Annual Report
Department Achievements, 2006-07
Each year, the activities of faculty and professional staff are part of the Communication Department's annual report to the dean, provost and president. Following is that section of the current report, prepared by Ron Smith, which identifies the academic and professional achievements of the department between July 2006 and June 2007.
New/Revised Courses:
- Developed nine new courses associated with TVA major (Jeff Hirschberg)
- Developed department's first on-line course, COM 304 (Jeff Hirschberg)
- Developed new course, COM 389 Documentary Producing (Meg Knowles)
- Revised COM 304 (Meg Knowles & Jeff Hirschberg)
- Developed new course, SPC 315 Media Performance (Tom McCray)
- Revised COM 405 as a service-learning course (Joe Marren)
- Develop new course, COM 389 Alternative Media (Mike Niman)
- Developed BSC 101 Foundations of Inquiry course themes on Celtic Cultures (Bill Raffel)
- Developed new course, COM 389 Media and Crime (Bill Raffel)
- Developed new course, COM 389 Television Graphics (Lou Rera)
- Modified COM 308 Public Relations Writing as a service-learning course (Deborah Silverman)
Faculty Advisor/Mentor:
- The Record (Joe Marren)
- WBNY (Tom McCray)
- BSC-TV (Paul DeWald)
- PRSSA (Marian Deutschman & Deborah Silverman)
- Silver Screen Student Film Festival (Meg Knowles)
- BSC Newswatch (Bill Raffel)
Books:
- New Edition: Public Speaking for Success: Strategies for Diverse Audiences & Occasions w/ Faculty Manual (Bruce Bryski)
- New Edition: Becoming a Public Relations Writer in press, Erlbaum/Taylor & Francis (Ron Smith)
- Co-Editor: Shoot the Indian: Media, Misperception and Native Truth American Indian Policy & Media Initiative publication (Ron Smith)
Chapters & Articles:
- "The Incomplete Hero: Rick Blaine to Rocky Balboa" Article in Broadcast Educators Association Feedback (Jeff Hirschberg)
- "Teaching Social Justice by Examining the Desegregation of Baseball" Chapter in Baseball in the Classroom, McFarland Publishing (Joe Marren)
- "New Media Technologies: Interdependency" Chapter in Emerging Issues in Contemporary Journalism, Edwin Mellen Press (Joe Marren)
- "But I Still Haven't Found the Learning I'm Looking for: Constructivist Pedagogy in Media Ethics" Article in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator (Joe Marren)
- "Racism and New York's Anti-Indian Casino Movement" Chapter in Shoot the Indian: Media, Misperception & Native Truth, AIPMI (Mike Niman)
- "Unnatural Disasters: The Media Provides No Context or Depth in its Disaster Reporting" Article in The New York Sociologist (Mike Niman)
- "Bottled Insanity: the Designer Water War" Article in the Humanist (Mike Niman)
- "Sandinista Redux" Article in The Humanist (Mike Niman)
- "Outlawing the Wind: Oil Republicans Attempt to Thwart Renewable Energy Development" Article in The Humanist (Mike Niman)
- "SPORTS-Talk Radio vs. Sports-TALK Radio: Competition Within the Sports Talk Format" Chapter in Sports Talk Radio in America: Its Context and Culture (Bill Raffel)
- "Mr. Muzzy" Flash Fiction, ArtVoice (Lou Rera)
- "Diversity in Public Relations: Tips for Communicating with Diverse Publics" Article for website of Public Relations Society of America Buffalo-Niagara Chapter (Deborah Silverman)
- "Organ Donation Campaigns in the PR Campaigns Course" Article in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator (Deborah Silverman)
- "The Cherokee-Freedmen Story: What The Media Saw" Chapter in Shoot the Indian: Media, Misperception and Native Truth (Ron Smith)
- "Two Polls Show Media Out of Step with Native America" Chapter in Shoot the Indian: Media, Misperception and Native Truth (Ron Smith)
Professional & Creative Productions:
- Training manual on public speaking for CDHS (Bruce Bryski w/ Adjunct L Miller)
- Video project for Corporate Challenge benefit race (Paul DeWald)
- "Rat Race" video projection installation (Meg Knowles)
- "Walk" 16mm film documentary (Meg Knowles)
- "Democracy: The Patriot and the Nationalist" Super 8mm film documentary (Meg Knowles)
- Communication Speaker Series: "Can Radio Survive in the 21st Century?" Panel chair (Tom McCray)
- Production assistance to at-risk high school students in radio production sponsored by Buffalo Association of Black Journalists (Tom McCray)
- Recorded voicing for local, regional and national commercial accounts (Tom McCray)
- Communication Speaker Series: Panel discussion about media coverage of Ralph Phillips case (Bill Raffel)
- Album cover design for "Classic Buffalo Rock, Vol. 1" (Lou Rera)
- Original music composition/production/performance "Classic Buffalo Rock, Vol. 1" (Lou Rera)
Professional & Academic Presentations:
- Co-facilitator of Network on Aging Program (Marian Deutschman)
- "Pitching Your Idea and Selling It to Hollywood" Invited lecture, Rochester Institute of Technology (Jeff Hirschberg)
- "The Incomplete Hero: Rick Blaine to Rocky Balboa," Paper at Broadcast Education Association convention (Jeff Hirschberg)
- "The Pedagogical Toolbox: Active Learning + Critical Thinking = A Better Classroom" Presentation in Faculty-Student partnerships conference, SUNY Geneseo (Joe Marren)
- "Establishing Mertonian Ethics for the Media" Paper at Thomas Merton Society of Canada Conference (Joe Marren)
- "Bullshit and Political Spin: Is The Medium the Massage?" Presentation at Buffalo State Philosophy and Humanities Lecture Series (Joe Marren, with Philosophy instructor Kim Blessing)
- "The Role of the press in the Modern Integration of Baseball" Paper at American Journalism Historians Association conference (Joe Marren)
- "Learning to Use (and Perhaps Profit From) 'Citizen Journalism' (That's Right, Blogs)" Paper at Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium XII of National Newspaper Association Foundation (Joe Marren)
- "Come Together: The Student Affairs/Academic Affairs Partnership in Learning Communities" Presentation at International Conference on The First-year Experience (Joe Marren)
- "Graffiti: Mass Media for the Masses" Presentation at Engage Conflict symposium, Wells College (Mike Niman)
- "Emerging Racism in New York's Anti-Casino Movement" Presentation at New York State Sociological Association conference (Mike Niman)
- "Sports-Talk Radio and indecency" Presentation at Joint Conference of Popular Cultural Association and the American Cultural Association (Bill Raffel)
- "Information Design and Archaeology: The Use of QTVR, the Petrographic Microscope, and Mineral Identification" Presentation at "At the Intersection: A Conversation Between Art & Science" conference, SUNY Oswego (Lou Rera)
Awards & Grants:
- First Place: Broadcast Education Association, Academic Research & Scholarly Paper Competition (Jeff Hirschberg)
- Third Place: Broadcast Education Association, Scriptwriting Competition (Jeff Hirschberg)
- Provost Incentive Grant, Buffalo State (Jeff Hirschberg)
- Research Foundation Grant, Buffalo State (Jeff Hirschberg)
- College & Community Partnership Minigrant, Buffalo State (Meg Knowles)
- WNY Service Learning Grant (Meg Knowles)
- Buffalo State Service Learning Grant (Meg Knowles)
- Center for the Development of Human Services minigrant (Mike Niman)
- Service-Learning Faculty Fellowship Award (Deborah Silverman)
- Outstanding Faculty Commitment to Service Learning Award, Buffalo State (Deborah Silverman)
- Smithsonian/National Museum of the American Indian contract/grant to develop strategic plan for civic engagement (Ron Smith)
- Lannan Foundation $150,000 grant for American Indian Policy & Media Initiative (Ron Smith)
Professional Organizations & Professional Service:
- League of Women Voters of Buffalo/Niagara, President (Marian Deutschman)
- Jewish Community Center of Rochester (Jeff Hirschberg)
- Writer's Guild Awards Judge, Writer's Guild of America-East (Jeff Hirschberg)
- Squeaky Wheel/Buffalo Media resources Board of Directors (Meg Knowles)
- Peer reviewer for manuscripts, Newspaper Research Journal (Joe Marren)
- External reviewer for Journalism Department, SUNY Plattsburgh (Joe Marren)
- Judge: Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards in "Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper" category (Joe Marren)
- Peer reviewer for manuscripts in Community Journalism Interest Group and National Research Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (Joe Marren)
- Referee, Communication Yearbook of International Communication Association (Mike Niman)
- Founding Member & vice president: Niagara Independent Media, WHLD-AM & WBBF-AM radio (Mike Niman)
- Steering Committee, Union for Democratic Communications (Mike Niman)
- Public Relations Officer, Martin Wynne Chapter, Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (Bill Raffel)
- Buffalo Public School 2007 "Music Is Art" program (Lou Rera)
- Board of Directors, Public Relations Society of America, Buffalo-Niagara chapter (Deborah Silverman)
- National Task Force to Reform the PRSA Assembly (Deborah Silverman)
- Chair-Elect, Public Relations Society of America, Northeast District -Upstate New York and New England (Deborah Silverman)
- External reviewer for Communication Department, SUNY Fredonia (Ron Smith)
- "Diversity in the Newsroom" 2 workshops for editorial staff of Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (Ron Smith)
- Consultant in Public Relations for ALS Society, Taft Organization of Washington DC, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (Ron Smith)
- Assistance in survey research project for student newspaper at Canisius High School (Ron Smith)
- Public Relations Advisory Board, American Red Cross, Greater Buffalo chapter (Nanette Tramont)
Campus Service:
- Senate Bylaws & Elections Committee (Bruce Bryski)
- Interim director, College & Community Partnerships (Marian Deutschman)
- Women's Studies Interdisciplinary Unit Committee (Meg Knowles)
- Burchfield-Penney Collection Committee (Meg Knowles)
- Learning Communities Oversight Committee (Joe Marren)
- First-Year Awards Selection Committee (Joe Marren)
- Search committee chair for women's ice hockey coach (Joe Marren)
- Intercollegiate Athletic Board (Joe Marren)
- Engel Scholarship Committee (Mike Niman)
- Oversight Committee for International Studies Interdisciplinary Minor (Mike Niman)
- Buffalo State College Judicial Board (Mike Niman)
- Production assistance for Performing Arts Center commercials (Jeff Proctor)
- College Senate (Bill Raffel)
- Chair: Buffalo State Commencement Committee (Bill Raffel)
- Assisted class in Dance Department as producer of a TV commercial (Lou Rera)
- Member, Television Arts advisory committee (Lou Rera)
- Academic Technology Advisory Committee (Lou Rera)
- Search Committee for 2 College relations writers (Deborah Silverman)
- Chair: Minnie and Joe Engel Student Humanitarian Award Committee (Deborah Silverman)
- Arts & Humanities Executive Committee (Ron Smith)
- Project Director, American Indian Policy & Media Initiative (Ron Smith)