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Doug Ferguson is one of the nation's foremost scholars in telecommunications and new media. Dr. Ferguson came to C of C in Summer 1999 as the first department chair, after serving as chair of the Department of Telecommunications for the final two years of his 12-year stint at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). He was also the Assistant Dean for Resources and Planning at BGSU for three years.

After completing his five-year term as department chair at C of C, Dr. Ferguson served three years as Director of Graduate Studies of the Master of Arts in Communication program. He also served three years as the editor of Journal of Radio Studies, a national journal for academic research published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

As a roster faculty member, Dr. Ferguson teaches courses in Communication Research Methods (Comm 301 and 501), Mass Media (Comm 214), and upper-level courses in telecommunications management.

He was named Outstanding Doctoral Student at BGSU for two consecutive years, and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ohio State University in 1973, where he also received his master's degree. For 14 years, Dr. Ferguson served in various capacities in the field of telecommunications, including the last eight as a station manager for an NBC-TV affiliate in Lima, Ohio. He was also a television programming director, a sportswriter and a radio announcer before going to BGSU.

Since returning to academia in the late 1980s, Dr. Ferguson has forged a prolific research stream, including three popular textbooks, 21 book chapters, 17 refereed journal articles and 36 refereed conference papers. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media for many years. He has secured numerous educational grants in the field, and has received honors from such prestigious entities as the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS). His research interests includes television viewing behavior patterns, media programming industry, and new media. He has taught 29 different course preparations since 1984.

Fun Fact:  Dr. Ferguson formerly made public appearances as a juggler.

Sample Research Project:  Dr. Ferguson developed a new method for selecting a national random sample of online survey participants, in which he asked 320 college students registered on Facebook about their iPod use and radio listening.  Respondents with an iPod reported listening an hour less per day to the radio.  Relaxation and escape were far better predictors of iPod use than entertainment.