Awards
Guidelines for Submission and Top Paper Review Process
As part of the process of reviewing conference paper submissions and selecting the NYSCA Top Paper Awards, the Vice President Elect, as per the NYSCA constitution, will lead a transparent and comprehensive review process. This process helps NYSCA to ensure a competitive acceptance process for conference submissions and top paper selections. Generally, top paper awards are given for Top Graduate Paper and Top Undergraduate Paper; however, the Vice President, at their discretion, may opt to additionally offer a Faculty Paper Award or opt not to give any award depending on the competitiveness of the submissions. Only full papers are considered. The review process generally involves the following steps:
1. Identifying information (name, affiliation, and contact info) is removed through the submission process to ensure papers are blindly reviewed.
2. Each completed paper is sorted into a relevant category as appropriate (graduate/undergraduate/faculty).
3. A minimum of two volunteer reviewers are recruited for each award category. Reviewers cannot be from the same institution as the paper submitter.
4. Reviewers are given a deadline to submit scores. To score papers, reviewers working independently use a standardized rubric. Papers are evaluated based on three criteria: quality of paper (writing & structure), use of theory/methods, and implications/conclusions derived from analysis. Scores from reviewers are tracked in a spreadsheet.
5. All papers are distributed to both reviewers. Reviewers who, despite the blind process, are familiar with the submission will recuse themselves.
6. Submissions that receive at least one recommendation to ‘accept’ are guaranteed acceptance to the conference. Some submissions may be recommended to be presented as poster sessions.
7. Submissions that score the highest in an award category receive the award. In the case of a tie or very close scores, an alternative reviewer, not from any institution with a student paper, is called on to make the final decision (generally the conference planner).
2011 Student Paper Awards
Top Undergraduate Submission: Shea Molloy, Hofstra University, “Different Lives, Different Lines” (poster)
Top Undergraduate Paper: Jaclyn Cohen, Marymount Manhattan College, “Dissolving Long Distance Friendships Online: I Really Miss Your Facebook”
Top M.A. Paper: Caroline Loy, NYU, “Walt Disney World: Kitsch and Myth Creation”
M.A. Submission Honorable Mention: Anna Nillni, NYU, “The Miss American Pageant: Beauty, Body Image, and Embodiments of Whiteness”
M.A. Submission Honorable Mention: Maxwell Foxman, NYU, “Digital Death: The Failures, Struggles, and Discourses of the Social Media Spectacle
Ph.D Top Paper: Christopher R. Ortega and Michael Egnoto, SUNY-Buffalo, “Longitudinal Analysis of Press Coverage of Violent Video Games: Assessing Agenda-Setting Via Semantic and LIWC Analyses”
Ph.D Submission Honorable Mention: D. Elisabeth Glassco, Rutgers, “Miles Beneath the Bus: The Construction of Jeremiah Wright Jr. in the Public Imagination”
2010 Student Paper Awards
Undergraduate
First prize: Daniel Hagemeier, Hamilton College, paper title: Twitter and the Question of Objectivity: How Social Network Sites Influence a Journalistic Norm
Honorable Mention: Elissa Nyerges, The Rochester Institute of Technology, paper title: The Effect of Educational Television Programming That Involves A Non-English Language on Parental Reports of Second Language Use Among Preschool-Age Children
Honorable Mention: Latisha L. Balogh-Ronbinson, Marist College, Through the Looking Glass: Weight Bias Revisited from a Symbolic Interactionist Point of View
Master’s Level
First prize: Elizabeth Smith, New York University, paper title: “’They Don’t Teach This in High School’: An Examination of the Portrayal of Teenage Pregnancy in the MTV Television Show 16 and Pregnant”
Honorable Mention: Jiyoung Chae, New York University, paper title: “’Yes! I Had Cosmetic Surgery’: Celebrities Cosmetic Surgery Confessions through the Media as an Atonement Ritual, and Korean Female College Students’ Perception of the Confessions”
Honorable Mention: Yue Li, New York University, paper title: Cross-Cultural Communication within American and Chinese Colleagues in Multinational Organizations
Creativity Award: Zach Napolitano, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, paper title: Text me my love, you can text me any day or night
PhD Level
Research prize: Hyunsook Youn and Marian Stewart Titus, Rutgers University, paper title: Mobile Phone in U.S. Science Museums: A Report of an Online Survey
Past Award Winners
2021
Postman Mentor Award
Marie Radford, Rutgers University
2020
Postman Mentor Award
Valerie Swarts, Slippery Rock University
2019
Postman Mentor Award
Susan Drucker, Hofstra University
Lance Strate, Fordham University
2018
Postman Mentor Award
Maureen Louis, Cazenovia College
2017
Postman Mentor Award
Roxanne O’Connell, Roger Williams University
2016
Postman Mentor Award
Heather Stassen-Ferrara, Cazenovia College
2014
Postman Mentor Award
Lewis Freeman, Fordham University
2013
Postman Mentor Award
Cheryl Casey, Hamilton College
Anastacia Kurylo, Marymount Manhattan College
2012
Postman Mentor Award
Salvatore Fallica, New York University
2010
Postman Mentor Award
Mary Kahl, SUNY New Paltz
2008
Postman Mentor Award
Susan Jasko, California University of Pennsylvania
2007
Postman Mentor Award
Thomas Flynn, Slippery Rock University
2006
Postman Mentor Award
Deborah Borisoff, New York University
Top Undergraduate Paper Award
“Reality TV: The Merger of Corporate Publicity and Popular Entertainment”
Kimberlyn David, Ithaca College
Top Graduate Paper Award
“Terrorism Victims and the Media”
Zohar Kadmon Sella, Columbia University
2005
Postman Mentor Award
Gary Gumpert, Communication Landscapers
2004
Postman Mentor Award
Joseph Coppolino, Nassau Community College