[Air-L] Pooley wins of 2017 James Carey Award

[Mark D. Johns]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- June 28, 2017

Pooley wins of 2017 James Carey Award

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Dr. Jefferson Pooley, associate professor and chair of
media and communication at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania,
is the winner of the 2017 James W. Carey Media Research Award competition
sponsored by the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research (
www.cccsir.com).
Pooley is the author of the book, James W. Carey and Communication
Research: Reputation at the University’s Margins, published in 2016 by
Peter Lang.
The Carey Award, established in 2004, is presented annually from among
nominated or submitted books or journal articles published 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 mass media.
To be worthy of the award, the 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.
As the book cover notes, "Pooley provides a critical introduction to
Carey’s work, tracing the evolution of his media theorizing from his
graduate school years through to the publication in 1989, of his landmark
Communication as Culture. The book is an attempt to understand the unusual
if also undeniable significance that Carey holds for so many communication
scholars, as well as making his work accessible to advanced undergraduate
and postgraduate students."
A member of the review committee commented, "One of the virtues of Jeff’s
book is that its organization matches the way Carey thought about his
intellectual life. Carey would choose, for some number of years, to think
about a topic through the work of a particular group of thinkers whose
perspectives and voices he found congenial. That is a different and more
literary approach to talking about theory than most scholars take. He was
less interested in parsing all the nuances of different schools of thought
and more concerned with capturing the essence of a writer’s voice and
insight. Jeff’s book accurately captures and makes sense of that trajectory
of thought."
The committee also wishes to honorably mention Dr. Holly Kruse, associate
professor of communication at Rogers State University in Claremore,
Oklahoma for her book, Off-Track and Online: The Networked Spaces of Horse
Racing, for outstanding application of Carey’s theories.
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) 419-5639 email: mjohns [at] luther.edu