Faculty Spotlight

Drs. Genelle Belmas (Journalism) and Gail Love (Public Relations) published “In the Dark: A Consumer Perspective on FCC Broadcast Indecency Denials” in the Federal Communications Law Journal.

Professor Jeff Brody (Journalism) organized a 15-year reunion of Asian American journalists from the East-West Center’s Jefferson Fellowship Program. Participants came from Bangladesh and Singapore to join other fellows.

Professor Tom Clanin (Journalism) moderated a panel at the California First Amendment Coalition’s 12th annual Free Speech and Open Government Assembly at USC with panelists Dr. Genelle Belmas (Journalism), Dean Rick Pullen, Jackie Kimmel (Journalism), and former Daily Titan editor Marti Longworth.

Professor Carolyn Coal (Advertising) completed production of several Warner Home Video and Disney projects, including seasons one and two of “Two and a Half Men” and “Meet the Robinsons.”

Dr. Tony Fellow (Journalism), chair of the Department of Communications, wore his vice chair of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California hat and joined Mayor Antonio Villaragosa and other elected officials in the Chinese New Year Parade in Los Angeles in February.

Dr. Ed Fink (RTVF), department chair, had a paper title “Illegal Downloads May Cost Music and Movie Industries 37.7 Percent of Estimated Revenue Loss” accepted for the National Broadcasting Society convention in Anaheim in March 2008.

Dr. Brent Foster (Broadcast Journalism) presented a paper titled “Sesame Street: The Root of Television Dependency” at the January 2008 Hawaii International conference on Arts and Humanities.

Professor xtine hanson (Photocommunications) is included in the 2007 issue of the Journal of the New Media Caucus, a subdivision of the College Arts Association journal. She is one of 35 artists to be included.

Professor Shelley Jenkins (RTVF) had a documentary, “The Mystics: A 50-Year Legacy,” screened at The Magic Castle in March. The Castle has agreed to promote and sell the documentary. Jenkins also was asked by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation Archives to interview David Jacobs, creator of Dallas, for the archives.

Dr. Mark Latonero (Entertainment Studies) co-authored a paper title “Ethics Remixed: How Today’s Media Consumers Evaluate the Role of Creative Reappropriation,” which was accepted for presentation at the International Communications Association Conference.

Dr. Philippe Perebinossoff (RTVF) had his new textbook published, Real World Media Ethics.

Dr. Henry Puente (Entertainment Studies) published a chapter on “U.S. Latino Films in the 21st Century” in Lancamento da colecao: Cinema no Mundo: industria, politica e Mercado. His paper, “Communicating for Social Impact,” was accepted for the International Communication Association Conference.

Dr. Jule Selbo (RTVF) was invited to speak at a seminar on screenwriting for film students at the University of Texas, Austin.

Dr. Nancy Snow (Journalism) is back on board after spending her sabbatical as a visiting professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University near Beijing.

Dr. Andi Stein (Journalism) and Sandra Rhoten, dean of students, received a Bronze Excellence Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators for an academic integrity poster campaign.

Dr. Hye-Keyeung Seung

Human Comm prof studies autism among children

According to a Center for Disease Control report, one out of 150 children suffer from autism. And that number continues to grow. Fifty percent of those are non-verbal.

“We don’t have clear understanding on the reason autism is growing but we do have a few working hypotheses,” Dr. Hye-Keyeung Seung (Human Communication) said.

“Children who were diagnosed with mental retardation in the past might have been diagnosed as autism. There are also some reports on the decrease of mental retardation, which supports this hypothesis. Also, now we have many individuals with high functioning autism.”

Seung, an associate professor in the communicative disorders program in the Department of Human Communication Studies, joined the faculty in fall 2006. Her dedication to autism and an open position at CSUF brought her to California.

Born in Korea, Seung studied psychology at Korea University and Seoul National University. She came to the United States to obtain her Ph.D. in communication disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Prior to joining communicative disorders at CSUF, Seung taught at the University of Florida and the University of Texas, El Paso.

During her clinical fellowship at the Autism and Development Disabilities Clinic at the Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, in 1999, she learned about a growing population of autistic children and realized there was a lot of research that needed to be done.

“I wanted to understand about the growing population and find answers to my questions,” Seung said. “There are way too many non-verbal autistic children and I don’t understand why.”

Her research is “labor intensive,” working with parents and children three times a week including weekends in order to accommodate the parents’ schedule.

“I work on teaching them vocal sounds (vowels and consonants) through play and help them develop saying words.”

With the higher functioning autistic children, she is studying the relationship between the role of language and “theory of mind” approach, which teases out language skills by showing the children drawings and asking them to interpret.

Through the Yen Do Research Scholarship at CSUF, she was able to begin a Korean-American parent support group, where parents can discuss issues with other parents. She hopes to form other support groups with Chinese and Vietnamese parents.

-KH

F & C Student ambassadors as ‘helpers’

Five ambassadors pictured here are, from left: Peter Martinez (Journalism ’08), Amanda Ruiz (Public Relations ’08), Juliana Santos (Communicative Disorders ’09), Holly Tripp (RTVF ’08), and Mario Davie (Journalism 09).

Seven student leaders in the College of Communications were on hand to give a helping hand at the annual Front and Center performance Feb. 5 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Dean Rick Pullen, Steve Mosko and Dr. Fred Zandpour at the College of Communications Corporate Appreciation Luncheon, Oct. 3, 2007. Steve Mosko, President of Sony Pictures Television, gave a presentation about the emerging opportunities in media and entertainment industries and the challenges facing the industry as a result of the new technologies and new business models.