The Good Doctors: SJMC Ph.D. alums now in academia worldwide

Jim Redmond

Joseph Russomanno

By Joanie Kindblade

More than 40 students have earned doctorate degrees in communication from the School since 1989, and many now have research and teaching positions at prestigious journalism programs around the world

Jim Redmond (Ph.D. '93) received the first doctorate from the school, taking classes while he anchored the evening news on KMGH-Channel 7 in Denver.

"I was bored stiff at work and fed up with how TV news was being dumbed down," Redmond said. "Having graduate school exercised my mind, pumped me up with a different focus in my life and kept me going despite the hours."

Redmond is a journalism professor at University of Memphis. Since 1998, he has served as department chair of the program, which has 400 undergraduates and 50 master's students.

Redmond's experiences are echoed by other students who have gone on to teach at the University of Iowa, University of Texas, Temple University and Arizona State University, to name a few.

"The ability to place students at premier universities is an easy way to measure the success of a program," said Paul Voakes, dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. "Some of our best doctoral students are doing well at prestigious schools."

The program is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of media.

"Our program is really starting to take hold," Voakes said. "A Ph.D. from our school signifies that you know how to conduct successful research. The odds are in your favor that your research skills will carry a young professor through to tenure."

Redmond speaks highly of his education at CU.

"I believe my education was first class," he said. "I've never, not one time in the years since I graduated in 1993, felt at all lacking in discussion with other faculty, including when I chaired a dissertation."

Joseph Russomanno (Ph.D. '93) is an associate professor at Arizona State University.

"I can say that I received ample preparation for a career as a tenure-track professor," Russomanno said. "A significant part of the 'indoctrination' was the message that in addition to being a quality teacher, being a productive researcher is vital for the success of the program."

The program arms students with superior research skills in media studies while drawing on a wide range of disciplines, including political science, anthropology, business, psychology and public policy, to illustrate how media are grounded in social and individual life.

The research interests of the graduate faculty reflect this approach and are used to recruit or attract students.

"We have emphasized different things than other Ph.D. programs," said Stewart Hoover, professor at the School.

"First and foremost, we've always been interested in cultural and critical theory," Hoover said. "This has us looking at the ways that communication and media are involved in the making of cultural meanings, individually and socially."

It's no accident that the school focuses on the interdisciplinary media-studies research.

"The idea of starting a Ph.D. program had been floating around for a number of years," said Willard "Wick" Rowland Jr., dean of the School during the formation of the doctorate program. He is now president and CEO of KBDI-Channel 12 in Denver.

"But the field didn't need another behavioral study program," he said. "We wanted to take an interdisciplinary approach that would complement the existing studies in the School."

For more than 15 years, the school's doctoral program has attempted to fill this cultural research niche while remaining competitive with other universities.

"One advantage to starting a new program is the opportunity to establish a reputation in the field," said Lee Wilkins, director of graduate studies at the University of Missouri. Wilkins taught at CU the late 1980s.

"It can take a while to build up a national reputation," Wilkins said. "CU's reputation will develop over time."

Wilkins suggested that the quality of the faculty at an institution is one way to garner recognition.

"Stewart Hoover and Paul Voakes are well known nationally," Wilkins said. "Having scholars that continue to publish in the field helps the institution in the long run."

Voakes agreed.

"Our faculty present their research at national and international conferences," Voakes said. "It's an easy way to connect the research to the faculty."

Although the program continues to develop, CU students walk away with more than they imagined.

"I've been able to achieve more than my goals were when I did the Ph.D., which was to get out of the insanity of TV news and just get a full-time job teaching at a college level," Redmond said.

 "I found a new career that is meaningful to me, and I'm very happy, more so than I can recall previously. I have become a successful teacher, and I love what I'm doing."

See list of Journalism Ph.D.s.