David Pierson Ph.D.

David Pierson has been on the faculty since 2001. He received his Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Penn State University in 2001. In 1993, he completed a Master of Science in Radio-Television-Film from the University of North Texas, and a Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980. He has spent much of his early career working on film, video, and multimedia presentations for a number of audio-visual production companies and contractors in Northern Texas and Louisiana. David primarily teaches media writing, theory/criticism, and production courses including Introduction to Media Studies, Writing for the Media, Media Criticism and Aesthetics, Film Genres, Corporate Video, Introduction to Media Production and Design, Field Video Production, and Documentary Production.

David's current research interests are the rhetorical, discursive, and aesthetic dimensions of broadcast and cable television programming. He is also interested in television's representation of history. He has published and presented research on such television programs and series as Combat!, C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation, Discovery Channel's nature and science programming, The Fugitive, Seinfeld, and Turner Network Television's made-for-TV westerns.

His recent publications include articles in The Journal of Popular Culture and Film and History Journal, as well as book chapters on Turner Network Television's made-for-TV westerns, American situation comedies, and critical pedagogy and mass advertising. He has also presented papers and served as panel chairs at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Broadcast Education Association, Film and History League, and American Culture Association/Popular Culture Association annual conventions. He also judges convention paper submissions for the Critical and Cultural Studies Division and Entertainment Studies Interest Group of the AEJMC, as well as faculty video submissions for the Production, Aesthetics and Criticism Division of the Broadcast Education Association.

David is the recent recipient of the James E. Murphy Memorial Top Faculty Paper Award in the Critical and Cultural Studies Division of the AEJMC. He has twice won the First Place Open Paper Award and once won the First Place Debut Paper Award in the Production, Aesthetics and Criticism Division of the Broadcast Education Association annual conventions.

David’s free-time pursuits include playing golf, cooking, and
touring New England.