Davies Earns Kappa Tau Alpha Research Grant

Kappa Tau Alpha (KTA), the national college honor society for journalism and mass communication, has awarded University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Communication Professor Dr. David R. Davies a $1,000 grant to help fund his research on newspapers thriving in the digital marketplace.

KTA conducts the grant program to provide research assistance to chapter advisers and recognize their efforts to promote excellence in scholarship. Since KTA began the grant program in 2003, the society has awarded 34 grants totaling more than $29,000.
The society has chapters at 96 universities, and Davies has served as adviser of the USM KTA chapter since 2008.

Davies plans to analyze trends over the last 20 years in the newspaper industry, and will use the grant funding to conduct interviews at newspapers in Arkansas and Texas, as well as with the News Media Alliance in Washington, D.C. The research builds on his 2006 book, The Postwar Decline of American Daily Newspapers.

“I'm thrilled to receive this grant to pursue this project,” Dr. Davies said. “It's a particular joy to receive assistance from Kappa Tau Alpha, which is such an important organization for our students.”

Dr. Davies is a former dean of the USM Honors College and current director of the university's award-winning British Studies Program. For more information about Dr. Davies' work at USM, visit https://www.usm.edu/school-of-journalism-and-media-studies/faculty/david....