Monica Blaser of Papillion has been awarded the Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Fellowship. Blaser will receive a cash award of $2,400 to support her research for her master’s thesis and graduate studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications awards the fellowship to a graduate student after recommendation of the graduate faculty of the college and a review by the board of the Hitchcock Foundation in Omaha.
Blaser’s professional project titled, “Marketability of an Interpretive Application for Self-Guided Tourism within the National Park System,” strives to create interactive opportunities for engagement in conservation education and interpretation. After conducting a feasibility and desirability study, Blaser will develop and test a working prototype of an interpretive app as an alternative to in-park ranger tours. Her project serves to develop an understanding of the implications mobile application usage has on mediated interpretive services and visitor education at the national parks.
Blaser is completing her M.A. degree with a specialization in Integrated Media Communications (IMC). She holds bachelor’s degrees from University of Nebraska–Lincoln in studio art and advertising and public relations. She has worked for both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service in education and interpretation.
Fellowship dollars have supported the education of graduate students at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications since 1975. The Hitchcock Center for Graduate Study and Professional Journalism Development was founded in 1981 as a memorial to Martha Hitchcock and her husband, Gilbert. Hitchcock was the founder of the Omaha World-Herald and a U.S. senator. Martha Hitchcock became a director of the World Publishing Company when her husband died in 1934.
