News of Note

Newhouse Professor honored by International Communication Association 

The International Communication Association (ICA) named Newhouse Professor Srividya “Srivi” Ramasubramanian a 2023 Fellow, the first Newhouse faculty member to achieve this prestigious distinction and the only woman of color in the 2023 cohort.

“I hope that [being honored] serves as an inspiration and visibility for the excellence that other women scholars and other scholars or researchers of color are bringing to the discipline,” says Ramasubramanian, whose work focuses on contemporary global issues relating to media, diversity and social justice.  

Ramasubramanian, who joined the Newhouse School in 2021, is widely recognized for her pioneering work on race and media, media literacy initiatives, implicit bias reduction and scholar-activism. 

PRSA honors professor of practice for distinguished service 

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) honored Anthony D’Angelo, Newhouse professor of practice of public relations, with the Patrick Jackson Award for Distinguished Service. The award recognizes D’Angelo’s tireless support for PRSA and its chapters and districts, as well as his significant contributions to inspire fellow practitioners, both professionally and personally.  

PRSA highlighted D’Angelo’s distinguished career, which includes public relations leadership roles in the corporate, agency and nonprofit sectors, as well as his achievements at the Newhouse School and writings and commentaries on public relations and strategic communications. 

Newhouse assistant professor named Lender Center Faculty Fellow 

Nausheen Husain, whose work examines media coverage of Muslim people and communities and the impact of that coverage, was selected as the 2023-25 Lender Center for Social Justice Faculty Fellow. 

An assistant professor of magazine, news and digital journalism, Husain teaches data and documents journalism. Before joining the University in 2021, she did data reporting and wrote for the Chicago Tribune on state surveillance of Muslim Americans, carceral units targeting Muslims, the 2017 “Muslim Ban,” refugee communities and the government’s historical disinvestment in Chicago’s communities of color. She also helped build back-end infrastructure for election reporting and contributed to visual journalism projects. 

“We look forward to Professor Husain’s findings and the opportunities she presents to engage our students regarding how journalism and journalists may be exacerbating complex community and individual situations,” says Marcelle Haddix, associate provost for strategic initiatives, whose office oversees the Lender Center for Social Justice. 

Advertising associate professor delivers TEDx Talk

While the volume of personal data collected on consumers can worry some people, data sharing can be used for good, too, says Beth Egan, an associate professor and director of the master’s in advertising program. 

In a TEDx Talk, she outlined some of the many ways that data sharing can have a positive impact on our lives, such as the ability to ask questions of artificial intelligence assistants on your cell phone or smart speaker. 

As of March, the video had more than 137,000 views.  

“Every day, we make choices to balance personalization and privacy. It is possible to not share information through ‘ask app not to track’ options on our smartphones, and by turning off ad tracking, voice recognition and location functionalities,” Egan says. 

“The trade-off is you won’t be able to do things like ask artificial intelligence assistants like Siri or Alexa or get directions through apps like Waze or Google Maps,” she says. “The ability to know something about you is what makes much of the internet work.”    

Regina Luttrell named senior associate dean

Regina Luttrell was named senior associate dean of the Newhouse School. She moved up to the No. 2 leadership position at Newhouse in the fall following almost three years as the associate dean for research and creative activity.  

In her new role, Luttrell will work with the Newhouse community on a variety of schoolwide initiatives, serve as deputy to Dean Mark J. Lodato and represent the school externally in the dean’s absence. 

Luttrell will continue to lead efforts to promote research and creative activity as part of her portfolio, which will expand to include oversight of the Newhouse School’s centers and institutes. She will also coordinate Newhouse initiatives to study the impact and responsible use of artificial intelligence, along with other emerging technologies that have proliferated in the media industry and daily life.  

A Newhouse education can lead to success in a variety of fields

Paul Marchand’s career journey from Newhouse advertising student to one of Charter Communications’ top executives took a key turn at Lord & Taylor. 

Marchand ’91 joined a buyer training program with the department store giant after graduating from Syracuse, though he stayed involved with his field of study by placing ads in The New York Times and connecting with the heads of the company’s advertising and public relations teams. 

Then, Lord & Taylor’s human resources staff invited him to visit college campuses to recruit prospective employees. Marchand did such a good job that he ended up being recruited himself—Lord & Taylor offered him a position in HR.  

Marchand is a prime example of how a Newhouse education can lead to success in an array of fields. 

“I did it on a condition that if this doesn’t work, I would go back to being a buyer,” Marchand says. “One year in, I never looked back and realized that HR was something I was really passionate about.” 

After working in senior HR roles at several top companies, Marchand is now the chief human resources executive at Charter. Joining Charter in 2015 as executive vice president, Marchand serves as a key leader at one of the nation’s top connectivity companies. Charter serves more than 32 million customers in 41 states under the Spectrum brand of internet, TV, mobile and voice products.

“I never really lost the elements of the foundation of what Newhouse taught me,” he says. “How do you influence your audience? How do you persuade people? How do you build advocacy? All those things that I do in my daily job get me back to my Newhouse roots.”

A front-row seat to the Civil Rights Movement

Roosevelt “Rick” Wright G’93 had a front-row seat as the Civil Rights Movement took off across the American South in the late 1950s and early 1960s, participating in sit-ins and demonstrations while coming face-to-face with police dogs and fire hoses in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. 

At the heart of the movement were the nonviolent, civil disobedience teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who inspired Black citizens around the country to speak out and stand up for their constitutional rights. 

Wright, a professor emeritus of television, radio and film, met and ate with King several times as a teenager, as his Sunday school teacher was King’s sister-in-law, Edith Scott Bagley. He hung on King’s every word as the eloquent reverend imparted life lessons on the impressionable Wright. 

Those words still resonate with Wright more than 55 years after King’s death. He shared his thoughts on the ’Cuse Conversations podcast.

“The most important thing Dr. King impressed on me was the need for education. He would say, ‘Roosevelt, one of the problems here in America is that we as African Americans were brought to this country as slaves to work the fields and the agriculture of the South. Technically, our families built this country for free as slaves,’” Wright says.

“Dr. King said that America has got to wake up from this idea of white superiority. They [white people] are immediately taught at birth that African Americans were inferior, dumb and stupid, and that the worst [of white people] was better than the very best [of Black people]. How do we get past this? Education and schooling. Get smart.” 

Wright, who became the first Black communications professor at Newhouse, was the first faculty advisor for the student-run radio station WJPZ and served as faculty manager for WAER.

A big year for esports

Syracuse University’s new esports communications and management bachelor’s degree program starts in fall 2024. This first-of-its-kind offering at a major university is a partnership between the Newhouse School and the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. 

“We are going to build on the strong foundation of academic excellence at Syracuse while making sure our esports students achieve competitive success and learn the skills needed for a rewarding career in a thriving field,” says Joey Gawrysiak, director of the esports program.

More than half of all college programs have been around three years or more, a sign that the scholastic esports ecosystem is rapidly maturing and becoming more sustainable, according to Esports Foundry. These college administrators and educators are investing in esports programs as destinations for students interested in career opportunities. 

Gawrysiak joined Syracuse from Shenandoah University, where he developed one of the first esports degrees in the country, to set up the new program.

Falk boasts thriving sport management and sport analytics programs, along with scholarship in public health, social justice and equity. Newhouse has been a leader in the space as one of the first schools in the country to offer courses in esports and communications. 

“I’m looking forward to what’s in store at Syracuse and working with students thinking about a career in esports,” Gawrysiak says. “We’re going to create a dynamic, inclusive environment and strong sense of community in our program.” 

Seeking insights about the 2024 campaign

Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship (IDJC) launched The Deciders Focus Groups project, a partnership initiative to gain insights from key voting blocs in 2024 presidential election battleground states. 

NBC News plans to report findings each month, giving IDJC faculty and researchers potential opportunities to discuss or analyze results on the network’s platforms. 

Working with partners Engagious, which conducts the focus groups, and Sago, which recruits respondents, IDJC is developing questions for the monthly online panels.

The first installment, in January, focused on women voters from across Pennsylvania who had previously backed Donald Trump but who support abortion rights or oppose the 2022 landmark Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. 

IDJC is a joint University initiative of Newhouse and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Based in Washington, D.C., IDJC engages in nonpartisan research, teaching and public dialogue aimed at strengthening trust in news media, governance and society.

Newhouse research journal debuts

A new research publication from the Newhouse School examines innovative technologies as well as trends, strategies and challenges facing the communications industry. 

The first issue of the Newhouse Impact Journal, which was published in December, focuses on subjects related to the emerging realm of generative artificial intelligence. Essays and commentaries were assembled from the contributions of speakers at the Newhouse Summit, which the school launched in 2023 as a forum to discuss and exchange ideas about trends in media and communications. 

Regina Luttrell, Newhouse’s senior associate dean, and Nick Bowman, an associate professor of communications, are editors of the new journal, which also features work from Jason Davis, a research professor and co-director of the Real Chemistry Emerging Insights Lab. 

The publication, which is scheduled to be released annually, also features essays and commentaries from faculty and researchers from other colleges and universities from across the United States and Canada.

A look into what it’s like to develop a Hollywood movie script

An immersive learning opportunity let television, radio and film (TRF) students pitch ideas about actors, directors and producers to senior executives in the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.

The executives also received feedback on their scripts through virtual conversations with the students. The experience was part of a capstone course in fall 2023 for TRF students interested in careers as executives in media, entertainment or the arts.   

Erin Westerman ’04, president of production for the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, and J. Christopher Hamilton, a TRF assistant professor, spearheaded the collaboration. Conversations about the idea started when Westerman returned to Syracuse in May 2023 to deliver the keynote address at the Newhouse Convocation Ceremony. 

“Access can lead to opportunity, and this class offered real insight from executives who work in the business,” Westerman says.