David A. Craig
Assistant Professor
Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Oklahoma

QUICK BIO

David Craig has been an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma since August 1996. He earned a B.S. in journalism in 1982 from Northwestern University, an M.A. in communications from Wheaton College in 1993 and a Ph.D. in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1997. He was a news copy editor and trained new editors and interns at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader from 1982-91. He taught editing at Northwestern from 1991-93 and Missouri from 1995-96. His research interests include journalism ethics, coverage of ethics in medicine and other professions, and public journalism.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia, December 1997. Study and research focused on journalism ethics, coverage of ethics and values, mass communication and society, civic journalism. Dissertation: "Covering the Ethics Angle: Toward a Method to Evaluate and Improve How Journalists Portray the Ethical Dimension of Professions and Society."
Master of arts in communications, Wheaton College, 1993. Focused on foundations of ethics in theology and philosophy and application of ethical reasoning to journalistic cases. Thesis: "Agapé as an Ethical Value for Journalistic Practice."
Bachelor of science in journalism, Northwestern University, 1982.

Back to top

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, 120,000-circulation Knight-Ridder newspaper, 1982 to 1991: Copy editor

Edited copy and wrote headlines on a desk handling city, state, national, world and business stories.

Assisted copy desk chief in the slot. Did final reads on stories, rewrote headlines and monitored copy flow to composing room.

Trained new copy editors and interns. Gave feedback on headlines and editing, taught new editors the computer system and oriented them to desk procedures.

Supervised page makeup in the composing room. Made final cuts in stories, checked pages and tracked copy flow.

Assisted in two revisions of the newspaper's stylebook.

Lexington Herald, winter 1981: Copy editing and reporting intern on Northwestern's Teaching Newspaper program.

Hardware Retailing, trade magazine in Indianapolis, summer 1980 and 1981: Editorial assistant. Work included reporting and copy editing.

Back to top

TEACHING

Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma

Assistant professor, August 1996 to present: Teach News Editing (JMC 3103), Advanced News Editing (JMC 4023), Journalism Ethics (JMC 4833/5833). Have also taught Mass Communication Law (JMC 4813) and Writing for Mass Media lab (JMC 2033). School of Journalism, University of Missouri Graduate instructor, fall 1995-summer 1996: Taught a section of the basic undergraduate editing course (J110).

News editor at the school's community newspaper, the Columbia Missourian, summer 1995: Supervised and coached student copy editors and page designers two nights a week. Oversaw story play decisions and wire copy selection. Responsible for final editing and approval of news pages.

Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University Lecturer, 1992-93 (on one-year contract): Taught lecture section of introductory graduate editing course (D35) in winter 1993 and team-taught it in summer '93. Taught graduate and undergraduate editing labs. Edited copy as a faculty liaison for The Monitor, a quarterly newspaper publishing the best work of journalism graduate students.

Adjunct lecturer, 1991-92: Taught undergraduate and graduate editing labs. Assisted in lecture section of the basic undergraduate editing course (C21-1). Edited Monitor copy.

Back to top

RESEARCH AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

David Craig, "Ethical Language and Themes in News Coverage of Genetic Testing," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 77, no. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 160-74.

David Craig, "A Framework for Evaluating Coverage of Ethics in Professions and Society," Journal of Mass Media Ethics, vol. 14, no. 1 (1999), pp. 16-27.

David Craig, "Influences on Editing Quality at the Daily Oklahoman," Newspaper Research Journal, vol. 20, no. 3 (Summer 1999), pp. 58-71.

David Craig, "Communitarian Journalism(s): Clearing Conceptual Landscapes," Journal of Mass Media Ethics, vol. 11, no. 2 (1996), pp. 107-18. [Reviewed by journal's editors.]
Jane B. Singer, David Craig, Chris W. Allen, Virginia Whitehouse, Anelia Dimitrova, and Keith P. Sanders, "Attitudes of Professors and Students About New Media Technology," Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, vol. 51, no. 2 (Summer 1996), pp. 36-45.
Edmund Lambeth and David Craig, "Civic Journalism as Research," Newspaper Research Journal, vol. 16, no. 2 (Spring 1995), pp. 148-60.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

David Craig, "Covering the Ethics of Death: An Exploration of Three Model Approaches," presented in the Media Ethics Division at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Phoenix, Ariz., August 2000.

David Craig, "Conquering Complexity: Barriers to Better News Coverage of Ethics and Recommendations for Improvement," presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Crystal City, Va., February 1999.

David Craig, "A Critical Assessment of News Coverage of the Ethical Implications of Genetic Testing," paper presented in the Qualitative Studies Division at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Baltimore, Md., August 1998.

David Craig, "A Theoretical Framework for Evaluating News Coverage of Ethics in Professions and Society," paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Dallas, Texas, February 1998.

David Craig, "Rules for Getting Real: How One Newspaper's Editors Talk About 'Real People,'" paper presented in the Newspaper Division at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, D.C., August 1995.

David Craig, "Communitarian Journalism(s): Clearing the Conceptual Landscape," paper presented in the Qualitative Studies Division at the AEJMC annual meeting, Washington, D.C., August 1995.

David Craig, Jane B. Singer, Chris W. Allen, Virginia Whitehouse, Anelia Dimitrova, Keith P. Sanders, "Facing the Future: Attitudes of Journalism Educators and Students About New Media Technology," paper presented in the Communication Technology and Policy Division at the AEJMC annual meeting, Washington, D.C., August 1995.

David Craig, "Toward a Normative Justification for Civic Journalism," paper presented at the Media, Government and Public Policy conference of the Mass Communication and Society Division, AEJMC, Syracuse, N.Y., April 1995.

TEXTBOOK CONTRIBUTIONS

David Craig, "New Times in Los Angeles," case and commentary in Clifford G. Christians, Mark Fackler and Kim B. Rotzoll, Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning, 4th ed. (Longman, 1995), pp. 44-50.

PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES

David Craig, "Cross-Training, Rotation Leads to Less Stress," The American Editor, January 1998, pp. 16-17.

Jean Gaddy Wilson and David Craig, "On Our Minds" commentaries in Presstime:

"To Meet Our Challenges, We Must First Identify Them," May 1994, pp. 57-58.

"This Month: The Trouble With Advertising," June 1994, pp. 66-67.

"This Month: Stemming Readership Declines," July/August 1994, pp. 70-71.

"This Month: Journalists As the Translators of Cultural Transition," September 1994, pp. 39-40.

"Past Columns Detailed Top-of-Mind Concerns. In This Last Effort, We Tell Why Training Should Be One," October 1994, pp. 41, 43. 

Back to top

Back to home

OU Home | Disclaimer | Copyright | Equal Opportunity | OU Web Policy