Center for Media Design

A study by Ball State University's Center for Media Design was cited in a July 15 article for Web Pro News titled "E-mail Marketing is Going to Keep Growing." The center, the E-mail Marketer's Club and ExactTarget found in a study that 13 percent of e-mail marketers are integrating social media into their campaigns, while 46 percent are intending to do so in the upcoming year. This study shows the evolution of online marketing and the need for complimentary campaigns to reach the largest amount of potential customers.

Jim Connolly, director of the Center for Middletown Studies

Connolly was quoted in a June 15 article by online media company Tonic titled "Circle of Friends." The story explains that Muncie is one of the most studied small towns in the world. Recently, NPR's Marketplace and American RadioWorks have revisited Muncie for a documentary called "Hard Times in Middletown." "One of the things you're looking at is a town that's really being forced by these economic transformations to really reinvent itself, but doesn't want to," Connolly said. "And is very much resistant to it and has a very difficult time imagining itself as anything other than a factory town."

Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research

The Wall Street Journal featured Hicks in a June 16 article titled "6 States Hitting Residents With Big Tax Hikes." The story said at least 47 states are facing significant shortfalls for their 2009 and/or 2010 budget, and many are looking to use tax hikes to make up the difference. The article says that the recession has lowered the amount of revenue received from income taxes and sales taxes. "Those two things together really, really lead to a high loss of tax revenues, far in excess of loss of income," Hicks said.

Richard Petts, assistant professor of sociology

Petts was featured in a June 16 article in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News called "Family and Religious Environments Deter Delinquent Behaviors of Teens, Young Adults." Petts analyzed how family and religious characteristics influence delinquency from early adolescence through young adulthood. He found that living with two parents can deter youths from becoming delinquent and suggests that family and religion interact to predict delinquency paths. The study also says that religious changes can alter delinquency patterns over time.