Religion and Media Interest Group Members’ meeting August 6, 2015 San Francisco, California

Agenda  Assessment (renewed last year)  Assessment meeting August 5, 2015  Annual report  Top paper awards  Election of new officers

Annual report Outgoing RMIG standing committee  Newsletter Editor: Greg Perreault and Mariam Alkazemi  PF&R Chair: Robbie Morganfield  Research Chair: Joel Campbell and Julia Duin  Teaching Chair: Rick Moore  Membership Chair: Dan Stout  Vice Head: Myna German  Head: Chiung Hwang Chen The entire annual report will be published in the next issue of RMIG Newsletter.

Membership  Membership  2015: 90  2014: 91  2013: 77  2012: 67  2011: 81  2010: 98  2009: 98

Budget Beginning Funds (as of October 1, 2013) $1, Plus Income as of date above $ Balance (as of June 30, 2015) $1, conference expenses Top paper plaques $35 x 2-$70 Top paper checks $100 x 2-$200 Expected balance$ September 15 — Deadline to request all reimbursements from the conference September 30 — Fiscal Year ends

Joint panels (total panels: 3)  “Media, religion, and the same-sex marriage debate since Massachusetts” with LGBT Interest Group  “Religion reporting and the media manipulation of ISIS: Do we just say no?” with Visual Communication Division  “Putting religion into the nut graph: Ideas on transforming religion news into vital news in the small journalism program” with Small Program Interest Group  (Journal of Media and Religion editor, Dan Stout is also involved in a session on publication sponsored by the Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly)  Joint panel ideas for next year?

Referred research panels  The overall paper submissions 21; number of acceptances 10; acceptance rate: about 48%.  Number of faculty research paper submissions 14; number of acceptances 7; 50%.  Number of student research paper submissions 7; number of acceptances 3, about 43%.  Total number of judges: 21; generally 3-5 papers per judge.  Most judges read 3 papers each.  We are sponsoring 10 papers in three refereed research sessions (1.5 chips) and one scholar-to-scholar session (no chips).

Goals for next year  Four issues of our newsletter to help members become aware of events, job opportunities, conference paper calls, etc.  Invite each of the standing committee members to write at least 2 articles throughout the year to promote the exchange of ideas in the areas of their responsibility.  Actively invite RMIG members to join the conversation by posting articles/links they find interesting or useful relating to our research, teaching, or profession.  Keep up efforts to increase membership  We understand the standing committee does not necessarily have control over membership numbers, but we can do specific things to promote RMIG in hopes of recruiting new members and keeping the old ones as well.  Membership chair might work more closely with PR&F to try to diversify the membership.

Goals for next year  Make efforts to increase paper submissions  In addition to sending out paper calls through membership s and newsletters, it might be helpful to use social media to solicit submissions.  Can work with other communication organizations such as ICA, NCA and IAMCR to post paper calls.  Invite faculty members to invite their students to submit papers.  Send paper calls to international institutions and communication/journalism programs.  Increase communication  Newsletters  Social media (RMIG Facebook group)  Job postings  Exchange ideas on teaching, research, etc.  Post interesting articles/current events related to religion and media

Top paper awards  Top student paper:  “Is It Really a Religious Conflict?: News Framing of the Ahmadiyah Conflict in Indonesian Mediascape” by Yearry Setianto, Ohio  Top faculty paper:  “Framing Moral Evaluations: Newspaper Coverage of Islamic Spaces in the U.S.” by Brian J. Bowe, Western Washington University

Upcoming conferences  2016: Minneapolis  2017: Chicago  2018: Washington, DC  International Regional Conference Oct in Santiago, Chile  Other items for discussion?

Election of new Standing Committee  Newsletter Editor  Membership Chair  Teaching Chair  PF&R Chair  Research Chair  Vice Head/Conference Program Chair  Head The entire annual report will be published in the next issue of RMIG Newsletter.

Teaching Chair  Solicit teaching panel ideas for the joint panels.  Share/write teaching tips/articles for newsletters and RMIG Facebook.  Contribute to the annual report.

PF&R Chair  Solicit PF&R panel ideas for the joint panels  Share/write articles pertaining info on PF&R for newsletters and RMIG Facebook  Contribute to the annual report  PF&R: free expression, ethics, media criticism & accountability, racial, gender and cultural inclusiveness, or public service.

Research Chair  Solicit research panel ideas for joint panels.  Share/write research tips/articles for newsletters and RMIG Facebook.  Run the referred research paper competition.  Contribute to the annual report.