Public Relations: News Archive

4/4/13

• Congratulations to Clay Craig, Dane Kiambi and Patrick Merle! They have each been awarded a 2013 Helen DeVitt Jones Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award!

3/25/13

• Doctoral candidate Sherice Gearhart has successfully defended her dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Sherice Gearhart!

3/22/13

• We are proud to announce that doctoral student Patrick Merle has successfully defended his dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Patrick Merle!

2/15/13

• Congratulations to graduate students Clay Craig, Mary Brooks, Sherice Gearhart, Patrick Merle, Mehrnaz Rahimi and Matt Vandyke! They recently found out their papers were accepted to the World Association for Public Opinion Research. The papers are:
  
  Gearhart, S., Merle, P., Craig, C., Vandyke, M., Rahimi, M., & Brooks, M. E. (2013, May). A revolution in survey research?: A bibliometric review of public opinion studies between 2000 and 2012. Paper to be presented at the 66th annual conference of the World Association for Public Opinion Research, Boston, MA.
  
  Merle, P., Gearhart, S., Craig, C., Rahimi, M, Brooks, M. E., & Vandyke, M. (2013, May). Computers, tablets, & smart phones: The truth about web-based surveys. Paper to be presented at the 66th annual conference of the World Association for Public Opinion Research, Boston, MA.

2/13/13

• Doctoral student Patrick Merle has accepted a position as an assistant professor of public relations in the School of Communication at Florida State University. Congratulations Patrick!

1/24/13

• Congratulations to faculty and graduate students for having papers accepted for presentations at the ICA conference in London, June 17-21, 2013. See the list of acceptances here.

1/18/13

• Doctoral candidate Sherice Gearhart has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Communication, Public Relations & Social Media in the School of Communication at the University of Nebraska – Omaha beginning in fall 2013. Congratulations Sherice!

11/29/12

• Prof. Jo Grant was the recipient of the first annual Eta Omicron Nu and Phi Sigma Beta Faculty Appreciation Award. Faculty nominations were solicited from students campus wide; students were asked to nominate their favorite and most influential professors. Only four awards were given across the university.

11/12/12

• Congratulations to Dr. Liz Gardner for receiving a Faculty Diversity Development internal grant offered through Dr. Munoz' office. The grant is for $2,000 to conduct research to understand the effectiveness of health persuasion with Hispanic diabetics. Only three awards were given across the university.

10/1/12

• Drs. Kelly Kauhfold, Autumn Shafer and Lily Luo received a $12,500 research grant from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. They will be working with the Komen Tissue Bank to develop communication strategies for promoting breast tissue donation among Asian Americans.
• Dr. Autumn Shafer had a publication accepted: Johnston, A., Friedman, B., & Shafer, A. (In Press). Framing the problem of sex trafficking: Whose problem? What remedy? Feminist Media Studies.
• Dr. Trent Seltzer was named a 2012 Texas Tech Faculty Integrated Scholar.

9/12/12

• Drs. Rebecca Ortiz and Autumn Shafer are Recipients of Internal Competitive Funding Opportunity to Advance Scholarship.

5/7/12

• Tech PR visited Dallas in March 2012 to tour public relations agencies and to meet with professionals in the industry. Read the full story here.

3/30/12

• The deadline to apply for Tech PR officer positions has been extended through Fri., April 6. Applications are available outside Dr. Seltzer's office (MCOM 216). Elections will take place at the next membership meeting on Wed., April 11.

2/16/12

• Our very own Coy Callison, Shannon Bichard, Liz Gardner and Trent Seltzer have teamed up with physicians from the Brown University Alpert Medical Rhode Island on a research project titled Project CLEAR. The program has already seen success and has begun to gain international attention. For more information, click here.

1/20/12

• Dr. Autumn Shafer and Dr. Weiwu Zhang were selected to participate in TTU's Transdisciplinary Research Academy, which enhances the research missions of Texas Tech University and tackles issues of global concerns by cultivating interfacing interactions across traditional disciplinary boundaries.

1/15/12

• The Dallas Opera has promoted 2011 outstanding alumna Jennifer Schuder to Chief Marketing Officer/Director of Community Outreach.

1/11/12

• Congratulations to the Visionary Communications account team (Ann Andrews, Nicole Egan, Ashley Mcbride, Lisa Peisen, and Angie Sims). Their team won the account in Dr. Shafer's PR Campaigns class. Their client was National Safe Place.
• Dr. Liz Gardner discusses her research on KAMC's Si Se Puede.

12/13/11

• Zhang, W., & Gearhart, S. (in press). CHAPTER Political behavior in social network sites. In Z. Yan (ed.), Encyclopedia of Cyber Behavior. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Wigley, S., & Zhang, W. (in press). A study of PR practitioners' use of social media in crisis planning. Public Relations Journal.
• Seltzer, T., Gardner, L., Callison, C., & Bichard, S. (in press). PR in the ER: Managing internal organization-public relationships in a hospital emergency department. Public Relations Review.
• Johnson, T.J., Bichard, S.L., & Zhang, W. (in press). Revived and refreshed: Selective exposure to blogs and political Websites for political information. In F. Comunello (ed.), Networked sociability and individualism: Technology for personal and professional relationships. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Seltzer, T., & Zhang, W. (in press). Debating healthcare reform: How political parties' issue-specific communication influences citizens' perceptions of organization-public relationships. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.

12/10/11

• Congratulations to our Fall 2011 Banner Bearer Amy Marie Ashby. Amy is a public relations major from Katy, Texas, and will carry the college banner during commencement on Saturday.

10/17/11

• Melissa Wofford and Josh Robinson were selected as recipients of the Distinguished Staff Awards for 2011.

10/13/11

• Seltzer, T., & Zhang, W. (in press). Debating healthcare reform: How political parties' issue-specific communication influences citizens' perceptions of organization-public relationships. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.

9/19/11

• Dr. Weiwu Zhang was appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Mass Communication and Journalism.

9/13/11

• Doctoral Student Dane Kiambi recently visited the St. Louis offices of the global public relations firm, Fleishman Hillard. The visit was arranged by the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

8/23/11

• Congratulations Dane Kiambi for having his paper selected for publication in the Public Relations Review! Kiambi's paper, "Ethnic Appeal: A Self-Defense Tool for Kenyan Politicians", looks at the apologetic rhetoric strategies that Kenyan politicians use whenever they are accused of any form of wrongdoing.

8/8/11

• Congratulations to Sungwon Chung for being selected as the 2011 graduate student recipient of the Kelsey Lauren Kidd Memorial Endowed Scholarship.

7/23/11

• Assistant Professor John Wirtz shares his view of social media rivals Google+ and Facebook.

7/1/11

• Kelly Overley talks about the continuing importance of her PR degree (Video).

5/10/11

• Congratulations to the Fresh PR account team (Helen Oettinger, Allison Kozlowski, Lyndee Martin, Amy Speer, Macy West, and Jordan Wright). Their team won the account in Dr. Seltzer's PR Campaigns class. Their client was the United States Air Force Academy Endowment.
• Congratulations to the CaPRock Communications (Brittni Henderson, Marissa Balch, Audrey Batista, Siera Hart, Tristin Walker) and Priceless PR (Mattie Steger, Kalee Connally, Kelsey Davidson, Sydney Drake, Kelli Hanna, Bennett Jensen) account teams from Dr. Gardner's PR Campaigns classes. These teams were recognized as having the top campaigns by the Lubbock Lions Club, their client for the semester.

5/2/11

• PR Campaigns group wins Texas Public Relations Association award!
  
  One of the PR Campaigns teams from the fall semester, Priority PR, has received a Best of Texas Award from the Texas Public Relations Association. The team developed the "forever hope, forever safe, forever home" campaign to increase the volunteer base for CASA of the South Plains. Their research-based strategic plan was chosen as a winner in the Best of Texas Student Category for a program or campaign. The student team will be honored with other Best of Texas winners at the May 20 TPRA awards reception in Dallas.
  
  The members of Priority PR are Deagan Ice, Ashley Quirino, Kayla Thomas and Luke Williams.

4/28/11

• Dr. Weiwu Zhang was awarded the Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award.

4/20/11

• Trent Seltzer received the President's Excellence in Teaching Award at Texas Tech's Faculty Convocation.
• Weiwu Zhang was awarded the Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award.
• Coy Callison received the Outstanding Researcher Award at Texas Tech's Faculty Convocation.

4/5/11

• Dr. Liz Gardner's paper for the 2011 ICA conference has been recognized as a top paper by the Health Communication division. Dr. Gardner will present the paper, "The Role of Narrative and Other-referencing in Attenuating Psychological Reactance to Diabetes Self-care Messages," which was co-authored with Dr. Glenn Leshner of the University of Missouri, at the ICA conference in Boston this May.
• Dr. Weiwu Zhang has been selected to be a fellow for the 2011 Institute for Inclusive Excellence, a diversity training initiative of the Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity & Community Engagement at Texas Tech University.

4/2/11

• We are pleased to announce the 2011 Outstanding Alumni recipients: Kay Bell, Jan Boyle, Eddie Owens, Tod Robberson, Jennifer Schuder and Rita Williams. We will honor these alumni on Saturday, October 15, prior to the Kansas State football game.

3/29/11

• Gibson, R., Callison, C., & Zillmann, D. (2011). Quantitative literacy and affective reactivity in processing statistical information and case histories in the News. Media Psychology, 14, 96-120.

2/24/11

• Ph.D. student Patrick Merle has been notified his paper titled‚ The U.S. Correspondents in Paris: A longitudinal study of the profession 1998-2010, has been accepted for presentation at the AEJMC/ICD Midwinter Conference, which will take place in March 4-5.

2/20/11

• Congratulations to Dr. Weiwu Zhang who has been selected to attend the 2011 Institute for Inclusive Excellence. He was informed that "the selection committee found your application to be an excellent demonstration of how superior scholarship contributes to diversity at Texas Tech".

2/9/11

• Congratulations to Coy Callison, Liz Gardner, Trent Seltzer, John Wirtz, and Weiwu Zhang for having papers accepted for presentation at the 14th Annual International Public Relations Research Conference in Miami, FL. Two of these papers were co-authored with College of Media & Communication doctoral students, including Dane Kiambi, Daewook Kim, and Prisca Ngondo.

12/10/10

• Congratulations to Dept. of Public Relations faculty members Lori Boyer, Coy Callison, Trent Seltzer, John Wirtz, and Weiwu Zhang for having papers accepted for presentation at the AEJMC 2010 convention in Denver, CO. Several of these papers were co-authored with Mass Communications doctoral students, including Jerod Foster, Prisca Ngondo, Phillip Poe, and Austin Sims. Dr. John Wirtz has also received a Top Faculty Paper award from the Religion and Media Interest Group.