Profs tackle new landscapes
By Patricia Kaowthumrong

Deserai Crow

Rick Stevens

As journalism students confront some of the most complex changes in the history of their fields, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication welcomes two assistant professors, Deserai Crow ('97) and J. Richard "Rick" Stevens, ready to guide students through new challenges.

Along with Stevens and Crow, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and adjunct instructor Jim Sheeler (MA '07) also joined the faculty this fall as a Scholar in Residence (see story).

"I had high expectations for Deserai and Rick when they arrived here, and each of them is surpassing my expectations in terms of how they're teaching and getting their research programs under way," Dean Paul Voakes said.

Crow's doctorate in environmental policy will add to the prestige of the School's Center for Environmental Journalism, he said, and Stevens' expertise and experience in multimedia convergence will help guide students through the pitfalls and practices of the growing digital-media realm.

"I believe we are currently experiencing a Protestant Reformation of media production," Stevens said. "Like the Catholic Church, the industry of journalism and mass communication will be forced to adapt its culture in order to survive this challenge to its authority by those who have broken with its cultural orthodoxy."

This fall, Stevens brought his expertise in digital media communication to Public Affairs Reporting and Newsgathering 1 classes. In the spring, he will teach a Digital Newsroom course.

"We will find a significant role for our professionals in the coming digital society, but that role will be different from the conventional role formed during our analog history," he said.

From a teaching perspective, Stevens said he wants his students to be able to compete in an era in which the field of journalism is being tested by new forms. His research focuses on how future societies will be structured with digital media.

Stevens said his favorite class assignment is to ask students to "blog about blogging." Because students often consider bloggers a threat to journalism, he said he encourages them to "engage in the activity of the enemy" so they can develop an appreciation for media with which they're not familiar.

"Writing is still the heart of everything, but I've brought a more digital component to the basic journalism classes," Stevens said.

A Texas native and an alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin and Abilene Christian University, Stevens comes to Boulder after four years at Southern Methodist University, where he helped create a convergent journalism degree for the Division of Journalism.

Unlike Stevens, Crow is a Longmont native who said she is very excited to be back where she was a ski instructor en route to an undergraduate degree in Broadcast News.

Her interests are in environmental policy and the role that mass media and political factors play in policy decisions. She is also a graduate of CU-Denver's School of Public Affairs and Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

Her dissertation focused on the impact of media and politics on Colorado water law. Crow worked as a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver and as a writer/producer at KWGN-Channel 2 in Denver. She was a reporter in small and medium markets in California, Nevada and West Virginia.

"All my graduate training has been in environmental issues and environmental policy. I think CU-Boulder is an incredible place to be studying these issues," Crow said. She teaches Broadcast News and Media Studies courses, including Introduction to Broadcast Writing, TV Reporting, and Mass Communication and Public Opinion. She said her background in reporting helps her understand how media influence policies and politics when it comes to environmental issues.

"I think that environmental journalism is becoming increasingly important because there's so much science that is misunderstood and has been politicized in the past," she said.

As the world is confronted with less straightforward environmental problems such as climate change, Crow said journalists have the responsibility to help the average person make sense of it all by learning how to ask the right questions and writing clearly for their audiences.

Rick.Stevens@Colorado.edu
Deserai.Crow@Colorado.edu
James.Sheeler@Colorado.edu