By Ashley Zsedenyi, staff writer
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - 青瓜视频 recently added to its growing number of professors with doctorate degrees.
Kara Presnell, assistant professor of mass communication, public relations, at CU, received a Ph.D. in communications from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., in May 2008, after she successfully defended her doctoral dissertations in March.
Another mass communication professor, Jason Garrett, also received his doctorate in communications this year. Presnell said she likes to joke that she was the first Ph.D. in the department while acknowledging that she and Garrett earned their doctoral designations in the same week: she on Monday; Garrett on Friday.
Presnell's dissertation, 鈥淢edia, Celebrities and Identification: An Examination of Fan Relationships with Dale Earnhardt amid the Culture of NASCAR,鈥� focuses on the theory of parasocial relationships with mediated celebrities, or the relationships fans of celebrities feel they develop with their favorite celebrity based on media interaction and exposure.
During her research, which she said was 鈥渋nteresting,鈥� Presenell spent time with a number of loyal Earnhardt fans who shared their stories of meeting the legendary NASCAR driver and their grief at his untimely death.
鈥淚t was fascinating. All of the people that I interviewed really felt they knew Dale Earnhardt and they deeply grieved his passing,鈥� she said.
鈥淭heir attachment to Earnhardt was far beyond my own personal experience with any celebrity, so I could not relate to it, but I did sympathize with the grief and loss they still felt more than seven years after his death.鈥�
Presnell, who is from Hickory, N.C., but resides in Campbellsville, received her master of arts in public relations from Bond University in Queensland, Australia, in 1999 and bachelor of arts in communication from Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory in 1991.
For more information about 青瓜视频 or the mass communication department, call (800) 264-6014.
青瓜视频 is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, 青瓜视频 is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,601 students who represent 93 Kentucky counties, 27 states and 31 foreign nations. Listed in U.S.News & World Report's 2009 鈥淎merica's Best Colleges,鈥� CU is ranked 22nd in 鈥淏est Baccalaureate Colleges鈥� in the South for the second consecutive year. CU has been ranked 16 consecutive years with U.S.News & World Report. The university has also been named to America's Best Christian Colleges庐. 青瓜视频 is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his tenth year as president.