Richard Schaefer, Ph.D.
Ph.D., University of Utah, 1992  Office: Room 252, 505-917-9909	Associate Professor Mass Communication

Research:
Research Areas: Digital technologies and journalistic writing, television production practices. Conducting research on telecommunications and information technology policy and the visual aspects of communication, as well as immigration issues.

Sample Publications:

• Schaefer, Richard (2008). Writing for the Mass Media Notebook. Textbook to improve media writing with tips on grammar; print, Web and broadcast journalism; public relations; and advertising.

• Schaefer, Richard and Gillian Gonde (2003). "U.S. public television workers' initial impressions of the DTV transition," Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 19:1. Looks at how the managers and staff of Albuquerque's PTV station struggled to adapt to the conversion to digital TV technologies.

• Schaefer, Richard (2003)."Whither digital television?" Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47:1, 145. A forum that examines regulatory issues surrounding the digital television transition in the United States.

• Schaefer, Richard (1998). "The Development of CBS News Guidelines during the Salant Years." Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 42:1, 1-20. This analysis describes how CBS News President Richard Salant tried to impose strict journalistic standards during the 1960s and 1970s.

• Schaefer, Richard (1997). "Editing Strategies in Television News Documentaries." Journal of Communication, 47:4, 69-88. This study demonstrates the editing strategies used in four prominent CBS documentaries that aired between 1954 and 1983. It critiques those strategies in light of other journalists and policy-makers responses to the programs.

• Schaefer, Richard (1993). "Audience conceptualizations of Late Night with David Letterman." Journal of Broadcast & Electronic Media, 37:3, 253-273. This study used qualitative and quantitative techniques to examine audience perceptions of the Letterman program as a cross-genre phenomenon.

Service:

• Founding member, along with Arturo López Durán and Carolyn
  Gonzales, of the Cross-Border Issues Group, which conducts
  research on issues that affect Mexican and Americans.
• Directs an annual summer exchange program in Mexico in
  which Mexican and U.S. students produce journalist
  reports.
• Faculty adviser for the Talk Radio News Internships in
  Washington, D.C.
• Directs a FIPSE grant that brings Canadian and Mexican
  students to UNM to study water issues and sends UNM
  students to Canada and Mexico to study the same issue.

Teaching:

Broadcast news production classes and telecommunication and media specific theory courses. Graduate-level research methods and mass communication seminars. Director of the introductory media writing courses.

Teaching Style: Traditional. A combination of what students often describe as "long lectures" with a practical component of completing projects for most courses.

Courses Taught: C&J 171 - Writing for the Media; C&J 360 and 460 Broadcast News I & II; C&J 501 - Fundamentals of Communication Research; C&J 562: Media Seminar.

Interests: Tennis — play more than enough of that. Butchering (languages that is), Spanish and occasionally Chinese. Eating — probably too much of that too, but it's even more fun with company. Traveling, hiking and cross-country skiing, particularly with family members, JoAnn and Adrian.