UNL made its way into news headlines around the nation regularly in 2012, as national and international media outlets featured and cited the university’s research and programming and sought out UNL faculty expertise on a wide range of topics.
More than 310 positive national media appearances, which translated into thousands of news headlines and articles in media outlets across the nation and globe, were registered last year. In 2011, UNL had just over 200 appearances; in 2010 it logged just over 150.
The following are highlights of national news placements and appearances in the past year. This collection is maintained by University Communications and includes print, broadcast and online media. It was assembled throughout the year with the assistance of various media-tracking sources, including Universal Information Services.
To look back on complete lists of media appearances for each month of 2012 except December, click on the links at the bottom of the page. Faculty, administration, student and staff appearances in the national media dating back to 2009 are also logged at http://newsroom.unl.edu/inthenews.
_________________________
Innovation, discovery, impact and reputation
Innovation Campus continued to create headlines in 2012. The university’s January announcement on saving the Industrial Arts Building resulted in Associated Press coverage that appeared in dozens of media outlets around the nation; in February, director Dan Duncan was quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education in an article examining how universities and developers find common ground on campus building projects; and a November announcement of a new collaboration between NIC and ConAgra Foods received wide coverage, including from The Associated Press.
A UNL archaeological team led by professor of art and art history Michael Hoff unearthed a massive Roman mosaic in southern Turkey in summer 2012; in September, the work was featured in dozens of national media outlets including The History Channel, Der Spiegel (Germany), The New York Times, The Associated Press, United Press International, The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail (UK), The Register (UK) and NBC News.
In late February, Ross Secord, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, had his research into how prehistoric global warming affected the evolution of equine ancestor sifrhippus covered by scores of media around the world. Highlights included articles in The New York Times, TIME, Scientific American, Science Magazine, Popular Science, US News & World Report, Reuters and Bloomberg News. The article was translated into dozens of languages and appeared in dozens of media outlets across the globe.
Susan Swearer, professor of school psychology, helped launch Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation in February – which led to coverage from The Associated Press, Slate and Yahoo! News, scores of daily newspapers around the country, The Huffington Post and many others. In March, she appeared on “Anderson,” a daytime syndicated talk show hosted by Anderson Cooper, to discuss anti-bullying efforts. The Associated Press also featured her in October after she was named chairwoman of the Born This Way Foundation’s new Research and Advisory Board.
In April, the latest addition to UNL’s digital Civil War Washington project – hundreds of newly digitized compensation petitions submitted by District of Columbia slave owners after the city declared slaves free in early 1862 – was featured in several media outlets including The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Washington Post. The stories coincided with the 150th anniversary of the Washington, D.C., Compensated Emancipation Act. The project was headed by Kenneth Winkle, professor of history; Kenneth Price, professor of English; Susan Lawrence, associate professor of history; and Elizabeth Lorang, research assistant professor of English.
The New York Daily News featured Kwame Dawes, professor of English and editor of Prairie Schooner, in a July story about the newly formed African Poetry Book Series. Dawes also was a daily contributor to The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy weblog during the 2012 Olympic Games, posting daily poems about each day’s action in London.
UNL’s High-Energy Physics Team – Ken Bloom, Dan Claes, Aaron Dominguez, Ilya Kravchenko, Gregory Snow and others – received recognition from a number of media outlets in July as scientists around the world hailed the “discovery” of the long-sought Higgs Boson particle. Bloom, who live-blogged the event for the weblog Quantum Diaries, also was mentioned a column in The Courier and Mail of Brisbane, Australia.
The University of Nebraska Press was featured in an April story in the New York Times about its well-earned national reputation for publishing high-quality baseball books.
_________________________
Reliable expert sources for national media
As an historic, fast-moving drought took hold across the United States in 2012, climatologists Mark Svoboda, Brian Fuchs and Michael Hayes of UNL’s National Drought Mitigation Center regularly gave their expertise to print, online and broadcast journalists from around the world. Highlights included regular appearances in USA TODAY, the New York Times, BBC News, CBS News, ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, PBS NewsHour, US News & World Report, NPR, Bloomberg News and The Associated Press.
Wheeler Winston Dixon, professor of film studies, was often cited by national media on issues surrounding the motion picture industry, both past and present. He was interviewed for NPR’s All Things Considered about the art of the modern movie trailer, was cited by Slate.com about advance advertising in Hollywood, by E! Entertainment TV about Hollywood’s recent fascination with fairy tales, by The Boston Globe on celebrities facing public-relations crises and by Gannett News Service on the hallmarks of Quentin Tarantino’s films, among other appearances.
Matt Waite, professor of practice of journalism, appeared regularly in the news as the rise of drone journalism brought questions about journalistic ethics and privacy. Appearances included the NPR program On The Media, The Associated Press, The Australian Broacasting Corporation, the Kojo Nnamdi Show (Washington D.C.), The Washington Times, American Public Media’s Marketplace, The Times of London (UK), the Daily Mail (UK), The Globalist (Italy), The Guardian (UK), and NBC News.
Christal Sheppard, assistant professor of law, was often quoted this year on issues of patent law, highlighted by interviews in The Wall Street Journal about Apple Inc.’s legal victory over Samsung in a much-watched patent case and by The Dow Jones Newswire about the International Trade Commission’s finding that Apple did not violate Google’s patents.
The so-called “fiscal cliff” discussions in Washington prompted media outlets to seek out Seth Giertz, assistant professor of economics, for insight. In late November, Giertz penned an op-ed on the fiscal cliff, policy uncertainty and tax reform for The Hill; a week later, he appeared in an ABC News story about the notion of eliminating the charitable deduction and what it might mean to universities.
Ari Kohen, associate professor of political science, appeared often in news outlets in 2012, often cited by prominent political bloggers such as Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast for his commentary at his popular weblog, Running Chicken. He was quoted in March by The Christian Science Monitor about why a good public apology is so difficult to find; in December, he was quoted in a Los Angeles Times column on the same topic.
Timothy Wei, dean of the College of Engineering, appeared in a video produced by NBC News and the National Science Foundation in conjunction with the 2012 Summer Olympics about fluid dynamics and the sport of swimming. The segment ran on dozens of NBC affiliate stations around the country. In July, he appeared in a Fox News story on the same topic.
William G. Thomas, professor of history, wrote a February New York Times opinion piece on the role of African-Americans in building railroads in the Civil War era. In October, he co-authored a column on humanities in the digital age for Inside Higher Ed. And in December, he and associate professor of history Patrick Jones appeared in a Chronicle of Higher Education feature article about the “History Harvest” digital history project they oversee at UNL.
_________________________
Research and scholarly activity
Mike Dodd, assistant professor of psychology; and Kevin Smith and John Hibbing, professors of political science, had their research into the physiological and cognitive differences between the political left and the political right featured widely in January and February. Appearances included Discovery News, Wired, The Economist, Huffington Post, The Guardian (UK), the Telegraph (UK), and BBC News, CNN, The Daily, ABC News and the Huffington Post.
Matthew Jockers, assistant professor of English, had his unique text-mining method that plotted the nuanced relationships between more than 3,500 18th- and 19th century novels featured by several media outlets in mid-August, including New Scientist, WIRED, NBC News and Smithsonian Magazine. He also co-authored an October opinion piece in Nature explaining why humanities scholars have pitched in to the Authors Guild vs. Google lawsuit.
UNL’s Bureau of Business Research, directed by assistant professor of economics Eric Thompson, appeared regularly in the national news in 2012. Its twice-annual economic forecasts for the region were the subject of stories by The Associated Press, and its annual State Entrepreneurship Index was featured in several media outlets, including The Boston Herald, Business News Daily (NY), The Oregonian, Mashable, Bloomberg Businessweek, CNN, and dozens of news outlets around the country.
Ann Mari May, professor of economics, had her research on the gender gap in policy views among economists that she co-authored with Mary McGarvey featured in a number of national media outlets this fall, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY.
J. Allen Williams Jr., professor emeritus of sociology, had his research analyzing the decline of the natural world and wild animals in children’s illustrated books featured in a number of outlets in February, including USA TODAY, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! News, the Globe & Mail (Canada), GOOD Magazine and The Associated Press.
Michael Fromm, professor of agronomy and horticulture and Director of UNL’s Center for Biotechnology, had his and colleagues’ research into certain plants’ ability to remember drought featured by The Associated Press and United Press International. The work appeared in dozens of media outlets around the country and world.
Sarah Gervais, assistant professor of psychology, had her research into the differing cognitive processes our brains use to perceive men and women covered by dozens of media outlets around the world in July and August, including NBC News, CBS News, Scientific American, the CBC (Canada), Forbes, The Daily Mail (UK), United Press International, Huffington Post and Jezebel.
Jason Head, assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences, was featured in an April 1 special on the Smithsonian Channel, “Titanoboa: Monster Snake.” Associated coverage appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, The International Business Times, USA TODAY and The Associated Press, among others.
Peter Harms, assistant professor of management, had his research into how narcissists tend to thrive in the context of job interviews widely covered by the media in April. Coverage included articles in Forbes, MSNBC, Nature, The Huffington Post and dozens of media outlets around the country.
Karl Reinhard, professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences, had his research into the link between ancient Natives’ diets and their modern susceptibility to diabetes featured by a number of national outlets in late July, including NBC News, The Huffington Post, Discovery News and The International Business Times.
_________________________
Athletics, academics and the Big Ten
Chancellor Harvey Perlman appeared regularly in coverage this year on topics ranging from compensation for head football coaches, reform of the NCAA rulebook, the process to determine a new college football playoff, the addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten and the growing gap between the top five major football-playing conferences and other schools. His comments appeared regularly in outlets such as USA TODAY, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, ESPN, The Washington Post and The New York Times, among other national media organizations.
Josephine Potuto, professor of law, appeared in a July story by Yahoo! Sports regarding potential NCAA punishment at Penn State. She also penned an op-ed for The Chronicle of Higher Education in reaction to the severe penalties handed down on Penn State by the NCAA.
Dennis Molfese, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, appeared in and was quoted by numerous media outlets in June when the the Big Ten Conference and the Ivy League, in conjunction with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, announced it would engage in a cross-institutional research collaboration to study the effects of head injuries in sports.
_________________________
Ideas for potential national news stories can be sent to National News Editor Steve Smith at ssmith13@unl.edu or (402) 472-4226.
UNL’s national media appearances as they appeared by month, and links to associated stories, can be found at the following links:
January: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/981/5766
February: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1079/6435
March: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1172/7036
April: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1268/7622
May: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1339/7849
June: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1417/8056
July: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1462/8245
August: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1568/8812
September: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1676/9443
October: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1783/10020
November: http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/1876/10507
-- Steve Smith, University Communications