Kappa Tau Alpha is a college honor society that recognizes academic excellence and promotes scholarship in journalism and mass communication.
Membership must be earned by excellence in academic work at one of the colleges and universities that have chapters. Selection for membership is a mark of highest distinction and honor.
The seventh oldest national honor society, Kappa Tau Alpha was founded at the University of Missouri in 1910 at the world’s first school of journalism. The society has 100 chapters and has inducted around 75,000 students since its founding in 1910. Kappa Tau Alpha is a non-profit (501-c-3) organization and is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies, the nation’s only certifying agency for college and university honor societies.
The emblem of Kappa Tau Alpha is the key, the oldest symbol of knowledge and communication. The Greek letters mean “The Truth Will Prevail.” The letters also suggest three English words: knowledge, truth and accuracy. The Society’s colors are light blue, significant of truth, and gold, emblematic of worth and high standards.
Benefits of membership include national recognition for academic excellence; lifetime membership; Certificate of Membership; a keypin (see logo at top of page; a sense of community with other fellow outstanding scholars in journalism/mass communications. The membership meets one of the requirements for entrance at the GS-7 Level in numerous professional and technical occupations in the U.S. Government.
The Society, as part of its efforts to promote scholarship, co-sponsors the Kappa Tau Alpha-AEJMC Awards luncheon at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for the best scholarly book on journalism/mass communication published each year.
Annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2023 
Annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2023 
St. Bonaventure University, 2020 
Temple University, 2020 
American University, 2019 
CSU Northridge, 2019 
Kent State University, 2018 
North Texas University, 2019 
Indiana University, 2018 
University of Massachusetts, 2017 
Temple University, 2016 
North Texas University, 2016 
Arkansas State, 2015
What’s new:
May 1, 2024
2023 Mott Winners Announced
COLUMBIA, Mo. – After a decade of research including interviews, surveys, focus groups and content analysis, Summer Harlow has won the Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for her book Digital-Native News and the Remaking of Latin American Mainstream and Alternative Journalism.
In her book, Harlow, a visiting professor at the University of Texas, examines how the emergence of online-native news sites in Latin America is redefining what news can be. This year’s Mott award is for the best book on journalism and mass communication based on original research published in 2023.
KTA President Bill Cassidy, a contest judge, praised Harlow for her insightful examination of the development and impact of digital-native “alternative” media in Latin America.
“What is perhaps most innovative about this important work is how Dr. Harlow seamlessly connects the findings of her research analyzing newer forms of journalism in a specific region as a springboard for thoughtful discussions of shifts, changes, and possibilities for journalistic practice across the world,” said Cassidy, a professor of journalism at Northern Illinois University.
KTA Vice President Raluca Cozma said Harlow’s book, which was published by Routledge, offers a potential blueprint for moving quality independent journalism forward.
“The study also has valuable practical implications, illustrating how, even in countries with political systems hostile to media freedom, journalists can innovate, amplify underrepresented voices, and pursue justice,” said Cozma, a professor at Kansas State University.
Harlow is the associate director of The Knight Center for Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and Media, and is on leave from Texas A&M University. Before earning her Ph.D. in journalism, she worked for about 10 years covering immigration and city government at U.S. newspapers.
Named in honor of Frank Luther Mott, Pulitzer Prize winner, educator and longtime leader of Kappa Tau Alpha, the Mott award honors the best research-based book about journalism or mass communication published during the year.
Kappa Tau Alpha, the national college honor society founded in 1910 for scholarship in journalism and mass communication, has recognized research contributions to the field since the inauguration of the award in 1944. The winning author receives a $1,000 prize.
Other finalists were Jordana Cox for Staged News: The Federal Theatre Project’s Living Newspapers in New York (University of Massachusetts Press); Penelope Ingram for Imperiled Whiteness: How Hollywood and Media Make Race in “Postracial” America (University Press of Mississippi); Martin Marinos for Free to Hate: How Media Liberalization Enabled Right-Wing Populism in Post-1989 Bulgaria (University of Illinois Press); and Mora Matassi and Pablo J. Boczkowski for To Know Is to Compare: Studying Social Media across Nations, Media, and Platforms (MIT Press).
August 31, 2022
National Council adopts resolution making diversity, equity and inclusion a priority
At its annual meeting, the National Council passed the following resolution: “The Kappa Tau Alpha Society joins our peers in the Association of College Honor Societies in standing in solidarity against systemic racism and in promoting inclusion among all member chapters. We support organizations that represent inclusivity and equity for all. The Kappa Tau Alpha Society also will encourage the diversification of its own membership and work to improve access to historically under-represented and first-generation college students.”
As an initial step, the council voted to expand its criteria for honorary membership to move beyond traditional academic scholarship and to allow alumni who might not have qualified previously. Chapters are now encouraged to also consider individuals who have made significant contributions in journalism and mass communication that reflect the Kappa Tau Alpha values of knowledge, truth and accuracy. Honorary members can include alumni of at least 10 years’ standing.
The meeting was held during the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conference in Detroit.
April 26, 2022
2022 Mott Winners Announced
University of Arizona professors win Mott Award for research highlighting Mexican journalists
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Celeste González de Bustamante and Jeannine Relly’s Surviving Mexico: Resistance and Resilience among Journalists in the Twenty-First Century is the winner of the Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for the best book on journalism and mass communication based on original research published in 2021.
For more than a decade, University of Arizona journalism professors González and Relly have followed the crisis facing journalists in Mexico who dared to report on the drug cartels and those cartels’ ties to various governmental entities. Their fieldwork details the myriad methods journalists use to resist and persevere. The book was published by the University of Texas Press.
“This was a powerful book that used attacks on journalists and journalism in Mexico as a case study for not just issues for journalists in Mexico, but around the world, including disinformation on social media,” said Ed Carter, KTA’s national president and one of the contest judges.
Carter, a professor of communications at Brigham Young University, praised the book for its in-depth examination of the issues and echoed its call for stronger enforcement of laws and the development of networks to protect journalists.
Relly is affiliated with the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona, and González directs the Center for Border and Global Journalism. The award will be presented this August at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in Detroit.
Named in honor of Frank Luther Mott, Pulitzer Prize winner, educator, and longtime leader of Kappa Tau Alpha, the award honors the best research-based book about journalism or mass communication published during the year.
Kappa Tau Alpha, the national college honor society founded in 1910 for scholarship in journalism and mass communication, has recognized research contributions to the field since the inauguration of the award in 1944. The winning authors will share a $1,000 prize.
Other finalists were Jacob L. Nelson for Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public (Oxford University Press); Kathy Roberts Forde and Sid Bedingfield, editors, for Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America (University of Illinois Press); Matt Carlson, Sue Robinson and Seth C. Lewis for News after Trump: Journalism’s Crisis of Relevance in a Changed Media Culture (Oxford University Press); Nikki Usher for News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism (Columbia University Press); and Steven Casey for The War Beat, Pacific: The American Media at War Against Japan (Oxford University Press).
April 5, 2021
USC Annenberg professor wins Mott Award for Bearing Witness While Black
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Allissa V. Richardson’s Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones & the New Protest #Journalism is the winner of the Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for the best book on journalism and mass communication based on original research published in 2020.
Richardson’s book provides a timely inquiry into the work of African American activists to document fatal police encounters and ensure debate about excessive police force. The book was published by Oxford University Press.
“Richardson’s thought-provoking and compelling work details the importance of storytelling for racial justice,” said Ed Carter, national president of Kappa Tau Alpha and a contest judge.
Carter, director of the School of Communications at Brigham Young University, said Bearing Witness While Black builds on the activist legacy of the Black press and illustrates the power of alternative forms of documentation and protest, rights that need to be protected.
Richardson is assistant professor of journalism at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School. Her research is informed by her work as a journalism innovator who created mobile journalism college newsrooms. The award is to be presented at the virtual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication this August.
Named in honor of Frank Luther Mott, Pulitzer Prize winner, educator and longtime leader of Kappa Tau Alpha, the award honors the best research-based book about journalism or mass communication published during the year.
Kappa Tau Alpha, the national college honor society founded in 1910 for scholarship in journalism and mass communication, has recognized research contributions to the field since the inauguration of the award in 1944. The winning author receives a $1,000 prize.
Other finalists wereW. Joseph Campbell for Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in U.S. Presidential Elections (University of California Press); John Maxwell Hamilton for Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda (LSU Press); Victor Pickard for Democracy Without Journalism: confronting the misinformation society (Oxford University Press); Sarah Sobieraj, Credible Threat: Attacks Against Women Online and the Future of Democracy (Oxford University Press); and Andrea Wenzel for Community-Centered Journalism: Engaging People, Exploring Solutions, and Building Trust (University of Illinois Press).
Contact: Beverly Horvit, umcjourkta@missouri.edu, 573-882-0880