Chair: Chiung Hwang Chen, Brigham Young University-Hawaii (e-mail)
It’s an honor to head the Religion and Media Interest Group this year; I hope we have a fruitful year working together.
I received my Ph.D. degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Iowa and am currently an associate professor in the Department of International Cultural Studies at Brigham Young University Hawaii. My teaching responsibility resides mostly in the field of cultural studies, including intercultural communication, gender/race and culture, and media and culture, etc. In addition to religion and media, my research areas also touch on Journalistic narratives in Chinese speaking regions, Asian American history and contemporary issues, feminism, and more recently gender and sport narratives in Polynesia.
I am a woman of few words, so I don’t really have much else to say. But I do very much appreciate this year’s officers for their willingness to help. I am looking forward to working with them and to serving the RMIG community. Please don’t hesitate to contact us when you need information regarding RMIG’s functions.
Vice Head/Program: Myna German, Delaware State University (e-mail)
Dr. Myna German, chair of the Department of Mass Communication at Delaware State University, has recently returned from Portugal, where she presented a symposium on topics relating to her co-published book Migration, Technology and Transculturation (via Delaware State University).
Teaching chair: Debra L. Mason, University of Missouri (e-mail)
Dr. Debra Mason brings more than 25 years of professional reporting, research, and teaching experience to her position. Her major religion and media research work includes a content audit of religion news spanning 50 years and the largest telephone survey of religion journalists. She edited the recently published Religion Reporting: A Guide to Journalism’s Best Beat, and co-edited Readings in Religion as News, a collection of religion news from the colonial era to the present. Mason also serves on the editorial board and is book review editor for the Journal of Media and Religion. Mason holds a doctoral degree in mass communication from Ohio University in Athens, a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago and a master’s in theological studies from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Mason has received numerous grants, awards and other honors for her work. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Council for National Journalism Organizations, among many others (via University of Missouri).
Research co-chairs: Joel Campbell, Brigham Young University (e-mail)
Before joining the Communications Department at Brigham Young University as an assistant professor, Joel Campell was a reporter and editor at the Deseret News in Salt Lake City and manager of corporate communciations at Management and Training Corp. in Centerville, Utah. He holds a master’s degree from Ohio State University and bachelor’s degree from BYU.
Campbell is active in many First Amendment and Freedom of Information causes and is past president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and chairman of Society of Professional Journalists’ national Freedom of Information Committee. He is legislative monitor for the Utah Press Association and vice president of the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He serves on the Utah Information Technology Commission (via Brigham Young University).
Professional, Freedom & Responsibility chair: Julia Duin, University of Memphis (e-mail)
After a year as an associate journalism professor at Union University, Julia Duin is now a graduate student at the University of Memphis earning her second MA (in journalism). Her first was in religion. She’s also been an adjunct at the University of Maryland and a contributing writer for The Washington Post. She spent the bulk of her career as a writer and reporter for five newspapers, including The Houston Chronicle and The Washington Times. She’s also written five books and is researching a sixth on 20-something pentecostal serpent handlers in Appalachia. Her latest two are “Quitting Church: Why the Faithful are Fleeing” and “Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community.”
Newsletter editor: Greg Perreault, University of Missouri (e-mail)
Greg Perreault comes from a print journalism background and has been published in newspapers including USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald and the Palm Beach Post. He holds an M.A. in Communication, Culture, Technology from Georgetown University and a B.A. in News & Information from Palm Beach Atlantic University. He has served on faculty at the Washington Journalism Center and as a newspaper advisor for Palm Beach Atlantic University. He is currently pursing a Ph.D. at the University of Missouri and continues to freelance on religion and video games for the Huffington Post.
Membership: Dan Stout, Brigham Young University-Hawaii (e-mail)
Dr. Dan Stout previously worked at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and the University of South Carolina. He is currently co-editor of the Journal of Media and Religion. He brings an impressive research publication record with him including three edited books, over two dozen book chapters and scholarly/professional articles. He is an internationally known expert on religion and the mass media. His professional experience is in advertising at the Houston Chronicle. He holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University, an M.A. from the University of Georgia and a B.A. from Brigham Young University (via University of Nevada-Las Vegas).
Mid-winter Conference Chair: Maccama Ikpah, Rowan University (e-mail)