Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

W W W. P A C E . E D U / D Y S O N 17 Online Dating Services in Fi y-One Countries Across Europe, No h America, and South America," was awarded $5,000, the first-place recognition at the 7th International Communication Management Conference, held vi ually in Ahmadabad, India. Karolina Zaluski '04, a business economics major, also assisted with the research. Survival in Today's Media Market New research from Media, Communications, and Visual A s Assistant Professor Mirjana (Mira) Pantic, PhD, demonstrates that establishing a unique niche is one key strategy to ensure survival by local news organizations, especially digital ventures, in today's media market. "It is not enough for local digital media to base their originality on the specific region where they produce the news," Pantic said. "They need to have ce ain unique characteristics that are usually reflected in the type of content they provide." Suppo ed by an Undergraduate Student and Faculty Research Program grant from the Provost's office, Pantic worked with Jade Perez '20, Digital Journalism, and conducted in-depth interviews with ten local news organizations. Their results, published in Journalism Practice, indicated that focusing on localized content of pa icular interest to the specific audience rather than investing resources to cover stories being covered by other larger outlets is an effective approach. Pantic also found that utilizing talents of emerging journalists and students is beneficial to news websites, as well as to the individual journalists. Unearthing Hidden Women's History Assistant Professor of History Michelle Chase, PhD, is working to change the limited consideration the Korean War has received in comparison to World Wars I and II and the Vietnam War, pa icularly when it comes to an all-but-forgo en protest movement led by a group of women in Cuba. Her research, published in the Journal of Women's History, explores the effo s of the Democratic Federation of Cuban Women, a group active in opposing the war. "My a icle emphasizes the fact that in the early Cold War you did see some interesting expressions of women's activism, including some very radical peace activism that tried to build bridges between women in Latin America and the Caribbean and women in Asia," said Chase. "It's an interesting group, because in some ways their protests prefigured events of the 1960s, like opposition to the Vietnam War. In other ways, they anticipated arguments made by second-wave feminists in the 1970s. So I think it's a very intriguing story that hasn't been fully told." Communication Studies Professor on LaVar Ball and Stereotypes in Sports Media While living in Huntsville, Alabama, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Melvin Williams, PhD, had visited his barber for a haircut, and on the television screen caught Stephen A. Smith vs. LaVar Ball on ESPN's First Take. "I remember si ing back in the chair and being captivated by the exchange—this Black father directly advocating for his son," said Williams. "It made me think of my own father and the media-agenda-building theory." Williams is referring to the theory outlined by Gladys Engel Lang and Ku Lang in the 1980s, which lays out a six-step process that helps explain the o en- reciprocal relationship between the mass media and prominent issues, and public figures' ability to comment on said issues. In other words, it is a framework for understanding how individuals can manipulate the mechanisms of media to promote their own agenda.

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