FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Two papers involving research conducted by students from the University of Arkansas were selected to be presented at the 2017 Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication Symposium (SWECJMCS) on Friday (Oct. 6) at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. The presentations will be held in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Dr. Ray McCaffrey, Director of the Center for Ethics in Journalism, worked with students in his Ethics in Journalism classes. The research began in the fall of 2016 and continued through the spring of 2017. McCaffrey divided the students into groups and each had the responsibility to gather data, enter it into an Excel file and then merged into a master database.
The first paper is ttitled “An Election in the ‘Echoverse’: A Study of Campaign Advertising, Social Media Use, and News Coverage During The 2016 Presidential Election Campaign.” The project covered the 2016 presidential election and analyzed the political campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The paper was released in the spring of 2017 and was co-authored by former staff members at the ethics center Bobbie Foster and Christi Welter.
The second paper titled, “Donald Trump’s Battle with the Media: A Study of Presidential Social Media Use and News Coverage During The Trump Administration’s First 100 Days,” was written and researched by three graduate students, Boitshepo Balozwi, Jonathan Carlson, Morgan Rhodes and one undergraduate student, Gabriel Lodge. The paper covers the first 100 days of the president’s job at the White House and his use of social media — Twitter.
SWECJMC’s objective is to promote the recognition, welfare and progress of journalism and mass communication education in the Southwest part of the United States, according to their website.
SWECJMC is an affiliate of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Click the hyperlink for more information about SWECJMC.