Amy Jo Coffey, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Media Production, Management, and Technology associate professor, will be leaving the College after a 17-year tenure to become the director of the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Tennessee on July 1, 2024. The school is part of Tennessee’s College of Communication and Information.

Coffey, who also served as program manager for the online Audience Analytics master’s program and as graduate coordinator for the residential master’s degree in mass communication, had a prolific research career at UFCJC. Since 2006, Coffey has published 18 journal articles (more than 70% sole or first-authored) and two book chapters, has made 22 conference paper presentations, and has been a featured speaker on numerous panels.

Coffey is co-author of the recently published “Media Analytics: Understanding Media, Audiences, and Consumers in the 21st Century” (Routledge, 2023). She is a scholar of media management and economics, with specialization areas including analytics; audience economics and valuation; audience language and culture; media markets and ownership, market segmentation, and other strategic competition issues. As a secondary area, she has examined the utility of new media spaces, including virtual environments such as Second Life.

Her work has been published in numerous journals including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Advertising Research, Communication Law & Policy, International Journal on Media Management, Journal of Media Business Studies, Educational Technology Research and Development, and International Journal of Intercultural Relations. She has been awarded grants by the National Association of Broadcasters and the U.S. Department of Defense, was named to the U.S. State Department Fulbright Specialist Roster and has been a visiting professor at the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.

Coffey, who also is an affiliate faculty member of the UF Center for Latin American Studies, has developed and taught courses in media management and strategy, media innovation and entrepreneurship, media analytics, audience analysis, and audience research methods.  At the graduate level, she created the Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Mass Communication course. At the undergraduate level, she created the Understanding Audiences course and revamped Telecommunication Programming. While teaching this course, she introduced students to the content development and distribution sector of the industry via the National Association of Television Program Executives internship program.

In 2010, she worked with a group of students to launch Noticias WUFT, a public media-based Spanish-language news operation to serve North Central Florida residents and served as faculty adviser for seven years.  This initiative led to the development of a bilingual student newsroom and professional preparation that led many students into major media markets upon graduation. She created the immersion-for-academic credit model for Noticias within the UFCJC Division of Media Properties that was later adopted across the College and enabled students to gain experiential learning as part of their coursework.

She has served on a total of 38 graduate committees during her time within the CJC (12 dissertation committees, 5 as chair, and 26 master’s committees, 12 as chair).

Coffey earned her doctorate in mass communication from the University of Georgia and holds a master’s degree in journalism from The Ohio State University. Her research interests in media management, economics, and audiences stem in part from her professional news background, which included positions with CNN in Atlanta, as well as reporting, assignment editing, and production positions in television and radio in Ohio, Tennessee, and Georgia.

She was awarded a UF Research Foundation Professorship (2014-2016) and a UF Term Professorship (2017-2020). Coffey has received the College of Journalism and Communications’ Faculty Research Award, Faculty Service Award, Teacher of the Year Award, International Educator of the Year Award, and the Outstanding Dissertation Advisor/Mentoring Award. She serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal on Media Management and the Journal of Media Business Studies. Coffey was elected to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Standing Committee on Research, where she also served as chair and as a member of the AEJMC Board of Directors.

Posted: February 20, 2024
Category: College News
Tagged as: Amy Jo Coffey, MPMT, UF Research Foundation Professorship, UF Term Professorship, WUFT Noticias