Joseph Bernt

EDUCATION: Ph.D., English, University of Nebraska, 1980; M.A., English, University of Nebraska, 1972; B.A., English, Portland State University, 1971.

EXPERIENCE: Joined faculty in 1989, founding director of Scripps Survey Research Center, 1998-2000. Instructor of English, 1973-1980; publications specialists and assistant director of publications, 1981-1989, University of Nebraska. Contributed to and edited (with Marilyn Greenwald) The Big Chill: Investigative Reporting in the Current Media Environment, which received the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for Research in Journalism for 2000. Contributed to Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, Keio Communication Review, Journalism History, American Periodicals, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, Community College Journalist, Middle School Journal, and Prairie Schooner. Contributed chapters to Corporate Magazines of the United States, History of the Mass Media in the United States, The Encyclopedia of Advertising, the Encyclopedia of the World Press Trade, Industrial and Professional Periodicals of the United States, and American Regional Cultures: The Midwest. Presented papers on such topics as investigative reporting; coverage of cellular telephones and health risks; e-commerce; intellectual decline and elite crossword puzzles; race and gender representation in magazines; advertising, and career guidance materials; conflicting journalistic and business values in TV news work; popular culture trends; economics and the changing coverage of Germany and Japan from 1960-2000; aging and interest in movies and movie reviewers; magazine history; coverage of gays and lesbians; and the middle-school media environment.

Recipient (with Phyllis Bernt and Sandra Turner) of National Science Foundation Grant to fund a three-year study of media representation of information-technology careers to middle-school students

Current research includes Roy Howard’s use of corporate image advertising at Scripps Howard Newspapers; biography of Norman Anthony, editor of Judge, Life, Ballyhoo, Funny Bone, Der Gag Bag, and illustrator and writer for other pulp humor magazines from 1916 through 1945 (with Marilyn Greenwald); the 1962-63 New York Newspaper Strike (with Marilyn Greenwald): and television news anchors and television news content (with Katherine Bradshaw and James Foust).