The glow from San Antonio has been doused by the tragedy in New Orleans. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our colleagues, family and friends affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Those of you who made it to San Antonio for the AEJMC national convention will probably agree with me when I say it was one of the best conventions ever. Great city, great sessions, incredible hospitality.

The RTVJ-produced panels were exceptional and that’s the same feedback I heard from many, many attendees. Incoming Council of Divisions Head Jan Slater says the divisions and interest groups produced a whopping 205 sessions, so don’t feel badly if you didn’t get to everything. My thanks goes out to all of you who pitched ideas, worked with other divisions and groups, secured guest speakers or were panelists yourselves.

Our sessions were well-received and well-attended. I especially enjoyed hearing from Clear Channel execs in “Meeting the Leaders of a Media Giant”. Audience members and fellow panelists were polite but firm. I sensed a number of people wanted to let President Mark Mays and radio CEO John Hogan have it, but after all, they were guests in “our house”. RTVJ members on the panel, Lee Hood and Laura Smith, presented strong research and asked tough questions. Did the Clear Channel execs take any of it to heart? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Many professors commented on the practical information that came out of the “Newsroom to the Classroom” panel produced by Kathy Bradshaw. Students told audience members where their education was lacking, while still telling us what served them well as they moved into the profession. Special thanks to Dana Rosengard for stepping in when Kathy had a couple panelists bail at the last minute.

In case you missed it, RTVJ was well represented in the Promising Professor awards given by Mass Communication & Society and the Graduate Studies Interest Group. Fellow RTVJ Officer Tim Bajkiewicz and I were both honored with awards. It was a thrill to see such a strong showing from broadcast journalism profs and I think Tim will agree there were great ideas presented by the winning teachers and grad students. I know I’ve got several I’ve “stolen” for my courses.

The convention also offered outstanding presentations on blogs, anonymous sources & the Judith Miller case, broadcast media research, obscenity and gender and minority issues. I did notice that the Saturday sessions were poorly attended. Someone told me that many of the sessions had more panelists than audience members. It is certainly discouraging to work to put together a meaningful workshop only to find the panelists talking to one another. Do people bail on Saturday because the convention is just too long? Is there any way to turn around this trend? I’d be curious to hear your feedback.

Another disturbing trend that came to my attention recently is the drop in membership in our division. Outgoing membership chair Laura Smith reports 80 fewer members than at this time last year. As we begin another academic year, I would ask each of you to encourage colleagues at your school and around the country to join our division. One possible way to get them in the door is RTVJ’s new research journal.

The journal was overwhelming approved by the membership during our business meeting in San Antonio. Bob Papper, Charlie Tuggle and Rob Wicks worked their tails off this past year answering all your many questions about the start-up. The near-unanimous “yes” vote shows they did a good job explaining the funding, editorial and publishing issues. It’s exciting to know we’ll have an outlet for applied research specifically pertaining to electronic media.

Jim Upshaw did a grand job with the DBJE/Bliss Award. Peter Mayeux was a most deserving and gracious recipient. The new committee, headed by Don Heider, would like to hear from you if you have someone you’d like to nominate for the award. If you’ve nominated someone in the past, please be aware the committee will only consider applications from the last five years. If your nomination pre-dates that, you may want to re-apply.

You’ve seen the call for panels from Kim Piper-Aiken. If you have not, contact membership chair Nancy Dupont to be placed on the listserv. You’ve probably just recovered from San Antonio, but it’s time to turn our attention to San Francisco in ’06. We were lacking in teaching panels at the San Antonio convention, so we would welcome any ideas for teaching panels for next year. Most of you are swamped getting back to school, but do take some time to send Kim ideas in the next couple of weeks.

Welcome to all the division officers and committee members. I look forward to working with you and all members of the division in the coming year. There are many ways to get involved with RTVJ and I would especially encourage newcomers to the division to become active. We have a core group of very devoted members who are always willing to share the load!
I’m honored to be able to serve as your division head this year and I look forward to meeting more of you. Please feel free to contact me with ideas, concerns and good news.

Denise Dowling
The University of Montana