LINKS TO SECTIONS:
Education
Teaching and Professional Experience
Classes Taught
Academic Publications  
Academic Presentations
Service
Academic and Professional Affiliations
Recognition
PDF of CV

Overview

• Expert educator, communicator, researcher, and innovator with extensive background in media.
• Experience as national-level journalist, university professor, and content strategist in the corporate world.
• Skilled in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, focusing on media.
• Subject-matter expert in politics, public policy, and media analysis.
• Published author in books, media outlets, and academic journals.
• Portfolio of published journalism work

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Mass Communication
University of Florida
College of Journalism and Communications

Master of Arts, Journalism
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
School of Mass Communication

Bachelor of Arts with Honors, Journalism
University of Wyoming

Teaching and Professional Experience

University of Central Arkansas
Conway AR
Visiting Lecturer, August 2022 to 2023
Assistant Professor, August 2023 to Present

• Prepare students for dynamic careers as media professionals with student-centric coaching and mentoring.
• Build student success by fostering critical thinking skills that encourage students to go above and beyond classroom instruction.
• Engage with students using innovating pedagogy, focusing on professional media skills.
• Teach journalism skills classes in reporting and newswriting, and online publishing, with emphasis on scaffolded learning to foster student growth.
• Serve as faculty adviser for the UCA Scroll, the university’s yearbook, including advising on production and overseeing budget.
• Ratings from students in class evaluations above averages for school, college, and university.

Western Kentucky University School of Media
Bowling Green KY
Assistant Professor, 2017 to 2022

• Manage classes with up to 140 students a semester, preparing class lectures and teaching materials and providing comprehensive, timely feedback on student work.
• Taught classes in media literacy/media studies, newswriting, reporting, media history, and First Amendment studies.
• Empower students with effective guidance as an academic adviser to meet both university requirements and their personal goals.
• Ratings from students in class evaluations consistently above averages for school, college, and university.
• Building reputation as a thought-leader in news media political communication with innovative research projects using qualitative, historical, and quantitative approaches.
• Research focuses on the perception among conservatives in the United States that the news media have a liberal bias; developed ground-breaking thesis that perception is triggered by conservatives’ need to maintain social identity, rather than media content.

ChickenFriedPolitics.com
Founder and Editor, 2013 to 2022

• Engaged readers and followers by providing timely, non-partisan news coverage of Southern politics across 14 Southern states.
• Built reputation as a subject-matter expert in Southern politics through comprehensive surveillance of regional political developments.
• Created compelling content for blog, ChickenFriedPolitics.com, with more than 100 unique posts annually.
• Maintained engaging Twitter feed with average of 3,000 impressions daily.
• Promoted brand and engage new viewers by publishing blog material as op-eds in other publications.
• Recruited and supervised student interns who maintain social media presence.

University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications
Gainesville FL
Teaching Assistant/Instructor of Record, 2014-2018

• Prepared undergraduate students for careers as journalists or public relations practitioners through effective, engaging classroom instruction and coaching.
• Built student success by effectively leading engaging classes in newswriting, media studies, and political communication.
• Demonstrated effective organizational skills by managing teaching schedule while also completing graduate school course work and dissertation research.
• Ratings from students in class evaluations consistently above averages for school, college, and university.
• Success recognized by being named as the top graduate student teacher in the UF College of Journalism and Communications for 2016-17.

Pulaski Technical College
North Little Rock AR
Adjunct Faculty, 2011-2014

• Supported students in the developmental track in building writing ability needed for success at the community college level.
• Mentored and coached students toward success who arrived with limited writing skills and often faced significant personal challenges.
• Managed up to five classes and 100 students per semester, preparing class lectures and teaching materials and providing comprehensive feedback on student work.
• Received consistently positive feedback from students in class evaluations.

CNN
Atlanta GA
News Editor, 2001-2008

• Key player in CNN’s Atlanta-based worldwide newsgathering operation, making decisions on coverage that directly enhanced the network’s brand as the world’s news leader.
• Collaborated with correspondents and producers across the country and around the globe to gather and deliver timely and accurate information to serve millions of viewers of CNN’s six networks and website.
• In breaking news situations, gathered information directly from sources to provide immediate news to viewers, allowing CNN to best its rivals in a highly competitive industry and maintain its lead in profitability.
• Recognized as one of the network’s best writers, consistently delivering detail-rich copy that was creative and clear and added value for viewers.
• Packaged information into the CNN Wire, a web-based news service highlighting original CNN reporting.
• Performed under intense deadline pressure requiring decisiveness, rapid-fire analytical skills, and a breadth of knowledge on a wide array of subjects.

Sapient Corp.
Atlanta GA
Content Strategist, 1999-2001

• Conceptualized and executed content solutions for websites of Fortune 1000 companies that served and enhanced their brand and business objectives.
• Strategic partner on multi-disciplinary teams that took projects from client pitch to launch, coordinating content demands with the work of graphic designers, information architects, code writers, and system engineers to create seamless and timely engagements.
• Created and wrote client-facing deliverables to earn new business and keep clients educated throughout their engagements, thus building relationships for future revenue.
• Designed solutions for Nokia, Kodak, Sunglass Hut, Nissan, ING, and Reliant Energy, as well as a business-to-business start-up delivering content in three languages to customers in Latin America.

CNN.com
Atlanta GA
Senior Writer, 1997-1999

• Integral contributor to the formative years of the world’s most popular Internet news site, creating compelling content that built a new audience for a new medium and thus broadened CNN’s business beyond television.
• Helped craft best practices for translating television content to the Web to maximize the Internet’s inherent advantages in delivering information.
• On constant deadline, wrote smart, sharp, and concise copy well-suited to the Web, thus building CNN.com’s brand as the world’s most comprehensive and up-to-date news site.

Classes Taught

University of Central Arkansas
Beginning Reporting (JOUR 2300) – Fall 2022, Spring & Fall 2023, Spring & Fall 2024
Introductory reporting and newswriting class for School of Communication majors and minors.

Advanced Reporting (JOUR 3300) – Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024
Advanced reporting and newswriting class for journalism majors and minors.

Online Publishing I (JOUR 3345) – Fall 2022, 2023, 2024
Introductory upper-level course on techniques for online publication for journalism majors in the online sequence.

Online Publishing II (JOUR 3346) – Spring 2022, 2023
Advanced upper-level course on techniques for online publication for journalism majors in the online sequence.

Podcasting (JOUR 4391) – Fall 2023
Elective course in which students learned the basics of podcast production.

Western Kentucky University
Understanding Media: Content, Ethics, and Technology (S0M 101) – Fall 2017, 18, 19, 20
Required large-lecture introductory media studies course primarily for freshman majors, with 80-120 students.

Newswriting (JOUR 202) – Spring 2018, Fall & Spring 2019, 20, 21
Lab-based introductory newswriting skills class required for sophomore-level majors and minors.

Intermediate Reporting (JOUR 302) – Spring 2019, Fall & Spring 2020, 21
Intermediate newswriting and reporting skills class for journalism and photojournalism majors and minors.

Advanced Reporting (JOUR 426) – Spring 2021
Advanced project-based reporting capstone class for journalism majors preparing for a professional career.

American News Media History (SJB 421) – Spring 2018, 19, 20
Survey of American news media history with research emphasis. Junior/senior-level elective class open to students across the university.

Fleischaker-Greene Scholars Program/First Amendment Reporting (SJB 402) – Fall 2018
Selective senior-level class, with outside financial sponsorship, that provides students with an opportunity to undertake an in-depth study of an issue relating to the First Amendment across an entire semester.

University of Florida
Multimedia Writing (JOU 3109c), Fall 2014, 15 & Spring 2015, 16
Lab instructor for required junior-level introductory newswriting skills course for journalism and public relations majors.

Multimedia Writing (JOU 3109c), Fall 2015 & Spring 2016
Lecture assistant for multi-section introductory newswriting course with 200+ students. Helped with management of class and lectures.

Media and Politics (MMC 3614), Instructor of Record, Spring 2017 & Summer 2017
Instructor of record for survey class focusing on the news media’s role in the political process. Elective junior-senior level course for journalism majors.

Applied Fact Finding (JOU 3110), Instructor of Record, Summer 2015, 16
Instructor of record for course that taught undergraduate journalism majors how to find, access, and use public records and publicly available information as a reporter.

Pulaski Technical College
English Composition Fundamentals
Course teaching basic English composition to students in the developmental track.
College Seminar
Lecture course designed to introduce incoming students to the college experience.

Academic Publications

Shumate, R. Barry Goldwater, Distrust in Media, and Conservative Identity: The Perception of Liberal Bias in the News. Latham, MD: Lexington Books. To be published 2021.

Shumate, R. (2020). The Thanksgiving Without Cranberries: Anatomy of a News Media Influenced Panic. Southeastern Review of Journalism History 2 (2), 1-20.

Shumate, R. (2020). The Washington Star: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Newspaper (book review), American Journalism 37 (2), 262.

Shumate, R. (2017). Riot, Race, and Placing Blame: Press Coverage of the 1885 Rock Springs Chinese Massacre. In After the War: The Press in a Changing America, 1865–1900. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Shumate, R. (Spring 2015). Onward Christian soldiers: How Arkansas political candidates deploy religious texts to motivate voters. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal.

Calvert, C., Shumate, R., McNeff, S., and Waters, S. (February 2017). Speech v. Conduct, Surcharges v. Discounts: Testing the Limits of the First Amendment and Statutory Construction in the Growing Credit Card Quagmire. New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy 20 (1) 149-189.

Shumate, R. (Publication in 2022). Wall Street Journal. In Encyclopedia of Journalism. SAGE.

Shumate, R. (Publication in 2022). USA Today. In Encyclopedia of Journalism. SAGE.

Dissertation
Shumate, R. (2018). Elite voices and irritated conservatives: Pathways leading to the perception of liberal media bias arising from elite news media coverage of the emergence of movement conservatism (1960 to 1964). [Doctoral dissertation, University of Florida]

Winner of the 2019 Margaret A. Blanchard Doctoral Dissertation Prize awarded annually for the best doctoral dissertation dealing with mass communication history by the American Journalism Historians Association.

Academic Presentations

Shumate R. (2020, August). Conservatives, social identity, and news media bias: An empirical study using Q methodology. Paper presented at the 2020 National Communication Association Convention, Virtual Presentation.

Shumate R. (2019, March). Reagan: A rendezvous with rewrite? Research in progress presented at the 2019 Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, New York NY.

Shumate, R. (2018, October). The Thanksgiving without cranberries: Anatomy of a media frenzy. Paper presented at the 2018 American Journalism Historians Association Conference, Salt Lake City, UT.

Shumate, R. (2016, August). Framing Barry Goldwater: The extreme reaction to his 1964 “extremism” speech. Paper presented at the 2016 AEJMC National Conference, History Division, Minneapolis, MN, and at the 2016 Southeast Colloquium, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.
Warren Price Award/Top Student Paper/History Division

Shumate, R. (2016, August). Pride and prejudice: Anita Bryant, same-sex marriage, and “Hitler’s view” in The Miami Herald. Paper presented at the 2016 AEJMC National Conference, LGBTQ Interest Group, Minneapolis MN, and at the 2016 Southeast Colloquium, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.

Shumate, R. (2016, August). Guilt by association: Barry Goldwater, the anti-communist fringe, and CBS’s Thunder on the Right. Study presented at the 2016 AEJMC National Conference, Minneapolis MN, and AEJMC Midwinter Conference, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.

Shumate, R., McNeff, S., and Waters, S. (2016, August). Speech v. conduct, surcharges v. discounts: Testing the limits of the First Amendment and statutory construction in the growing credit card quagmire. Paper presented at the 2016 AEMJC National Conference, Law and Policy Division, Minneapolis, MN.

Shumate, R. (2016, March). Quick on the (horn-rimmed) draw: Barry Goldwater’s life in political cartoons. Study presented at the 2016 Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, New York, NY.

Shumate, R., Blackstone, G., and Furey, L. (2016, February). What you’ve seen is what you’ll get: Dissecting the “Filter Bubble.” Study presented at the 2016 AEJMC Midwinter Conference, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.

Shumate, R. (2015, November) Riot, race, and placing blame: Press coverage of the 1885 Rock Springs Chinese Massacre. Paper presented at the Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War and Free Expression, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN.
Student Paper Award of Excellence

Shumate, R., Papadelias, S., and Phillips, T. (2015, August) The government speech doctrine & specialty license plates: A First Amendment Theory perspective. Paper presented at the 2015 AEJMC National Conference, San Francisco, CA.

Shumate, R. (2015, March). Division and attraction: Negative political advertising and the increased popularity of politically opinionated programming. Paper presented at the 2015 AEJMC Southeast Colloquium, Knoxville, TN.
Top Student Paper/Open Division

Shumate, R. (2015, March). Proposed study: Media framing and the reaction to Barry Goldwater’s 1964 acceptance speech. Paper presented at the 2015 Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, New York, NY.

Shumate, R. (2014, October). Onward Christian soldiers: How Arkansas political candidates deploy religious texts to motivate voters. Paper presented at the Southwest Educational Council for Journalism and Mass Communication Symposium, Denver, CO, and Arkansas Press Women Best Brains Colloquium, Little Rock, AR.
Top Paper Finalist

Service

National
American Journalism Historians Association

• Board of Directors, 2020-23
• Website Editor, 2018 to 2022
• Public Relations Committee, 2019 to 2022
• Blanchard Dissertation Awards Judge, 2020 to 2022

Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference

• Conference co-organizer, 2022

Conference Reviewer/Panel Moderator

• American Journalism Historians Association
• National Communication Association
• Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
• Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference
• Local Media Association

University of Central Arkansas
School of Communication Events Committee
Student Publications Committee
College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Research Committee

Western Kentucky University

Provost Quality Enhancement Plan Evaluator
Faculty Search Committee
Academic Advising (30 students per semester)
Student Recruitment Events (TOPS, Head for the Hill)
Society of Professional Journalists, Student Chapter Adviser
Faculty Travel and Curriculum Committees
School of Media Library Liaison
School of Media Website Migration, Fall 2018
Project 1968, Fall 2018
     Interdisciplinary remembrance of the events of 1968, organized as an academic project at WKU.
Evening with Mary Beth Tinker, Fall 2018
     Organized public presentation student First Amendment rights advocate Mary Beth Tinker.
WKU Forensics Competition Judge
WKU Student Publications Student Training
Kentucky High School Media Institute Journalism Scholars Day, Panelist
Kentucky High School Mark of Excellence Competition, Judge, Judging Coordinator, Spring 2018

University of Florida

Graduate Students in Mass Communications Association
President, 2015-16
Vice President, 2014-15
Dean’s Graduate Student Advisory Council
Alpha Epsilon Lambda Graduate Honor Society
Vice President, 2014-15 and 2015-16

Academic and Professional Affiliations

American Journalism Historians Association
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
     Divisions: History, Law and Policy, Newspaper and Online News, and Mass Communication and Society.
National Communication Association
     Divisions: Communication and Law, Freedom of Expression, Mass Communication, and Political Communication.
Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi
National Council of Teachers of English

Recognition

Margaret A. Blanchard Doctoral Dissertation Prize
American Journalism Historians Association, 2019

Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award
UF College of Journalism and Communications, 2017

Online Education Excellence Award
University of Florida, 2017 for work on migrating Multimedia Writing class to an online format.

Top Graduate Scholar, 2013-14
Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism Honor Society, University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Peabody Award, 2005
Part of CNN team awarded a Peabody for coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

Emmy Award, 2002
Part of CNN team awarded an Emmy for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.