Sheila Webb honored by Association for Education In Journalism and Mass Communication

Western Washington University assistant professor of Journalism Sheila Webb has received the Covert Award and an honorable mention in Best Practices in Teaching Visual Literacy from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The Covert Award, endowed by Catherine L. Covert, is presented by the History Division of the AEJMC and goes to the best mass communication history article or chapter in an edited collection published the previous year, nationwide.

"It is an honor to be the recipient of an award named in memory of such an important scholar in mass communication history,” Webb said. “I am in such great company, and even studied at the University of Wisconsin with one of the previous winners."

Webb won for her article, “Art Commentary for the Middlebrow: Promoting Modernism and Modern Art through popular Culture – How Life Magazine Brought ‘The New’ into Middle-Class Homes,” which was published last summer in American Journalism.

Webb received honorable mention in Best Practices in Teaching Visual Literacy for her entry of the Alternative Story Form assignment from her Intro to Visual Journalism class. Examples her students’ works were included and a booklet is in production to highlight the entries.

“This raises the profile of our Visual Journalism Sequence nationally and confirms our efforts,” Webb said.

Webb will receive both awards at the 2011 AEJMC Conference on Aug. 10-13 in St. Louis, Mo.

Webb has taught at Western since 2008 and has previously taught at the University of South Dakota, the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University. Her research area is the cultural role of the media, particularly the role and rhetoric of news narratives in magazines.

For more information contact Sheila Webb at (360) 650-6245 or sheila.webb@wwu.edu.