UALR’s School of Communication will host a first-ever research colloquium for graduate students from Arkansas universities June 5.

The event, “Best Brains,” will be held in conjunction with the Arkansas Press Women’s annual summer awards ceremony. The event will be held at the state headquarters of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, 2301 South University adjacent to the UALR campus.

“We asked the mass communication graduate programs in Arkansas to nominate their best student research for this colloquium,” said Dr. Dale Zacher, assistant professor and graduate coordinator of the UALR school. “By dovetailing the colloquium with APW’s annual awards meeting, it gives students excellent practice in sharing their research to a broader audience. Research isn’t research unless it is shared with the public and with peers.”

Mary Hightower, APW president, said having the colloquium with the group’s summer meeting, exposes working journalists to academic developments in the profession.

“We saw this as a way to put new research onto our professional development radars,” she said.

Registration for the event opens at 9:45 a.m. followed by the “Best Brains” colloquium at 10 a.m. The presentations are free and open to the public. Registration for the full APA program, including lunch, is $22.

Student researchers and their research include:

• Kitti Jackson, Arkansas State University. She examined how the 18-24 crowd viewed older adult users of social media, such as Facebook.
• Rebecca Norman, UALR master’s student, examined the effectiveness of podcasting for informal education.
• Rachel Grant, UALR master’s student, looked at Daisy Bates’ revival of the Arkansas State Press in 1984 and how it may have differed from the State Press newspaper she and her husband ran until 1959.
• Doc Harper, UALR master’s student, studied the Arkansas Gazette’s coverage of the Dixiecrats during the 1948 presidential election and how that coverage may have influenced Editor Harry Ashmore’s editorials during the Central High crisis of 1957.
• Kathryn Heller, UALR master’s student. Her paper looked at the Arkansas Gazette’s first two years and publisher William Woodruff’s role in Arkansas frontier society.

For more information about the meeting and Best Brains Colloquium, contact Zacher at 501-569-3250 or Hightower at 501-671-2126.