Resources and recognition

By Eric Nelson

While adding more time to her schedule is impossible, the next best things for Professor Julie Andsager are resources and recognition.

Andsager recently received the first John F. Murray Research Scholar award in honor of her research and published works. She focuses on portrayals of health in media and is currently writing a book on the topic, "Medicine and the Media: Communicating Health Through News and Entertainment."

"Media have a large influence on what we think we know about health," Andsager said. "Worse yet is entertainment media; people watch ’Grey’s Anatomy’ and think they’re educated about health."

Andsager does concede one affinity within entertainment media, though.

"My publisher met me in Boston at AEJMC [Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication] and asked what would motivate me to finish my book," Andsager said. "I told him, ’Get Hugh Laurie on the cover, dressed as Dr. House, and let me attend the photo shoot.’"

"Medicine and the Media" is Andsager’s third book, one that offers an "American-based textbook on media and health that students can relate to better than the older, U.K.-based texts that exist now." She has also published several dozen peer-reviewed articles, acts as editor of Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly and is active at the national level with AEJMC.

"I work hard," Andsager said with a smile.

The John F. Murray Research Scholar award entitles Andsager to three years’ worth of a summer salary, plus funds she intends to put toward research for her book.

"Now I just need more time," Andsager joked. "But [the award] will help me finish this book." Her projected publication date is 2011.

More than just the resources, though, Andsager is appreciative of the recognition.

"It’s very gratifying to have my work recognized," Andsager said. "Academics is full of delayed gratification; you send off a manuscript and hear nothing about it for six months. So to be honored like this is very exciting."

Dr. David Perlmutter, director of the J-MC School, shares Andsager’s excitement and heaped praise on the prolific scholar.

"Dr. Andsager has a sustained record of significant research and has been producing great work for years," Perlmutter said. "She’s extremely well regarded in her area of health communication, and she’s been cited in numerous articles. That's the kind of currency you need as a scholar." Perlmutter continued, saying, "Researchers know about [the J-MC School] because of Dr. Andsager."

The John F. Murray Research Scholar award is one of many given at The University of Iowa, thanks to an endowment by the Murray family.

"Over the years, the law, business and mass communication schools have spent this money on awards and lectures," Perlmutter said. "New this year, we wanted to honor a scholar and a professional within the unit for their productivity."

Andsager has been at The University of Iowa for seven years, teaching Social Scientific Foundations of Communication, Media and Health, Gender and the Media and Quantitative Research Methods. She has co-authored two other books, "Free Expression in Five Democratic Publics" and "Self Versus Others: Media, Messages and the Third-Person Effect."