COMM students to present work at Union for Democratic Communications conference

Posted by Amy Farnum Patronis on

Union for Democratic ChangeSeveral Florida State University School of Communication students and faculty members will be presenting their work at the Union for Democratic Communications conference on Nov. 1-3 in San Francisco.

The theme of this year’s annual conference is “The Point is to Change It: Media Democracy and Democratic Media in Action.”  The conference, which will be held jointly with Project Censorship, will be hosted by the University of San Francisco Department of Media Studies. 

“The School of Communication at Florida State University will be well-represented as several of our graduate students are presenting their exemplary critical media studies scholarship at this important conference,” Dr. Jennifer Proffitt said.

“The Union for Democratic Communications is dedicated to social justice through the creation of a more democratic media system,” doctoral student Shea Smock said. “The conference brings together media academics, analysts, artists, and activists, among others. This year, UDC is partnering with the research program, Project Censored, in San Francisco which will add research on issues that have been underreported or ignored by the mainstream media.”

The UDC is an organization of communication researchers, journalists, media producers, policy analysts, academics and activists dedicated to:

• critical study of the communications establishment;
• production and distribution of democratically controlled and produced media;
• fostering alternative, oppositional, independent and experimental production;
• development of democratic communications systems locally, regionally and internationally.

Saturday, November 2
Panel 18: Gender Violence and Hate Speech in Media
Shea Smock and Dr. Jennifer Proffitt, Rape and Rape Culture as Examples of Backlash? How Broadcast News Covers Sexual Violence: A Feminist Political Economic Analysis

Panel 26: Ideologies of Race & Gender in Popular Culture
Brandon O’Connor, Race Issues in The Walking Dead

Laura Stoltzfus, The Gang’s All (White) Here: The Marginalization of Minorities in Comic Book Adaptations

Multi-Media Presentation 6
Dr. Andy Opel and Greg Elmer (Ryerson University), Preempting Dissent: A Creative Commons Documentary (RT45).

Panel 37: Broadcasting and Regulatory Challenges
Richelle Crotty, The Federal Communication Commission and Media Ownership Rules: The Damaging Effects of Concentrated Media Ownership

Sunday, November 3
Panel 41: Journalism: Crisis, Controversies and Corporate Control
Shea Smock and Rachel Shields, Ownership Affecting Coverage: Money Hushes in the Case of College Recruiting and their Use of “Hostesses” and “Ambassadors”