Janet Richards

Professor Richards received both her B.A. in Communication and her M.A. in Communication at Arizona State University-New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Professor Richards’ Applied Project for her M.A. focused on the question, “Can the Communicative Effects of Early Life Adversity Be Reversed at Midlife and Beyond?” Additionally, she has contributed research on a broad and diverse study entitled, “Accepting Parental Messages about Morality: Effects of Parental Supportiveness, Education, and Religious Orientation.”

Professor Richards is an Associate Faculty member at Arizona State University, she teaches Digital News Production, Journalism, Media and Society and oversees the student news organization— nevalleynews.org at Scottsdale Community College. Professor Richards was also a twenty year broadcast (radio) journalist and on-air talent for several radio stations in the Valley as well as Tucson and Manhattan (NYC-ABC Radio) She has covered news, sports, and was nominated for the Billy Jean King Award for women in Sports Media by ABC Radio.

Her research, experience and teaching interests include topics such as: Media Literacy, First Amendment Protections, Personal Privacy Rights, Social Media’s Global Influence, Informative/Persuasive Messaging, Message Production in a Digital Environment, Corporate Media Power/Gatekeeping and Effective and Productive Communication in the Workforce.

“Communication and information is everything! I would like to teach my students to become informed and critical consumers of the news and information. Communication is not just a subject to teach, but an attitude toward the world as we are increasingly immersed in a complex digital media environment. I would also like to provide students with the necessary skills so they may create informative and productive messaging for various digital platforms. Media literacy is vital in an age of intense media specialization as well as misinformation—and I find that students desire the proficiency to conduct competent communication in both digital and face-to-face exchanges.”  *Professor Richards