Vincent F. Filak, Ph.D. is an award-winning teacher, scholar and college media adviser. He serves as a professor of journalism at UW Oshkosh, where he primarily teaches courses on media writing and reporting.
He has published four textbooks in the field of journalism: “Dynamics of Media Writing” (Sage, 2016), “Convergent Journalism” (2nd Edition; Focal, 2015), “The Journalist’s Handbook to Online Editing” (with Kenneth Rosenauer; Pearson, 2013) and “Convergent Journalism: An Introduction” (with Stephen Quinn; Focal, 2005). His fifth book, “Dynamics of News Reporting and Writing,” (Sage) is due out in 2017 and his sixth book, “Dynamics of Media Editing,” is due out in 2018.
In 2016, Filak received the Distinguished Four-Year Newspaper Adviser award from the College Media Association for his work with the Advance-Titan, UWO’s student newspaper. CMA previously honored him as an Honor Roll Recipient for his work as the adviser of the Daily News at Ball State University in Muncie Indiana. The National Scholastic Press Association presented him with its highest honor, the Pioneer Award, in 2012, “in recognition of significant contributions to high school publications and journalism programs.”
As a scholar, Filak has received 13 top conference paper awards, including those from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Broadcast Education Association and the International Public Relations Society of America. In 2006, he was named the Ball State University College of Communication, Information and Media’s Distinguished Researcher, marking the first time that award had gone to a junior faculty member. He has placed more than 30 scholarly, peer-reviewed articles in top-tier publications including Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, Newspaper Research Journal, the Atlantic Journal of Communication, Visual Communication Quarterly, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, the Howard Journal of Communication, Educational Psychology and the British Journal of Social Psychology. He is also the winner of CMA’s Nordin Research Award, which goes to the best research paper completed on a topic pertaining to media advisers within a given year.
He is a founding member and current president of the Wisconsin College Media Association, which works with campus newspapers throughout the state. He was the previous two-term executive director of the Indiana Collegiate Press Association, serving from 2006 to 2008. As a student at UW Madison, he helped resurrect the Daily Cardinal, the country’s sixth-oldest student daily paper through the savvy negotiation of more than $137,000 worth of debt. His efforts landed him on the list of the paper’s 110 Most Notable Alumni, which was released in 2002.
