Today's conversation with Dr. Dianne Bragg, an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media, is enlightening, fun, and relevant.  Dr. Bragg has such an interesting path to the research she does, and she tells us all about resistance to learning instead of listening to sound bytes in the context of history, journalism and conflict.  Not only do we break down her process in conducting this type of research, we learn more about where the best BBQ can be found and we learn about her major role in teaching undergraduate and graduate students in media law and history.  Dr. Bragg DID get her Ph.D. from the University of Alabama and because the need was there and she was a fantastic candidate, she moved into a faculty position in the Department of Journalism (old name).  We also learn about her interactions with Dr. Jennings Bryant and how through his Entertainment Media course, she started down a research path that she maintains today. 

Today's conversation is SO.MUCH.FUN, and you don't want to miss it. 

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

Today we catch up with Dr. Juan Meng, and associate professor of public relations at the University of Georgia and the founder of UGA's Choose China Study Abroad Program.  In today's conversation, we take a deeper look at research in the area of public relations and leadership, specifically the challenges that women and people of color face when in leadership roles and when trying to get into leadership roles in the field of public relations.  Dr. Meng’s current research focuses on leadership in public relations, talent management and leadership development, trust in reputation management, and organizational culture and employee engagement. Dr. Meng has received more than $220,000 in funding grants to support her research in the past seven years. She has published more than 35 referred journal articles in leading scholarly journals in public relations and communication management and contributed to different book chapters.

Meng is the co-editor of the scholarly book, “Public Relations Leaders as Sensemakers: A Global Study of Leadership in Public Relations and Communication Management,” published by Routledge in 2014. Meng is currently working on her new original book project, “PR Women with Influence: Breaking through the Ethical and Leadership Challenges,” selected as part of the AEJMC-Peter Lang Scholarsourcing Series.

She tells us more about her time at the University of Alabama, how she started out as a masters student not even thinking about a Ph.D. program and then found herself face to face with Dr. Jennings Bryant, welcoming her into the program.  This is such a fun conversation and it covers a topic we haven't discussed too much in this show, so you definitely don't want to miss it. 

Dr. Meng is not on Twitter but you can follow us @ICIRAlabama!

Join us today as we catch up with Dr. Rhonda Gibson, the James H. Shumaker Professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina.  We learn so much about Rhonda's path into academia as well as some of the professional work she did in journalism, which may have inspired her to develop and teach the courses she teaches.  Her research focuses on the effects of exemplification in journalism on issue perception and the effects of images of sexual minorities in the media. We dive into both of these topics in great detail, but just to tease it a little, we learn more about how the sources journalists select to interview for their stories shape the narrative of that story.  Rhonda has taught a range of courses in journalism and mass communication at the graduate and undergraduate level, and she has even spent some time as an administrator while at UNC, but in her words, "seeing her graduate students go on and do wonderful things" makes her job all the more meaningful. 

You can find the link to her book, Same Sex Marriage and Social Media, here: https://www.amazon.com/Same-Sex-Marriage-Social-Rhonda-Gibson/dp/1138894850. 

And, you can find out more about Rhonda's research using this link: http://hussman.unc.edu/directory/faculty/rhonda-gibson#biography

Like all of our previous guests, Rhonda shares a wonderful story about her interactions with Dr. Jennings Bryant during her time at UA. You don't want to miss today's conversation with Dr. Rhonda Gibson! 

Join us today as we catch up with Dr. Ignatius Fosu, the chair of the Department of Communication and Media at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. Iggy has had many cool jobs in his life including but not limited to being a DJ and radio host for a radio station in Accra, Ghana.  When he came to the United States to start a masters degree program in Marketing, he discovered the world of advertising, and after a chance meeting with the College of Communication and Information Sciences Dean, Dr. Mark Nelson, he wound up in the C&IS Ph.D. program, and as they say, from there, it's history.  Iggy's research focuses on two main threads related to advertising: the risk information that gets communicated to consumers about drug products and the advertising of food to children--both incredibly important and practical topics.  After spending many years as a professor at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Iggy was encouraged to apply for the position he currently has as an administrator at Samford University. 

To learn more about Iggy and the work he has done, check out this link: https://www.samford.edu/arts-and-sciences/directory/Fosu-Ignatius

To follow Iggy on social media: find him on Facebook @Ignatius Fosu

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

Join us today as we catch up with Dr. Lauren Reichart Smith, an associate professor in the Media School at Indiana University. We cover so much territory in this conversation, but it kicks off with Lauren telling us about what she does when she isn't conducting research and teaching courses--she's an Ironman! That means she swims 2.4 miles, bikes 112 miles, and runs 26.2 miles all in the same day, and she's done it several times.  But, after we move on from that super fun conversation, we learn more about how Lauren got her start in academia, including working in television on the production side before figuring out graduate school might be the right place for her.  Much of her research looks at the way athletes are portrayed in the media and how we as viewers then respond to those representations.  Her work broadly fits into the psychological effects of media content and the different ways we as viewers engage with that content.  This is such a fun conversation, and it was really exciting to learn more about what she does inside and outside of the research lab and classroom. 

To learn more about Dr. Smith, check out this link: https://mediaschool.indiana.edu/people/profile.html?p=ls35

To learn more about her upcoming Ironman, check out this link: https://www.ironman.com/im-indiana

To follow her on Twitter, follow her @LaurnSmith

To follow us on Twitter, follow us at @ICIRAlabama

In today's conversation, we catch up with Dr. Glenn Cummins, a professor of Journalism and Creative Media Industries in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University.  We learn all about Glenn's path to academia, including a few stops to work professionally in the broadcast industry, and we learn about how very basic things like the way we watch sports drive many of his research questions. Glenn is a prolific scholar in the area of media effects and  broadly in mass communication, and much of his recent research has focused on biometric research, which truly provides insight into a consumer's viewing experience. Much of his research examines how the structural and content features interact with audience characteristics to shape processing and response to media messages. Glenn has been a leader in the academic world in research involving eye-tracking, and he looks at things like how viewers may (or may not) pay attention to ads while watching a sporting event.  To learn more about his research, click this link:

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/comc/faculty/faculty/gcummins.php

To see examples of his work, click this link:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn-Cummins

And, to follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robert.g.cummins

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

Dr. Amy Tilley Rask, COO of MediaScience, joins us in today's conversation about her work doing industry research.  She tells us all about the consumer neuro-marketing research that is done at MediaScience and how a chance conversation with a faculty member at UA led to her meeting the person who is now her CEO. Amy did a post-doctoral fellowship at Murdock University in Perth, Australia, and that work led her to helping to launch the company she's with today based out of Austin, TX.  In this conversation, we learn more about just some of the big clients she and her company have done research for--Fox, ESPN, Disney--and we learn more about the ways those doing industry research can have an immediate and direct impact on consumers's lives.  She's also the recipient of our own College's Outstanding Alumni Award from the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, where she got her MA degree. 

In addition to helping to run a major media research company, Amy and her family also operate a small "farm" as she calls it with seven dogs and 32 chickens--you may even hear one a time or two in the background. 

This has been one of our favorite catch-up episodes yet, and you certainly do not want to miss it!  

To learn more about MediaScience, you can check out their website: https://www.mediascience.com/

To follow Amy on Twitter: @AmyRask1

To follow MediaScience on Twitter: @MediaScienceLab

And to follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

Join us for this fantastic conversation with recent Ph.D. grad and alum Dr. Eric Cooks, who currently has a post-doctoral fellowship with the College of  Journalism and Communication at the University of Florida. Eric will be the most recent C&IS alum (August 2020) for this season, but that doesn't mean he hasn't gone on to do very exciting things with his work with Dr. Janice Kreiger at the STEM Center. Eric tells us the story of how he thought he might be a pro basketball player and then had to come up with a new plan when that didn't work out (this isn't the first time we have heard "pro athlete" in the what you thought you'd be question!) Eric also tells us a little more about why he wasn't even sure he'd go on to get a Ph.D. and how his uncertainties are experiences many of us can relate to.  We learn more about what health disparities means in this conversation, and we learn that doing research in clinical trials doesn't require an MD!  Join us for this very fun conversation with Dr. Eric Cooks! 

Follow him on Twitter @EricCooks2, and you can follow UF's College of Journalism and Communication @UFJSchool. 

You can follow us on Twitter @ICIRAlabama or on Instagram @ICIRUA.

Today we catch up with Dr. Courtney Carpenter Childers, an associate professor of advertising in the School of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Tennessee. We cover so much territory in today's episode including (but not limited to) Tennessee Hate Week, the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center, and the research she does related to digital influence and social media. Her research interests deal with societal issues and advertising. Specifically, she has conducted research in the areas of food/beverage marketing to children, sexual imagery, and gender role portrayals in advertising. More recent research projects and publications focus on how emerging media are impacting the advertising and public relations fields. Dr. Childers (@courtchilders) is the Executive Director of the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center (@utccismcc on Twitter & Instagram) housed in the College of Communication & Information at UT. The Adam Brown Social Media Command Center provides CCI faculty, staff and students access to the same leading technology that Fortune 100 companies worldwide use to publish, engage and analyze their social media marketing activities. The Adam Brown Social Media Command Center is the only university facility in the world powered by Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio technology. CCI faculty, staff and students use the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center to collaborate, prepare and present social listening findings. She has taught just about every possible advertising course there is out there, but loves the courses where she gets an opportunity to work with students just like her--first generation college students. 

To learn more about Dr. Childers research, you can go to this link: https://faculty.utk.edu/Courtney.Childers/publications

To follow her on Twitter: @courtchilders

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

And to follow the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center: @utccismcc

Join us today as we chat with Dr. Andrew Dunn, an associate professor and chair of the East Tennessee State University Media and Communication Department. Andrew is an Alabama native, hailing from the Peanut Capital of the World (who knew there was such a thing)? Andrew got his professional career started working as a reporter at a newspaper in Tallahassee, and it was that decision that helped him see his future path into graduate school and academia.  One of the things Andrew studies is identity, and the way media can play a role in shaping our identity. One of Andrew's earliest studies was with Avatars and he examined the decision making process of creating an avatar and then understanding what that avatar might say about its creator!  This conversations gave us so much to think about as we continue our conversations about the role media can play in our lives!  

Follow him on Twitter @docdunn.

You can follow us on Twitter @ICIRAlabama or on Instagram @ICIRUA.