Dafna Lemish
I'm Wendy Weinhold, I grew up in Nebraska and I am a 4th year Ph.D. in the Mass Communications and Media Arts College. My research area is media studies on the broadest level possible.
I'm interested in media studies from all different angles. But I am focused in qualitative research and my dissertation narrows in on print journalism, which is where I have a professional background.
Technically, right now my dissertation is without even a working title, but the previous working title that I was going with was "Letters from the Editor: American Journalists, New Media and Democracy."
Southern Illinois University Carbondale has exceptional faculty and a lot of really interesting opportunities I think to be involved in media, even at the graduate level.
I personally have done everything from work with the student print journalists at the Daily Egyptian, to having multiple different slots on air as a news anchor for WSIU TV, and I've also done some reporting for WSIU FM--a special arts program in focus. So it's been a really good opportunity for me to get immersed in all kinds of levels of media production as well as media theory.
One of the reasons that it's so hard for me to pick a favorite class is because so many of the classes that I had in my first two years of graduate study were really inspiring. Everything from Cinzia Padovani's Political Economy of Media class in which I was first really given the opportunity to encounter critical theory on a really in-depth level. And then Lisa Brooten's Qualitative Methods course really gave me an exciting opportunity to come at qualitative methods from a variety of angles.
The opportunities that I've had to get in front of classrooms have been the most exciting portions of assistantships that I've had here in my graduate study at SIU. Probably my favorite is the course that I taught this spring of 2010, Alternative Media in a Diverse Society, that's MCMA 204. It's pretty standard taught by a MCMA advanced graduate student. I had 57 students and they were interested in media from such an amazingly broad array of specialties.
They came from across the university. It was a really near opportunity for me as a graduate student who spends most of my time at the Communications Building to get to see what Southern Illinois University Carbondale's undergraduate student body was like on a really wide level.
I'll talk about my favorite two conferences that I've gone to, the first is Union for Democratic Communication and UDC is a really terrific organization of communication scholars and activists who are really interested in pushing faculty, scholars, activists, media makers to think about the responsibility for what it is that the media is out there making in the world, and I came to UDC entirely through associations with faculty at SIUC, so that's pretty important. The other conference that I have most enjoyed is The Future of Journalism/Newspapers conference that is held at the University of Cardiff in Wales.
I have participated in that conference both of the years that it has been organized, and that tip came to me through Cinzia Padovani, one of my faculty members and one of my committee members who said hey, this is the thing you're interested in, why don't you apply? As a result of both of those conferences I have two publications from there, two articles that are in the Journal of Journalism Practice and then another article that was published in Kaleidoscope, which is a qualitative student peer-reviewed publication, a yearly publication that comes out of Southern Illinois University's Speech Communication department.
I want to be a professor, I'm just waiting for the right university to find me and bring me home, but ultimately what I really want to do is teach media studies and critical journalism scholarship. I really enjoy teaching journalists as a former journalist myself. I also really enjoy getting them to think beyond simply the words they're putting on the page and the way they're organizing their ideas to question and consider the ways that they are making people and creating representations of ideas. Those are some really important things that I think journalists can really benefit from.
Jay Needham's radio documentary Listening at the Border aired on Feb. 12th on Australia's ABC National Radio program 360 Documentaries.
Jay presented several of his sound works and a lecture titled Several Alternate Histories of Place in Chicago to The Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology on Feb. 18th
Cologne based curator Wilfried Agricola Cologne is featuring Jay Needham's piece OPENED during the month of February as a part of “Horror Vacui? - What is Happening Next?” along with eight other US based artists.
The nomination made by Associate Dean Deborah Tudor and Dafna Lemish of Amy Goodman, (an independent American broadcast journalist and investigative reporter one of the founders and principle hosts of Democracy Now! The War & Peace Report) for the University Honorary Degree was approved by the university. Amy Goodman has been invited for the May Commencement Ceremony of MCMA.
Lisa Brooten gave an invited presentation entitled: Democratization in Thailand: The Role of the Media in Asia to the Peoria Area World Affairs Council, Peoria, Illinois. Thursday, February 17, 2011.
David Burns was awarded a $3,000.00 William A. Minor Grant, for his research-creative project Chrysalis.
David Burns exhibited his 3D animation, Rebirth, at the Allen Priebe Art Gallery's National Juried Exhibition, Systems.
David Burns' 3D computer animation student, Will Roberts, was selected and participated as a student ambassador at SIGGRAPH Asia in Seoul, Korea.
John Hochheimer was invited to join the editorial board of research materials Spirituality of a Personality, methodology, theory and practice.
Please encourage students to check out the MCMA Spring 2011 Class Preview Day this Friday. It is a great opportunity for a "sneak peek" at what is being offered. Any help you can give in getting the word out would be appreciated.
Want the chance to check out a Spring 2011 course ahead of time? Take advantage of the College's Spring 2011 Class Preview Day this Friday, October 29th in the COMM Building.
The following classes are being showcased. Each participant will be given a ticket upon the conclusion of any session which may be turned in for pizza at 12:30. Program brochures will be available in COMM 1032 the day of the event.
This is a FREE program.
Session I 11:00-11:20
MCMA 396/JRNL 419 Publishing on the WWW/Online Journalism Stoner COMM 1205
RT 489 003/MCMA 497 001 Gender, Militarization and Media Brooten COMM 1032
JRNL 337 Video/Online Journalism
Session II 11:30-11:50
RT 357 Media Promotion Wall RT Conf., Room
CP 260 Understanding Visual Media Felleman COMM 1122
MCMA 563 Globalization, Culture and Media Brooten COMM 1032
JRNL 410 Multimedia Project: Reports Recktenwald COMM 1205
Session III 12:00-12:20
JRNL 435 Advanced Graphic Communication Veenstra COMM 1205
RT 489 001/MCMA 555 002 Media in the Lives of Childhood and Adolescents Lemish COMM 1032
RT 305
CP 452
Lunch 12:30-12:55
Session IV 1:00- 1:20
RT 461/digital graphics classes Multimedia Production
CP 102
Session V 1:30- 1:50
RT 489 002 Blaxploitation Films of the 1970's Lawrence COMM 1046
CP 470D Generative Art Spahr COMM 1122
MCMA 555 004 Policy Reporting and Research Freivogel COMM 1032
Questions? Contact Deborah Tudor at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Radio-TV Good News
Lisa Brooten reported that two scriptwriting students from Howard Motyl's class placed in the BEA Festival 2010 in the Student Scriptwriting Competition for the Original Television Series Pilot Category. Daniel Cozza's "I'm Ryan Smith" placed second and Jason M. Barr's "Reality" placed 3rd
Jan Thompson's Documentary Production class received an Honorable Mention in the Student Documentary Competition, Long-Form Category for "Silent Monster"-- Melissa Coleman, Devin Miller, Eric Robinson,Lauren Roberts, Will Roberts, Victoria Carter, Nadia Samie, Zubedah Nanfuka, and Dawn Stricklin a PhD student in Anthropology.
Bret Beherns placed third in the Sports Anchor competition. Bret is the RREE Sports Director. He reports news as well as anchors the news one night a week.
Alum Zlatko Filipovic received an Honorable Mention in the Television: Hard News Reporting Category for his report on the 2009 snowstorm "Iced Out" that closed SIU campus and its impact on disabled students. According to Jim Gee, SIU was the only school in Illinois to place in Hard News category.
Nearing 70, John Downing said he's reaching the not-so-magical retirement age, but his work is far from finished.
Downing, professor of international communication and founding director of the Global Media Research Center, will retire at the end of the semester.
Downing is known more for his work with the center because he mostly taught classes to graduate students. He also guest taught in undergraduate classes but mostly focused on upper-level courses because of his commitment to the center, he said.
The center has hosted speakers from places such as Korea, Australia and Thailand and helps students at the university with their research on global media, Downing said.
Downing's work has made him a household name with researchers in the area of mass communication, and he is still continuing several more projects involving students, said Eileen Meehan, professor in the department of Radio-Television.
"He's not somebody who trumpets their fame," Meehan said. "But he's about as close to a rock star as you can get in my part of the world."
Downing said the former dean, Manjunath Pendakur, wanted a center that would support research in global media and made the center a reality after inviting Downing to be director in 2004.
"I would hope that the center has helped to get the college to its rightful place on the map nationally and internationally," he said.
Kiran Bharthapudi, a doctoral student in international crisis and media policy from India, said Downing was the reason he returned to the university to finish his degree.
"(Downing) was one of the reasons I came back to finish my Ph.D.," Bharthapudi said. "He actually changed the way I think about the world around me."
Downing and some of his students are currently researching the Nigerian film industry, which he dubbed "Nollywood." The research focuses on race and media, and examines cinemas in the Middle East and Latin America, he said. Downing said he is also working with students to research grassroots media in communities and is working on an encyclopedia to compile the work.
The grassroots research is Downing's greatest accomplishment, Downing said.
"The books have been pouring out now on the subject and many of them have been kind enough to mention me," he said.
This research is all being done while Downing and his wife are planning to move to Brooklyn, N.Y., where they used to live in the 1980s, he said.
Moving around in the city is a lot easier than moving around in a less populated area, he said.
"As you get older you become really less viable as a driver to yourself and others,"Downing said. "Here we would end up marooned in our house whereas if you're in the city with public transport, you're not marooned any more."
Downing won't let himself be marooned in the United States either, he said. He said he received offers to teach in Denmark in the fall and could possibly teach in Finland in the spring.
Meehan said she is looking forward to Downing's future visits to SIUC as he is sure to bring back more research. She said she commends him for his ability to inspire students to explore media more and more through his research.
"He brings wisdom and insight to the process of helping people transform themselves into the next generation of new researchers with new questions," Meehan said.
Downing is a tremendous asset to the college, Bharthapudi said, and it will be a great loss for the department of Radio-Television when he is gone.
Lisa Brooten, interim chairwoman of the department, said even though the department will be losing a vital member, she expects his legacy will create a positive future for the program.
"I think his retirement is unfortunate for us, but on the other hand he's given us a lot," Brooten said. "We've benefitted a great deal from him being here."
Even brighter than the bright side are the types of socks Downing said he has been wearing for more than 25 years.
"I just figured if my students get bored in class, they can look at my socks," he said.
Source: http://www.siude.com/news/founding-director-of-global-media-research-center-to-retire-1.2156088
From the Daily Egyptian.
At the height of her career, Dafna Lemish said she's ready to help others accomplish their goals in research and academics.
Lemish, who is known for her research on the effect of media on children, will become the new chairwoman of the Radio-Television department July 1.
Lisa Brooten, interim chairwoman of the department, said even though Lemish still has a while before she's formally in office, she has already begun working with the faculty and staff.
"She's been involved right from the get-go," Brooten said. "She's going to jump in running. She's very energetic and we're very lucky to have her here."
Lemish said she has many goals for the department, but the faculty and staff have already started to address them.
"My career has boomed and has been satisfying," she said. "At this time in my career I just saw that I could contribute more in leadership roles of facilitating the work of other faculty members."
Lemish said she wants the department to open up to the world of new media that includes the Internet, mobile phones and gaming.
She said the department needs to focus on training students to work with those new and different platforms.
"Media is a way to perpetuate some sort of social change for the well-being of people," Lemish said. "It's about making a difference in the world and doing it responsibly and ethically."
Lemish is new to SIUC, but not to the position.
The department chose Lemish because of her experience at Tel-Aviv University in Ramat Aviv, Israel, where she worked five years as a professor in the Department of Communication, which also experienced a budgetary crisis, said Gary Kolb, dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts.
I think she has the experience to do a very good job for us," Kolb said.
Lemish said that crisis was similar to what all universities are going through — including SIUC.
"Both faculty and students know what's ahead of them and they realize it's a conjoined effort to pass through the crisis and turn difficult times into an opportunity for change," she said.
Lemish's unique work is what sets her apart, said John Downing, professor of internal communication and founding director of the Global Media Research Center. Her interest and connections in the field of children and media is something the department has never had before, he said.
Lemish said she became interested in the relationship between children and media when she became a mother. She paid close attention to what her children watched on TV as they grew older, she said.
"My career surrounded my home as my own personal laboratory," she said. "We all used to be children and in many ways, children and media are kind of the core of our world."
Lemish has written six books and is working on another, "Screening Gender on Children's Television: The views of producers around the world." She also edits "Journal of Children and Media," a journal that publishes articles by scholars and professionals in the field of children and media.
Brooten said Lemish's resume pales in comparison to her energy and desire to better the department.
"We have a lot of award-winning students and I think having her will just continue to strengthen and solidify everything we've done so far," Brooten said.
Source: The Daily Egyptian at
Permalink: http://mcma.siu.edu/news/new-radio-television-chairwoman-to-prepare-dept-for-a-global-market
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The media machine that is alt.news 26:46, Southern Illinois University Carbondale's student-produced alternative TV news magazine, just keeps turning out winners.
The award-winning half-hour news program earned five regional Emmy Awards Saturday, Oct. 3., at the 2009 National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Mid-America Chapter Professional Emmy Awards. The 33rd annual awards ceremony was at the Renaissance Grand St. Louis.
"Alt.news 26:46 continues to be a hallmark of excellence in our student-produced media," said Gary P. Kolb, dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. "The success of this endeavor rests primarily with the talented students we have recruited to our MCMA programs. My thanks also go to Professor Jan Thompson who has advised and mentored alt.news students for several years now. I am happy that I have been able to offer support for programs like alt.news and remain committed to helping our students achieve the best. Bravo to all involved -- a fantastic achievement."
In March, the show earned its fourth national college Emmy in the last eight years when it received the award for best collegiate television magazine show in the nation. Since 2001, the program has now earned 28 regional professional Emmys; 26 from NATAS' Mid-America chapter in St. Louis, and two from the Chicago Midwest Chapter.
The Mid-America chapter is comprised of television markets primarily in Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri, and surrounding designated market areas, or DMAs, according to event organizers.
"Our students continue to make us proud and to showcase the benefits of the education and extracurricular activities that they can take advantage of in our department and our college," said Associate Professor Lisa W. Brooten, interim chair of the Department of Radio-Television.
Thompson, an associate professor in radio-television and documentary unit director, is the show's faculty adviser. The nominations and awards continue to show the professional level that students achieve, she said.
"I am extremely proud of these students. There are not too many television shows even at the professional level that can sustain this level of excellence," Thompson said. "And we continue do this with undergraduate students who graduate each year."
The awards were for outstanding achievement by individuals and programs broadcast between April 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009. The organization announced the nominations in August.
The alt.news 26:46 regional professional Emmy-winning recipients are:
Other alt.news 26:46 professional regional Emmy nominations went to:
Alt.news 26:46 airs on WSIU-TV. The first episode for season No. 11 is at 10 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 25, with a look at the MuddyGras in Texas, and the indiemusic scene through the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. The season's second show airs at 10 p.m., Nov. 15.
Check with WSIU.org for more programming updates. More information and previous episodes and awards are available at the alt.news 26:46 Web site at an2646.com.
Read the full article on the Southern Illinoisan's website
ST. LOUIS - Southern Illinois University's student-produced series "alt.news 26:46" was honored Saturday night with five Mid-America Emmy Awards.
The awards recognize outstanding achievement by individuals and programs broadcast during the 2008-2009 calendar year. They were presented at a black-tie dinner at the Renaissance Grand Hotel in St. Louis.
"Alt.news 26:46" is a student-produced news magazine program. In its 11-year history, it has won more professional Emmy awards than any other student-produced program in the country.
The show has a major presence at the National College Television Awards, placing first the last two years against competition including Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
The program is broadcast on WSIU, but also was broadcast for a short period of time on WTTW, the Chicago PBS station, a first for a student-produced series.
Its broadcasts currently span five states and reach 1.3 million households. Episodes can also be viewed on the Web site, an2646.com.
Jay Carey of Carterville and Tom Lareau off Watseka, Magazine Program, "alt.news 26:46 Episode 1003."
Dylan Damian of Carbondale, Promotion Single Image Promo Single Spot (non-news), "alt.news 26:46."
Scott Blair of Deerfield, On-Camera Talent Performer/Host; "alt.news 26:46."
Jay Carey of Carterville, Human Interest; "Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.'
Kevin Rogers of Naperville, Specialty Program; "alt.news 26:46 10th Anniversary Special."
Also nominated were:
Carey, Ats/Entertainment; "Calypso Tumblers"
Carey, Damian and Tom Lareau of Watseka and Tim Wilkerson of Crystal Lake; Graphic Arts Graphics Program/ News; "alt.news 26:46 Graphical Elements."
Kevin Hill, executive producer at "alt.news 26:46," said the group was very happy with the way the awards ceremony turned out and is proud of all of its members.
Hill also extended thanks to WSIU, the SIUC College of Mass Communications and Media Arts, Dean Gary Kolb and adviser Jan Thompson for their support over the past decade.
- Information for this report courtesy of Kevin Hill and John Elder of "alt.news26:46"
SIU Foundation