Leigh Moscowitz's dissertation, "For Better or Worse News Discourse, Gay Rights Activism, and the Same-Sex Marriage Debate," has won top honors for research in journalism and mass communications.
More specifically, the assistant professor of communication at the College of Charleston has won the Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award.
You can check out the full press release for more on Moscowitz's accomplishments in her short time at the College.
We've also dug up a piece in which Moscowitz talks about her work thus far. Here's a taste:
While I was researching and writing my dissertation about news coverage of the same-sex marriage debate, I often guest lectured on the topic of representations of LGBT people in the news media and in popular culture. On these issues, my teaching context has mostly been as a guest lecturer at a large state school ( Indiana University in Bloomington ) and at a small, private college ( Butler University in Indianapolis ). I have spoken to a variety of undergraduate classrooms, from a small, discussion-oriented gender studies class of 18 students, to a large, hot-topics-in-the-media course of nearly 500 students. Since completing my degree, I have also integrated LGBT issues into my introductory reporting class and my “Women in the Media” course.
We've got a request in for at least an excerpt of the dissertation and will let you know if we get a copy.
