Face shot of James C. Morrison, Jr.

James C. Morrison, Jr., M.A. (Columbia), M.P.A. (Harvard)

Principal
Aaron River Communications
P. O. Box 100
Cohasset, MA 02025

(781) 383-2121 (Voice and Fax)
(617) 838-6021 (Cell)

j.c.morrison at post.harvard.edu
Teaching
  • 2009–        Lecturer in Business Communication in the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts
  • 2006–2008 Visiting Instructor in the Department of Communication at Western Connecticut State University
  • 2003–2006 Scholar-in-Residence and Graduate Program Director in Organizational and Corporate Communication at Emerson College
  • 1995–2003 Lecturer in Communication in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT
  • 1995–2005 Designer and Instructor, Survey of Publishing: From Text to Hypertext, a core course in the Certificate Program in Publishing and Communications at Harvard Extension School
  • 1993–2000 Lecturer in the Technical Writing Cooperative, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, MIT
  • 1989–1995 Preceptor in Communication at the John F. Kennedy School of Government
  • 1985–1989 Lecturer in Communication at Harvard Business School
My research interests include societal impacts of new communications media, development of hypertext and hypermedia systems in higher education and research, information management in high-tech environments, and national media policy.
Consulting

I have conducted writing workshops for Darling Consulting Group, In Newburyport, Massachusetts; Logistics Management Institute, a federally funded research and development center in Alexandria, Virginia; Brown University's Writing Center; Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc., consulting engineers in Lexington, Massachusetts; and CuraGen Corporation, in Branford, Connecticut. I have also worked as a developmental editor for innovations proposals entered in the Better Government Competition of the Pioneer Institute in Boston.
Publishing

I was a Sponsoring Editor in the College Division of Houghton Mifflin Company for developmental English, business and technical writing, and speech/communications, as well as a college sales representative and Acquisitions Editor in computer programming and information systems for PWS Publishers, a former division of Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Professional Associations
Publications
  • “Print Media” and “McLuhan, Marshall,” entries in Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
  • “Acoustic, Visual, and Aural Space: The Quest for Virtual Reality in Musical Reproduction.” Explorations in Media Ecology {EME} 8: 81–97.
  • “Cities Without Lines: Demassification in the Age of Ubiquity.” In The Urban Communication Reader, Ed. Gene Burd, Gary Gumpert, and Susan J. Drucker. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2007.
  • “Media Ecology of Cable Television.” Explorations in Media Ecology {EME} 4: 123–134.
  • “Marshall McLuhan: The Modern Janus.” Chapter in Perspectives on Culture, Technology and Communication: The Media Ecology Tradition. Ed. Casey M. K. Lum. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2006.
  • review of Megan Mullen, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States: Revolution or Evolution? (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003). Technology and Culture 46 (2) April 2005: 432–434. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v046/46.2morrison.html
  • review of Donald Theall, The Virtual Marshall McLuhan (Montreal, PQ, and Kingston, ON: McGill–Queen's University Press, 2001). Explorations in Media Ecology {EME} 2 (1) 2003: 75–79.
  • participant in roundtable discussion, "Buzz Cuts: The hyping, spinning, buzzing, pumping, and jazzing of architecture," ArchitectureBoston 5 (4), November/December 2002: 8–18.
  • “The Author is Dead—Long Live the Author!” Paper presented at Media in Transition 2: Globalization and Convergence, May 10–12, 2002, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. http://cms.mit.edu/conf/mit2/Abstracts/MorrisonJ.pdf
  • “Hypermedia and Synesthesia.” Proceedings of the Media Ecology Association, Inaugural Convention, Fordham University, New York, NY, June 16–17, 2000. http://www.media-ecology.org/publications/proceedings/v1/hypermedia_and_synesthesia.html
  • “The Place of Marshall McLuhan in the Learning of His Time.” Counterblast: The e-journal of Culture & Communication 1 (1). http://www.nyu.edu/pubs/counterblast/issue1_nov01/articles/morrison.html
     
  • review of John Ellis, Seeing Things: Television in the Age of Uncertainty (London: I. B. Tauris, 2000) and David Gauntlett and Annette Hill, TV Living: Television, Culture, and Everyday Life (London: Routledge, 1999). Technology and Culture 42 (1): 176–178. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v042/42.1morrison.html
  • “Marshall McLuhan: No Prophet Without Honor,” New Dimensions in Communication, vol. XIII; Proceedings of the 57th Annual Conference of the New York State Communication Association, Monticello, New York, October 8–10, 1999. New York: Brooklyn College of CUNY, 2000, 1–28.
     
  • The Policy Analysis Exercise: A Guide for Students, manual edited and co-authored with Communications Program colleagues for the Office of Teaching Programs, John F. Kennedy School of Government. Cambridge, Mass.: John F. Kennedy School of Government, 1993, 1994.
     
  • “A Short Guide to Successful Writing in Management Communication,” HBS Case Services No. 9-387-037, Rev. 9/87.
     
  • prepared comments as panel member of workshop led by Margaret Solomon, University of Hawaii, titled “Joyce’s Corpus as Word Machine,” in J. Aubert and M. Jolas, eds. Joyce & Paris 1902...1920–1940...1975; Papers from the Fifth International James Joyce Symposium. Paris 16–20 June 1975. Paris: Publications de l’Université de Lille 3/ Éditions du C.N.R.S., 1979.

I have also authored and edited writing guides and technical notes in preparing documents and conducting research for MIT, the Kennedy School, and Harvard Business School.

Other Research
  • “A Stronger Foundation for Presidential Debates,” Policy Analysis Exercise prepared for the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in supplement to course requirements for the Master in Public Administration degree. Client and faculty advisor: Marvin Kalb, Director
     
  • “Technological Challenges and Opportunities for Newspapers,” term project for PPP-219 The Changing Press, taught by visiting Lombard Chair Scholar Warren Phillips, Director and former CEO, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
     
  • “Networking at the John F. Kennedy School of Government: Local, Regional, and Global Resources,” report prepared for the Research Network Consortium at the Kennedy School
     
  • “Some Recommendations for Planning the Development of Information Technology at the John F. Kennedy School of Government,” term project for M-678 Managing with Information Technology: Organizational, Professional, and Policy Choices, taught by Dr. Jerry Mechling
     
  • “Communication Policies and Practices at Hewlett-Packard,” on-site research report submitted to the Management Communication Program, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University
  Curriculum vitae