[Air-L] Silvestri wins 2016 James Carey Award

[Mark D. Johns]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- June 15, 2016

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Lisa Ellen Silvestri, Ph.D., assistant professor of
communication studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA is the
winner of the 2016 James W. Carey Media Research Award competition
sponsored by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research
(www.cccsir.com).

Silvestri is author of the book, Friended at the Front: Social Media
in the American War Zone, published in November 2015 by the University
Press of Kansas.

The Carey Award, established in 2004, is presented annually from among
nominated or submitted books or journal articles accepted for
publication in the previous year. The award honors the late Dr. James
W. Carey (1934-2006). Dr. Carey was recognized as one of the North
American pioneers in applying cultural approaches to the study of
media technologies.

To be worthy of the award, work must be of highest quality and employ
Carey's theories to focus on communication and public life,
journalism, or popular culture. The winning entry this year was chosen
from an exceptionally strong field of works submitted by a long list
of outstanding scholars.

The book examines how social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, have
altered the relationships between military personnel and their
families and friends at home. Historically, troops in a war zone were
exempt from home front relational commitments. In previous U.S.
conflicts, and even earlier in Iraq and Afghanistan, a lack of
communication with the home front was not only accepted but also
expected. Today, U.S. troops have direct, instantaneous connection to
civilian life back home and this communication is changing what it’s
like to be “at war.”

The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research is a non-profit
organization established to promote the scholarship of the late Carl
J. Couch and his academic associates. Couch is recognized as the
founder of The New Iowa School in sociological and communication
inquiry, and was a pioneer in the qualitative research of information
technologies.

The Center provides networking opportunities for students and scholars
who conduct social and Internet research, inspired by Couch's work.

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Contact: Dr. Mark D. Johns, Executive Director
Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research
c/o Department of Communication Studies, Luther College
Decorah, Iowa 52101 USA
Tel: (563) 387-1347    email: mjohns at luther.edu