Communication Major Wins First Prize For Research at NCJA Conference   

Communication Major Wins First Prize For Research at NCJA Conference    
A panel of three communication students presented their senior capstone research projects at the 13th Annual New Jersey Communication Association (NJCA) Conference at Kean University. These research papers were part of the communication department’s senior seminar, a core course in the new curriculum.

This marked the first time students from Manhattan College presented communication research at a regional conference. Sarah Mulligan ‘09 was awarded first place for undergraduate research. Her work “The Evolution of the Magazine: An Analysis of Digital Publications in Print Media” featured original research and media industry perspectives on the rapidly changing field of magazine publishing.  

On the same panel, Kristen Meddaugh ’09 presented her work on celebrities as commodities in “The Celebrity Machine: An Analytical Study of the Celebrity as Commodity.” The third panel member, Brianne Panzarella ’09, presented the paper “The Fault, Dear Brutus, is Not in Our Stars, But in Ourselves,” about the 24-hour news cycle in a post Sept. 11 media world.

“This is only the beginning of Manhattan College’s presence in the undergraduate communication research arena,” says Pamela Poe, assistant professor of communication. “We’re hoping to send many more students in the future to NJCA, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts and other regional and national communication conferences.”

During the conference, Poe was re-elected as public relations director on NJCA’s executive board. She chaired two sessions while serving as a presenter of interdisciplinary research findings and methods: “Where Public Relations Meets Public Health: Multidisciplinary Research on Health Marketing to Older Adults In Seattle, WA with Implications for Public Health and Public Relations Praxis.”

Dr. Thom Gencarelli, associate professor and chair of the communication department, who has previously served as president of NJCA, was elected to the board as historian and chaired a session on General Semantics and Its Application to Communication Teaching and Scholarship.

NJCA is an organization dedicated to the open exchange of ideas, information and research about communication. Goals of the organization include promoting, sustaining and recognizing excellence in communication scholarship, research and application.  NJCA encourages cooperation and research among academic institutions in the area of communication studies.  It is largely comprised of communication faculty members and students from across the tri-state area, as well as Pennsylvania.