Page 224 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

creative efforts lie in the area of human/computer interaction. In particular, he is inter-
ested in the design of multimedia environments that communicate in interesting yet
comfortable ways. His creative interests include multimedia interactivity design, Web
application development, new communication technologies, interactive storytelling,
and VR photography. He is a charter member of the Indiana Usability Professionals
Association as well as member of the International Digital Media and Arts Association
and the Media Communication Association–International.

Vincent F. Filak is an assistant professor at Ball State
University where he teaches undergraduate courses
in news writing and graduate courses on media the-
ory. He also serves as the faculty adviser to The Ball
State Daily News, the university’s award-winning
newspaper. Prior to his arrival at Ball State, he
taught news writing and reporting at the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin and the University of Missouri. He
also worked as a night-side city desk reporter at the
Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Wisconsin.
He received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s
degree in journalism from the University of Wiscon-
sin and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. His
214 dissertation examined how intergroup bias between
print and broadcast journalists can create problems
for converging newsrooms. He has conducted several studies and has published schol-
arly work on this topic. He has also published research on media coverage of the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the impact of psychological need-satisfaction
on college learning.
Filak serves as a reviewer for the Atlantic Journal of Communication and the News-
paper Research Journal. He is a member of College Media Advisers, the Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and Kappa Tau Alpha, the national
honor society in journalism and mass communication.

Jennifer George-Palilonis is the journalism graphics
sequence coordinator at Ball State University and
a project director for Garcia Media. At Ball State,
she teaches upper-level newspaper design, graphics
reporting, and multimedia storytelling courses and
serves as the design adviser to The Ball State Daily
News, the university’s award-winning newspaper.
She is also the faculty adviser for the nation’s largest
student chapter for the Society for News Design. As a
design consultant, she has worked on the redesigns of
more than 15 publications, including Crain’s Chicago
Business and the Portland Press-Herald in Maine.
Prior to joining the faculty at Ball State in 2001,
she was the deputy design director at the Chicago
Sun-Times, and before that, a news designer at the
Detroit Free Press.