Merrill College Kicks Off Year
with New Faces, Programs
For immediate release, August 30, 2006
COLLEGE PARK, Md.— The Philip Merrill College of Journalism started a new academic year today welcoming new faculty members and launching additions to the curriculum, including the
prestigious Carnegie program, specialized reporting seminars and courses in new and visual media.
Four new members joined the full-time faculty this summer after a series of searches conducted in the previous academic year. They include:
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Dr. Don Heider, Associate Dean and Associate Professor
Dr. Heider, an Emmy award-winning journalist, author and educator, joins the Merrill College from his previous appointment as graduate advisor and associate professor at the University of Texas. As the number two administrator at the college, Heider will direct the graduate programs, oversee broadcast curriculum and supervise adjunct professors.
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Dr. Linda Steiner, Senior Scholar
Dr. Steiner is an award-winning media scholar and author who specializes in gender and media research. Steiner is editor of Critical Studies in Media Communication and serves on the editorial boards of six scholarly journals. Steiner joins the faculty as a professor from her previous appointment at Rutgers University.
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Michael Williams, new media expert
Mike Williams, former director of graduate studies at the Ohio University School of Visual Communication, joins the Merrill College as the resident new media expert. Williams has held associate professor appointments at OU and the University of North Carolina. He and Capital News Service online bureau director Chris Harvey will deliver and further develop the college's new media offerings.
- Deborah Nelson, Carnegie Visiting Professor
Pulitzer Prize winner Deb Nelson joins the faculty to coordinate the Carnegie Seminar, which begins this fall. Nelson, most recently investigations editor at the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau, is one of the nation’s leading investigative reporters and editors. The Carnegie program is part of a curriculum enhancement package underwritten by the Carnegie Corporation of New York at the Merrill College and seven other top journalism schools and Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
The fall also kicks off a series of new courses in specialized reporting and additional options in visual and new media. These courses are the precursor to the faculty’s strategic examination of the curriculum, lead by Assistant Dean Steve Crane, that will occur over the coming academic year. The new courses include:
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Business Writing
The Wall Street Journal’s Robert Matthews designed this course to teach students how to understand the language of commerce, identify business stories and explain it to today’s media consumers.
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Money in Politics
Glen Justice, formerly of the New York Times, will help students learn to navigate the political action committees, “527” groups, non-profit organizations and lobbyists in politics today.
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Photojournalism
Students will learn the basics of photography and telling stories through images. Photographic composition, lighting, camera technique and the ethical and legal issues facing photographers will all be taught by one of the area’s leading photojournalists, John Davidson.
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Non-Print Media for Print and Online
This course prepares students for a converged media landscape. The course covers how to collect and edit audio interviews for broadcast and the Web; the basics of editing and shooting digital photos; and performance techniques for television. This range of skills is increasingly being asked, even expected, of traditional print and online reporters, and the goal is to make Merrill College graduates comfortable with the basic techniques.
Despite the new programs and faculty, the Merrill College maintains its limited enrollment status, with a total enrollment of under 600 students in the college’s undergraduate and graduate programs.
For more information contact:
Matthew C. Sheehan at 301.405.8320.