A University of Dayton communication professor was nationally recognized for outstanding classroom teaching in the field of media ethics.
Chad Painter, associate professor and chair of the UD Department of Communication, received the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Media Ethics Division 2025 Teaching Excellence Award.
The award was announced in August at the association’s annual conference in San Francisco. The award committee was impressed by Painter’s engaging assignments and lessons for his media ethics class. They also noted his stellar recommendations from colleagues and students.
“The recognition from my media ethics peers was quite exciting and gratifying,” Painter said. “I also was quite honored because of the number of quality educators in the media ethics division, and I am humbled to have my name associated with the past recipients of this award.”
Painter’s research focuses on media ethics, diversity studies, entertainment studies, sports communication, history and new media. He is a co-author of Media Ethics: Issues and Cases and Entertaining Ethics: Lessons in Media Ethics from Popular Culture.
Media Ethics: Issues and Cases is widely used in classrooms worldwide.
In addition to his academic work, Painter has eight years of professional experience as a reporter, editor and public relations practitioner for print and online publications.
As an educator, his goal is to create a learning environment where students see his passion for the subject and become excited about the material. He wants students to leave each class — and the course overall — curious, critically aware and eager to read, engage and discuss the subject further.
“I help students acquire the critical thinking skills, passion and integrity to redirect and reform journalism, as well as the practical and theoretical tools necessary for success in the journalistic field,” Painter said. “I also understand some students will not become journalists, but all students are citizens, so I emphasize the importance of free press, free speech rights and responsibilities to our self-governing republic.”
More than two-thirds of Painter’s media ethics class time is dedicated to discussion and activities such as role-playing exercises. He also incorporates popular culture and media to make the course more relatable for students.
“What sets Dr. Painter apart is his remarkable ability to make complex ethical principles come alive through vivid examples and real-world case studies,” said Heather Parsons, coordinator of academic advising and departmental initiatives for the UD Department of Communication.
“His students don’t just learn media ethics — they live it in his class. They walk away with a deep, practical understanding of how ethical considerations shape media in the U.S. and, more importantly, how they must engage with those considerations as future professionals.”
Alayna Yates ’23, a former Flyers volleyball middle blocker who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication from UD, took two classes with Painter as an undergraduate and did research with him during her final semester as a graduate student.
Yates recalled a media ethics class in which students did a role-play exercise about the New York Post publishing a front-page photo of a man on the subway track moments before a train struck and killed him. She had hoped to be assigned a role that aligned with her personal beliefs but instead had to play “devil’s advocate” for the duration of the class.
“I remember my face getting red, palms sweating and feeling so uncomfortable, but I also remember learning a lot from that experience because I was getting pushed outside my comfort zone,” Yates said. “As a student-athlete at UD I was constantly being pushed outside my comfort zone in the gym, but I never really had that feeling in class.”
She said Painter pushed her to think about things in a way she hadn’t before. “He pushed me to be curious.”