Interview with Professor Wendy Melillo

Professor Wendy Melillo is a full-time Public Communication teacher in the School of Communication. Before becoming a professor she worked as a journalist for the Washington Post and for Adweek. This job helped to inspire the research she does now. Professor Melillo also has two master degrees. Her second degree in History of Ideas has really helped her to develop her research. She now has the ability and liberty to delve deep into subjects that she could not do as a journalist.

Professor Melillo has three ideas/projects on her mind when it comes to the field of research. Her very first book is about to be released. This book is based on her research on the Ad Council. She was more than once surprised by the things she learned during her 3 years of researching. This included finding out that Rosie the riveter, a character often seen in Ad Council ads, was not created by the Ad Council. She also learned that Smokey Bear is not a loved character all over.

Her research was prompted by her interest in the Ad Council. She had been covering/ them for years as a journalist. Her theories were based on what were the, “cultural impacts of the ads created by the Ad Council.” She was not looking for the effectiveness of campaigns. “No content analysis for me.”

Her research method was centered around a whole lot of reading. She would do lit reviews mostly of academic journals. She also did a lot of historical archival research. She went to six different archival libraries in order to perform her extensive qualitative research. She would read primary sources and then learn more in depth about each topic with the academic journals related to each subject. She has also performed many direct interviews. She had a good relationship with the Ad Council so this was simple enough until she started finding things that they didn’t necessarily like.

Professor Melillo’s next two projects will be fascinating as well. She has begun a chapter outline on her next book which will shed light on the “whiskey trail.” Following the distillers and temperance movement and how those dynamics still work today. She hopes to study this subject in the same way she has been able to research the Ad Council.

Her other idea she says is only in her mind but she knows she will make it happen. After years of covering crime as a journalist she has become fascinated with the stories of the victims. She will basically try to trace crime stories and try to discover what has happened to those victims after their lives were affected by crime. She doesn’t know exactly the research process she will use but it will again be more of a qualitative study.

To preorder Professor Melillo’s book on the Ad council you can follow this link to Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Smokey-Crying-McGruff-Changed-America/dp/1588343936/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366045106&sr=8-1&keywords=wendy+melillo

By: Melissa Stoner