By Hannah Gordon
Assistant News Editor
Two St. Bonaventure professors presented their research last weekend at the New York State Communication Association conference.
On Oct. 18-20, the New York State Communication Association held its 71st annual conference at Honors Haven Resort and Spa in Ellenville, N.Y.
Richard Lee, professor of journalism and mass communication, and Benjamin Gross, professor of sociology, joined the “Political Communication in a Networked World” panel. The panel focused on issues related to the combination of communication networks, politics and the individual, according to the conference’s schedule.
Gross was unavailable for comment. However, Lee shared his experience.
In order to attend the conference, Lee said he first had to submit a proposal.
“You have to summarize what your research is and what you plan to present,” Lee said. “There’s a committee that reviews all the proposals and lets you know if you’re accepted or not. I got word earlier this semester that I was accepted.”
Once an application is accepted, the presenter is assigned to a group with other participants with similar topics, forming several related panels. While speaking to the audience, presenters were permitted to use multimedia to convey their research more effectively, according to Lee.
“Normally, you present using PowerPoint or some sort of multimedia,” said Lee. “We had a problem where the projection screen didn’t work, so we just talked with the people who were in the audience.”
This year, Lee’s presentation was called “Are The Media Leaving Today’s Voters Less Informed?” Lee completed research on the difference between stories reporters wrote and the public’s topics of interest, showing a large gap between the two.
“What I presented was some of the research I did for my dissertation,” Lee said. “I’ve been working off and on for a number of years on that. It involved cataloging newspaper articles and looking at opinion polls that told me what voters were interested in.”
Aside from presenting their research, participants are welcome to sit in on lectures and other panel presentations. Lee attended one based on his own personal interest.
“I went to one on baseball stadiums and their roles in urban communities,” Lee said. “I liked it because I’m a baseball fan, but it was also interesting to see the impact they have on the communities where they are located.”
According to Lee, attending these sessions, and being a part of the conference in general, allowed him to bring more information into his classroom lectures.
“I like to integrate everything that I do, including the research and the teaching,” Lee said.
Just before the conference, Lee spoke to one of his classes about what he would present at the conference, as it correlated to the class discussion.
“We talked about my research showing that the press is covering things that the public isn’t interested in, and I showed the students how I found that information,” Lee said. “I encouraged them, as they became reporters, to write stories that really impact people’s lives and to think more in that direction.”
