The Steven H. Chaffee Memorial Lecture
The Steven H. Chaffee Memorial Lecture
was established in May 2006 on the fifth anniversary
of Steve’s untimely death to honor the scholarship
and personal qualities of Steven Chaffee, one of the
most influential communication scholars of the 20th
century.
Steve Chaffee came to UCSB from Stanford University
in 1999, when he was appointed to as the first Arthur
N. Rupe Chair in the Social Effects of Mass Communication.
His research focused on a wide range of issues dealing
with the effects of media, with particular emphasis
on political communication and the impact of the news.
He wrote extensively on the role of mass media in political
campaigns, voter behavior and child development.
Chaffee earned a master's degree in journalism from
UCLA in 1962 and worked as an editor and reporter at
several Los Angeles area newspapers before deciding
to pursue a Ph.D. in communication at Stanford. Before
coming to UCSB he was on the faculty of the University
of Wisconsin for 16 years and at Stanford for 18 years
and was at various times the head of his department
at both universities. His scholarship was at the forefront
of mass media and political communication research,
advancing world knowledge of the effects of mass media
on voting habits, child development, culture and developing
nations, to name but a few areas. His writings included
13 books and more than 500 articles.
His impact on the discipline was profound not only through
his scholarship but also through his teaching. Approximately
40 prominent scholars in the discipline were his students.
During his career he received many well deserved honors.
In 1990, Wisconsin awarded him the Harold L. Nelson
Award for career contributions to education for journalism
and mass communication. In 1992, the International Communication
Association honored him with the B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship
Award for service to his students and communication
research. And in 1996, he won the Association for Education
in Journalism and Mass Communication Presidential Award
in recognition of his dedication and service. He was
President of the International Communication Association
and a Fellow of the Association.
The honors have continued in the years after his death.
The discipline of communication has honored Steve through
the International Communication Association STEVEN H.
CHAFFEE CAREER PRODUCTIVITY AWARD which honors a scholar
(or small group of collaborating scholars) for sustained
work on a communication research problem over an extended
period. The award like Steve favors research that is
original, asks conceptually rich questions, and offers
empirically sound evidence. In addition the graduate
student award for Political Communication (a division
jointly formed by ICA and the APSA) was named for Steven
Chaffee in 2004. Steve not only had a remarkable reputation
as a scholar but also as a person. As then chair of
the Department Dave Seibold said in the interview he
gave when Steve’s appointment as the Rupe Chair
was first announced.
"He's a star," Seibold said. "He's about
as big as you get."
The Innaugural Steven H. Chaffee Memorial Lecture
The Innaugural Steven H. Chaffee Memorial Lecture
titled “Emotional Responses and Unexpected Uses
for Complex Multi-Player Games” was presented
on May 12th, 2006 by Byron Reeves, the Paul C. Edwards
Professor in the Department of Communication and Director
for the Center for the Study of Language and Information,
an interdisciplinary group of faculty working at the
intersection of computing and social sciences. Reeves
is also co-founder of the Media X Program that brings
together industry partners with university researchers
across the campus working on innovations in interactive
technology.
Professor Reeves has published widely on such topics
as children and television, physiological responses
to media, attention, memory, and emotion, the history
of media effects research, political advertising, television
news, and multi-player interactive games. He is co-author
of The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television,
and the New Media Like Real People and Places (Cambridge
University Press).
Professor Reeves is a Fellow of the International Communication
Association and was Steve Chaffee’s colleague
at both the University of Wisconsin and Stanford.
The Second Steven H. Chaffee Memorial Lecture
On May 2, 2008 Lance Bennett presented the second Steven Chaffee lecture, Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina... and beyond.
Lance Bennett is Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor of Communication and Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. His work on the news media and political communication has appeared in leading scholarly journals, and his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Spencer Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, and the Fulbright Commission. He is the author of seven books, including News: The Politics of Illusion, and The Governing Crisis: Media, Money, and Marketing in American Elections and most recently When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina (co-authored with Regina G. Lawrence and Steven Livingston). University of Chicago, 2007.
Professor Bennett’s awards include the E.E. Schattschneider Award from the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in American Politics; the Communication Policy Research Award for Social and Ethical Relevance from the Donald McGannon Communication Research Center; The Ithiel de Sola Pool Career Achievement Award from the American Political Science Association; the Murray Edelman Career Achievement Award in Political Communication, from the American Political Science Association, and most recently election as a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association in 2007.