By examining the economic results of desegregation in the insurance industry, Weems began to notice how corporate America profited as well from the Civil Rights Movement. The result was his second book, Desegregating the Dollar: African American Consumerism in the Twentieth Century (1998)—a comprehensive look at the African-American community as a consumer base in the U.S.

Finding a way to transform MU’s School of Journalism into a think tank for the news and advertising industry has been the main research goal for Esther Thorson, who serves as Professor, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, and Director of Research for the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Her first major effort, in collaboration with Margaret Duffy, was to address the news and advertising crisis caused by the “digital revolution,” reacting to the reality that newspaper and television audiences have been plummeting as consumers and advertisers alike are shifting toward the Internet and other new media technologies.

Internet Advertising: Theory and Research, which Thorson co-edited with David W. Schumann (University of Tennessee) and now in its second edition, was the first book on Internet advertising. Its contributors are some of the most innovative scholars in the area of advertising and the Internet.

The American Association of Advertisers is a group that includes both scholars and practitioners. Though originally advertising was considered a man’s field, Thorson wonders why no other women have yet been voted into the organization’s fellowship.