Academic Programs: Journalism

FACULTY

Deborah Chung     dchung@uky.edu     859-257-3021

Deborah Chung joined UK in the fall of 2004 as an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. She is currently teaching Publication Production and Mass Media and Diversity.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a concentration in magazine design and received her master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

She received her doctoral degree from Indiana University at Bloomington.

Deborah’s research focuses on the impact of communication technologies, specifically the Internet, on mass communication and journalism practice, culture and education. Her most recent research examines online news audiences’ adoption of interactivity and mass communication educators and professionals’ uses and perceptions of blogs.

Mel Coffee     melcoffee@uky.edu     859-257-2839

Mel Coffee is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. Coffee primarily teaches courses in radio and television news reporting and in advanced television news producing. He also developed and oversees the current student newscast in the broadcast journalism sequence.

Mel comes to the University of Kentucky after seven years of teaching at Southern Methodist University and at Syracuse University where he was a visiting professor. During his time at Syracuse, he was voted teacher of the year by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication graduating class of 2002, and he won a University-wide award for teaching excellence in 2003.

It is not unusual to find Mel working as a writer at CNN in the summers or as a reporter or producer in a local television newsroom. He’s an Emmy winner and brings extensive experience to the School: 16 years of professional experience in television news where he’s worked as writer, reporter, anchor, producer, executive producer, managing editor and news director in competitive markets such as Denver, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

Students have come to revere Mel for his unwavering integrity, high standards and resolute commitment to excellence. Occasionally you may find Mel and his students in the news lab at midnight, for example, navigating their way through breaking news covering a plane crash in a nearby county, or developing team coverage for impending big stories.

Mel chose Kentucky because he knows his love of journalism and teaching are mirrored and supported by a faculty that brings an intellectual and experiential wealth to a profession that bears a daunting public responsibility.

Mel Coffee received his Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film from Northwestern University and his Master of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Al Cross     al.cross@uky.edu     859-257-3744

Al Cross is Director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. Prior to joining UK to head up IRJCI, he was the Louisville Courier-Journal's lead political reporter. In his 25 years with the Courier-Journal, he covered elections at all levels and wrote about state government. Cross has been a frequent guest on KET’s “ Comment on Kentucky.” He has received awards for reporting and column writing from the Louisville Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and is credited with helping the Courier-Journal win a Pulitzer Prize in 1989. Cross is the past president of the Society of Professional Journalists, the nation’s oldest and largest journalism organization.

Mike Farrell     farrell@uky.edu     859-257-4848

Mike Farrell, assistant professor, was a reporter, city editor and managing editor during a 20-year career at The Kentucky Post. He regularly teaches News Reporting, Media Law, News Editing, and Ethics, but he also has taught courses in Media and Politics, Editorial and Column Writing and Reporting on Religion News. He won the college's Excellence in Teaching award in 2006. He is director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center. He is a member of the law, newspaper and religion divisions of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the cosponsor of the campus SPJ chapter. He earned his bachelor's degree at Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, and his master's and doctorate at U.K. in the College of Communications and Information Studies.

Yung Soo Kim   kim.s.eye@uky.edu    859-257-9466

Yung Soo Kim joined UK in the fall of 2008 as an assistant professor in visual communication. He holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, a M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri- Columbia, and a B.A. in law from Pusan National University, Korea.

He has extensive professional experience as a photojournalist. His journalism career began almost two decades ago as he joined the Pusan National University Weekly. He also worked for the Pusan Ilbo Daily News from 1994 to 2001 after he obtained his bachelor’s degree. In 2001, he came to U.S. to study advanced journalism and mass communication. After he received his master’s degree, he moved to Los Angeles, CA and worked for the Korea Times LA until he began his doctoral study.

Since he began his graduate studies, he has been engaged to teach various classes and research projects. His research/teaching interests include visual communication, international communication, and multimedia productions. Dr. Kim regularly presented his studies at the prestigious conferences such as AEJMC and ICA. His recent articles appeared in the Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly and International Communication Gazette.

Richard Labunski     labunski@uky.edu     859-257-5719

Richard Labunski is a professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. Prior to joining the UK faculty in 1995, he taught at the University of Washington and Penn State. He has a B.A. in political science from the University of California-Berkeley, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science (American politics, constitutional law) from the University of California-Santa Barbara. His J.D. is from Seattle University School of Law. Prior to pursuing an academic career, he spent ten years in radio and TV news at stations in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Reno and Tucson.

He teaches media law, a course on the First Amendment and the Internet, and for many years, he taught radio and TV news and supervised student-produced TV newscasts. Labunski was one of six recipients of the 2005 Great Teacher award given by the UK Alumni Association. It is the oldest continuous award given for teaching at the University. From 2001 to 2006, Labunski was the director of the internship program.

He is the author of five books, law review articles, newspaper commentaries, and other publications. His research has focused on the First Amendment, constitutional law and history, politics, the media, and the Internet. His most recent book, "James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights," was published in July 2006 by Oxford University Press in its "Pivotal Moments in American History" series. He has begun work on a new book about the Bill of Rights and the founding period. More information on Labunski's research can be found here:

www.richardlabunski.com

Buck Ryan     bucryan@uky.edu     859-257-4360

Buck Ryan, senior fellow at the University of Kentucky's First Amendment Center, won the Provost's Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2003 after serving eight years as director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications from 1994 to 2002. From 2002 to 2005 he served as the First Amendment Center's executive director, and currently he serves as director of the Citizen Kentucky Project, which is designed to engage young people in civic life through community forums involving journalists, political figures and citizens.

Ryan, an associate professor of journalism, is the creator of the Maestro Concept, an innovative approach to story planning and newsroom organization for newspapers that has reached across the United States and 14 other countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, England, Korea, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and Vietnam). He has explained the concept at the Press Institute of Sweden, the World Association of Newspapers conference in Kobe, Japan; at the Brazilian Association of Newspapers meeting in Curitiba, Brazil; and at the American Press Institute.

Ryan has written two books and produced three hour-long Kentucky Educational Television programs on First Amendment issues, including"Citizen Kentucky: Democracy and the Media," which won a national Telly Award in 2002 for public affairs programming.

Ryan has more than 12 years of newspaper experience, working for the Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Gazette, the Buffalo (N.Y.) Evening News and the Chicago Tribune, where he was assistant metropolitan editor when he left in 1990. From 1981 until 1994, for many years while at the Tribune, Ryan taught editing at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. A student newspaper rated him one of the "10 best professors" at Northwestern.

He and his wife, Anne, have two children.

Scoobie Ryan     scoobie@uky.edu     859-257-4362

Scoobie Ryan, associate professor, teaches Writing for the Mass Media, Broadcast Decision Making, History of Journalism and Journalism in Secondary Education. She’s reported and produced broadcast news in Indianapolis, Boston and Denver. She also taught and advised publications at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.

Ryan earned a B.J. from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and an M.A. from Antioch School of Law. She’s served on the Kentucky High School Journalism Association Advisory Council since its inception and became state Journalism Education Association director in August 2000. She is also a member of the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

Kakie Urch     kakie.urch@uky.edu     859-257-9469

Kakie Urch, assistant professor, brings a combination of professional, academic and teaching experience to the department . She teaches Web Publishing , Media Convergence and special topics courses.

Urch has served as editor of The Kentucky Enquirer in Northern Kentucky, Assistant Managing Editor of The Kentucky Post and Assistant Managing Editor of The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs, Calif. She also worked as an editor at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa. and as a copy editor/reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader. She is a Knight Digital Media Center /Annenberg Center Fellow, having studied multi-media production at UC Berkeley.

Urch earned a B.A. in Journalism General Editorial (Appalachian Studies concentration), a B.A. in English (Writing Emphasis, Departmental Honors), an M.A. in American literature/mass culture and graduate certificate in Social Theory at UK. She did her doctoral work on delivery systems in Rhetoric and Composition Program at The Pennsylvania State University. She has taught in UK’s Department of English, the PSU Department of English and in integrated studies programs at both schools, in addition to teaching in the Communication program at the California State University San Bernardino Palm Desert.

Her published academic work centers on topics ranging from the Appalachian countercultural classic “Divine Right’s Trip,” to the work of women advertising professionals in the early 20th century to the notion of a female “flaneur,” to ideological groups’ relationship to advertising and markets.

As an undergraduate at UK, Urch was one of the original founders of WRFL-FM, the student-run alternative radio station that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary on air. Her column in the “Kentucky Kernel” newspaper is credited with helping start Radio Free Lexington, the student group that built the station. She and WRFL Faculty Advisor Telecommunications Prof. John Clark share a show on the station.