Protecting the most vulnerable: UW teams up with state on child maltreatment prevention

The recent release of a report on child maltreatment prevention is the product of a long-term collaboration between researchers and graduate students at UW-Madison.

The research team is a collaborative effort among UW–Madison Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) and the School of Social Work (SSW) with child welfare specialists at the Children's Trust Fund of the Wisconsin Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board, the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, and the State Department of Children and Families.

The report, What It Will Take: Investing in Wisconsin’s Future by Keeping Kids Safe Today, follows the fall 2009 release of Child Maltreatment Prevention: Toward an Evidence-Based Approach, which provides a review of the latest research on what approaches work best for children and families.

SSW doctoral student Katie Maguire Jack, lead author of What It Will Take, worked with Professor Kristen Shook Slack, SSW and IRP, and SSW graduate student Leah M. Gjertson on Child Maltreatment Prevention.

Slack notes, "Together, these reports along with a series of briefs on child maltreatment prevention on the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families Web site, should generate a lot of discussion about child maltreatment prevention efforts around the state and help local agencies to use their limited resources to the best effect for Wisconsin children and their families."

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Students take third in national advertising competition

A team of UW-Madison students took third place in the American Advertising Federation's National Student Advertising Competition June 11 in Orlando, Fla.

The students were recognized for the strategic communications campaign they developed for State Farm Insurance, which provided the case study for this year's contest: create a strategy to get young adults to purchase car and renter's insurance. A group of 21 UW students developed the campaign as part of their senior-level capstone class in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication.

The group took the regional title at a competition in Minneapolis in late April, and a team of presenters competed against 18 other schools last week at the American Advertising Federation's annual conference in Orlando. The federation is the premier professional organization for the advertising and strategic communications industry, and the competition is part of its student outreach programs.

The competing teams represented the top teams from regional districts around the country, says Debra Pierce, faculty associate in the strategic communications area of the journalism school. Some 150 colleges and universities had competed at the regional level.

Chapman University of Orange, Calif., won first place in the national contest, while Texas State University-San Marcos took second place and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln took fourth place.

As part of the insurance case study, the UW students created an integrated communication campaign following four months of qualitative and quantitative research and communications strategy development.

The campaign included a media plan — complete with authentic television, radio, outdoor, print and Internet ads — and a 32-page, full-color casebook that described their recommendations. Their work was showcased in a 20-minute presentation to a panel of State Farm Insurance executives and representatives, as well as an audience of students and advertising professionals from all around the country.

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Ringe will teach a European Union Studies Summer Program in Brussels

Professor Nils Ringe.

Political Science Professor Nils Ringe will be teaching a European Union Studies Summer Program in Brussels, Belgium July 12-August 13.

This summer program gives students the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with the European Union.

Ringe will be teaching one of two classes offered during this five week period entitled "Current EU Policy Debates."

The course is consistent with Ringe's research and policy interests which include European Union politics, political parties, legislatures, and elections.

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Shelef to publish book examining Israel over past eight decades

Professor Nadav Shelef is publishing a new book this summer.

This summer Political Science Professor Nadav Shelef is publishing a book Evolving Nationalism: Homeland, Religion and Identity in Israel (Cornell University Press, 2010) in August.

The book examines how the idea of Israel as a nation-state has developed within Zionist and Israeli discourse over the past eight decades.

Shelef focuses on three key questions that the main nationalist movements have answered from 1925-2005: Where is the "Land of Israel?"  Who ought to be Israeli?  What should the Zionist national mission be?

Shelef teaches and studies nationalism, religion and politics, Israeli politics and society, and middle east politics.

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Jacobs travels to Taiwan, continues legacy of international outreach

Jacobs, sixth from the left in the front row, with the 25 participants from 25 countries who attended his one week course in Taiwan this spring.

In May, Professor Harvey M. Jacobs (Urban & Regional Planning) continued his (and his Department's) long-time participation in the activities of the International Center for Land Policy Studies and Training of Taiwan. 

He taught a one week short course as part of their 113th Regular Session on Land Policy for Sustainable Rural Development; his students were 25 mid-career professionals from 25 different countries globally. 

While in Taiwan he was also invited to give a lecture at the Department of Land Economics of National Chengchi University, and to facilitate a faculty round table on comparative research at the University's College of Social Science.

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Journalism Ethics Conference goes global

A view from the 2010 Journalism Ethics Conference at UW-Madison.

Journalists and citizens from the United States to India used their laptops and other mobile devices to participate in the second annual journalism ethics conference, "New Journalism – New Ethics?" staged by the UW Center for Journalism Ethics.

Nearly 140 people viewed the live stream of the conference April 30 from the US, Canada, Argentina, the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, India — and Tuvalu.

Many viewers used social media to send comments and questions to the conference's blog and twitter sites. The social media was moderated by a team of student bloggers under UW Journalism Professor Katy Culver.

The ethics conference has now established itself as a leading forum for discussion and debate on journalism ethics and has established a platform for the future, according to center director Stephen J. A. Ward.

Inside the conference hall, over 125 leading journalists, media scholars, and students debated the ethics of new media. Attendees came from across the Midwest, with university faculty from Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Vancouver, Canada.

John Smalley, editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, speaks during the What Ever Happened to Verification in Journalism? session at the conference.

Just before the conference, the center, with partners, published one of the first comprehensive reports on the ethics of not-for-profit investigative newsrooms. The report was discussed at a special session of the conference.

Also at the conference, the center presented its first Wisconsin Commitment to Journalism Ethics award to veteran and much-respected broadcaster Tom Bier, VP and station manager of WISC-TV in Madison.

Video and pictures of the conference, plus information on the speakers, is available at the ethics center's web site, www.journalismethics.info

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Students travel to Orlando to battle for national advertising competition title

The team strikes a pose at the regional competition. They are now heading to Florida to vie for a national title.

A group of UW Madison students will travel to Orlando, Florida in June to vie for a national advertising competition title.

The team will compete against 18 other schools at the American Advertising Federation's Annual Conference.

The same student group took the regional title at a competition in Minneapolis in late April, besting seven other teams with their campaign for State Farm Insurance.

The team's 20-minute presentation and 32-page casebook details their whole campaign, how it will be executed creatively, and how they would spend a hypothetical $40 million annual budget.

The emphasis of the class — and the competition — is gaining broad conceptual skills while preparing students for landing a first job after graduation, says 

The students competing were all enrolled in the Journalism School's J-475 National Student Advertising Competition course this Spring, and comprised a diverse group of Strategic Communications (Journalism), Art, Business and Communication Arts areas.

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