After a national search, the School of Journalism and Media will have a new director starting in July, Amy Jo Coffey, a former broadcast journalist who found her calling in higher education. Coffey comes to the College of Communication and Information to lead the school after serving as program manager for the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications’ online audience analytics master’s program, and as graduate coordinator for one of the college’s residential master’s degree programs in mass communication.
“Dr. Coffey’s exceptional record of scholarly and industry success speaks volumes to her commitment to excellence and building for the future,” said CCI Dean Joseph Mazer. “I look forward to the positive impact of her leadership and expertise, empowering our faculty, staff, and students to excel in the dynamic landscape of journalism and media.”
The search for a new director for the School of Journalism and Media has been underway ever since Professor Catherine Luther, former school director, stepped in to lead CCI’s new Information Integrity Institute last summer. Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations Professor Courtney Childers has served as interim director of the school and will continue to do so until Coffey begins her tenure at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Coffey brings with her not only professional experience from the field, but a robust and expansive research program centering on media management and a secondary interest in new media spaces, such as the 3D virtual environment Second Life. Her media business expertise extends to analytics, audience economics and valuation, audience language and culture, media markets and ownership, market segmentation, and other strategic competition issues. She co-authored the recently published book, Media Analytics: Understanding Media, Audiences, and Consumers in the 21st Century, a multi-year project that has been receiving positive reviews since its debut.
The new director’s interests align with the vision of CCI, which includes the expansion of hands-on media immersion opportunities currently underway. Coffey says several other conditions make the school uniquely positioned for “takeoff.”
“Enrollment is growing, alumni are engaged, and there are several new hires. The school just rebranded itself and there is new leadership at both the college and university level. This is an opportunistic time for the School of Journalism and Media, and as someone who sees herself as a builder, innovator, and creator, I was drawn to this moment of possibilities,” she said.
One accomplishment that exemplifies Coffey’s affinity for innovation is the creation, with a group of students, of a Spanish news operation at the University of Florida through its public radio station. Serving North Central Florida residents across 19 counties and filling a long-time need in the region, the local news service is now in its fourteenth year. In addition to that, Coffey built and led the online audience analytics master’s program there, capitalizing on the knowledge and research she’s accumulated in her research specialty throughout her years in academia.
That path to academia started after Coffey established herself as a TV journalist. She worked in front of the camera and behind the scenes in places such as CNN in Atlanta, a local news station in Columbus, Ohio, and in Chattanooga at the city’s ABC affiliate. While she was in Ohio, she earned her master’s in journalism from The Ohio State University and began working in public radio. That segued into positions in commercial radio and then commercial television.
When the opportunity arose for Coffey to teach broadcast journalism at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, she took it, and that experience changed the entire trajectory of her career.
“I accidentally fell in love with teaching. I still had an interest in the newsroom, so I was a freelance general assignment reporter while teaching as a visiting lecturer. I was straddling the fence there for a while, but ultimately felt so passionate about the students and taking what I knew from the newsroom into the classroom, that I went to get my doctorate,” she said, noting she pursued her PhD at the University of Georgia. While she said she initially got her doctorate for teaching in higher education, she fell in love with research along the way.
Coffey is a data-driven leader, so centering her research around the data used by today’s media industry to inform business decisions was an ideal combination of her professional experience and her academic passions. She brings a media business sense to CCI that she hopes will serve the students in creating unique experiential opportunities and add to the current curriculum.
“Our professions are all becoming more data centric. So regardless of subdiscipline or career plans, I believe all our students need to at least be data conversant. Understanding how to become data literate is increasingly important, specifically how to tell stories using data. It’s not about the numbers themselves; it’s about what they mean, and that’s where our role as communicators comes in,” she said.
Coffey enjoys exploring data to understand audience opportunities, such as learning how advertisers perceive non-English speaking audiences and their unique traits, so advertisers may better reach those consumer groups and build trusting, honoring relationships with them. This is where her media management skills and business acumen, along with an advanced comprehension of data analytics, come into play.
“In order to serve audiences well and provide content that is relevant and meaningful to them, it must be financially supported, and that typically occurs through advertising. Advertisers invest in what they see as delivering value and a return on their investment,” Coffey said.
“All of this comes full circle with the whole media sustainability question in terms of what content gets provided. If we don’t have the financial engine, the content won’t get developed, or it quickly disappears because there’s insufficient advertiser support. It’s supply and demand. If we truly care about the marketplace of ideas and how best to serve audiences, that becomes a media economics question. It is making sure there’s a diverse array of content that appeals to audiences, whether entertainment or news, and asking, ‘How do we make this sustainable?’ Part of the answer lies in educating advertisers about audience identities and the many opportunities to connect with them authentically. When that happens, brands tend to see not just a valuable return on their investment, but a valuable relationship as well.”
Coffey is also forward-looking in exploring new technology, which is apparent by her research in virtual immersive media. Her work has found how a three-dimensional immersive virtual environment (such as Second Life or the Metaverse) is more effective for intercultural sensitivity acquisition than two-dimensional environments (such as a website). Such 3D immersive tools can be useful for preparing professionals before they are deployed to different corners of the world and can help them have successful interactions with people of different cultures. Educating students about the promise of technology, as well as the responsibility and caution surrounding its use, is at the forefront of her mind.
“I want students to be inquisitive about the latest technology and what it means for their profession, and that includes artificial intelligence. We should be helping students develop an ethical IQ when it comes to AI, but of course some of this is unsettled terrain. Technology can be a wonderful partner, but we don’t always understand technology’s effects until we’re in the middle of it. We need to learn to ask responsible questions sooner, hopefully before being confronted with these ethical moments. I believe we can help our students identify those moments and then activate those critical thinking skills to ask the right questions surrounding a technology opportunity and evaluate it, so they can decide whether and how to incorporate it into their work and life,” she said.
Coffey says that many people, including parents, are asking good questions about the role of AI, technology, and how it may affect career paths going forward. But what has not changed in her 20 years as an educator is that a degree in journalism and media is highly valued by employers because graduates from this area of study tend to have a range of versatile skills and are highly adaptable to a variety of environments. One of her goals is to increase student awareness around the desirability and versatility of the degree.
“Strong writing and communication skills never go out of style—we constantly hear employers saying this is what they look for, more than anything else, regardless of industry sector. Journalism and media skills ‘travel’ well because they are transferable to so many areas. So regardless of where students’ career paths may take them, JEM degrees will hold their value,” she said.
Coffey is a strategic thinker and plans to begin her time at the school by meeting with its faculty so she can partner with them in planning the school’s next steps. After making foundational connections with the faculty she is leading, she will begin networking outside of the school to find interdisciplinary opportunities within CCI and throughout the UT campus.
While she is excited to dive into leading the school, Coffey said she’s always loved the region and is looking forward to exploring Knoxville, its burgeoning food scene, and the many green spaces and wilderness areas of East Tennessee. She’s an avid hiker and has visited the Smokies many times, so will be taking to the trails when she can.
As someone who is leaving the University of Florida, Coffey admits becoming a Vol may be a bit of a transition. Last fall, she had just submitted her application for the JEM director position, and a few days later found herself in the stands for the Florida-Tennessee football game in Florida. “Talk about an awkward moment,” she said. “I was feeling a bit conflicted and not quite sure who I was supposed to be rooting for.” The Gators won that game, but Coffey is headed to Rocky Top and will soon be wearing Tennessee orange.
Fun and rivalry aside, Coffey sees sports as a great unifying event that brings people together and is happy to move from one large SEC school to another. Ever the educator, she noted the exuberant fanbase at UT is another fantastic opportunity for the flourishing sports communication program at the School of Journalism and Media, and she is impressed with how the school has partnered with the athletics program to provide those hands-on experiences.
“With Tennessee’s sports legacy and the school’s proximity to the sports venues, it’s a no-brainer to integrate these hand-on opportunities into the student experience. But I am excited about all of it, whether it’s news, science communication, or any of the other creative outlets, like Land Grant Films. CCI’s media assets can be a living laboratory for students,” she said. “With all these immersion opportunities in one location, students can acquire multiple lines of experience on their résumés without ever leaving the building. Not many schools can offer that. This will establish Tennessee grads as ready for the job market on day one, and that’s appealing to employers—and that’s one way that CCI and JEM students can stand apart from their peers.”