Judith Trent:
Political communication pioneer

She brings her first-hand experiences to students when she writes about political campaign communication in her textbooks, book chapters and numerous articles. Trent has always been intrigued with campaign communication. She's not sure why, she just found it facinating. "In part it's the idea of the glamour, the prestige, the power of the office itself," she said. Although, she said, "I also write about the crazy, stupid things both parties do."

Trent decided to write Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices in 1983, because, she said, there seemed to be a real void in the area of political communication. "No one was saying these things," Trent said. "If they knew them they weren't putting them in print." The text examines the theoretical nature of running for office. It then goes on to discuss the ways candidates put the principles to practice. Referred to as the "grandaddy" of all political communication texts, and the "classic text in the field," it was the first political campaign book written from a communication perspective. "It provides a theoretical basis, the underpinnings, of campaigns and then talks about the strategies," Trent said. "It teaches one to be a good consumer, what to look for in a candidate. Someone could also study the book and seek to serve on a candidate's campaign staff."

She wrote her first book, Concepts in Communication, published in 1973, because, she said, "no one seemed to be writing what I wanted to teach in my classes." Concepts was a reader, a series of articles written by others and edited by Trent, her husband Jimmie Trent, a professor of communication at Miami University in Ohio, and Youngstown State University communication professor Daniel J. O'Neill. "It saw a fast death," Trent said. "By the time the book was published, readers had lost their popularity. It was a case of poor timing." Four years after it was published, Trent said, a group of students came into her office yelling "Dr. Trent, Dr. Trent! The library is selling your book for a quarter!"

Trent plans to write a fourth book, this one about women and politics. "The beginning portions of the book will be historical tracings of the rise of women in politics," Trent said. "The second portion will focus on lengthy case studies of women who have campaigned uniquely and successfully."

Trent says she may run for office someday--which office she doesn't know: "I haven't given it much thought until recently. I probably won't, but at least I'll give it some thought." She may not know yet what her political aspirations are, but in the private sector, she has reached the peak of her academic field. She is currently president of the National Communication Association, formerly the Speech Communication Association, the largest and principal professional organization in the United States for scholars, teachers, practitioners and critics of human communication. She is also associate vice president and associate university dean for research and advanced studies and a professor of communication at the University of Cincinnati, where she has been for 13 years. While she works full-time as an administrator, she also volunteers to teach a class in presidential campaign communication. "I like teaching," Trent said. "But I plan to stay in the administrative field."

Trent became a speech major as an undergraduate at Western Michigan University because she enjoyed debating in high school. After graduation, she taught speech and was the director of forensics at Belleville High School in Michigan for four years. She received her master's and doctorate at the University of Michigan and has taught at the University of Michigan, Youngstown State University, the University of Dayton.

Trent, as president of the National Communication Association, was the keynote speaker for the Text and Academic Authors convention in Las Vegas in 1997. She spoke on "Multiculturalism and Diversity: One Discipline's Approach" with hopes it would increase racial diversity in textbooks. "Textbook authors are the ones who most need to make certain their materials are diverse," Trent said. "By providing experience and materials that are inclusive, we can increase racial and ethnic diversity through all disciplines." In 1995, Trent began tackling diversity in her own association by commissioning a special task force to investigate diversity in the communication field. In July 1997, NCA dedicated its summer conference to issues of ethnic and racial diversity. The goal of its conference was the articulation of concrete strategies for the diversification of student and faculty curriculum, pedagogy, research and scholarship.

— reported by Kim Pawlak, 1998