CURRICULUM VITAE

Contact information

Jeremy Littau
Lehigh University
Department of Journalism and Communication

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Education

  • University of Missouri: Ph.D. Journalism (2009) The virtual social capital of online communities: Media use and motivations as predictors of online and offline engagement via six measures of community strength. Committee chaired by Esther Thorson. Other members include Margaret Duffy, Shelly Rodgers, Clyde Bentley, and David O’Brien.
  • University of Missouri: M.A. Journalism (2007). Citizen Journalism and Community Building: Predictive Measures of Social Capital Generation. Committee chaired by Clyde Bentley. Other members include Esther Thorson, Tom Warhover, and Doug Raber.
  • Biola University: B.A. Communication, journalism emphasis (1997).

Teaching Experience

Lehigh University, assistant professor of journalism and communication (2009-present)

  • Media and Society (COMM 100)

University of Missouri, graduate instructor (2004-09)

  • Online Journalism (graduate students only – online course)
  • News (basic news writing)
  • Principles of American Journalism
  • Online Journalism (crosslisted with graduate and undergraduate students)

Biola University, adjunct professor of journalism (2001-03)

  • Principles of Editing and Design
  • Feature Writing
  • Principles of Information Gathering

Professional Experience

  • 2: Los Angeles Daily News: Sports copy editor/page designer; also supervised the desk on occasion in this role.
  • 1: Nevada Appeal: Sports editor; also functioned as part-time reporter in this role and did occasional Web work as part of editing duties.
  • 1: The Daily Democrat: Sports reporter; also functioned as a weekend editor in this role.

Publications

Book chapters or sections

Littau, J., & Slagle, M. (2007). For God and country: The media and national security. In P. Paterson & L. Wilkins (Eds.), Media ethics: Issues and cases (pp. 200-202). New York: McGraw Hill.

Bentley, C., Littau, J., Hamman, B., Watson, B., & Welsh, B. (2006). Citizen journalism: A case study. In M. Tremayne (Ed.). Blogging, citizenship and the future of media (1 ed., pp. 312): Routledge.

Journal articles

Wise, K., Eckler, P., Kononova, A., & Littau, J. (2009). Exploring the “Wire” in the Hardwired for News Hypothesis: How Threat Proximity Affects the Cognitive and Emotional Processing of Health-Related News. Communication Studies, 20(3), 268-287.

Conference papers

Littau, J., Gardner, E., Thorson, E. (2009). The Impact of News “Voice” on Adolescent Political Efficacy. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Boston, MA. (awarded second-place paper)

Thorson, E., Meyer, H., Littau, J., & Jahng, M. (2009). Political news: Antecedents and consequences of use. International Communication Association. Chicago, IL.

Alhabash, S., Littau, J., Wise, K., Eckler, P., & Kononova, A. (2009). The “face” of Facebook: Emotional responses during social networking. International Communication Association. Chicago, IL.

Kononova, A., Wise, K., Littau, J., Alhabash, S., & Eckler, P. (2009). Cognitive and emotional processing while navigating CNN.com. International Communication Association. Chicago, IL.

Eckler, P., Wise, K., Kononova, A., Littau, J., & Alhabash, S. (2009). Motivational activation during online shopping. International Communication Association. Chicago, IL.

Littau, J., Mason, D. (2008). Time to “get” religion? An analysis of religious literacy among journalism students. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Chicago, IL.

Stewart, C., Littau, J. (2008). “Truthiness” and satire news: The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and television news credibility. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Chicago, IL.

Wise, K., Eckler, P., Kononova, A., Littau, J. (2008). Processing fear and risk in health messages. International Communication Association. Montreal, Canada.

Littau, J. (2007). Content differences for an online newspaper site and its citizen journalism publication. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Washington, D.C. (winner of top student paper)

Littau, J., Thorson, E., Bentley, C. (2007). Citizen journalism and community building: Predictive measures of social capital generation. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Washington, D.C.

Bentley, C., Meyer, H., Littau, J. (2007). Citizen Journalism and the TMC: User content as a driver for a free newspaper. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Washington, D.C.

Bentley, C., Hamman, B., Ibold, H., Littau, J., & Meyer, H. (2006). Sense of community as a driver for citizen journalism. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. San Francisco, CA.

Bentley, C., Littau, J., Hamman, B., Meyer, H., Welsh, B., & Watson, B. (2005). The citizen journalism movement: MyMissourian as a case study. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. San Antonio, TX.

Consulting

  • “Indexing Community Information Needs in a Democracy” with Esther Thorson and Hans K. Meyer for the Knight Foundation. Put together a presentation and checklist for community leaders concerning community needs and information needs. The information was presented in a seminar to attendees.

Conferences and Professional Development

  • “Journalism in the Service of Democracy” summit at the Paley Center in New York City, sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Knight Foundation, January 2008.
  • Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conventions
    • Chicago (2008): Gave a panel research presentation and a research poster presentation.
    • Washington D.C. (2007): Gave two panel research presentations and a research poster presentation.
    • San Francisco (2006): Participated in a research poster session.
    • San Antonio (2005): Participated in a research poster session.
  • International Communication Association conference
    • Montreal (2008): Co-presented a research paper for a panel
  • Intern, Whittier Daily News, October 1997-January 1997. Worked on the city desk writing feature stories and occasional spot news.
  • Summer Institute in Journalism (1996): A six-week program that offered intensive training in journalism, only 15 students selected from 90 member schools nationwide. Sponsored by the Christian College Coalition, held in Washington, D.C.

Service/Professional Affiliations

  • Member, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (2004-present).
  • Member, International Communication Association (2007-present).
  • Journalism school representative, Graduate Professional Council, University of Missouri (2).
  • Member, Society of Professional Journalists (1).
  • Adviser, The Chimes student newspaper at Biola University (2).

Speaking Appearances

  • “God Goes Digital” panelist for “Teaching Religion & Media: Best practices and models for the 21st century” pre-convention seminar at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention, August 5, 2008. Sponsored by AEJMC Council of Affiliates, Religion Newswriters Association, and the Center on Religion & the Professions (University of Missouri).
  • “Assessing the Credibility of News Items Posted on Facebook” guest speaker in March 2008 to Dr. Clyde Bentley’s Online Journalism class.
  • “Citizen Journalism and the Future of Journalism” guest speaker in April 2007 to Dr. Stephanie Craft’s Principles of American Journalism class.
  • “Citizen Journalism and the Future of Journalism” guest speaker in March 2007 to Prof. Carrie Brown’s Principles of American Journalism class.
  • “MyMissourian and Research: What We’ve Learned About Citizen Journalism So Far” speaker in September 2007 to a Missouri School of Journalism brown bag seminar session.
  • “Using Citizen Journalism to Build Better Communities” guest speaker in April 2006 to Dr. Clyde Bentley’s Online Journalism class.

Awards, Honors and Scholarships

  • Second Place Paper, Mass Communication And Society Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Boston, MA (2009)
  • Top Student Paper, Civic and Citizen Journalism Interest Group, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Washington, D.C. (2007)
  • Member of Kappa Tau Alpha honors society, Missouri chapter.
  • O.O. McIntyre Scholarship, University of Missouri, 2.
  • Laura Stephens Harris Scholarship, University of Missouri, 2.
  • Rose Van Dine Memorial Scholarship, University of Missouri, 2.
  • Third Place in On-the-Spot Sports Coverage contest, California Interscholastic Press Association, 1995.
  • Academic Scholarship, Biola University, 1.

Academic Interests

  • Practical interests
    • Media and politics
    • Media and religion
    • Sports journalism
  • Research interests
    • New media
    • Citizen journalism and participatory media
    • Blogging
    • Integration of user-generated content with professionally produced journalism
    • Use of media for community action and community building

Courses Taken

Research tools/statistics

  • Quantitative Methods in Communication Research
  • Advanced Quantitative Methods in Communication Research
  • Qualitative Methods in Communication Research
  • Introduction to Educational Statistics
  • Quantitative Methods I (Regression Analysis)
  • Quantitative Methods II (Analysis of Variance)
  • Hierarchical Linear Modeling
  • Structural Equation Modeling

Theory and research

  • Theories of Communication
  • Philosophy of Journalism
  • Theories of Society
  • Dynamics of Social Change
  • Community Social Structure

Seminar

  • Mass Media Seminar
  • Doctoral Proseminar I
  • Doctoral Proseminar II
  • Doctoral Seminar
  • Doctoral Research Seminar

Practical courses in areas of research interest

  • Online Journalism
  • Literature of Journalism
  • Communication Law

Skills and Activities

Technical skills

  • Knowledgeable in the following computer programs
    • QuarkXPress
    • Adobe Photoshop
    • Adobe Illustrator
    • NewsEdit
    • PageSpeed layout and pagination system (DTI)
    • Adobe InDesign
    • Dreamweaver
    • iMovie
    • WordPress blogging software
  • Knowledgeable in the following programming languages
    • HTML
    • PHP

Activities

  • Co-founder of the Doctoral Student Symposia at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The program consists of monthly sessions run by doctoral students to better connect doctoral students with others in their areas of scholarship and research interests. A secondary goal is to pass on institutional knowledge about the program so that students feel more prepared as they enter the Ph.D. program.
  • Preparing Future Faculty at University of Missouri (2008-09 academic year). The program uses seminars and mentoring to help doctoral students prepare for the responsibilities of being faculty members. Admission to the program is by application, with about 20 students accepted per year.
  • Co-founder of MyMissourian.com, a field experiment in launching a citizen journalism product. The site served as both a practical attempt at citizen journalism as well as a vehicle for research. The site started in 2004 and still is an active media product.
  • Co-author on The Cyberbrains, a blog devoted to thinking about research and new media in journalism (http://www.thecyberbrains.com).
  • Contributor for God, Media and More, a blog about the convergence of journalism and religion (http://godmediamore.missouri.edu).
  • Mail-in contest judge for Journalism Association of Community Colleges annual awards in 2001.