David A. Copeland>Copeland

      Dr. David A. Copeland
    A. J. Fletcher Professor
      School of Communications
      Elon University

EDUCATION

B.A., Wake Forest University; M.Div., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Th.M., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Ph.D. University of North Carolina.

COURSES TAUGHT

Media History, Communications Capstone, Editing and Design, Communications in a Global Society.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE, RESEARCH, PUBLICATIONS, AND SERVICE

Professor Copeland worked for eight years in North Carolina as a reporter, photographer, sports editor and news editor for both daily and weekly newspapers. That work earned him sports writing and sports coverage awards from the North Carolina Press Association and recognition from the Associated Press for investigative journalism. He is a media historian who has written extensively on the colonial press and on religion and the media. Professor Copeland was named the Distinguished University Scholar by Elon University in 2006.

Professor Copeland is author of a number of books. The latest is The Idea of a Free Press: The Enlightenment and Its Unruly Legacy, which was released in July 2006. He is the series editor of the 8-volume, 4,500-page Greenwood Library of American War Reporting, which was published in June 2005. In that series, he wrote the book on the French and Indian War and co-authored the volume on the War of 1812 with Carol Sue Humphrey of Oklahoma Baptist University. He is the author of a number of other books including The Antebellum Era, which is part of the 7-volume Debating the Issues series of which he is series editor; Debating the Issues in Colonial Newspapers; Colonial American Newspapers: Character and Content; Benjamin Keach and the Development of Baptist Traditions in 17th-Century England; and The Function of Newspapers in Society: A Global Perspective, with Shannon Martin of the University of Maine. Another book, Mass Communication in the Global Age, with Anthony Hatcher of Elon University, was first published in 2004 and the second edition in 2007. It is used in Elon's Mass Communication and a Global Society classes.

Another book will be released in the near future: The News Media: A Documentary History,with Wm. David Sloan of the University of Alabama. Professor Copeland is also editor of Media History Monographs, an online, refereed journal of media history; chief editor of the Thomson-Gale 19th-Century Newspaper Digitization Project, which offers more than 1.7 million pages of newspapers on line; and the Peter Lang series, Mediating American History. Professor Copeland is past president of the American Journalism Historians Association, an international organization of media historians. He is also program director for the School of Communications' new interactive media master's program, which begins in the summer of 2009.

Professor Copeland was selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as the 1998-1999 Virginia Professor of the Year. He was also the recepient of the Emory & Henry College Excellence in Teaching Award in both 1997 and 1998 and the 1997-1998 Exemplary Teaching Award given by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church before joining the communications faculty at Elon University.

Media History Monographs
an online journal of media history

2008-2009 Courses

JCM495 Fellows: Capstone-Great Ideas

JCM360A: Media History

Elon University School of Communications

You may reach Professor Copeland by calling (336) 278-5662 or by
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