Officer profile: Charles Self, Oklahoma SPJ Pro Chapter Board Member

Charles C. Self is Director of the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College Institute for Research and Training He holds the Edward L and Thelma Gaylord Chair of Journalism and is professor of journalism at the University of Oklahoma. He was the founding dean of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Oklahoma in July 2001. Before coming to OU, he served as Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and professor of journalism at Texas A&M University. He had been at Texas A&M since January 1991 and was Head of the Department of Journalism until September 1999. He was previously Chair of Journalism for five years at the University of Alabama. In the fall of 1985, he was appointed a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. He also has taught at the University of Iowa. He is currently President of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the major academic association for journalism educators in the United States. He also has been president of the Council of Communication Associations, a national umbrella organization of the presidents and liaison representatives of the eight major communication education associations in the United States. He has served as president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication and president of the Southwest Education Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He was also chair of the AEJMC/ASJMC Joint Committee on Alliances, an educator group that promotes cooperation between journalism organizations and journalism educators, and several other national committees on journalism education and the mass media professions. He was founding editor of The Journal of Communication Inquiry, has authored an editing textbook, dozens of articles and book reviews, and scores of grant proposals. He has published articles about new media technology, international communication policy, news credibility, and communication theory and philosophy. He has conducted international comparative studies of media policy formation in England, Germany, Japan, and France. He is currently conducting a world-wide census of journalism education and working on a book on news credibility, community and the decline of civility. He received his Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Iowa in 1974, his MA in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1971, and his BA in English and Political Science (with an International Relations emphasis) from Andrews University in 1966. Click here to return to the officer page.