Communications Professor Wins First-Place Award for Podcast

Caldwell, N.J., July 29, 2020 – Communication and Media Studies Professor Bob Mann received a first–place award from the Garden State Journalists Association for his podcast “Hot Media with Bob Mann.” 

Mann won in the podcast-news feature category for his interview with Hagit Limor, an investigative reporter, professor and past president of the Society of Professional Journalists. The episode featured a discussion of anti–news media messages in the movie “Richard Jewell.” “I gave the episode the title ‘Make My Day’ because it was directed by Clint Eastwood,” said Mann. 

Mann was granted a sabbatical in the fall of 2019 to develop a course on podcasting. “My sabbatical gave me the chance to focus on podcasting in a way that would have never been possible while attending to my normal responsibilities.” He had a home studio built, learned to edit, developed a format, and reconnected with guests from radio shows he had done in the past. He also created the class “Advanced Podcasting: Performance, Production and Purpose,” which he is eager to debut in the spring of 2021. 

Mann founded the communications academic major followed by the Communications Department at what was then Caldwell College in the 1990s, taking the baton from Sister Vivien Jennings, former president of Caldwell, who had founded a certificate program in communications.