Teaching Philosophy
Empower original reporting. Create independent thinkers. Prepare for the future. Hands-on experience for student journalists.
Click here for a full statement of my teaching philosophy.
Basic Reporting Classes
Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland: Basic and Intermediate Reporting, 2010-2013
University of Arkansas: Basic Reporting, 2017
Skills
News writing, AP style, interviewing, covering public meetings, social media, digital literacy
Business Journalism Courses
Summer 2019 Business Journalism course offered online, 2017-2019: Honors. Graduate.
Skills
Reporting on corporate financial documents, economic data, labor, employment reports, introduction to business regulation: SEC
Concepts
Neoliberalism, political economy
History
Great Depression, S&L crisis, 2008 financial crisis
Student Media Project Examples
Discharging Trouble, Sept. 2016
Finalist for 2016 IRE Award
Lawsuit by Maryland Attorney General targeting nursing home operator
Series distributed by The Associated Press
Published on 50+ newspaper websites
University of Arkansas Students Examine Quality of Veterans Health Care, Fall 2017
Region 12 Society of Professional Journalists Award for suicide story
30 veterans, senior VA officials interviewed
Published by Arkansas Public Media
Students interviewed on KUAF, 91.3, NPR affiliate
Race and Mortgage Rejections in Northwest Arkansas, Feb. 2017
In-depth examination of home mortgage disclosure data
Published by Arkansas Public Media
Students interviewed on KUAF, 91.3, NPR affiliate
Media coverage
Working for Low Wages in Northwest Arkansas, Apr. 2018
Interviews with minimum wage-workers in region
5-minute podcast for NPR affiliates
Basic interactive graphics
Published by Arkansas Public Media
Student Loan Debt in Arkansas, Fall 2018
Interactive graphic dashboards
Mobile display
Student discusses project at NICAR panel
Students interviewed on KUAF, 91.3, NPR affiliate
Advanced Reporting Class, Spring 2019
Data mining Twitter
Data visualizations
Data management and analysis
Journalism Theory, 2016-2019
Required graduate course
Critical, Cultural Theories
Aristotle, Marx, Lippman, Bernays, Lasswell, McCombs, Shaw, Carey, Schudson, Tuchman
Examples of successful thesis projects
Advanced Statistics in Arkansas Sports Reporting
Multimedia – Website and Thesis: Andrew Epperson
More information here
IX: Story About the Law of Non-Discrimination
Documentary Film: Denzel Jenkins
Full text here
Full documentary here
Political Speech on Twitter: A Sentiment Analysis of Tweets and News Coverage of Local Gun Policy
Data Journalism Thesis: Mohamed M’Bareck (Fulbright Scholar)
Full text here
A Social Marketing Plan for the Children’s Safety Center
Public Relations Focus: Morganne Rhodes
Full text here
Traditional Thesis: Boitshepo Balowzi (Fulbright Scholar)
Full text here
Research
The Enforcers: How little-known trade reporters uncovered the Keating Five and advanced business journalism
How can business journalism improve and better serve the broader public?
Released Monday, University of Illinois Press
Manuscript: 282 pages
Foreword by David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of The Making of Donald Trump
Comments from peer reviewers: “The scholarship is outstanding. The author has a great command of multiple journalism literatures, has done archival research about media press lawsuits and interviewed award winning journalists…The author, whom I have not met, has a great writing style.”
Advance press in The Washington Post, Sirius XM, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, KUAF 91.3 NPR affiliate, Chuck Jaffe’s MoneyLife
Current Research Projects
Policy Uncertainty and Chinese Direct Investment in the U.S.: A Cross-Disciplinary Study of Media Narratives
How did five major U.S. publications cover Chinese investment in the U.S. since 2000?
Rob Wells, Ph. D., journalism
Ka Zeng, Ph. D., political science
Austin Wilkins, MA candidate, political science
Use of R for data mining of narratives, rhetoric, sentiment. Core analysis of 4,334 articles, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Inside U.S. Trade. Partnership with ProQuest for data mining. Examining a corpus of 120,000 articles, U.S. Newsstream.
“Don’t Waste The Reader’s Time”: The Journalistic Innovations of Willard M. Kiplinger
History of Major Figure in U.S. Business Journalism
Article in American National Biography, Oxford University Press.
Influenced Market for Specialized Political News.
Forerunner to Politico, Axios, Congressional Quarterly, National Journal, Bloomberg Government
Created Cryptic, Telegraphic Writing Style, Forerunner of Blogs, Twitter
Major player in coverage of First New Deal.
Kiplinger Corporate and Family Archives. Unpublished biographies. Letters with presidents, business leaders.
No academic work done on this person.
Book Chapters
Book Reviews
The Voice of American: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th Century Journalism, Apr. 2019
Rob Wells
Published in History: Reviews of Books
Grants
Provost’s Collaborative Research Grant
Fall 2016
University of Arkansas
Amount: $1,921
