University of New Mexico
Department of Communication & Journalism
UNM Lobo  
David Weiss, Ph.D.
 Ph.D., University of New Mexico, 2005
 Office: Room 222
 davidweiss@unm.edu

Assistant Professor 
Communication 

Profile:

Dr. Weiss teaches courses in strategic communication, political communication, and media studies. His research interests include media discourse, political and religious communication, and the media and popular culture industries. Before his return to academia in 2000, Dr. Weiss worked in the advertising agency business in New York City for almost two decades. He has taught in Oregon, Ohio, and Montana, and is thrilled to be back at UNM, where he earned his Ph.D. degree in 2005.

Research:

I characterize myself as a critical scholar of the discourse, structures, and societal impact of the media and popular culture. The "elevator talk" description of my scholarly pursuits is quite simple: I critically investigate the roles played by the media in society. The ways that those pursuits play themselves out are, of course, more complex and multi-faceted. Specifically, the content areas in which I am most interested might best be described as "culture war" issues: mediated and other publicly communicated messages or texts that are located at the points where media, language, and popular culture intersect with the most powerful issues and institutions of our time: religion, politics, law, sex and sexuality, gender, and/or race and ethnicity.

To date, my interest in these content areas has been manifested in two distinct research and publication streams: (1) political communication and, in particular, its intersection with religious communication; and (2) linguistic manifestations of identity in media and popular culture. At the moment, however, I am in the early stages of a project situated at the intersection of media theory (specifically, normative theories of journalism) and the political economy of media.

Sample Publications:

Teaching: I have taught a wide range of critical media studies courses (including Theories of Media & Society; Popular Culture & Cultural Studies; Media Criticism; Multicultural Mass Communication; and Advertising, Media, & Culture, among others) as well as courses in political communication, advertising, public relations, and media law. My current teaching assignments include courses in C&J's strategic communication concentration (Introduction to Strategic Communication; Strategic Planning and Positioning; Strategic Communication Campaigns) as well as the Political Communication course. I look forward to adding graduate and undergraduate courses in media studies to my teaching roster in future semesters.

Service: I am currently the faculty advisor to LoboEdge (C&J's student-run advertising agency), a member of the department's ACEJMC accreditation team, the chair of a search committee, and the department's representative to the UNM Faculty Senate. I am also the Secretary for the National Communication Association's LGBTQ Caucus and a regular reviewer for NCA's Political Communication, Mass Communication, and GLBT Studies divisions. I have served as a reviewer for several mass communication textbooks and the journals Explorations in Media Ecology and Culture, Theory and Critique.

Other: In my ample (?) spare time, I enjoy hiking, bicycling, exploring the Rocky Mountain West, keeping up with current movies, going to Lobos football and basketball games, competing in regional and national Scrabble tournaments, and playing in several of Albuquerque's sanctioned Scrabble clubs.

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