Daniel Stout, Director

            “What makes a good journalism and media studies program are outstanding faculty and facilities. Our faculty are consistently among the highest rated teachers at UNLV,  and in 2008 we’ll have one of the premier facilities in the country. I cannot imagine a more exciting place to study media than Las Vegas where internships are plentiful and student job prospects excellent!”

Welcome to our web site. We hope you will enjoy the opportunity to talk by email with faculty and student leaders, and  please send me a note if you have any questions or concerns.  Although journalism courses have been offered at UNLV since the 1970s, the School was not established until 2004. We have about 800 undergraduate majors and a growing graduate program.

Our School is named after Hank Greenspun, the late publisher of the Las Vegas Sun. He started Las Vegas’ first television station, which he later sold to Howard Hughes. In addition, Hank brought cable television to Las Vegas. As a 1950s journalist, Hank was one of the first to take on communist witch-hunter Sen. Joe McCarthy, and he helped with an agreement to stop segregation at Strip resorts. The Greenspun family foundation has continued to support journalism and is providing a generous gift along with an appropriation from the state for a new building that will provide a dramatic southeastern entrance to the university and will be the centerpiece of the Midtown UNLV project that will feature shops and restaurants.

The new building will include the latest digital equipment for instruction and programming, a convergence lab where students can produce content across several media platforms (i.e. radio, TV, Internet, print) and an auditorium where we have broadcast capabilities. Our television studios, FM radio station and writing labs will support outstanding instruction as well as significant faculty research.

Journalism and media studies are in the midst of not only a technological evolution but arevolution. The tools for the profession are changing so quickly that innovation guides  the way we do our work, the way we think about the impact of our work and the opportunities for excellence in the field. We hope you’ll join us during this extraordinary era for our field and for UNLV.

Dan Stout's research interests are in audience analysis and particularly the interface between media and religion. His books with Judith Buddenbaum, Religion and Mass Media: Audiences and Adaptations (Sage) and Religion and Popular Culture: Studies on the Interaction of Worldviews (Iowa State University Press) are considered foundational works in the field. He is also founding co-editor of the Journal of Media and Religion (Erlbaum) as well as the recent Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media (Routledge). Professor Stout has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters. He also teaches advertising and was Manager of Special Advertising Projects at the Houston Chronicle as well as Head of the Advertising Division of the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).