Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass communication, communication, communication sciences, and communication studies.
Melvin Lawrence DeFleur was a professor and scholar in the field of communications. His initial field of study was social sciences.
Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability", where impairment was an impairment of an individual's mind or body, while disability was considered a social construct. This premise gave rise to two distinct models of disability: the social and medical models of disability. In 1999 the social model was universally accepted as the model preferred by the field. However, in recent years, the division between the social and medical models has been challenged. Additionally, there has been an increased focus on interdisciplinary research. For example, recent investigations suggest using "cross-sectional markers of stratification" may help provide new insights on the non-random distribution of risk factors capable of exacerbating disablement processes. Such risk factors can be acute or chronic stressors, which can increase cumulative risk factors The decline of immune function with age and decrease of inter-personal relationships which can impact cognitive function with age.
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a major international membership organization for academics in the field, offering regional and national conferences and refereed publications. It has numerous membership divisions, interest groups, publications and websites.
John S. Clogston was an American journalist and academic with a speciality in the area of news media images of people with disabilities. He made a significant contribution to mass communication research through his development of five media models, which can be used in content analyses of news coverage of people with disabilities and disability issues. He was the author of Disability Coverage in 16 Newspapers published by the Advocado Press in 1990. He had been a wheelchair user since a car accident in 1985.
Ellen A. Wartella is a leading scholar of the role of media in children's development. She is the chair and professor of communication, director of Northwestern University's Center on Media and Human Development, and an adviser for the review at Northwestern University. She studies social policy, media studies, psychology, and child development at the University. She believes that smartphones are disruptive in a way that's different from earlier technology.
The National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ) provides resources and support to journalists and communications professionals covering disability issues. The center is headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
Linda Claire Steiner is a professor at Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland. She is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Journalism & Communication Monographs, and sits on the editorial board of Critical Studies in Media Communication.
Chris Allen is a professor in the College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). A Fulbright scholar, he has lectured on investigative journalism and freedom of the press in Afghanistan and Oman.
Chunyang Hu is a professor at the Fudan University in China. She is nationally known for her research and writing on interpersonal communication, discourse analysis applied in communication.
Theodore L. Glasser is an American academic. He is professor emeritus of communication at Stanford University, and the author of several books about American journalism. His scholarship focuses on questions of press responsibility and accountability. Glasser believes journalists must put social justice advocacy above objective reporting because objectivity is a myth. Instead of ever achieving objectivity, Glasser and co-author James Ettema were the first to demonstrate that norms of professional journalism amount to an attempt to "objectify morality" According to Glasser, Journalists need to be overt and candid advocates for social justice, and it's hard to do that under the constraints of objectivity.
Maurine Beasley is professor emerita of Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park. She is known for her studies on the history of women in journalism, especially during early periods when they were poorly represented in the field, and for her research concerning the life and work of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Crip, slang for cripple, is a term in the process of being reclaimed by disabled people. Wright State University suggests that the current community definition of crip includes people who experience any form of disability, such as one or more impairments with physical, mental, learning, and sensory, though the term primarily targets physical and mobility impairment. People might identify as a crip for many reasons. Some of these reasons are to show pride, to talk about disability rights, or avoid ranking types of disability.
Alison Kafer is an American academic specializing in feminist, queer, and disability theory. As of 2019, she is an associate professor of feminist studies at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of the book Feminist, Queer, Crip.
Arnoldus Stephanus de Beer was a South African journalist who was a Professor Extraordinary in the Department of Journalism, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His research topics included the role of media in South African society, news flow and journalism education. Many of his English works appeared under the pen name Arnold S de Beer. Among Afrikaans colleagues and friends he was frequently known as Arrie de Beer.
Mary Angela Bock is a journalist and professor of journalism. She is an associate professor of journalism at University of Texas at Austin in the School of Media and Journalism with an expertise in visual communication, citizen journalism and representation.
Meredith D. Clark is an American journalist and scholar. As of 2021 she is an associate professor at Northeastern University. She was previously an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. Her research interests include Black Twitter, cancel culture, and systemic racism in US news media. She was named by The Root to their 2015 list of 100 most influential Black Americans after her Ph.D. dissertation, To Tweet Our Own Cause: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Online Phenomenon "Black Twitter", won a Top Dissertation award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Kim E. Nielsen is an American historian and author who specializes in disability studies. Since 2012, Nielsen has been a professor of history, disability studies, and women's studies at the University of Toledo. Nielsen originally trained as historian of women and politics, and came to disability history and studies via her discovery of Helen Keller's political life.
Margaret Price is an American academic in the fields of rhetoric, composition and literacy, as well as disability and mad studies. She is the author of Mad at School (2011) and Crip Spacetime (2024).
