Jennings Bryant is the former director of the University of Alabama’s Institute for Communication Research, an organization he founded that has evolved to become the Institute for Communication and Information Research. His direction, leadership and commitment to research propelled the ICR to millions in grant and contract funding and left a lasting impact upon the fields of communication, media effects, interpersonal communication and beyond.
In 2006, he received a Distinguished Scholar Award from the Broadcast Education Association, was elected a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA), and a Research Pioneer Tribute Essay was published in his honor in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. In 2011, he received the Steven Chaffee Career Productivity Award from ICA. He was advisory editor of the 12-volume, 5,694-page International Encyclopedia of Communication, which was published in 2008 and is updated quarterly. During academic year 2011-2012, Bryant was holder of the Wayne G. Basler Chair of Excellence for the Integration of the Arts, Rhetoric, and Science at East Tennessee State University. He is one of the primary founders of the theoretical and empirical research traditions of media psychology and entertainment theory, and he is known internationally as one of the leading scholars in media and children and media effects.
“It was an incredible honor to be inducted into the Alabama Communication Hall of Fame, which includes such notables as Helen Keller, Edward O. Wilson, Gay Talese, Harper Lee, Winston Groom, and Rick Bragg,” said Bryant. “Equally wonderful was to have former doctoral, masters, and undergraduate students from all over the country travel to Tuscaloosa to be a part of this joyous occasion. It was a true reunion of my academic family.”
Produced by The University of Alabama Center for Public Television and Radio
Executive Producer: Amy Eifler Martin
Producer: Max Shores
Cinematography and Editing: Will Green
