A variety of efforts to drive innovation promise to position Penn State as a leader in teaching, research and economic development across a dynamic digital landscape in coming decades. Some of those initiatives – funded by Penn State through a grant program tied to its strategic plan – were shared with the Board of Trustees Committee on Governance and Long-Range Planning during a meeting Sept. 13.
A team of Penn State students in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism will travel to Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 9 for 10 days to report on the world’s second-largest multi-sport festival as part of a partnership with The Associated Press and the University of Georgia.
With 13 faculty members and two dozen graduate students who have combined to produce 21 papers, along with numerous award winners and individuals in leadership positions, the College of Communications has crafted a big presence at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference.
Marie Hardin, dean of the Penn State College of Communications, has been elected vice president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication — the oldest and largest alliance of journalism and mass communication educators and administrators at the college level.
Recently, Penn State Today sat down with the Class of 2014 college deans — Amr Elnashai of Engineering, Marie Hardin of Communications and Rick Roush of Agricultural Sciences — to ask them about their views and experiences as the academic year draws to a close.
Marie Hardin, associate dean for undergraduate and graduate education and professor of journalism in the College of Communications, has been appointed dean of the college, following a national search. Her appointment is pending approval by the University’s Board of Trustees at its July 11 meeting.
When sports stories become linked with other social and business issues, professional journalists tend to offer deeper and broader coverage than sports bloggers, according to Penn State researchers. In a study of the way mainstream columnists and popular bloggers covered conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh's involvement in a partnership attempting to buy a professional football team, the researchers showed that journalists were more likely to include issues such as race and business in their columns, said Marie Hardin, associate director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism in the College of Communications.
For college students from freshmen to seniors, attending a career fair can be a significant step toward achieving professional goals. The "Find Your Career" episode of the half-hour show "It's Your Time: Find Your Future," scheduled to debut at noon Eastern time on Monday, Feb. 7, on the Big Ten Network, offers tips from career services experts and corporate recruiters to help students successfully navigate career fairs and present themselves to their best advantage to prospective employers.
How do women benefit from playing collegiate sports, and what challenges have athletes, coaches and reporters faced since Title IX was enacted in 1972 through the present day? What issues do stadium designers look at from the ground up, and how do today's rowdy fans and post-9/11 security concerns affect structural decisions and game-day operations? Two noontime "Expert Opinion with Graham Spanier" shows on the Big Ten Network aim to find out.
College students and recent graduates preparing to enter the most challenging job market in decades, take heart. A new Big Ten Network series produced by Penn State called "It's Your Time: Find Your Future" is bringing you information, resources and guidance. The half-hour pilot episode, hosted by Marie Hardin, is scheduled to debut at 7 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, July 11, on the Big Ten Network.
Sports reporters on the high school beat, often the youngest and most inexperienced in the newsroom, also are the most likely to believe they can operate by more relaxed ethical codes than their counterparts, according to a new survey.
How did you first become interested in sports journalism?
I've always been active in sports and interested in the way sports are covered. Before I began teaching full-time, I was a journalist. Moving into teaching allowed me the time to study the dynamics and impact of sports journalism.
What would you say are the strengths of the Penn State sports journalism program (including the Curley Center)?
"We are in the best of times and the worst of times with respect to media representation of female athletes," stated Marie Hardin last Wednesday. Hardin, associate director of the Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, was the second speaker in this spring's Research Unplugged conversation series, held at the Penn State Downtown Theatre.
"The primary role of sports in society is to reinforce gender roles and ideals. We are being educated about gender roles as we watch sports; what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man."
--Marie Hardin, associate director for research in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State. Hardin led an engaging discussion about the way female athletes are portrayed by the media, providing compelling examples from Sports Illustrated, ESPN the magazine, and other major media outlets during a Research Unplugged discussion with community members on March 24. Hardin also noted that "the business model for sports is headed towards a cliff. It's not sustainable."
