2012 Broadcast Education Association Distinguished Education Service Award (DESA) Presented to Dr. William Christ, Trinity University
Washington, D.C. – Dr. William Christ, Trinity University, has been named the 2012 Broadcast Education Association’s Distinguished Service to Education Award (DESA) winner.
William Christ has been writing about media education issues for almost 40 years. The author of numerous articles, book chapters, and books, he continues to argue for a broad definition of media education. In the early 1990s, his co-authored book, Media Education and the Liberal Arts: A Blueprint for the New Professionalism, critiqued both the academy and the media industries for their narrow conceptualizations of media education. The book argued that the then emerging digital revolution would profoundly change the field.
Since the mid-1990s, Christ has taken a leadership role in the current assessment movement with three of this four edited books dealing directly with media education assessment. His most recent publication is a co-authored article that provides a benchmark on graduate media education’s teaching, research and service expectations.
Christ has held leadership positions in the Broadcast Education Association, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the National Communication Association. He was a guest co-editor for a Journal of Communication special issue on Media Literacy and chaired of the National Communication Association’s K-12 Media Literacy Standards committee. In 1999, he was named the International Radio and Television Society Foundation Stephen H. Coltrin Professor of the Year. He is a reviewer and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media and the Journalism and Mass Communication Educator. In addition to a position as Professor in the Department of Communication at Trinity University, Christ is also the General Manager of a 8900-watt jazz station that was recently discussed in Jazz Times for its “Year of Jazz” initiative that provides monthly jazz concerts at local museums and other nonprofit venues.
The DESA is awarded to an individual who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the American system of electronic media education by virtue of a singular achievement or continuing service on behalf of electronic media education. The award will be presented to Dr. Christ at BEA’s 2012 annual convention ceremony in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 15, 2012.
