Department of Political Science University of Missouri-Columbia College of Arts and Science

Betty Houchin Winfield

Adjunct Professor
Office: 205 Neff Hall
Phone: 573-882-5639
Email: WinfieldB@missouri.edu
Web: http://journalism.missouri.edu/faculty/betty-winfield.html

Betty Winfield, an adjunct Professor of the Department since 2002, is a Professor in the School of Journalism and University of Missouri Curators' Professor. Her education includes a Ph.D., University of Washington (1978) in political and historical communications; post-docs, Columbia University (1988-89); and the Shorenstein Center, John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University (1991). Winfield's research focuses on the American presidency, first ladies, gender and politics, and free expression in the U.S. and comparatively.

Research Statement
Winfield has authored or edited five books, including FDR and the News Media (1990, 1994), recipient of the 1990 Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award, and BLEEP! Censoring Rock and Rap Music (1999). Her monographs explore free expression and the presidency during war; and her book chapters examine the first lady's media relations and how the media historically framed the first ladies.

In addition, Winfield has over 100 refereed scholarly papers, journal articles and encyclopedia pieces. Her political studies focus on comparative international, free expression and first lady areas. They include "Marketplace or Party Controls: The Chinese Media in Transition" The Gazette, the International Journal of Communication Studies 67 (3) 2005: 255-270;"Confucius, Collectivism and Constitutions: Free Expression in China and Japan," Journal of Communication Law and Public Policy 5:3 (Summer 2000): 323-347; "'To Support and Defend the Constitution of the United States Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic': Four Types of Attorneys General and Wartime Stress," Missouri Law Review 69:4 (Fall 2004): 1095-1114.

Her gender and politics research publications are "Gender Politics: News Framing of the Candidates' Wives During Campaign 2000," with Barbara Friedman, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 80:4 (Fall 2003):548-566; "From Sponsored Status to Satellite to Her Own Orbit: The First Lady at a New Century," Journal of White House Studies 1:1 (2001): 21-31;"Hillary Rodham Clinton's Image: Content, Control and Cultural Politics," Political Communication 14 (1997): 221-24; "The Making of an Image: Hillary Rodham Clinton and the American Journalists," Political Communication (1997) 14:241-53; "Madam President: Understanding a New Kind of First Lady," Media Studies Journal 8:2 (Spring 1994): 59-71; "Anna Eleanor Roosevelt's White House Legacy: The Public First Lady," Presidential Studies Quarterly XVII:2 (Spring 1988): 331-345.

Winfield's current political research examines uses of historical references in political news for increased political knowledge, memory, interest and perceived importance; and cyber-politics as an impact on democracy and as gender communication. "New Political Cyber-Associations: Moveon.org as American Social Capital" in revision for Journal of Communication and "Communicating Gender via Cyberpolitics: U.S. Senate Websites."

Courses Taught

Media & Politics (graduate)
The American Presidency & the Mass Media (graduate)
Mass Media History (graduate)
Qualitative Research Methods (graduate)