Dr. Alanna Miller

Fayetteville State University

Assistant Professor: Fall 2015-Present

Magazine and Feature Writing

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.61

• A course that builds on previous journalism classes to teach more advanced forms or news-gathering and writing focusing on longer-form journalism and magazine content
• Topics include: advanced information gathering techniques, developing authorial voice, story-telling techniques, branding for freelancing, blog writing, and basic graphic design.

Film and Media Appreciation

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.56

• A course that introduces students to examining movies with a critical eye, training students in critical methodologies in film studies
• Topics include: genre, aesthetic, auteur, gender, and race criticism.

Communication Research

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.57

• An introduction to social science philosophy and methods in communication, covering both qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Topics include: scientific method, reasoning, and epistemology, surveys, experiments, content analysis, textual analysis, interviewing, and participant observation.

Introduction to Mass Communication

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.60

• A general introduction to the field of mass communications
• Topics include: theoretical lenses for engaging mass communications and contemporary issues in mass communication

News Writing and Reporting

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.96

• A course that trains students in the introduction to news writing and reporting
• Topics include: inverted pyramid, writing style of journalism, news-gathering tactics, ethics and law, editing, and media criticism

Media, Religion, and Spirituality (Created course for FSU)

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.89

• A survey course examining the intersection of religion and media in our society.
• Topics include: basic overview of religion in America, how religion is portrayed in the news, how fictional media portrays religion, and how religious groups use media

Introduction to Speech

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.70

• A course training students in the basics of professional public speaking focusing on organization, content, and delivery
• Topics included: strategies for informative, persuasive and policy public speaking, speech apprehension, and some concentration on communication theory and theories of persuasion

Fundamentals of Journalism

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.93

• A course giving the general history, theory and current state of the journalism field.
• Topics include: journalism history, theory, contemporary topics in journalism and basic news writing

News Editing

Average Student Evaluation Score: 5

• A course that trains students in the process and discipline of editing for print news.
• Topics include: basic news writing, grammar and style, AP style, accuracy and verification, and news layout.

Communication Activities

Average Student Evaluation Score: 4.45

• A practicum that guides students through participation in campus media

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Cheyney University of Pennsylvania

Adjunct Instructor: Fall 2012-Spring 2015

Issues and Topics in Broadcasting

• A course introducing mass media research methods with special attention to research methods for studying broadcasting
• Topics include: qualitative and quantitative research, and how to integrate research and theory

History of Film

• A history course focusing on the development of film and film studies within its larger social context
• Topics include: film studies, critical methodologies, and some concentration on economic and social institutions that shape film

Issues in the News

• A capstone news-gathering and writing class for senior communication majors with a strong emphasis on convergence
• Topics included: writing for each medium, analysis of the capabilities of each medium, news research, contemporary issues in the news, evaluating news, ethics, editing, and the changing news environment

Mass Communication in America

• A general introduction to the field of mass communications
• Topics include: theoretical lenses for engaging mass communications and contemporary issues in mass communication

 

Elements of Writing and English I

• Freshman English, college essay composition courses
• Topics include: academic writing, research, thesis building, argumentation and conceptualization with some persuasion theory, and analyzing writing for audience and purpose

Broadcast News

• A general introduction to creating and reporting news for broadcast.
• Topics included: interviewing and news-gathering, analyzing visual elements, basic scriptwriting and package planning.

Writing for Print Media

• A general introduction to news writing and the media industry
• Topics include: news writing, research, media criticism, ethics and law, and journalism-related communication theories, such as agenda-setting and cultivation

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Ursinus College

Adjunct Instructor: Fall 2014-Spring 2015

Media and Society

• A general introduction to studying mass media through a sociological focus
• Topics include: examination of theoretical and contemporary topics through the foci of media institutions, media audiences, and media texts

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Holy Family University

Adjunct Instructor: Spring 2014

Journalism II: Feature Writing

• An intermediate course for journalism majors focusing on feature writing
• Topics include: Literary forms of journalism, including practical and ethical considerations, advanced forms of news-gathering and research, and contemporary issues and trends in the news

Magazine Writing

• An introduction to magazine writing and the magazine industry
• Topics include: writing skills for magazine journalism, audience analysis, self-branding and freelancing, new media and magazines, and contemporary issues in the magazine industry, including changes in the magazine business model and new trends

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Temple University

Adjunct Instructor: Fall 2011-Spring 2013

Public Speaking

• Several sections of a basic public speaking course
• Topics included: strategies for informative, persuasive and policy public speaking, speech apprehension, and some concentration on communication theory and theories of persuasion

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Maryland Scholastic Press Association

Instructor: Summer 2005

Newspaper and Magazine Design

• Part of a summer program to teach high school students journalism practices
• Topics included: layout and design for both magazine and newspaper

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Teaching Specializations

• Mass media and society
• News writing, editing and reporting
• Communication theory and research
• Topics in cultural and critical studies
• Film and television history and theory

Publications

• Miller, A.R. (2010). I Blog, Therefore I Am: Virtual Embodiment and the Self. In J. T. Wright,
• G. Embrick, & A. Lukacs (Eds.), Utopic dreams and apocalyptic fantasies: Critical approaches to researching video game play (pp. 97-124). Lanham, NJ: Lexington Books.
• Miller, A.R. (2018). Dancing with the Devil: Femininity, masculinity, and the boss-from-hell in film. The Popular Culture Studies Journal, (4), 1, 4-28.
• Stana, A. & Miller, A.R. (2019). “Being a mom = all the feels”: Social support in a postpartum depression online support group. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 27 (5), 297-310.

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Conference Presentations

• Miller, A.R. (2010, Nov.). Dancing with the Devil: Femininity, masculinity, and the boss-from-hell in film. Paper presented at the National Communication Association in San Francisco, CA.
• Miller, A.R. (2011, Nov.) What would Habermas do?: Religion’s dialectical-Other to modernity in Habermasian theory. Paper presented at the Religious Communication Association in New Orleans, LA.
• Miller, A.R. (2011, Nov.) Fixing the fairy tale: A discussion of the ideology in the transition from oral to literary. Paper presented at the National Communication Association in New Orleans, LA.
• Miller, A.R. (2013, Nov.). ‘This Has All Happened Before and Will Happen Again’: Religious Iconography in Caprica. Paper presented at the Religious Communication Association in Washington, D.C.
• Miller, A.R. (2016, Mar.) Is Kung Fu Panda Christian?: The Role of Secular Media in Religious Life. Paper presented at the Popular Culture Association in Seattle, WA.
• Miller, A.R. (2016, Aug.) Throwing Themselves into the Arms of God in the World: How Evangelicals Navigate the Uncertainty of Everyday Life Through Media. Paper presented at the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture in Seoul, South Korea.
• Stana, A., & Miller, A.R. (2017, Apr.). “Being a mom = all the feels”: Social support in a postpartum depression online support group. Paper presented at Eastern Communication Association in Boston, MA.
• Miller, A.R., & Stana, A. (2018, Mar.).  Struggling to recover or recovering the struggle: A critical examination of recovery narratives as discourses-in-practice for women suffering from postpartum depression. Paper presented at Eastern Communication Association in Pittsburgh, PA.

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Research Interests

• Mass media representations of religion
• Religious use of mass media
• Relationships between identity and media
• Critical and cultural studies
• Health communication and gender
• Ethnographic methods

Fayetteville State University

• Fall 2015-Present: Faculty Advisor, The Voice student newspaper
• Fall 2015-Present: Internship coordinator for Fayetteville Observer
• Fall 2022-Present: Faculty Senator
• Summer 2021-Spring 2022: Vice Chair, Free Press of Fayetteville project
• Fall 2016-Spring 2022: Member, Peer Assessment Committee
• Spring 2022: Judge, Phys Slam, Southeast American Association of Physicists in Medicine
• Fall 2020: Consultant, Atrium Health Systems, Diversity Initiative
• Fall 2019-Spring 2020: Chair, CLC Search Committee
• Fall 2019: Organizer, CLC Alumni Panel
• Spring 2016-Spring 2018Coordinator, student blog for the Fayetteville Observer
• Fall 2018: Member, Graduate School Panel
• Spring 2017: Organizer, FSU Media Awards
• Spring 2017: Reviewer, FSU McNair Journal
• Fall 2015-Spring 2016: Member, Women’s History Month Committee
• Fall 2015-Spring 2017: Member, CLC Search Committees
• Fall 2015: Coordinator, journalism partnership with civil affairs program at Ft. Bragg
• Fall 2015: Coordinator, Newswriting and reporting workshops for The Voice
• Fall 2015: Speaker, Graduate School Colloquium
• Fall 2015: Coordinator, tour of Fayetteville Observer for Voice staff and journalism classes

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Temple University

• Spring 2013: Goals assessment for Public Speaking Courses for Strategic Communication

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Cheyney University of Pennsylvania

• Fall 2014: Goals assessment for Freshman English courses for English Program
• Fall 2012: Curriculum review for Communication Arts Program

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Journal Reviews

• Atlantic Journal of Communication
• Cyberpsychology

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Professional Experience

• Nov. 2006-July 2008: Voiceover Agent, Imperium 7 Talent Agency Los Angeles, CA.
• Jun. 2006-Oct. 2006: Assistant, Creative Department, Columbia Pictures Culver City, CA
• Jan. 2005-Jun. 2005: Administrative Assistant, Philip Merrill College of Journalism College Park, MD

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Awards and Fellowships

• 2018-2019: FSU, CLC Research Award
• 2017-2018: FSU, Chesnutt Library Information Literacy Fellow
• 2016-2017: FSU, CLC Service Award
• 2008-2013: Temple University Graduate Assistantship (teaching and researching)
• 2005: Dean's Scholarship, S.I. Newhouse School of Communication
• 2004: Commencement Speaker, Philip Merrill College of Journalism
• 2004: Journalism Service Award, Philip Merrill College of Journalism
• 2003: Media, Self, and Society College Park Scholars citation, University of Maryland