Graduate Student receive AEJMC recognition

At the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication August 2008 conference in Chicago, third year Texas doctoral student, Jennifer Ball, and second year Texas graduate student, Angie Liang were awarded second place in the advertising division of student papers for their research analysis of direct to consumer advertising within the pharmaceutical industry.

The paper originated from a content analysis class last fall with Professor Wei-Na Lee, which led Ball and Liang to examining pharmaceutical television commercials to identify the potential of these advertisements to reduce the negative stigma of health conditions. Among other topics, the pair looked at health condition normalization effects as well as stereotype disconfirmation to identify the presence of social benefits within the highly controversial advertisements.

Ball received her undergraduate education in Psychology and Communication Studies from Northwestern University and completed her M.A. degree in Advertising from The University of Texas. She is currently working on her dissertation and will graduate in the summer of 2010 with hopes to pursue a career as a professor in higher education.

Liang received her undergraduate degree in Advertising from The University of Texas and will graduate in May of 2009 with a Master's degree in Advertising with hopes to pursue a professional position in the advertising industry. Both Ball and Liang were pleasantly surprised and honored by their paper's recognition and attribute their success to one another and the guidance of Professor Lee.