Biography

Merrill Morris (Ph.D., Indiana University, 2000) is Assistant Professor, and has accumulated substantial professional journalism experience, including roles as copy editor, reporter, photographer, editor, assistant society editor, and public relations coordinator for various newspapers (e.g. Bloomington Herald-Times and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution). She has been personally honored with six awards from the Georgia Press Association for her feature writing, as well as seventy-eight other awards from that organization for the Athens Observer, where she served as Editor. Included in those totals were first place awards for local news coverage and for layout and design. Dr. Morris’ research interests focus on communication technologies as applied to contemporary journalism practices. Her writings include the topics of on-line journalism and web bloggers. Her dissertation involved three case studies of three newspapers transitioning to a web-based environment. Her research appears in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. She is at work on a book project on the subject of American newspapers and the World Wide Web. Research Areas: Journalism studies; Mass communication & new media; Journalistic editing and writing. Degree Track Affiliations: Ph.D. (Public Communication), M.A. (Mass Communication). Core Graduate Seminars Regularly Taught: Desktop Publishing; Qualitative Research Methods; Cultural Studies.