Lambeth

Lambeth and Thorson share award for scholarly excellence

Edmund B. Lambeth and Esther Thorson received the Curators' Award for Scholarly excellence for

co-editing Assessing Public Journalism. The award, which includes a $2,500 stipend,

recognizes the most outstanding book by a UM faculty member published by the University of Missouri Press.

Assessing Public Journalism is the first book to evaluate the "civic" or "public" journalism movement, which some critics say is at odds with the principles of traditional reporting. It offers a framework for examining the issues surrounding such journalism as well as for determining what is needed to enable it to realize its full potential.

Lambeth first joined the UM-Columbia School of Journalism faculty in 1968. Later he served on the Indiana University faculty and directed the School of Journalism at the University of Kentucky. He rejoined the UM-Columbia faculty in 1987.

Lambeth, founder of the School of Journalism's Washington Reporting Program, was the organizer and first chair of the Civic Journalism Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. He is a former president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication.

His book, Committed Journalism: An Ethic For the Profession, issued in 1986 and revised in 1992, helped revive and shape scholarship on applied ethics in mass communication. Lambeth created four courses now being offered at the School of Journalism. His research connects his work on ethics, media criticism and public affairs reporting with issues in social philosophy and civic education.

Lambeth earned bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from Northwestern University in 1954 and 1955, respectively, and his Ph.D. in political science from The American University in 1976.

Thorson

Thorson joined the School of Journalism faculty in 1993 as associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies. She also directed UMC's Center for Advanced Social Research for four years. Prior to joining UM-Columbia, she was on the faculty of Denison University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Thorson specializes in research on public health advertising and promotion, the impact of news and advertising on audiences and the role of ethnicity in the news. She has held research grants and contracts with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts, among many others. In addition, she has conducted research for Proctor & Gamble and several advertising agencies.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Advertising, Thorson was the organization's vice president in 1993. She served on the advisory board of the Association for Consumer Research and twice chaired American Psychological Association Advertising and Consumer Psychology meetings. Thorson serves or has served on the editorial boards of eight publications and has edited several books.

Thorson earned a bachelor's degree from Macalester College in 1969 and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1974.

Next	Previous