A WVU journalism professor’s commentary about Facebook was recently cited in USA Today’s weblog, “On Deadline.”
In his Sept. 8 post, “Living in a Media World,” WVU School of Journalism Associate Professor Ralph Hanson responded to Facebook’s decision to implement new privacy controls in their Mini-Feed and News Feed features. The same day, USA Today’s “On Deadline” post, “Facebook does an about-face,” highlighted Hanson’s reaction to the news.
“National attention for my blog in USA Today has several positive consequences. Not only will it help to generate readership from a wider audience but it also will increase the visibility of the topics covered,” Dr. Hanson said.
Hanson’s “Living in a Media World” covers a wide range of mass communication and mass media issues. It can be found at: http://ralphehanson.com/blog/archive_06_09.html#090806_facebook
Since 2004, Hanson has been posting entries analyzing news about the media and the digital environment.
Hanson specializes in news-editorial and the sociology of mass communication. He is a former newspaper reporter with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Iowa State University, where he majored in anthropology and journalism. He earned his doctorate in sociology from Arizona State University. Before coming to WVU, Hanson was an assistant professor of journalism at Northern Arizona University.
At WVU Hanson teaches such courses as Introduction to Mass Communication, Ethics, and Editorial Page Writing and Orientation. He is also chair of the School of Journalism’s Web-based extended learning program.
Hanson recently published the textbook, “Living in a Media World,” for McGraw-Hill. It is an introduction to mass communication text that examines mass media and mass communication from a liberal studies perspective.