. Palenchar--UH MA, Katherine McComas, and Stephanie Proutheau--UH M) (2012, pp. 121-140). England: Gower Publishing Limited.

CATHERINE BURCH GRAHAM and CAROLYN CANVILLE are quoted in the Daily Cougar article “Students, faculty use online resources” Sept. 6, 2012: http://thedailycougar.com/2012/09/06/students-faculty-use-online-resources/


DAVID McHAM is quoted in the Houston Chronicle Thursday, Aug. 30:

Do you remember where you were when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on July 20, 1969? Here's what a few Houstonians recalled:

"I was working at the Waco News-Tribune at the time, and as it turned out, I did the makeup for the front page and wrote the headline. The anticipation is what I remember more than anything. After the turbulent years of the '60s, this was a great, uniting experience for all of us."

David McHam, instructional professor at the University of Houston's Valenti School of Communication

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Houstonians-remember-watching-Armstrong-s-moonwalk-3825398.php

KEITH HOUK’s former students Jason Hartley, Kevin Housand, Charles Propst and Eric Salzman will participate in the Vegas Cinefest Film Festival next month. Their film “Chameleon Code” will be screened as part of the festival. They finished the rough cut of the film in a Special Problems course.

Chameleon Code

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2072920/vegascinefest.com

The following list of Valenti School of Communication students attended the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention in Las Vegas, NV, last month. They are part of the UH student organization El Gato.

www.uhelgato.com

Valenti School Weekly Update 8.29.12

BOB HEATH published chapter 2, "Western Classical Rhetorical Tradition and Modern Public Relations: Culture of Citizenship" (pp. 25-41) in K. Sriramesh and D. Vercic (Eds.) Culture and Public Relations: Links and Implications. (Routledge/Taylor and Francis).
 
SUZANNE BUCK served as Lead Faculty Member during the summer New UH Student Orientations for parents.
 
SUZANNE BUCK completed an eight-week online training course, ACAdemic Learning, through San Jacinto Community College.  The program is designed to assist instructors with developing new ways to engage students face-to-face and online while promoting: Active- Collaborative- Authentic Learning Styles.
 
SUZANNE BUCK is the Faculty Advisor for ATG Foundations, a new UH student organization, founded by Ali Younes, communication major. The non-profit organization assists students in the transition from high school to colleges and universities. http://www.atgfoundations.org/index.html
 
Kate Blackburn (M.A., 2008) received a “Top Four Paper” award from the Interpersonal Communication Division for the NCA convention in November. Her paper is titled “Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Public and Private Pronoun Usage in Relationship Breakup Accounts.”

Summer Update 08.23.12

BOB HEATH organized and led a plenary session called "Looking for the Needle of Public Relations in a Disciplinary Haystack" at the International Conference on Social E-xperience held in Barcelona, Spain, July 3-4, 2012. He also delivered a paper titled "Needles, Public Relations, and Disciplinary Haystacks" to lead off the plenary.
 
BOB HEATH presented a workshop on "The Fundamentals of Issue Management" at the Issue Management Council Forum held May 8 at DuPont Corporation headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

ZHIWEN XIAO presented "Mediation Analysis of Safer Sex Self-Efficacy, Sexual Communication, and Condom Use among Chinese MSM and Young Migrants in Beijing," at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington, D.C., 22-27 July 2012.
 
XIAO, Z.W., Li, X., Liu, Y., Li, S., & Jiang, S. (2012). Sexual communication and condom use among Chinese men who have sex with men in Beijing. DOI:10.1080/13548506.2012.687826.
 
ZHIWEN XIAO received the $4,000 UH Friends of Women's Studies Faculty Summer Fellowship for her project “Understanding Sexual Communication and Sexual Assertiveness in Reducing HIV/AIDS among African American Women.”

BETH OLSON spoke about media political coverage on KUHF July 19:
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1342718269-How-Reliable-Is-Media-Coverage-When-It-Comes-To-Politics.html
 
LINDITA CAMAJ presented two research papers at the AEJMC conference in Chicago.
The paper titled "Need for Orientation, Selective Exposure and Attribute Agenda-Setting Effects: Change versus Reinforcement" was presented in a Political Communication Interest Group session. The other paper titled "Media Use and Political Trust in an Emerging Democracy: Setting the Institutional Trust Agenda" was presented in an International Communication Division session. Both papers were part of her dissertation.
 
LINDITA CAMAJ also served as a paper discussant for the International Communication Division session on the topic of "Gender and Media Production and Consumption."
 
MARTHA J. HAUN recently attended the centennial convention of Phi Beta National Professional Fraternity for the Creative and Performing Arts in Columbus, OH where she was elected to the National Council as Director of Special Services. This position includes parliamentary and meeting planning services. She is a past national president of the fraternity.

JILL YAMASAKI, with co-PIs Drs. Janis Hutchinson and Andrew Gordon from the Department of Cultural Studies, received a UH QEP Curriculum Development Grant in the amount of $9,878 for "Anthropology and Family Health: An Interdisciplinary Perspective."
 
JILL YAMASAKI was invited to serve on the board of directors of PAWS Houston, a nonprofit organization in partnership with all hospitals in the Houston Medical Center to promote the human-animal bond and the health-related benefits of that relationship.
 
ARTHUR SANTANA defended his dissertation entitled “Civility, Anonymity and the Breakdown of a New Public Sphere" May 24.
 
BETH OLSON, JULIE FIX, WARD BOOTH, JOSE VAZQUEZ, MICHAEL PHAN, SHAWN McCOMBS, and ANTONIO FARIS conducted tours of the media production area and the CTC Aug. 1 for five groups and August 8 for six groups of high school students participating in Project Grad Career Exploration. A total of approximately 200 students visited the building on those two days. Project Grad is designed to increase high school graduation rates and college attendance rates for economically disadvantaged youth. http://ci.projectgradhouston.org/default.aspx
 
JULIE FIX served as a judge for the 2012 Harris County Medical Society’s Francis C. Moore, M.D., Medical Journalism Awards and attended the awards luncheon June 1. Several Valenti School alumni were there, either as winners, judges or HCMS employees.
 
JULIE FIX conducted a two-day writing training for communication and marketing employees of Mitsubishi/Caterpillar North America May 29 and 31.
 
JULIE FIX was a co-facilitator on strategy for the Online Accreditation Study Group’s Summer Cohort on July 10.
 
Lisa Merkl (B.A. 1992, Journalism; M.A. 1997, PR) won an IABC Bronze Quill Award of Excellence for the story: "Sensors to Detect Explosives, Monitor Food" and an IABC Bronze Quill Award of Merit for the story "Evolutionary 'Winners' and 'Losers' Revealed."
http://www.bchs.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2011/0602_chronicDisease.php
http://www.chem.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2011/0120_sensors.php
She also won two Houston Press Club Lone Star Awards in the following categories:
· Press Release (Hard News) - Second Place
· PR Communicator of the Year – Second Place
 
Mike Emery (lecturer) received the following awards:
Public Relations Society of America – Excalibur Award
Blog – Gold award
Houston Press Club Lone Star Awards:
Press Release (Hard News) - First Place
Press Release (Soft News) - First, Second and Third Place
 
Maegan Clements (B.A. PR in progress) won two International Association of Business Communicators' Bronze Quill Awards:
the Rising Star Award (honoring a promising communications professional)
an Award of Excellence for Writing in the Student Division.
 
Blake Bibby (B.A., 2012) was awarded outstanding senior thesis honors for his UH Honors College project, "Bridging the Cultural Fundraising Gap Between Inner-City Nonprofits and Potential Partnerships." His Senior Honors Thesis was overseen by Dr. Jennifer Vardeman-Winter and Professor Julie B. Fix. Working with an inner-city nonprofit in Houston's Fifth Ward, Blake targeted strategic public relations opportunities that would help fund the Fifth Ward Saints, a youth football organization and after school program. Studying message appeals, target publics, and the philanthropic practices of corporate America, Blake's ideas have been implemented ranging in areas from corporate pitches, social media, and partnership correspondence for the Saints.
 
Wenjun Zhu (M.A. 2011) will be attending UH Graduate College of Social Work in the fall.

Louis Casiano (B.A.) is interning with MSNBC in Seattle.

Ruy Lozano (B.A., 2011) has been named chief PIO for the Houston Fire Department.
 
Randi Germann (B.A. 2012) is the Disney Internships & Programs Coordinator at Disney Worldwide Services, Inc.
 
Anna Gallegos (B.A. in progress) interned at the Oakland Tribune. See one of her stories here:
http://lnkd.in/upDeUw
 
Mayra Cruz (B.A. 2009) is in graduate school at the University of Missouri. She interned at the Houston Chronicle.
 
Ariana Benavidez, Matthew McIntosh, Audris Ponce, Jed Ocot and Eduardo Venegas were recent interns at the Houston Chronicle.
 
Josh Siegel, Gilbert Requena, John Brannen and Phillipe Craig are working as contract employees in the sports dept at the Houston Chronicle. They are current or recently graduated students.
 
Sam Kahn, Jr. (B.A. 2005) will join ESPN next month to be a correspondent for their website featuring Texas A&M. He has covered UH sports for the Houston Chronicle.
 
Zahra Ahmed (B.A. 2012) joined the Fort Bend Herald as a reporter.
 
Naheeda Sayeeduddin (B.A. 2012) joined the Fort Bend Herald as a reporter.
 
John Rigg is working at Community Impact, a newspaper in northwest Houston.
 
Casey Wooten (B.A. 2010) has accepted a fellowship to work toward his master’s degree at American University.
 
Sasha Schwendenwein (B.A. 2010) is job hunting in New York City after graduating from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.[A note from David McHam, who also graduated from the journalism school at Columbia: Sasha is the 14th former student of his to graduate from the journalism school there.]
 
Patricia Estrad (B.A., 2010) completed her master’s at Universidad Europea de Madrid.
 
Misha Campbell is the Director of Communications for the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Mid-Atlantic Chapter and continues to write for MSN.com and is an alumni instructor at Georgetown University.

Looking for Fall 2012 classes?

Although Valenti School classes are mostly full for Fall, there are some great courses with seats still available.

Some of them are being offered at our outreach campuses: Northwest (Lone Star College in Tomball) and Sugar Land. These are both great campuses to take classes on, especially since parking is free and plentiful.

And, there are two Selected Topics courses (COMM 4397) scheduled for right here in our Com Building that have spaces available. One, taught by Dr. Lindita Camaj, takes advantage of the presidential political season, Media and Political Campaigns. The other, taught by former KHOU-TV anchor/reporter Dave Fehling, focuses on Media Production for Journalists and offers insight into how to develop good story-telling skills that cross from print to broadcast to web.

To find these classes, log on to PeopleSoft, do a search on Fall 2012 COMM undergraduate classes with open seats.

Weekly Update 05.10.12

LARRY KELLEY will receive an Outstanding Faculty Award from the Houston Alumni Organization at the Life Member Circle of Excellence Reception. The award is designed to recognize faculty members for excellence in teaching as well as those who build a sense of community among students and strengthen the bond between students and the university. Students nominate faculty for one of three such awards the HAO gives annually.

COMM 3369 Public Relations Writing students Lorena Cozzari, Nina Martinez, Courtney Riedmann as well as student Luis Morales-Lopez recently formed Evoke Communications and compiled a media plan for a grant-funded project under the guidance of instructor CATHERINE BURCH GRAHAM. The students presented their media plans to 150 attendees at a May 2 event showcasing semester-long work by College of Technology students.

DEBORAH BRIDGES and SUZANNE BUCK provided two days of communication training for the Pearland Parks and Recreation management, directors, and communications personnel. Topics included professional and public speaking and media and crisis communication. Each received a Certificate of Appreciation from the city for excellence in instruction to the department.

Weekly Update 05.02.12

MARTHA J. HAUN, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, has recently served as parliamentary consultant for the Memorial Student Center Board; Texas A & M University; The Memorial Council of Homeowners, Houston,; Kingwood Homeowners Association and the county Republican convention (April 28, 2012) at Brazosport High School in Freeport.

LAN NI (2012, co-author with Jeong-Nam Kim, Sei-Hill Kim and Jangyul Robert Kim) has published "What makes people hot? Applying the situational theory of problem solving to hot-issue publics," Journal of Public Relations Research, 24, 144-164.

LAN NI presented a paper entitled "Intercultural competencies and immigration experiences: Organization-public relationships and impact on mental health" at the University of Houston symposium, Immigration and the Immigrant Experience: Houston and Beyond on April 20, 2012.

FRED SCHIFF and four M.A. students authored a paper that’s been accepted for the American Sociology Association’s national conference in Denver on Aug. 19.  It's entitled "Institutional Elites and the Upper Class" and will be presented in the panel on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility. The four students are: Adriana Baltazar, James Duvall, Erin Jordan and Robert (Clint) Walker.
The url is:
http://convention3.allacademic.com/one/asa/asa12/index.php?click_key=1&cmd=Multi+Search+Search+Load+Session&session_id=163823&PHPSESSID=a7480076ccb08c4a66acf957f3b0e1d9

Erin Jordan (M.A. candidate, PR) was awarded the Alfred Fleishman Diversity Fellowship with Fleishman-Hillard, a leading global strategic communication firm. This competitive fellowship was designed to increase diversity within the organization, by offering ethnically diverse students an opportunity to receive mentorship from senior public relations practitioners and a training opportunity to join Fleishman-Hillard at higher career levels. Erin is one of seven fellows selected nationwide and will join the Fleishman-Hillard Dallas office. Additional information about the fellowship is available at: http://fleishmanhillard.com/2012/01/04/fleishman-hillard-creates-alfred-fleishman-diversity-fellowships-to-provide-career-opportunities-for-minority-college-students/

Cheng-en Lee (B.A. advertising) has been accepted to the Syracuse graduate program. She will focus on advertising.

Houston Chronicle internship partnership is featured in the Spring 2012 issue of UH Magazine:
http://issuu.com/uhmagazine/docs/spring2012uhmagazine/22

Weekly Update 04.25.12

CATHERINE BURCH GRAHAM participated in a roundtable discussion about partnerships between charitable organizations and the Valenti School of Communication, which is the focus of Graham's 4368 PR Campaigns class this semester. Social workers from across the country attended the event at Epiphany Community Health Outreach Services.

JOE LEYDON hosted a panel titled "Evolution of Women Behind the Camera" with actresses-turned-filmmakers Nicole Kidman, Famke Janssen, Beth Grant and Carrie Preston April 21 at the Nashville Film Festival.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nashvillefilmfestival/7101940811/in/photostream

Weekly Update 04.20.12

LAN NI was awarded a $6,000 Grant-in-Aid from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. Her project is titled "Immigration Experiences and Mental Health: The Role of Intercultural Communication Competencies and Organization-Public Relationships." She will be conducting surveys and interviews with immigrant publics to examine the role of individual- and organizational-level factors on these publics' anxiety and uncertainty management as well as their mental health state. The grant will be used to fund two graduate research assistants who will assist with data collection.

LARRY KELLEY and ROSARIO LAUDACINA's National Student Advertising Competition class tied for 5th place in the District 10 Competition. The top six teams were all within 10 points of each other. American Advertising Federation (AAF) judges gave the student team a Team Character Award, as well. Scott Gilbert will receive the District 10 scholarship for Most Outstanding Advertising Student.

LARRY KELLEY received the AAF District 10 AT&T Outstanding Advertising Educator of the Year award. He is now entered into the national pool of the top 18 Advertising Educators in the country. Here's the link to the story in The Daily Cougar: http://thedailycougar.com/2012/04/19/professor-awarded-advertising-honor/

JULIE FIX was interviewed by a TSN (Texas State Network) freelance reporter for a piece on the second anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon crisis.

LAURA ASHLEY hosted a roundtable on Friday, April 13th for "Internships for Academic Credit" at the 3rd Annual Effective Teaching Practices seminar co-hosted by UH Faculty Development and Instructional Support (FDIS) and UH Learning through Discovery.

Jesus Acevedo (B.A.) has received a 2011 Texas Associated Press Managing Editors award in the Sports Writing (Spanish Language) Category. The story was a feature on a female boxer from Houston, Marlen Esparza. Jesus took Advanced Reporting and Feature Writing with DAVID McHAM and wrote for The Daily Cougar. He wrote the story while he was an intern at the Houston Chronicle. Here is the link to the award.http://www.tapmecontest.org/winners/viewentry.cfm?newspaperid=91&entryid=11394 

CHARLIE THORP's Local Advertising Campaigns class was featured in The Daily Cougar: http://thedailycougar.com/2012/04/12/cougars-advertise-for-honda/

Weekly Update 04.10.12

NORTHUP, T. (2012). Triggering body dissatisfaction: The role of familiarity on subsequent evaluations of the self. Journalism and Mass Communication, 2, 294-303.

Amanda Kennedy (M.A. 2012) has been accepted to the doctoral program at University of Maryland to study public relations.

LINDITA CAMAJ’s student Michael Carrell will be presenting a research paper titled "U.S. Media Coverage of the Humanitarian Crisis in Tibet" at the UH Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium, which takes place on Thursday, April 12th, 2012 in the Honors College Commons. He wrote this paper for COMM 4314 Social Issues in Journalism last semester. He will be representing the Comm department alongside 75 other selective students from other departments. He is scheduled to present his paper at 1:30. See the flyer attached.

KPRC-TV reporter Mary Benton and former Houston Chronicle reporter David Ellison spoke to DARRYL EWING's Comm 2310 class Saturday about covering diverse communities in conjunction with the Multicultural Reporting chapter in the course text.

Weekly Update 04.04.12

BOB HEATH gave the closing presentation at the 27th International Communication Conference, "Building Trust through Communication in Times of Crisis," hosted by the Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, on March 23, 2012. The title of the paper is "The Construction of Organizational Discourse: Rhetoric and Social Legitimacy." He was also interviewed for the student-run blog on communication problems and solutions.

BOB HEATH served on a panel discussing public relations and organizational communication curriculum for Spanish Universities, March 24, 2012. The other panelists were scholars from Britain and New Zealand. Six universities from Spain had participants in the seminar.

Tatjana Hocke (MA, UH) successfully defended her dissertation, "Prepared for Natural Disasters? How Children and Families Understand and Make Sense of Natural Disaster Preparedness,” at the University of Tennessee. It was directed by Michael Palenchar (MA, UH).

Meng Chen (M.A., 2011) has been accepted by the doctoral program in communication at UC-Davis.

Scott Gilbert (B.A. student) and Bené Petty (M.A. candidate) will be honored at the Advertising Education Foundation of Houston April 18. Gilbert will receive an AEFH Scholarship, and Petty won the Saurage Research Academic Distinction Scholarship.

Weekly Update 03.30.12

TEMPLE NORTHUP was an invited panelist at "Words Awake," a conference held at Wake Forest University celebrating alumnae from Wake Forest who have worked successfully as professional writers. Temple discussed his time in L.A. working on sitcoms as well as his transition to teaching at the college level.

RANDY POLK interviews Lucas Mireles (B.A., M.A.) at SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, where Mireles’ short film playtime (spielzeit) was screened. Students Ali Iqbal and Viral Bhakta taped the interview for the Student Video Network (running time 10:50 with acknowledgment to Valenti School at approximately 10:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRQr7bPnhuc&feature=youtu.be

Kristen Boucher, a master's candidate in public relations, is the first recipient of the Chester Burger scholarship for excellence and leadership in corporate communication given the Public Relations Society of America Foundation. The award will be presented at the PRSA Foundation's annual Paladin Dinner in NYC where she will give a short speech. The Paladin Dinner honors industry leaders who have been advocates for the profession by advancing academic research, study and leadership in public relations. The news release announcing Kristen's award may be found here:
http://media.prsa.org/article_display.cfm?article_id=2544

Weekly Update 03.22.12

BOB HEATH and Stephanie Proutheau (MA, UH) delivered a paper on March 8 at a conference in Roubaix, France entitled: Communiquer dans un Monde de Normes: L'information et the communication dan the enjeux contemporains de la "mondialisation." The paper title was "Narratives of Certitude for Norms of Uncertainty Regarding Genetically Modified Organisms: Norms, Norms, Who Has the Norms?" The conference was jointly sponsored by the International Communication Association, le Groupement d'Etudes et de Recheres en Information et Communication (Geriico) and la Societe Francaise des Sciences de L'information and de la Communication (SFSIC).

Lauren Rosenbaum, who is currently serving as vice president of the Public Relations Student Society of America UH Chapter, was elected to serve on the PRSSA National Committee as vice president of public relations.  She will serve a one-year term, beginning June 1.

John Rigg, one of the interns at the Houston Chronicle, was the first reporter to arrive on the scene for this story:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Siblings-found-living-in-abandoned-school-bus-in-3389783.php

The following advertising students have been named to the AAF Alpha Delta Sigma Honor Society. This is a national honor based on AAF activity and GPA. They are: Scot Gilbert, Fahima Al-Uqdah, Mike Le, Ari Diozon and Ginnie Carrillo.

Weekly Update 03.08.12

SMITH, B. G. (2012). Organic integration: The natural process underlying integrated communication. Journal of Communication Management, 16(1).

SMITH, B. G. (2011). Becoming Quirky: Towards an understanding of practitioner-blogger relations in public relations. Public Relations Journal. 5(4)

LARRY KELLEY’s advertising students’ performance at the Houston American Advertising Federation awards dinner was featured in The Daily Cougar:
http://thedailycougar.com/2012/03/08/mad-fest-is-a-success-for-ad-students/

Keith Cordero Jr.  (B.A. 2011, Broadcast Journalism) who featured March 5th in a Houston Chronicle story about job search strategies in the present economy:
http://www.chron.com/default/article/Q-A-Facebook-isn-t-just-for-party-pics-3378760.php

Melissa Seuffert (B.A.) is now the director of communications and promotions at the Houston Downtown Alliance. She was previously part of the Houston Symphony marketing team.

Weekly Update 03.01.12

BOB HEATH and Judy Sultan (M.A. UH) recently published a chapter in Pre-crisis Planning, Communication, and Management edited by B.A. Olaniran, D.E. Williams, and W. T. Coombs. The chapter title is Pre-crisis Management and Communication: Slippery Steps or Solid Footing? The case featured in this chapter was drawn from Ms. Sultan's master's thesis.

Houston American Advertising Federation (AAF) recognized the Valenti School students (taught by LARRY KELLEY and ROSARIO LAUDACINA) with a total of seven gold and silver medals in their recent ADDY awards dinner. The 2011 National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) students won four ADDY’s (two gold; two silver) for their work on the client JC Penney’s for overall mixed media campaign, magazine category, television and collateral categories. KEITH HOUK’s Television II class assisted with the television campaign. Individual students recognized included Isabelle Chabrier (gold), Joe McKinney (silver), Jaime Alvizar (silver) and Matt Whiteley (silver). Gold medal winners advance to District 10 student competition. The group’s awards placed them eighth overall, ahead of 52 other companies that entered.

The Hyundai Equus ad (“So Fast”) that aired during the Academy Awards was shot in Houston.  Four UH students/recent grads worked as production assistants on the ad. The production company was based in Los Angeles and contacted Zen Films (Houston) looking for crew members. Michael Penny (B.A. Media Production) works at Zen and tapped four of his classmates from KEITH HOUK’s Fall 2010 Digital Cinematography class who were hired to work on the production.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCF9zsyujHA

Scholarship opportunities presented by the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication

    • Do you have an excellent GPA overall and in your Comm major?

  • Do you demonstrate a financial need and need additional assistance in paying for college expenses: Tuition, fees, books, etc?

  • Do you possess strong leadership qualities, strong work ethic, and social skills in community avocation?

  • Are you close to graduation and have a clear path for your future career goals?

If the answer is yes, then you may qualify for different scholarship opportunities presented by the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication and its many partners that generously donate to the contribution of financial need students that are bright, talented, gifted, organized, goal-oriented, leaders, and have a strong work ethic. You may apply online:
https://producer.valenti.uh.edu/schoolapps/applications/JJVSOC_scholarship.php

Questions? Email Academic Advisor Orlando Zamora at
ozamora@central.uh.edu 

Deadline: Friday, March 2

Weekly Update 02.23.12

Natalie Wong Camarata (B.A.) created the first Twitter feed of an open-heart surgery Tuesday, Feb. 28, in her role as Digital Marketing Manager at Memorial Hermann Hospital.  Intern Jared Culpepper (B.A. media production, 2012) assisted with the postings.

  http://www.memorialhermann.org/locations/northwest/heartandvascular/live-tweet-heart-surgery/ 

  http://blog.chron.com/medblog/2012/02/follow-along-with-a-live-open-heart-surgery/

  Keith Nickerson (M.A. Spring 2012) has been accepted to the doctoral program in mass communication at the University of Texas at Austin.  His offer includes a four-year assistantship. 

Weekly Update 02.10.12

BOB HEATH published an article in the recent special issue of Management Communication Quarterly on Corporate Social Responsibility and State-owned Enterprises. The article title is State-owned Enterprises: CSR Solution or Just Another Bump in the Road, 25, 725-731.

TEMPLE NORTHUP has been selected to participate in this year's Scripps Howard Leadership Academy.  The Academy, which takes place in June at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, brings mass communication professionals and scholars together with seasoned administrators to share administrative strategies and insights.

Terry Jastrow - Alumnus

"Let's start at the end of the story to provide meaning and context to the beginning. At the end of my 24 year tenure as a producer and director for ABC Sports, I was widely considered one of the elite producers/directors in sports television history having been nominated 17 times for Emmys and having won 7 Emmys. I was also given the distinct honor of directing the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. During my years at ABC Sports I produced/directed six Olympic Games, a Super Bowl, Indy 500, 68 Major Championships of golf (U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship), numerous episodes of ABC's Wide World of Sports, and was Howard Cosell's (most famous sportscaster of the time) handpicked producer and produced the majority of his programs during his prime.



And it all started at the University of Houston.



ABC Sports was televising a PGA TOUR event in Houston and members of the golf team were invited to work with ABC announcers as spotters and scorers. Most passed on the opportunity, but I thought sounds interesting. After my first taste of TV sports I knew it was for me spanning the globe to bring a constant variety of sports, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat what a terrific way to live a life.



This event caused me to switch my major to Radio/TV and it was my great good fortune to be put into the knowledgeable and caring hands of Dr. Hawes and his colleague Dr. Battin. It was in my junior and senior years at the U of H that I learned the basic fundamentals of television both technically and artistically in the sense that we worked on video, audio, lighting, along with storytelling and music, etc. My years at the U of H were terrific exciting, informative, challenging, and fun. Dr. Hawes was always there offering the proper balance of study and encouragement. He has the greatest of all gifts of a teacher…he helps you believe that you can do it. He helps you understand what about you is special and helps you nurture and grow from your own personal strengths.



During my final few months at the U of H, ABC hired me as a production assistant and literally the day after graduation, I flew to New York to start my job and professional life with the network. It might be a stretch to say that I could've never accomplished this without the encouragement, guidance, respect, and love that I receive from Dr. Hawes and others at the U of H, but let's just say that he and they played a hugely important role in my success.



One final comment to any student who may be reading this you can do it you have to believe in yourself and your dream and dedicate all that's required in terms of time, thought, and effort to achieve your goals and never let anybody or anything discourage you and you can do it."



Terry Jastrow

Weekly Update 01.26.12

TEMPLE NORTHUP has received a $6,000 New Faculty Research grant from the UH Division of Research.  The project is entitled "Moderated Mediated Model of Implicit Cultivation," and will explore how implicit attitudes mediate the relationship between media exposure and explicit attitudes.  He will be using software and procedures to test millisecond response accuracy.

JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER was awarded a $6,000 New Faculty Research grant from the UH Division of Research. Her project is titled, "Communication strategies of women-focused grassroots organizations," and she will be interviewing communicators of local grassroots campaigns in the Houston area. This research will support a general theory of women's health/risk communication to define communication attributes according to different groups of women.

BETH OLSON, DAVID MCHAM, and CRAIG CROWE have been asked to serve on the Center for Student Media Task Force, chaired by Matt Dulin, director for the Dept. of Student Publications. Student Publications has been moved to the new "Student Life" cluster within the Division of Student Affairs which also includes the Student Video Network and Coog Radio. The task force is charged with providing a set of recommendations for a future Center for Student Media to be developed by fall, 2013.

JOE LEYDON discussed Academy Award nominations on KROI-FM Tuesday morning.

JOSE VAZQUEZ, MICHAEL PHAN, five Media Production work-study employees and one alumna, Michelle Rexroat (B.A.) provided video documentation for the Houston Marathon Committee on Sunday, January 15th. This marks the eighth consecutive year of shooting the finish line and documenting other critical points for the Marathon. The committee has already arranged to work with the Valenti School again next year.

Jack J. Valenti School of Communication Alumni Association
Undergraduate Scholarships

The Jack J. Valenti School of Communication Alumni Association is pleased to announce the availability of up to $10,000 in scholarships for the 2012-2013 academic year. Scholarships will be awarded to undergraduate students majoring in Communication, and will range from $1,000 to $2,500 in amount.



The Scholarships

The scholarships will be paid in two installments (fall and spring semesters) to assist with tuition, fees and textbook costs. The recipients must enroll full time each semester, and must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.50 at the close of the fall semester to receive the spring installment. These awards apply only to students attending the University of Houston Main Campus and not other universities in the UH System.

Eligibility Requirements – Please note there are separate applications for incoming freshmen and current undergraduates. Be careful to complete the correct application.

Incoming Freshmen

• U.S. citizen or permanent Texas resident.
• Texas high school graduate approved for admission to the UH main campus in the 2012-2013 academic year without waiver, on an unconditional basis.
• Full time enrollment (12 hours per semester) at the UH main campus.
• 3.00 minimum cumulative high school GPA.
• Declared Communication major.



Undergraduates

• U.S. citizen or permanent Texas resident.
• Current School of Communication undergraduate.
• Full time enrollment (12 hours per semester) at the UH main campus.
• 3.50 minimum cumulative undergraduate GPA.
• Declared Communication major.



Selection Criteria

The scholarship selection committee will consider academic performance, financial need, extracurricular activities, and personal essays. The committee will also consider the applicant’s level of interest and experience in the communication field, although experience is not required for consideration. The committee will determine the relative weight given to each criterion. There are no restrictions to applicants based on gender, race, nationality, physical disability or sexual orientation.

Top candidates may be asked to participate in a brief telephone interview.

Recipients will be notified in writing in April 2012 and are required to attend the Valenti School of Communication Alumni Association’s annual meeting, to be held in August 2012, to accept the awards.

Application Requirements

Applications may be filled out online or mailed to the Houston Alumni Association office. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered. Include all of the following items in the application package:

• Completed and signed application (unsigned if submitted online).
• Official high school transcript(s) - Incoming Freshmen applicants only.
• Official undergraduate transcript(s) – Current undergraduate applicants only.
• A minimum of two letters of recommendation. One must come from a teacher/professor, and the other(s) may come from a teacher/professor, advisor, community leader, employer or counselor.

Application Deadline

Application packages must be received or postmarked by March 23, 2012 to be considered. Mail complete application package to:

VSOCAA Scholarship Committee
Houston Alumni Association
P. O. Box 230345
Houston, Texas 77223-0345

Questions? Please contact Tempest Solcich


tsolcich@gmail.com

Application form

Weekly Update 01.19.12

LARRY KELLEY's Local Advertising Campaigns class was featured in the December issue of Texas Medical Center News. UH Students Help Recruit Doctors to U.S. Public Health Service (on pages 1 and 12 in hard copy): http://www.texasmedicalcenter.org/root/en/TMCServices/News/2011/12-15/UH+Students+Help+Recruit+Doctors.htm  You also can click on this link – http://tinyurl.com/869ftjq – to get a PDF version to view/save

Lucas Morales' (B.A., '06; M.A., '10) short film will be screened at the Sundance Film Festival. KEITH HOUK is quoted in the story. http://thedailycougar.com/2012/01/17/former-cougar-gets-ready-for-playtime-date-at-sundance/

Weekly Update 01.11.12

ZHIWEN XIAO received a $6,000 CLASS Grant-in-Aid to Start New Research. This project is an on-line HIV prevention survey of gay males in Texas. The goal of this study is to compare the efficiency and cost of recruiting these subjects from the Internet versus other venues and examine the demographic and behavioral differences between participants recruited from each type of method.  

Students in CATHERINE BURCH GRAHAM's COMM 4368 PR Campaigns class presented their final projects in the M.D. Anderson Library Rockwell Pavilion during a Red Carpet Event hosted by the College of Technology. The first-of-its-kind collaboration highlighted the college's "Operations Reality Show" project and aims to reinforce recognition of UH in the Houston community.

DAVID MCHAM is featured in the on-line Baylor Alumni Magazine. Click on "Play Video" on p. 34 for the story:  http://www.pursuantmedia.com/baylorline/1211/default.asp?sid=TPG+5rl5ZCEF

weekly update 12.7.11

MARTHA HAUN recently served as parliamentarian for the International Dyslexia Association in Chicago; The International Multi-Structured Language Education Council in Chicago; The ALLIANCE, in Chicago; The Association of Public School Nurses in Austin; and Post Oak Lane Owners Association in Houston.

BETH OLSON has been invited to join the Jack Yates School of Communications Advisory Committee. Yates is an HISD magnet school.

KEITH HOUK and MIKE EMERY's classes hosted KTRK Ch. 13 meteorologist Casey Curry's visit to JJVSoC on Nov. 29. Curry, who also appears on ABC national broadcasts, toured the school's new television studios and spoke to students. The following day, she talked about her visit and showed photos of her with students during the morning newscast. Curry also is serving as the honorary chair of UH's International Association of Business Communicators' "Cougar Paws for the Cause" campaign benefitting aniMeals on Wheels.
Here's some additional coverage of last week's guest speaker (with photos): http://mikemcguff.blogspot.com/2011/12/ktrk-13s-casey-curry-becoming-uh.html

Two advertising students, Rose Hinojosa and Mike Le, have been named to the American Advertising Federation's Most Promising Minority Student Class of 2012. These two students are among 60 chosen out of hundreds that apply.

Weekly Update 11.22.11

BOB HEATH participated in a daylong pre-conference program at the National Communication Association (NCA) on November 15, in New Orleans. The program, entitled "Risk and Crisis Communication Scholars Panel Discussion: Best Practices for Partnering to Build Community Resilience,” featured work by scholars from 11 Universities, various state and federal agencies, and local officials in the New Orleans region.

He also presented two position papers. One was on the use and development of risk and crisis response networks for coastal preparedness. Another addressed the role of conflict and strategies for conflict resolution and planning. This program was co-sponsored by NCA and the American Meteorological Society.

BOB HEATH participated in a second daylong pre-conference program at NCA on e-publishing. He presented a challenge paper addressing the perils of e-publishing and promotion and tenure.

BOB HEATH presented a paper entitled "Was Black Rhetoric Ever Anything but Race in Public Relations? The Challenge of the Rhetoric of Identity" at the NCA conference Nov. 18. The program title was "Opening Minds, Expanding Possibilities: Exploring the Role of Race and Class-based Perspectives in Public Relations." It included a paper by Michael Palenchar (MA, UH) on "Risk Communication, Community Right-to-know, and Risk Equity."

LARRY KELLEY and seven AAF-UH students attended the AAF National Student Conference in Washington D.C. where they participated in a two-day workshop about the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC).

Please tell your students to apply for a series of 24 Advertising Education Foundation of Houston scholarships. Scholarships are available to advertising, public relations, corporate communication and production majors. Many include internships. One application puts a student in the running for all scholarships. Last year UH students received six scholarships, more than any other school.

Application available at: (please copy and paste into your browser):

www.houstonadscholarships.com

Weekly Update 11.17.11

DAVID McHAM received the Baylor University’s first Legacy of Excellence Award in Journalism Education to mark his 50 years of teaching. See attached file for coverage from Baylor University.

DAVID McHAM and MICHAEL “TATE” BARKLEY provided a three-hour seminar about U.S. media law and regulation to a group of delegates from the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communications.

SHAWN McCOMBS and YOUMEI LIU also provided a three-hour seminar on the impact and role of information technology in media for this group. A tour of the Computer Technology Center was included.

WARD BOOTH provided a tour of the Media Production Area.

SUZANNE BUCK coordinated the visit, which was sponsored by the Houston Mayor’s Office.

Eighteen students took part in the Houston AAF student conference where students from the region spent the day as teams developing an advertising plan for Sunkist. Two students were on the winning teams: Joe McKinney was on the 1st place team, and Dwayne Obrien was on the 3rd place team.

One announcement for your students:

December 1 is the kick-off for ADDY entries. Students can pick up their forms between 4 to 7 p.m. on that day at Locke Bryan Productions. While the ADDY Awards are largely an advertising industry recognition, there are categories for film, corporate communication and other areas for student work from public relations, corporate communication and production.

Weekly Update 10.26.11

MARTHA J. HAUN attended the 2011 convention of the Texas Speech Communication Association in Dallas, Texas where she served as a member of the Executive Committee (as Parliamentarian) and the Executive Council. She participated in three programs: (1) Teaching on-line communication classes; (2) Primary Intervention in crisis management; and (3) Sharing the Story of our Organizational Heritage and Culture.

Recent public relations major Amanda Jovliet (B.A. 2011) served as a spokesperson for Valenti's School of Communication, describing the public relations research and strategic counsel she and her fellow students completed in JENNIFER VARDEMAN-WINTER's Issues Management class. The students interviewed consumers about health care preferences, and they advised Legacy Community Health Services about how to improve communication to those likely to benefit from their services.

The project was featured in a recent UH Moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J04aK_uGKhk&feature=youtu.be

LARRY KELLEY’s The Advertising Media Workbook and Sourcebook with co-authors Donald Jugenheimer and Kim Sheehan is now in its third edition. The book is published by M.E. Sharpe.

Weekly Update 10.18.11

BOB HEATH participated in the 2nd International Conference on Crisis Management and Communication in Aarhus, Denmark. The Aarhus University School of Business and Social Science hosted the conference entitled Crisis2 Communication Crisis in an Age of Complexity, 6-8 October 2011. Heath delivered the closing lecture entitled: "Crisis Analysis: What's a Crisis as Part of Analyzing Crisis." His presentation focused on the management, technical, communication, public policy, global business, and reputational aspects of the BP Maconda Well disaster.

LARRY KELLEY’S book Advertising Media Planning: A Brand Management Approach is now in its third edition. Donald Jugenheimer and Kim Sheehan are co-authors.

JOE LEYDON will interview actor Ethan Hawke next month when he is here to receive the Levantine Cinema Arts Award from the Cinema Arts Festival. Hawke's latest film, The Woman in the Fifth, will also screen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Nov. 12. with the interview to follow.

Ninety media market databases are available soon from Media Audit as a contribution from alumna and sales manager Karen Marvin. The data is valued from $20,000 – $90,000. See Larry Kelley for more info.

The Valenti School Alumni group is having a homecoming happy hour Friday, Oct. 21, at 6:00 p.m. at the Salt Bar.

Location:
http://saltbarhouston.com/location.aspx

Weekly Update 10.12.11

LINDITA CAMAJ presented a paper entitled, “Setting the political culture agenda," which is part of her dissertation at the "Agenda Setting in a 2.0 World" conference Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at the University of Texas in Austin. The proceedings of this conference will be compiled in a book edited by Maxwell McCombs and Thomas Johnson. The book will be published by Routledge as part of the New Agendas in Communication series.

GARTH JOWETT comments in a story on Gov. Rick Perry facing a test in N.H debate which aired on KPRC-TV Oct. 11:
http://www.click2houston.com/news/29455824/detail.html

JULIE FIX co-facilitated an online study session on communication theory and models for the national fall cohort of public relations practitioners reviewing for their Accreditation in Public Relations exam. She also co-facilitated a similar session in June.

JULIE FIX was elected to another three-year term as Leadership Assembly Delegate for the Public Relations Society of America Houston Chapter. She will attend this year’s Assembly Oct. 15 in Orlando, Florida, and also will attend the PRSA College of Fellows Class of 2011 Induction Banquet while there. She is a member of the Fellows Class of 2010.

SUZANNE BUCK, in conjunction with the UH Center for Public Policy, conducted six hours of training to IP (Intellectual Property) attorneys, judges, and scholars from China. Training seminars consisted of Business and Professional Communication Skills, Cross Cultural Communication, and American Lifestyles/Pastimes.

Thanks to our Ribbon Cutting Event Student Ambassadors: Advertising students Marilyn Parilla, Candance Queen, Christie Nguyen; Media Production students Chelsea Stout, Juan Gonzalez, Alyssa Ramirez, Lezlee Brinkman, Jackie Moreno, Ellen Chao; and Public Relations students Laura Park, Natalie Petrie, and Iris Solis.

Weekly Update 10.06.11

DARRYL EWING’s Writing and Reporting for Print and Digital Media class attended Pres. Khator’s Fall Address Tuesday as a class assignment to write a story about it. A picture featuring Dr. Khator and some of the students is in rotation on the UH home page.The photo is attached to this email.

LARRY KELLEY’s Advertising Local Campaigns students are representing just one of four schools out of 60 to be selected to develop a branding and recruitment (integrated communication) campaign for the USPHS. The USPHS is the world's largest healthcare organization and one of seven commissioned corps in the United States. Valenti students were selected based on the past success of the advertising program and their access to the Medical Center. The other schools participating are NYU, UCLA and Pitt.

Some of CAROLYN CANVILLE and BETSY KAUFMANN’s Electronic News students took advantage of the opportunity to interview Tina Knowles after her talk on campus Monday (and met Beyoncé):
http://thedailycougar.com/2011/10/04/knowles-family-graces-campus/

Schipul Communications donated $4,000 in student scholarship for advertising students to attend a two-day digital marketing/media seminar. Schipul Communications, a leading national digital advertising firm with offices in Houston, Los Angeles and Seattle, provided ten free tickets to Valenti students.