Steve Davis

I worked in the industry for almost a quarter-century — as a reporter, editor and designer — before relocating to SU in summer 1999. I have been department chair for a half-dozen years.

SU summary:

• Direct and coordinate daily and long-term strategic business of the department. Direct curriculum review.

• Chosen to lead and direct the school's participation in the Carnegie-Knight News21 program that includes the nation's leading journalism schools and departments.

• Member, chancellor's Faculty for Community Engagement, a part of the Scholarship in Action initiative. My SIA project: Conceptualize, found and direct the South Side Newspaper Project, which serves that Syracuse community with a website and monthly print newsmagazine.

• Winner, $20,000 Kaufmann grant and named "E Professor." (Won second $12,000 Kaufmann grant to finance Summer 2009 oral histories video project pairing local Native-American and African-American teens.) 

• Winner, $10,000 "Imagining America" grant.

• Teach beginning and advanced news reporting classes and advanced editing classes, as well as the school's new Web Journalism & Innovation class.

• Coordinate and teach school's foundation writing class (NEW 205) for Newspaper, Magazine, Public Relations, Photo and VIC majors.

• Coordinate (and formerly teach) summer news writing and reporting "boot camp" for incoming master's students in the Magazine-Newspaper-Online and Public Relations majors.

• Winner, two Curriculum infusion grants financing student reporting projects on campus issues such as drug use and diversity (LGBT community), and off-campus topics including immigration in Central New York and how the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have played out here.

• Awarded an $11,000 grant from ASJMC to sponsor four visiting journalists from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Their specialties: convergence, diversity, database reporting and political reporting. Each visiting journalist spent one week at Newhouse, bringing newsroom expertise to students in reporting and editing classes in the 2003-2004 academic year.

Opinion-editorial pieces I wrote on politics and the Internet

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Internet continues to change the American electorate" (February 15, 2004)

• Newsday: "Candidates still taming Internet" (February 5, 2004)

• The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Bloggers now the stars" (July 28, 2004)

• Politicsonline.com: contributing editor to NetPulse section, which tracks politics in the online world (May 2003)

Essays I wrote on politics and the Internet

• "The Cybercampaign" - an analysis of the Internet's role in the 2004 presidential campaigns of the major candidates. Published in a special campaign edition of Journalism Studies, a peer-reviewed quarterly (Spring 2005)

• Internet and civic engagement - "The Responsive Community: Rights and Responsibilities" (with Grant Reeher) (Spring/Summer 2004)

Speeches/presentations I gave on politics and the Internet

• Worked with the Center for Digital Literacy to host a conference at SU on politics and the Internet. Attracted key players such as the organizer of draftwesleyclark.com, the founder of politicsonline.com and Internet researchers from other universities (Summer 2004)

• Campaign 2004 - speech at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse as part of a University College series (October 2004)

• "Internet activism and American grass-roots politics" - presentation given at annual conference of the National Civic League in Washington, D.C. (Fall 2002)

Quoted about politics and the Internet

• "Internet changes the way candidates, voters interact" - Omaha World-Herald (Jan. 17, 2004)

• "Politics doesn't pay" - TheStandard.com (Nov. 20, 2000)

• "The Web: Blogs reshaping political news" - United Press International (June 16, 2004)

• "Bloggers click into political world" - Waco Tribune (July 26, 2004)

• "Blogs: The exciting and scary part of American politics" - Hampton Roads (Va.) Daily Press (Sept. 1, 2004)

Author: Journalism topics I've written about

• Essay on public journalism: "Public Journalism: The case against" - published in Journalism Studies, a peer-reviewed quarterly (November 2000)

• Essay on plagiarism: "Cleaning up journalism's mess" - published in "Perspectives" column in Syracuse University Magazine (Fall 2003)

• "Take hard line on plagiarism starting in journalism school" - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (June 17, 2003)

Quoted: In the press, about various issues

• "Some buyers still bullish on newspapers" - Christian Science Monitor (June 28, 2007)
• "Lawmakers' spending kept secret from public" - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Aug. 12, 2001)
• "GOP lawmakers need to come clean on columns" - Sun-Sentinel in Lewiston, Maine (Sept. 26, 2006)
• "Syracuse disciplines students for facebook.com" - Student Press Law Center (Feb. 14, 2006)
• "Ink-stained journalists mourn for newspapers" - ABC News on Campus (July 30, 2009)

Speeches/presentations/participations, various

• Presenter, "Citizenship for a Just World" - Imagining America conference at SU (Sept. 7-8, 2007)
• Presenter, SU "Spring Government" conference (the South Side experience) - (March 27, 2008)
• Presenter, Assn. for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, summer conference in Toronto (covering LGBT issues on the SU campus) - (August 2004)
• Presenter, LGBT Studies regional conference (covering LGBT issues on the SU campus) - (Oct. 23, 2004)
• Speaker and contest judge, Empire State Scholastic Press Assn. (multiple years)
• Panelist, Society of Professional Journalists' Region 1 Convention, Syracuse University - (2003)
• Judge, CoSIDA contest (College Sports Information Directors of America) - (2003)
• Judge, Awards for Excellence competition, New York Newspaper Publishers Association, Inc. (2001-2002 contest)
• Keynote speaker, Golden Key International Honour Society, Class of 2004 induction of SU student members

CAMPUS

University Senate: Elected by colleagues as USEN member; serve on Committee on Instruction and Ad Hoc Committee on Enrollment.

Member, Chancellor's Faculty for Community Engagement: Named for my work on the South Side Newspaper Project.

Advisory board member: Center for Digital Literacy, an interdisciplinary team of faculty that studies information technology. (Fall 2004-present)

Speaker — "Working with Adjuncts:" A presentation at the Summer 2004 Chairs Conference at Stella Maris. (2004)

Keynote speaker and inductee: The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, for "commitment to scholarship, leadership and service."  (2004)

Speaker: Led discussion about the role of the media in wartime for annual Media & American Democracy Institute - an enrichment program for New York state's high school teachers, held at Syracuse University. (Summer 2002 and Summer 2003)

Newhouse rep: Worked with Barry Wells, senior vice president and dean of Student Affairs, on the Collegiate Readership Pilot Program to bring free issues of The New York Times and USA TODAY to campus. (Fall 2004-present)

NEWHOUSE

Present NH committees: Executive Committee composed of the department chairs; Academic Resources Committee; dean's Strategic Planning Committee

Search committee service: Chair, search for multimedia professor in Newspaper; member of search committees for Broadcast professor and for Magazine professor. Co-chaired committee to hire Collaborative Media Room manager Jon Glass. Member of both committees for VIC hires of Bruce Strong and Ken Harper. Current: Chair search of new endowed chair in Journalism Innovation.

Member, Web Cadets committee: Former group studying ways to "Webify" the school

Chair: Academic Honesty Committee. (Fall 2004-Spring 2005)

Defense committees: For the PhD, John Hatcher; for the master's degree, Frank Herron

COMMUNITY

Recipient: Chancellor's Staff Inspiration Award for working with SU students to help children and teens at the Boys and Girls Clubs in Syracuse to produce their own newsletter. (2003)

Board service: Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, CNY chapter. Past president and board member over six years. In those roles, worked with SU Special Events office on annual fund-raising (getting $10,000 from Chancellor Cantor). CNY delegate to annual national convention, Denver. (Service from 2000-June 2007)

Participant: Community Dialog Circle. (2001)

PROFESSION

Presenter: How to improve community websites and build online audience, for the Maine Press Association. (October 2010)

Judge: Newhouse School annual Mirror Awards, recognizing the media's best coverage of the communications industry. (Multiple years)

Organizer/director: National Press Foundation National Online Award. Directed the judging of NPF's national contest in this category: named the committee and chaired it, selecting contest winner. Attended national ceremony in Washington, D.C., for several years (2001-2007)

Consultant for Zogby International: Advised major metro newspaper on content and design strategies to increase circulation. Participated in focus groups, polling, interviewing, analysis and personal consultation with top management. (2002)

Consultant, New York City high schools: Throughout the spring semester in 2004, I traveled to New York City regularly to help USA TODAY counsel city high schools on building a journalism curriculum for one of its Career and Technical Education Schools.

Administrator/monitor: Dow Jones Newspaper Fund scholarship program. Direct application and testing process. (2002-present)

• Accepted an invitation from the editor of the weekly Nashville Scene in Nashville for students to critique the daily Tennessean newspaper. Students conducted an accuracy review of a week's worth of newspapers and reported their findings to the Nashville Scene, which published the results. (Fall 2000)

• Students in two advanced reporting classes (taught by Steve Davis and Joel Kaplan) analyzed the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle's Campaign 2000 coverage. Students wrote a report of their findings, and two students accompanied the professors to present the report to D&C editors; Davis and Kaplan also wrote an analysis, which was published in the D&C. (Fall 2002)

Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) 2011    First place: National competition (Best in this category among all 9 national regions)    Category: Online In-Depth Reporting – 4-Year College/University    Entrant: The News21 team    Entry title: Apart from War    Third place, Region 1    Category: Best Independent Online Student Publication – 4-Year College/University    Entrant: The NewsHouse Staff (for thenewshouse.com)    Entry title: The NewsHouse (I started thenewshouse.com with Dona Hayes, Broadcast and Digital               Journalism chair.)SPJ, 2006    Place: First place, Region 1    Category: In-depth reporting    Entrant: Newhouse students    Media outlet: The Student Voice project    Entry title: “War Surrounds Us”Society of Newspaper Design, 2010    Best of Digital News Design    Apart from War, by the Syracuse News21 team

    Commendation, Use of Multimedia, student division, Jerry's Cabin in Apart From War by David Miller, Syracuse News21COLLEGE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2010    Syracuse's Apart From War, Silver, Large Group Multimedia ProjectASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION(AEJMC) BEST OF THE WEB 2011    Team Journalism: Syracuse’s World Journalism Project, Second PlaceASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION(AEJMC) BEST OF THE WEB 2010    Team Journalism: Syracuse's The Young and the Wireless, First Place

AEJMC, other years

    AEJMC, Best Newspaper Project competition, 2009    First place, “Land of Pain and Promise” (produced in 2008)    (First project available online)    AEJMC, Best Newspaper Project competition, 2008     Second place, “Whose Neighborhood Is It?” (produced in 2007)    AEJMC, Best Newspaper Project competition, 2007     First place, “War Surrounds Us” (produced in 2006)    AEJMC, Best Newspaper Project competition, 2006    Third place, “South Side of Syracuse” (produced in 2005)ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, 2006First place, Feature Writing (and a $2,500 check), to SU students Julianne Pepitone and Allison Baker for their “War Surrounds Us” story on a Syracuse-area soldier badly wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

• Professional intern, USA TODAY (May-June 2007): Spent five weeks at USA TODAY working with print and online editors and learning the latest about presentation of information as text, video and audio. Acquired $5,000 faculty grant from Newhouse to finance the experience. Post-internship, spent one week in Wilmington, Del., participating in Gannett Co., Inc. immersion class to learn how to capture and edit video.
• Multimedia Immersion Workshop, Newhouse School/SU (May 2011): Participated as a student in weeklong video skills-building workshop run by the National Press Photographers Association.

• Seminar leader, Almaty, Kazakhstan (August 2005): Led weeklong seminar and taught 31 college students from across the five Central Asia republics. They learned practical journalism skills and explored the role of the press in emerging democracies. Sponsored by American Councils for International Education.

• ASNE: Attended 2002 conference

• AEJMC: Attended and presented, 2004 conference. Presentation topic: "Teaching Diversity: A Case Study."

• AEJMC: Attended 2010