Department of Human & Community Development, University of Illinois

Ann E. Reisner

 

Education

Ph.D. 1987, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Mass Communication (Sociology Emphasis)

M.A. 1978, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Agricultural Communications

B.S. 1974, University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, Microbiology and Public Health

 

Research Interests

Environmental communications; environmental social movements and social movement organizations; sociology of the mass media (press); and community mobilizing.

How do communications work in organizations? How do we help people increase the amount of democracy and public participation in an everyday world? What is the role of ideology in social movement organizations and how much of it is just plain work? My research interests are primarily in looking at how newspapers, and other mass media, work to foster or hamper social movement development -- particularly social movements dealing with environmental and agricultural issues. This work has involved looking at how mainstream newspapers (media) cover social movements and social movement concerns and how small community-level social movement organizations use their limited resources to communicate to members and sympathizers. Currently, I am working on the role of the local press in covering local environmental controversies.

My students are working in various areas of media and mobilization as well as the interaction of media and the environment. Currently, my students are working on mass media coverage of genetic engineering and agriculture, how local leaders in communities bordering the Mississippi view restoring the river to more natural conditions (restoring wetland areas), and understanding mass movement mobilization in India over the plan to reroute water from the Ganges.

 

Selected Publications

Reisner, A. (in press). “Newspaper coverage of controversies over hog order in communities close to large-scale swine facilities.” Journal of Animal Science.

Reisner, A. (2003). “Community and Social Movements.” Encyclopedia of Community. Sage Publications.

Reisner, A. (2003). Newspaper construction of a moral farmer: Agriculture and the environment. Rural Sociology, 68(3): 46-63.

Reisner, A. (2001). Social movement organizations' reaction to genetic engineering in agriculture. American Behavioral Scientist, 44(8), pp. 1389-1404.

Clayman, S.E. & Reisner, A. (1998). Gatekeeping in action: Editorial conferences and assessments of newsworthiness. American Sociological Review.

Awards and Honors

2001-2002 Visiting Scholar, School of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

2000 Guest Professor, The Royal Agricultural and Veterinary University of Copenhagen, Department of Economics and Natural Resources

1992 Senior Guest Editor, Special Edition on Agriculture, Communications and Values, Agriculture and Human Values

1991-1992 Fellow, Program for the Study of Cultural Values and Ethics, University of Illinois, competitive award

1989 Arnold O. Beckman Award, Campus Research Board, University of Illinois

 

Leadership

2001-2002 Membership chair, Rural Sociological Society

1995-1996 ESCOP/ACOP Leadership Development Program, Selected Participant

1995 Rural Studies National Leadership Program, Invited Participant

 

Editing

Fact sheet editor for a series for the Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, on Large-Scale Swine Facilities. This is the applied segment of a three-year research study on community reaction to large-scale swine facilities in Illinois.

 

Courses Taught

AGCM 430: Communications in Environmental Movements

HCD 532: Topics in Community and Rural Studies