press release

Department of Information Science welcomes faculty

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 22:18:46 +0000

Department of Information Science welcomes faculty Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/02/2015 - 16:18

The College of Media, Communication and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder is proud to introduce its newest department, the Department of Information Science, and to announce the appointment of six founding faculty members who will begin at ��Ƶ-Boulder in fall 2015: Jed Brubaker, Casey Fiesler, Michael J. Paul, Danielle Albers Szafir, Amy Voida and Stephen Voida.

The discipline of information science has been growing rapidly since the 2000s, with many university departments growing out of existing library schools. ��Ƶ-Boulder enters the scene with a fresh focus by recognizing that the study, practice and design of human-data interaction are becoming central in our lives.

The Department of Information Science is built on the idea that data are generated by our individual and interpersonal interactions with digital media and that those data become the sites of production and innovation for many forms of enterprise—commercial, societal, individual, and corporate. Digital traces create new opportunities—some of which are problematic and must be clearly understood—for understanding and leveraging human behavior in new ways. Communities can discern disease trajectories across populations. Companies can anticipate how clients will react to new products. Humanitarians responding to disasters can detect where people need the most help. For-profit and not-for-profit entrepreneurs can build software applications and quickly evaluate how their users interact with them. Large institutions can uncover how they distribute resources. Large bodies of musical scores and historical texts and can be made digitally available to worldwide audiences using engaging data visualization techniques.

In the workforce of the future, our undergraduates will need to demonstrate versatility in collecting, managing and analyzing data. We work to a vision of the future in which everyone is a data analyst. This requires empirical, computational, social, ethical and critical understandings of our relationship with all things digital, including the digital traces of interactions with software, hardware and algorithms. Students will need to know how to design and build effective and engaging technology and to deploy, measure and monitor its impact. Analytics and design will therefore come together in an integrated cycle of development.

We welcome your interest and participation as we grow and develop our new programs. The Department will begin offering courses for BS and PhD programs in information science in fall 2016. An MS program is currently expected to launch in fall 2018.

Please find us on Facebook and at @��ƵBoulderInfoSc on Twitter where we will post announcements about program planning in our first year. We look forward to hearing from you!

Professor Leysia Palen
Founding Chair
Department of Information Science

Off

Traditional

White

��Ƶ-Boulder names founding dean of new College of Media, Communication and Information

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 16:11:12 +0000

��Ƶ-Boulder names founding dean of new College of Media, Communication and Information Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/08/2015 - 10:11

University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today announced the appointment of Lori Bergen, dean of the J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as dean of the new College of Media, Communication and Information. Bergen will begin her duties as dean on July 20, 2015.

“Lori Bergen exemplifies the desired qualities of a founding dean,” Moore said. “She not only has a distinguished record of leadership, teaching, scholarly research and creative work, but in her short time on campus, she has articulated a strong and clear vision for the future of the college.”

Last June, the Board of Regents approved formation of the college, which includes departments of advertising, public relations and media design; communication; critical media practices; journalism; information science; media studies; and the graduate program in intermedia art, writing and performance.

“I am excited by the chance to lead this new college -- a distinctive, innovative and entrepreneurial enterprise where students will engage with world-class faculty to learn, create and analyze media content in all its many forms,” Bergen said. “The college will establish a new standard for teaching and scholarship in communication, media and information, and I’m looking forward to being a part of that.”

A national leader in journalism education, Bergen is president-elect of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the largest nonprofit, international educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society.

Bergen joined Marquette in 2009 after serving as director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University, as associate director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University, and as a faculty member at Southwest Texas State and Wichita State universities earlier in her career.

As dean at Marquette, she spearheaded innovative academic initiatives that include the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism and the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, projects focused on improving student learning through partnerships with professionals to create high-impact journalism. During her tenure as dean, the Diederich College has received over $20 million in support for student scholarships and other initiatives.

Bergen has received fellowships and grants from the Poynter Institute, the American Society of News Editors, Kaiser Family Health Foundation, Menninger Foundation, National Association of Broadcasters and Radio Television and Digital News Foundation. Her research on the interaction of auditory and visual working memory as a way to understand how visual clutter affects memory for news story facts was featured on the Discovery Channel and in The New York Times. She co-authored Media Violence and Aggression: Science and Ideology, a book on children and media violence, and other research has appeared in the Newspaper Research Journal, Journal of Health Communication, Human Communication Research, Journal of Advertising and Mass Communication & Society.

She has a bachelor’s degree in history and political science and a master’s degree in journalism from Kansas State University, and a PhD in mass communication with a minor in organizational behavior from Indiana University-Bloomington.

Christopher Braider oversaw the effort to create the new college and has been serving as the transitional dean for the 2014-15 academic year.

“I want to thank Christopher Braider for his strong leadership the last four years as he led the journalism faculty and program through transition and laid a solid groundwork for the new College of Media, Communication and Information,” Moore said.

Contact: Malinda Miller-Huey, ��Ƶ-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3115

University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today announced the appointment of Lori Bergen as dean of the new of College of Media, Communication and Information. Bergen will begin her duties as dean on July 20, 2015.

Off

Traditional

White

Youth snap parents into political-rearing mode, says ��Ƶ-Boulder-led study

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:08:28 +0000

Youth snap parents into political-rearing mode, says ��Ƶ-Boulder-led study Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/30/2014 - 10:08

Parents are more reactive than proactive when providing political influence and opportunities for their children, according to a study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The study, published in the journal Social Science Quarterly, found that political engagement independently pursued by youth spurs parents to realize that childrearing extends to the civic realm. It also is the first study to show intentional political parenting as an outcome of family interaction rather than a stimulus.

“Ideally, moms and dads would view parenting as an opportunity to encourage political development and involvement,” said Michael McDevitt, ��Ƶ-Boulder professor of media, communication and information and lead author of the paper. “But oftentimes, parents need some kind of wake-up call, such as a daughter bringing up controversial topics discussed at school or a son suddenly paying attention to election news coverage.”

McDevitt and co-author Spiro Kiousis, professor of public relations at the University of Florida, use a basketball analogy to help explain the finding. In a “give-and-go,” the player with the ball passes to a teammate and repositions herself for the return pass.

“Similarly, in reactive political parenting, a son or daughter signals interest in politics and prompts a response,” said McDevitt. “The act of giving -- the display of youth expertise -- is rewarded by the parent, who returns the favor by further coaxing political development.”

The study was conducted using data from the 2002 and 2004 election cycles to take advantage of increased opportunities for family political communication in light of youth opposition to the U.S. and U.K. invasion of Ba’athist Iraq. In the spring of 2004, the Pentagon struggled to enlist troops large enough to confront popular resistance in Iraq, according to McDevitt. While a military draft had been abolished 30 years prior, rumors of reinstitution circulated -- a situation likely discussed in families with teenagers and young adults.

��Ƶ 500 parent-adolescent pairs from Arizona, Colorado and Florida participated in the study. Youth participation in classroom discussions about campaign issues, attention to election news, opposition to U.S. military involvement and first-time voting highly correlated with active political parenting. However, the parents’ own political engagement did not correspond highly with their political parenting.

McDevitt said he hopes the study will promote awareness of the civic obligations of parents.

“Political parenting is rarely discussed in U.S. popular culture, policymaking and educational reform,” he said. “While activists emphasize the civic mission of schools, there is no parallel campaign to raise awareness about the civic mission of parents.”

McDevitt suggested that parents who more deliberately cultivate civic engagement in family interactions may help correct the “polarization and incivility that degrades American politics.”

To view the study visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ssqu.12127/abstract or contact Elizabeth Lock at 303-492-3117 or elizabeth.lock@colorado.edu.

-��Ƶ-

Parents are more reactive than proactive when providing political influence and opportunities for their children, according to a study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The study, published in the journal Social Science Quarterly, found that political engagement independently pursued by youth spurs parents to realize that childrearing extends to the civic realm. It also is the first study to show intentional political parenting as an outcome of family interaction rather than a stimulus.

Off

Traditional

White

National search launched for ��Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information dean

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 18:40:29 +0000

National search launched for ��Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information dean Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/24/2014 - 12:40

University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell Moore today announced the formation of a search committee to lead a national search for the founding dean of the new College of Media, Communication and Information.

The University of Colorado Board of Regents approved the new college in June and approved degree programs this month. The College of Media, Communication and Information is now accepting applications and will offer classes for new degrees starting in fall semester 2015.

“Over the last two decades, the rapid expansion of communication technologies and information gathering has transformed how we communicate, get our news and engage in local, regional and global commerce and society,” Moore said. “We’re looking for a dean who is visionary – a dean who will create an atmosphere where students not only learn what they need to be successful now, but also acquire the cutting-edge knowledge and insights to adapt to the changing communications landscape.”

Moore has appointed Anne Heinz, dean of Continuing Education and Professional Studies and associate vice chancellor for Summer Session, Outreach and Engagement, to chair the search committee.

Christopher Braider, who oversaw the effort to create the new college, is serving as the transitional dean for the 2014-15 academic year.

Heinz said the committee’s goal is to bring candidates on campus for interviews in the early part of the spring semester. The new dean would then begin his or her duties prior to fall semester 2015.

In addition to Heinz, faculty members on the search committee include Karen Ashcraft, professor of organizational communication; Reece Auguiste, assistant professor of film studies; Ken Bickers, professor of political science and director of the ��Ƶ in DC program; John Drumheller, senior instructor in the College of Music; Harsha Gangadharbatla, associate professor and interim chair of the advertising, public relations and media design department for the College of Media, Communication and Information; Helmut Muller-Sievers, professor of Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures and director of the Center for Humanities and Arts; Leysia Palen, associate professor of computer science; and Karen Tracy, professor and chair of the communication department.

Additional members include Jeanette Chavez, Journalism and Mass Communication Advisory Board member; Deanna Haas, director of development for the College of Communication, Media and Information; Anne Melton, undergraduate journalism student and editor of the ��Ƶ Independent; and Stephanie Preo, director of business operations for the College of Media, Communication and Information.

Questions and comments may be directed to Dean Anne Heinz, chair of the search committee, at Anne.Heinz@colorado.edu or 303-492-2202.

Contact:
Malinda Miller-Huey, ��Ƶ-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3115

Off

Traditional

White

��Ƶ Board of Regents approves College of Media, Communication and Information degrees

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 06:00:00 +0000

��Ƶ Board of Regents approves College of Media, Communication and Information degrees Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/11/2014 - 00:00

The University of Colorado Board of Regents today approved 12 new ��Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information degrees, in addition to a name change for one other degree.

The vote, held today at the University Memorial Center on the ��Ƶ-Boulder campus, was the final Board of Regents approval required for the new College of Media, Communication and Information before the degrees are forwarded to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education for approval. The college is now accepting applications and will offer classes for new degrees starting in fall semester 2015.

The Board of Regents approved formation of the college, which is projected to open with about 1,750 students and will be funded from existing resources, at its June meeting. Departments within the college include advertising, public relations and media design; communication; critical media practices; journalism; information science; media studies; and the graduate program in intermedia art, writing and performance.

“Over the last two decades, the rapid expansion of communication technologies and information gathering has transformed how we communicate, get our news and engage in local, regional and global commerce and society,” said Provost Russell L. Moore. “At the same time, the job market has rapidly transformed. Students graduating from the College of Media, Communication and Information will leave ��Ƶ-Boulder with the cutting-edge skills and insights required to thrive in the workplace and the changing communications landscape.”

New degrees approved by the Board of Regents today include:

· Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design -- BS in strategic communication with tracks in advertising, public relations and media design, and a MA in strategic communication design

· Department of Critical Media Practices -- BA in media production, MFA in interdisciplinary documentary and PhD in emergent technologies and media art practices

· Department of Information Science -- BS, MS and PhD degrees in information science

· Department of Media Studies -- BA in media studies and MA in media and public engagement and PhD in Media Research and Practice, including doctoral tracks in strategic communication, journalism and media studies

· Graduate program in Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance -- PhD

In addition, the BS degree in journalism was approved to become a BA degree. The journalism program will continue to offer its MA in journalism and the Department of Communication will continue to offer BA, MA and PhD degrees in communication.

All undergraduates enrolled in the college will take a common curriculum that builds on their shared interests in communication and digital media while providing a well-rounded education in humanities, the arts and the social and natural sciences. Students will be required to take basic courses in computing and in digital storytelling.

National government and private sector studies show that job markets for many of the industries students graduating from CMCI will enter are strong, and in many cases growing. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 14 percent increase in jobs in the motion picture and video industries over the 10-year period ending in 2018. A recent study by Bankrate puts advertising at the top of the list in terms of a degree that offers the best return on investment, while a recent Forbes survey of the 10 most surprising six-figure jobs includes multimedia artists, art directors, broadcast news analysts, writers and authors.

Christopher Braider, who oversaw the effort to create the new college, is serving as the transitional dean for the 2014-15 academic year. An international search for the dean of the college will be launched this fall.

More information about the new college is available at http://www.colorado.edu/cmci/.

College of Media, Communication and Information
Departments and Programs

Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design

Students will study creative and strategic advertising, public relations and design. They will craft messages that engage and inform the public on a wide range of media platforms. The department will offer a BS degree in strategic communication with tracks in advertising, public relations and media design; a MA in strategic communication design, and a track in strategic communication, offered through the doctoral program in Media Research and Practice.

Department of Communication

Students will learn how communication enables people to create, share and transform meaning and ways of living through interpersonal, group, organizational and public contexts. They will learn about the ethical issues and responsibilities of communication practice, the diversity of communication styles associated with gender and cultural differences and the uses and implications of communication technology. The Department of Communication will continue to offer its existing BA, MA and PhD degrees in communication.

Department of Critical Media Practices

Students will specialize in visual and audio production across a wide range of platforms. They will study nonfiction multimedia projects, production for small screens, interactive media and other innovative approaches to storytelling. The department will offer a BA degree in media production, a MFA in interdisciplinary documentary and a PhD in emergent technologies and media art practices.

Department of Information Science

Students will study the relationships between people, technology and information, and then design ways to make those connections more useful to society. Examples might include designing mobile apps or social media platforms for businesses or creating interactive maps that emergency responders can use to assess damage after a natural disaster.

The department will offer BS, MS and PhD degrees in information science.

Program in Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance

The doctoral program in Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance will be an incubator for experimentation with new forms of expression and storytelling. The program applies a teaching model that includes studio laboratories where professors and students from a variety of disciplines will collaborate to create new forms of multimedia art and technology.

Department of Journalism

Students will learn the reporting and writing skills they need to produce news and information on multiple media platforms. They will master the technology and journalistic skills to produce videos, audio, photography, graphics and social media on mobile platforms, the Web, television, radio and print. The department will offer BA and MA degrees in journalism, and a track in journalism studies, offered through the doctoral program in Media Research and Practice.

Department of Media Studies

Students will explore the ways media shape, and are shaped by, society and technology. They will learn how media institutions are organized, who controls their content, how they perform economically, how audiences engage with media and how media impact government, culture and social policy across the globe. The department will offer a BA degree in media studies, a MA degree in media and public engagement, and a track in media studies offered through the doctoral program in Media Research and Practice.

Contact:
Malinda Miller-Huey, ��Ƶ-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3115
Christopher Braider, CMCI, 303-492-4364

- See more at: http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2014/09/11/cu-board-regents-approves-college-media-communication-and-information#sthash.qkvssWbQ.dpuf

Off

Traditional

White

Tweets during 2013 Colorado floods gave engineers valuable data on infrastructure damage

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 19:27:57 +0000

Tweets during 2013 Colorado floods gave engineers valuable data on infrastructure damage Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/03/2014 - 13:27

Tweets sent during last year’s massive flooding on Colorado’s Front Range were able to detail the scope of damage to the area’s infrastructure, according to a study by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The findings can help geotechnical and structural engineers more effectively direct their reconnaissance efforts after future natural disasters—including earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes—as well as provide them data that might otherwise be lost due to rapid cleanup efforts.

“Because the flooding was widespread, it impacted many canyons and closed off access to communities for a long duration, making it difficult to get a reconnaissance team on the ground,” said Shideh Dashti, an assistant professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at ��Ƶ-Boulder and an author of the paper. “The continued storms also prevented airborne reconnaissance. As a result, social media and other remote sources of information were used to obtain reconnaissance information.

“People were tweeting amazing pictures and videos of damage to bridges and other infrastructure systems,” Dashti said. “After the fact, we compared those tweets to the damage reported by engineering reconnaissance teams and they were well correlated.”

During the second week of September 2013, the Front Range was deluged with as much as 17 inches of rain, causing extensive flooding that destroyed roads, swept away houses and washed out bridges.

After a disaster like last year’s floods, it’s important for geotechnical and structural engineers to collect data about how well infrastructure withstood the extreme event, in order to prevent damage in future similar disasters. Structures are designed to survive a certain amount of stress, but those built-in safety margins are based on mathematical formulas that attempt to describe the real world. Detailed information about what actually happens on the ground during disasters allows engineers to tweak the mathematical formulas and build more resilient infrastructure in the future.

But engineering reconnaissance teams often find there is only a narrow window—between when it becomes safe to enter an area and when cleanup efforts begin to erase evidence of infrastructure performance—for investigation.

By collecting and analyzing the information contained in tweets, engineering reconnaissance teams can quickly determine the scope of the geographic area where infrastructure has been damaged, decide where best to focus their limited time as well as glean valuable information about infrastructure they are unable to see in person, Dashti said.

For the study, presented earlier this year at the International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, Dashti collaborated with Associate Professors Leysia Palen and Kenneth Anderson and doctoral student Jennings Anderson, all in ��Ƶ-Boulder’s computer science department; doctoral student Mehdi Heris in ��Ƶ-Boulder’s environmental design program; and Scott Anderson of the Federal Highway Administration.

The team used Twitter data collected by Project EPIC (Empowering the Public with Information in Crisis)—a program launched by Palen and Kenneth Anderson in 2009 to study social media use during disasters. Project EPIC is supported by the National Science Foundation and is based in ��Ƶ-Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science.

“Project EPIC recorded tweets during the floods,” Dashti said. “We provided the EPIC team with keywords that are relevant to disaster reconnaissance and infrastructure performance, which allowed us to filter the tweets to a manageable number for further analysis.”

Tweets that were tagged with latitude and longitude could immediately be mapped. While only a small percentage of tweets—about 1.2 percent—had “geo-tagging” turned on, they were still adequate to provide substantial information on the geographic distribution and time progression of damage, said Dashti, who compared a map of damages created by the city of Boulder with the map of geo-tagged tweets.

Many tweets that were not geo-tagged still had value, Dashti said, because they mentioned specific places or were linked to pictures or videos with recognizable landmarks.

The new study is one of the first to look at how social media can be used to support reconnaissance by non-emergency professionals, like engineers, after a disaster. Much of the prior research in information systems for crisis response is focused on supporting emergency responders and residents while extreme events are happening.

In the future, Dashti hopes to create a platform that combines information gleaned from social media with other information that citizens can self-report, perhaps through a smartphone application.

“My goal is to eventually feed information on damage distribution back to the user,” Dashti said. “You provide information and as a result, you gain access to live, mapped information provided by other users during a disaster.”

Contact:
Shideh Dashti, 303-492-3118
Shideh.Dashti@colorado.edu
Laura Snider, ��Ƶ-Boulder media relations, 303-735-0528
Laura.Snider@colorado.edu

Off

Traditional

White

Press Release: ��Ƶ Board of Regents approves new ��Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:29:25 +0000

Press Release: ��Ƶ Board of Regents approves new ��Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/27/2014 - 12:29

The University of Colorado Board of Regents today approved a new College of Media, Communication and Information slated to open on the Boulder campus in fall 2015.

“The new college will deliver groundbreaking teaching and research that will ensure our students’ success by providing them with the expertise and versatility they need to thrive in a rapidly evolving communication landscape,” said University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. “This marks a transformative period for media education across the nation, and ��Ƶ-Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information places the campus at the vital center of these exciting changes.”

The vote, held today at the Tivoli Center at the University of Colorado Denver, marks the first time a new college or school has been created at ��Ƶ-Boulder in more than 50 years and moves forward the reorganization of the Department of Communication and the Program in Journalism and Mass Communication into one college.

The next step in development of the college will come in September when the Regents will be asked to formally approve departments of advertising, public relations and media design; communication; critical media practices; journalism; information science; and media studies.

“The formation of the College of Media, Communication and Information positions ��Ƶ-Boulder as a key driver of Colorado’s information, communication and creative industries –- all growing sectors in our state’s larger economy, according to the 2012 Colorado Innovation Index,” said DiStefano.

Plans for the new college have been underway since the Board of Regents’ charge in 2011 to create a journalism program with innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to propel ��Ƶ-Boulder to national leadership in media education. The process has included input from faculty, students and staff, as well as alumni and industry.

“The University of Colorado is positioned to be on the forefront of our industry with an innovative program that will produce not only working filmmakers, but a new generation well-versed in nonfiction storytelling,” said Oscar-winning documentarian Daniel Junge.

The college is projected to open with about 1,750 students and will be funded from existing resources.

“The proposed new college meshes perfectly with our industry’s need for tech-savvy journalists who can produce engaging digital work while maintaining the traditional standards of credible and ethical journalism,” said Andrew Pergam, video strategist at The McClatchy Company, a major newspaper and Internet publisher.

More information about the new college is available at http://www.colorado.edu/cmci/.

-��Ƶ-

Contacts

Bronson Hilliard, ��Ƶ-Boulder media relations, 303-735-6183
Chris Braider, director of Journalism and Mass Communication, 303-809-0500

Off

Traditional

White

press release

Department of Information Science welcomes faculty

Off

��������Ƶ-Boulder names founding dean of new College of Media, Communication and Information

Off

Youth snap parents into political-rearing mode, says ��������Ƶ-Boulder-led study

Off

National search launched for ��������Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information dean

Off

��������Ƶ Board of Regents approves College of Media, Communication and Information degrees

Off

Tweets during 2013 Colorado floods gave engineers valuable data on infrastructure damage

Off

Press Release: ��������Ƶ Board of Regents approves new ��������Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information

Off

��Ƶ-Boulder names founding dean of new College of Media, Communication and Information

Youth snap parents into political-rearing mode, says ��Ƶ-Boulder-led study

National search launched for ��Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information dean

��Ƶ Board of Regents approves College of Media, Communication and Information degrees

Press Release: ��Ƶ Board of Regents approves new ��Ƶ-Boulder College of Media, Communication and Information